Good morning. This morning my
pastor, Gabe, sent me a message saying, you make sure to tell
all the brethren there that we said hello. So hello from Kingsport,
from everybody there. If you would open your Bibles
to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter
13. We'll read a couple verses here
in Numbers chapter 13. And this is the story where the
Lord told Moses to send 12 spies, one for each of the tribes of
Israel, into the promised land to to check it out for them. So let's see here, look at verse
number 26, and this is when they came back. And the spies 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 Kadesh
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." This story is supposed to
be the culmination or the ending, the final part of the children
of Israel's travails and travels from being slaves in Egypt all
the way until this is the promised land they've been promised. They
had miserable lives in Egypt. They were slaves that were beaten
and just horribly treated. And the Lord delivered them.
And over the next so many years, he just continuously provided
safety for them. They came to the Red Sea and
they were trapped by Pharaoh and his army. And he opened the
sea and delivered them. They were in the wilderness and
they had nothing to eat. And God made bread fall from
the sky. They had nothing to drink and
water came from a rock. And so many other things that
continued to happen when He delivered them. And all of that was to
get to this one moment right here. This moment that they would
get to the Promised Land. And what happens, they send these
men in and they come back and they say, the land is as good
as promised. It is unbelievable. They have
this cluster of grapes that they found that two men had to put
on a post and carry. They couldn't even carry it,
it was so amazing. But they came back and said, but we looked
at all the people, and they're just, we can't beat them. And
Caleb's response to that was, let us go up at once and possess
it. We're able to do this. Now at
the beginning of this chapter, the 12 men that are chosen to
go are listed. And their names here, if you
look in verse 4, I won't read all of this, but I'll go through
quickly and just say some of them. The names are listed, the
tribe, the name of the man, and then some of his ancestors, his
father or what house he came from. And we have Shemua. Shaphat, we have Caleb, we have
Igal, we have Oshea, which is Joshua that we see. And we go
through and name these names. It was tradition at this time
to name your children something proud or something grand. Nowadays,
we name our children based off the way the name sounds, or someone
we like, or we have a lot of unique reasons. But back then,
the names meant something. In the same way that this morning,
somehow it came up with Rex's name, and someone said, doesn't
that name mean king? But let me tell you a couple
of these names. And all of these names through
here have important meanings. And I've heard messages where
they're gone through, and it's very informing. But listen to
what some of these names meant of these 12 men that were sent.
Judge. open hearted, God redeems, rescued,
good fortune, discretion. All these names have things that
we're proud of. Someone would get a name and
it was almost like that name was given to them so they would
aspire to greatness. Can you imagine naming your child
something that promoted what they were going to be? But this
is what happened. But there is one name of these people that
didn't quite live up to that. Caleb, in this, his name translates
dog, or faithful dog. Today, we look at dogs much differently
than they did back then. A lot of people would consider
dogs part of their family. They live in their house, they
eat with them, they sleep in their beds. We treat dogs so
nicely now, and look at them as man's best friend and everything.
But this is very different to what was thought in the old days.
Let me quickly just give a couple little lines of the way dogs
are described in the Bible. They are all dumb dogs. They
are greedy dogs. Give not that which is holy unto
the dogs. And all of these are calling
people dogs. These are reference to them.
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
As a dog returneth to its vomit, so a fool returneth to its folly.
For without are dogs, sorcerers, wrongers, murderers, and idolaters."
In the Bible, dogs are lumped in with the worst of the worst. If someone called you a dog,
it was a serious insult. You might say, well, it couldn't
have been that bad. Well, let me give you two examples
of when someone claims that someone else is calling them a dog. When
David walked out with his sling and stones to face Goliath, the
huge, mighty, undefeated giant, Goliath looked at him, this little
boy, and he said, Am I a dog that you would send this before
me? He says, Is that little? How little do you think of me?
You would send this boy out here? This unworthy boy? In another
example, Elisha tells a man named Hazael, He says, you are going
to do very evil things to the people of Israel in the future.
This man is so shocked at that, his response is, what? Do you
think that this servant is a dog? That he would do this? He's saying,
only a dog would do something that bad. Calling someone a dog
was about as bad as you could say. But maybe you say, but I
mean, it says, it could mean faithful dog. Well, let me ask
you this question. If someone decided to give you
a nickname and they called you something like a pig or a maggot,
do you think that they could put an adjective in front of
that word to make it okay? If someone said to you, you know,
you're just a perfect pig, or if someone said you are an absolutely
magnificent maggot, Would that word make you feel better about
that name? A dog is a dog no matter how
you dress it up. Now, why did Caleb's parents
name him Dog or Faithful Dog? Well, I don't know what the reasoning
is that they had to give him that name. They had a reason
to do it, but I don't know what that was. But I do know that
the Lord gave him that name so that for so many generations
and for us could see this story and see the amazing faithfulness
that our Lord is to his people. That's why his nickname, Ernie,
means faithful dog. There are many examples of how
bad it was to be called a dog, but there are two places in the
scripture where someone is content or okay with the description
of being called a dog. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
15. Matthew chapter 15. I dare to say, even though we,
at least a lot of people, now would think of a term of a dog
not being as bad. I still think we would have a
hard time if someone implied an insult to us and called us
a dog. So listen to this in Matthew 15, verse 22. A woman of Canaan, of course
this woman is from the promised land, Canaan, came out of the
same coast and cried unto him, to the Lord, saying, Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he answered her not a word,
and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us." This woman is bothering everybody. She is
just, oh, she's getting on their nerves. They say, Get rid of
this lady. Verse 24, But the Lord answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he
answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. The Lord looks at this woman
who is begging Him and worshiping Him, and He says, You're just
a dog. You're not worthy of this. You're
not worthy of what you ask for. And in verse 27, And she said,
Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from
the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. is all this woman did was just
accept what the Lord called her. She accepted that she was a dog,
and she got the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all
she had to do. The Lord here calls her two things,
okay? He calls her a dog, but look
in verse 24. The disciples say, send her away,
and the Lord says, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel." He tells them she's staying because she's a
lost sheep. He calls her two things, a lost
sheep and a dog. They're the same thing. They're
the same thing. The lost sheep, we're just dogs. That's all we are. Now turn over
to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 9. 2 Samuel
chapter 9. In 2 Samuel 9, we get the second
example of someone being okay being called a dog. Verse 1 of
2 Samuel 9, And David said, Is there yet any that is left of
the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's
sake? And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And
he said, Yes, a servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son which is laying him on his feet. And
the king said unto him, Where is he? Verse 5, Then king David
sent and fetched him out of the house of Maker, the son of Amiel
from Lodabar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell
on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
And he answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul the father.
And thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And Mephibosheth
bowed himself and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst
look upon such a dead dog as I am? Mephibosheth knew he did
not deserve what David was giving him. The king had the right,
and any king in the past would have killed Mephibosheth. But
this poor dog said, I am not worthy of your mercy. We see
two people. One is acceptable with the name
dog, and they get the blessing of the Lord. The second calls
themselves the dog, and they get to spend all their days sitting
with the king at the king's feet. Why should we be faithful dogs?
Why should we want to be faithful dogs? The title of this message
is Let's Be Faithful Dogs. Why should we want that? Two
reasons. The first reason is we are dogs. Why should we want to be called
a faithful dog? Because that's what we are. Denying
that we are a dog is not only pointless, it shows us how lost
and how ignorant we are. We're just sinners, and so many
people love to pretend or act like they're not sinners. And
not only are they foolish for doing so, are they not looked
upon as just being crazy? Anybody who ever says something
along the lines of, I don't sin anymore, or I don't do that,
or I'm not as bad as them, I just, in my mind, it's hard not to
just be like, boy, you are worse. And that's who we are if the
Lord doesn't show us who we are. Christ came not to call the righteous,
the good and the moral. He came to save sinners. He died
for the ungodly. In Romans it says, for when we
forget without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth His love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Why do we try so hard to say that we're not a dog when that's
all that the Lord came to save? A person must be lost to be saved. He must be empty before he is
filled. He must be humble before he is
exalted. God will put us in the dust of
nothingness in order that Christ may have all the glory of bringing
us out of it. We don't want to be a dog because
of many reasons, but I think one of the biggest reasons why
we fight against that name or to be insulted is because a dog
has a master. I don't know about you, but I
fight against someone having control over me. someone being
in charge of me. That's what we are by nature.
Our God is in control of us. He's in control of everything.
Man, I just put my fist up and fight it tooth and nail every
chance I get. I want to be in control. I want
to do it myself. I want to be the one. And what's
so embarrassing about that is if we look at a dog with a master,
are we not infinitely better off having a master? The reason
dogs are so bad in the scripture is because they're just scavengers,
helpless creatures that do anything they can, begging for food. No
one is there to take care of them. But when a dog has a master,
everything changes for the dog. Someone provides for them, someone
does all these things. The first reason that we want
to be faithful dogs is because we're a dog. The second one is
because of what he has done for us, not the least of which is
showing us who we are. The only way that we will accept
having a master is if the master makes us submit. Let me say that
again. The only way we can accept having
a master is if the master makes us submit. No man or woman will
ever look to the Lord Jesus Christ and submit to Him. We must be
made to do so. The Lord must make us do this.
Men in the scriptures who are blessed to see the glory of God
in Christ, they confess themselves to be nothing before him, even
dogs. In the scriptures, there are
just a few examples of a man actually seeing who Christ is,
getting a glimpse of it. And when we see that, it makes
us to realize that a dog is even too high for us. Turn to Isaiah
chapter six. Isaiah chapter 6. Listen to what Job says when
he sees the Lord. He says, I have heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now I see thee. Wherefore, I
abhor myself. I hate myself and I repent in
dust and ashes. When we see who the Lord is,
we just want to crumble. We just want to hide. Look here
in Isaiah 6 verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain He covered His face,
and with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly.
And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried and the house was filled with smoke. These four verses
are along with many things we see in the book of Revelations
and just glorifying what glory and what our Lord is like. And
at times they're difficult to understand. I don't know what
all these things mean. But the one thing we have in
common that we see every single time we see this is we get the
reaction of the person who saw it. Look what this person says
in verse five. Then said I, woe is me for I
am undone. I am cut off because I am a man
of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean
lips for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. One
day, we will all, everyone, will see the glory of God. And when
we see this, the immediate reaction to everyone will be, I am undone. I am not worthy to even be standing
here. And in 1 Corinthians, it says,
Let no man deceiveth himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he then
may be wise. The Lord must show us who we
are. A dog should be faithful to its
master. But all of masters, all the earthly
masters, we all have flaws. How many times do we see things
where an animal is abused or an animal is just treated? It's
because it's us. It's our sin. We're horrible
masters. But as our master is God Almighty,
how should we be faithful to him? Should we not just in every
way just honor him and glorify him? But we can't. Do you know that when I said
those examples of giving you a nickname of a maggot or a pig
or anything like that, We have a problem with that because we
don't want to be associated with that. We think of ourselves too
high. We spend so much of our time
defending ourselves instead of accepting who we are and looking
at what he's done. The reason faithful dog sounds
so bad to us is because we focus on the word dog. We think, you
know, why would you call me a dog? I'm not that bad. If someone
calls me a name that's much nicer, if someone calls me something
higher up or that seemed to be better, I don't have a problem
with it. You can call me something and I'm okay with it. But I think
I'm better than a dog. Our problem is that once the
Lord shows us who we are, we then have no problem being called
a dog. That woman who wanted the blessing
from the Lord and wanted her daughter to be healed. It didn't
matter to her what our Lord called her. She didn't care because
she wanted the blessing from him more than she cared about
what she was called and what she was thought of. Look and
go back to numbers here. When the Lord makes us okay with
being called a dog, what we then can do is we can instead focus
on the faithful part. We can focus on what he's done
for us. Numbers 14. Look at verse one. And all the
congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people
wept that night. And all the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation
said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt,
or would God we had died in this wilderness? And wherefore hath
the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that
our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better
for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another,
let us make a captain, let us return unto Egypt. Then Moses
and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly and the
congregation of the children of Israel." This is almost a
word-for-word quote to what the people said when they came to
the Red Sea. They said, we would have just
been better off if he'd led us back to being ourselves in our
bondage and our slaves in Egypt. And what happened the first time?
They were delivered. And what happened the next time? They
were delivered. And what happened the next time? They were delivered. Over and over again
the Lord delivers us, yet we want to run back to our bondage.
Can you imagine saying in this moment, and we're awful, these
people are in a life or death situation and they're fretting.
Am I the only one here who has fretted over completely unimportant
or irrelevant things? I run from the providence of
God when I'm presented with any problem. Any roadblock gets in
front of me. I just run back and try to get away from it.
I can't trust Him. But in this scenario, the Lord continuously
saves His people, but we want to run back to our bondage. Look
in verse 6. So they said, we can't do this. Verse 6, it says, And Joshua
the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were
of them that searched the land, they rent their clothes, and
they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying,
The land which we pass through to search it, it is an exceedingly
good land. If the Lord delight in us, then
he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which
flowed with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the
Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred
for us. Their defense is departed from
them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. Caleb and Joshua
said, we just got to go take it. The Lord promised it to us.
He describes these people that the men, the other ten said they're
giants. They're strong. We can't defeat
them. He describes them. He says they are bread for us. We will just consume them. I
like to think of this when my youngest was in the car one time,
and I didn't have anything else to give her, and she was screaming
she was hungry. And I had a sandwich in the front that I knew she
wouldn't eat, but it had a piece of bread on it. So I was like,
I want to give her a piece of bread, and maybe that'll calm
her down. Well, she was dead quiet, and about three minutes
later when we stopped, I got out of the car, walked around,
opened the door, and it had looked like the piece of bread had exploded.
My little girl, who was one, had just shredded the bread to
pieces. It was just powder everywhere.
This is what our God does for us. They were saying we could
send a toddler, and the toddler would take the city for us. That's
how much our God delivers us, and how much He does everything.
Everything is in His hands. In that song, salvation, it's
His from the first to the last. It's every part is His. He gives
us everything. Move forward to verse 21 here.
Actually, go back. Let me read the last verse, verse
10. This is the response of the people. But all the congregation
they stoned them. And the glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. These people picked up stones
to stone them. They hated what they said so
bad. They said, the Lord will provide. And everybody picked
up rocks to kill them. And in this moment, how did they
get out of that? It says, the glory of the Lord appeared in
the tabernacle. The Lord delivered him, just
like He would do this city. Verse 21 here says, 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 now 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 see it." This is where the
Lord said, no one over the age of 20 will enter into the promised
land. They have rebelled against me 10 times over, and I will
not send them in. But what does our Lord do in
verse 24, these buts of the scripture? But my servant Caleb, because
he had another spirit with him and hath followed me fully, him
will I bring into the land whereunto he went and his seed shall possess
it. Caleb's two names can be either
dog or faithful dog. There is an enormous difference
between a dog and a faithful dog. What makes that difference? What differentiates Caleb from
all these others? Look at the second line of verse
24. Because he had another spirit with him. The only difference
between the lost and the saved is the spirit that the Lord puts
in them. There's no other difference.
We're all awful. We're all horrible sinners. And
the only hope we have is that the Lord Jesus Christ puts in
us a new heart, a new flesh, and His Spirit. And that's the
difference. We can't do anything on our own.
We're actually worse than dogs. At least dogs by nature are usually
faithful to their masters. We're just the most rebellious
creatures. In verse 24, there's another
line that's so important here. It says, Caleb hath followed
Me fully. The Lord says, Caleb hath followed
Me fully. This line is so important that
it is actually repeated four different times. There are a
few things in the scriptures repeated about a man that is
consistently said over and over again. In Joshua, it says, thou
hast wholly followed the Lord my God, talking about Caleb.
In Deuteronomy, it says, save Caleb because he hath wholly
followed the Lord. And then later in Numbers, it
says, It says, Caleb wholly followed the Lord. The same line four
times to reiterate. Caleb was faithful. He followed
the Lord. I hope that we can get past the
thought of being called a dog so we can look at being faithful.
Now, what does it mean to follow the Lord fully? First, it means
it is to follow Him. Emphasis on Him. My sheep hear
my voice, and they follow me. A stranger will they not follow.
He is their Lord and their Master, and their only Master. They delight
to do His will. Thy will be done." I love the
thought of the sheep hearing the shepherd's voice, and it
says that they will not follow a stranger. If you ever have
seen sheep, or an example of this, sheep not only just answer
to the voice of their shepherd. It's almost as if they can't
even hear anyone else. A sheep puts its head down and
just eats grass, and anyone can say anything, and they don't
even look up. But the moment the shepherd speaks,
they just perk right up, and what do we do? That's how the
Lord has the power over us. If He makes us faithful, then
we follow Him and Him alone. What is it to follow the Lord
fully? It is to follow Him. The sheep do not run ahead of
the shepherd. We do not run ahead of our Lord,
but rather we follow Him. They do not move until the cloud
moves. The Israelites, through all this
passage through the wilderness, they had no idea where they were
going, when they were going, or what they were going to do.
They left Egypt and they were going to the Promised Land. That's
all they knew. But how did they know where to go? They had a
cloud above them. They woke up every morning and
they looked at the cloud. And when they woke up and the
cloud moved, they moved. That's the Lord's providence
for us. We dare not run ahead of his
good providence. We are content to wait on the
Lord. We must do what he said. What
is it to follow the Lord fully? It is to follow the Lord in heart.
My son, give me thine heart. Following the Lord is not a physical
exercise. It is a heart relationship and
experience. Paul declared, it is the love
of Christ for me and my love for Him that constrains me. It
motivates me. It thrills me. Our Lord said
to Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. Every example in the
scriptures always say the love of Christ before our love for
Him. We love Him because He first loved us. His love is so pure,
His love is so perfect that we have nothing else to do except
love Him. Our love, we hope it's reciprocated. We love people all the time,
and they don't love us back, or it seems they don't. The love
of God is so powerful that the point of His affection has to
love Him back. They can't do anything else. His love, His grace, and mercy
toward us is the reason why we follow the Lord in heart. Again,
we can't follow Him on our own. He makes us to follow Him. What
is it to follow the Lord fully? It is to follow the Lord all
the days of our lives. All our days. Caleb was 40 when
he stood firmly before Israel and urged them to believe God
and to take that promised land. 45 years later, he declares in
the book of Joshua, I still believe God. Give me my inheritance. He says, I still believe I know
he's going to give it to me. I'm ready to be in the promised
land. Some follow Christ for loaves and for fishes, some for
miracles and some for tradition and custom. These soon fall away,
but those who know, believe and love him will follow him all
the days of their lives. In Hebrews, it says, but Christ
as a son over his own house, whose house we are, are we, if
we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm
into the end. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. In both of those verses, there's
a phrase if we and something. I'm gonna give away another point
in a minute. When the scriptures tell us the child of God has
to do something, it says, if we. That makes me very nervous. When it tells all you have to
do is blank, I am scared to death I can't do it. It says, if we. I think it was Spurgeon who made
the comment that if the Lord put me at the threshold of glory
and if all I had to do was take one step and I would be in, I
couldn't do it. That's what this happened in
this story. The Lord delivered these people through all of these
things. Twelve of them went into the Promised Land. They were
there and they came running back. We can't do anything on our own.
But when it says, if we hold fast to confidence, or if we
hold beginning of our confidence, the reason that we don't have
to fret is because He has done it for us. Our faithfulness comes
from Him. It's not our own faith. And what
is it to follow Him? It is to follow Christ even if
we should stand alone. Look at verse 10 here in Numbers
14. But all the congregations picked
up stones, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle
of the congregation before all the children of Israel. Even
when all the congregation refused to believe and would have stoned
Caleb, he still believed. He believed God. Now, I don't
know about you, and I don't know how long it takes, but there
was just a moment there. The difference of these people
had rocks, and you could tell they wanted to kill him. This
is a big group of people. I don't know how many are in
the immediate area, but this is hundreds of thousands of people.
And Caleb and Joshua were there. Even with everyone there, we
have to believe God. One man may turn the tide. But if the tide is not turned,
the one who believes Christ will believe Him even if he must stand
alone." How fortunate we are to not have to stand alone. This is something we take for
granted beyond what we can even imagine. The fact that we are
not standing alone in what the Lord has done for us. Can you
imagine how comforting it had to have been for Caleb and Joshua
to have each other in this moment. May the Lord always give us someone
by our side that stands beside us and says, I believe in God
too. I believe he will deliver us.
The Lord has given me faith also. May we have someone beside us.
Listen to these words from Acts as the way we should go through
this life. And now behold, I go bound into the Spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there, meaning I don't
know what's coming, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in
every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But
none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify
the gospel of the grace of God. May the Lord give us faith to
have the common of, there is nothing in this world that I
will put before a living God. And lastly, and most importantly,
what is it to follow the Lord fully? It is to follow Christ
by the power and the strength of His Spirit. All of these things
I have said all come down to this. We follow Christ by His
power, by the strength of the Holy Spirit. In verse 24 it says,
My son Caleb had another spirit with him. It is not by our wisdom
that we believe, nor by our merit that we receive grace, nor by
our power that we stand. It is all by His Holy Spirit. Is it dog or are we a faithful
dog? Not by might nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord. It is all of him. We are made
willing in the day of his power, and we are kept by his power
through faith. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto
thy name give glory. The true believer does not take
credit for anything he is, anything he has, or anything he does.
This scripture, for who make of thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? We don't have
anything that we weren't given. By the grace of God, I am what
I am, and his grace which has bestowed upon me was not in vain. Not only has the Lord given his
people faith, but it's not in vain. Anything the Lord gives,
it produces fruit. His faith that he gives us is
what makes us a faithful dog. In closing, this story is an
amazing story of Christ and his faithfulness to those who believe
him. This story ends with only two people entering the promised
land, Joshua and Caleb. Joshua means savior and Caleb
means faithful dog. Why do we so desperately want
to be faithful dogs? Well, Mephibosheth, as a dog,
gets to dwell with the king forever. The Canaanite woman shows us
that as a dog, we get the blessing of the Lord. Because the only
ones who will enter into glory are the Savior and His faithful
dog. The only people that will enter
into glory is the Lord Jesus Christ and His faithful dog. May the Lord give us all, us
weak, unbelieving dogs, faith to believe in our Master, that
one day we will so proudly be beside Him, be in Him, under
His wing, in His bosom, wherever He may put us, that we can be
called His faithful dogs, and we'll enter into glory with Him.
Alright. May the Lord bless His Word.