I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. You can lay your Bibles on your
laps. We are looking at a second episode
of the same event that we contemplated last week as we raised the question,
how do you see things through the eyes of God or through the
eyes of men? As we thought about those words,
we realized that in our text, we have a number of lessons for
which we can actually advise ourselves which one, which prism,
which spectacle, which dimension are we operating out of in terms
of our worldview, in terms of our perspective on life, in terms
of how we are making our way down the road of life. Are we truly walking by faith
or are we walking by sight? That was one of the crucial challenges
that was before the children of Israel at this time. And we spoke about God's goodness,
how good God is. We affirmed God's goodness, I
think. We reminded ourselves that God
by nature is good and everyone with whom we know has to do with
the true and the living God, we readily admit that God is
good. Is that true? And we work through
the concept of the goodness of God in a much more theological
way. We sought to rise above the colloquialism
that we often adopt in religion where we use terms about God
rather than really understanding the inherent meaning. And I would
ask every one of you who are a professing Christian today,
can you say without a shadow of a doubt that God is good? And is that statement rooted
in a reality of grace in your own life where you know that
God has kept you up to this hour? that He has watched over you
and He has provided for you and He has led and guided you precisely
as He said He would. So that we could say with Joshua
who becomes Moses' successor down the line, the Lord hath
not failed to give you every promise that He said He would
do for you, children of Israel. You are in the promised land
just like God told you that He would bring you. You are in the
place where God said he would take you. You are possessing
that which God has said would be your inheritance. And with
all of this evidence, we should all be able to heartily say,
God is good. And then we learned last week
that God calls us to taste his goodness. You know what Psalm
34a says? Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. And we worked through that type
of language and we understood that God calls men to actually
taste his grace. Now that might be a struggle
for you if you are, you know, more propositional and rationalistic
in your thinking, but we're dealing with metaphors, analogies. And
what that means is those of us who are true believers in Christ
actually experience the grace of God. The grace of God is not
just a theory for us. It is a reality and it is a way
of life for us. The grace of God for believers
is more substantive than our own physical food. Am I telling
the truth? And I really mean this when our
master said in Matthew chapter 4, speaking to the devil as he
was tested with that first and fundamental trial that all men
are tested with, food. He said to the enemy of our soul,
man shall not live by bread alone. Now, do you understand how radical
that proposition is in a culture that loves to feed their belly? So stay with me now, because,
you know, you're going to be with me for an hour. You might
as well settle down. See, biblical truth, when faced
head on, challenges you on the sincere grounds of your confidence. It really does. Just that one
truth, I think, would set us all back on our heels. Do you
really live, you, by the Word of God? Is the Word of God your
daily meat? Is it your familiar food? Are
you more dependent for your life, existence, subsistence, future,
destiny, eternal destiny by the Word of God than you are by all
of the props and supports of this physical life. Those are
good questions, aren't they? Do you really live by the word
of God? Could you stand before God and say, Lord, I live by
your word. Your word is my life. I have
more complete dependence upon the word of God than I do anything
else in this universe. My soul is desperate to know
the grace of God via your word. This is a very serious language,
isn't it? And yet this is what we are dealing with in our text,
this historical narrative, the challenge of the people of God
being brought face to face with the goodness of God and finding
and discovering that there are some who despise God's goodness. Have you ever despised God's
goodness in your life? Have you found yourself complaining
or neglecting, averting the goodness of God in your life? Certainly
that's what these people are doing right now. We are struggling
through a major challenge because as you and I learned last week,
God brought them to the brink of the inheritance, didn't he?
He brought them there and then he sent 12 spies into the land
to bring back seals and certifications and evidences that everything
that God had said was true. The people of God were right
on the brink of entering into the promise, weren't they? And
I don't know about you, but if God had called me out of Egypt,
several hundreds of miles away from the land of Canaan, and
he brought me out the way he brought them out, and he brought
me through the way he brought me through, brought them through,
and he led me the way he led them, and brought me right to
the brink, My inheritance and then showed me that everything
that God said he had for me was true I would have to conclude
that God was good to me. I Would have to conclude that
God was good to me I would have to look back all the way at the
point in which God revealed his glory to me through the whole
of the excursion up to this moment where God is saying it's time
for you to enter in and to the blessing which I had purposed
for you even before you had a being. I would have to conclude that
God is good. Wouldn't you also have to conclude with me that
if I were to spurn that, reject that, question that, deny that,
turn away from that, that I would be despising God's goodness?
That's what we are contemplating today then. How is it that these
people would move in such a direction? Well, let me put it like this.
Use a couple of Proverbs as we work through our points Point
number one in your outline out of the abundance of the heart
that the mouth what? Out of the abundance of the heart
that the mouth speak. It's really interesting how this mouth works
of ours It's really interesting how this thing works If you if
you pay attention to your mouth, you will actually discover what
you really are believing and not If you pay attention to your
mouth And what the text tells us is that the children of Israel
in chapter 14 plainly said, we want to go back. We would rather
die in the wilderness or die in Egypt rather than go into
the promised land and be killed there. What kind of thinking
is that? What kind of thinking is that?
Well, see, you and I have to mark that because I promise you,
ladies and gentlemen, people live with that kind of notion
every day when it comes to the life of faith. When it comes
to the life of faith, you may not admit it, but we often shrink
back. from entering into the promises
of God. We often find excuses for not stepping into the blessings
that God has called us to. We find ways to neglect actually
making that next step into that which God has specifically called
us to do. Am I telling the truth? That's what's going on here.
That's what's going on here. And I think you and I, we need
to think about this because these are your cousins here. These
are your kinfolk right here. You can act like the scriptures
is not about you, but this is your kinfolks. Combi gets kind
and I know I see myself often in my kinfolk in the text But
but I'm asking the Lord to help me actually see things the way
the minority sees it Because to see things the way the minority
sees it is to give me half a chance to see things the way God sees
it See, in the opening of chapter 14, we have a real dastardly
situation going on. We have folks who by the millions
have agreed that we should die in the wilderness. Look at verse
2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against
Aaron. We'll talk about that in a moment.
And the whole congregation said unto them, do you guys hear the
language, the descriptors, those adjectives? All in the whole,
would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God
we had died in this what? Wilderness. Isn't that insane? Isn't that absolutely insane? I mean, if we had to draw this
out theologically, you know what we're saying? We don't want to
be saved. I don't want your salvation.
I don't want you to deliver me out of the bondage of sin, which
Egypt represents. And I don't want you to deliver
me out of this malaise between Egypt and the promises of God,
which we call sanctification. I don't want to go through this.
I don't want to make my way through the wilderness. God, I don't
want to have to depend upon you. to give me bread in the morning
and chicken in the evening. I don't want to have to depend
upon you to make a rock break open and pour out water which
has to follow me all the way through the wilderness. I don't
want to have to be led by your spirit. I don't want to have
to be led by the cloud during the day and the fire at night.
I don't want to hear your voice. I don't want to be your covenant
people. That's what it amounts to. It's horrendous, isn't it? horrendous. These people are
saying we'd rather die in Egypt. They messed up, aren't they?
I mean, here you are on the brink of the blood. It's one thing
when the false prophets are telling you the blessing right there,
the blessing right there, and the blessing ain't there. That's
another thing when God tells you step on over into it and
you don't. So as you and I learned last
week, We are justified fully when we read the Old Testament
to make application to ourselves, because the New Testament makes
it very plain that the things that were written before time
are written for whose learning? Ours. That we through patience
and consolation of the scriptures might have what? If we're patient
to allow the scriptures to teach us, what faith is like versus
that which is not faith, maybe we can learn some things, right?
And then maybe we can derive hope out of the scriptures with
regards to our own walk, because pretty much what the children
of Israel are going through, saints, is what we are going
through as well. Something strange occurs while
this murmuring and this complaining is emerging, which brings us
to our second point, humility and outrage. Now, where's the
humility and outrage coming from? The humility is coming from Moses.
The outrage will come from Joshua and Caleb. The humility will
come from Moses and Aaron. And this is quite remarkable
because while the children of Israel are complaining about
being on the brink of the blessing and wanting to return back and
even die in Egypt, Moses and Aaron understand the deep and
profound implications of this noise running through the camp.
Remember, we're dealing with a million and a half, maybe two
million people. This is a city of people complaining and they
are making preparations to return back to Egypt in the face of
the leadership of Moses and Aaron. So we read over in verse 5, point
number 2, humility and outrage. Verse number 5, notice what it
says. Then Moses and Aaron did what? Fell on their faces before
all of the assembly of the congregation and the children of Israel. Now
brethren, listen to me. This is not the first time Moses
fell on his face. See, we are two years into God's
calling the children of Israel out of the wilderness. The second
year brings them right to the border. But if you recall the
second month of them coming out of Egypt, the children of Israel
said to Aaron, let's make a golden calf and turn this ship around
and head back to Egypt. And Moses fell on his face again
in Exodus chapter 32 and pleaded with the Lord and cried out to
the Lord, Have mercy, O Lord. Remember that? That was a bad
day for the preacher. As he's up in the mount receiving
the law of God, they're down at the bottom worshiping a golden
calf, committing all kinds of idolatry. Moses has a revelation
that, boy, I got a group of knucklehead people, I gotta lead to the promised
land. He's struggling, because he discovered something about
the holiness of God. God don't play. He's struggling
between people who by nature have a propensity and a frequency
to rebel against God. And then he's struggling with
a God who's about to kill several thousands of them. So he falls
on his face in humility. And he falls on his face in humility,
ladies and gentlemen, because in a very real way, the indirect
implications of what they're saying is we have no desire to
follow this man. See, last week I told you that
if you read your Bible carefully, God is not a promoter of democracy.
He doesn't promote majority rule. You won't find anywhere in the
Word of God where God says, now, I want you to send ballots throughout
the whole of the church and have everybody vote on who they want
to be leaders. You just won't find that. You
understand that? Democracy doesn't work in God's
kingdom. Because the vast majority of
people will always on the basis of consensus get it wrong This
is why he says in the book of exodus. You shall not follow
a multitude to do evil Thus god's mature saints those who are growing
in grace and in the knowledge of lord of the lord always Recognize
that when decisions are to be made They are never to be made
on the basis of consensus. Like the Lord is just hanging
out ready to be on your side because you got enough numbers.
That would make our God a politician. Last thing our God is, is a politician. There are two offices in the
world that are the worst offices on planet Earth. And they're
running neck and neck. You know what that is? Politicians
and preachers. And they're running neck and
neck. The two worst offices on planet earth by which also I
would say those two offices will receive the greater condemnation
when they stand before God Because they are more accountable to
the eternal destiny and peril of the souls of men than any
other vocation and office in the world people hang their lives
on the policies and legislation of politicians and they hang
their lives on on the integrity and character of so-called preachers,
or the lack thereof. They hang their lives. And so
what you find in the Word of God is that God doesn't play
the political game. He's not in that. He makes rules,
and then He gives them to His God-appointed leaders, and His
God-appointed leaders tell you this is what God's up to. Are
you in? Are you in? But Moses and Aaron
being men, just like we all are, find themselves falling on their
face before God because they know God. They know what God
is up to. They know what God must do when
his people openly and publicly rebel against them. And it gets,
it's going to get worse from here. Numbers Chapter 14 is just
the beginning of a series of rebellions on the part of the
people towards God and towards Moses. Just two chapters over.
Chapter 16 is where the princes are going to lead an open rebellion
with more than 250 princes, plus their families, telling Moses
and Aaron, we're through with you. They're getting ready to
have another congressional hearing and raise up other leaders beside
Moses. Oh, but on that day, you remember
what God did? Opened up the ground and swallowed
them up. He said, Moses, move over. I'm
getting ready to do a new thing. You know how religious folks
like to talk about the Lord's going to do a new thing. Listen,
I don't want the Lord to do a new thing. I want him to keep doing
the same old thing, saving sinners by his grace and his long enduring
mercy being alone, suffering, and patient with knucklehead
men and women, holding back his wrath because he's not willing
that any one of us should perish. Lord, be slow. Really, this is what Moses is
beseeching him in the text. Lord, manifest your power. Manifest
your power in your character. Be slow to wrath here, Lord. That's what he's saying. Be slow.
Because if God acts out of justice, he would quickly destroy his
rebels. And he'd have a right to do so.
And he'd have a right to destroy you and me, because I think we
are more like these rebels than we are the minority in this group. And I really want you to be careful.
See, Moses and Aaron are falling on their face, ladies and gentlemen.
And this is not... Let me make sure I get this context
before I run through my seven points, my seven critical points
that I want you to get. This is not a situation where
everybody's standing around like you and I are in the room right
now and everybody's chattering about wanting to go back to Egypt.
No, this is a situation where they have heard the false report
of the majority. They have heard the true report
of the minority. And they have become angry and
outraged at what they heard. And this happened all night long. Now watch this. All night long.
And the next day, what they did was immediately start seeking
out a new leader. Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 17. Nehemiah 9, 17 explicitly tells
us this. Listen to what it says in Nehemiah
chapter 9, 17. This is Nehemiah recounting this very event. And
they refused to obey. Neither were they mindful of
your wonders that you did among them, but they hardened their
necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return
to their bondage. This is Nehemiah under inspiration
of the Holy Ghost explaining to us the full development of
what had occurred. This is why Moses and Aaron are
on their face. Because they saw the people gather
together and appoint another captain. Now, just like Samuel,
Moses knows that just because you don't like the leadership
God sets up, that's not your real problem. Your real problem
is that you don't like God's leadership. It is for this reason
Moses and Aaron are on their face, because they know that
this is against God. They are humbled. humbled because
they can't make these people do what's right all they can
do is tell them what God says it seems like the more they tell
them what God says the more they dislike them humbling isn't it
you get a job from God to lead a whole group of people and the
people don't like you and don't like God too that's a tough job
isn't it that's what we got going on here outrage where's the outrage
look with me at verse 6 and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the
son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched out the
land, ripped their clothes." You guys see that? That's the
concept or expression, outraged. Joshua and Caleb were outraged. They couldn't believe these people. How do you do such a thing against
God when he has brought you so far? Outraged. So one set of leaders, the forefront
leaders, Moses and Aaron, on their knees. The leaders upcoming,
Joshua and Caleb, and that's what they are, are outraged.
And I'll tell you why they're outraged. Because they entered
into the land. They saw experientially everything
that God said. For them, listen to me ladies
and gentlemen, it was a done deal. It was a wrap. We are in. Them coming back. They are already
celebrating The victory that they have over the people in
the land They can't wait to bring everybody into the same triumph
and victory and possession of their inheritance and yet all
these people are not only Rejecting entering in but they're turning
this ship around and heading back in the other direction Remarkable,
isn't it? Remarkable. Well, let me tell
you what we are dealing with here as an overall rubric or
an overall concept. We are dealing with, ladies and
gentlemen, a concept called apostasy. Apostasy so go back in your Bible
to Hebrews chapter 6 because Hebrews chapter 6 verses 1 through
6 We'll look at that is exactly what we have here in a in a pattern
and then we're going to consider Several things as we have begun
to last week I just want you to simply hear this and it's
remarkable because the Hebrew text is Speaking to the same
Hebrew people that we are dealing with in our numbers account,
isn't it? so the writer to the Hebrews
is saying to them that What moses and joshua would be saying to
the people 1500 years before jesus I want you to mark these
six verses and then we're going to understand the warning here
in light of Our seven lessons that we're going to learn out
of the numbers 13 and 14 account the writer to the Hebrews after he
fully helps them comprehend the necessity of recognizing that
Jesus is the final and perfect high priest not after the order
of Aaron or Levi but after the order of Melchizedek and then
he speaks to them how that they should have already been operating
out of a mature understanding of the gospel versus this milky
superficial understanding of the ways of God and then he opens
up in verse 1 of chapter 6 this way Therefore leaving the principles
the word principles. There is a word that can be understood
as abcs the rudiment rudimentary things the fundamentals of the
doctrines of christ Let us go on unto what? Perfection now
remember two weeks ago. I told you that the reason why
you and I are called to sit under preaching and teaching Is because
preaching and teaching is the way that god brings us into what
perfection? maturity He grows us up through
it. When you and I are under solid
teaching, you must admit if you have had the experience, it straightens
you out. Solid teaching corrects your
thinking. Solid teaching exposes your backwards
thinking. Solid teaching arrests you when
you're slipping. Sound teaching recalibrates your
priorities. Solid Bible-based, Christ-exalting,
Spirit-aided teaching gives you revelations into the character
and the will and the work of God, and it gives you a new resolve
to do it God's way. Am I telling the truth? So, you
know what was really interesting about you and I by nature? You
ready? To the degree that we neglect to take the Word of God
seriously, we are all headed back to Egypt. Can I get a witness? The natural
man in you, given his rights, given his choice, will retreat
from God and head back to Egypt as soon as he has stopped being
arrested by the Word of God. I'm telling you the truth. Am
I telling the truth? Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I own. That's the natural man. That's
the natural man. That's you. That's me. And God has chosen in the economy
of the gospel to keep you from going off the course by having
you sit under the preaching and the teaching frequently enough
to tell you, hey, ponder the path of your ways. Look well
to your goings. Don't turn to the left or the
right. Look straight on. Look straight on. You know what
a mature believer does? He looks straight on. The mature
believer is not tripping off what's on the left. And what's
on the right? The mature believer has his eyes fixed on who? Christ! And he knows Christ is in heaven.
He is the forerunner and anchor of the soul of everyone that's
headed to glory. And so the life of the believer
is stand fixed on Christ. Fixed on Christ. And this regulates
my everyday life. This determines what choices
I'm going to make. How much time I'm going to spend
doing this or that or the other thing. Because I don't ever,
ever, ever want to lose sight of Christ. I don't ever want
to lose sight of the glory of God. I don't want to ever lose
sight of the way, the truth, and the life, ever. The moment
that it diminishes, the moment that it's obscured, the moment
that I'm altered in my vision, my perspective, my understanding,
I am diverting out of the way. I am apostatizing. There's only
two options. This is why our Master said in
the Gospel of Luke, ladies and gentlemen, any man Any woman,
any person, any family putting their hand to the plow, calling
themselves a Christian, laboring in the cause of the gospel, and
then turn back as if something back there is worthy of consideration
is not worthy of the kingdom of God. Isn't that what he said?
Isn't that what he said? So my burden today under this
text is to warn you that you don't have a right being under
covenant with such a glorious God as ours as turning your head
back. You don't have a right to turn
your head back and wonder whether it's better back there than it
is in front of you. You don't have a right. It's
foolishness and it's dangerous. That's what's going on with our
text. That's what's going on with our text. So I just want
you to grasp that. Now let's go to work. Go with me back to
our text. I got seven, eight things I want
to say to you. Some by way of recapitulation from last week,
and hopefully they will bless you. And then I want to close
out with a couple of other significant points that's in our text. In chapter 13, we learned that
when God gives us tastes, The kingdom of God when he gives
us the the blessing of someone being able to go into heavenly
places and and bring back the grapes of the kingdom the feeds
of the kingdom the the Blessings of the kingdom and show you how
good God has been in terms of providing for you that God is
Demonstrating his goodness to you you guys remember that for
God to let you taste is a demonstration of his goodness and Remember
what the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews chapter 6, if they have
tasted of the good word of God, if they have tasted of the life
to come, if they have been made to be a partaker of the Holy
Ghost and to turn back from those things, there is no grounds of
repentance for those who do that. That's the lesson we're learning
in our text. We must conclude then that God gives men and women
a taste. Am I telling the truth? He gives
people a taste. But today I want you to exercise
your senses on this true the taste of the elect Versus the
taste of the non elect is of eternal significance How the
non elect taste the things of God Versus the elect is of eternal
consequence and if I were to stop preaching to you right now
and give you a closing application Here's what I would say to every
one of you, including myself. Are you ready? Make your calling
and election sure. Just because you have heard the
word of God, doesn't mean that you are sure for glory, so long
as you are just tasting. So long as you are just tasting.
That's what the Hebrew writer warned us in Hebrews 4 verse
2. So we then see that the word not being mixed with what? Faith
did not profit them that heard that word. That's the same thing
that's going on here So point number one in your in your seven
recap lessons is the taste is a proof of his faithfulness to
us It's a it's a taste of God's Commitment to us is his certification
of his blessing to us. Do you remember? When God took
the disciples through that ringer of three and a half years of
ministry, and then Jesus was crucified, y'all remember that?
And they scattered, didn't they? To the four winds. Because they're
human and weak like we are. And they didn't understand what
God was up to. You remember what Christ had to do after he rose
again from the dead in John chapter 20 verse 27? Particularly with
Doubting Thomas. We call him Doubting Thomas.
But Thomas is just Thomas Thomas. In fact, we're more like Thomas
than anybody else of the disciples. Thomas was just real about it.
You know what he said? Look, all this stuff we went through
for three and a half years, if Jesus don't show up right now,
and let me stick my hand in his side and through his hands so
I can know he actually rose from the dead like he said he was.
I'm done with this thing. See that's honest isn't it? Isn't
that honest? Isn't that honest? So some folk
think that way, but they won't see it. But Thomas said it. Listen,
the Lord then gave us all these promises, but look at us now.
We're running, scared to death that our life is in danger, and
we don't even know what Jesus is. So why should I believe that
this thing is real until he gives me more credible proof? Can I share something with you?
The man or the woman who really wants God will get the proof. that they
need. You will never be able to say
to God, you didn't give me enough proof. He walks through the door and
he comes straight to Thomas. And he says, Thomas, go to work,
brother. Now watch this. And then he said,
stop doubting and start believing. Isn't that what he said? Stopped
down. What did he do for Thomas? He gave him a taste. He gave
him a taste of the power of the resurrection and the blessings
that flow out of a resurrected Christ. And listen, and you didn't
hear nothing else from Thomas all his life. All you heard was
that brother took his missionary calling, his apostolic calling,
and went down to India, preached the gospel, and died for Jesus,
just like he's supposed to do. That's good, isn't it? God gave
him the case because God is good. Alright, the second thing that
I want you to comprehend as we were talking about it is that
those Old Testament emblems in the book of Numbers correspond
to the grace of God presently operating in our life. Do you
believe that? Those Old Testament emblems that are in the book
of Numbers where the children of Israel has made it from Egypt
to Canaan, that's a long ways, two years, correspond to God's
grace in our life. Let me recap that. God went into
Egypt and brought them out. God went into the Egypt of our
sinful lifestyle and brought us out. Isn't that right? We
call that the power of the gospel. God told Israel, I'm taking you
to a land that I promised your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. We call that the promises of God. They saw the power of
God. They saw the promises of God
and then God provided for them everything that was necessary
to lead them to that moment We call that the provision of God
the provisions of God y'all got that the provisions of God so
God showed his power God gave him promises God Provided for
them and then God brought them to the shores of their inheritance
and he told them to go on in Enter into your perfection. You
know what the text says Isn't that how God works in your life
in mind too today? God has kept us by His grace,
hasn't He? There's no reason for us not
to continue on in the things of God. Is that true? Brings
us to our third point under the seven lessons. Properly evaluate
this journey of faith. You remember us talking about
that last week? Properly evaluate the journey of faith because
those 12 men that went in, they went in and they surveyed the
land and they came back with what? Report. And what I share
with you is when you talk to people about faith, tell them
the truth. Tell people that faith is hard. Don't tell people that faith
is easy. Don't give them a unbiblical concept of faith. Don't tell
them that once you become a child of God, then all of a sudden
all of the windows of heaven open up for you and you get to
have all of the blessings of God right now and no one can
touch you. You'll be the head, you won't
be the tail. You'll be going in and out. Your cabinets will
be full. The Lord will bless you on the
left hand and on the... You know how they talk. And you're struggling to pay
your bills. And you're doubting about your husband. and your
children driving you crazy, and you have a hard time reading
the Bible, and you don't know what God is up to. Am I making
some sense? Because the excursion through
the land of Canaan is an uphill excursion, as we learned last
week. A walk of faith is an uphill walk. It's an up-swim stream. When you are walking by faith,
the metaphors of a fish, you are a salmon swimming what? Upstream. That's hard work. That has to
be a brand new supernatural disposition in your soul to swim upstream,
to swim against the current of culture. Is that hard work, Saint? Isn't it easy to just agree with
folks? Isn't it just easy to agree with folks? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, you make sense. You know they don't make no sense.
But you're agreeing with them because you don't want to fight.
You're agreeing with them because the fight of faith is hard. Tell
the truth Jesus said if any man's gonna be my disciple let him
deny himself That's the hardest thing for us to do deny ourselves
I'm telling you we are in trouble in this present generation in
terms of professing Christians. Am I making some sense? We are
in trouble and I just want to make sure you guys understand
the high calling and that you would respond Appropriately and
make your calling election sure properly evaluate this journey
of faith till many women in the world. You're gonna have what?
Listen, you're gonna have trouble till you hit the dust It's one
of the things that make going to glory so sweet. It's one of the things that makes
going to glory so sweet. Once you reach that crucial point
of suffering, whether it's cancer, are some other surprising event
that hits us all. As the scripture says, we go
the way of all the earth. And you realize that down here
hasn't really merited you a whole lot of promises and that you
are on the brink of transitioning from this life to the next life.
Suffering down here is designed to make the fruit of hope in
the soul of the believer sweet. It makes it so that we are ready
to cross over. I can tell you, I know the saints.
I know the old saints. I know those saints that have
suffered and have crossed over into glory. They were valiant
and they were exceeding zealous when they were brought to that
point of crossing over. Pastor, I'm ready to go. I'm
ready to go. All I've experienced in this
life, with the grace of God is suffering. I'm on the brink of
breaking through this veil of tears, this body of death, this
sinful life into the blessings of God. I'm ready to go. That's
how they talk. Are y'all following me? Now you
know why they talk like that? Because down here the fruit is
made ripe through suffering. It's made right through supper.
So what you do as the children of Israel were called upon to
have a proper assessment of the way of faith is you tell people
the truth about the journey. The journey is not easy. Fourthly,
acknowledge the warfare. That's an essential part of biblical
truth. Acknowledging the warfare is an essential part of biblical
truth. But as we learned last week, it doesn't produce faith. Remember, they started talking
about the enemy, right? We saw the enemy over here, the
Amalekites, the Amorites, the Canaanites. We saw all the enemies.
And there is a body of Christendom that spends a lot of time talking
about the enemy. Am I telling you the truth? And
I told you, your breath is not yours. God owns your breath.
He owns your brain cells. He owns your tongue and your
mouth and your mind. Spend the majority of your time
learning how to talk about God and declare His glory and proclaim
His name and exalt His Son and explain His truth. Talk more
about God than anything. You got that? Talk more about
God than anything. This is critical to your own
assurance. How many of you know when you meet people who spend
a lot of time getting a PhD in demonism? Now stay with me for
a moment, because they do. I mean, they'll come to me after
Bible study. We will be doing a Bible study on the atoning
work of Christ. They'll come to me after the
Bible study. Pastor, I need to ask you a question about being
demon possessed. I'm like, where did you get demon
possession and a biblical exposition on the atonement? It's because
people are distracted by the enemy versus the glory of God. I might assert while I'm on this
point with you that if you have ever seen God's glory, There
is nothing more compelling, more beautiful, more fixating, more
alluring than the glory of God. Nothing. Nothing is more transfixing
than the glory of God. The beauty of Christ, the splendor
of God Almighty, the effulgence of His majesty. Just to have
an eye's faith, a sight of His beauty. It far outweighs all
of the knowledge of all things in this world. This is why Paul
called it the excellency of the knowledge of Christ for which
I count everything else as dung. And I'm certain, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm certain that the problem with our church is that we don't
have our eyes fixed on Christ. Am I making some sense? We don't
see him. And so we're being distracted by other things. And so let's
go on to our next point. Something crucially needs to
be made known because we had 12 brothers who went into the
wilderness or into the land of Canaan and 10 of them came back
with a negative report and two of them came back with what is
called a good report, right? And here's what you must know.
Faith is a gift of God. Are you with me? I'm just gonna
spend a few minutes talking about that again. So in your outline,
you have a commentary that speaks to the process of apostasy. I don't want you to necessarily
look at it, but you can read it in your own time. And the manner
in which that apostasy occurs is very subtle. So here's how
the statement goes, and this will resonate with you. First,
You hear the gospel and because you are in a mess of your life,
the sweetness and the appeal of the gospel is so wonderful
to your soul that you find yourself believing the gospel. I mean,
the gospel makes sense to a real sinner. Am I making some sense?
It's a sinner's gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. That's a sweet proposition, isn't
it? You'll be saved from all your
iniquities transgressions and enter into a state of bliss and
glory with the son of god for all eternity What a wonderful
proposition and so you go around happy for a while, but then after
a while You go from believing to what is called assuming It's
a position of assumption and whole denominations get swallowed
up like this. I've seen it before I've seen
this is called the apostasy. It happens as an individual and
it happens as churches where they no longer are excited about
the gospel, committed to the gospel, compelled to proclaim
the gospel, committed to drink in the gospel, to have the gospel
shape their life, to be reacquainted with the gospel consistently.
They used to. But over time, they get to a
place where I got that. I know that. I'm fine. I got the gospel now stop talking
to me about the gospel as essentially well You know what? We call that
a position of assumption. It's actually presumption But
in the church what happens with a position of assumption is you
say well, you know, that's our creeds and those are our confessions
We were reformed folks. We're sovereign grace folks with
this kind of folks. We've been long time believe
in that but reality you have moved away from the vitality
of faith in those biblical truths that keep you on track and See,
it really is a matter of the heart. Am I making some sense?
It's a matter of the heart drifting away from Christ. And then we
move from assumption, because assumption is the realm where
we fundamentally say, you ought to know I believe, to a place
of neglect, where you neglect the gospel. You may not say it
out loud, but your life says you don't need Christ the way
you did five years ago. Your life says it. Your life
says it. And in our churches, it's very
evident. Because when a new believer rises
up, loving the Lord Jesus, having that fresh revelation of his
glory, and want to talk to you about it, you ain't got time
for him, or her, or them. You write them off as being zealous.
They'll settle down in a little while. Am I making some sense?
Meanwhile, you haven't witnessed to anybody about Christ in five
years, nor seen anyone through your love for Christ come to
Christ or recover from their sinful ways. I'm making sense. This is where we are. And then
finally, this is apostasy. The church ultimately abandons
the gospel and openly Opposes what we know to be the truth
of the gospel Openly opposing the gospel openly opposing the
gospel openly opposed. This is what these folks did
Isn't it the gospel for god to have taken this nation brought
them to the brink and say hey good news We're going over into
the land. Isn't that the gospel? We're
going over to the left and right there They reject it. They turn
around and go back. This is powerful stuff, isn't
it? Which brings me to my point faith is a what? Faith is a what
it's a gift of God Not of words Lest any man should both Ephesians
chapter 2 5 through 8 what that means is we have now an explanation
for why some believed and some didn't and Y10 had a message
of unbelief and Y2 had a message of faith because faith is a gift
of God. Faith is also rooted, according
to 1 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2, in a righteousness that Christ
himself accomplished by his life, his death, and burial, and resurrection
so that when a man or woman exhibits faith, it's a gift of his atoning
word. Am I making some sense? That
faith is a consequence of Christ having already atoned for your
sin and God Granting him the Spirit of God by which faith
is planted in your heart. Do you believe God today? Do
you know what that's a consequence of Christ's obedience? It's the
consequence of Christ's death on Calvary Street. It's a consequence
of his successful redemptive work in your behalf It's a gift
of God and it is that tool that instrumentality by which you
get to enjoy God and that true for which without faith It's
impossible what? It's impossible to please God
without faith. Please understand that so you'll
notice that God is really disturbed in our account, isn't he? He's
disturbed because he has brought these people to the brink of
the blessing and they won't cross over faith is a gift of God I
want to talk about this in the context of what happened which
brings us to our next point the intolerance of What faith y'all
see that do you know faith is? is designed to be intolerant. Faith is designed to be intolerant
of everything that does not honor God. Faith is designed to be
intolerant of everything that denies God his glory. Faith is
designed to be intolerant of everything that opposes God's
word. Do you remember when the 10 were
describing how it was over in verse 30 of chapter 13, how everything
was going on. They were talking about in verse
29, 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 the coast of joy. And they just
wax in very picturesque about everything that's going on, right?
The next thing you hear, listen to what Caleb said, and Caleb
stilled the people. Do you see verse 30? You know
what he did? In the midst of those men talking,
he said, shut up! Shut up! Do you hear? And he stilled them. Don't listen
to that. Don't listen to that. Because
the way they are formulating their experience, they are teaching
you not to believe God. And I told you last week, there
is a kind of narrative and a kind of talk that comes out of the
mouth of people that if you discern carefully, it is rooted in unbelief. It's really weird. It's not weird,
it's sad. That if you listen carefully
to what so-called professing people of God sound like, when
they go to talking about the things of God, ambivalent, duplicitous,
Ask if they really don't believe the Word. Have you heard them?
They play the Word of God down. They play the principles of Scripture
down. They play the truth of God for which God gave His Son
down. They play the promises of God
down. They play the purposes of God down. They play the principles
and precepts of God down. Are y'all following me? You listen
and you go, you know what? This person say they're a believer,
but everything they're saying sounds just like they don't believe.
Because they don't! Faith has a unique sound to it. You know what it sounds like?
Watch this. I want you to get this now. I believe God. I believe God. At the core of
your being, when people listen to you, you ain't got to be talking
Bible. You ain't got to be quoting Bible verses. That's where we are in
our apostate church today. You're more mature when you don't
quote a Bible verse. That's kind of weird, isn't it?
But you're supposed to be more mature if you don't quote Bible
verses. You're immature if you do. But you don't have to quote
a Bible verse. I promise you, I promise you
that a man or woman whose soul is daily being nurtured by the
truth of God's Word and by God's Spirit so that they are coming
into greater understanding and greater revelation of God's faithfulness
to them, it's going to formulate their words. It's going to structure
their speech. You're going to hear a believer
when they're talking. Versus a non-believer. Am I making
some sense to you guys? See, this is the thing that bothered
Caleb. Man, look. Caleb, he... Stop! That's enough. Because you're getting me mad
now. Because I ain't... You and I took the same journey
through the same road from the same south side up the mountain
side. We saw the same thing. We carried
the same grapes. You act like you went a whole
different route the way you talk. I didn't see it like that. Didn't
see all that you saw which brings me to the next point around the
concept of faith that I want you to get When a man or woman
is not rooted in Biblical faith as their prism of interpretation
of things. Are y'all with me? they miss
things that they should see and they see things that they should
miss and When your mind is not rooted
in the Word of God, where you are thinking God's thoughts after
Him, where you are transformed by the renewing of your mind,
where biblical truth advises and informs everything you see. When you open your mouth, you
talk about stuff that ain't there. Those ten evil reporters, it's
a nice paradox to the good news of the gospel. saw Giants You
know what? You know what they said? They
went they went anarchy. These are the folks we heard
about way back in the days of Noah these people so big I mean
so big that's when Kayla says suck up They weren't that big They they
just weren't that big they might have been a foot taller than
us I mean, we're not big people Foot and a half taller, but they
weren't that big. They weren't too big for us to deal with They
might have been a little larger than us. This is what Caleb is
saying. This is my interpretation They might have been a little
larger than us But God already told me back in Deuteronomy 7
that they were going to be greater and mightier than us. So what?
Here you are given this exaggerated description This is what I call
the exaggeration of unbelief. Have you heard it before the
exaggeration of the exaggeration of unbelief. When you listen
to people talking, they blow up what should be diminished
and they make it disproportionately more significant than it should
be. This is mental and spiritual and psychological idolatry. It is an idolatry. Children of
God, hear me. It is an idolatry for you to be fixed on anything
that causes you to retreat from confidence in God's Word, confidence
in the gospel, confidence in God's purpose in your life. It's
idolatrous. You are not wise to be in consensus
with the multitude against God. You're not wise. This is what
ticked God off about these ten and it ticked Caleb off too,
of which God said in Numbers chapter 14, Caleb had another
spirit, didn't he? You know what God said? Caleb
had a different spirit. So did Joshua. Had a different
spirit. What spirit they had? The spirit
of God. The spirit of prophecy. The spirit
of truth. The spirit of promise. The spirit
of Christ. They didn't follow the multitude.
So the intolerance of faith is when it can clearly see the promise. And when the glory of God is
at stake, and when the enemy has blinded the people of God
with fear, now it's time to speak up. Caleb, I'm glad you spoke
up. Which brings us to our next point.
A crisis of identity occurs where faith is absent. A crisis of
identity occurs where faith is absent. Y'all with me for a moment?
Now watch how this works. This is why I warn you that God's
word is right and it doesn't speak in vain Examine yourself
as to your daily resources of information What you listen to? What you imbibe? What you accept
as information? Examine yourself be very careful
of To note whether or not all of that data all of that information
that you're allowing absorbing to yourself Corresponds really
with the Word of God Be very careful because you are what
you eat Your mind will be shaped by the doctrines that you imbibe
whether cognitively or subconsciously You will be shaped by what you
hear. And if you are hearing those things that constitute
unbelief and a denial of the glory of God and the message
of redemption in Christ and the absoluteness of His sovereignty,
you're going to talk like you don't know God. Are y'all with
me so far? Because these men are talking
like they don't know God. I mean, Moses, why did you pick
these ten? Because these guys have no gospel
in their message at all. Did you hear any gospel in their
message? There was no gospel in their message. These are the
brothers that brought back the grapes. Did you hear how big those grapes
were? It took two brothers to carry a bunch of grapes. Those
grapes were as big as baseballs. Sweet! How you gonna not hear
that God is faithful and ready to go when you bring back those
kind of tokens. Are y'all hearing one? You're
blinded to the evidence that constitutes God's faithfulness,
but you're fixated on the evidence that causes you to deny his glory.
That's exactly what's going on. That's why I'm glad Caleb stood
up. I don't want to hear no more from this guy. You know what
they said? We are grasshoppers in their eyes. Now, what kind
of good news is that? Grasshoppers. First of all, if
I was Jewish, I would want to kick him in his fanny because
a grasshopper is an unclean thing. Secondly, it indicated that he
had a failure, they had a failure of identity. They were in a crisis
of identity. I told you that what God was
dealing with the children of Israel when he brought them into
the wilderness was to train them and to teach them that he was
their God and they were his people. That he was their father and
they were his son. That he was their husband and
they were his wife. The three covenant paradigms,
right? And if you are going to be persuaded that you are what
God says you are, then listen to me. You don't let anyone tell
you you are not what God has said you are. And the moment
you start talking and acting like you are not what God says
you are, you are about to make God a liar. And you are now worshiping
the enemy. And then it got worse. You know
what that knucklehead said? He said, not only are we grasshoppers
before them, little old us, but we are grasshoppers in their
eyes. Well, now help me now. Help me
understand how you know what the enemy is thinking about us.
Help me now comprehend your capacity to go into the brain of the enemy,
look through the opticals of his eyes out at you and define
you as a grasshopper. Y'all see the problem we got
here? Not only are they exaggerating, the unbelief of the real factors
disproportionately blowing up the enemy, obscuring the glory
of God in the content, but they are now projecting, projecting
their own fears, their own doubts, their own anxieties onto the
enemy and obtaining credibility of what they say is true through
the eyes of the adversary. Y'all got that, didn't you? Y'all
got that and I'm watch this now it would be the same as if you
and I are trying to get people to understand a very crucial
biblical truth And they come to you say but all the scientists
say or all the psychologists say You understand what I'm getting
at or all the archaeologists say Who cares what they say when
God has said thus saith the Lord. I Are y'all following what I'm
getting at? But I'm just trying to lay down a very clear analysis
of what's taking place here because God's getting ready to respond.
And you and I need to know that God is not whimsical. God doesn't
just like pour out his wrath and tear things up where it's
not justified. So when God does act, it's justified,
isn't it? So we have come to a crisis of
identity where faith is absent. What occurs in a crisis of identity
where faith is absent? Watch this, ladies and gentlemen.
We forget or fail to recognize who we are and we get stuck in
a horizontal dilemma. Right? The horizontal dilemma
we talked about, you know what that is? You can't break through
the sphere and ceiling of this life and how things are empirically
to actually once again connect with the true and the living
God and see things through God's eye. What a glorious privilege
to see life through God's eyes. And yet you are interpreting
everything on a horizontal level. You are explaining things according
to the eyes of men. You are explaining things according
to your own opinion, your own views, your own fears, your own
anxieties. You and I cannot be trusted. Anybody told you that? You and
I cannot be trusted. We don't tell the truth on God. We don't even tell the truth
on ourselves. You can't be trusted. And this is critical. Because
these 10 men, along with Joshua and Caleb, were assigned by Moses
to go and bring back the report. They represented the whole nation.
This is what we would call a failure of leadership Y'all got that
this is a failure of leadership. I'm almost done. This is a failure
of leadership when leadership has both the Privilege as well
as the responsibility to lead the congregation into the truth
the job of the church particularly from the standpoint of biblical
leadership is to lead men and women into the truth of God and
so that they can enjoy the grace of God for which God has said
to you taste and see that the Lord is good. Faithful leadership
then is not going to miss the opportunity and the privilege
and the responsibility to tell you the truth according to God. Let's see if I can help you with
this. Do you know what Joshua said in chapter 14? over against
what these folks said in chapter 10. You know what Joshua said
in chapter 14? He said to them, listen, you
guys, these folks, these folks are bread to us. That's what
Joshua said. He says, the Lord has given them
to us. These folks are bread to us.
They're nothing to us. And what was Joshua saying when
he said they are bread to us? He says, God has broken down
their defenses. He has shown us that they are
not ready to fight us. Joshua went in, he saw that God
had put them to sleep. He had blinded them. He had taken
away their alertness. He allowed his children to go
in there and snip out a token of the kingdom and bring it back.
You remember in the days when there was a battle between King
Saul and David who was coronated to be king and Saul was seeking
to kill David and he was chasing David up and down the hillsides
of Hebron and David was hiding in the caves in the mountains
running like a dog. Remember that? And remember one
time King Saul got a little tired and he went in the cave to sleep.
Remember that? Y'all don't remember that but
I'm gonna tell you anyway Because I don't read your Bible So I'm
gonna tell you King Saul is tired from chasing David and he goes
into the cave now in the Hebrew literally It means he was taking
a dump. Okay? But that's right. So now here's
what's going on God had already anointed David to be king. He
hadn't coronated him yet and Saul who is a representation
of the flesh and a type of the devil and David is a type of
Jesus Christ and a type of the spirit the flesh persecutes the
Spirit and the spirit goes to war against the flesh Adam one
being Saul David being the last Adam Adam one trying to kill
David trying to kill him God sovereignly lets King Saul go
into the very cave where David was chilling and Saul is taken
and care business, easing himself is what the Hebrew puts a nice
euphemism. And you know what David did? David went over and
had a portion of his garment clipped. Remember that? He did
that to prove that God had brought Saul into his hands, that he
could have killed Saul. That's the same likeness of our
account with the 12 going in and plundering the land. Now
David was a righteous man and David says, far be it from me
to touch the Lord's anointing. David understood order. He understood
structure. He understood priority. He understood
that, right? And so God blessed him. So he
didn't touch King Saul because he understood the concept of
structure and order. And so God blessed him. My point
here is God showed Joshua and Caleb that the land was theirs. They could have walked in and
subdued those people without any problem. All they had to
do was believe. Are you hearing me? So I'm just
going to make one point of application. I'm done right here. I'll pick
this up in another way through the messages that are going to
come. What's going on in our present generation that we can
liken unto our text? What's happening in our present
church age around which we can take the account in numbers chapter
14 and chapter 13, where the people of God are on the brink
of the promises of God, on the brink of the blessing, ready
to be deployed into the promised land for God's glory. And this
entering into the promised land to be deployed by God for God's
glory, ladies and gentlemen, really constitutes the ministry
of the gospel going into all the world. It's really about
you and I going into the world and plundering the kingdoms of
this world and seeing God's elect brought out. Are y'all hearing
me? That's really what this is about. So, God was upset with
the children of Israel because of this. They failed to realize
that their calling to go into the promised land was not about
them. It was about God. And it was
about His glory. and it was about the spread of
the gospel and it was about men and women coming to know Jesus
Christ. Are y'all following me? And here's where we get into
trouble. We fail to realize that God saved you and he saved me
and he called you and he called me for his glory and for the
cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you remember what
God said to Moses? Surely the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of God. You remember that? You
know what God was saying to Moses? Oh, I'm gonna have a people.
Yeah, I'm gonna have a people, even if it means I kill up every
one of these folks here and start all over with you. Isn't that
what he said? You know what that means? God
ain't in no hurry. You know what else it means?
God's purposes will not be thwarted by your unbelief or mine. Are
y'all with me? God says, Moses, I'll wipe all
these people out and I'll start with you. I will make a great
nation out of you. That is remarkable. You know
what he's saying? I don't need a million and a
half people, two million people, three million. I'll take you
into the promised land right now, you and your family, and
I'll cause you to subdue all these people. I'll cause you
to multiply, replenish, fill the earth. I'll cause your children
to believe the gospel, trust Christ, and subdue all these
idols in the land, and raise up my banner, and cause everybody
in the land of Canaan to know that I am the true and the living
God. Can God do that? Can God do that? Can he do it through one family? Today, the apostasy that's taking
place in our land is around three things. The gospel. The gospel. The gospel. The gospel is not
being preached in this generation. Are y'all hearing me? It is the
power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. But
if it's not preached, nobody's being saved. The other apostasy
is evangelism with the gospel That that follows though if people
don't believe the gospel, why should they evangelize? If you
don't believe the gospel, why should you tell somebody about
christ? After all all evangelism is is an opportunity for god
to be glorified So the gospel is not preached which is the
power of god so in our churches we have a form of godliness denying
the power thereof The Gospels not being evangelized are fervently
brought to men and women in the streets, which means God is not
glorified. Remember what Jesus says? If
you don't honor me before men, I will not honor you before your
Heavenly Father. And then here's another truth that I know we
are not hearing. I talked about this a couple days ago in a funeral
that I had to preach. This used to get preached a long
time ago, but this is so hard for people to believe. Are you
ready? There's a day Wherein God will judge the world by that
man whom he raised from the dead and has given assurance to all
That he hath raised him from the dead. He's going to judge
the world in righteousness Now, let me ask you a question. I'm
done. Do y'all believe that? All right. Okay. Okay. Now y'all
in trouble now, you know, you're in trouble, right? Cuz you got
a thinking pastor here. So I'm gonna help y'all So now
if we really believed in the power of the gospel Wouldn't
we be quick? to tell people to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust Christ, that their problem is
not this, that, and the other. Their problem is that they need
Jesus. If we really believe the gospel is the power of God, wouldn't
we? If we believe that God actually works through us to share the
gospel with men and women, He actually works through your words
as you talk about Christ to draw men and women to God, wouldn't
we be evangelizing? Wouldn't we be looking for every
opportunity to talk about Christ? And then finally, if we really
believed that men and women were dropping into hell by hundreds
of thousands every day, wouldn't it be only appropriate for us
to be ready to tell men and women, sir, ma'am, if you die today
without Christ, you're going to hell. Isn't that logical? So isn't it tragic that the people
of God who have the privilege of the message don't have the
passion to tell it? So we'll keep talking about this.
Amen.