It's my hope and prayer again
tonight to show you Christ from the 14th chapter of the book
of Numbers, if you would turn there with me. Numbers chapter
14. Here in the last part of the
chapter, Moses tells these faithless Hebrews, and that's pretty much
what they were, with the exception of a few. He lets them in on
the consequences that their unbelief has brought upon them. There
are consequences for unbelief. It was the Lord who determined
this consequence, and it was the Lord who commanded it to
be carried out, and it was the Lord who would carry it out.
God always has His way, God always does His will, and God always
finishes His work. Whatsoever the Lord played, that
did He. Oh, I think about those three
words, that did He. In heaven and in earth and in
the seas and in all deep places. I don't hear much about that
God from the average pulpit today. God is a little old man upstairs. He's begging and pleading. He's
bringing his hands together. He loves everybody. Won't somebody
love him back? No. The God of the Bible does
whatsoever He pleases. Our God's in the heavens. He
has done and He is doing whatever He pleases. And sometimes I wonder
if we really do believe that. I do believe that, Lord, but
help thou my unbelief. I have faith when I'm not the
one under affliction. I have faith when trouble knocks
at your door, but not so much when it knocks at mine. Let's
face it, the subject of unbelief is not an enjoyable subject to
think about or to talk about. In many ways, it's depressing,
isn't it? Always talking about unbelief,
always talking about sin. Many find unbelief a subject
of negativity. That's because it is. It is a
subject of negativity. It's a depressing and negative
subject because we're guilty of it. Within all of us, there's
still a great deal of unbelief. And our unbelief exposes the
darkness that still lives within what Paul calls this body of
death. Even though I am perfect in the
eyes of God through the redemption found in the Lord Jesus Christ,
I still live in this body of flesh. I still deal with these
two natures, the one, the old man. Oh, wretched man, I am. It's depressing. It's negative.
because we are guilty. And in the verses before us tonight,
the Holy Spirit warns the child of God and teaches the believing
sinner something again of man's falling nature and man's inability,
man's unbelief, man's sin and rebellion, man's unwillingness
to believe God. Unbelief is not simply the absence
of belief. Unbelief is the absence of believing
God. Remember what Paul said? He said,
I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. He didn't
say, I believe there is a God or I believe in that God. He
said, I believe God. What does God say? Abraham believed
God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And that's
the only way righteousness will be accounted unto you. Believe
in what God says about you, believe in what God says about your Savior,
and believe in how God reconciles sinners to himself through the
Lord Jesus Christ. May God enable you to believe
that. Now, what a great mercy it is for God to leave us examples
throughout the scriptures for us to heed and to learn from. It really is. Addressing that
very thing, Paul wrote this concerning these unbelieving Hebrews here,
right in Numbers chapter 14. He said, now all these things
happened unto them for in samples or as a type. And they were written
for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are coming.
First Corinthians chapter 10. Now that word in sample there
not only means a type or an example, but I found it interesting that
the original word gives strong reference to a stamp or a scar. Sin has stamped all of us defected
and unable and unwilling. to believe God apart from His
intervening grace. When we fell in our father Adam,
we became defective. We fell a great fall. We didn't
just stump our toe like some men bridge, no. We fell hard
and we died dead in trespasses and sins. Sin has scarred each
and every son and daughter of Adam, and there's no difference
in any of us other than the difference that God makes in us. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. That's God's stamp upon us. That's
a scar that's never fully healed, still an oozing and putrefying
sore to a thrice holy God. And those who are in Christ will
one day receive a glorified body without sin. Oh, I'm looking
forward to that day. Conformed to the very image of
Christ, but now we still live in this body of death. There's
none righteous, no, not one, the scripture says. All of our
righteousness is what? Filthy rag. Christ's got to put
away the sin of his people so that he might give them his perfect
righteousness. And that's the only way any of
us are going to be saved. And I know that's something that
you hear often, but we can't hear it enough. Faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now, I don't know the
religious or denominational background of everyone here tonight, but
I know this much. If a sinner's salvation is not
founded upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and if that sinner
is not resting in His finished, accomplished work at Calvary
for His people, there's no hope for any of us. No hope for me,
no hope for you or anyone else, regardless of our religious history. I recently rediscovered an article
by Pastor Tom Hardy. Tom wrote, there are basically
only two kinds of religion in the world. There are thousands
of denominations, but there's really only two religions. The
one of Cain and the one of Abel. One of Ishmael and the one of
Isaac. One of Esau and one of Jacob. The one of Mount Sinai
and the one at Mount Calvary. One condemns, the other finds
no fault. One leads to bondage, the other
leads to freedom. One tends to death and the other
to life. One to weakness and the other
to power. One of merit, the other of mercy. One where salvation is wrought
by the sinner and the other where salvation is wrought by the Savior. You know, a heart of true faith
will cause us to cease from our own works and rest in Christ
accomplished work and righteousness. And the heart of unbelief is
one that ultimately declares that deliverance and salvation
and redemption depends upon us. There's a religion of works.
There's a religion of grace. The two can't be mixed together.
It's either works or it's grace. And God is showing us again here
in Numbers chapter 14 that salvation does not depend on us at all.
Salvation's God's work. It's God's choice. It's God's
decision. It's God's will. It's God's purpose. It's God the Son who accomplished
it. And regardless of what God does,
whether he saves us or whether he damns us, whether he intervenes
or whether he just lets us have our way. And that's all God has
to do by the way to condemn us. Just let us go. Let us do our
own thing. Let us have our own way. If he
saves us or if he damns us, it's all to his honor and to his glory. But there's always a consequence
to unbelief. Now look again to verse 26, Numbers
14, verse 26. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and to Aaron, saying, how long shall I bear with this evil congregation,
which murmur against me? I've heard the murmurings of
the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto
them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken
in mine ears, so will I do to you. "'Your carcasses shall fall
in this wilderness "'and all that were numbered of you, "'according
to your whole number, "'from 20 years old and upward, "'which
have murmured against me. "'Doubtless you shall not come
into the land concerning "'which I swear to make you dwell therein,
"'except Caleb, the son of Jephiel, "'and Joshua, the son of Nun.'"
but your little ones which you said should be a prey them will
I bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised
but as for you your carcasses they shall fall in the wilderness
and your children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years and
bear your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness
And after the number of days in which you search the land,
even 40 days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities,
even 40 years, and you shall know my breach of promise. I,
the Lord, have said, I will surely do it, and to all this evil congregation
that are gathered together against me in this wilderness, they shall
be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men which Moses
sent to search the land who returned and made all the congregation
to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land, even
those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land died
by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went
to search the land, lived still. Now, men and women can say what
they want to say, but we're not in control of anything. Men and
women can act as though they are, but they are not, especially
our salvation and deliverance. And this is so clear from the
verses that we just read. In verse 28, the Lord says, as
truly as I live, he said, I've heard your murmur. They were
against me. I heard them. You said it behind
my back, but I heard it with my ears. God hears and sees everything. He said, so will I do to you.
Oh, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. Maybe not so much to most people because they've brought
God down so low, they've made God such a beggarly being that
not much of anybody has fear of him anymore. But you start
reading about the God of this Bible, you read those verses
we just read, and that's the God with whom we have to do.
And all things are naked and opened unto him. and He sees
all things and He's gonna judge all things according to His strict,
holy justice. If we must be perfect to be accepted,
I need to find a way of being perfect. In verse 29, the Lord
said, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness. It's a God
who chooses and distinguishes between. God said from 20 years
old and upward, the only exception being Caleb and Joshua. Verse 30, only Caleb and Joshua
shall dwell therein. Only the Savior and the faithful
dog. Who's going to be in heaven?
I know Christ is going to be there, and there are going to
be a lot of faithful dogs there. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do you have that you didn't receive? God has mercy
on whom he will have mercy. God has compassion on whom he
will. Whom God wills, God hardens. No wonder men who know God pray,
Lord, don't let me have my will. I'll harden my heart every single
time. Verse 31, your little ones, I
will bring. Verse 34, God appoints the day. God appoints the time. God appoints
the place. Verse 35, he said, I, the Lord
hath said, I, the Lord will surely do. In the wilderness, they shall
be consumed. In the wilderness, they shall
die. God has determined the times before appointed in the bounds
of our habitation, Acts 17, 26. Do you believe that? I do, I
do. God purposed, God chose, God
called, God saved, God glorifies, whosoever He will. The election
of God never shuts anyone out. Election makes your redemption
of God. Election makes salvation of the
Lord. It makes salvation certain for
those that God chose and those that believe on Christ. It makes
your salvation certain. If God saves you, He determined
to save you before the foundation of the world, before you were
born, before you ever did any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, that the purpose of God, according
to His choosing, might stand. Wasn't anything that you did,
God chose you before you ever done anything, before you was
ever born. God gets the glory and the salvation of your soul.
And you're happy with that. Certain. that the purpose of
God according to election might stand not of works, but of him
that called certain because Christ's work is finished. God accepted
it and he accepts his people only in Christ to the praise
of the glory of his grace wherein he had made us accepted in the
beloved, that beloved being his beloved son. God had secured
the land of promise for Israel. He said, I've given you the land.
I could take you and show you what God had promised to do to
these folks here in the land of Canaan before they ever even
got there. God said, I'll drive them out.
I'll send hornets against them. God knocked them off their horses
with hailstone, but they didn't believe God. Nothing had been
required of Israel to procure the land. They put no effort
forth in making it theirs. It was a gift, wasn't it? God
had taken care of everything. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that, what? Both the grace
and the faith. It's not by you. It's not because
of you. It's not of you. It's not done
by you. It's not attributed to you in
any way. It's the gift of God. A gift. The gift, not just a gift, but
the gift. Not just any gift, it's the gift
of God. All other gifts are attributed
to the gift. What was Israel's response to
the promise of God? Look back at Numbers 13, verse
31. But the men that went up with
him said, we'd be not able to go up against these people. They're
stronger than we are. And you know what? They were.
But they weren't stronger than their God. We're not able, they
said. That was true. But their God
was able. They saw giants and they saw
walled cities. And men today see the giants
of self-righteousness and the walled cities of legal requirements. And they go, why bother? I can't
do that. Well, that's a blessing if you
see that you can. We're not able to go up against
them. You're exactly right. But Christ was and Christ did
for his people. And that's why I'm resting in
what he's done. I haven't done anything to rest
in, to have any confidence in, to have any assurance in. And
the gospel is the clear description of what the Lord has done for
his people. Christ has accomplished salvation. Christ has put sin away by the
sacrifice of Himself. Christ has provided and He's
imputed a perfect righteousness for those who believe and trust
in Him. Do you believe and trust in Him? Abraham believed God
and it was counted to him, imputed to him, charged to him for righteousness. For in Him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete
in Him, which is the head of all principality and power."
Now, complete is complete. Sinners today try to camouflage
their unbelief with humility by saying, well, you know, I've
done too many bad things for God to forgive me. I need to
get some things straight in my life, straightened out in my
life so that God can save me. Well, that's ridiculous. First
of all, you won't, and God can save whoever he wants to. Does
God only save good people? Is that what you're saying? According
to the scriptures, Christ came into the world to save sinners.
Does God only save those who make themselves savable? Oh,
let me get some things straightened out and then I'll let God save
me. Well, that'd make salvation by
the work of man and not by the work of God. Had a preacher tell
me one time, he said, well, you know, election. He said, you
believe in election. He said, I believe in election.
I said, oh, you do? He said, yeah, I do. He said,
I believe that God looked ahead in time and saw who would be
a good little boy and a good little girl and who would love
Jesus. And he chose them based on what
they do. I said, then you believe salvation's
a works. If God chose me based upon something
I did, then salvation's by work. But he didn't. Before I'd done
any good or evil, and it's pretty much all been bad, I can tell
you that. It's pretty much all been evil.
No, God doesn't save those who make themselves savable, because
we can't make ourselves savable. We've got to be perfect to be
accepted. That's why we preach Christ finished work. The gospel
is not an offer. The gospel is not a plea. The
gospel is a proclamation. It's a word that God has in,
by, and through Christ finished a perfect redemption for us.
James said, let us ask in faith nothing wavering for he that
wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed. Let not that man think that he
shall receive anything of the Lord, not a single thing. A double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. What a picture we see here of
men and women's unstableness. Unbelief hears God say that he's
done everything for the chosen sinner. and nothing is required
of the chosen sinner. And then man's unstable unbelief
says, well, I can't do what's not required of me. In other
words, I've got to do something. What must I do to be saved? That's
an unstable statement. You're not required to do what
is not required of you. That's not hard, is it? That
means that Christ has already finished everything that God
required of you. And he did it perfectly, and
God accepts it, and God accepts us in him. It's called substitution. Man by nature is so depraved
that if God freely gives him something, he don't want it.
And when God doesn't want him to have something, man seems
bound and determined to have it. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
and because I tell you the truth, you believe me not? You're not
gonna believe anything I tell you, and I'm telling you the
truth, and you don't believe me. Boy, you talking about messed
up. We're messed up. By nature, men
and women don't want to hear the truth. They want to believe
that they themselves can finish the work. Let me take a few minutes
here and show you that. Look at verse 39 in Numbers 14. And Moses told these things unto
all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. But look at what they do and
say next, verse 40. And they rose up early in the
morning, and get them up into the top of the mountain, saying,
lo, we be here." Now, if you notice, be here is italicized,
means those words were added. They said, lo, we will go up. I suppose if I was gonna give
this message a title, and I will, it's we will go up. We will go up into the place
which the Lord had promised, for we have sinned." You think,
what in the world are they saying here? What they just said was
this, we will go up. We're gonna go up. At first they
said, we will not go. Then God says, because of your
unbelief, you will not go. And now they say, well, in that
case, we will go. Double-minded. double-minded
men and women, unstable in all their ways. God now commands
Israel to turn their back to the land of promise and begin
their wandering in the wilderness until all who are over the age
of 20 years are dead. For them, the promised land is
no longer available. God said, no, you're not going
in. God rejects them. The land is
not theirs. Now they have no right or warrant
to possess it. Turn around and head for the
desert, God says. And men and women by nature,
double-minded in all their ways, what strange belligerence we
have. What aggressive hostility, enmity
we have toward God. You see faith and unbelief are
totally opposite and unbelief always acts in rebellion to the
truth. You talk about unstable. When
the Lord declared that they should go up and possess the land, they
would not go. And now the Lord says, you cannot
go. And they say, we will go up.
And the reason they give for now going to possess the land
is the same reason that God says you will not go. God said, because
of your sin of unbelief, you cannot have the land. And they
say, we have sinned, therefore we will possess the land. Now
they're not saying here that their sin gives them the right
to the land. They're not saying that at all,
but I tell you what they are saying. They're saying this,
we will by our going, and we will by our possessing the land,
we'll overcome the effect of our sin. We'll do it on our own.
That's what they're saying. We can possess the land without
God. You know, after all, nobody's
perfect. Well, we're only concerned about our wives and our children.
That shouldn't keep us out. We can do this on our own. We
can finish this work that God started. No, you can't. No, you
can't. Well, preacher, the Bible does
say, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Yes,
it does say that. But then it says, in the very
words after that, for it's a God which worketh in you, both the
will and the do, his good pleasure. You can't work out what a God
hadn't worked in. You can't start what the Lord
started and you can't finish what only the Lord can finish.
But unbelief just won't. except the word of God reasonably
or rationally, will it? Unbelief denies God's grace and
it denies God's wrath. Unbelief always opposes God,
always. It's revealed by the absence
of Christ. Look at verse 41. And Moses said,
wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord?
You're going up. He says, it shall not prosper. Go not up for the Lord is not
among you. That you be not smitten before
your enemies. If you go without the Lord, you're
gonna die. for the Amalekites and the Canaanites
are there before you and you shall fall by the sword because
you are turned away from the Lord therefore the Lord will
not be with you." Friends, that is a warning straight from the
mouth of God. Does the Lord love everybody?
Well, let me tell you this. If you insist on being involved
with the possession of God's promise, it's without Christ.
If you endeavor to overcome your sin on your own, you've gone
without Christ. If you presume you can be saved
without the Lord Jesus putting your sin away, you're wrong in
your presumption. First phrase in verse 44 probably
is a clear and accurate definition of unbelief as you'll find in
all the scripture. It says, but they presumed to
go up unto the hilltop. We got a lot of folks today that
presume they're going to heaven. Everybody's going to heaven anymore.
Everybody goes to heaven. Go to a funeral and listen. Don't
matter if the person ever even mentioned God's name, they're
in a better place. They're in a better place. Are
they? They presume to go up. What did they presume? They presumed
that possessing the land really had always depended upon their
will and their ability rather than the promise and the presence
of God. Those who presume such presume in error. Again, verse
44, but they presumed to go up into the hilltop. Nevertheless,
the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out
of the camp. God didn't go with them. If you
start up the hill in your own power, presuming that you can
and will in and of yourself recover what you lost in Adam, you'll
perish in your presumption. The heart of one who believes
is gonna cease from their own labor. To him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith, his believing
in Christ is counted for righteousness. There's no salvation apart from
Christ. Don't go without him. For he
that is entered into his rest, he also had ceased from his own
works as God did from his. Nothing concerning our salvation
depends on us. Nothing. Well, I had to believe,
well, God gave you the faith. I'm so thankful for that. Oh,
I cannot tell you, that's one of the things, one of the things
that I once hated and despised the most. I love more than anything. I'm so thankful. If salvation
depended upon me in any way, I would mess it up. I'd mess
it up. The joy of salvation, the blessed
assurance of being redeemed only comes from knowing that the Lord
Jesus Christ is my substitute. He's my sacrifice. He shed his
blood in my room and stand. He's my savior. He's my surety. He's all my hope, all of it. But there are some who insist
on going by themselves. Those who insist and presume
that they can save themselves without God are in for a rude
awakening. Just like those folks that stood
before Christ at the judgment seat. They didn't know they were
there before God. Lord, Lord, haven't we done many
wonderful works in thy name? Haven't we preached in your name?
Haven't we cast out devils? Oh, we've started churches here
and we've started churches there. We support missionaries here
and we support missionaries there. And God says, who are you? I
never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Iniquity? All that work I did
was iniquity? In God's eyes it was, because
you're trusting in what you've done instead of what Christ did. Don't insist on going by yourself.
Verse 45, then the Amalekites came down and the Canaanites
which dwelt in that hill and smoked them and discomfited them
even into Hormon. Now what a lesson Israel is,
is our example. Remember what Paul said, now
all things happened unto them for in samples. And they're written
for our admonition. That word means warning. They're
written for our warning. what mercy and grace it is for
God to warn us. God has promised deliverance
to us. Peter said this, according as
His divine power had given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness through the knowledge of Him. that hath called
us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's
in this world through lust." You know what that means? That
means that Christ gave you His perfect righteousness. In the
eyes of God, you are as perfect and holy and righteous as Christ
Himself is. You can't take that too far.
Made you partakers of the divine nature. Only one way to do that. And that's for you to be found
in Christ. He died for the unjust that he
might bring us to God. And to bring us to God, we've
got to be perfect to be accepted. God has promised to make us His
children, but as many as received Him, bowed to Him, trusted Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. God has promised His people total
access to Him. Christ by whom also we have access
by faith into this grace where we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. For through Him, we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father, Ephesians 2.16. According
to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus,
our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of Him. Don't you go up that hill without
Him. God has promised to forgive us. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? Who is He that condemneth? God
has promised that we're forever free of judgment and condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. You see, to walk after the flesh
is to walk up that hill alone. But to walk after the Spirit
is to be brought there by Christ. And I just think, I can't help
but think about the shepherd carrying that sheep on his shoulder
all the way home. God has promised us peace with
him. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you have peace with God? May the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus. God has promised to never leave
me nor forsake me. God has promised to keep us to
the end. Our Lord Jesus said, I'll give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them from my hand. If I'm in his hand, Chris, save
forever. We'll quit asking questions like,
you believe one saved always saved? If I'm in his hand, I'm
saved forever. No man, nobody can pluck me from
it. Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them until the end. Friends, God is faithful
that promised. Hebrews 10, 23. God has promised
that we're complete in Him. Colossians 2, 10. God has promised
that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 39. There's a way that
seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Proverbs 14, 12. And if it seems right to us,
it's more than likely wrong. If the way we presume to be right
exalts us in any way, I can assure you it's the wrong way. God's
sheep know the voice of the shepherd. God's sheep hear the voice of
the shepherd. God's people, God's sheep follow
the shepherd. They don't go alone. By God's
grace, let's follow Christ. Let's follow him right on into
the kingdom that he's prepared for us. And they shall come from
the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from
the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." They're
gonna sit down? Well, yeah. There's nothing to
be done. It's all finished. The work's
done. The work's accomplished. May
God be pleased to make it so, for Christ's sake.