It's go home. If you really want
to get a hold of this, go home and read 13 and 14. There's just
no way to cover all these verses in 30 minutes. So read that. Read that part portion of scripture. Let's ask the Lord to bless his
word. Our father. Thank you for this opportunity.
This privilege. to gather here as thy children
and to be taught by our Father. Lord, help me to rightly divide
the word of truth. Help us to sing praises unto
you this morning and to give unto you the glory that's due
unto your name. Help me, Lord, to magnify the
Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to take the things of
Christ, and show the people. Thank you for your mercy, Father,
your blessings, and all that you've given us. Everything we
have, you've given to us, and we thank you for it. Be with
us this morning. Our greatest desire this morning,
our request, Lord, is that you be present. Father, in Jesus
Christ's name, we pray, and amen. Henry had titled this lesson,
Caleb the Faithful Dog. Does it bother you to be called
a dog? His dad called him, he gave him a name, and it meant
dog, faithful dog. Not mad dog, but a faithful dog. But the subject is this, following
the Lord fully, following him fully. We build, and I just thought
of this as I sat here and I jotted this down real quick. We build
our lives around the gospel. We don't make the gospel fit
our lives. We build our lives and we want
our children to know this is what's important. No matter what
you achieve in life or what you go after in life, if you miss
Christ, you don't have life. And it all ends at the grave.
This life does. Now, verse 24 is the key verse. That's why I asked you to go
read 13, 14 chapters. He said, but my servant, Caleb,
Because he had another spirit, that's interesting, with him. And hath followed me fully. I like the way that's stated.
He followed me fully, completely, wholeheartedly. Him will I bring
into the land where into he went, and his seed shall possess it.
As you know, Joshua and Caleb were the only two that went into
the land of promise. Everyone else that went in was
20 years old and younger. Those that were 20 years old
and older at this particular time, God killed them. They all
died in the wilderness. They died. Now, Caleb is a picture
of our Lord in faithfulness, in faithfulness. There has been
no one as faithful as the Lord Jesus Christ. As a man, he believed
God. As a man, he was faithful. He
was faithful to his parents. Whatever his parents asked of
him, he did it. He was an obedient child. He
was faithful to God, God the Father, to every word, to every
jot, to every tittle. He was faithful. He kept it.
He never thought of disobedience. It never crossed his mind to
be disobedient. He was faithful. His faith never
wavered. It never wavered. You know, there's
two instances that I thought of when I was going over this. Two good examples of our Lord's
faithfulness not wavering. Remember when he was on that
boat in that storm and the disciples were about losing their minds?
He was asleep. He was asleep. You know why he
was asleep? He believed God. It was all right. You know, when you truly believe
God in the midst of trouble, you can lay down and you can't
sleep. He was asleep. That's just such
an example. And we missed that. That's such
a simple example, but it's such a powerful example that in the
midst of trouble, you can lay down and sleep if you believe
God. He believed God, and in that storm, he was asleep, and
they woke him up. As a man, he was asleep, but
as God, he was controlling all things. And another example came
to my mind in this. Remember when he's walking on
the water? And Peter said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come to
you. And Peter got out and actually walked on water for a few steps.
Then when he looked at the wind and how boisterous it was, he
began to sink. But there's one man standing
on that water whose faith failed not. And he didn't say the man
Christ Jesus. He's a real man. And he, by faith,
he believed God. And his faith was perfect. And
the evidence of it, he could sleep in a storm and walk on
water and not sink. Not sink. Peter walked on water
for a few steps. That's amazing. Peter's faith was not perfect.
Our faith is not perfect. That's why we doubt and that's
why we wring our hands and we murmur and But our Lord's faith
was perfect, and His faith and faithfulness is our righteousness. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
3. Let me read something here real
quick. In Hebrews chapter 3, let me
read the first six verses. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him. God appointed him, made him as
it says in the Greek, but he was faithful. Faithful to God,
faithful to the word, faithful to the law, faithful to his people.
Is Christ not faithful to us? He's faithful to us. He never
fails. as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man,
Christ Jesus, was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in this
manner, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than
the house." You see, he's the builder. He's the faithful servant,
and he's the God who builds the house. For every house is built
by some man, but he that built all things is God. You know,
he's building his church right now. He's building us, putting
us together in him. And Moses verily was faithful
in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things
were to be spoken of. But Christ, as a son over his
own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast to confidence
and rejoice in the hope firm until the end, if we continue
to believe, You know, hope is not held out to those who quit,
because it's evident, as Paul said, they were not of us. If
they were of us, they had no doubt would have continued with
us, but they were not of us. But Caleb is an example of our
Lord in faithfulness. Now, just to give you a backdrop
here, the children of Israel brought out of Egypt, and then
they traveled for a little while, and they came to Mount Sinai.
And there they stayed, someone said, for about a year. They
were there around that mountain for about a year. And during
that time, God gave them the tabernacle. He gave them the
law and the feast days. All these things were given to
them at that point. And then God appeared to them in a cloud
during the day, and they were guided by the cloud which way
to go. And God would be afire by night. But in their journey,
they came to this place called Kadesh Barnea. Kadesh Barnea,
now listen, this is, I can see this in my mind. It bordered
Canaan. The children of Israel brought
right to the very edge of the canyon, the border. All they
had to do is step over the line. You drive down the road and you
see where one county line starts and another. All they had to
do is step over. They couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. They didn't believe God. The
scripture tells us in Hebrews, they entered not in because of
unbelief. It doesn't say they entered not
in because they were murmuring all the time or this or that.
They didn't believe God. They didn't believe God. That's
serious business. You know, there was one Pharisee
that asked the Lord which was the greatest commandment. And
the Lord said, you know, love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, mind, soul, body, and strength, and thy neighbor as
thyself. And that Pharisee, thou hast well said. He said, this is better than
burnt sacrifice and offerings, to love God and to love your
neighbor. He said, that's better. You know what the Lord said?
He said, thou art not far from the kingdom of God, but not far
is not in. See what I'm saying? Not far
from it is not in it, still not in it. They were standing on
that borderline, right on the edge of it. And that whole group,
a few million, never entered in for one reason. They did not
believe God. All the miracles they saw, you
imagine what they saw? I mean, you would think if you
were walking across the sea on dry land and that wall of water
standing up on both sides and you see that, you see all those
plagues that God put on it, you'd think that if anybody see that
would believe. No, they didn't. If you read chapter 14, it's
like, wouldn't God would have died in Egypt? I'm sure at that point Moses
would wouldn't that they had to but it was such a such a stiff-necked
people always murmuring and complaining But they they said would the
God would have died in Egypt But I tell you what they did
do They died in the wilderness They did die in the wilderness
They did not enter in because they did not believe God Now
Moses sent out a search party He sent out a search party and
they were to come back and give you know, a report of what they
found. That's in chapter 13, if you
go read that. And these spies were in the land
for 40 days, 40 days. And they returned, and remember,
they brought that big old, they just took a cluster of grapes,
and they had to carry it on a pole. Two men had to put that on a
pole. It was so heavy. One cluster of grapes was so
heavy, it took two men to carry it. That's how rich that land
was. It was so rich. And they came
back and they gave this report. And when they came back, they
gave this report, 10 of the men, I believe there was 10 of them,
then there was Joshua and Caleb. They scared the people to death.
They said, the people in this land are giants. They're giant. We see men, we hold men in too
high esteem, don't we? We just, you know, when the Lord
opened that one man's eyes, he said, what do you see? He said,
I see men as trees walking. Then when he touched his eyes
again, he said, now what do you see? He said, I see men as men. It
doesn't matter how tall they are, how big they are. That doesn't
matter. You know what matters? The Lord is on our side. The
Lord is on our side. I don't care what you or I have
to face. The Lord is on our side. And these two spies came back
and they discouraged the people from entering the land. Solomon
said this, the fear of man bringeth a snare. Their fear of these
giants, these tall, big men, caused them to turn on God and
not believe him. They thought, no, you know, God
could split the Red Sea. God can send the plague, God
can send us and bring us out of Egypt, but God can't whip
them. And they didn't believe. They did not believe. Made me
think of the Pharisees, what the Lord said to the Pharisees.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you shut
up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. You're a hindrance. God forbid
that I should ever be a hindrance to anyone believing on Christ. Well, Caleb and Joshua, they
believe God. They believe God. And you know
what the evidence of that is? You know what the evidence of
believing God is? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
what the evidence is? You follow Him fully. You follow Him wholly. He's your life. He's your breath. He's your bread. He's your water. Your whole life is surrounded,
is geared around Him, for lack of a better word. It's just Him. It's all about Him. It's about
Him. It's not about heaven and hell.
What I told Vicki's family last week, it's not about heaven and
hell. It's about God. It's about Jesus Christ, who
is God and fellowship with him. And how I can do that, how God
can be a just God and save a wretch like me. That's what it's about. It's not about places, it's about
a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Joshua and Caleb believed
God and they urged the people to obey God and go into the land
of Canaan. They didn't hesitate. Go into the land of Canaan. We
can take it. God's on our side. They were not hesitant to tell
the people to do that at all. The people wouldn't hear them,
though. They wouldn't hear the faithful witnesses of God. You
don't hear God's man, you're in trouble. When God sends a
man to preach the gospel, you don't hear him. You turn on him,
you're in trouble. He's not in trouble, you are.
I am if I do that. But majority of the people listen
to those men. Look there in verse 10. Let's
look at verse 10. Look at verse 8. This is Caleb
and Joshua, they're speaking. If the Lord delight in us, and
he'll bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which
flows with milk and honey, only rebel not against the Lord. Neither
fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. That's
all they are. They're bred for us. Their defense
is departed from them. They have no defense. You see,
they lived in walled cities. But Joshua and Caleb said, they
have no defense. And the Lord is with us. Fear
them not. But the congregation bade, stone
them with stones. I've seen this, experienced this.
If you don't tell the people what they want to hear, they're
ready to stone you. You know, I had a place that
I preached to years ago, years ago. And I preached there about
five times in a row. And it started out, when I started out
preaching, amen, amen, amen, you know, it was just all over.
By the fifth time I preached, there wasn't nobody saying amen,
but the crippled man sitting in the front in a wheelchair. And after that service, he said,
I believe what you're preaching. He said, I watched your pastor,
Henry May, and I believe what you're preaching. And that next
weekend, that Saturday, they called me and said, don't come
back. Well, first they called me, they said, brother so-and-so
has died. That one who believe he's died
and we don't need you to come back. The Lord sent me there
to preach to that sheep five weeks in a row. And he took him
home and the rest of them were gone. The rest of those religious
people are going to perish unless God saves them. But all the congregation
made stone them with stones, and the glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
And God was going to kill them. God was going to kill that whole
congregation. And Moses interceded for them.
He said, the Egyptians and all these people around will say
that you were able to bring them out, but not to deliver them,
not to keep them. Moses was jealous over God's
glory. And he did love those people,
but he was jealous for God's glory. He said, Lord, if you
do that, your name will be blasphemed. They'll say he can't do anything
for you. That's being jealous over God's
name. But the majority went with the
10. And you can be sure of this,
whichever way the majority is going, you go the other way. Wherever the majority of religion
is going, you go the opposite direction. Majority, 99.9% of
the time is never right, especially in matters of the gospel. But listen, here's a consequence. If we turn our backs on God, he'll turn his back on us. God turned them back to die in
the wilderness, because they turned on him. They didn't want
to go. They didn't believe him. They don't believe God. Well,
there comes a time that there's a dire consequence that happens. When you hear the gospel, when
you turn away from it, there are dire consequences to that.
There really is. All those who were over the age
of 20, except Joshua and Caleb, they never entered the Promised
Land. They got to come up And there was some fruit brought
out of that land there as an example of how rich it was, flowing
with milk and honey. They came to the border of it.
Came to the border of it. I think of how many people sit
under the gospel. You're standing right on the
border and you never believe it. You never ask God for mercy. You never look to Christ for
faith. How many people do that? You know what's going to happen?
They're going to die in the wilderness. They're going to die where God
is not. So those 20 years old and upwards
didn't enter in. But Joshua and Caleb did. They
did. Now let me give you a few things
here about Joshua. Or I mean Caleb. Caleb's name
means Faithful dog. You know, back in that day, when
they gave a name, it wasn't a cute name. They didn't look for a
cute name or something that just, you know, whatever. They gave
a name that had meaning. If something happened, they'd
give a name that had a meaning attached to that, that would
have the meaning of that. And so whatever reason, other
than God, I know God moved him to do that. But something happened
that caused that father to name his son Faithful Dog. Faithful Dog. And you know that
every true believer is a Faithful Dog. And it doesn't offend you, it
does not offend you to be called a Faithful Dog. It doesn't. People to whom the Lord has been
merciful, to whom he has revealed himself, they are not too proud
to be called a dog." What did Mephibosheth call himself when
the king came over in 2 Samuel 9.8? He said, I am a dead dog. I'm a dead dog. That Canaanite
woman, when she came for mercy on her daughter, And the Lord
said, it's not right to give the children's bread to dogs. She said, truth, Lord. She didn't
say, well, I can't believe you said that. That offends me. You can't
offend a sinner, not with the gospel, not with truth. You can
offend the flesh. Oh, when God gives you life,
when you read, I'm a dead dog, you go, you raise your hand,
He said, truth, Lord, I'm a dog. That's me, too. But I'm your
dog. I'm your dog. Our Lord, our Lord came. To save
sinners. He didn't come to call the righteous.
He didn't good come to call the good or the moral. Those who
are outwardly moral. Someone said this, I can't remember
which one I was reading, say this, about that young man who
said, all these I've kept from my youth up. Don't let your morality
become your undoing. God just hasn't let you do what
he has allowed others to do. He restrains the whole human
race. He came to save sinners. He died
for the ungodly. He was found sinning with publicans
and sinners. And that's what offended those
self-righteous, morally, outwardly morally Pharisees. This man receives
sinners and he eats with them. Sin will not keep you from Christ.
It'll be self-righteousness. You don't need Him. The Pharisees
didn't need Him. Sinners need Him. They need all
of Him, not part of Him. They need all of Him. They need
Him. And not until God shuts our mouth and opens our ears
will we hear the good news of the gospel. You know, you can't
learn anything talking. You do have to shut up. That's
why I said it. I can't preach and think at the
same time. You have to think, you know,
that's what good notes are good for. It keeps you on track. But God has to shut our mouth.
If you can just get someone to shut up long enough and listen,
But what? But what about this? But what?
Just shut up and listen. Maybe the Lord will speak to
you. Maybe He will. All those in the scriptures whom
the Lord saved, they confessed themselves to be nothing. Job said, By the hearing of the
ear, I heard of thee, but now mine eye seeth thee, and I abhor
myself. Have you ever abhorred yourself?
Really? Really? Go look that word up. I hate
myself. I despise myself. I did not do
that till God saved me. I thought I was somebody going
somewhere. And I found out I was nobody
going nowhere, except hell. That's the truth. When God shut
me up and I listened and I heard the gospel, The only way you
can learn at first is shut up. But let me get to the meat of
this and I'm going to close. What is it to follow the Lord
fully? Completely? Because it says there
in verse 24 that Caleb followed the Lord fully. Wouldn't that
be nice if that could really be written on your tombstone?
That you follow the Lord fully. That would be nice. First of
all is to follow him. We're not following a doctor,
a doctrine. We're not following Calvinism. I thought this morning as I wrote
that down, I thought if John Calvin was here, he would say,
I believe he'd say, don't name that after me. That's just the
word of God. That's the truth. That's the
truth. We're not following a system.
We're following him. The Lord is my shepherd. He really is my shepherd. See,
we're following a person. He's real to us. He's not someone
who lived. He's someone who lives, and he
lives in my heart. And I'm aware of it. I live in the awareness of his
presence. Thou God seest me at all times. He's real. My sheep hear my voice.
and they follow me. And a stranger will they not
follow? Christ is our Lord. He's our master. And he's our
only master. He's our only master. I don't
have two masters. The Lord said you can't serve
two masters. You'll love the one or hate the other. Can't be divided. That's why
I don't, I don't believe in having a, Pastor and assistant pastor. I don't need an assistant pastor.
Now, if God raised up some men here that could help preach and
help me when I'm gone, that's, you know, that's good. I don't have, Vicki doesn't have
a husband and an assistant husband. That ain't gonna work. Would
that work for any of you men? It ain't gonna work. No. We have one master, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we delight to do His will, don't we? Lord,
Thy will be done. Thy will be done. And then it's
to follow Him. It's to follow Him. That means He's always before
us, not behind us, not looking. See, we're not running ahead.
You know, it can't be said that you're following someone if you're
ahead of them. We are looking unto Jesus. That's
what the scripture says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. We look to Him. He's the mark. Paul said he pressed forward
to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We look
to Him. We follow Him. Where He leads, we go. We follow him. We don't move
till the cloud moves. What a beautiful picture. Israel,
they would camp someplace, and there'd be fire by night, there'd
be a cloud in the day, and they may stay there for a while. They
stayed there at Mount Sinai for almost a year. But when the cloud
moved, they moved. When that cloud stayed still,
they didn't just say, well, we're gonna go down here, the cloud
can catch up. No. You move when the cloud moves.
If the gospel leaves here, you move. If the cloud leaves here,
you move. You don't put down roots and
say, well, I've got a great job. Well, you've got to die too,
which is most important. You have to die. You have to
meet God. You have to meet God. You say, well, that never happened.
Somewhere down the road it'll happen. You just look at history. Just look at history. I hope
it's here for many years to come. For our children, young people,
I hope it is. For this community, I hope it
is. But if this cloud moves, you don't look at your house,
you don't look at your job, you look at the cloud. And you put
your life around the gospel. I couldn't give you better advice.
And then it's to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. It's a heart
thing. My son, give me that heart, Solomon
said. Following the Lord is not a physical
exercise. It's a heart exercise. It's a
heart experience. You know, Paul said, the love
of Christ constrains me. That's why I don't do evil things
and go out here and live like I used to live. The love of Christ
constrains me, not a commandment, not a law, love. Love, it constrains
me. Henry wrote this, I thought it
was good. He said, there are many churches with crosses on
their steeples, but not in their pulpit. Boy, that's powerful. You know, there's a lot of preaching
going on this morning in this community. You can drive by and
there's a cross they got up there or somewhere on it. You can just
about see a cross somewhere. But Christ crucified won't be
preaching that pulpit. And then it's to follow the Lord
all the days of our lives. This is an interesting thing. Caleb's 40 years old, right here. He's 40 years old when this is
going on. 45 years later, he stands and
says, give me my inheritance that was promised to me 45 years
ago. He said, I'm 45 and my strength
is not abated, going out, coming in or going to war. Can you imagine
going to war at 85? He said, my strength is not abated. I have followed the Lord fully.
He did, he believed, you know, believers, now believers can
stumble, they can fall, but God will not let them apostatize.
He will not let them do it. He may let them be like David
and commit a terrible sin of adultery. You know, there's two
things I think in my book, you know, with God's sin of sin,
but in my book, I think adultery and murder are two of the worst
of them. If I had to catalog, well, unbelief
is at the top of it. But these are committed because
of unbelief. And David did that. But you know, God said, you're
not going to die. They said, God, the Lord has
put away your sin, you're not going to die. God would not let
David apostatize. If he had, he would have. He
would have. And the Lord would leave us alone.
We'd leave him. We'd leave him for another. We never just leave. We leave for another. We leave for another. Someone
told me of a couple being divorced here just lately. And I said,
I guarantee you there's somebody in the wings. And sure enough,
there was. We don't just leave. There's
something we leave for. And then it's to follow the Lord,
as I said, all the days of our lives. And then it's, listen,
it's to follow him even if we have to stand alone. Stephen
stood alone, didn't he? He stood alone. All forsook,
you know, all forsook our Lord, but he didn't, he didn't quit. And there'll be a time we have
to stand alone. When I heard the gospel and the
place I was going, I had to stand alone. Then I had to leave there.
We stand alone. And we do so if we're the only
ones. And then it's to follow him by his own strength and spirit. He says in verse 24, my son Caleb
had another spirit within him. It's not our wisdom, it's not
our merit, it's not our strength, it's the Lord. As he said in
Zechariah 4, 6, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord. That's how we follow him. That's
how we follow him. This is a good picture of Christ
and his faithfulness and the faithfulness of those whom the
Lord saves. And our faithfulness, listen,
our faithfulness is never perfect. It's never. I wish it was. I
wished it was. I wish I'd never. Do anything
that would bring reproach on his name or become cold hearted. Aren't you glad the Lord is faithful?
His faithfulness is a reason why you and I are here and not
out there. All right.