One of the things that you see
in the scripture that glares out is that unbelief is basically
the mother of all sins. Some people say, well, unbelief
is the worst sin of all. And if you think about it, it
is. Because why do people sin against God in any way, in any
form, in any fashion, to any degree? It's because they don't
believe God. When Adam fell, now Eve was deceived,
and she was deceived into not believing God. You remember how
Satan said, hath God said? God said this, you shall surely
die. But Satan said, but I say, you
shall not surely die. Now who are you gonna believe?
And Eve was deceived into believing Satan. She was in unbelief. Adam followed his wife. He felt
like he couldn't live without her. But in Adam's mind, there
had to be that point where he just said, I'm gonna believe
her instead of God. And so unbelief. Unbelief is
an insult to God. If you tell somebody something
that you know is true, And they look you in the face and say,
I don't believe you. That's an insult to you, isn't
it? Isn't it right? You know, when politicians lie
to us, which they pretty much do all the time, doesn't it insult
you? Don't you want, you know, sometimes
I just want to go up there and smack them, you know. But it's an insult, isn't it?
And that's what unbelief does with God. It comes against every
attribute of his character. I'm gonna be talking a little
bit in the 11 o'clock message about God's faithfulness. God
is faithful. He never lies. He never fails
to make due on a promise. Now, we're another story, aren't
we? But unbelief smacks against the character of God. It denies
every attribute of God. Faith, on the other hand, which
is the gift of God, glorifies him and honors him. And here
in Numbers 13, we see one of the greatest examples of unbelief
and belief, of unbelief and faith. And you know, Israel, here they
are wandering, they've been at Mount Sinai, they'd been camped
there for about a year, and then they journeyed on to the promised
land. That's where they're headed.
And You remember the pillar of cloud that guided them by day
and the pillar of fire that guided them by night? That pillar was
with them, and we've talked about that pillar. Some people say
that was a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ himself. Others say
it was just a type of, it was a miraculous power of Christ
that was a type of Christ. Either way, it doesn't matter,
it was of the Lord. And that pillar of cloud guided
them, the scripture tells us. And they came upon, and understand
this now, everything about them that happened to them that was
good, in some way pictures the glorious person and finished
work of Christ and the salvation of his people by God's grace.
And that's what's happening. See, God had made a promise to
Abraham 400 some years before this, that he would give them
that land. And God was gonna make good on
that promise. Now they went down into Egypt
and they got through Joseph and then later on they were made
slaves, but God brought them out and all the miracles that
he performed to do that. I mean, just an impressive history
there, isn't it? And so here they are, they're
going to the promised land. And even on the way to the promised
land, There were miracles performed. Remember, water out of the rock,
the waters of Meribah and all of that, and manna from heaven.
I mean, it was just a miraculous thing. And so here they come
to the border of the land of promise. They're on the edge.
They're on the brink. They're crossing over the Jordan
River and going in. And what happens here in Matthew,
in Numbers 13, It starts out where Moses chose
12 men. God told Moses to choose 12 men
to be like an advanced observation, even spies, to go over into the
promised land and check it out and come back with a good report
for the children of Israel so that they would go in and take
it. Now, two of these men, one of them is one in verse eight
of Numbers 13, his name is Oshiah. Now some people pronounce that
O'Shea, but he wasn't Irish, he was a Hebrew. It's O'Shea. And this is the man, if you look
down in verse 16, look here. These are the names, this is
numbers 13, these are the names of the men which Moses sent to
spy out of the land, and Moses called O'Shea the son of Nun,
Jehoshua, and that's Joshua. So O'Shea's name, see Joshua's
name wasn't Joshua until this point here. So he changed his
name. Oshia means salvation. Jehoshia or Jehoshua means God
is salvation or Jehovah is salvation. And of course that's the name
Joshua, which the Greek equivalent, the New Testament equivalent
is what? Jesus. And most of the time when
we see Joshua, In the Bible, especially in the book of Joshua,
when he is the leader of the Hebrew children and takes them
over in the promise, he's a type of Christ, Joshua. Christ is our Joshua. It's by
Christ's power that we're brought into the promised land of salvation. It's by his blood and his righteousness
through the grace of God. And so Joshua, most of the time,
is the type of Christ. But now in this passage here,
Joshua, along with one other man, and the other man's name
is Caleb. And you all have heard of Caleb.
These were two of the 12, Joshua and Caleb. Now the name Caleb,
some say it just means dog. You wonder, well, why would parents
name their kid Dog? I don't know, but I think the
better translation of the name would be Faithful One, or you
could say Faithful Dog. And I think it has to do with
the character that God endowed this man Caleb with. He was a,
you know how your dogs are faithful to you, aren't they? I mean,
they enjoy you coming in even after, you know. Dogs are always
happy to see their masters. And I think that's what he's
talking about here with Caleb. He was a faithful man. And of
course, we know that the faith of any person to believe God
is a gift of God's grace. It's not in us naturally. The
Bible teaches that. Joshua and Caleb, I believe,
were examples of sinners saved by the grace of God, just like
any faithful person. They were part of the remnant.
that Isaiah talks about, you know, when the majority forsook
God and did not believe Him, there was a remnant. And that's
like it is today. Even in spiritual Israel, there
are people who believe God, by the grace of God. I believe God,
but that wouldn't have been natural. There was a time I didn't believe
God, and God changed me, like He changed you, by a miraculous
power, by His grace. and there is a remnant today.
So here you have Joshua and Caleb. And so what happened here is
Moses sent these 12 men, Joshua and Caleb include, into the promised
land, and they spent 40 days there. Look over at verse 25
of Numbers 13. It says, they returned from searching
of the land after 40 days. Verse 26, they went and came
to Moses and to Aaron and all the congregation of the children
of Israel under the wilderness of Perun to Kadesh. Now this
Kadesh is Kadesh Barnea. You've probably seen that in
the scripture, and that's where they really come to, Kadesh Barnea,
and that's on the brink of the promised land. And they brought
back word unto them. Now this is where it gets really
interesting. And to all the congregation,
we've got a word. We went over there, spent 40
days. Now we've got a word for you. And showed them the fruit
of them. They brought back some of the fruits of that land. You
remember God said this was a fertile land. This was a land flowing
with milk and honey. And he says, they told him and
said, we came unto the land whither thou sendest us, and surely it
floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of, and
you remember they had grapes, they had so many grapes they
had to carry them on a stick, you know. And it says, nevertheless,
the people be strong that dwell in the land. Now, you see what
they're saying? Oh, this land's everything God
said it was. But the people that live there,
they're strong. And he says, and the cities,
verse 28, the cities are walled and very great. And moreover,
we saw the children of Anak there. Now, I'm not gonna go into the
history of all that, but these were bad people, all right? And then verse 29, the Amalekites,
the Amalekites were infamous enemies of Israel when they went
through the wilderness. And the land of the south, and
the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and all those
other ites, they're all there, occupying this land. And they
dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and
by the coast of Jordan. Well look at verse 30 now, Caleb,
Now here's these people telling Moses and the children that look,
it's good, but it's bad. There's fruit there, it's fertile,
there's a lot to eat, there's water to drink, everything that
we need, but the people there are stronger than us. Well look
at verse 30, here's Caleb's testimony. Now what you saw there basically
is the testimony of unbelief. They're looking at the obstacles,
see. And they're looking at them as
if they were something that they would have to overcome. It's
all good, but in order for us to get it, we'd have to fight
these people and we can't beat them. That's the testimony of
unbelief. Well, look at the testimony of
faith. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses. I thought
about that verse over in Exodus 14 when Moses said, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. That's what we do when
we preach the gospel, isn't it? You all out there, a guy up here
behind the pulpit, stand still and see the salvation which is
of the Lord. He said, those who follow you,
there'll be no more. You won't have to deal with them
anymore. And so he said, he stilled the people before Moses. And he said, let us go up at
once and possess it. Possess it. Let's just go up
and have it. You know why? Because God's already
given it to us. God promised it and he never
fails to keep a promise. And the promises are not conditioned
on us. The success of God's promises
are not conditioned on us. It's not by our goodness because
we don't have any. We're sinners. It's not by our
power because we don't have any power to work out in eternal
matters the same thing. What do we do when God brings
us to salvation? We just possess what God has
earned for us in Christ. You say, oh my sins are too great.
My sins are like the children of Anak, and the Amalekites,
and the Hittites, and I can't defeat them. No, you can't. Cain
thought he could whip his own sins, but he couldn't. Christ went to the cross, and
he dealt with that matter of our sins, my past sins, my present
sins, my future sins, and he put them away by the sacrifice
of himself. Isn't that something? Somebody
says, well, God requires perfection and I can't do that. But it's
not up to you to do that. Christ did that. Christ is our
righteousness, you see? That's the analogy here. And
so Caleb said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are
well able to overcome it. Now Caleb's not saying, when
he says we're well able, he's not talking about their strength. They didn't have any armies.
They didn't have any armor or weapons. And later on, 40 years
later on, when Joshua took them over in the promised land, what
did they use? Cannons and bows? No, they used pie plates and
banged on them in trumpets. So when Caleb is talking about
they're able, it's because of God's power. It's like Paul said,
I'm persuaded that he's able. to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. But look at verse 31, numbers
31. 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. Well, that's true. What they
said was true. It's like false preachers today.
They say a lot of things that are true, but they got it wrong. Because salvation's not based
on our ability. Salvation's not based upon our
goodness or our righteousness. We don't have any of that. It's
all of Christ. Verse 32 says, they brought up
an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children
of Israel. That's an evil report. You know, a gospel that conditions
salvation on man is an evil report. I mean, even if it's conditioned
on you believing. That's an evil report. It says, the land through which
we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants
thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of great
stature. Men of great stature. How many
men of great stature are used by people to keep them out of
the kingdom of God? There's a bunch today. There's
men of great stature, preachers, prophets they call themselves,
who have a great following who don't preach the gospel of God's
grace in Christ. But people follow them hook,
line, and sinker. Verse 33, there we saw the giants,
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. Now whether they
were just big people or just mean giant in reputation, I don't
know, it doesn't matter. They said we were in our own
sight as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight. We're
just bugs, they can just step on us. Well, You know what happens, look at
chapter 14, verse one, all the congregation lift up their voice
and cry, and the people wept that night. Oh, they were just
in, oh, here we, we've been, think about it now. We've been
thinking about this thing of the promised land that God promised
us. The land flown with milk and
hay, and here these guys come back and they tell us all this
stuff. Oh my goodness, you just think of how their countenance
dropped. My soul. We've come all this
way, and now we can't have what we want. Verse two, all the children of
Israel, what'd they do now? Now this is human nature. Right
here. What'd they do? Well, let's murmur
against Moses. Hear that murmuring again. What
is murmuring? That's complaining. What is complaining? It's unbelief.
Let's go after the prophet. Can't get to God, so let's go
after the prophet. Murmured against Moses, murmured
against Aaron, let's murmur against his priest. And the whole congregation
said to them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt
or would God we had died in the wilderness? They preferred death. Well, you know as well as I do,
they don't know what they're saying, do they? It's like people
today. in false religion, thinking they're going to heaven. We know
if God doesn't intervene with the gospel and the power of the
spirit, they're going to be sadly, sadly surprised, aren't they?
Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast
out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Only to hear him say, depart from me, you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. I was looking on the computer
today and somebody said, state the saddest thing that you can
say in four words. I don't know why they had that
in four words, but I put in there, I never knew you. That's the
saddest four words that's ever written in God's word. I never
knew you. I want to know God, don't you?
But I pray he knows me. And if he does know me, you know
what? I'm gonna know him. But there's unbelief, you see.
Verse three, it says, and wherefore, why hath the Lord brought us
unto this land to fall by the sword? God brought us here to
kill us? Boy, you talk about an insult to the Lord God. God
said, I'm gonna give you the land. Caleb said, let's go in
and possess it. It's already ours. We don't have
to pay for it. We don't have to fight for it.
We don't have to jump any hoops, through any hoops to get it.
God's already given it to us. And here they're saying, oh,
God brought us up here just to kill us. That our wives and our
children should be a prey. Were it not better for us to
return to Egypt, and verse four, they said one to another, let
us make a captain and let us return to, let's appoint another
leader to take us back to bondage. We don't wanna hear what Caleb
and Joshua and Moses and Aaron say. That doesn't, you know,
that doesn't sound right to us. Well, I know that the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them, they're spiritually discerned. That just doesn't
sound right, so let's make us another captain that'll take
us back to Egypt. Verse five says, then Moses and
Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation
of the children of Israel. They were so distraught with
the unbelief of the people. Verse six, Joshua, the son of
Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched
the land, they tore their clothes. Now you know in the Old Testament,
tearing the clothes was a expression of deep sorrow. And that's what happened. Verse
seven says this, it says, they spoke unto all the company of
the children of Israel, saying, the land which we passed through
to search it, it's an exceeding good land. We're not lying to
you. It's like when we preach the gospel, we're talking about
a salvation that is so good and so great that we can't even describe
it. All the blessings and all the
benefits from the promises of God in Christ. And all those
promises, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1.20, are yea and amen. That
means sure and certain in Christ, by Christ, by what he accomplished.
His power, his goodness, his blood, his righteousness. So
we're not lying to people. Verse eight of chapter 14. If
the Lord delight in us, now, had the Lord delighted in them,
He sure had up to this point, hadn't he? And it wasn't because
of their goodness. They were rebellious people.
You mean when they worshiped the golden calf, the Lord delighted
in that? No. But because of the promises
he had made to Abraham, he chose this nation to accomplish his
will, and he meant to perform it. And he delighted in that. Not in their sins. or their idolatry
or their murmuring and their complaining. What it is, what
this means when it says he delighted in them because he meant to glorify
himself in keeping his promise through them in spite of them. Now I want you to think about
something. Doesn't the Lord save me and
you in spite of ourselves? A lot of times, think about it.
I mean, you know, when God saved you, you started right then at
that point and you've never done anything to displease him or
to, is that right? No. We're sinners. Such a sinful people, aren't
we? You know what that tells me? It tells me that I needed
grace when I started this race. I need grace right now as I stand
here by the pulpit after preaching the gospel for, what, 35 years? And tomorrow and the next day
and until Lord takes me home, I'll need grace then. I still, in all that I've done,
have not done one thing by which I can say I've earned or I deserve
any blessing or benefit of salvation that God has given me. You believe
that? You say, well, you know, I preach
to a lot of people. And the Lord has used this old
clay pot to bring a lot of people to the Lord. Well, that's true. Maybe not as many as the false
preachers, you know, want. But I haven't done, I don't deserve
God's grace right now. And I haven't earned it. And
there's no righteousness in me now. It's in Christ. His righteousness
imputed to me. That's my only hope, now and
forever. So he says in verse eight, if
the Lord delight in us, that he will bring us unto his land.
And he'll give it to us. Notice the wording there in verse
eight. He'll give it, well he's already given it. You know when
he gave it to him? When he made promise to Abraham. He says, a land which floweth
with milk and honey. And then verse nine says, only
rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of
the land, for they are bread for us. Now notice the language
of Caleb here. And Joshua was with him. Here
the people said, they said, the word of unbelief is this, back
in 1333, they're giants, and we're grasshoppers in their sight,
but the word of faith says, ah, they're bread for us. You think
you could beat up on a loaf of bread? I think you could, no
matter how old or, Well, they're bread for us. They're just fodder
for us. That's what he means. Their defense
is departed from them. Now they still have their walls.
They're still pretty big people. They still have their weapons,
but their defense has departed. Why? Look at, and the Lord is
with us. Fear them not. How can I know if the Lord is
with me? so that I don't have to fear what they do in Washington
or what they do in these false churches. What's the Bible say? If God
be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. God
has forgiven my sins through the blood of Christ. God has
declared me righteous through the righteousness of Christ.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. Fear them not. Verse 10, but all the congregation
bade stone them with stones and the glory, they didn't believe
Joshua and Caleb. Stone them, kill them. Get us
another captain, take us back to Egypt. And what happens? Now
look what happens in verse 10. The glory of the Lord appears. in the tabernacle of the congregation
before all the children of Israel. The glory of the Lord. You see,
this thing of belief and unbelief, it's not just two different religions
going to the same road. The issue is the glory of God.
Unbelief does not glorify God. Faith, belief, glorifies him.
In verse 11, the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people
provoke me? Now, I've got marked in your
lesson, and you can go over and read this. Hebrews chapter three
is a commentary on this episode, where it talks about how God
punished them. Look at verse 11 of chapter 14,
numbers 14. How long will this people provoke
me, and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the
signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with
the pestilence and disinherit them and will make of thee a
greater nation and mightier than they. I'll kill these people
and I'll replace them. And what happens, God's pronouncing
his judgment on them and then from verse 13 to verse 19 of
Numbers 14, Moses intercedes for the people. Moses steps in. And he says in verse 13, Moses
said unto the Lord, then the Egyptians shall hear it. If thou
broughtest up the people in thy might from among them, they'll
tell it to the inhabitants of this land. In other words, that
word will spread that you didn't fulfill your promise. And it
goes on, look down at verse 18 of Numbers 14. Now you can read
all these verses. It says, 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 under the third and fourth generations.
What you have there is Moses interceding for these rebellious
people. And of course, what is that?
Moses is a picture of Christ. Who intercedes for us sinful
people? Christ intercedes for us. And
you might look at passages like this, and a lot of people do.
And they'll say, well, see there, Moses is trying to get God to
change his mind, or God is gonna change his mind. That's not really
what's happening. It may look like that to us,
but you know what's happening here? What's happening here is
what God had ordained from the very beginning. To show his glory. to show his
mercy, to show his faithfulness. And you know what happens. God
did bring judgment on these people, but he spared their lives. And
they were judged by God to wander in the wilderness for 40 years
and never to go actually into the promised land. This generation,
it says several times about their carcasses, fell in the desert,
except for two people, Joshua and Caleb. Everybody that was
over 20 years old, I think it says, they fell in the desert,
they wandered. And that was God's punishment
in a physical way on these people. And it was the next generation
that entered into the promised land, led by Joshua, who was
a type of Christ, And also Caleb came in and he was given a parcel
of land in the promised land, his family. And so that shows
us that unbelief dishonors God. Faith does. You know, in the
Bible, when Christ is speaking of conviction that comes in the
new birth, he says the Holy Spirit will convict you And he says
of three things, and you remember what the first thing was? He'll
convict you of sin because they believe not on me. That's the
first thing. Without Christ, that's all we
are. We're nothing but sin and can
do nothing but sin. But in Christ, all our sins are
taken away. Well, you can read the rest of
all that, but it's interesting, isn't it? Okay.