Excluded From the Land of Promise — Carter Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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Moses and the Rock in Numbers 20

Numbers, Chapter 20, the title of my message this evening, rather, is Excluded from the Land of Promise. Excluded from the land. I never cease to be amazed at how the Holy Spirit speaks to us all day.

If you were here this morning or this afternoon, I'm really the third part of the same message that the Lord has been speaking. Teresa and I have a habit of not speaking to each other about what we are going to speak on Sunday so that we're not influenced what God wants to speak through.

And I could have sworn this afternoon that she snuck into my office and stole my notes. But she assures me that it's not so. Father, I stand back and I'm in awe of your goodness. I'm in awe of the fact that you choose frail humanity to work through.

Lord, I thank you for the anointing of your Spirit and I pray for deeper understanding in the days ahead of what it means to be walking in the Spirit. God, you alone now, Holy Spirit, can open the Word and open our hearts and our minds.

I ask you to drive from us preconceived notions about things, Lord, that may be not correct according as you see them. I'm asking for victory and deliverance from every weapon of darkness that's formed against every life that is in this house.

I ask you, Father, in Jesus' name, that the kingdom of hell suffer great violence in this house tonight. I ask, Lord, that walls come tumbling down, that prison doors open, blinded eyes see, wounded hearts be healed.

I'm asking, God, that the fortifications of the devil that he has built against the testimony of God's people be destroyed. And I'm asking to do it, that it be done simply but powerfully through the speaking of your Word.

Lord, I know that I have no wisdom of myself. Everything I have comes from you. I'm asking for a quickening now of my mind and body, a quickening of your Word and a quickening of our hearts. The cry of our hearts tonight is, let your kingdom come.

Lord, Jesus, come. We are your church. This is your body on this side of eternity. Lord, it's no testimony of glory to you if the body be weak or emaciated or overrun by the powers of darkness. You say that your church is to be a conquering church, a victorious church.

Now, Lord, show us how. Give us understanding. Give us hearts of faith. God, lead us now into something, Lord, that we can lay hold of, that your life might become our life. I know that's your desire.

That's what sent you to a cross. Let it become a reality now in each of our lives. And, Father, I thank you, God. I thank you, Lord, that through the frailty of this vessel, you're going to multiply the thoughts you've given to me and feed those that have come into this house.

Jesus, be glorified. There's no other cry in our hearts, no other cry in my heart. But you be glorified, be glorified through your church in this last hour of time. Oh, God, have a testimony, have a testimony in the earth that brings honor and glory to your name.

Let every knee bow now. Every tongue confess now that Jesus Christ is Lord. God, do a work in us that will confound our enemies, oh God, that will confound the unbelievers, that will confound the powers of darkness.

God, do a work in us, Lord, that the devil himself would have to step back and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. My God, we ask for this, no less than a miraculous work. And, Father, we thank you for it.

In Jesus' mighty name, excluded from the land of promise, Numbers chapter 20, verse 10. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, Here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?

And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod and with his rod, he smote the rock twice and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because you believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them, excluded from the land of promise.

Now, this message is about Moses not being allowed by God to go into the promised land. Please don't confuse it about his entrance into heaven. You and I have to draw the distinction tonight or you'll not completely understand what the Holy Spirit has given me to speak on.

Now, I have quite often pondered over this passage of scripture. Seems to be such a severe judgment. Here is a man who has walked with God. He has obeyed God. He has endured the failings of the people of God for years.

He has or not years, I guess at this time, but for a lengthy period, he has endured this this this failings of the people of God. They have built a golden calf. They have murmured. They have rebelled.

There has been such heartache and headache has come to this man of God. But he's he stood in the gap. He's made intercession for them, even to the point where God had to tell him, leave me alone. He had such power with God.

God wanted to consume the whole of the children of Israel. And Moses stood between the children of Israel and the wrath of God to the point where God says, I have to say, leave me alone. Amazing. Can you imagine being in that closer relationship where God wants to do something and you're standing between him and his wrath and now nearing, in a sense, the end of his journey?

After all the years of faithfulness and everything that he's gone through, he makes seemingly a mistake that we look at it and considering what others had done, it's seemingly an insignificant mistake.

God tells him to go and speak to the rock. And he says from the rock is going to come water for the congregation. And Moses was angry. Now, the New Testament tells us that he was angered at his spirit.

And because of it, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips and he went with the rod and says twice he hit the rock with his rod. Twice he smote it. And and even in spite of his error, water came out of the rock and and gave drink to the thirsty among God's people.

But God then speaks to Moses and says, because you did this thing, you are not going into the promised land. Now, incredible when you consider it now, as I said earlier, the promised land is not to be confused with his entrance into heaven.

The promised land in the Old Testament was was a place of promise. This was a land that God said, I'm going to give to a people who are mine. And in this land is abundance, its provision, its protection, everything you'll ever want to require to live life in a manner that honors God will be found in this land.

So in effect, it's a land of promises. It's a type of a place that you and I are promised in Christ Jesus. You're going to go into this land, this promised place, this land of promises really is what it was.

It was a promised land. But it means a land of promises in this land. It was all that God had ever promised the children of Israel, which obviously came from himself, is to be found in this place. The land was just land.

That's all it was. It was God's presence that made it the promised land, if that makes it more clear. Without God, it was just another piece of land that it was would be as prone to drought and rebellion and every as every other piece of land on the face of the earth.

But God said, though, my presence is going to be there and my promises are going to be there. That makes it the promised land. And so Moses is called to lead the people in. And because of this thing that he did, he's not allowed to go into this land of promise.

Moses in Heaven and the Old Testament as a Warning

Now, he still goes to heaven. This is where it doesn't get tricky, but it's confusing for some. Matthew 17, chapter 17, verses two and three tell us, for instance, when Jesus took Peter, James and John up into the mountain of transfiguration, Jesus appeared and on that mountain he was transfigured before them and there appeared with them, with Christ and Peter, James and John, Moses and Elijah.

Now, Moses was in heaven at this point. Moses was in the paradise of God. He was not excluded from eternal life as you and I come to define it through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 11 and 12, he says, all these things happen to them for examples and they are written for our admonition.

And the word admonition in the Greek means a correction or training of the mind. In other words, if our thinking is a little off, these things happen to them to help straighten our thinking about God and about God's purposes for his people upon whom he says the ends of the world are come.

So these things happen to them, even the things that Paul is speaking about, the things that happened to the children of Israel. Now, we can include in that even the things that happened to Moses. They're included for our instruction to bring us to an understanding of something, especially, Paul says, those upon whom the ends of the world are come.

In verse 12, he says, therefore, or wherefore, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. In other words, Paul seemed to be very careful that you don't just gloss over certain truths that are in the word of God from the Old Testament times, because the Old Testament times were all leading to Jesus Christ.

They were all the type and shadow of Jesus Christ. God has not had a duality of plans in his mind from before the foundation of the world. He had only one plan, a redeemed people that would be redeemed through a savior.

And he knew it from even before the foundation of the world. That's why he made a covenant with his son. Now, these things are so now what is the lesson that we can learn from this instance with Moses today?

The Rock as a Type of Christ

Now, first of all, throughout biblical history, all of God's people, as I said earlier, have been continuously led to Christ in Exodus chapter 17. If you'll turn there with me very, very quickly. Exodus chapter 17, we're going to see an absolute type of the cross, Exodus 17 verses five and six.

The Lord said to Moses, Now go on before the people and take with thee the elders of Israel and thy rod wherein thou smotest the river in thine hand and go. And he says, Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Oreb, and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Now, I said the people are thirsty in order to satisfy that thirst. I have a plan. There is a rock in a specific place. And he says, I want you to go there and I want you to take the elders of Israel with you.

And I want you to smite the rock, smite the rock. And of course, the inferences slay it in a sense, but you can't slay a rock. But it's a type of Christ. If you look in Matthew chapter 27, I'll just go there because it's going to take too long for everybody to turn.

But in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 41, it says,. Likewise, also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders said he saved others himself. He cannot save if he be the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him.

Remember, God said to Moses, take the elders, smite the rock. We see in Matthew chapter 27 at the cross on Calvary's Hill where the elders of Israel, they were there taken to that spot where the rock Jesus was smitten.

And in verse six in Exodus, he says, Thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it. John chapter 19, verse 34, says one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side. That is Jesus. And forthwith there came out blood and water.

These things came out of the side of Jesus. Paul sets it to rest once and for all in first Corinthians chapter 10 and verse four. Speaking of the children of Israel, he says they all drank the same spiritual drink talking about when they were traveling through the wilderness.

God fed them. God gave them drink. And he says, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. Paul sets the record straight. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse four.

He says the rock that followed them, there were physical types in the earth, but there was another rock. It was not a physical rock that gave water as much as water did come out of a physical place. He says, no, there was another rock unseen at that time to the naked eye.

But that rock followed them. And it was that rock which gave them drink. And the name of the rock was Jesus Christ. Amazing. When you begin to see it, Isaiah says in chapter fifty three, he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The word transgressions is Pasha in the Hebrew text. It means revolt, trespass, premeditated rejection of God's law and authority. The word iniquities means depraved actions, sin, guilt, crime, fault, which brings separation from God.

If you want to put that in a modern translation, it means he was wounded for our revolt against God, our trespass, our premeditated rejections of God's law and authority. He was bruised for our depraved actions that we have committed, our sins, our guilt, our crime, our fault.

That's what we have done, which has brought separation between us and our God. And Isaiah goes on and says, by his stripes, we are healed by the bruising, by the wounding, by the smiting of the rock. We are healed.

The total penalty and power of death and iniquity is broken over our lives. Christ was smitten. The rock was smitten. And because the rock was smitten, you and I are healed. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God. And just as water came out of the side of that rock, the scripture tells us that when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus, living water came out of him. John chapter 7, verses 37 and 38.

Jesus stood on the last day of the feast and he said, if any man thirst, let him come to me. He that believes on me, as the scripture had said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This river of life was given to us.

It was open to us through the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. It was not happenstance that sent Jesus to the cross. It was the plan of God Almighty himself from before the foundation of the world. It was preplanned that Jesus should be born of a virgin, that he should walk among men, that he should die a sinless sacrifice to pay for all the depraved actions of humanity, that whoever comes to him now could be cleansed of all of their sins.

It is so significant that out of his side came blood and water, the blood for the forgiveness of our sin. And the water is this new stream of life, this living water that is now open to us, this life of God that is ours in Christ Jesus.

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. This is the promised land, beloved. The promised land is Christ. It's his life. Jesus says, I will come and make my abode with you. This is not just some flippant statement on the part of God.

It's not an allegory being something that is a type of a truth, but it's not really the truth. He says, no, I will literally come and live with you. I'll live inside of you. You'll become the temple of the living God.

I will be in you and I will be your promised land. The promise of God is all in Jesus Christ. It's not about a place. It's a person. It's a personal relationship with God because of his sacrifice on Calvary.

My heart opened to him when he revealed his love to me and I received him as savior. And the living water of God was poured not over me, but also into me and through me. And I stepped into the promised land.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah to God forever. Oh, God, no wonder Jesus skipped and danced and said, Father, you've hidden these things from the wise and prudent in their own sight. And you reveal them unto babes.

You reveal them to those who just know what they are and know what they need. And they just reach out by faith and receive it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God.

Oh, oh, it'd be to God, the church of the living God could lay hold of these truths again in our generation. You can be a torn down drunk. You can be confused. You can be drug addicted. And you can be your mind can be saturated with pornography.

You can be confused and confounded. But the moment you come to Christ, the power of the sin is broken. Aqua smitten water pours out a living testimony of the fact that God is alive. A miracle of grace, God's power, works of righteousness, not by any amount of study, but by God's grace and by God's grace alone.

Peter says, according as his divine power, this is second Peter chapter one, verse three, according as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us.

Now, I want to just back up a little bit. His divine power, his divine power, not our works, not how long we read our Bible, as important as that might be, because you can't get the knowledge of God apart from reading the scriptures.

But it's not these things in themselves. No, it's his divine power. It's his life that is in us. And according to his divine power, he's given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. In other words, everything I need is in him through the knowledge of him.

You see, this is where it comes is through the knowledge of who Christ is. That has called us to glory and virtue, this is the call of the Christian, it's your call, it's mine. Glory means doxa, it means it means that which represents the image and character of God.

In other words, he has called me to represent his very image and character. And that which people may recognize him for who he is through us, that's what doxa means, that Christ said, I've called you so that I can reveal myself through you to this generation.

Otherwise, I would just take you home. Otherwise, we'd have an altar call for salvation and it would be just really if there were no other purpose to be here. If given all the call, you'd receive Christ and disappear, gone off into heaven.

And God could do that. No, but he said, I I've left a testimony of my love and my power and it's called my church. And the church is made up of those that are not wise, they're not they're not smart, they're not educated, they're not strong in themselves, they don't have royal lineage and royal blood.

Oh, there might be a few who maybe qualify for some of these things. But by and large, it's the foolish, the unlearned, those who were captivated, bound. We heard at three o 'clock, it's the rehab harlots that live on the wall.

It just says, hey, I throw the cord down. I'm going to trust you, God. You're going to take my house right out from under me, but I'll trust you. Lord, you got something better for me. It's the foolish.

It's the ones who finally say, hey, this world's got nothing to offer me. Look what they've made me. Look at look at what I've become. Look at look at what they called me. And I'm just it's those who become part of the church of Jesus Christ and he gives them divine power.

And then that divine power forms the image of Christ in them. And we're called to virtue. And the word in the Greek means moral excellence or that which is pleasing to God. It means the excellency of God revealed in salvation, which really is his salvation.

It all just points to a church, a victorious church that becomes a testimony of the divine power of God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit comes and changes us. Constantly, that's why Paul says, as we just Peter says, as we were Paul or whoever he says, as we behold him, I'm 50 now and I just you have to bear with me.

I should know this. I've preached this a hundred times. It's Paul. It's all right. As we behold him, as we behold him, we are changed as Peter says, it's through the knowledge of him as we just simply behold him.

It's that heart that says, Jesus, I want to just know everything about you. I want to. It's because you're not only out there, you're not only at the right hand of God and you're not only omnipresent, which means that God is everywhere, but you're also in me.

And so I want to know who you are. I want to understand how you work. It's that hungry heart and that hungry heart begins to get the revelation. The eyes begin to be opened and God begins to reveal himself and religion just falls by the wayside and all pretense falls away.

Why should I fake it when I can have the real thing? Oh, my goodness. How foolish it is to fake joy when you can have joy. Then he goes on, Peter, he says, this is we've been called by his divine power to be these things.

But then in the next verse, second Peter one, four, he says, now he tells us how this happens. He said, whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And the word lust in the Greek means the disease condition of our soul that is our soul without God. So God has called us and he's given us power and he's called us to represent him on the earth by allowing his life to be lived through us.

And he's given us great promises that by these promises, believing these promises, we reach out by faithfully hold of them and we become partakers of the divine life of God. Amazing that by laying hold of the promises, we escape the diseased condition of our soul.

We escape the flesh by simply laying hold of the promises of God. Every promise of God is. And a man, he cannot lie to me. He cannot lie to you. If he says it's yours, it's yours. You you reach out by faith and say, God, make this a reality.

And if the devil is oppressing you in that area of your life, say, God, make it a double reality that I can stick it right in the devil's face for the rest of my life. If the devil is telling me that I'll never amount to anything, make me something, oh, God, that hell has to reckon with, be glorified in my life, be glorified through my life.

You see, it's simple for the New Testament Christian, the promised land is a place where Christ speaks, we believe and he performs it. That's the New Testament. That's a new covenant. Christ speaks. It's for the honest heart, obviously.

I don't have to go there because I think you know that it's it's not for the foolish who just play games with God. It's for the honest heart that comes in and he speaks. We believe he performs. That's that's you.

You follow Old Testament Israel. That's all he ever wanted from his people, that you would just simply believe. Remember, he said to Moses in exasperation, he said, oh, how long will it be before these people believe me for all the signs and wonders he did?

Still, there were so many that wouldn't believe him. In Exodus chapter 17, again, going back to the beginning in Exodus again, chapter 17, we see the progression in verses five and six, Moses was told to take the rod.

He was told to smite the rock and out of the rock would come water that the people may drink. Now, that is a complete, absolute type of Jesus Christ. This was leading to Christ. And Paul, remember, I told you, concludes it by saying it was Christ and removes all doubt about this particular illustration.

Faith, Opposition, and the Battle with Amalek

Now, from this place, immediately the children of Israel go into battle immediately. In verse eight, it says, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and in Rephidim, right after the smiting of the rock, right after this miracle of strength now comes a battle.

And Moses said to Joshua, choose out men and go and fight with Amalek. And tomorrow I'll stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek and Moses and Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill and it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed when he let down his hand.

Amalek prevailed. You see, this is a type of all that opposes the Christian. When you've come to Christ, you've received him as your Lord and Savior. When the life of God has now become your life, you better believe the enemy is going to come against you with everything he's got now, because the devil himself knows what happens when even one person rises up and finally realizes what it means to be saved and have the power of God upon them.

The devil's been around a long time. He's lived through revivals. He's seen the Moody's and the Wesley's of history. He knows what can happen when one insignificant person somewhere just lays hold of this and says, wow, I see who I am in God.

I see who God is in me. I begin to realize something and stands up and begins to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ again. The devil comes out and fights and Moses lifts up his hands. It's such an absolute type of faith.

It's not lifted up the sword. He just lifted up his hands to God. And as he simply believed him, Israel prevailed. But when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed and Moses hands were heavy and they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.

And Aaron and her stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and one on the other. And his hands were steady till the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Now, the Lord said to Moses, he said, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called it Jehovah Nisi, for he said, because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Now, God said, Moses, write this down and rehearse it in Joshua's ears, because the enemies are going to always oppose you from generation to generation. Now, Joshua was not going to live forever, and so it was not just for Joshua, it even applies to you and I today.

The enemies of God will always oppose those who are coming to life in Christ. Fears without, Paul says, fightings within, demonic powers, unsurrendered tongues, every weapon the devil can find and fashion he will send against you to stop you from believing and understanding that you have now the life of God inside of you.

Enemies will oppose, but faith will win the battle, faith will always win it when you keep your hands raised to God. That's that's what the whole thing was about. I can see Moses telling Joshua, Amalek came in like a flood.

We have just finished drinking the water, experienced this wonderful miracle of the smitten rock. And then the enemy, as the people were strengthened by this this seeming living water that came out of the rock, the enemy came in like a flood to devour that which God was doing among his people.

But Joshua stood and I raised my hands to heaven. And when I raised my hands to heaven, praising God and trusting God for everything he'd ever spoken into my heart, Israel prevailed. When I let down my hands and begin to look at the circumstances, Amalek began to prevail and God told me this is the way it's going to be from generation to generation.

Joshua, it will never change when God finds a man or woman or a people who are simply willing to raise their hands in faith. The enemies of righteousness will have to flee. They will be overpowered. They'll be overpowered by the praising heart, by that trusting heart and that praising voice.

Speaking to the Rock Instead of Striking It

Now, in Numbers chapter 20, where we started this evening one more time, the people were thirsty. In chapter 20 and verse 8 again, the Lord told Moses or Aaron and Moses again, go to the rock. And he said to them, speak to the rock this time, he said, and speak in verse 8, he said, and speak you to the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth his water.

I find that very interesting. The word his in there, you normally don't refer to a rock as he. The rock shall give forth his water and thou shall bring forth to them water out of the rock and so shalt thou give the congregation and their beasts drink.

And Moses took the rod from before the Lord and he gathered the congregation together and said, here now, you rebels, must we fetch your water out of this rock? Moses lifted up his hand with his rod, he smote the rock twice and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also.

And the Lord spake to Moses and to Aaron said, because you believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

And, you know, I have preached this verse several times, I guess, over the years, and I've preached it from different angles, different perspectives, and I don't suppose any of them are absolutely incorrect, but there's something that I feel that God has shown me in this verse of Scripture lately.

And no matter what translation you look at, it says the same thing. And really, in verse 12, the Lord spoke to Moses and he said to him, because you believed me not. And really, the root of Moses' behavior was unbelief.

At that very moment, in the character and the integrity of God, in the New Living Testament, this is the way it reads, he says, because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land that I am giving them.

Now, beloved, in this, there's a lesson for every preacher, every parent, every leader, every Christian. Here's the lesson. The lesson is just simply this. You did not believe that I would be good to the people in spite of their failure.

You did not believe in my integrity. The rock was smitten once, and I told you now that you're not to smite it again. You're to speak to the rock this time. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells the Jewish Christians that he was writing to.

He said, if you've been made, I'm going to paraphrase this. But he said, if you've been made a partaker of the things of God, and you've tasted of his power and the good world to come. And he said, if you fall away, it's impossible to renew you to repentance.

He said, because you've crucified Christ afresh and you've put him to an open shame. And you see, the Jewish Christians, their problem was not about totally rejecting Jesus. But there was a deep, abiding mistrust in the integrity of the message that God had given through his son.

The integrity of the message is simply that it is Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to pay the price once and for all for all of our sins. That's the integrity of God. To doubt that is to doubt the integrity of God.

God said, if you come to me, if you have an honest heart now, I want you to understand that what I'm about to say has absolutely no bearing to the hypocrite, to the religious game player that's just content to play their little game and come in the house of God.

It has no bearing for you whatsoever. This message is for the honest person that can honestly say, God, I have trusted in Christ for my salvation. I struggle. Yes, I battle. And Amalek is against me on every side, trying to crush and destroy the testimony of God in my life.

Now, this message is for you. The Hebrew Christians were always in danger of pulling back and not believing that the sacrifice of Christ was sufficient to pay the price for their sins. It would always become Jesus and some duty we had to do something I had to perform.

I must be struggling because I'm not doing this enough. I'm I'm not going there enough. I'm not performing this enough. And so it would be Christ and something else. There was an unbelief in the heart and really the root of performance to gain acceptance with God is a deep root of unbelief in the integrity of the character of God.

It's as if we say, well, yes, we realize that Christ was smitten for my sins and I have believed that he paid the price for my sins. But then there's a drawing back. There's a drawing back in the heart that says somehow I just don't believe that this time I'm forgiven.

And folks, I want to tell you something. If God marked your iniquity, who could stand? There's something that needs to be understood in the heart of the sincere Christian. God does not mark your sin against you.

Yes, we should come and we should say, Lord, I'm sorry for this attitude of heart of this particular action, because it cuts us out of an understanding of that living relationship he wants to have with his church.

But it does not cut you off from God. Unbelief is the only thing that can cut you out of this place of promise. There is a land of promise, but it requires a heart of faith in God, the integrity of God.