Let me ask you to turn to Numbers
chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. Verse 1 begins, And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search
the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel.
of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one
a ruler among them. And Moses, by the commandment
of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those
men were heads of the children of Israel." He lists the names
of of the heads there. Now look down at verse 30. They
went and searched and they came back. And Caleb steeled the people
before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it,
for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up
with him said, We be not able to go up against the people,
for they are stronger than we. As brethren together, those whom the Lord calls by
Christ Jesus, when he puts his children together, I'm not talking
about when we join a church. I'm not talking about when we
decide our membership is going to be at this church or that
church. I mean when God joins His children together in a family. He begins to put the hearts of
this family together and He begins to teach us through the gospel
Not that anybody can get the five points of Calvinism. Anybody
can get a system of theology. He begins to teach us that what
he's taught us in the heart concerning the security and the assurance
of salvation being accomplished by God through the blood and
righteousness of Christ. He begins to show us that what
we're talking about is not a theory. It's not a doctrine. It's not
a system. It's none of that. What He's
teaching us here, He begins to use everything in providence,
everything in our lives to teach us that He is our salvation,
that God is our Savior and He is our salvation. We begin to
comprehend it a little bit. I've been in the same church. I sat in the same place. the
same place from the beginning. And I've been with you now here
for a number of years, and I see it now from a little different
angle than I saw it before. But we begin to comprehend this
a little bit, to enter into it a little bit. God makes every
believer to know that God will never leave us in eternal matters. And he makes us know that by
showing us how he never leaves us in these earthly matters.
By making good on the lesser promises, God assures our hearts
that he makes good on the greater promises. Those that he's accomplished
for us by Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. And these lesser promises, He
is accomplishing them. He is accomplishing them. They're
really not lesser at all. They're not lesser and greater
with our God. The salvation He accomplishes
every hour of every day for us is amazing. It's great. There's
nothing really lesser about it. But in order to teach us these
things, God has to move us forward. He has to move us along. And
as we move through this wilderness, through this life, we move along
and the Lord uses props to teach us. He uses props throughout
our life to teach us. To teach us that our eternal
salvation is by His hand and that it's sure. He uses props
like a land that we live in that just is constantly bringing forth
briars and trouble and all kinds of problems. He uses a the expenses
that we face together, you and I. He uses the various things
that we have to purchase together as a church. He uses various
trials that we have to go through, like in our jobs or heartaches
we have in our families where we mourn for one another. We're
learning these things affect each other as our hearts are
knit closer and closer together, all of these things. But all
of these things that God uses, all of these things that He shows
us, and He uses joy too. Different things that create
joy in our life. But all of those things, they're
not the important things. The building, that's not the
important thing. That's not the important thing.
These are props. They're props to teach us the more important
thing. The more important thing is that
God Himself is our salvation. That's the more important thing.
And at times, He brings us right through the sea. He lays waste
all our enemies. He puts a song of rejoicing in
our hearts and in all of these, using these different things.
And He makes us to see the greater truth that Christ has accomplished
our redemption. We have eternal life. We are
seated at the right hand of the Father right now, though it doesn't
appear so to us. And our hearts rejoice and we're
just almost overwhelmed at times that this thing is real. God's
salvation is true. This is not games we're playing
here. And oh, we rejoice in it, we
rejoice in it. And then we go a little further
and He brings us along and He brings us to some bitter waters.
He brings us to some bitter waters. And we fret and we feel like
we're left alone and all these things. And then again, He shows
us what He's done for us in Christ. And it's just so sweet. The waters
become so sweet. And He just makes us to see all
over again. The Lord is, He's working all these things together
not to let me turn from Him, but to show me how secure I am
in Him. That's what he's doing. And he
brings us, as it were, like we saw there after they went to
those bitter waters, he brings us to the palm trees, and he
brings us to the wells of water. And again, we rejoice and we
see how much he's providing for us every day, every hour, and
how he's provided for us everything eternally. And we rejoice, and
we just rejoice and think, how could I ever think for a moment
that God's not providing everything for me? But God won't let us
camp out at those palm trees. He won't let us camp out by these
props. He won't let us lay hold of these
props and find any lasting comfort in them, because they're just
props. They're not the thing that's
important. They're not the thing that's important. He won't let
us to do that. He keeps moving us forward. He
keeps making us look beyond ourselves. He keeps making us look beyond
even our own families. He keeps making us look beyond
these four walls. He keeps making us look forward
to him and to do the things we do in this life with him being
first and him being the reason why we do what we do. But we
don't always like to move forward. We just don't like to move. We
don't like to move forward. And the reason we don't is because
it looks to us like if we move forward, it looks like sometimes
there's not as much water there. Or there's bitter water there.
But the Lord just keeps on showing us over and over that He always
provides plenty. And that's the lesson. That's
the lesson. When all the props have been
melted away into nothing, We're going to stand before Plenty.
And then we're going to say, why did we ever doubt? We're
going to see Plenty. We're going to see him in all
his brilliance. And we're going to think, why?
Why was I holding on to a worm? Why did I dig around in the dirt
underneath the tuba floor and find me a little slimy, wiggly
worm and hang on to that thing and pet it and kiss it and love
it like it was something important. And I'm talking about the cars
and the houses and everything it is that we hold on to and
think it's really something and we can't do without it. We just
hold on to a little slimy worm. And then we're going to wake
up one day in his presence and see plenty and say, Man, what
a dummy I was. What a dummy I was. And that's
the lesson that He's teaching us in everything. We're complete,
the believers complete in Christ. We're accepted by Holy God. Our
justification is our justifier. Our sanctification is our sanctifier. Our deliverance is our Redeemer. Our sufficiency, our provider,
is our God. That's what He's teaching. And
for His sake and for His glory, He's going to provide everything
we need for this reason. So we can tell it to somebody
else in this life. So we can tell somebody else
that this is true. He's everything. I want to talk
to you this morning about unbelief. We're going to see a few things
about faith too, but our primary subject this morning is going
to be unbelief. Now our text here in Numbers
13 starts with the Lord telling Moses to send men that they may
search the land of Canaan. He's brought them to the edge
of Canaan. This is the land He's promised them. He's brought them
all through this wilderness and brought them now to the edge
of Canaan. Promised them this land. They've been looking forward
to getting here. And they get here now and the
Lord says, now believe me, go ahead, move in there and get
it. Go take it. But this is not where,
our Numbers 13 is not where this begins. It doesn't begin right
here. I want you to see what happened
first. Deuteronomy 1. Turn over to Deuteronomy 1. This
is, how does God teach us to walk? I'm talking to you who
believe the Lord. How does God teach us to walk?
He tells us in Corinthians 5-7, we walk by faith, not by sight. That's how we walk. We walk by
faith, not by sight. Scriptures tell us, Hebrews 11
says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for because faith lays hold of
God who is our substance. He's the reality. He's the substance,
the foundation, the sureness of everything we hope for. That's
who our faith lays hold of. That's why faith is the substance.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen because through faith
we see Christ who's providing everything for us. Now that's
how God tells us to walk as believers in this world, by faith. But
the first thing we see here is unbelief, unbelief proposes a
different approach than what God commands, always. Unbelief always proposes a different
approach than what God commands. Now Deuteronomy 1, this is what
God told Moses to tell the people. You know, we think about God
talking to Moses and Moses going and talking to people. It's not
much different than us sitting here reading the word and God,
this is what God's telling us right here, what he told them.
God says this, Deuteronomy 121, Behold, the Lord thy God has
set the land before thee. Go up and possess it, as the
Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee. Fear not, neither
be discouraged. That's what came first. God said
that through Moses first. Then came the proposal of unbelief. Then came the proposal of men
in the camp, verse 22. Verse 22, and you came near unto
me, every one of you, that is Moses talking, you came near
unto me, every one of you, and said, now look at this, they
didn't say, do you think we ought to do, this is what they said,
we will send men before us. And they shall search out the
land and bring us word again by what way we must go up and
into what cities we shall come." And Moses said in the saying,
please me well. Now when you look at this at
first glance, what they proposed sounded like faith. They said,
we'll send men out before us and they're going to bring back
word and they're going to tell us which way will be the best
way to go up and which cities will be the best ones to go to
first. This looks like faith, doesn't it? Looks like faith.
Moses thought it did. Moses said, it pleased me well.
Well, they had God's word concerning the land. They had God's word
concerning those cities. Faith's not a blind leap. You
see, we got something better than foresight. We got God's
word. We got something better than
seeing what lies around the curve. We got God's word. We got something
better than seeing what tomorrow holds. We got God's word. We
got God's word. We got the word of him who holds
what's around the curve. And this is what he said about
that city, about that land. He said, I'll send my fear before
thee. And I will destroy all the people
to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies
turn their backs to thee." That's what God told them. And He told
them exactly what the land was going to look like. In Ezekiel
20, verse 6, He said this, And the day that I lifted up my hand
unto them to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land
that I had aspired for them, flowing with milk and honey,
which is the glory of all lands." You see, before God ever made
anything, God spied. He spied out this whole world
of time before He ever made time. He knew what enemies were going
to be in it because He purposed for them to be in it, just like
He did in that land they came to. Just like He purposed what
enemies you're going to face this afternoon and what enemies
I'm going to face. And you don't know it. you don't
know it yet, and the ones you're going to face tomorrow, and that
I'm going to face tomorrow. He inspired the whole thing,
and He did it, and He put the enemies in it to show forth His
salvation, the salvation of His people through His Son. This
whole world was made for that reason, to show this grand gospel
declaration of how God saves His people by His Son. And He
came to you who believe, and He's told you this message, and
He's made it effectual in your heart And He's declared to us,
all our enemies are conquered. He's declared to us, everything
is ours. He says to us, the land is yours.
And He says, now walk by faith, not by sight, and I'll deliver
you. That's exactly what He told them.
That's exactly what He told them when He brought them to that
land. Exactly. And He's carrying us into a land
that is the glory of all lands. His presence. And he says, now
when you come through this Canaan here, just go in and possess
it. I'm going to bring you through
it. But we got a terrible tendency to want to know what lies ahead
before we take the next step, don't we? We want to know what
lies ahead before we take the next step. Well, we don't need
anything else than to know this. God has said, I will provide. God has said, I've given my son
for you. I've redeemed you. I'm going
to provide for you. That's what God has said. I don't
see with the carnal eye what I believe by the gospel of Christ. Do you? Do you see with your
carnal eye what you believe? God says Christ put away my sin. I believe him. I don't see it. Not with this eye. God says I'm
complete in Christ. I believe him. I don't see it
with this eye. God says he's going to provide
everything for me in this life. I believe him. I don't necessarily
see Things just popping out of the wild blue and springing up
out of the ground for me. But it always has. He always
provides. He always does. You think about
what the children of Israel were proposing. They wanted to spy
out the land first, and then after convincing themselves that
they could provide for themselves in that land, then they would
believe the Lord and go forward. Is that how you came to God?
Is that how you came to Christ? If we have, if that's how we
came to Him, we haven't come to Him yet. I think that's called self-salvation. That's called free will. That's
called works. That's called the will of man.
That's called leaning to man's own understanding. The same as
attempting to come to God in ourselves rather than believing
on Christ Jesus the Word. It's the same as not trusting
God to provide in temporal matters in this world as we walk through
this wilderness. They're one and the same. You
realize we're as dependent upon the next breath as we are upon
eternal salvation. Take the most mundane, simplest
thing. We're as dependent upon God for
that as we are for the greatest thing. Do you think, let me ask
you this question, do you think that we would believe that God
has put away our sin in Christ if God allowed us to see fully
just how truly hideous the sin we are right now in our flesh?
You think if He opened up our eyes and let us see just how
hideous our sin is, you think we'd believe He's put it away?
Let me ask you this. Do we think we'd believe that
God's gonna deliver us into eternal glory if He just opened our eyes
and let us see the invisible powers and principalities and
rulers of the darkness that are surrounding us every hour, even
when we're asleep in our bed, with bated breath that would
love to just snatch us away into condemnation forever? You'd think
if He let us see really what's surrounding us right this moment,
right now. You know, when Job's family came
to worship God, Satan came with them. That's scary. If He let us see it, we would
probably not believe that we were going to be delivered into
glory. God's promised every believer He's made us more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. He's promised us that. This is
the gospel we preach, that He's going to deliver us into the
land more glorious than all other lands. Do we have to see what
God's doing to believers? Or do we believe God? Do we trust
God? Well, now we come to our text
in Numbers 13.1. That's what was taking place.
They said, well, let us go look. Well, the Lord did. The Lord
permitted them to go look. He knew what was in their heart
already. And the Lord permitted them to
spy it out to teach us a lesson. Now this is the lesson the Lord's
teaching us right here. The Lord teaches us that the
only way I, myself, you, yourself, the believer, and us together,
the only way we will stand is by faith. Trusting God and His
Word. That's the only way we'll stand.
Watch this now. Verse 1, and the Lord, Numbers
13, 1, and the Lord spake unto Moses. saying, Send thou men
that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto
the children of Israel." It's done. The Lord said, I'm giving
it to them, but let them go search it. Now notice the instructions
that the Lord gave them concerning who to send. He says, Of every
tribe, of every tribe, of their fathers shall you send a man,
every one a ruler among them. And Moses, by the commandment
of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those
men were heads of the children of Israel." Now why did God give
them this specific command on who to send? God required that
they should send a man of every tribe so that Each tribe will
stand responsible for what's about to take place so that no
tribe could say, well, we weren't represented in that. We wouldn't
have done that. We wouldn't have done that. Everybody's got somebody
representing them here. God required each spy must be
a man of the highest personal dignity among them. He had to
be a ruler so that they couldn't stand back and go, We always
knew he was a liar. You shouldn't have sent him.
If we could have picked out who we wanted to send, we would have
sent the best of the best, cream of the crop, and we wouldn't
have done this. And because the land would appear when they got
in there and saw it, it was going to appear exactly as God told
them it would. And so God commanded them through
Moses specifically where to go and what to look for and what
to report on when they got back. Numbers 13 verses 17 through
20 tell us that. I'm not going to read it all,
but he said, you go in there and you tell whether the people
be strong or weak, whether they be few or many. He said, come
back and tell us which. Whether they dwell in tents or
in strongholds, whether the land be fat or lean, whether there
be wood therein or not, and be ye of good courage and bring
fruit of the land back. And yet, with all those precautions
that God made for them, He made those precautions for them and
said, do it this way. And now, I'm gonna take my hand
off, let you go in there now, and you come back and tell me
what you see. Come back, tell me what's in your heart. And
with all those precautions in place, the men came back with
an evil report that went directly against the promise and will
of God. Here's the lesson. There is no precaution that a
man can take that will overcome the wicked heart of unbelief.
Nothing. Nothing. No popular opinion is
going to make a stand. Not the majority is going to
make a stand. They had somebody here from every tribe. It's not
going to be the counsel of the wisest man among us. But hear
me well, this is very important. Don't look at whoever you deem
to be the wisest man among us. Don't look at them. Because you're
not going to stand by them. I don't care who you think they
are. You're not going to stand by the majority and you're not
going to stand by the wisest man among us. Not at all. Not
even our natural eye seeing things to be precisely as God tells
us they'll be. We're not going to stand by that
either. They saw things in that land exactly as God told them
beforehand it would look like. That did make them stand. You
know how we're gonna stand? The only way for you individually,
for you personally to stand, the only way for me personally
to stand, the only way for all of us collectively to stand is
by faith alone, believing God, believing his word. That's the
only way. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Do you hear what this book is teaching us? That's the only
way, else the whole church will stumble, as did Israel in that
day. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. That He is. Alright, let's see
what this unbelief does. Unbelief becomes afraid even
though things appear before the natural eye exactly as God said
they would appear. Look at verse 27. But at the same time, faith is
of good courage. Let's see this. It was just like
God said it would be. Verse 27. Verse 27. They come
back. They search it all out, they
come back, and they told him, Moses, they said, we came unto
the land which thou sent us, and surely it floweth with milk
and honey, and this is the fruit of it. They brought back a giant
cluster of grapes, and they said, this is the fruit of it. the people be strong that dwell
in that land. That's exactly what God said
they would be. He didn't say, go and just come back and tell
the people that the people are weak in the land. He said, go
and tell them, come back and tell us, are they weak or are
they strong? And they come back and they said, nevertheless,
the people be strong that dwell in the land. That's exactly how
God said they would be. And the cities were walled. They
weren't living in tents. That's exactly how God said it
would be. And very great, and moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there. That's exactly how God said it
would be. God sent them to see that everything
about the land was exactly how God said the land would be. That's
what he sent them in there to see. But seeing is not believing. Seeing is not believing. All
it did was feed the fear of the people. That's all it did. It
made them afraid. Listen to what it did to the
one with faith. Verse 30, And Caleb stilled the
people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess
it, for we are all well able to overcome it. Caleb got that
from going in and seeing it, didn't he? No. No, he had that
before he ever went in there and saw it. And seeing it didn't
make it any greater. It wasn't anything about the
land that gave him the courage to say, we'd be well able to
overcome it. It was the God he believed who
was able. That was what faith saw from
the beginning. Whether he went in or didn't
go in, his mind was made up. God said it, we can do it. He
saw with the same eyes they did, but that's not what made him
say that. Verse 20, look back up there. Look at what God said
in that verse. When He told them to go in there,
He said, "...and be ye of good courage." Faith heard that. Faith heard that. Faith heard,
"...be ye of good courage." And Caleb believed God and he came
back with good courage just like you had before you went in there.
And the obstacles didn't appear to him as they did to those in
unbelief. They didn't even look the same to them. Do you see
that in this life things appear just exactly as God said they
would? God said this. This is what God
himself said when he stood on this earth. He said, these things
I've spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the
world you shall have tribulation. Have you found it to be so? At
what point does he have to lie to us? It's me that is the tribulation. It's you that is the tribulation.
It's sinners just like us in this world that is the tribulation.
What do we think we're going to find in the midst of a land
of sinners other than trial and tribulation? He told us exactly
how it is. But by faith do you hear Christ
in your heart like Caleb did, but be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. That's what faith That's what
Caleb heard when God spoke through Moses and sent him in there.
And he said, but be of good courage. I'm giving it to you. I've overcome
it. It's yours. The victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith, John said. We were talking
about this in the back this morning. Everybody goes around saying,
well, you've got to have faith. You've just got to have faith. That's
all good. Everybody loves that as long as it's a nice generic
thing. Faith in a stump won't do you any good. Faith in a stump
won't help you one bit. It's not faith that is the victory.
The reason the faith of the believer is the victory is because thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's who faith lays hold of. That's who it is. And that's
who Caleb was looking to from the beginning. From the beginning.
Now let's go back and look again and we'll see something else.
Chapter 13, verse 31. Unbelief makes the report evil.
Look, verse 31, But the men that went up with him said, We be
not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger
than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which
they had searched unto the children of Israel. You know when the
report turned evil? The report wasn't evil when they
came back and told, nevertheless, the city's be strong and great. The report wasn't evil when they
came back and told exactly what they saw. That report wasn't
evil then. You know when the report became
evil? When they said, we'd be not able. When they said, now
the land, they started bringing up this evil report about the
land. They started lying about it's what they did. They didn't
say it's exactly as it was told us. They interjected their unbelief
and said, we're not able to take it. Faith says God's able. Unbelief says we're not able.
We're not able. We got no ability in us, period. It's pride that says we're not
able. It's pride saying that in them
that say we're not able. Because the flip side of that
is, if we were, we'd go in and take it. We are not able. That's true. We are not able. But humility
says we're not able. But God's able. God's able. The evil report of unbelief is
evil because it causes us to forget the Word of God. Look
at verse 32 there. They said, the land through which
we've gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants
thereof. Look over at Exodus 23. Exodus
23. I was surprised when I moved
up here the first summer when I moved to New Jersey, I was
surprised that when I went outside in the summertime at night, how
many mosquitoes began to bite me. And where I grew up, when
you get bit by mosquitoes, we'd go, man, those mosquitoes are
eating me up. They're eating me alive. Whenever
they went in there, not only did God show them this land,
God showed them what He was going to do, that He said He was going
to do in the land to drive out their enemies. Look at Exodus
23-28. I'll send hornets before thee
which shall drive out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite
from before thee. And they go in there and they
got stung by a couple of hornets and they come back and said,
this land will eat you up. We getting eat up in this land
when we went in there. I wonder how many times unbelief
causes us to forget the Word of God. God had told them this.
I wonder how many times unbelief causes us to forget the Word
of God. We get stung by some perplexing providence and we think, We're all discouraged
in our unbelief, when the fact of the matter is, the perplexing
providence is the very thing the Lord has sent to make the
way for us. It's the very thing He sent to
make the way for us. The only thing that comes to
mind right now is, right now, one of the greatest things that
we're all complaining about is, we can't because of the economy. Maybe that's God's providence
opening the way so we can. Look, unbelief makes the report
evil by exaggeration. Look at verse 32. And this is
what they said too, in Numbers 14.32. I'm sorry, Numbers 13.32. They brought up an evil report
of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel.
They said, the land through which we've gone to search it is a
land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And then they said this,
and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants,
the son of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our
own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Look
over back up here at Exodus 13, 22. As they ascended by the south
and came unto Hebron, where Ahabon, Shishai, and Telmai, the children
of Anak were. See those three names right there?
Those are the three sons of Anak. And I looked that up all through
scriptures, and there may have been more giants in that land,
I don't know. But this I do know, everywhere that the sons of Anak
are mentioned as giants, there's only three of them. There's only
three of them. That's all. The city where they
lived was called the City of Four, because counting their
father, there was four of them. But that's all there was of them.
But they come back and unbelief said, all the people we saw there
were giants. All of them were giants. And
we're just grass, we can't go in. Does that happen? How many
times is it that when our heart gets filled with unbelief, a
molehill is a mountain. A molehill is a mountain to us. Look at Matthew 17, 19. This is what the Lord said. Remember
this, when the disciples were trying to cast out this demon
out of this child, and they couldn't do it. And the Lord came and
He just rebuked him and cast him out immediately. In verse
19, then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, why could
not we cast him out? Matthew 17, 19. They said, why
couldn't we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, because
of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if you have faith
as a grain of mustard seed, just a little, you shall say unto
this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it will remove,
and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit, this kind
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. What do we need to fast
from? We need to fast from sight. We
need to fast from our wisdom. We need to fast from our understanding.
We need to fast from looking at things and trying to determine
what God's doing, but what we can see with our eye. That's
what we need to fast from. And what do we need to feed upon?
God's Word. We need to feed upon what God
said. I'm doing the saving, God said. I'm doing the providing,
God said. What is it that God delights
in about prayer? What is it about prayer that
God delights in? It's whenever you confess you
have absolutely no ability whatsoever. And you say, Lord, I'm absolutely
depending upon you to be my sufficiency and my strength. God delights
in that. That's why he's sending us everything. He's sending us to show us we've
got no ability and we've got no strength and we're just ignorant
little children walking around. It's God alone who makes the
mountain a plain. You don't have to have much faith
to do it because you're not the one doing it. Just a little bit
of faith and trust that God will do it. And God said, I'll do
it. I'll make the mountain a plain.
I'll make that which is really just a mole hill to be what it
is, just a mole hill. It's nothing. They're looking
to that land. That's like us looking to this
land of our flesh and looking to this land all around us. It's
the same thing to anything but the Word of God, to find encouragement
or strength to believe God, to take the next step. Everything
that we look to other than God Himself, It's just like what
they're trying to do here. They said, surely it does flow
with milk and honey. The believers got some fruits.
We bear fruit. By the Spirit of God, we bear
fruit. And God has provided fruit for us in our lives. He's always
provided plenty for us. But the moment you start looking
at the fruits in you, and the moment I start looking at the
fruits in me, and the moment I start looking at the fruits
He's provided for me, I'll never have enough and I'll always be
discouraged. We're not going to walk by sight.
We're not walking by sight. We're walking by faith. We look
to Him in whom dwells all sufficiency, all fullness, not to ourselves. They said, we won't be able to
go up against the people for they're stronger than me. You
know, when they went into that land, the Lord said, I'm leaving
some giants, I'm leaving some enemies in it to try you. When
God calls one of His sheep and creates us anew, He leaves us
in this body of death, and there's a bunch of giants in this land
that we can't overcome. They're stronger than we are.
They're stronger than we are. You start looking to your own
strength to overcome your sin, you start looking to your own
strength to make yourself righteous and holy, the devil will leave
you alone. That's exactly what he wants
you to do. Look at you. Look at you. You're doing good. Go on. We won't find any encouragement
there. We'll find discouragement there. We'll find ourselves puffed
up or we'll find ourselves lying down completely. Completely. We look to him who holds all
power in heaven and earth. That's where we look. They said,
this is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof. You know
what this land of flesh is? It's briars. Paul would tell
you, Paul said, I was given a thorn in the flesh just to remind me
of it, that it's nothing but briars. And this land we're walking
through is nothing but briars. In the sweat of your face, you're
going to eat bread all your days. That's the curse of this land.
Are we going to find any happiness there? We're going to find happiness
in a curse. Is that where we're going to find happiness? He said
to Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made
perfect in your weakness. My faith, my strength is made
known by you being completely, totally ignorant, completely,
totally without strength, completely unable to do one thing for yourself. God says that's how my strength
is made to be set forth as being all your strength. Well, let's
go back. We'll hurry here. But this is
a sad thing. This is what unbelief does that's
even so sad. It discourages brethren. It promotes
rebellion against God. Mutiny against those God has
sent to lead. And it draws men backwards. That's
what it does. What's it sound like? Those poor
folks down there at that firehouse. I just wish they could see. I
just wish they could see. Wish they could understand. Has that mate brought peace to
your heart? Has that brought peace to the one you've whispered
it to over the telephone? Has that brought peace anytime,
anywhere, anyplace with anybody? Here's what it did there, verse
1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried. Numbers 14, 1. And the people
wept that night. And all the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron. That was the one sent
to lead them. And the whole congregation said
unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt,
or would God we had died in this wilderness, it's all your fault.
What we saw in that land, it's your fault, Moses. Isn't unbelief
absurd? Moses, we saw giant people in
that land, it's your fault. That's just absurd, isn't it? Look at verse 3. Wherefore hath
the Lord brought us unto this land? It's his fault too. To
fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a
prey, were it not better for us to return unto Egypt. And
they said one to another, let us make a captain and let us
return into Egypt. Do you think Satan's going to
come and discourage them from that? It's exactly what he wants
them to do. Set up a ruler amongst you and
go back to Egypt. Go back to Pharaoh. Go back to
bondage. Go back to the man who's charging
you to hear the gospel preached so he can make merchandise of
your soul. Go back to a man who's prostituting the gospel and is
a whoremonger among men trying to make a profit off of God.
Go to him and bow down to him and take his whip and his chain. The just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him." We don't realize the peace we forfeit by not just listening
to God. We don't realize the mercy we
forsake by not just hearing God. A man will say, you ought to
do more. Go do more, and try to coddle
us more, and show that you love more. Moses couldn't have done
more than he did. He took them through that wilderness,
listened to their murmuring constantly, and just kept pointing them to
God, kept pointing them to God, kept pointing them to God. And
you say, you're just trying to make me come and hear what God
said. You're trying to make me think I got to be there hearing
the gospel preached all the time. And this man will say, no you
don't. You don't even have to come here at all. And then the
same man will turn around and say, well, you ought to love
me more than that. You ought to come after me and come get
me. My God's big enough to get you. My God's big enough to bring
you back. If He ain't giving you the heart
to be here, you won't be here. If He don't draw you here, you
won't come here. If He don't knit our hearts together, I'll
never be your pastor, and you'll never You never want to hear
a word I say. I'm not going to try to make
that happen. I'm going to keep doing what God's given me to
do. Tell you the truth. You know where it's going to
be. We forfeit needless. We make
needless pain by trying to spy out this land, trying to find
strength by what we see in our wisdom and our works rather than
trusting Christ by faith. If we could just cast everything
into his hand and leave it there. He said, look unto Me and be
ye saved. Is that just for the sinner seeking
Christ? That's for the believer who's
living in the constant hope and strength of Him. Look unto Me. He never changes. His gift of
life and calling of grace without change. It never changes. If
you don't You've been given a great privilege where a work has begun. If you don't come, and not just
here, but be with one another, be with together, when we're
together and stuff, we miss it. We miss what God does. We miss
it. I want to be a part of the church
that this world don't recognize. I do. Because I don't recognize
this world's church. It's dead to me and I'm dead
to it. Thankfully, by God's grace, I've been crucified in Christ.
But do you see these things? I said this Thursday night, we're
seeing this happen amongst us. I see it happening, don't you?
I see these things where we... Y'all come up here now and we,
after services, we sit here sometimes an hour together before we ever
even go, leave. And then when we We get together
at dinner and different things we get together and it's just
so sweet. God does this through the gospel. He does this through
the gospel. Alright, well, the Lord's gospel won't let us
hear, the unbelief won't let us hear this gospel. Let's just try to look at this,
verse 7. Numbers 14, 7. They spake unto all the company
of the children of Israel. This is Joshua and Caleb. They
were right there with them. They were in the trenches with
them. They were suffering. They saw what they saw. They
went to that land with them, just like we're here together.
And Joshua and Caleb stood up, and they said, The land which
we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. Hadn't
the Lord promised us an inheritance that doesn't fade away, reserved
in heaven for us? It cost him his only begotten
son. It cost his son coming to where we are and bearing the
shameful death of the cross. He said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. That's where he went when he
went to the cross. And he said, if I go prepare a place for you,
I'll come again and receive you to myself. As soon as he got
through and said, it's finished, and came out of the grave the
third day, he came right back and said, Peter, here I am. I
receive you to Myself, even after all your rebellion against Me."
Numbers 8 says, verse 80, they said, if the Lord delight in
us, how does the Lord delight in us? Look down at verse 24. My servant Caleb, because he
had another spirit with him and hath followed Me fully, him will
I bring into the land whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess
it. Read it again now, verse 8. If the Lord delight in us,
if we merely trust the Lord, if we merely trust the Lord,
then He'll bring us into this land and give it us. A land which
floweth with milk and honey." God's going to receive the glory.
God will bring us into this land. It won't be by our wisdom, our
will, or our works. God will give it to us, they
said. And His gifts are going to be
better than anything we could get leaning to our own understanding.
A land which floweth with milk and honey. Look at verse 9. Only
rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of
the land, for they're bred for us. Their defense is departed
from them, and the Lord's with us. Don't fear them. Let me show
you. Do you know how true that was? Do you know how true that is
in this world? Be turning to Joshua 2. I've
got to show you this. Do you know how true that was? You know how true that is for
us in this world where we are, brethren? Listen to this. While
the children of Israel were murmuring an unbelief, blaming Moses and
Aaron and trying to make them a captain and wanting to go back
to Egypt because all those people and those walls and those cities
and everything about that land was so big, here's what the people
in the land were saying. Joshua 2.9. This is Rahab speaking
by faith. She said unto the men, I know
that the Lord hath given you the land. and that your terror
has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land
faint because of you. For we've heard, we've heard,
we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for
you when you came out of Egypt. We heard what you did unto the
two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan,
Zion and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we
heard We heard these things. Our hearts did melt. Neither
did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For
the Lord your God, he's God in heaven above and in earth beneath."
That's what all those mighty strong giants, they were afraid
of over there. That's what they were thinking
while they were sitting here murmuring and compining away
in unbelief. But did unbelief hear all that
good news? Look back at Numbers 14.10. Did unbelief hear all that good
news? But all the congregation, they'd
stone them with stones. Unbelief won't let you hear the
good news. Unbelief. Somebody says, I just don't know
why they don't delight in this. I do. Unbelief won't let a man
delight in the gospel. I don't know why they just can't
get all their fill of eating and feeding at this blessed table. I do. Unbelief won't let a man
eat here. It just won't. When's the last
time you went to the table full? You can't. A man that's full
loathes a honeycomb. He's got to be hungry. Unbelief won't let a man eat
this. How does God regard it all? Look at verse 11, Numbers
14, 11. How long will these people provoke
me? God said they're provoking me. Why? Why does it provoke God? Because
it's in the face of everything God's shown us. Look at verse
11. How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs
which I've showed among them? We got more than they have. We
got Christ's incarnation. We've got Christ's pierced hand.
We've got Christ saying, it's finished. We've got Christ saying,
in this world you shall have a tribulation, but be of good
cheer, I've overcome the world. We've got Christ saying, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. We've got Christ saying, lo,
I'm with you always. We've got Christ ascending to
the Father. We've got the Spirit of God speaking
in our hearts, bearing witness. How long will it be ere they
believe me for all the signs which I've showed among them?
How long is it going to be before we believe him? Well, I got a lot more to show you,
but I can't. We're out of time. But let me
just say this. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. We looked at that Thursday night
to prepare us for this message. He went out not knowing where
he went. He didn't say, let me go spy it out first, and I'll
determine if I'm going to believe you or not. He just went. God
said, here it is, go. And he just went. He just did
what God said. Trusted God. To him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If God had
given those men that land, he owed it to them. He owed it to
them, because they went in and worked. If they would have went
in and looked and spied it out and said, all right, we believe
we'll take it, he'd have owed it to them, because they'd have
got it by the work of their own hand. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? I don't mean every now and then.
I don't mean when you're by the palm trees. I mean all the time. Are you happy? Believe God and you will be happy. Happiness is believing God and
believing God's happiness. I'm happy all the time. I may
not look happy to you all the time, I'm happy all the time.
I really am happy all the time. Listen to what David said, the
blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without
works, saying, blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. If you looked at David, When
he was going through this life, all David saw in his life was
trouble and uphill heartache every day of his life. That's
what he saw every day of his life. I mean, sons that rejected
him, rape between his children. I mean, just things that were
horrible in his life. All David had was the Word of
God. And that was all to David. You
know what he said? He said, it's not so with my
house, but God has made with me an everlasting word, an everlasting
promise, an everlasting covenant. It's ordered in all things and
it's sure and it's all my salvation and all my desire, everything. Now God's not a man that he should
lie. We're going to have tribulation. There's going to be briars. There's
going to be bills to pay. We're going to have to put our
hand to the plow. The field's not going to plow
itself. We're going to have to plow. And there's going to be
setbacks. But God's true. He said, be of
good cheer. I've overcome the world. What
reason does God have? He can't lie. He's holy. There's
no lie in Him. But what reason, what advantage
would it be to lie to you and me about anything anyway? God
can't lie. I want to end by reminding you
of Paul's words. Look at Acts 27, 25. Next time that you come into
some When God brings you right to the land, He says, I've given
this to you. And you find yourself wanting
to doubt. And you come into some storm that's raging. And you find yourself doubting
and thinking, This must be God turning me away. It might be
the way God's opening it for us. It might be. But this is
what, remember this, when Paul faced the stormy sea, this was
what he said. And remember this, think about
this. He said, wherefore serves, be
of good cheer. For I believe God that it shall be even as it was
told me. Amen.