Numbers chapter 13, and I'm going
to read a few verses from the beginning and then move to verse
17. Numbers chapter 13, verse one. And the Lord speak unto Moses,
saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan,
which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of
their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. Verse 17. And Moses sent them
to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up
this way southward, and go up into the mountain, and see the
land, what it is, and the people that dwell therein. Whether they
be strong or weak, few or many. 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 there be wood therein or not. And be
ye of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land. Now
the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went
up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob
as men come to Hamath. And they ascended by the south
and came unto Hebron where Ahaman, 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 Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster
of grapes, and they bared it between two upon a staff, and
they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. And the place
was called the brook of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes
which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 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, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kaddish,
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 sentest us, and surely it
floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.
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. The Amalekites 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. And Caleb stilled the people
before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it,
for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up
with him said, We be not able to go up against the people,
for they are stronger than we. 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, and all the people that
we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the
giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were
in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Well, after the incident of Miriam
and Aaron, The Lord told Moses to send 12 spies into the land
of Canaan, one from each tribe, to assess the strength of the
people, what kind of cities they lived in, and how fruitful was
the land. And we're told in this passage
here that these men, there was one from every tribe, passed
through the land for 40 days, through all the countryside and
the cities. They went into the mountains,
they went through the valleys, they went along the coasts, and
they looked to see wherever they went, what kind of country this
was. They were gathering information. And when they returned, they
would give that information to Moses and the people. And after
40 days, when they had made their journey, we're told that these
men came back with two different stories. There were 12 sent. Two of those who came back, a
man called Caleb and a man called Joshua, spoke positively of being
able to enter the land and possess it. And ten spoke negatively
about the ability of the children of Israel to do that. So when
the men returned, they had two different stories. They all agreed
that it was a fruitful land. They indeed brought back examples. They brought back a huge bunch
of grapes. They brought back figs and pomegranates. And they all agreed that it was
a land flowing with milk and honey. I can remember when I
was a little boy hearing this story or being taught this story
in Sunday school and I found it difficult to get my head around
the concept of the land flowing with milk and honey. I could
picture it as being a very messy and a very sticky place. But of course, what I realised
later was that the meaning is that it was a very good country
for agriculture and there was plenty of food for animals. And this is exactly what God
had promised back in Egypt. But the 10 spies who brought
back the negative report spoke not only of the land flowing
with milk and honey, but of a fear that they had of the people that
they saw in Canaan. They described there being many
nations or tribes living in different parts of the country. They described
seeing giants who were big, strong fighters. They described the
walled cities in which these people dwelt, heavily defended
and difficult to defeat. And these ten did not think that
the children of Israel could beat this people, the Canaanites,
in battle. and they warned against entering
the promised land. As we've seen two of the spies,
Joshua, Caleb, they saw things differently. They agreed that
the land was well defended, but they believed that if the children
of Israel trusted in the Lord, then God would give the land
into their hands as he had promised. And we read together in verse
30 and 31 that these are the two stories that the people were
confronted with. Caleb, we're told, stilled the
people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess
it, for we are well able to overcome it. But these other 10 spies
said, the men, they were the men that went up with him, said,
we be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger
than we. And these conflicting reports
confused and disheartened the people. And God willing, we'll
think next week about the outcome of this matter when we meet another
time. And we will learn then that,
in fact, the people are going to rebel against God and against
Caleb and Joshua's report and against Moses and Aaron and they
will refuse to enter the land for fear through unbelief. But I want to stop before we
get into that and just make a few points today and this is the
first one that I want to leave with you. There was a spirit
of unbelief amongst the people as they waited in the wilderness
in order to go in and possess the land of promise. There was
a spirit of fear and unbelief from the very beginning. It's
interesting, although we read together in verse one that God
speaks to Moses concerning sending the spies into the land of Canaan,
there is a parallel passage in Deuteronomy chapter 1, and that
passage suggests that actually the Lord was acquiescing or agreeing
for these spies to go in because the people had the original idea. This idea to search out the land,
go and see what it was like, originated with the people who
were reluctant simply to follow the Lord's command and to enter
the country and to possess it. And this speaks of unbelief. Now, I know that it is true that
unsaved people live in constant unbelief. They have no saving
faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ and perhaps many
of them have never even heard the gospel and are not interested
in hearing the gospel or refuse to listen to it. They just discount
it and dismiss it and have no interest. But it's not that kind
of unbelief that I want to draw your attention to today. It's
the unbelief which is an ongoing threat to God's people in our
lives in this world. And unbelief is a failing that
continues with us all the days of our life. And if we are honest,
we will acknowledge it to be a continuing battle for us all. Even pastors struggle with unbelief. We're like the man, in a sense,
who said in Mark's gospel, Lord, I believe. help thou mine unbelief. And I don't think there's an
older Christian here today or listening today who would not
admit that that is the nature of their faith. They believe
and yet they are so aware of their own unbelief. And this
trait or this spirit of unbelief is a constant threat to us as
fallen creatures. Yes, it does not rob us of our
eternal life because that is a gift from God, but it spoils
our joy and our experience of the Lord's goodness. because
we don't trust him and lean upon him and find comfort in waiting
upon him patiently. We worry and become anxious and
we lose our peace. This unbelief rises up in our
hearts and minds in many ways. like the children of Israel here.
It's as if we hear two stories and we get confused about which
one to trust and hold on to. And that confusion causes us
to harbour doubts about God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the
promises of God and the accomplishments of the Lord and it undermines
our faith in his word. Faith is God's gift to his people,
but we should all be aware that our faith is forever being attacked
in this life by the unbelieving world around about us, by our
own weakness and nature, and by the temptations that come
from the devil. And we must not think that because
we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his blood to
cleanse from sin that all our doubts are going to at once disappear. Fear about what lies ahead is
always just below the surface of our profession. We like to
think that we will trust more and more as we get older or as
we learn more. but invariably that isn't so. And I want to be honest with
you. You know, people say that there's no reason to doubt the
Lord, and that's true. The Lord keeps his promises and
is always true to his word. He says, I will be with you always,
and that is true. And yet in our own mind, because
of unbelief, we will always find lots of reasons to doubt the
Lord. It ought not to be so, but sadly
it is. And it is as well that we know
this to be prepared for it and to take steps to alleviate its
effects. So is there anything that we
can do to ward off unbelief? I'm thinking especially of our
young listeners here, but these principles are valid for us all. Here's one thing that we can
do. We can become familiar with God's promises. We can't believe what we don't
know, so we must read our Bibles. And I want to encourage you even
the youngest amongst us today, to read your Bible for yourself. Learn what God has said. Don't just rely on your parents
reading it for you or your pastor reading it to you. Men and women
of past generations fought and gave their lives to place this
Bible into your hands. It contains the whole counsel
and wisdom of God, and reading God's word will help you to suppress
doubt. Here's another thing that we
can do. We can hear the gospel preached. and hearing the gospel
is vitally important for the well-being of our souls. It's
not simply the case of hearing a message once and saying, well,
okay, now I know that, I don't have to hear it again. It's more like having breakfast.
We need it every morning. It's like exercising. You use it or you lose it. Where I live is close to the
sea and there are flood defences all along the coast and they
have to be frequently renewed because the sea is always coming
in, twice a day it comes in without fail and it undermines and it
wears away the ground beneath our feet. And the Gospel and
hearing the Gospel is a defence against the tide of unbelief
that threatens to cause us to stumble and to fall. Sometimes
we liken the Gospel to good seed, but like the parable of the sower,
when the good seed is sown, the birds of the air quickly come
and take it away. So let us be conscientious about
renewing that seed as often as we can, about hearing the gospel
regularly and frequently. Because as we grow older, there
will be many distractions in our life that will soon crowd
out the gospel and try to take its place. So that no matter
how busy life becomes for us, Make this a principle. Make time
for hearing the gospel. It is our soul food and it is
your rock of defence. And here's just one last point. Read your Bibles, hear the gospel,
but be careful who and what you listen to. There were 12 spies
and ten came back with scare stories about giants that would
chill the hearts of the children of Israel. Only two were faithful
men. So seek out faithful men and
listen to their ministry and their message. The Lord gave
Caleb and Joshua wisdom to understand that despite the giants, God
was faithful. His power was greater and his
promises were sure. And the world will tell you that
the Lord Jesus Christ is not to be trusted. Science has the
answers. Being rich is best. Personal pleasure and enjoyment
and doing what we want is the highest purpose in life. There's something more important
than that. that is trusting in the Lord
Jesus. Be careful who you listen to. These men brought an evil report
of the land. They had no personal faith in
God and their evil report betrayed that fact. The people should
not have listened to them. Even although there were more
of them, there was ten of them and only two that spoke well. For all the evil reports that
are in this world, the Lord Jesus Christ has brought us a good
report. When he told us of his Father's
house, and he showed us the way of life, and he called us to
follow him by faith. Paul says, whatsoever things
are of good report, think on these things. The accomplishments
of Christ is a good report. The gift of salvation is a good
report. The free grace of God is a good
report. Let us think on these things. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us.