you to turn to Numbers chapter 13. I'm going to do something a little
out of the ordinary for me. I was about an hour ago looking
at this, looking at Hebrews, looking at my notes, and I thought
I'll go back and read this incident that the apostle is referring
to, using Israel of old in the wilderness as an example of unbelief. So I went back and read it, and
I thought, well, I need to do this now. I want us to see this
before... So you can really get an idea,
an understanding of what the apostle is talking about. Let's
look at this. We may just be right here tonight
and we may get to Hebrews 3 the rest of it next week. We'll see
what the Lord does. I don't know, I may just stumble
all over myself, but that won't be the first time. Let's look
at Numbers 3. I'll be in 13. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the
land of Canaan." This is the promised land, that they may
go in and spy it out, which I've given. And you notice he said,
which I've given to the children of Israel. They didn't work for
it. They did not earn one plot, one foot of that ground. It was
given, just like the promised land is given to us. Heaven, paradise, is given to
us through the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't earn any of it. We are
not there because we've done something for it or paid something
for it. If we're there, we will be there
by the grace of God. He said, I give it to the children
of Israel. Of every tribe of their father shall you send a
man, every one a ruler among them. Now, the next few verses,
all the way down to about verse 16, all these heads of families
are chosen to go in, along with Joshua and Caleb, to go in and
spy out the land of Canaan. to search it out, and to come
back and give the people a report. When I read that, the first thing
I thought of was, that's my job. To go into the Word of God and
bring out the things that are in it. The things of the promised
land, the things that we have promised to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's my responsibility to go
in and bring you back report of what we have in Christ, the
blessings we have, the blessings of that land, Now in verse 17,
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, the promised
land, and said to them, Get you up this way southward, and go
up into the mountain, and see the land, what it is, and the
people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak,
few or many, whatever you find out, come back and tell it. Don't
try to sugarcoat something. Don't try to change something.
Whatever you see, come back and tell it. That's my responsibility. Do I see sin? When I go into
the Word of God, do I see sin? Am I going to come back and take
the edge off of that? Do I see God's wrath against
sin? Do I see the blessings of Christ? Bring it back and tell
it. And what the land is that they
dwell in, whether it be good or bad, and what cities they
be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds, and
what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether it be
wood therein or not. And be ye of good courage." You
know, the preaching of the gospel takes
courage, if you're going to be honest with men. Now, it's easy. It's easy for me to preach the
gospel here. I'm among friends, I'm among brethren, I'm among
those who believe the gospel. But when you get out away from
here, and you have to stand before people who don't believe it,
and I've done it before, several times, then you realize the offense
of the gospel. That's when you see it. But be
of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land, the blessings. Tell about the blessings of the
land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So
they went up, and they searched the land from the wilderness
of Zin and to Rehob, as men come to Hamath. And they ascended
by the south and came unto Hebron, where Ahimon and Shishai and
Talmai, the children of Anak, were. Now Hebron was built seven
years before Zoan in Egypt. And they came unto the brook
of Eschol. and they cut down from thence
a branch with one cluster of grapes." Now, you're talking
about the blessings that we have in Christ? Here's a good picture
of it. They cut down a branch with one
cluster of grapes, and they bear it between two upon a staff.
I know, Doug, you have grapes, you grow grapes. You can probably
pull a vine of grapes off carrying in your hand. They had to get
a pole. The grapes were so heavy and
so big, they had to get a pole, and two men had to get one on
each end and carry these grapes. I tell you what, the blessings
that we have in Jesus Christ are more than you and I can imagine.
It's more than we can comprehend, what we have in Christ. And they brought of the pomegranates
and of the figs, and the place was called the brook Eschol,
because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel
cut down from their fence. And they returned from searching
of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses
and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children
of Israel, and to the wilderness of Paran, to Gadesh. and brought
back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed
them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said,
We came unto the land whither thou sent us, and surely it floweth,
it's just as the Lord said, it floweth with milk and honey,
and this is the fruit of it, the blessings of it. Nevertheless,
the people be strong, Now here are the ones, these are men who
don't believe. These are the ones who went and
spied out the land, they came back and unbelief filled their
hearts. They didn't believe God would
give them such a land because of what they had to face. Nevertheless,
the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are
walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there." You ought to see them. That's what they're
saying. You ought to see how big they
are. They're giants. And the Amlekites dwell in the
land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites
dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and
by the coast of Jordan. They're everywhere. So they've
got walled cities, they're giants in the land, and the land is
just covered with these people. And what they're doing right
now, what's happening right now, they're instilling fear in the
heart of the people. What they're doing right now
is instilling their fear and their unbelief into the heart
of the people. That's what they're doing. And
Caleb stilled the people before Moses. Now here's an example
of faith. Caleb stilled the people before
Moses and he said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for
we are well able to overcome it. This is faith. You know,
Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. These men saw them as nothing
but trouble that they couldn't be defeated. And if we go in
there, we are going to be slaughtered. If we take these on, we're going
to be slaughtered. But Caleb said, No, no, no, no. We can go in and we can take
this place. These well-walled cities, these
giants, what are they to God? These giants in these walled
cities, they represent trials and troubled, fiery trials that
come our way. That's what they represent. Listen,
but the men that went up with him said, we'd be not able to
go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. We
can't handle this. We can't do this. We can't take
on this project. It's bigger than us. It'll break
us. It'll break us." And they brought
up... Listen. This is unbelief. You see, unbelief never believes
God. Unbelief always, always finds
a reason not to. Unbelief always... I'll tell
you what unbelief... Unbelief every time will take
God out of the picture. It'll take God out of the picture. And all you got left is man.
All you got left is human strength. No, you can't do it in your own
strength. You can't do it at all. You can't face one trial
in your own strength. Not one. And they brought up
an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children
of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search
it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. If we go in there, it'll eat
us up. Well, where's God at? Where is the God that has been
leading you through the wilderness all these years? Where is the
God who brought you through the Red Sea? Where is the God who
fed you manna? Where is God Almighty at in all
this? I ask myself that. I asked myself that first. Where
is God at in all this? And all my troubles and all the
things that I face and all the fears that I have, I have to
step back and say, John, where's God at in all this? And when
we set our minds upon God, that relieves our fears. But when
we take our minds and hearts off of Him, that's when fear
takes over. And when fear takes over, it'll
shut you down. FEAR WILL ABSOLUTELY SHUT YOU
DOWN. They did the people. These 10 men came back with the
evil. They turned a good report into
an evil report. Joshua and Caleb come back with
a good report of the land, the gospel, the good news. They came
back with the good news. But these other 10 men, they
came back with bad news. They turned that good news into
bad news. I'll tell you what's bad news.
God has done all that he can do and the rest is up to you.
That's bad news. That's bad news. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's not of yourself, it's the gift of God. That's
good news. That's good news. And all the people that we saw
in it are men of great stature. Is this how we see our trials? And I'm talking to myself, this
is the reason I decided to bring this first, and I'm just going,
reading it to you, I don't have notes on this. But this is what
I see. Is this the way I see my trials
when I come up against them? They're greater stature. They're
bigger, they're so big, it's gonna swallow me up. It's gonna
swallow me up. And there, he says in verse 33,
And there we saw the giants... Oh, they just keep... You know,
when you lose sight of God... Now listen, when you lose sight
of God, all your troubles just keep getting bigger. They just
keep getting bigger. They said, There we saw the giants. The giants, the sons of Anak. You know what? A giant can fall
just like a midget. It doesn't take any more power
of God to bring down a big man as it does a little man. It doesn't
take any more power of God to handle and take care of a big
trial, a fiery trial, than it does a little trial, if there
is such a thing. And listen to this, and we were
in our own sight. This is how they saw themselves
in the face of these men. And you can say, and I can say
it this way, in the face of our trials, they said, we saw ourselves
like grasshoppers. And that's the way they saw us
as grasshoppers. Is that how we look in our trials?
Do we feel like grasshoppers? And I can feel like a grasshopper
before God. I may feel like a worm before God, but now my trials
are sin of God. This is the reason they wouldn't
go over into the land of promise. They didn't believe God could
deliver them from these people. And they wouldn't, they just
did not believe God. And in chapter 14, And all the
congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people
wept that night because of the evil report. because of fear,
unfounded fear. They went to bed and they wept,
they went to bed, they were scared to death. They went to bed, listen,
they went to bed in unbelief. It's like God has brought us
to this far, now where is he? Is God among us? And what they're
saying, when they said that, they're saying, if God is among
us, let him prove himself again. How many times God has to deliver
us before we believe Him? How many times? And all the children
of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation
said to them, Would to God that we had died in the land of Egypt. Can you believe that? Where would
you rather die? In faith? On the battleground
where God puts you? We're back there in bondage.
They said, would to God we had died in the land of Egypt. Or
would God, now listen, God's gonna fulfill this one for them.
You know, we have to be careful when we speak. They just spoke
their own judgment. Or would God we had died in this
wilderness. And we'll see here in a minute,
God said, all right, you said you wish you'd have died in the
wilderness, I'm gonna see to it that you do. Your unbelief
is gonna leave you right where you are, in the wilderness. That's
where it's gonna leave you. And wherefore hath the Lord,
listen, why, can you, the long-suffering God's amazing. Why has the Lord
brought us into this land to fall by the sword? Why did God
send me this trial? Brethren, I'm guilty of that.
I can tell you, I'm guilty. Lord, why are you doing this? Why? That's when you realize, you
know, you realize when you read this and realize, first of all,
you're guilty of it, too. You're guilty of it. and the
grace of God, and He's not leaving you in the wilderness. He did
them, and He could me if it was ever right to. Why has the Lord
brought us into this land? Why is He putting me through
this? To fall by the sword? They didn't believe God was going
to deliver them at all. They didn't believe it at all.
that our wives and our children should be a prey." Were it not
better for us to return into Egypt? Were it not better for
us to return into bondage? Did we not have it better when
we were in bondage? And they said one to another,
let us make a captain and let us return to bondage, Egypt,
that's bondage, symbol of bondage. Let us go back there, that's
better than this. Boy, does that smell of unbelief or what? You
know, in one place, I think it's called Meribah, where they were
thirsty and they were complaining and they said the same thing.
Why did we leave Egypt? They kept wanting to go back
to Egypt. And God gave them water out of the rock. God gave them
manna. God parted that Red Sea. He did
so many things for them. I mean, miracles that they witnessed.
and yet they did not believe God would deliver them. Then
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly
of the congregation of the children of Israel, and Joshua the son
of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them
that searched the land, rent their clothes." I wrote out by
that, it hurts, it hurts. when a true believer sees unbelief
in people who are supposed to believe. It hurts as a pastor. It hurts as a pastor to see people
not believe God who are supposed to believe God, who say they
believe God. And they spake unto all the company
of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through
to search it is an exceeding good land, It's nothing but good
news. Don't turn back. Don't turn back
to the wilderness. Don't turn away from Christ.
That's what Hebrews 3 is talking about. They were going through
some real persecution. And some of them, some of them,
evidently they reported, come back to the apostles, some of
them, were considering turning back to the sacrifices, to the
law, to that bondage, to the First Testament, they were considering
turning back. And it's just like he's saying
here, don't turn back to that. Don't turn back. Don't have an
evil heart of unbelief, a perniciously evil heart of not believing God. He said the land is exceeding
good. What we have in Christ exceeds everything else that
you can have under the law. It exceeds everything we can
even imagine, what we have in Christ. I know we don't want,
and I know this, I know you who believe, you fear this, I know
that. But I know of a situation here
someone was talking to me about not long ago, a person who I've
known for years, who I've known sitting under the gospel for
years. confessed to believe the gospel for years, has now denied
it. He said, I don't believe God
chose a people. I don't believe God sends good
people to hell. God doesn't send good people to hell. There's
none good, no, not one. There's not one good person in
hell. But this person now totally denies
the truth. And that to me is scary. It's
scary. He says here in verse 8, if the
Lord delight in us, then He'll bring us into this land and give
it to us. If we have found grace in His
sight, He will bring us into glory. And He's gonna bring us
into glory through His Son, Jesus Christ. Through His blood, through
His righteousness, He's gonna bring us to glory if the Lord
delights in us. You know one of the evidence
that the Lord delights in us? You have the gospel while it
is said today. It's still being said today. Today, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Today is a day of salvation.
Now is accepted time. It's still called today. And
if the Lord delight in us, then He'll bring us into this land
and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the
Lord. Don't turn on Him. Don't question
Him. Don't put a question mark over
the mercy of God, the grace of God, the power of God, the love
of God. Don't put a question mark over
Him. Don't do that. Only rebel not ye against Him,
neither fear ye the people of the land. Don't fear your trials
and troubles. I want you to listen now to this.
I want you to get this. Neither fear ye the people of the land,
for they are bread for us. It's good for us. Whatever God
sends my way is good for us. It's bread for us. Their defense is departed. Their
glory is gone. They're just a shadow. You know,
if you look over in the margin, my margin, that word defense
means shadow. It's just, they're just shadows. Nothing can touch your life in
Christ. Your life in Christ is secure.
Every time Satan came to the Lord and the Lord gave him permission
to touch Job, he said, you can't touch his life. Because for Satan
to do that, he'd have to annihilate God, because He is my life. And the Lord is with us. The
fact you have the gospel here, You still have the gospel. And
brethren, I believe that the gospel we preach here is the
only gospel there is. If this is not the gospel, there's
not a gospel and there's not a God. That's how confident I
am about it. The Lord is with us. Fear them
not. Don't fear them. Paul Mahan wrote
an article one time. He said, he that fears God, I'm
gonna have to paraphrase it, he that fears God fears no one
else. He that does not fear God fears
everything else. You will feel, I mean, you won't
be able to go to sleep at night. You'll struggle going to sleep
at night. You're afraid. You fear. Safety, the scripture says,
safety's of the Lord. Safety's of the Lord. And I can
go to sleep with that. But all the congregation," now
look at their response, "...but all the congregation stoned them
with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long, how long will this
people provoke Me, test Me, try to prove Me? And how long will
it be ere they believe Me?" What in the world does God have to
do? What more can He do? than what He's already done.
Huh? He said, How long will it be
ere they believe Me? For all the signs which I have
showed among them, all these things, and they still don't
believe Me. I'll smite them with the pestilence
and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation
and mightier than they. Now I want you to notice the
intercession here of Moses and how you can just tie this into
the intercession of Christ. And Moses said unto the Lord,
Then the Egyptians shall hear it, for Thou broughtest up this
people in Thy might from among them. And they will tell it to
the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that Thou,
Lord, art among this people, that Thou, Lord, art seen face
to face, and that Thy cloud stands over them, and that Thou goest
before them by daytime in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of
fire by night. I tell you what, Our conduct does matter. That's
what I say. Our conduct does matter. Our
conduct reflects on God and the way He treats us, the way He
deals with us, is a reflection of Himself. Now if you shall
kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard
of thy fame the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the
Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he
sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
And now, beseech thee, let the power..." Now notice here something. "...let the power of my Lord
be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, Now let thy power
be great, let it be shown, Lord, in your longsuffering toward
them." Aren't you glad God is longsuffering? If God were not
long-suffering, He would have gotten rid of me long ago. The Lord is long-suffering and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no
means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon I beseech
thee, can't you just hear this in Christ's prayer? Pardon I
beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the
greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people
from Egypt even until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned
according to thy word. forgiven for Christ's sake. But as truly as I live, all the
earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all
those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which
I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me, tried me,
proved me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice,
surely they shall not see the land. which I swear unto their
fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me to see it."
Unbelievable! You know what keeps us out of
glory? Stealing a watermelon? Does that
keep you out of glory? Not believing God. And that's it. Now that's it. Now, if I died lost, all my sins
done in this flesh will determine the degree of punishment. There are degrees of punishment,
some more than others. But the one thing that will condemn
my soul to hell is that I never believed God, never believed
Him. And he says, they're not going
to see, they're not going to see that land. Not going to do
it. But my servant Caleb, you know what his name means? Faithful
dog. That's what his name is. Faithful
dog. Because he has another spirit, the Spirit of God with him and
he's followed me fully. Him will I bring into the land
where into he went and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amlekites
and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. He says, Tomorrow turn
you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. And
the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall
I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? I have
heard the murmuring of the children of Israel, which they murmur
against me. In other words, another place
it says, The Lord heareth thy murmurings. He hears thy murmurings,
thy complaining. Why this? Why that? Why can't
it? God hears it. Say to them, as
truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears,
so will I do to you. You said, why didn't we die in
the wilderness? He said, that's what I'm going to do. You're
going to die in the wilderness. There's a scripture our Lord
says, By thy mouth, by thy word, shalt thou be justified, and
by thy word shalt thou be condemned. They say, we wish we'd just die
in the wilderness. Well, God's going to grant it.
He's going to grant it. Your carcasses shall fall, they're
going to be strewn through the wilderness. And all that were
numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty
years old and upward, which have murmured against me, they're
going to die in the wilderness. Doubtless you shall not come
into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell therein,
save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But
your little ones," your little ones, which you said will be
a prey to them, I'm going to bring them into the land. You were saying, my wives and
our children are going to be prey to these giants, they're
going to eat them up. He said, no, I'm going to save
them. They're the ones I'm going to save. And they're going to
know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your
carcasses, they're going to fall in this wilderness. And your
children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear
your hoardings until your carcass be wasted in the wilderness.
After the number of the days in which you searched the land,
even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your inequities,
even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise. I,
the Lord, have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation."
And the reason why? Because they didn't believe. They didn't believe. "...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 me," guess what God's going to do to them?
In verse 37, God killed ten of them. The ones who turned it
into an evil report, God killed them with a plague. Joshua the
son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the
men that went to search the land, lived still. And Moses told these
things unto all the children of Israel, and the people mourned
greatly. And listen, I'm going to close
with this. I'm not going to get to Hebrews 3, we'll get to that
next week, but I want you to see this, for you really understand
what the apostle in chapter 3, talking about that unbelief,
that heart of unbelief, that evil heart of unbelief, and turning
from the living God, like they did in the wilderness. And so
I decided this would be good for you. But now look, in verse
40 through 43, And they rose up early in the
morning and got them up to the top of the mountain, saying,
Lo, we be here. Here we are. We're ready to go. This is what
they said. The congregation now, after judgment
passed on them, got up to the mountain and said, Moses, we're
ready to go. We're going to go into the land. And God said, No, you're not.
Too late. Listen, the day of grace has
passed. It's passed. It's over with.
The long-suffering of God is over with. There is a time when
the door is shut. And they rose up early in the
morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying,
Lo, we be here, and we'll go up unto the place which the Lord
hath promised. For we have sinned." It's too late. Like Esau, who after he lost
his birthright, it says he sought it bitterly with tears. It says
he found no place of repentance, though he sought it bitterly
with tears. The day of grace is over. The
day of longsuffering and mercy is over. You see how important
it is to when it says today? Today is a day of salvation.
Now is the accepted time. It's still being called today.
You're sitting here listening to this. It's today. It's today. Any person walks out that door
lost, well, if you come back, it's
the mercy of God. It'll be the mercy of God. But
He may just cut it off. And Moses said, Wherefore now
do you transgress the commandment of the Lord, but it shall not
prosper? Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be
not spit before your enemies. And you know what they did? They
went over to the promised land. And guess what happened? They
were killed. Many of them, not all of them,
but many of them were slain. They were slain. But they presumed
to go up unto the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the
covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the camp.
It didn't go with them. God did not go with them. God
forsook them. Right there. The Amalekites came
down, and the Canaanites, which dwelt in the hill, smote them
and discomforted them, even unto Hormeh. Now, just let me read
Hebrews one more time, and we'll quit. Wherefore, and we'll look
at this next week. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith... Now, what he's quoting here is Psalm 95. David quotes
this. This is what David says. But
he doesn't give it to David. He says it's the Holy Spirit
speaking. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if you'll
hear His voice, if you'll pay attention and listen, Harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, saw my
works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with
that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and
they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath they will
not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God.