Turn with me now to the book
of Hebrews, Hebrews 3. I'm going to be dealing with
all of this chapter, chapter 3, and the first three verses
of chapter 4. But I want to focus on something
that he says here back in Hebrews 3, verse 15, while it is said
today If you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation." Now, make no mistake about whose voice he's
talking about. This is the voice of God in the
gospel. You see it down there in Hebrews
chapter 4? For the gospel, you see that? Chapter 4, verse 2, Under us
was the gospel preached as well as under them. We are talking
about the voice of God in the gospel. Make no mistake about
whose voice this is. Back here in verses 5 and 6 of
Hebrews chapter 3, there is a comparison made between Moses who was a
servant of God and his faithfulness in all of his house, and Christ
the Son over his own house, whose house are we if we hold fast
the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
And then the verse immediately preceding our text in verse 14,
Hebrews chapter 3, For we are made partakers of Christ if we
hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. So make
no mistake, the voice he's talking about here, John, and he's recalling,
I just read it to you out of Psalm 95. He's recalling the
text out of Psalm 95. And he said, Today, if you hear
his voice, what voice? The voice of God in the gospel
of Christ. That's the voice you want to
hear. You don't want to hear that voice in that day that says,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. You
don't want to hear that voice. You don't want to hear that voice
that they heard in the day of provocation in the wilderness
where it says, I live, saith the Lord. He said, your carcasses
are going to fall in the wilderness. You don't want to hear that voice.
What you want to hear is the voice of God in the gospel. saying,
Come unto Me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. Rest. That's what he talks about
here in Hebrews chapter 4. Enter into that rest. I'll give
you rest. This is the voice of God to every
generation back to and including Adam. It's the voice of God in
Christ. He came to him in the cool of
the day, and He slayed that animal. And he took away that fig leaf
apron and he put that covering on him. Put that covering on
him. You know what it is about an
apron? I said it in my study the other day and it's come to
me. Apron just covers half. It just covers half. And the
worst half is still exposed. It really is. He took away the
apron and he put a covering that went all the way around him.
Covered him up. Covered his nakedness. And then
he told him about the precious promise. He said, the woman sees.
She's going to have a seed. When she got that first begotten,
she said, here he is. This is the man. This is the
man. She thought that promise was
here already. That's how you look for it when faith enters
the heart. Everything. This is him. This is it. This
is it. I see things happening around
me every day, and I think to myself, this might be the day.
This might be it. There's an expectation about
faith. And I'm telling you this, the voice of God to every generation
back to and including Adam is the voice of God in Christ. And
if you view this book apart from this promise, and apart from
this person, and apart from his work, this book is of no value
to you whatsoever. You might as well go buy your
history book and read it. You might as well read Josephus,
the historian, the ancient historian. You'll get about as much out
of it as you'll get out of this book. Brother Scott Richardson said
one time he got up to preach at a conference and he said,
take your hymn books and turn to page 47 or whatever it was. And everybody grabbed a song
book and went turning. He said, no, your hymn book,
H-I-M. I'm talking about this book. This is a hymn book. It talks
about crying. It's not the voice of revival.
It's not the voice of reformation. Thousands have looked for that
voice, listened for that voice. What we really need in this community
is a revival. No, that's not what you need.
That's not the voice. What we really need in this community
is a reformation. No, that's not the voice. It's
not the voice of revival or reformation. What we need is a strict standard. We need a stricter standard of
justice. We're living too loose in this
age, living too loose. We need a stricter standard. Now, I don't need that voice
of the law, that law-induced servitude that's here declared,
but I need the voice of God in the gospel. It's the goodness
of God that leadeth thee to repentance. It's not the fear of the law.
It's not the fear of God. It doesn't do me any good. I
can stand up and preach judgment until I'm blue in the face. And
I'll preach it when God lays it on my heart. But that judgment
will never lead you to repentance. That fear of God will never lead
you to repentance. You will never repent until you
see your sins in the face of a good God, a God willing to
give, and a God willing to save, and a God willing to raise up.
Loved you while you was yet an enemy. Loved you while you was
breathing out curse words at him, hitting your finger with
a hammer and then using his name in vain. He loved you. He said,
I know how you look at this thing of love. He said, some of you.
He said, you give your life for somebody, maybe. He said, here
is God's love. While you've yet enemies, He
loved you and gave Himself for you. That's where you need to
see your sins. I'm telling you, it's in the
goodness of God. Here in Hebrews 4, verse 1, He
said, Let us therefore fear. lest their promise being left
us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed in faith with them that heard it. For
we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although
the works were finished." from the foundation of the world.
Now, you go back and read that statement, that quote he just
made. It ain't in there. It ain't in there. He added something
to that, didn't he? Look at it again. He said, "...as
I have sworn in my wrath." What did he swear in his wrath? He
swore they should not enter in. Ain't that what he swore? I read
it to you. It's back here. It's twice back
here in Hebrews chapter 3. They're not going to enter in,
he said. I can read it to you in Numbers chapter 14. He said,
by my name, I swear by myself, their carcasses are going to
fall in the wilderness. They're not going in. But here
it says, if they shall enter into the rest. The if here added
to the quote is the if spoken of back here in verse 7 of Hebrews
chapter 3, if they hear his voice. You see that? If they hear his
voice. Now, Israel is a typical people.
I've been telling you that and telling you that, and I'm going
to keep right on telling you that by the grace of God until
I die. This book will never mean anything
to you until you come to see that. There is a natural Israel,
and there is a spiritual Israel. This book declares it. I've read
it to you over and over and over. There is a natural circumcision.
There is a spiritual circumcision. Go all the way through this book.
You'll see it all the way through the New Testament. And Israel
is a typical people. And I've told you often about
it. And they picture the whole kingdom of God, sometimes in
one man, sometimes in one event in his life, sometimes over the
whole period. And here in Hebrews chapter 3,
Paul picks out a 40-year period. He takes Israel before the Red
Sea. And he talks about this day of
provocation, this day of provoking God. And it began at the Red
Sea, just as soon as he brought them out of Egypt, brought them
out of bondage, brought them out of that iron furnace of oppression. And he brings them out to the
sea, and they start provoking him. And they provoked him all
the way to the Promised Land. Forty years. Forty years. And that's what he's talking
about here. beginning at their encampment by the edge of the
Red Sea to the testimony of the spies sent into the land of Canaan. And he calls this time here in
Hebrews 3, verse 8, the provocation or provoking in the day of temptation
in the wilderness. He said, I was grieved with that
generation and said, Hebrews 3, verse 10, they do always err
in their heart. That's where the problem was,
in the heart. You see it there, Hebrews chapter
3, verse 10. They do always err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways. That's the problem. They were
religious. Paul said that. They were zealous.
I bear them witness. They have a zeal of God, but
it's not according to knowledge. where they, being ignorant of
God's righteousness, are going about to establish their own
righteousness and have not submitted unto the righteousness of God. Now, here's the picture. Standing
at the very edge of the border stood a people who the old writers
say numbered into the millions, probably two to three million
people. God led them for forty years
through a wilderness, parted a sea and led them Walk across
on dry land. Built for him a tabernacle. I
showed you that in the study this morning, at least a few
things about it. This tabernacle taught him something about the
living God. Gave him experience after experience out in that
wilderness of sin. Brought him right up to the threshold
of Canaan, the promised land, a land flowing with milk and
honey. You see the picture here? And God commands one man out
of each tribe, one out of the twelve each, out of the twelve
tribes of Israel, to go over into the land. He said, I want
you to go over there, and I want you to spy it out. I want you
to look at it, and I want you to come back, and then I want
you to stand and give your testimony before Israel. And so he sent
twelve of them in. Ten of them come back with one
message. One of them isn't even talked
about. And one had another message. That's what I want to talk to
you about this morning. That's what he's talking about
here in this statement. Today, if you hear my voice, harden
not your heart. Now, these 12 men went over. Two of them came back with one
cluster of grapes on a pole. It took two of them to carry
it back. That's the fruit. That's the fruit of God. The
evidence of God coming back from His promise. That's the evidence.
I'm just going to let you try to figure out who the two were
that carried it. It never says. But I know who carried the fruit. Only God's faithful will bear
that fruit. Only Christ and His faithful
are going to bear that fruit. Joshua is the Old Testament name
for Jesus. Caleb, His name is faithful.
Those two bore the fruit. I guarantee you. It never says
it. I just know it so. They're going to bear the fruit.
And they brought it back. Now, he never mentions Joshua
in this text back here in Numbers. Numbers chapter 14, if you want
to mark it in your Bible. We'll be going back there in
a minute. He doesn't mention Joshua because Joshua, he was
the general over the armies of Israel. He was with Moses. They
assumed that his testimony was going to be a good report because
he was with Moses the whole time. But there was one man, John,
after forty years, here's three million people, there was one
man, one man, who steered the people before Moses and said,
let's go take it. One man. One man. Ten of the spies, they said,
the giants of Annax over there, the Americans, They're over there.
They've got six toes on each foot and six fingers on each
hand. They're a perversion of mankind. They're giants. We can't
touch them. They're giants over there. And they're cities. We saw their
cities and they're walled up to the sky. You can't overcome
them walls. They're defended. They've got
machinery of war over there. They've got men on the walls. We have nothing. All we've got
is some swords. We don't have chariots. I'll
tell you something about the children of Israel. They walked
everywhere they went. That's how we go through this
world. We walk by faith. We walk. We don't ride. We walk.
We walk. They walked. They knew that.
They said, there's walled cities over there. They're walled up
to the skies. There's men of great stature over there. This
ain't a bunch of cavemen living in the caves over there. These
men are brilliant. built things, and they have armies and navies.
Part of them down by the sea, they've got ships and navies.
They're well organized. They're men of stature. We can't
go in there. They're going to step on us like
a frog. We can't go in. They looked and they saw everything
that Caleb saw, but it brought no joy to their hearts. It brought
no rest to the weary souls, it brought no closure to the promise
of God. It just seemed contrary to everything
they thought this thing was about. Numbers 14, verse 1, 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 died in the land of Egypt, or
would God we died in the wilderness? And wherefore hath the Lord brought
us into this land to fall by the sword, and our wives and
our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to
return unto Egypt?" Now listen. Verse 4, and they said one to
another, let's make us a captain and let's go back to Egypt. Let's get rid of God's picture.
Let's get rid of Him. See where He's brought us? See
what He's done for us? He brought us out here with nothing.
And now we're going to get stepped on and destroyed. Our children
are even going to be oppressed. Let's get rid of them. Let's
elect somebody to take us where we want to go. Let's just all get together and
get us somebody to tell us what we want to hear and take us where
we want to go. And there's a message here. I'm
not going to preach that this morning, but there's a message
there. That's what these ten spies saw. And their report was received
by the whole multitude. And one of the twelve spies he
left out, that's Joshua, he's standing over there with Moses.
He was the commander, the general over the army. And everybody
assumed where he stood. But one man, John, stood up before
three million people. Two or three million people.
Imagine. This one man stood up. and held
up his hand. And he said, Be quiet. Be quiet. He stilled the people. He got
them down quiet. And you see it over here in Numbers
13, verse 30. Caleb stilled the people before
Moses. And he said, Let's go up at once.
Right now. Let's don't even wait. Let's
go up right now. And possess it. For we are well
able to overcome it. But the men that went up with
him sung a different tune, didn't they? They sung a different tune. Millions of people standing on
the brink of the promise of God. And out of Israel stood one man
who believed. And his report was contrary to
theirs. And he saw the same cities and
the same giants and the same men of stature He saw their numbers
just as they did, but his report was totally different. How come?
Because he heard the voice of God. I'm going to show you that
here in a minute. We're going to talk some more
about this in a minute. But look down here in Numbers,
chapter 14, verse 20. Now Moses interceded for them.
Moses interceded for him. He prayed to God. He said, don't
come in here and wipe this people out like one man. Don't kill
them all. He said, for these nations that
saw you bring them out of Egypt, they're going to see this people
destroyed and they're going to say, you ain't able. He wasn't
able to save them. It was all a big joke. Huh? Ain't that what religion says?
That's exactly what you say when you say a man is saved and then
he still might be lost. You're saying that God determined
to save him, but he couldn't. And they laugh at God. Religion
makes a joke of God because they talk about God wanting to save
somebody in camp. God trying to save somebody in
camp. Makes a joke out of it. That's
what Moses pleaded to him. Don't do that. Listen to what he says down here
in verse 20. The Lord said, I have pardoned
according to thy word. Verse 21, But as surely as I
live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the
Lord, because all these 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 had not, listen, hearkened, to my
voice. They wouldn't hear my voice.
They wouldn't hear my voice. Verse 23, Surely they shall not
see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall
any of them that provoke me see it. Now, I got curious when I
seen that. He said, Now these ten times,
these ten times, he said, have you murmured against me and provoke
me these ten times. And you're not going to do it
anymore. You're not going to do it anymore. And I went back
and looked these ten things up, and I just want you to listen
to them. I'll give you some references
on some of them. But the first one was at the Red Sea, and I
know you're familiar with that already. God sent His messenger
into Egypt without a chariot, without a bow, without a sword.
He had a staff in His hand. That's all He had. But he had
with him the living God. He said, I'm not able to go down
there, Lord. And the Lord got angry with Moses.
He said, I can't speak. He said, I'm not a speaker. He
said, let me take my brother Aaron with me. And it angered
the Lord. He said, surely, I'll go with
you. Surely you understand I'm not
sending you down there by yourself. I'm going to tell you something
about this preacher right here. He went out by himself. just
like Moses. I went out by myself and just
assumed that a lot of things was going to happen. And they
didn't happen. And there come another time when
God made me to understand, He's going with me. And brother, the
results are different. And the power is different. I
don't have a sword. Moses didn't have one. He went
down there and here's this people steeped in idolatry, been down
there in Egypt under that Pharaoh and under his bondage and serving
him day and night. They didn't have any time to
read the Bible. These men worked daylight till dark. They come
in and fill in the hay. I guarantee it. Down in that
hot sun in Egypt out in that desert. And after a while, they
wouldn't even give them straw to make their bricks. They had
to go out and cut their own straw and make their own bricks. They
didn't read anything. They didn't study anything. They
didn't know anything. They were raised looking at those
big idols and raised under Pharaoh's law and under Pharaoh's religion.
And God sent His messenger down there and preached deliverance
to them and commanded it. And God brought them out. He brought them out. And he brought
them up to the sea. And they just let them sit there
for a little while. And there's mountains on this side, and there's
mountains on this side, and there's a great gulf in front of them. And Pharaoh's riding as hard
as he can ride, upset and angry, going to wipe them off the face
of the earth. And they begin to murmur against
God. You know what? God brought them
out there on purpose to show them that salvation is of the
Lord. That's why He put them there. That's what He does in
the Gospel. He's got to take you to that
place where you can understand that salvation is of the Lord.
He's got to show you that there's no strength in you. There's no
goodness in you. There's no power in you. You're
the one lost. He's the one seeking. You're the sinner. He ain't. He come to save you. You didn't
come to save Him. We don't have anything to give
God. He's got to bring you to that
place where you see Him as God. And it's His to save or His to
leave alone. He could leave you there and
let Pharaoh trample you in the dirt. Or He could split that
sea and let you walk across on dry land. But I'll tell you this.
When He does, you're going to know it was of God. Moses said, Stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. And he held out that staff. You
know what that staff is? That's the rod of God. That's
God's authority in His man. And he held out that rod. God
could have split that sea without Moses. But it didn't please God
to do it that way, did it? Please God, through the foolishness
of preaching, to save them that believe. That rod of authority
was in that man's hand. And you go through the Bible,
you can't find near a time in the Bible when God didn't put
His authority in a man to lead a people. Israel never saw it. Caleb did. Caleb did. When Moses said, Stand still
and see the salvation of God, Caleb opened his ears and he
saw the seed. And he saw who split it, and
he saw why. And he walked across on dry land.
And they got across that sea, and they came to the waters of
Mara, bitter waters. And they were thirsty. And they
was in a wilderness, a place with no water. And they came
up to this water that promised life, and they tried to drink
it. It was bitter. It was bitter. And they murmured
against God, You've brought us out here to these bitter waters.
And God told Moses, He said, Take a certain tree, throw it
in water, and the waters will be sweet. You see, that's where
He takes you. After He splits the sea, after
God shows you that salvation is of the Lord, Then He's going
to sweeten the bitter waters. He's going to sweeten the judgment
in the Word of God and that law that's ripped your heart to shreds
and that justice that has you pinned down on the floor. Guilty
before God. Your mouth closed. No arguments
back to God. There you are. Bitter waters. And He throws in the cross. Can't you see the cross? That's
what sweetens the waters. That's what sweetens that judgment.
There's now, therefore, no judgment to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Oh, how that cross sweetens that judgment. Oh, how that cross
reveals the glory of that justice satisfied. There's nothing wrong
with justice. Justice is your friend if it's
satisfied. When the court is satisfied,
they say, you can go free. You're just. when He takes away that condemnation.
I'm telling you, the cross is what sweetens the waters. Caleb
heard that. Israel didn't. Israel didn't
hear it. And then they murmured in the
wilderness of sin. They said we didn't get anything
to eat. Ain't nothing out here but snakes
and lizards. Ain't nothing out here to eat. Huh? Let me tell you something. God
got to bring you, like He did Jacob, to the place of no bread
in order to reveal His bread from heaven. He took them in
the wilderness on prayer. He didn't take them out there
to hurt them and cause them harm. He took them out there to strip
them of that old bread of Egypt and show them something about
the heavenly bread. And He caused that manna to rain
down. That's where He's got to take
you. He's got to get you out in the wilderness. He's got to get
you away until God, the experience of grace, takes you out of religion.
It takes you out of the world. And it takes you out into the
wilderness. And it shows you there's nothing here to eat.
The whole outfit's a wilderness. It's all barren. There ain't
nothing here fit to eat. There ain't nothing around you
but snakes and lizards and spiders. Everything here causes you harm. Everything here is your enemy.
You've got one who isn't. God. He's going to feed you. But He ain't going to feed you
until He shows you where you're at. He's going to take all the
food away, and then He's going to give you His bread. And then fourthly, they attempted to gather up enough
bread all at one time to sustain them forever. You remember that?
God told them, go out there and pick this manna up daily. It's
not meant to be a one-time thing, Jesse. Folks want to look back
on that experience and look back to that old time. You can't gather
enough mayonnaise to last you forever. You can't do it because
it wasn't intended for that. It's intended to eat every day.
It's intended you go out there on God's days and you gather
up the bread. It's according to the eating
of the house. That's how much you gather. And that's how much
you eat. But these folks didn't want to do that. They didn't
understand that. They went out there and gathered up sackfuls.
They were going to get enough in one sitting to last them until
they got through the wilderness. And they said it bred worms and
it stunk. Don't tell me about the old profession.
It stinks. Now it does. Mine does too. It
just stinks. It's full of worms. Full of worms. Tell me what you believe right
now. Oh, we love to look back on them
things. And then fifthly, Israel attempted to gather manna
on the day they weren't to gather it. He said, six days you're
going to gather this manna. Don't gather none on the Sabbath.
What'd they do? They all got them a bag and went
out on the Sabbath day and couldn't find anything. Wasn't anything
out there. Wasn't anything out there. You're
going to gather manna on the day He gives it. When He gives
it. It's a gift. It's not just out
there for your pleasure. Folks sit around, well, when
I get ready, I'm going to go down to church. I'm going to
make a profession. I'm going to get fixed up. No, you won't.
You're going to go down to church and you ain't going to find nothing.
That's exactly what's going to happen. You ain't going to find
nothing. You're going to go down there and it ain't there. You're
talking to somebody who's been there and looked. It ain't there. Oh, I thought it would just be
there. I thought when I'd come in and sit down, the preacher
would get up and he'd just pour it out and I'd drink it up. It
wasn't there. It wasn't there. Then you begin to realize this
thing is of God. This thing is given of God. I
better go out when He says go out. And I better eat when He
says eat. I better listen to God. I heard
the voice of God. So did Caleb. But Israel didn't
hear it. They got them sat and went out on the Sabbath day and
couldn't find nothing. Couldn't find nothing. And then
over here in Exodus chapter 17, they pitched in a place called
Rephidim. And it was according to the commandment
of the Lord. I just gave you that as a reference. I'm not going to read from the
text. But that's where the Lord brought them and where his ambassador
took them, and that's where God wanted them to be, reputable. And they were so thirsty, it
says, they were ready to stone God's prophets, Moses. This man
stood before Pharaoh and his army for them. This man held
out his rod and God parted the sea. This man came out before
them, and the cloud of God gave them light at night, and shade
during the day, and took them everywhere they wanted to go.
This man communicated with God and threw the cross in the waters
and sweetened the mud. This man talked to God, and God
sent manna for him to eat. And now they're ready to stone
him. They're ready to stone him. They were so thirsty. God brought
them out away from those waters of the world to give them the
water of the smitten rock, the bruised rock. And that rock is
Christ. You find that on the New Testament.
That rock that followed them in the wilderness was Christ.
He's the smitten rock. He told that woman at the well,
he said, if you knew who I was, you'd ask of me for water, and
I'd give you living water. And he never thirst again. Israel
never thirsted after God provided the smitten rock. That rock went
everywhere they went. All three million of them. It
gave enough water for them. It gave enough water for all
their cattle. It gave enough water to wash everything they
cleansed with. The labors in the tabernacle.
All came from that one rock. Here's the seventh thing. Moses
went up to receive the law of God, and it said God took his
finger and wrote in the tablets the Ten Commandments. Wrote them
by the hand of God in the stone. And Moses come back down, and
here's those people he went up to receive this law from. Hadn't
been gone very long. And here's these people down
there, And they found them a God that wasn't as severe as the
God of the Bible. They found them a God. See, the
God of the Bible, they saw that God. They saw Him in Mount Sinai. They saw that mountain quake
and smoke and tremble. And they couldn't go near it.
They couldn't go near it. They feared that mountain. They
feared even getting close to it. And they told Moses, You
go up there and talk with God. We can't talk to Him. Well, Moses
was gone. Here's what happens when God
takes His man away from you. Here's exactly what's going to
happen. It ain't going to happen overnight, but it's going to
happen. I'm just telling you. God takes His hand off of you
and leaves you alone, and you're going to find you a God that's
a little bit more approachable than the God in the Bible. You're
going to find something a little bit more friendly, a little bit
more palatable. You're going to find a God in
there that you can be on first-name basis with. You know what those
folks were worshiping. He wasn't gone for 40 days. They
built them a statue. What do you reckon they built
it of? A big brown-eyed baby cow. That's what they do. You
ever seen a baby cow? That ain't nothing more precious
than a little calf. With great big ol' eyes and them
big ol' eyelashes out, batting them eyes. They're the cutest
things that ever were. I guess a baby anything like
that. They made them a god out of them. They weren't afraid
of that baby cow. And there they were dancing around
that thing naked when Moses came back down with the law. And he
threw that law down, busted them tablets, beat that golden calf
up into powder, and threw it in the water and made them drink
it. And that's what I want you to understand. God is going to
bring you out here to the place where you see your idolatry,
and then He's going to make you drink it. You're going to drink
it. Here's your idolatry. It's not
me. It's you. Now, you drink it.
He's going to bring you out to see the sins of your righteousness. That's what He's doing here.
Caleb heard his voice. Caleb heard his voice. He drank
it down. He drank it down. The rest of
them didn't hear his voice. They didn't hear his voice. God
got to bring us face to face with our naked idolatry, and
He brings us to taste of our sin, especially that sin of our
righteousness. And then here's the eighth thing.
They came here in Numbers chapter 1 to Taborah. And they murmured
in discontentment. Discontentment. They were just
tired of the whole thing. Tired of the whole journey. They
were just tired. Weary of everything. When they
came out of Egypt, they didn't have to do anything, Winston.
But now they had ceremonies. They had to remember those days
and those ceremonies. Provide sacrifices. They had
certain kinds of animals they had to provide and set up and
keep. There was a lot to do, and they
got weary of it. And they're out in this wilderness in a place
they didn't want to be, and they're just discontent with the whole
thing. I'm just discontent. I don't want any part of it.
I don't want any part of it. And add to that a providence
that never satisfied their heart's desire. And I know there's some of you
here this morning in that same boat. You're just tired of the
whole thing. I'm tired of hearing it. I'm tired of seeing it. This
ain't where I want to be. I want to be back in Egypt. I
want to be back there. I'll find back there. Just let
me go back there. I'll be happy. I'll be happy." And so it was
with Israel. Oh, they voiced their complaint
against God and against His servant. Oh, they were just dissatisfied
in this place. They couldn't hardly stand it.
They took one look at that. bread and they said, our soul
loatheth that like bread, we can't stomach to even look at
it. And then it says, here's the
next thing, they went to lusting. And he tells you what that lust
is about. They started thinking about them
old flesh pots back in Egypt. They couldn't stomach that manna
anymore. They wasn't going to eat that
stuff anymore. You just give it to somebody
else, I ain't even hungry. And they sat over there and they'd
lay back in their hunger and they'd think on them old flesh
pots back in Egypt. You know why? Because they were
of the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. That's right. And
they sat there and they thought about the old leeks and the cucumbers
and the garlic and all them things back in Egypt. That's where the
heart was. Their bodies was out here eating the bread, but the
hearts was back in the flesh pot. Their feet was walking toward
the promised land, but their heart was going back to Egypt.
Going back to Egypt. And then finally, here they are
on the edge of the promised land. Can you hear me? They're right
up here. God brought them through. He
showed them the gospel in picture from Egypt all the way out. Forty years He spent with those
people preaching Christ to them, preaching Christ to them, preaching
Christ to them. The experience of grace brought
him from Egypt, through the sea, through the wilderness, right
up to the brink of the promise. And he sent in some men, and
they come back with two reports. That's what you're hearing this
morning, two reports. Two reports. You're just hearing
one man up here, but you're hearing two reports. You're hearing that
one report that says, let's go back. Let's just get a captain. Let's just let somebody tell
us what we want to hear and take us where we want to go. Let's
go back. And you're hearing another report
that says, let's go take the promise. Let's take it. Let's
take it. Some of you sitting in here this
morning, you're saying, I wish I'd have never heard this man.
I'm miserable. I'd better off back in the flesh.
I'd better off back when it was okay to do this and okay to do
that. And now I can't do anything.
I'm miserable. But there's in you a single man,
listen to me, a single man, Christ in you. That's what faith's all
about. When God gets done with His gospel
and in His power in all Israel, they're going to be one man.
Christ. Christ. One man. Over here in Numbers 14, verse
24, He said, and these people, here they are,
they're whining and moaning and crying all night. We can't do
this. We can't do that. They should
have learned that back at the sea. Caleb did it. Salvation
is of the Lord. What did they have to do with
parting of the sea? What did they have to do with the bread
that rained down or the water that came out of the rock? They
didn't do anything for 40 years. God did it all. But they looked
at these people and looked inside and they said, we can't do this.
They should have learned that back at the sea. The only one willing to go in
was the one man. The one man. This old flesh is going to die
in the wilderness. Only the new man of faith is
going to enter in. And all the while, God led this
people for forty years. There was a new man right in
their midst. There sure was. He was right
there with them. He was back there at the sea.
He was at the waters. He was out there in the wilderness
when the bread came down. This new man was with him, Winston,
from the beginning. All the way through. That was
a new man. A new man. And he sees the difficulty
overcome because he hears the voice of God. Listen to this
here in Numbers 14, 24. My servant Caleb. You know what
that name means? It means dog. Boy, I looked at
that a long time. Dog. God's people ain't afraid to
wear that name. That man of faith will wear that name. Mephibosheth
did. Old Mephibosheth come in there.
They went down and sent for him, brought him up there into David's
house because of that covenant David made with Jonathan. And
he brought Mephibosheth up there and sent him down at the king's
table. And there he sits, that old man, sitting there, lame
on his feet, ruined by the fall, sitting there in that carriage.
And on the fifth he said, Who am I that thou should show such
kindness to such a dead dog as I am? That's what he called him.
He wore the name. That's our old Phoenician woman.
The Lord said, It's not me to give the children's bed to dogs.
She said, Yeah, but the master's dog gets the crumbs from his
table. I'll be the master's dog. Can you wear that name? Caleb
did. But I'll tell you this, his name
means all heart. That's what it means. All heart.
Listen to this. My servant Caleb, listen to this, because he had
another spirit in him, that spirit of Christ, that new man, It was
in him all the way through the wilderness. And he just kept
hearing the voice of God. He kept hearing the voice of
God all the way through there. And he followed me, listen, fully
with all his heart. Him will I bring with me into
the land whereunto he went. And listen, his seed shall possess
him. Christ possesses the land. He possesses the promise. Caleb's
going to get it because he's in the seed. He's in the seed,
and the seed's in him. It's this man of faith established
under the preaching of God's messenger who enters in with
Christ to possess the inheritance. All the old weakness, the frailties
of the flesh, all of the wicked and evil desires, all of its
disobedience and pride, got to be left in the wilderness to
die. Now hear this. All that would not lay hold on
Thomas, here they are, two million of them. Ten little witnesses
come back because they was in the majority. They said, well,
I guess it might be better for us not to go in. And they laid
there and wept all night about it because they wouldn't hear. and wouldn't believe God, and
wouldn't come up and lay hold on the promise. God wasn't asking
them to do anything. He's going to do it all. They
hadn't done anything since they left. It's all done with God. That's what Caleb said. God be
for us. If He delights in us, He's going
with us. He said their defense is departed from them. God ain't
in defense. If God's for us, who's going
to be against us? Isn't that what Paul argued? That's what
Caleb argued. God be forced, who's going to
be against it? Giants? Here they were. They were influenced.
He said, I'm going to tell you something. He said, as I live,
saith the Lord, you're not going in this land. You're not going
in. Now when Paul, over here in Hebrews
chapter 3, he's talking about this high priest and this tabernacle.
that God pitched to not men. He's talking about this rest
that's all together in Christ. He said, if you hear my voice,
don't harden your heart. Don't stand back there with the
multitude who saw what they saw and heard what they heard. And
yet, ten times, he said, they came right up here on the edge
of the land, and ten times, he said, they provoked me. Now, he said, as I live, saith
the Lord, he said, you ain't going in. You ain't going in. And I'm telling you, just like
Paul did in this gospel he preached here in Hebrews chapter 3. You
read it this afternoon. You pray about it. See if I'm
not telling you the truth. There comes a time when you've
heard this thing for the last time. Now, I'm telling you as
it is. God has demonstrated Himself
from the time that He showed you salvation was of the Lord.
He has demonstrated this thing in you and to you over and over
and over and over. And you just keep saying, Oh,
I would to God. I am back in Egypt. He is going
to send you back to Egypt in a box. Now, I want you to listen to
how He worded this. He said, As I live, saith the Lord, your
carcasses So he didn't give them a proper burial. He sent them
back into that wilderness for 40 years and turned them over
to the buzzards. And that's what he's going to
do to you. You're going to trifle with his
gospel and trifle with his gospel until he turns you over to the
buzzards. And he's going to send you out there to that bunch of
Armenian buzzards, and they're going to pick you clean, and
the only thing that's going to be left is your bones. Now, I'm
telling you the truth. There was a prophet of God that
he took into the same wilderness. His name was Ezekiel. And he
said, What do you see, Ezekiel? And he said, I see bones. He
said, Let me tell you about these bones. This is the whole house
of Israel. Can they live? Can they live? Bones. Now, you go on top of them with
your gospel if you want to, You won't get mad about these little
things and this little thing and that little thing. You can't
find me anywhere in the Scripture where God doesn't set His gospel
up and hold a false gospel up beside it and say, this is real
and this is phony. This is valuable and this is
worthless. Go through the Scriptures and
read them for yourself and see if I ain't telling you the truth.
There is no gospel like these Arminian's preach of good God
that always smiles, God loves you. You won't find that in this
book. I'm telling you the truth. Today,
Paul said, if you hear His voice, obey it. Obey it. Go into the land and receive
of the goodness of God.