If you would open your Bibles
back to the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter
14. The story we're going to look
at this evening is what is supposed to be the culmination of the
entire travail or journey of the people of Israel coming out
of Egypt. They spent all those generations
as slaves. And then the Lord delivered them.
And they went out into the wilderness heading towards the promised
land. And throughout that journey the Lord over and over again
took care of them. Parting the Red Sea and destroying
Pharaoh and his army. And then having bread come from
above. Having water come from a rock.
And so many, on and on, so many things where he delivered his
people. And this is the moment that all of these people had
been looking forward to. This entire journey was simply
so they would get to the promised land. When they left Egypt, their
deliverance was to take them to a better place. And this was
that place, the promised land in Canaan. And they came to this
place, and the Lord told Moses to send out spies, 12 spies,
and go look at the land. Now he had told them for many,
many years that this place, this promised land would be delivered
for them. They would be given this land.
And yet what always happens when there's any moment that we can
rebel, when we can fight against our God or do anything we can
on our own, we just fail miserably. In this story, what I want us
to see in this is through Caleb, we get to see a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ's faithfulness to his people. That no matter
what we do, no matter who we are and the things that we do,
the Lord is faithful to his people. The passage that was read there
in Numbers 13 has a lot of names in it. And I want to take a quick
minute to look at a couple of those names. It was tradition
at this time to give your child a specific name, a name that
meant something. We often pick names now based
off of what the name sounds like or named after someone, just
something like that. But these names all meant something
in the Hebrew tongue. They combined words or did things.
And through this, these 12 men that they sent, All of the names
have particular meanings, and I don't want to get into it,
but let me read a couple of the meanings of some of these names.
One of them meant judge. One of them meant God redeems.
One of them meant good fortune. One of them was discretion. One
of them was rescued. And all of these things are words
or titles that are pretty good things. If someone said, what
does your name mean? The fact that you could say my
name means good fortune. Well, all these 12 names, and
even if you include the tribes and their fathers, all of them
have one thing in common. They're all these really good
names, almost as if you're naming someone to prophesy what they
would grow up to be or to aspire them to great things. But there's
one name that just doesn't fit. The name Caleb translate dog
or faithful dog. Now today, we look at dogs much
differently than they would have then. They're part of many people's
families. They live in our houses and even
sleep in our beds in some situations. We look at dogs very different.
But at this time, dogs would have been helpless, hapless creatures
that were scroungers, just begging for food dependent on others.
Let me read just a couple things from the scriptures describing
dogs. They are all dumb dogs. They are greedy dogs. Give not
that which is holy unto the dogs. And these are all referring to
people in this regard. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. As the dog returneth to its own
vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. For beware, without
are dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters. Dogs in
the scripture are lumped in with the worst of the worst. To be
called a dog would have been a serious insult. You might think, well, maybe
it wasn't that bad. Well, listen to these two illustrations
or these two verses to where someone accused someone of something. When David went out from the
armies of Israel to meet Goliath, this little young boy walked
out there to meet Goliath with a sling and nothing else. Goliath looked at him and was
insulted by such an unworthy opponent that he looked at David
and said, am I a dog? And cursed him. told a man named Hazael that
he would in the future do evil things to the people of God.
And Hazael replied to Elisha and said, what is thy servant,
a dog, that he should do this? He's saying, do you think I'm
a dog? Only a dog would do these things
you're implying. Calling someone a dog was such
an insult. Well, maybe you say, but his
name means faithful dog. Well, let me ask you this. If
somebody gave you a nickname, such as maggot or pig, do you
think there's any adjective they could put before it to make you
feel okay about that name? If someone said, well, I think
you're a magnificent maggot. If someone said, you are just
a perfect pig. No, a dog is a dog, no matter
how you dress it up, no matter how you describe it. So why did
Caleb's parents name him Dog or Faithful Dog? Well, I don't
know what reasoning his parents had to give him that name, what
they thought to themselves of why they will name him that.
But I do know that the Lord gave him that name so that for countless
generations, we could sit here and look and see such a great
picture of the Lord's faithfulness to his people. There are many examples of how
bad it was to be called a dog. But you know in the scriptures
there are two people in the Bible who are content with this description.
Let's turn over first to Matthew 15. This is very familiar after
the message we heard this morning. Matthew 15. Look at verse 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan,
of course it's a woman from the promised land, came out of the
same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord,
thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he answered her not a word,
and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came he and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. But he answered
and said, it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. He just flat out calls her a
dog. And she replies, truth, Lord,
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's
table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great
is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter
was made whole from that very hour. Look at this connection. The Lord said, his disciples
said, send her away. And his response was, I am not
sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He calls
this woman a lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then a couple
of verses later, he says, it's not me to take the children's
bread and to cast it to dogs. The title of this message is
Let's Be Faithful Dogs. The Lord Jesus Christ just described
this Canaanite woman in two ways, and they're the same thing. He
called her a dog, and he called her one of his lost sheep out
of the house of Israel. This woman, accepting her description
of a dog, got her the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
with me to 2 Samuel 9. 2 Samuel 9. The Lord called that woman a
dog and then said, your faith, what faith you have, what a faithful
dog. Look at 2 Samuel 9, another story
we know very well in verse one. And David said, is there yet
any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David and the king said unto him, art thou Ziba? And
he said, thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show him, show the
kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Maker, the son of Amel, in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Maker, the son of Amiel, from Lodabar.
Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence.
And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And Mephibosheth
bowed himself, and he said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst
look upon such a dead dog as I am? Mephibosheth went far enough
to just go ahead and call himself a dog. He said, that's what I
am. He said, I don't deserve what
you are giving me. Mephibosheth is told here that
he will eat bread continually at the table of the king. Two
people who have accepted who they are, a dog, have received
the blessing of the Lord and have received the presence of
the Lord forever. All right, turn back with me
to numbers in our text. With the title being Let's Be
Faithful Dogs, why should we be faithful dogs? Why should
we want to be faithful dogs? Well, let me give you two reasons.
The first reason is that we are dogs. That's what we are. Denying that we are a dog is
not only pointless, it just shows how lost and how ignorant we
are. If we say that we're not a sinner, we're just showing
everybody how foolish and how blind we are to what we are by
nature. Christ came not to call the righteous
the good and the moral. He came to save sinners. He died
for the ungodly. Romans 5, it says, for when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man, some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. A person must be lost
in order to be saved. A person must be emptied before
they can be filled. A person must be humbled before
they can be exalted. God will put us in the dust of
nothingness in order that Christ may have all the glory. Do you
know that we don't want to be a dog for different reasons? But one reason I think in particular
is that we just don't want a master. All dogs have a master. We want to rule ourselves. We
want to do our own thing. We want to be in control. So
much of religion is so hooked on this that God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, plays almost no part in religion. We'll do everything
and then we'll say his name just so that he's involved. We just
can't stand a master. And what's so embarrassing about
that? Do you realize how much worse we are than a dog? Do you
realize that a dog by nature is faithful to its master? A
dog realizes who it is. A dog realizes its position.
A dog realizes, I can't get my own food. I can't get my own
shelter. I can't defend myself. I can't
do anything on my own. And if I have a loving master,
I get all those things. And yet, what do we do? We don't
want the master. We want to be on our own. So
the first reason being, we're dogs. The second reason is because
what he has done for us. not the least of which is showing
us who we are. The only way that we will accept
having a master is if the master makes us submit. Even though
a dog by nature is faithful to its master, it's more of a survival
thing. We think we can do it ourselves. And I'll be honest, even though
I've read this story and I understand this lesson, I don't abide by
it. I constantly do my own thing and strive for my own. Yet the
Lord, as a master, provides everything for his sheep. Men in the scriptures
who were blessed to see the glory of God in Christ, they confessed
themselves to be nothing before him, even dogs. Once the Lord
reveals himself to his sheep, to his children, to anyone, they
confess themselves to be a filthy dog, to be awful. Turn to Isaiah
chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. A couple of examples of men realizing
who Christ is and then having these responses. Listen to what
Job says. Job said, I have heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore,
I abhor myself, I hate myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Here in Isaiah chapter six, verse
one, it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And
one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. These four verses fit along with so many things that
are said in the book of Revelation and other things in the scriptures.
When someone describes glory in our Father, it's a little
overwhelming. It's hard to understand. It's
hard to picture. But the one thing we have in common from
all of those is the response of one of the children of God
when they see it. Look at verse 5, what's said
here. Then said I, woe is me. For I am undone, or cut off,
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts." He says, I am cut off. I am going to die. I am miserable. I can't do this. In the shadow of the Lord Jesus
Christ, man is nothing. In 1 Corinthians it says this,
let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may
then be wise. A dog should be faithful to its
master for all that the master gives it. But all masters have
faults. Everybody who is a master of
a pet or of anything, we all have weaknesses, we're human.
But how faithful should we be to the master that is God Almighty? He is a perfect master. He gives
us everything that we need in everything. Now when I said a
few minutes ago, that if you got a nickname, such as pig or
maggot or dog, that it didn't matter what adjective we used
in front of it. Well, the problem is because
we get so focused on defending ourselves from being called that
name we don't like. So the problem is not that we're
being called something. The problem is that we think
what we're being called is unfair. We think of ourselves much better
than the term dog or anything else. But once the Lord shows
us who we are, and we see that the term dog is not one that
is below us, but even better than us, once we see that, once
we stop spending our time defending ourselves, instead of accepting
who we are and looking at what he's done, then we get to focus
on the word in front of dog. We get to then look and see what
he's done for us. And that phrase, faithful dog,
we have a faithful master, which makes us a faithful dog. Look
here at Numbers 14. Look back at our text in Numbers
14. Let us read a couple of these
verses to finish up this story. Chapter 14 verse 1 says, and
all the congregation, and remember at the end of chapter 13, the
men came back and they said, this place is amazing. Look at
these grapes. Look at all this stuff they have.
It's amazing. But I don't want to go. These
men, they'll devour us. We can't do this. Caleb stood
up and said, Let's go at once and possess it, for we are well
able to overcome it. Look at verse 1 of chapter 14. And all the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation
said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt,
or would God we have died in the wilderness? And wherefore
hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword,
that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not
better for us to return into Egypt?" These verses are almost
a perfect quote from when they were trapped at the Red Sea and
from these other things. We do the same thing. When faced
with a trial we just wilt. We just wilt under it. Instead
of looking to our Lord and His promises we just wilt under it.
Look at verse 5, Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before
all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And
Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of... which were of them
that searched the land rent their clothes. And they spake unto
all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which
we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. If
the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land
and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey,
Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people
of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense is departed
from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not." Caleb and
Joshua said, they're nothing. They're inconsequential, as everything
is for our God. There's nothing on this earth
that has any relevance to Him. He describes them as bread, which
bread is something that can be consumed or devoured. Bread can
be taken and just crumbled into powder by even us. He says they're
nothing compared to us. But in verse 10, but all the
congregation bade stone them with stones. They said, we're
going to stone you too. And the glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
They were going to stone Caleb and Joshua, but of course they
were delivered of the Lord. Look at verse 21. But as truly as I live, the Lord
says, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the
Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles
which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me
now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice, surely
they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither
shall any of them that provoked me see it. The Lord says, I'm
not letting these that have provoked me and tempted me these 10 times,
I'm not letting them in. But verse 24, but my servant
Caleb, because he had another spirit with him and hath followed
me fully, him will I bring into the land wherein he went and
his seed shall possess it. My servant Caleb hath followed
me fully. There is a huge difference. There's a big phrase in here
that differentiates Caleb from all the rest. All of these men,
well, Caleb here has two names. We said his name is Dog and his
name is Faithful Dog. What's the difference between
a dog and a faithful dog? Look at the second line of this
verse. because he had another spirit with him. Caleb was no
different than the others, apart from the spirit of God in him. Caleb is just a dog, but with
the spirit of God, he is a faithful, loving dog. He is one of his
sheep. We just can't do anything on
our own We're so evil, but with the Spirit of God, we can be
a faithful dog. Verse 24 says, Caleb hath followed
me fully. The last thing I want to do is
look at a couple examples of what it is to follow the Lord
fully. I hope at this point, we can
get past the thought of being called a dog. and instead focus
on what is it that makes us a faithful dog. We want to follow him. We wanna follow him fully. This is so important that we
see this phrase, that Caleb followed the Lord fully, that it's written
four times in the Bible. Look over at Numbers 32. Numbers
32. And verse 12, it says, In Joshua it says, thou hast
wholly followed the Lord my God in describing Caleb. And in Deuteronomy
1 it says, save Caleb because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Now this is not giving Caleb
any credit, but it's emphasizing because Caleb had another spirit,
he wholly followed the Lord. Now what is it to follow him?
Well the first thing that's important is it is to follow Him. It's to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. Him specifically. It says, my
sheep hear my voice and they follow me. A stranger they will
not follow. The sheep follow the Lord Jesus
Christ and no one else. They hear no other voice. He
is their Lord and their master and their only master. They delight
to do his will, thy will be done. Secondly, What is it to follow
Him fully? It is to follow Him. The word follow. His sheep do
not run ahead of the Lord, but rather they follow Him. They
do not move until the cloud moves. The people of Israel, the only
way they knew where to go was they had a cloud above them.
And they just camped their tent and watched the cloud. And they
stayed right where they were and didn't move any. And when
they woke up and the cloud was moving, that's where they needed
to go. They followed the Lord's providence. We dare not run ahead
of his good providence, but are content to wait on the Lord. What is it to follow him fully?
It is to follow the Lord in heart. My son, give me thine heart. Following the Lord is not a physical
exercise, but a heart relationship and it's experience. Paul declared,
it is the love of Christ for me and my love for him that constrains
me. It motivates me and it thrills
me. And all of these always say the
love of Christ for me before my love for him. Our Lord said
to Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. If we love our Lord,
then we'll feed his sheep. And our obedience, our service,
our labor, everything involved, are all motivated by love. Everything the child of God does
is motivated by love. Now, we love him, but it's motivated
by his love for us. He loves us so perfectly, so
fully, that it makes us to love Him. We don't love Him by nature. We can't love Him. But the fact
that His love is so amazing, that His love makes us to love
Him back. And that motivates all we do.
We're not motivated by fear, by covenants, or anything else.
It's by our love. His love, His grace, and His
mercy toward us is the reason that we follow the Lord in heart.
What is it to follow him, the Lord fully? It is to follow the
Lord all the days of our lives. Caleb was 40 when he stood firmly
before Israel and urged them to believe God and take the promised
land. 45 years later, he declared in
the book of Joshua, he said, I still believe God, give me
my inheritance. He said, I still believe him
and I'm ready to take what he's given me. Some follow Christ
for loaves and fishes, some for miracles, and some for tradition
and custom. These soon fall away, but those
who know, who believe, and who love Him will follow Him all
the days of their lives. And again, we don't follow Him
because of some desire in ourselves. We follow Him because of what
He's done for us, of what He puts in us. The old man runs
on their own and just does what they want. But because the love
of Christ, we follow Him. In Hebrews it says, Both of those
verses have the two word phrase, if we. I'll come back to those
in just a second. But those are not things we need
to worry about. What is it to follow the Lord
fully? It is to follow Christ even if we stand alone. Look
at Numbers 14 verse 10. I just read this, but all the
congregation bade stone them with stones. These men stood
up and said, let's go take the promised land. The Lord will
deliver us. And this is a huge crowd of people. This is hundreds of thousands
of people. And they all, and it doesn't
say that they thought about it. It says they started picking
up stones to stone somebody. Now, I don't know how long it
takes, but if the stones are in their hands, it's not gonna
be long. But what always happens in this
moment, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle
of the congregation before all the children of Israel. These
men were facing death, but the Lord Jesus Christ stood up and
stood in between. Even when all the congregation
refused to believe, and they would have stoned them, they
believed God. One man or woman may turn the
tide, But if the tide turns or not, the one who believes on
Christ will believe on him even if he must stand alone. We have
no idea how fortunate we are to be standing not alone. The
fact the Lord has surrounded each of us with each other did
not stand alone. There are plenty of times in
scriptures as a person such as Stephen stood by themselves and
was killed. If the Lord is merciful to us,
we will always have one another to stand beside each other. Knowing
that we can't help each other, but there is so much comfort
in someone standing beside you saying, I believe in God too. I'm here with you. I promise
those two men together felt a whole lot better than they did alone. Listen to these words from Acts
as the way we should go through this life in our belief. And
now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing
the things that shall befall me there. I don't know what's
coming, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying
that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things
move me. Nothing moves me. Neither count
I my life dear unto myself. If we could possibly say my life
is not as important as following and worshiping the Lord Jesus
Christ. So that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ to testify
the gospel of the grace of God. And lastly and most importantly,
what is it to follow the Lord fully? It is to follow Christ
by the power and the strength of his spirit. Those two verses
I read that were wonderful verses, that in both of them, the phrase
was used, if we. I am not a big fan of verses
that give me something to do. When it says something along
the lines of, this verse said, but Christ as a son over his
own house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope firm until the end. I have no
chance to hold fast to the confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. I flee,
it's awful. And the second one says, for
we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence. It's all we have to do is just hold our confidence,
that's it. And that's false religion. We'll do our one thing and then
everything will be complete. How awful is it that we act that
way? But through the power and strength
of his spirit, that takes care of that. Us holding strong, us
having confidence has nothing to do with us. It is not by our
wisdom that we believe, nor by our merit that we receive grace,
nor by our own power that we stand. I think it was Spurgeon
who made the comment, if I was placed on the threshold of glory,
if I could just take the last step, I'd never make it. That's
what this whole story is right here. Think about this. They
spent all these years escaping, being slaves, and going through
the wilderness, and being provided for generations, and they get
to this place, And 12 of them go into it. They actually get
into the promised land and come back and say, we can't go there.
I mean, isn't that the epitome of how we can't make it? We talk
ourselves out of the promise of God. If it were possible,
the sheep would do that. That's what we would do. But
it is by His Holy Spirit. Not by might nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord. We are made willing in the day
of his power, and we are kept by his power through faith. We
are kept by his power through faith. That faithful part before
the dog, that's his power giving us faith. The true believer does
not take credit for anything he is, anything he has, or anything
he does. For who maketh thee to differ
from another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was
bestowed upon me was not in vain. In closing, this is such an amazing
story of Christ and his faithfulness to those who believe in him.
It's even better because the belief in him comes from him. The fact that we are given something,
we are rewarded for our belief and it's not actually our belief.
That is such a great description of our God. He gives us something
and then gives us something else because of what he's given us.
His gifts are everything to us. This story ends with only two
people entering the promised land. Joshua and Caleb, two people
out of all that enter into the promised land. And do you know
what their names mean? The Savior and the faithful dog. Why do we so desperately want
to be faithful dogs? Well, from Mephibosheth, we see
that the faithful dog dwells with the king forever. Through
the Canaanite woman, we see that the faithful dog gets the blessing
of the Lord. because the only ones who will
enter into glory are the Savior and His faithful dogs. May the Lord give us all, us
weak, unbelieving, horrible dogs, may He give us faith to believe
in our Master, that He may call us