Join me, if you would, once again
in the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers chapter 32. We will not be reading this entire
chapter, but we will only be spending this Sunday probably
on this chapter as we look at the account that is given in
here that the Lord saw fit to leave us. I have to take that
into consideration. The Lord saw fit to leave us
this. If there's anything that we think
is left out, it's not. And if we think that there's
anything too much, it's not. It's exactly what the Lord intended
for us to have. In this chapter, we find it describes
two and a half tribes of Israel deciding because of the pleasantness
of grass. to stay on this side of the Jordan
River and not go into the promised land. Now, most commentaries just deal
with this as a historical event, but there is a serious spiritual
consequence of anybody doing that. I've had a number of conversations
recently, and to many people, salvation is not much more than
a fire insurance policy. To these people, a mere consent
to Bible truths has become their salvation. I believe that Jesus
came. I believe that Jesus was born
of a virgin. I believe that He lived a good life. I believe
He was perfect. I believe He's the Son of God.
I believe He went to the cross. I believe He died for sinners
on the cross. I believe He was buried. I believe
He rose again. I believe He's in heaven right
now. And to many people, that is the assurance of their salvation. A mere assent to the truth of
Christianity considered as a doctrinal statement without having the
heart affected. The heart affected. You know,
in the church I grew up, I probably could count on one hand, one
finger of one hand, the number of times the necessity of the
new birth was ever preached. You know why? The guy that was
doing the preaching didn't know anything about it. Why go there
if you don't know anything? The heart affected. All of this information would
be sufficient evidence that their salvation improved them, the
children of God. Now, why do I say that? Because
that's what I used to believe. I used to believe that mere assent
to facts was my salvation. There had been no spiritual work
of any kind. I even went to the, and consented
to getting involved in a different group of Christian folks. I became a Calvinist, a five-pointer,
and learned to argue the five points very proficiently, and
still had no heart change. And then by the grace of God,
he sent somebody who knew something about the gospel, and he preached
to me without me really wanting to be there. And by God's grace,
He saved me and gave me the new birth, and the Bible became a
new book, and it was much more than mental assent to some facts. I knew about God, and I knew
about Christ, but I did not know. We heard that term used two or
three times in the lesson this morning, the knowledge of Christ,
the knowledge, knowing God, knowing the knowledge of Christ. As we
find here in the book of Numbers chapter 32, we begin reading,
now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very
great multitude of cattle. And when they saw the land of
Jaser and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a
place for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben
came and spake unto Moses and to Elijah the priest and to the
princes of the congregation, saying, This area, verse three,
you name those, even the verse four, the country which the Lord
smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle
and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore say ye, if we have
found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants
for a possession and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said
unto the children of Israel, now, you know, as Moses speaks
here, I kind of think about what are you talking about? I want
to go in and I can't. And you can, but you won't. What
are you talking about? What has come up here? And Moses has dealt with the
nonsense of the children of Israel for 40 years, and he has seen
this type of thing brewing in the past. He has heard people
bringing up subjects like this in the past. We're thirsty. We're hungry. We don't have you. Oh, we wish we were somewhere
else. And now we have two and a half
tribes saying, you know, this is such a beautiful place right
here. We really don't want to go in to the land promised to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the promised land. God shares with
us that 10 times did the children of Israel. Turn back with me
here in the book of Numbers to chapter 14, if you would. Numbers
chapter 14. Keep your finger right there,
and we'll be back. But in Numbers chapter 14, it
starts here. Now, if thou shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of
thee shall speak, saying, now Moses is sharing with us what
it is to be a go-between, someone standing and speaking to God
on our behalf, because God has shared with Moses, I just need
to clean the slate and we'll start over. Now God never in
all of eternity ever thought that that is what He was going
to do. He had no purpose in that. But
for our benefit, We even read this, I am God, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now if it wasn't
for that, but here we have the sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes,
and they have done wickedly, and as we drop down through here,
In verse 22 it says, Because all those men which have seen
my glory, and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness,
and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened
to my voice. Notice the problem. And I think
probably we find that Moses, as he has witnessed all of this
taking place, has the idea, here we go again. Here we go again. And so he brings that up. And
then over there in Numbers chapter 14, he says, but my servant Caleb,
because he has another spirit. All right, let's go back to Numbers
chapter 32 as we continue on there. Numbers chapter 32. So
this issue is brought up. There's two and a half tribes
that we'll find, Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh,
that want to settle on the east side of the Jordan. And we'll
just stay here, and the rest of you can go on. And this is
what we find that Moses says to them in Numbers chapter 32,
and in verse 6, it says, And Moses said unto the children
of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go
to war, and you sit here? and wherefore discouraging the
heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land
which the Lord hath given them. Thus did your fathers when I
sent them from Kadesh Barnea to this land. For when they went
up into the valley of Eschol and saw the land, they discouraged
the heart of the children of Israel that they not go into
the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord's anger was
kindled at the same time, and he swore, saying, Surely none
of the men that came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and
upward shall see the land which I swore unto Abraham, and to
Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed
me, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kinezite, and Joshua the
son of Nun, for they wholly followed the Lord. And the Lord's anger
was brought up." Now, we notice here, Let's see. Go down to verse 29,
I think. Oh. Verse... Verse 23. But if you will not
do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure
your sins will find you out. Build you cities for your little
ones and folds for your sheep, and do that which hath proceeded
out of your mouth. And the children of Gad and the
children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will
do as my Lord commanded. Our little ones, our wives, our
flocks, and our cattle shall be there in the cities of Gilead. What does that mean? Everything
we love will be here. We will go over and we will help
in the fighting, but everything we hold dear, our treasure is
here. Our treasure is here, not in
the promised land, but our treasure is here in this area. So they
are going to go in and help fight until all the land be subdued
and then they will go back and we read that as we follow into
the book of Joshua. These two and a half tribes.
Now, should this be a concern to us? What they did, should
it be a concern or should we just pass it up and say, you
know, that's just, it was good land. It was grassy land. They had lots of cattle. They
had lots of sheep. And it was just a place for them to be.
Don't you think for a moment there was land like that in the
Promised Land? Don't you think for a moment
that the other tribes also had cattle and sheep? Don't you think
for a moment that they also had the same thing that these people
had? And yet we find that they said, we're going over the Jordan
River. And these people said, we're
going to settle down here. You know, we find this in the
book of Genesis with one of Abraham's nephews. Do you remember reading
about Abraham's nephew? When he saw the well-watered
plains down towards Sodom, he chose that. Now, we just thank
God because of that whole issue. We'd say, My goodness, there's
no good thing down there and yet we read in the New Testament
that Lot was justified before God. Justified Lot. He was a saved man and he did
that. What about these folks as we
find what they did? So, they are going to become
like Lot in dispensing their cattle and sheep on this side
of the Jordan River, but we volunteered to go into the land. You know
what? They became what the Gibeonites
were to Joshua and to the children of Israel. They are going to
become hewers of wood and drawers of water for Israel. They're
the ones that are going to have to go into battle. They volunteered
to do that. We will go in and fight, but
we don't want to live here. We will do works. But our heart
is back on that side of the Jordan River. We find there's a problem
here. We find there's a problem with
these two and a half tribes that they had no interest whatsoever
of going into the promised land, but they would be happy right
there where they were. The Lord says in Psalm 106 and
verse 15, and he gave them their request, but sent leanness into
their soul. Leanness. The land that flowed with milk
and honey was of no interest to them. The land of promise
was no interest to them. They would work and they would
accomplish and help the others, but they would not live there. Where do you have, turn with
me if you went to Deuteronomy chapter 11 for just a moment.
Deuteronomy chapter 11. In Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse
10, Now this is what we're giving
up. When Moses was talking to the
children of Israel, he's comparing Egypt with the land that flows
with milk and honey. He's comparing the works-oriented
religion with what we have in Christ. Now notice this, for
the land whither thou goest in to possess it is not as the land
of Egypt. And the church, in retrospect,
says, hallelujah, that was terrible, 400 years of servitude, 400 years
of making brick without straw. We had to gather ourselves, 400
years. Now, why did those people complain
and say, I wish we were back there? Well, they did exactly
what we would do in the circumstances, but notice this. Now that word
foot means you had to pedal a water wheel with your feet to irrigate
the property. You know, I grew up in an area,
if you're going to have a garden, you had to irrigate it. We had
ditches, and my mother complained after dad put in a sprinkler
system, which was much easier to do. You just don't get the
same crop out of sprinkling as you do with having water run
down ditches and soak up those seeds really well. Well, that's
what we did. We had to irrigate or we didn't
eat. That's what they did in Egypt. They didn't have the rainfall,
but they had the water out of the Nile River. What does he
say now? He says, but the land, whether
you go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and notice
this, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. How much are you involved in
watering your gardens now? I'm gonna take care of it with
rain from heaven. He is just simply saying, in
religion, you're going to work and work and work and work. And
when you have been given the glory of the new birth and you're
placed in the kingdom of God, the blessings come down. It is
not for us to work for, but the blessings flow down. They're
top down. They're not from bottom up. They're
top down. So the Lord's blessings is constantly
to the church as blessings that come down from heaven. Every
spiritual blessing, Christ came down from heaven. His blessings
are from heaven. Everything is from him. We have
those great spiritual blessings. And here we have a whole host
of folks that says, I don't want that. Now, did you notice? They
wanted the blessings. but they didn't want the Lord. We just heard read a part of
scripture there in the book of Luke about a man that had a vineyard. Now he used a parable there,
and a man that had the vineyard, did you notice what was important
to those folks? It was the vineyard. We want
the property. We want these blessings. But we don't want who? We don't want the prophets. We
don't want the preachers of grace. And we certainly don't want the
sun. And they took the sun out outside
the city. Did you notice that? Outside
the city and slew him. And God said, I'll take care
of this in due time. They wanted the property. They wanted the vines. They wanted the grapes, but they
did not. We find another parable where
the Lord says, they raised their hand towards me and says, I will
not have this man rule over me. I want every blessing. You know,
people want heaven. How many people have made their
decision for Jesus because somebody came to say, you don't want to
go to hell, do you? You don't want to go to hell. You know,
that's the first note in almost all of the religious education
for soul winners. Learn this phrase. Go to kids
and ask them, you don't want to go to hell. Well, of course
I don't want to go to hell. You know, when God saves us,
that's the last thing on the list. That isn't even a consideration. We're not even interested in
that. Because hell is not the offended party. God is the offended
party. We've offended God with our sin. He's the one that we must bow
before. He very seldom used, the Lord
very seldom used hell. You know that he never attempted
at one time to ever scare anybody out of hell into heaven. And
he never tried to educate people out of hell into heaven. He said
the necessity of the new birth is essential. And when you have
that, you have me. And that's it. It's not being
afraid of some place. It's not being educated into
something. It is not of the will. It's not the will of the man,
or the will of the flesh, or the will of anybody. It is of
God that does this. So we find in type, shadow, and
picture, these two and a half tribes, Reuben, Gavin, half the
tribe of Manasseh said, We want the blessings, and we'll even
fight for them, but we don't want the God. We don't want Jesus. We don't want Him ruling over
us. We'll stay right here, and they are so telling of that,
we'll leave our wives here, and our children here, and our cattle
here, and our gold here, and our silver here, and our possessions
here, and we'll go over here and we'll fight for you. We'll
be servants to you, but we don't want to live here. You know,
there was half the tribe of Manasseh that said, I'm sorry, we're not
staying with you. We're going over there. And they
went over there. You know, the Lord shares with
us through Samuel. Samuel was brokenhearted. He
was a judge. And I believe Samuel knew God. I believe Samuel, he tells us,
and that he really had the interests of those people in mind, Israel
in mind. And they came to him and says,
you know, Samuel, you're such a good guy and we love you to
the bone, but we don't want you to rule over us. We want a king
to rule over us. We want to be like what? All
the other nations. We just cannot have God choosing
out our leader. We want somebody else to rule
over us, and you know, as any gospel preacher would feel, he's
brokenhearted when they bring in this news. You know, it's
a breaking of the heart when people who have stood with you
for years say, oh, I gotta leave, can't stay here any longer. just can't do it. And you ask
him why, I don't have to give you a reason. And you find out what a flaky
reason it was after all. Anyway, I just can't stay here,
can't endure this. As Samuel is brought out, turn
with me, if you would, to 1 Samuel 8 and verse 7. The Scriptures
explain it so much better than I can. In 1 Samuel 8 and verse
7, the Lord brings this subject up, and you know, it's just the
truth. He said, the Lord said to Samuel,
Go along with the folks. Moses was instructed, just go
along with it. Let him stay here. I'll give
leanness of the soul to them. In 1 Samuel 8 and verse 7, And
the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people,
in that they say unto thee, For they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. You know, the children of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. It tells us in the book of Acts
chapter 3, they denied the Holy One and just
and crucified Him. These folks became hewers of
wood and drawers of water, which we find in the book of Joshua.
And Moses finally gave consent that they, two and a half tribes,
go in. We'll stay here. The fighting
men will go with us. And we will live without them. Turn with me to the book of Matthew,
if you would. The book of Matthew, another parable that the Lord
used in the New Testament to illustrate a tremendous point. Matthew chapter 13, you know
that those two and a half tribes saw everything that everybody
else had had. And yet when it came time to
go into the land of promise, they chose not to go in. They
chose not to go into God's promised land. They chose to go against
what he had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They chose
to go against all the word of the Lord, and they decided to
stay there because it was well-watered, fertile soil for their sheep
and for their cattle. And they set up their camps there,
they left their important possessions there, and they would go in and
help physically until the battle was over. Well, here in the book
of Matthew chapter 13, verse 18, we read this. Matthew, hear
ye therefore the parable of the sower. You know, I was taught
that every one of these people were eventually saved, but you
know what? The scriptures teaches there's
only one here. And that's good ground. And only
God can plow up bad ground and make it good ground. He's the
only one that has the right plow. He's the only one that has the
right disc. He's the only one that has the right shovel. He's the
only one that has the right seed. He's the only one that has everything
that is necessary to have a good crop. The seed was scattered
and every bit of the seed that fell was fell where it was scattered
on purpose. Did you know that God purposes
to have his seed fall on all kinds of ground? He purposes
for people to hear the gospel and then he purposes that it
will never touch their heart. But that good ground, it says,
You know, I've had a lot of people tell me every time I read that
wicked one, that's talking about the devil. You know, there's one more that
we have to deal with more serious than the devil and that is the
heart that we got by birth. Our natural heart will lead us
astray every time. Don't trust it with spiritual
things. It will lead you astray every
time. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and it will always
lead you correctly. Don't ever It says there, the
wicked one cometh. You know what that means? Yea,
hath God said, that's what we read in the Garden
of Eden. Yea, hath God said, and humanity, that was brought
up by the serpent, but humanity continues to repeat those words
every day of their life. No, really, God didn't mean what
He said in the Scripture. God really didn't mean to say
that. We're 200 years past where that
really has significance, or 500 years past it. We're enlightened
now, so we don't need that. My friend, that is the wicked
one. It goes on to tell us here, but
he that receiveth seed in stony places, the same that heareth
the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath no root in himself. This one, oh man, this is the
greatest message I've ever heard. I was over in that church two
weeks ago, and I got the Spirit over there, and now I'm over
here, and I'm gonna get the Spirit here, and you know in two weeks
I'll be over there, and I'll have the same thing. What does
it say? He received it, heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth
it, yet hath no root in himself. You know, I'm thankful that God
does not allow us to have root in ourself, that God gives us
root in Him. He causes us to grow in Him and
not in ourself. We will always do wrong by trusting
ourself. Trust the Lord, but do it for
a while. For when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the word, by and by, He's offended. He also
that receiveth seed in the thorns is he that heareth the word,
and cares of the world, and deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and
becometh unfruitful. You know, there was a rich young
ruler that came to the Lord and said, you know, what must I do?
And the Lord told him, and he said, well, I've done that from
my youth up. He says, all right, prove it. sell all you have,
give to the poor, and follow me." You know what he's really
saying there? Follow me. And he says, oh no,
I can't do that. I'm too rich in myself. And left. I read a commentator said that
was Saul of Tarsus before he was saved. If it was, I say hallelujah. All right. But he that receiveth
seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and
understandeth." Now, where do we get our understanding? By
revelation. The apostle Peter was asked one
time by the Lord Jesus Christ standing in front of him. You
know, people say all you need to do is have Jesus. The whole
bunch of people during Christ's time didn't know Jesus and Jesus.
They stood right in his face and they didn't know him. It's
not trusting Jesus. It's not having Jesus. It's having
the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. He that receiveth seed into the
good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it,
which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some a hundredfold,
some 60 and some 30. And you know what? Where I am,
I'm probably in the one. That's what we have. Flee to
Christ. Go to Christ. God is in his providence
and in his mercy, though, even though there were two and a half
tribes decided to settle there on the east side of the Jordan
River, and the rest of the tribes went on to the west side of the
Jordan River and settled down. Even though these guys said,
we want the reward, but we don't want the God. Even though these
folks said, we'll settle here, we'll leave our possessions here,
we'll leave our riches here and go and fight for you. We will
become hewers of wood and drawers of water in God's providence. He left three cities of refuge
among those folks. We're going to read about that
in a soon chapter here in the book of Numbers. Why in the world
would he leave three cities of refuge among a bunch of rebels
that wouldn't do what he asked them to do to begin with? Because
in their loins were some of God's elect. in their loins. You know, I had some real rebellious
ancestors that didn't know the first thing about the gospel,
didn't know the first thing about Christ, but in their loins was
one I know of that God would bring the gospel to. You're looking
at Him right now. God sent me a city of refuge,
and it's been there. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Numbers, chapter 35. In the book of Numbers, chapter
35, we read these words. Numbers 35, verses 13 and 14.
Numbers 35. verses 13 and 14, there's going
to be six cities of refuge. And you know, when we first read
that, it says, well, they're going to be over on that side,
and they're going to be among those ten and a half tribes over
there, because God's already wrote those folks off. But when
we read His Word, when the Holy Spirit gives us His Word, we
find out that in God's good providence and purpose, He said, lay out
three cities of refuge among these rebellious folks. And these cities, which ye shall
give six cities, shall have for refuge. Ye shall give three cities
on this side of the Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in
the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge. Oh my goodness. I read that and I was overwhelmed.
These people, they're just in it for what they can get out
of it. They don't want the Lord to rule over them. They don't
want God. They don't want anything else
about God. They just want the reward of some grasslands for
their families and here we'll grow up. And God in His mercy
and grace said, when we set up cities of refuge, they too shall
get three of them. And the only reason why is there
were some people among those people that would come along
that needed a place of refuge. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Joshua, chapter 20. Joshua, chapter 20. In Joshua,
chapter 20, we read these words. Joshua, chapter 20, verse 7. And they appointed Kadesh in
Galilee, in Mount Naphtali, and Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and
Kirjath Arba, which is in Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. And
on the other side, Jordan, by Jericho eastward, we're going
to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. This is what
I command. I am not suggesting this, I command
this, that they will also have cities of refuge. They assigned
Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of
Reuben, and Rameth and Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and
Golan and Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. On the other side,
they didn't enumerate the tribes that were going to get to go
to those places. On this side, by God's grace, he said, this
tribe that is so wicked is going to have this one. This tribe
that is so wicked is going to have this one. And this tribe
that is so wicked is going to have this one. Why? Because God
knew in them, purposed in them, that they would raise up children
that needed a rescue. They needed a city of rescue. They needed a Christ. They needed
a gospel. They needed the Word of God declared
unto them. And that's what that city of
refuge does. It declares unto us the Most
Holy God in His rescuing His people from sin and disgrace
from everything else that we inherited from Adam, we have
been given a place, a position in God Almighty by Christ Jesus
the Lord to raise us out of a horrible pit and to set our feet on a
solid rock and to establish our goings and put a new song in
our heart. Why? Not because of what we did
or our parents did, but because God placed a refuge. And all I can say, flee to the
refuge. Flee to the refuge. It's not
making a profession. It's not coming forward. It's
not signing a book. I think I shared with you, I
bought a Bible the other day down at St. Vinny's and right
in the beginning, someone has put in there, sign this and say
this prayer and you're okay. They don't know the first thing
about the gospel. They don't know the first thing
about salvation. They have never heard a word about, ye must be
born again. And that is brought by the gospel
and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, Reuben,
Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh said, we'll go in and fight,
but our treasure is here. Jesus said, don't lay up your
treasure in this world. Lay up your treasure in heaven.
Brother Mike.