Renew Your Pledge to Kill Every Last Giant of Sin — Sandeep Poonen

Israel’s Rebellion at the Edge of the Promised Land

I want to share something that the Lord has been teaching me. It's a question that the Israelites faced in Numbers chapter 13 and 14, and I want to ask us how we would respond to it. In Numbers chapter 13 and 14 is where the Israelites really displease God so much so it says that God loathed them.

God was so disgusted with them, his people. What made God so disgusted with his very own people? It says there in Numbers chapter 13, you know the story, they sent the spies out to, they had left Egypt, they had come to the wilderness, but when the spies came back they were very afraid.

In verse 30, Caleb quiets the people and says we should by all means go up and take possession, but the men who had gone up with them said we're not able, and they gave a bad report in verse 32. This is Numbers 13 verse 32, we saw the sons of Anak and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, so we were in their sight.

Then it says in Numbers chapter 14 verse 1, the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night, and all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses. Verse 3, why is the Lord bringing us into this land?

Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said let us appoint another leader and return to Egypt. What were these Israelites saying? The Israelites were saying, we've come to the wilderness, we've come to the edge of the promised land, but because we saw the giants of sin, it'll be better for me to go back to Egypt.

What did Egypt represent? Egypt represented being slaves, being enslaved under Egypt, but when they faced the giants of the land, they said, we are so scared, we will go back and be slaves. Those are the two options that the Israelites had, and they spent all night weeping, mourning, so devastated, and at the end of it, here's the resolution of all of their mourning and their weeping.

They said, let us go back to Egypt. What was the promise of God? The promise of God was that go and live in the promised land. Fight the giants and live in the promised land. They said, let's go back to Egypt.

Even after they had experienced all the victories that God had given them all those years, their response was still, I will not fight all the giants in the land, let me go back to Egypt. And I thought about that and I said, Lord, how is that applicable in my life?

How is that applicable in our lives? What is the promise that God has given us? What is the promise that God has told us because of Jesus? It is this, His name is Jesus because He will save you from all your sins.

Believing Jesus for Freedom from Every Sin

That's the promise. When you say you believe in Jesus, that's the first step you take in becoming a Christian. What you're saying is you believe in someone who will save you from all your sins. As you've heard in this church, believing in Jesus is not saying, I believe you Jesus that you will take me to heaven.

That's not the agreement you're signing when you say, I believe in Jesus. If you, and we may have been taught that wrong, but to believe in Jesus is to believe that Jesus will save us from all our sins.

So let's review the contract that we signed. You thought you were just going to come into work for eight hours and get paid a paycheck? No, no, no. You've got to do some work. You've got to work in the field.

You've got to clean the toilets. You've got to do that. Now you read the contract, you find that out and you'll be like, I don't think I want this job. You didn't read the contract properly. A lot of us have not read the contract properly, so we think we believed in Jesus, we're going to go to heaven, He'll solve all our problems.

No. Let's reread the contract. The contract, when we become a Christian, the new covenant, that's what contra covenant means, it's a contract, what we sign, when we sign the new agreement with God, we are saying we believe in Jesus who will save me from all my sins.

He will save me from all my sins. How do the sins look when I stand in front of them? They look like giants looming over grasshoppers. All of our sins. Now you can put the sins that bother you in your life.

Unbelief, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, sexual lust, the list goes on. Whatever the sins are that are specific to your area will look like giants. Lord, can I go a year without getting into a bad mood?

Does that loom like a giant and you look like a grasshopper? Lord, is it possible for me to go a whole year without saying a sharp word towards my spouse? Sounds like a big giant. Absolutely. Reread the contract.

The very first contract you sign with Jesus is this. Jesus will save me from every single giant. That's the contract at the very beginning. But Lord, I look like a grasshopper compared to that giant. Contract still applies.

Did you sign up for this journey? Jesus will save me from all my sins. Every single giant. That was the contract. That was the promise that God said, hey, I will take you to a promised land. You're leaving Egypt.

But the point of it is also that you can just be free and hanging around. No, I'm going to take you to a promised land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. And so they started going out there and then they say, wait, there are lots of giants.

From the Red Sea to the Giants of Sanctification

That's what happens to a lot of us in the Christian life too. We sign up for Jesus because Jesus says, I can forgive you of all your sins. I can give you a life of freedom. And so we go through the Red Sea, which is saying, okay, I'll give up on the world.

Lord Jesus, I want to follow you. But Lord, the Lord Jesus is trying to take us to a promised land in which there lies giants, giants, habits, ways of thinking that have dominated us for decades that are contrary to what is written in God's word.

God says that you're loved. You have a way of thinking for decades that says nobody loves me. And God says, that's a giant and I'm not just taking you out of Egypt, which says your sins can be forgiven.

I'm trying to take you into a promised land where all the giants are defeated. And then now we just have to look at our daily life, our yearly life, our years of lives as a Christian to say, Lord, have I believed you to forgive me of my sins, but I'm not really dealt with the giants of sin.

I dealt with the little ants of sin, I dealt with the little spiders of sin, but when it comes to the giants, no, Lord. And there's the temptation when faced with the giants to go so far as to say, let me appoint a general, let me appoint a leader.

And there's a voice inside of us that says, that's too much. Let me live a life where I can go to heaven, where I can come to a good church, I can try to have a good marriage, I can try to be a good person, I try to live by the golden rule, but I'm going to have to live enslaved to that giant.

Because that giant is too difficult. That's what these people did. There were only two people out of 600 ,000 people who said, no, we read the contract. We signed up to leave Egypt because God has promised us, if he will go with us, we don't have to worry about any giant.

And dear brothers and sisters, I fear in my own life and I fear in our lives that we may believe God for some of the enemies of God, but I want to renew my eyes, I want to renew my eyes to reread the contract that every single giant must be killed.

Choosing Spiritual Warfare Over Comfortable Slavery

And the options are, let's live a comfortable life, where I can enjoy a nice life, but be slaves to some giant. Or I can live a life of freedom, but it's not going to be comfortable. It's going to be a life of war.

That is what these Israelites were facing. I can live a life of comfort, that's the life of Egypt. Lots of comforts in my life. It says in another passage, he was talking about how they had figs and pomegranates and all kinds of things.

That's what came to their mind when they thought about Egypt. They thought about the great food that they could have, all the comfortable life. And that's how it is when the devil comes to us. He comes to us not telling us that he's going to enslave us.

He talks about how comfortable life, he tells you about the pomegranates. And the figs and the comforts of not being sold out to God, where every single giant must be defeated. He says, don't go so far.

Don't go so strong. Not every single giant. And he wants us to consider a happy medium between Egypt and the promised land. And I want to ask myself, Lord, do I really, did I really believe it when I said I wanted a life of freedom?

When Jesus said, I will set you free from all your sins, did I really mean it? That that was what I was willing to get baptized into. That was the statement I made when I got baptized. I'm willing to get baptized into a life of freedom from all sin.

I don't want to sin even once. That's what I said when I got baptized. That's what I should have said when I got baptized. That is the agreement in the new agreement. Lord, I'm willing to live a completely uncomfortable life.

I want to be free. This is what the Israelites missed. And they missed it because they were seduced by the comforts of Egypt and they were scared by the giants. And I find that that's constantly the devil trying to put in my mind some giant of human tradition, earthly thinking, some way the world tells us to judge our lives of whether it's comfortable enough, whether it's justice enough, some way in which the devil would like us to say that giant is too big.

For some of us, it may be a giant of unforgiveness. For some of us, it may be a giant of worry. It may be the giant of retirement. It may be the giant of money, the love of money. Maybe the giant of sexual lust.

It could be many different giants. All it takes is one. And I noticed that in verse 33, Numbers 13, he mentions the sons of Anak, Enak or whatever, however you pronounce that. But these were the really big giants, the biggest giants.

And we find that even after they entered the land of Canaan, it was Caleb who said, give me those guys, the biggest giants. And very few of us in Christendom, I feel, who will be willing to say, Lord, even the biggest giants to whom look like giants compared to grasshoppers, you have said it in your word.

Lord, when I signed up for this, I signed up for all my sins. I didn't sign up for some. I didn't sign up for most. I signed up for all. And everything that stands against the will of God is a giant. For one person, it may be a small little land.

For you, it may be a big giant. Everybody's got giants. It may not all be the same. But I want to renew my pledge. I want to renew my desire. I want to invite all of us who are in the new covenant to read the agreement again.

The agreement that we signed with Jesus was that he will save us from every sin. And nobody who is signing the new agreement should allow even one sin to be excused. Even one sin is too many. We will start having the spirit of Egypt.

The Holy Spirit’s Boldness Against Every Giant

God wants to fill us with the Holy Spirit. God wants to fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us that spirit of boldness against every sin. One of the marks of the truths that we believe, that not every church believes, is that God wants to give us a baptism in the Holy Spirit.

He wants to fill us with the Holy Spirit. But it's not a holy doctrine that we're interested in. The proof of it is that we are evidencing a life of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Being baptized into the death of Jesus, being raised up, just like Jesus was raised up by the power of the Holy Spirit, us being raised up to a new kind of life.

That where we were ashamed to talk about Jesus, we are bold to talk about Jesus. I must ask God for the Holy Spirit to fill me and that the fear of man can be like a giant. Just one giant. And I can say, I'm afraid, I'm not bold to talk about Jesus.

I'm not telling you how you have to be bold. Are you bold? Are we proud of Jesus? That can be a giant. When we're faced with the oppression of this world and relativism and everybody must follow their own path, and you'll sound judgmental if you talk about Jesus.

The Holy Spirit filled Peter with boldness, with the apostles after they filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they said, you crucified Jesus. And thousands were saved. God wants to fill us with boldness.

What is the giant in your life? You know it. Are you going to allow it to just stay in the corner? And I'll tell you how it always works, as it worked with me. Whenever I come to the giant with a sword, you know what the giant says?

Giant says, okay, okay, I'll behave. Okay, okay, you're right, you're right, you're right. No, no, no, don't kill me. I'll behave. I'll be nice to you from now on. I'll control myself. I won't dominate you like I did last weekend, where I let you have a pity party all weekend and you were completely depressed.

I'll behave. Just don't kill me. That's what the giants of sin tell me. The ones that I really get some kind of pleasure from. And so I put my sword back in my sheath. Okay, good. Glad you told me that.

Glad you're going to behave. But watch it. And I watch him, the giant, for a few days, and then I get cozy with the giant again. And three weeks later, he's running my life again. And then I hear a wonderful word in the church, or I read a message, and then I come out with my sword again.

And there's the giant acting like a coy little, sweet little, cuddly little thing. I'll behave again. That's how it's been in my life for many years, until I said, I heard the word of the Lord saying, you have to kill those giants, every one of them.

And I've been doing that for many years. But I see that there's constantly a spirit within me that says, not all the giants. And I can start to tolerate some giants, maybe one giant. Maybe I'm faithful with 44 giants.

And God says, look, and God shows me all the victory that I made. And the devil says, yeah. And then he mixes with it. And he gets me to forget the other giants that are in that hill country. And we need to have the spirit of people like Joshua and Caleb who says, God, give me that hill country.

Endurance, Holiness, and the Unconquered Land

I'm not planning to just live at ease. It says in one of the minor prophets, woe to you who live at ease in Zion. Because you don't know all the other giants that are out there. What is our goal? To become like Jesus?

Have we gotten there? Woe to you. Cursed are you if you think you've arrived. Have you seen all the land that has not been conquered? Who's going to conquer the land? Who's going to conquer it? Who's going to save us from our sins?

Me or Jesus? Jesus. I must have the faith that Jesus will save me from my sins. I must keep going to Jesus and say, Jesus, I'm not done. There's so much of the land that's not conquered. Lord Jesus, please complete the work that you started in me.

We heard about, you know, yes, but the, from Jeremy, the yes, but syndrome. I learned that also in one of the, you know, classes I took at work. You know what the right, what they tell you is the right thing to say.

It's not yes, but, but you know what? When you're talking to, working in a group, it's yes, and. Did you know that they stole it from the Bible? See 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 20. The yes, and spirit.

And we heard already about the filthiness of the yes, but. Yes, Lord, but not that giant. Yes, Lord, but not that habit. Yes, Lord, but not that thought pattern. That's a filthy spirit. Yes, Lord, thank you for taking me all this way, but not those giants.

Those are too big. I'm going back to Egypt and God says he loathed them. I wanted to keep reminding us that these are the ones who left the promised land, left Egypt. These are the ones who are going towards the promised land and God's got so disgusted with them.

Because they had a yes, but. Is it good enough to just say to take out the but? I believe that God is looking for us to have a yes, and 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 20. For as many as may be the promises of God in him, they are yes.

But that's not the end of it. Wherefore, also by him is our amen. It's a yes and amen. It will be so. That's where we fail. The promises of God are yes. In Christ, they are yes. What's the difference between the one who was faithful this week and the one who was not faithful this week in this gathering among us?

Only one difference. A group of people had the, all of us had the promises of God and they were yes in Christ. But only some of us, to the extent that we receive grace to overcome sin, only some of us put our amen to it.

It will be so. And out of 600 ,000 people, only Joshua and Caleb, when they faced the giants of the land, said yes and my amen. It says that's why Abraham is called the father of the faith, because God said you're going to be a father of multitude.

And he said, amen. It will be so. And it took him 25 years for him to have a child. But he said it will be so. It will be so. And we are the children of Abraham if we sign up for the new covenant promises, which is every single sin.

God’s Commands and the Amen of Faith

And what is sin? Everything that is contrary to something that is in God's word. That's why the commands of God are so important. The commands of God are so important because that's what God tells you, you have to follow.

Those are the giants of sin you have to overcome. Encourage one another. Don't forsake the assembly of the saints. Do all things without grumbling and complaining. Beware of allowing your righteousness to be shown among men so that it may be noticed.

Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. These are all the commands of God. And some of those commands loom like giants over us. But then also God gives us a promise. And he says, will you keep signing your amen to it?

And where we don't get our amens is where God will say, I can't help you. And if you keep up this attitude, I have a loathing for such people who call themselves Christians, who call themselves people of God, children of God.

But don't live up to the number one agreement in the new agreement. His name is Jesus. We sing about his name, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I don't know any of us who will take the name of Jesus in name, in vain.

I don't know if you're in your workplace, people use the word Jesus flippantly, and they almost use it like a expression of, of a curse or an expression of exasperation. Can't believe this. And then they use the Lord's name.

I don't know any one of us who will do that. What does it mean to take the name of Jesus in vain? It means to say the name of Jesus says, I will save you from all my sin, from all your sins. What does it mean to take it vain?

Saying, Lord Jesus, I believe in you, but you can't save me from all my sins. Not that bad way of thinking, because my dad and mom told me this for years and for decades, and my culture says I must be this way.

But even though your word says I should be different, no, Lord Jesus, I don't believe in your name, but you can save me from all my sins. Let us keep renewing, dear brothers and sisters, our pledge to the new agreement.

Personal Faith in Jesus and the Need for Endurance

That's what each one of us who call ourselves Christians signed up for. You may not have known it. If you didn't, now you do. When we say we sign up to be a part of Jesus, we are saying we're signing on to that name.

And Jesus says, you believe in me? It means that I will save you from all your sin. I will save you. I will save you. I will save you from all your sins. Just don't come to me and tell me that sin, Lord, you can't do it.

Don't hold on to that giant. Don't back away from any giant. And that's the spirit of weariness that can come in. I believe that was the great burden of the writer of Hebrews. The great book of Hebrews, one of the best books in the Bible, because it teaches so much.

One of the reasons for that book is because these people needed endurance to believe all the promises of God. And it says in Hebrews chapter 10, you are in need of endurance. Hebrews 10, 36, and then he goes and talks about all these people of faith in Hebrews chapter 11.

Right after that, he says, but you are in need of endurance. Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 35, for you have need of endurance. And the whole book of Hebrews was telling the Hebrews about their past, of how these people had gone past Egypt and fallen short of the promised land because they didn't endure when faced with the giants.

And he says, you are in need of endurance. And then he says, let me tell you about all these people who had endurance. And he didn't talk about groups of people in Hebrews chapter 11. Have you noticed that?

He talked about specific people. Remember Abraham. I don't know what to say about this other person. But remember Abraham. Remember Isaac. And remember Rahab. And remember Joseph. And remember Jacob. And he looks at NCCF and he says, remember that brother and remember that sister.

But some others, he says, I'm not sure. And God's wanting your faith to be personal. I believe that every one of us has faith. Every single human being in the world has faith. The question is, what do they have faith in?

So I don't want to call myself someone who is a person of faith. I don't want to call myself someone who has faith. Everybody in the world has faith. Somebody has faith in their car. Somebody has faith in their bank account.

Somebody has faith in their gym to help them be healthy. What do you have faith in? Do I have faith in Jesus? That's what separates me if I'm a Christian. And if I have faith in Jesus, I have faith that He can save me from all the giants in the land.

And it's a personal thing. I can't transmit that to my wife. I cannot transmit that to my children. I cannot get that from my father. I cannot get that from any holy man. I must have a personal faith that Jesus can save me from all of my sins.

That's what I signed up for when I became a Christian. Am I saying anything new? Isn't that what we signed up for? I have a personal faith in Jesus. You who are parents, aren't you teaching your children?

You must have faith in Jesus. Well, daddy, mommy, what does that mean? Let's explain it to them that Jesus can save us from every single one of my sins. Look at my life. This is what I would tell my children.

Look at daddy's life. Look at mommy's life. He's going to save me from all of my sins. For 18 years, watch, dear son of mine. Watch, dear daughter of mine. Watch as Jesus saves me from all my sins. You too, dear brother, sister, dear child of mine, have faith in Jesus like I did.

Why? Because look what He did to me. He's been saving me from all my sins. Let's not raise our children to believe in truths, facts, knowledge. Let's not go to our co-workers and say, hey, do you want to believe in Jesus?

You go to heaven. Let's not go to our family members and say, hey, why don't you have faith like me? Well, husband, prove it. Have true living faith. We are in need of endurance. Let us also be pointed out by the author and finisher of our faith.

Remember John. Remember Samuel. Remember Mary. Remember Deborah in the 21st century. Who are those? Remember them. They have faith in me. When faced with the giants in the land, that's what. Not for your money.

Not for your house. Not for your children's education. Not for your help. That is pitiful things that even heathen people say. Learn from it. What about the sins? What about the giants of sins? That is what marks us as Christians.

That's what marks us with the cross that Jesus died for. Let us have faith. Dear brothers and sisters, that's a big burden on my heart that we will not lose the hope that God will save me from every single sin.

We are in need of endurance. May God help us. Amen.