A Grasshopper Complex - [Numbers 13]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

1 view

0 comments

00:01
I don't claim to know all the words to that song, but I do know there's a phrase in there, I believe, that says, sweet lamb of God, speaking of the
00:08
Lord Jesus Christ. Do something a little different. How many can testify this morning that the
00:13
Lord Jesus Christ is sweet to your soul? Just let me know. Amen. It's a wonder, and it's a joy.
00:19
I can remember growing up as a young boy in Westboro, Massachusetts, Roman Catholic family, going to church and hearing about the
00:26
Lamb of God, seeing a portrayal of Jesus hanging on a cross at the front of the church, and not know anything of what it all meant until it was just going to church.
00:39
We just went to church as a family. And then God, in His mercy, in the late 70s, broke in upon my life and the life of my wife,
00:50
Deb, and brought us to His Son, Jesus Christ. And He has become the sweet Lamb of God.
00:59
The Lamb of God, who, as the Bible says, not only takes away the sin of the world, but He took away my sin.
01:06
And I trust that you revel this morning, or you have great gratitude that He's taken away your sin and nailed it to His cross, taking it completely out of the way for us, and separating our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.
01:21
And we have become the children of God through Christ. And we are here this morning, and we are what we are by the great grace of our
01:28
God. And what God does is He not only saves sinners to become His children,
01:34
He puts His children to work. He puts them to service, and He allows them not only to be saved and be on their way to heaven, but to be able to serve the
01:45
King of kings and the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. Some of you serve in ministry in the church, in the nursery.
01:52
Some of you type the bulletin. Some of you fix and arrange chairs. Some of you do music.
01:59
Some of you teach Sunday school classes. Others preach. And that's what
02:05
I need to do this morning. And I'd like for you to turn with me to Numbers chapter 13. The Old Testament book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 13.
02:27
In Numbers chapter 13, we have opening in verse one, and the Lord spake unto
02:32
Moses, saying, send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel.
02:39
Of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses, by the commandment of the
02:45
Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those men were heads of the children of Israel.
02:52
So we have the commandment of God to send the spies into the land to check out the land of Canaan, the land that God said that he had given to the children of Israel.
03:03
And their names are given in the next few verses. And you will see at the end of those verses, well, you'll see up in verse six, a familiar name is
03:11
Caleb. And then down in verse 16 is Joshua. So they send them into the land, and they come back with their report.
03:19
And I'd like to pick up the reading in verse 25. And they returned from searching of the land after 40 days.
03:27
And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
03:39
And they told him and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.
03:48
Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, or fortified, and very great.
03:55
And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the
04:00
Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan.
04:08
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.
04:15
But the men that went up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
04:21
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that devours or eats up the inhabitants thereof.
04:34
And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature, of great size. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants.
04:43
And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
04:50
I did not come up with the title of this message, but the title of my message this morning is
04:56
The Grasshopper Complex. And I get it from verse 33 here. It is something that we, as the people of God, as we look back on this example in the
05:07
Old Testament, need to learn from. When it comes to the Christian life, when it comes to what
05:12
God is doing in the church, God's desire is for God's people to move forward. Now, I'm not gonna try to say that, get into all the, try to make this look as if we have the land of Canaan and try to read something into this.
05:26
What I wanna do is I wanna try to apply some of the things that we see here so that we can glean from them, so that we can be warned not to do the same thing.
05:35
You see, God intends for his people to move forward. And spiritual progress is the will of God for his people.
05:42
John Bunyan picked up on this and utilized this idea when he wrote the, and used the, wrote the title of his book about Pilgrim.
05:50
He did not call it Pilgrim's Plateau or Pilgrim's Backpedaling. He said it was
05:56
Pilgrim's Progress. It was to be a forward movement. And we see in 1 John 2, as John describes the maturity, the maturing in a
06:03
Christian life, that they are children, young men or young women in the Lord and then older men, or as Paul said, the aged men or women.
06:12
And believers are to move from faith to faith, from strength to strength, and from grace to grace.
06:17
Christians are to conquer more and more ground as they mature in the faith.
06:24
And it is God's will that along with all of the trials and the difficulties, the temptations, and the failures at times, but there are to be times of victory.
06:35
The Christian life is likened unto a race, the Apostle Paul says, as a battle with a forward movement and no turning back.
06:44
God's holy word reminds us that we are more than conquerors in Romans chapter eight, more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our
06:52
Lord. So as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, we ought to know what
06:57
God's will is for the life of a believer and for the church and to accomplish it. And like Canaan was for Israel, they were to move into this place that God had promised for them.
07:11
And they were to obey God's word and something hindered them. And when it comes to the life of a believer, when it comes to the life of a church and church life and ministry together, we ought to keep moving and we ought to keep ministering and we ought to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of the
07:28
Lord. And our desire ought to be to obey God and to claim God's promises, to read
07:34
God's word and see what he promises and to walk in the light of those promises and be encouraged and fight the good fight as the
07:42
Apostle said, when at the end of his life, I have fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith. We're to live that way.
07:51
But this is not always our experience. There are things that hinder our progress, things that stop the momentum, things that strangle our ability to gain the victory.
08:01
And we find ourselves many times as in the old, I can't remember what television station, maybe it was
08:08
ABC with the wild world of sports. We have the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
08:14
And many times we see that some experience this agony of defeat.
08:21
And I'd like to examine a portion of history here in Israel's time, the
08:27
Old Testament book of numbers in order to see what hindered them and exactly what kept them from experiencing the victory and from moving on to where God would have them move.
08:37
Previously from this account that I read here, the Lord had mightily delivered Israel out of the clutches of Pharaoh, out of the slavery of 400 years in Egypt.
08:47
And they were now positioned to enter into the promised land the land that God had promised to them already.
08:56
And in this book here, we see in this chapter and in verse two, I don't know if you notice it when
09:02
I read it, when God says in verse one to Moses and then in verse two, send men that they may search out the land of Canaan which
09:11
I give unto the children of Israel. This is something that God has already done.
09:17
God has given it to them. It's a promise. It was a done deal. God had given them or promised to them this portion of land and it was already theirs.
09:27
All they had to do was to look it over, prepare themselves to take it and then enter in.
09:33
But this segment of Israel's history does not turn out well. This generation never made it.
09:40
Something stopped them cold in their tracks. Something robbed them of this blessing of God's promise.
09:46
Something hindered them from experiencing the will of God and moving forward to the place where God wanted them to be.
09:54
And of course, I've entitled that or gone along with that title. The thing that hindered them was this grasshopper complex.
10:02
And I'm gonna try to develop this from looking at this text, some falls that they made here, some things that they did that got them to the position where they just threw up their hands and they said they would not believe and they would not go forward.
10:17
They would not trust God. They would not take God at his promise. And hopefully in something that is said here for the believers that are here this morning, this is a message for believers, for Christians.
10:28
This will help and encourage you with the different things that you face each and every day as we struggle and strive to press forward, to press on.
10:38
As the Apostle Paul was saying in Philippians chapter three, he says, God has apprehended me. And now
10:44
I need to press on and I need to apprehend for the glory of Christ and do that which he's called me to do.
10:50
So as we examine this sad and tragic account of defeat and disappointment and death, let us remember the words of the
10:57
Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth when he spoke of learning from Israel's poor example in chapter 10.
11:03
1 Corinthians 10, I will just read 11 and 12. Now all these things, speaking back to them, looking back at Israel at this time in their history.
11:14
Now all these things happened unto them for examples. And they are written for your, for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
11:23
Wherefore, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
11:30
We need to learn from this and we need to be admonished by this. We see it in verse 33, where the report was there's giants in the land.
11:40
We came there, we saw them and we were on our own site as grasshoppers.
11:46
And so we were in their sight. Just what did
11:52
Israel do to stop their forward progress, to limit the Holy One of Israel and to stop themselves from entering in?
11:58
And I submit to you this morning that it began in their minds and it began in their hearts.
12:06
Of course, ultimately we see as we look over in the book of Hebrews in chapter three and chapter four, we see that it was because of an evil heart of unbelief.
12:15
It was because they would not continue to in faith, trust God to do what he said that he would do.
12:22
And they allowed evil thoughts to control their whole outlook on the ability of their God which resulted in these tragic consequences.
12:30
So my first point of the message this morning in this idea of this grasshopper complex of getting to this place where we see ourselves as incapable of going forward.
12:41
When we see ourselves in the light of looking at God and saying that God is not able to have us go forward.
12:49
I would like for us to consider these points to help us. And maybe I'll kind of turn it a little bit this way and say that these will be effective measures for conquering this grasshopper complex.
13:01
What can we do or what ought we not to do? And the first point that I would like to have us to concern ourselves with is number one, beware of doubt and disbelief.
13:12
Beware of doubt and disbelief. Notice in verse 27, when they came back and they told him and said, we came onto this land without sent us and surely it flows with milk and honey.
13:23
And this is the fruit of it. So far so good, right on the report. I mean, that is great. It's just what you said, Moses. It's a land that flows with milk and honey.
13:32
And then verse 28, nevertheless. It's almost like when you're talking to somebody and you ask them a question and they're giving you an answer and you're expecting a certain answer and they're saying the positive.
13:43
And all of a sudden they use that one word with three letters, but. And you know that what's coming after that is not going to be good.
13:52
And here it is, it's flowing with milk and honey. It's just like you said, nevertheless. What do they say?
13:59
The people are strong. They just could not believe what
14:05
God had said. The Lord told them that the land was theirs. God made them that promise in verse 2 and other portions of scripture.
14:12
They had had this earlier, but they had an evil heart of unbelief. And what they were actually saying was that God was not able to keep his promise.
14:20
They made God out to be a liar. He had promised the land and they did not believe it. But they would not believe it.
14:26
They were in utter disbelief of the Lord who had been so faithful to them up to this point. All along the line they could raise their
14:33
Ebenezer. Hitherto as the Lord helped us and hitherto as the Lord helped us and he's gotten us out of Egypt and he's delivered us.
14:40
And yet they still would not believe. Their hearts were too calloused and too stubborn to trust in God.
14:47
What should we consider for our lives? Well, it is sinful to doubt God. And we will pay the price for our unbelief.
14:54
We will not be allowed to go where God purposes for us to go. We won't win those victories and conquer our sin or in our lives have the capability to mortify the flesh and gain new spiritual heights and press on to higher ground if we let an evil heart of unbelief overcome us.
15:16
First and foremost, I mean more than anything as we see, I'm trying to look at this and gear this message towards believers, that I said, as I said earlier, there are most likely in a crowd this large, there are some of you here this morning that do not know what it means to be a
15:33
Christian. You don't know what it means to be forgiven of your sins. You don't know what it means to be a child of God. And coming to church is just another thing you do when you're weak.
15:41
It is just like going to school. It is just like going to week. It's just something you do, something everybody else does.
15:48
And I submit to you this morning that that's not enough. The question in Acts chapter 16 was asked, what must
15:54
I do to be saved? And of course that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved in my house.
16:00
If you ask the question a little bit differently, what must I do to be lost? Absolutely nothing.
16:07
We heard that in Sunday school this morning. He that does not believe is already condemned. The person is already judged if they will not believe and you stand or sit in a place where the wrath of God abides upon you if you have not believed upon Christ.
16:23
And I beg you this morning, and I point you this morning to the Lord Jesus. As we've heard of already in our singing, as we've heard of in Sunday school, he is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes unto the
16:34
Father but by him. It begins there. It begins there and must begin there. It can only begin there.
16:39
To repent of sin and turn to Christ and to look to him and live. And then once you become a
16:45
Christian, once God does that work upon your heart and you become a child of God, there is to be a life of service, a life of work called to work for God, to serve the
16:56
Lord Jesus Christ and to move forward. And we read the word of God and God makes promises in the word of God to us.
17:05
He makes it very clear how we are to obey him and where to walk in the light of this book, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
17:14
But as Christians, we need to be careful because it is sinful to doubt
17:19
God. It is a great sin to disbelieve what God has said in his word.
17:26
And we cannot afford to distrust God's person, God's power or God's promises.
17:32
Like the Israelites, we will miss so much of what the savior has in store for us if we will not believe.
17:41
Shame on us if we doubt the character in the word of our God. And it is time for God's people to believe
17:48
God's word and to trust his promises, even when it makes no sense, even when it hurts, even when it goes against all reason, even when everybody around us says, it just won't work, it's not worth it, give it up, throw in the towel, get it over with.
18:06
We believe God. So the first thing we need to be aware of is the doubt and disbelief.
18:11
They had it here. Notice they said, nevertheless, in verse 28, the people are big, the walls, the cities are walled.
18:16
You'll see it again as Caleb stands up in the midst in verse 30, he says, and Caleb stilled the people.
18:22
That word there means he quieted the people. He said, hush, be quiet. He stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it.
18:33
Where did Caleb get that fortitude? Where did he get that drive? Where did he get that focus?
18:40
Well, he had another spirit because he believed God. He believed what God said. God promised them the land and he believed that they could do it because it wasn't their battle, it was
18:50
God's battle. God was going to bring them in and it was going to be God's doing. But again, notice verse 31, but the men that went up with him said, we are not able to go up against this people because they are stronger than us.
19:04
So first and foremost, what plunges us into this grasshopper complex or this place where we just think that we are just not capable of doing anything.
19:13
Really, and it's not just us. I mean, aren't we saying that God is not capable? God is not able to get us where he has promised that he said he will get us.
19:22
Doubt and disbelief, beware of that. Secondly, never entertain a distorted self -image.
19:33
Don't say, Dave, oh, you're going off on all that self -esteem stuff. Just give me a few minutes and I'll kind of build this point here.
19:39
Don't ever entertain a distorted self -image. You see, the
19:45
Israelites knew what God had promised, but they turned around and said, we can't do this. I mean, it's like, this is mission impossible.
19:52
We can't go against these enemies. We'll be killed. They're strong. They have fortified cities.
19:58
We see this in verse 28. Fortified cities, great and walled, and there's giants there.
20:04
They outnumber us. And to top it all off, as I said, there's giants. And we're like grasshoppers compared to them, verse 33.
20:12
There's a phrase in verse 33 that reveals their inner problem. You see the words in verse 33 where it says, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, or we became like grasshoppers in our own sight.
20:28
They did this to themselves. This is where God was to have them. This wasn't from the
20:33
Lord. They did not consider, and this is the problem with them, and I believe it's a problem for us today.
20:39
They did not consider who they were in God's sight. They just didn't get it.
20:45
They just had their eyes were on themselves. And this was their problem.
20:50
They were looking at the match up of the sides through their own human eyes. And what they should have been looking at, and how they should have been looking at this was in God's eyes, or in God's perspective, and what
21:01
God had told them. People who win victories are people who understand who they are in reference to God.
21:09
They know who is on their side and who fights their battles for them. The Israelites said in verse 31, again, we are not able to go up against this people.
21:23
But what they should have said is God is able. I mean, didn't we get that in the story of David going against Goliath?
21:29
Here he goes, a young boy against about a 9 foot 6 giant, a young boy with five stones.
21:35
And he goes and he runs out there for his envy for God's glory, for his desire for God to be glorified.
21:42
And Goliath was coming out and speaking against God. And David rushes out. And he knew that the strength that he would go out in was not his own, for the battle was the
21:54
Lord's. They complained that the enemy was stronger. And of course our enemies are stronger.
22:02
Most of them are very formidable. When we think of our enemies that come our way, sin and Satan and self in this world, but God is stronger than our enemies.
22:12
Their cities are fortified, but no weapon formed against God's people will prosper. They are mighty, but our mighty
22:18
God is for us. They were outnumbered, they thought, but one plus God is a majority.
22:25
They are giants, but really these giants, these giants that they thought they were giants, they're just but pygmies before God.
22:34
These are fierce enemies of God, but they neglected to realize that they were, and here's the point, they were the dear and precious covenant people of God.
22:45
And he would give them this land if they would trust and obey. It reminds me of Psalm 27, verse 1, the
22:53
Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life.
22:58
Of whom shall I be afraid? And you flip over into the New Testament, where the Apostle John was writing in 1
23:05
John, chapter 4, speaking about the spirit of Antichrist. He says, you are of God, little children, speaking to the believers.
23:13
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
23:23
And Israel was not thinking this way. They were not thinking of what it was that God had done on their behalf.
23:28
The Lord was on their side up to that point, and they had no reason to fear. They had failed to see themselves for who they really were, the precious and protected people of God.
23:38
Many years ago, my path had crossed with a person who had a profession of faith, a young man.
23:47
And when he would talk about Christians, he would always wanted himself to be described this way and every believer to be described this way as being worms, nobodies, and unprofitable.
24:02
And I don't know if you've ever met a person like that, but it's like, we're nothing. We're nobodies. We're insignificant.
24:08
And there's a bit of truth to that, is there not? I mean, when it comes to the Lord. But what he was doing was the whole outlook of the whole
24:14
Christian life was always to be like that. I mean, he used Old Testament verses of gloom and doom and how we're just so wretched, so miserable.
24:23
And it's almost like nothing is ever good going to come of the believer's life. But don't we have the whole counsel of God?
24:31
And in the scriptures, don't we see ourselves described by God, those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as the ones who are loved of God, as the ones who are children or sons of God, the ones who are his dear children, heirs, joint heirs with Christ?
24:48
We are God's sheep. We are vessels of honor. We are the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the family of God.
24:54
And when I think of that, I think of what God does in his regenerating work, as we heard in Sunday school, of being born again.
25:00
Doesn't God take as that person, that gentleman in the past I was speaking of, doesn't
25:06
God take worms and make them, through his regeneration, something wonderful and something beautiful, like the caterpillar being turned into a beautiful butterfly?
25:15
God makes nobodies into somebodies. And God shapes unprofitable clay into profitable vessels that are ready and fit for his use.
25:25
But the Israelites had a distorted self -image. They just had forgotten who they were before God.
25:32
And they also had a diminished view of who God was on their behalf. They had totally lost sight and forgotten what
25:40
God had done for them, how he had promised to do the same over and over again about all their enemies, scattering them and going before them and fighting for them.
25:51
And we need to pray in our Christian life for the mind of Christ and to bring all of our thoughts properly under good obedience to the
26:02
Lord, to where our thoughts, then influencing our actions, would bring glory to the
26:07
Lord in thinking this way, that yes, we're wretches, as John Newton wrote.
26:13
But amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. We once were lost, but now we're found.
26:22
We once were blind, but now we see. We're people who are blessed of God. We are people who are thought well of by God.
26:31
God thinks upon us, the scripture says. In 1 Peter 5 .70, he says he cares for us.
26:37
In all of our difficulties and all the things that may bring us anxiety and difficulty, when we are depressed, when we are discouraged,
26:46
God thinks for us. God thinks about us, and God cares for us. In Hebrews 13 .5,
26:52
a great verse that I've always just run to is, let your conversation or let your behavior be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.
27:02
It deals with contentment up front. It says, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
27:10
We are people who will never be forsaken of God. I'm speaking to believers, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
27:16
And don't ever get this wrong self -image or this self -position.
27:22
Where we are, who we are, we are the cherished and loved people of God. And if God be for us, who can be against us?
27:30
If God has purpose to do us good all the days of our lives, who are we to say that it isn't going to happen?
27:36
Or we're just going to fall by the wayside? Or it's just not, we have, I mean, aren't you supposed to have a, I know that at work when people come in to interview,
27:44
I'm looking for that can -do attitude, you know? It can be done. If I have somebody comes in and all they're saying is, their history is it can't be done.
27:53
You know, it's always a negative, pessimistic outlook. I mean, I heard somebody preach once at a pastor's conference about David and Goliath.
28:01
And they said, without faith, David would have pessimistically looked at Goliath and said, he's too big,
28:08
I can't conquer him. Or he's too big, even I can't even do this in the strength of the Lord. But this man went on to say, by faith,
28:15
David could look at Goliath and optimistically say, he's so big, I can't miss him. I'll be able to hit him.
28:21
God will strengthen me to do this. It will be done, because I will stand up for the name of God and I will fight this battle in the strength of the
28:29
Lord. So secondly, don't let this distorted image of who we are cause you to fall or a diminished view of God to enter in, because it would be very unhealthy.
28:41
Here's the important point. When we're reading about any person in the Old Testament, these great victories like Elijah on Mount Carmel or Daniel in the
28:50
Lion's Den, David with Goliath, the Apostle Paul, as he does battle for the advancement of the gospel, the focus should not be so much upon how great these men of God were, but how great the
29:05
God of these men is. And the focus in our lives today is not to be how great or how smart or how strong we are as a person, as an individual
29:16
Christian, or as a church, but how great and awesome and powerful our
29:21
God is and what he will do on our behalf. You know, the thing today when you listen to people, it's always about them, isn't it?
29:32
It's always about us. And when it comes to Christianity, it's not about us. And even the
29:37
Lord Jesus Christ, he was not self -focused. He was father -focused. He was God -focused, kingdom -focused, souls -focused.
29:45
It was always others, not himself. And it was always him looking to the Father and we should do the same.
29:51
Well, third point. We've had first that doubt and disbelief can bring us to this place where we see ourselves incorrectly and get this distorted self -image and this diminished image of the
30:05
Lord and who he is. But thirdly, never give place to double -mindedness. And to do this point,
30:11
I'm going to need to look over in verse 14, in chapter 14, in the continuation of this account.
30:18
Notice in verse 1, in all the congregation lifted up, I'm in Numbers 14, verse 1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night.
30:28
And the children of Israel murmured or grumbled against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, would to God that we had died in Egypt, in the land of Egypt, or would
30:38
God we had died in this wilderness? Wherefore, hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey?
30:47
Were it not better for us to return to Egypt? I mean, you can just hear them, can't you?
30:55
Moses, look at this mess that you've got us in. We used to sing a song with the kids when they were younger.
31:01
Nobody likes a grumbler who grumbles all the time? You ever heard that one? That's where they were, grumbling. Moses, look what you've done.
31:08
I mean, we wish we had died already in the wilderness. What's God doing anyways? Does God have a plan? Does he know what he's doing?
31:17
We did what he said. In Egypt, we put the blood on our doors. We ate the lamb. We left Egypt. And now, look at where we're at.
31:24
Is God going to kill our wives? I mean, we should just go back to Egypt. They were double -minded.
31:32
They were vacillating. Their relationship with God and their dealings with him was on again, off again, based upon their circumstances.
31:41
In James 1 .8, it tells us that a double -minded mind is unstable in all his ways. And their footsteps are slipping.
31:47
They are unstable. Unstable as water, and all the ground that they had gained to this point was going to be lost.
31:53
And how ridiculously foolish and sinful it was for them to think that God had brought them to that place at the brink of Canaan, at that point in their lives, just to kill them.
32:06
How foolish. God's thoughts towards his people are peace.
32:12
He loves his people. And he always purposes to do us good. And like a faithful shepherd, he leads us.
32:18
And he never brings us any place to harm us. They're the ones that are thinking improperly.
32:23
They've allowed the circumstances to open the door of doubt and disbelief and double -mindedness.
32:29
Their hearts are wavering. They are not trusting in the unchangeable faithfulness of their
32:34
Heavenly Father as they should. And they're about to pay the price. And what they needed and what we need today is a single eye of complete and total surrender to the will and the leading of God's Holy Spirit.
32:48
For when God calls us to do something, when he asks us to do something in his word, he equips us by his grace for the work.
32:57
When he brings us into a battle, so to speak, he goes before us. And he also provides us with spiritual arm when he fights on our behalf.
33:09
When God puts us someplace as in a family, in a marriage, in a church, in a job, he has his will for us.
33:16
He has a plan for us to serve him all the days of our lives and to do it for his glory. And he's doing things on purpose and for a purpose.
33:26
And though we may, maybe the road gets bumpy, maybe we do not understand what is coming our way.
33:32
Why is this happening to us? Why are our hearts broken? Why is it that we are so discouraged?
33:39
Why is it, look, why is this trial come to us? Or maybe the test comes before us. What are we going to do?
33:47
God wants us to serve him. God's desire is for us to live as shining testimonies for him in this day and age.
33:55
Yet something confronts us and comes before us and we're either going to trust in the
34:01
Lord or we're going to do that which is just sinful in his sight, to disbelieve and to distrust and to go the other way.
34:12
He does things on purpose and for a purpose. And though it may not make sense, it makes perfect sense to him.
34:19
And we just need to say single -minded and focused on trusting the
34:24
Lord no matter what. We see their thoughts go on even further here in chapter 14 because what they want to do is they want to be secure.
34:36
They want to find some type of security. And my fourth point is don't be trapped by the desire for security, a security outside of the
34:46
Lord. It's security outside of the good hand of God. We notice that in chapter 14, as I read on in verse four, and they said one to another, let us make a captain and let us return to Egypt.
35:00
Here they were saying, what has God done? They grumbled against Moses, against the leadership that they have. Would the
35:05
God we had died in the wilderness, would the God we had died in Egypt? Wasn't it better for us if we were in Egypt?
35:14
Let's get another leader. Let's do this right and let's get back to Egypt.
35:20
I mean, we liked it there. I mean, what they're saying is we were better off there.
35:26
I mean, this is a complete mess that we're in right now in this wilderness and let's get back to the good old days.
35:33
But do you see how their sinful disposition is clouding their judgment?
35:39
Because if they're to think about Egypt, they're only remembering the pleasant things.
35:45
They remembered the leeks and the melons and the onions and the fish.
35:51
Those things in Egypt that they liked and they had security in, but they had forgotten that their occupation was slavery with its bricks and mortar and straw and sweat and blood and death.
36:05
So they say, let us get out of here. We're not taking any risks for God. We don't wanna count the cost.
36:10
We're not going to do this. We wanna be secure. This is just too much for us. And they were unwilling to sacrifice for God and how vastly opposite this is to the example of the godly pursuit of a man like William Carey who wrote these words, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.
36:32
There are some here today who may be in this predicament to where you are unwilling to take a risk for God.
36:39
You're unwilling to believe God, to take Him at His word. And by a risk,
36:45
I mean you will not go against human reasoning, your own human reasoning or the human reasoning that you're listening to from others.
36:52
You won't go against what makes sense, so to speak, or against the peer pressure or against your physical body or against those who are negative and always giving that it cannot be done attitude or our own personal goals or desire.
37:06
The Bible is full of people who abandon their security. There are people who gave up what they thought would keep them secure, trusting in God.
37:17
Just some quick examples. Think of Noah. I mean, how easy would it have been to just not do anything for over a hundred years but just to sit there and take his ease.
37:30
But by faith, he got to work. His faith put him to work. And what did he do? He followed the instructions of God, though it made no human sense.
37:39
And why didn't it make human sense? I mean, there were no bodies of water close by where Noah was. It had never rained.
37:47
And he is being told to build this huge boat, this huge ship, about a football field and a half in length.
37:54
I mean, huge, tons and tons of material. And after he got this thing built, and if it were to rain and he gets in this thing, just think about it.
38:02
You've probably not thought about this. There is no anchor. There is no mast.
38:08
There is no sail. There is no rudder. There's no steering. There's no control. Who's gonna guide this?
38:15
Who gave him the order? Who gave him the command? God is. Is God gonna keep him? Certainly he is. And God used him to preserve his family and to work in his life because Noah found grace in the eyes of the
38:27
Lord and he obeyed God. He abandoned security. Abraham. I mean, he's always a story to me.
38:33
Abraham, when after God had told him that he was going to need to leave his country. Can you imagine the conversation he has when he goes home to talk to Sarah?
38:43
Comes in the house. Sarah, the Lord says we're gonna have to move.
38:50
Where are we going? I don't know. Where are we gonna end up? I have no idea, but we need to pack up and we need to go.
38:58
No security there. He went, Hebrews 11, by faith, trusting
39:03
God, not the security of where he lived, not his home, not his land, not his money, not his possessions, not that which he could hold in his hands, but trusting
39:13
God. How about Ruth? You think of that great story in the Old Testament, leaving her family to follow
39:20
Naomi. Naomi who walked with God and Ruth left it all to be with her. Left her family, left everything that she knew to go to be with Naomi, to trust with her and in her
39:33
God. And God gave her a husband and his name was Boaz who was the great grandfather of King David in the line of Jesus.
39:40
She trusted God and God blessed her. Well, I must move on. Each one of us or each one of those examples that I gave, they took risks trusting in God.
39:52
They did not get their sense of security from men. They didn't get it from each other.
39:57
And they were rewarded for their reliance upon God. Their security was rooted in God's promises.
40:05
They trusted God. They believed God. Israel had sinned in our account as we're looking at because they were so concerned about their own personal security.
40:14
They would not believe God and they would not believe that God would do what he said that he would do.
40:25
They were concerned about themselves. They were not concerned about the glory of God and obeying
40:33
God's word. In that point, we are not to be trapped and ought to be careful, not ever to be trapped by a desire for security.
40:44
Because just when you think that that little thing that you're holding onto is going to give you fulfillment in life, that material possession, that thing that you hold in your hand or you can see on paper, or you have in the bank, or it's 50 miles away in some other town, that thing that you hold dear and you think that that is your all in all, it could be that the
41:10
Lord would just swoop it away from you to see if you will fall upon the everlasting arms and trust
41:17
God even when it doesn't make sense. My last point that I'd like to make this morning is, and this is really where it kind of came home for them.
41:31
And I'm gonna go back to chapter 13, back to the text, the verse, in verse 33.
41:37
Do not despise your weaknesses. Do not despise your weaknesses.
41:44
In verse 33, again, they said the giants are in the land and we are in our own sight as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight.
41:54
I mean, can't you hear them again? We're grasshoppers. I mean, we're like little insects, trembling, vulnerable, weak and we don't like this.
42:06
We're not thrilled about where God has us and we're not pleased with our self image. And again, that's the plight of the
42:13
United States today and we hear this. I mean, I went to some leadership training classes at work and it was like, what do we need to do to get more productivity out of our people?
42:22
And at the top of the list, it's always more self esteem, more self esteem and self worth and self image and self fulfillment and self, self, self.
42:33
And as I said, like the Lord Jesus, he was everything but self. He was selfless, sacrificial love on our behalf for us.
42:41
Of course, when he went to the cross and he gave up himself for us, that we might be reconciled to God through him and have the forgiveness of sins.
42:51
And his whole life, if you look at it, is he went about doing good, doing the Father's will. And we, like the
42:58
Apostle Paul, ought to come to the place where we say, for me to live as Christ.
43:04
For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. There is pressure that comes our way at times, yes.
43:10
Pressure by and from the potter on the clay and it seems so heavy at times, but we need to remember whose hands are touching us.
43:20
We need to remember who is leading us. The Lord is my shepherd, Psalm 23.
43:27
I shall not want, I shall not lack. He is the one who leads us beside the still waters and he leads us into the pastures.
43:37
For his namesake, he does these things. For our good and for his glory, he does this.
43:42
It is his hand that is leading us as we read the word of God and the Holy Spirit molds and shapes our hearts and our minds come under the influence of the word of God and the word of Christ rules in our hearts.
43:55
We begin to walk in the way of God and God leads us differently, doesn't he? I mean, face it, when you go talk to the people at work and you go talk to your family and you talk to your neighbors, as a
44:04
Christian talking to a non -believer, we love them and want them to come to Christ and desire to share the gospel with them, but we're in two different worlds.
44:13
We're speaking two different languages. We're in two different families and we're walking on two different paths.
44:19
God has put us on the narrow path and they're on the broad way that leads to destruction. We're on the narrow path that leads to life, to the praise and glory of God and yet, when we speak with them, it's very difficult, isn't it?
44:33
Because we're talking in different terms and different meanings to the words that we're using, but it is a wonder and it is a glory and it is a great thing that it is
44:42
God that has done this. And just like God had brought Israel up to this place where they were at the brink of this land that they were to enter into, many times in our lives,
44:54
God leads us, does he not? And he brings us to places where decisions need to be made and if we are in submission to the word of God and we put ourselves and fall on our face before the word of God as we're reading it, praying that God would teach it to us and direct our paths, then we, if we don't go the way that the
45:16
Israelites did in unbelief, if we believe God that what his word says is true and he will do what he says in this word and he will stand on our behalf and he will sanctify us and he will make us his very own and grow us in the grace and knowledge of Christ, then we ought to be the people who willingly submit and go with what
45:39
God has said for us so that we glorify him and that we grow in that grace and knowledge and we're not hindered because we're looking at ourselves or we're looking at the circumstances or we just won't believe what
45:52
God has said. I can remember a time when Deb and I had to pray about a situation as far as moving and it was something that we had to do before we moved.
46:04
We had to give up. We were gonna have to sell something, I think it was. Yeah, we were gonna have to sell something and it was big and I can't remember it was a house or something along that type of decision and it was like in order for us to get to this place where we believe that God would bring us.
46:19
Now, at the time, it was like either the best job, you know what I'm talking about?
46:24
You've got the best job, the finances are settled, you're able to pay the bills, you've got the house.
46:33
I mean, everything is in order and it's almost at times where there's a decision to make and you may have to leave and you're gonna have to leave that behind, that security, that blanket that you'd like to rest with in order to be able to go where you believe
46:46
God would have you to go. Well, at this point in our lives with Deb and I, we had come to the place after praying about it that we were willing to give this up.
46:56
It was no longer something that we would cherish if it was what God would have us to do to go on, to be in the place of ministry for him and the
47:05
Lord in his wisdom, had stopped this forward momentum to where we did not have to go, but we were still at the place where we rejoiced, even though we didn't give it up and didn't go, we rejoiced that God would make us willing to do that.
47:19
I don't know if that makes sense to some of you, hopefully it will, but you're willing to step out in faith, not knowing what is gonna be underneath your feet.
47:28
It's almost like the priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan River and they're walking,
47:34
I don't know if you've ever read that account, they're walking towards the river and that river is supposed to split when their feet hit it, they're walking down with it and as soon as their feet hit, they're walking where they have never walked before and maybe in your life,
47:48
God will call you to walk where you've never walked before and you're gonna just need to trust him when it makes no sense and to walk and see what the
47:55
Lord does. And in this case here, Israel failed miserably and I'm hoping and I'm desiring that for us, we might be able to learn this lesson and this last point here too is not to despise our weakness.
48:12
Yes, so maybe we look like grasshoppers, maybe we are insignificant, but God is greater than all of our enemies and God can overcome.
48:21
What did the Apostle Paul say when he wrote about what it was, when is the believer their strongest?
48:28
Of course, it's when we're our weakest. Second Corinthians 12 .10, he says he rejoiced in his infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake because when he was weak, then he was strong.
48:41
He realized that his abilities could not deliver him and when his abilities could not deliver him, it was time to be still and see
48:51
God act upon his behalf and that is the same for us. What happened in this whole account?
48:57
What took place in this account with Israel? Well, in chapter 14, we won't read it, but in verse 11 and 12, we see that God wants to kill them all and to start over again.
49:12
Moses intercedes in verse 13 and prays for them. He begs for mercy in 17 and 18 and he asked
49:21
God to demonstrate his power by being merciful and long -suffering and forgiving their iniquity and their transgression and God does and he pardons according to Moses' word, but there are consequences that are going to have to come and for every year that the spies went into the land, for every day that the spies went into the land, 40, that would be a year that they would spend in the wilderness and all of those 20 years and older would die.
49:54
Upwards of a million would die, over a million. I think somebody may have calculated 87 per day would die in the wilderness.
50:03
You know what's so amazing to me when it comes to that? Did you remember? Well, let me just show you this to you.
50:11
In verse 27, God is saying this, how long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me?
50:18
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, chapter 14, verse 27, which they murmur against me.
50:23
Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in mine ears, so will
50:32
I do to you. As you have spoken, that's what I'm going to do to you and you remember what they spoke back over in 14, verse two?
50:42
They said, would to God we had died in the land of Egypt. Would to God we had died in the wilderness and God's giving them what they asked for.
50:54
And I think it's a great warning for us to be very careful of what you ask for and to guard your heart and not to allow an evil heart of unbelief to enter in.
51:07
On the opposite of that though, we have the great testimony of who? Joshua and Caleb, two young men who would stand in the gap, two young men who would believe
51:18
God. Two young men, as it says in verse 24 of Caleb, that he had another spirit with him, for he had followed fully, me fully, he followed
51:28
God fully. Notice what he says over in chapter 14.
51:35
After the people said, let's make a captain and let's go back to Egypt, notice in verse five, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation.
51:43
In verse six, and Joshua, the son of Nun and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, they ripped their clothes, they were grieving in sorrow and they spake unto the company of the children of Israel saying, the land which we pass through to search it, it is an exceeding good land.
51:59
If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.
52:06
Only do not rebel against the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land for they are bred for us.
52:12
Did you see the difference there? They trusted God and there was no Caterpillar complex. I mean, there was no grasshopper complex here.
52:24
They're resting in the Lord. They're believing God. They're single -minded. There's no disbelief here.
52:32
They're focused on what God has said. And they said just the opposite. I mean, it's almost like when
52:38
Goliath said to David, I'm gonna take your head off of you today. You go back and read in first Samuel.
52:44
David turns right around and said, it's in the strength of the Lord. God is gonna take your head off. David didn't say,
52:50
I'm gonna take your head off. God is going to kill you today, Goliath. And he did. And in this case here,
52:56
Caleb and Joshua, they say that God is able to do this and the people in the land will be bred for us.
53:03
They're not gonna devour us. We're gonna devour them. Their defenses departed from them. And notice, what is the whole difference?
53:10
Nine B, for the Lord is with us, so fear them not.
53:16
That's the whole point there. That's just the great testimony of a person who will trust in God, who will look to the
53:25
Lord and believe what God says and believe the promises of God and walk in the light of those promises.
53:33
And I trust that as you go through this week and the next and the month and the years as a believer, and you are faced with different tests and the trials come your way, and you have to make decisions that just don't make sense.
53:45
And everybody around you is telling you to go this way. And you know that you need to go in that direction.
53:50
Believe God and trust him and look to him and don't allow the disbelief and the double -mindedness and this wrong diminishing view of God, come in and enter in because it certainly will ultimately end in consequences that will be sad because that sin will need to be judged.
54:10
But do what Joshua and Caleb did and look to them. They were men who were particularly graced by God.
54:16
God was great in their life and God so moved and granted them faith and God acted on their behalf that they did what they did for the glory of God.
54:25
And when you read the book of Joshua, and you will see later on, and I think it's Joshua either 14 or 17, and you see
54:32
Caleb at about 84 years old say that he has the strength that he had when he was a youth and that God had been with him all those years and God had been faithful and God promised him that land.
54:42
And he says, I want that mountain. What does God do? God gives it to him because he comes through with his promise.
54:49
I would hope and I would just pray for us today that we would be a people as individual Christians and as a church, that we would be a people that would be warned as Paul said in 1
55:00
Corinthians 10 against this example and be admonished to walk in a way that we ought to so that the
55:05
Lord is glorified in the steps that we take. Let's pray. Father, it is encouraging to us to see how faithful you are on the behalf of your people.
55:24
And I know that as we look at this book, as we've looked at this text, we know that you were particularly dealing with Israel and this is their history and what was going on at that point of time when you were working amongst the children of men.
55:43
And yet, it would do us good to look back and to be admonished and to be warned and even to be challenged of how it is that we make our decisions and how it is that we put one foot in front of another as believers.
56:01
And what it is that we do when it comes to coming on situations like this that are very difficult and very trying and go against everything that makes any sense to us.
56:16
Help us to be a people who trust you completely and fully.
56:22
And do not rely upon our own thinking. Do not trust in chariots or horses or the government or a paycheck or our health or anyone else or anything else other than the true and the living
56:36
God. Oh Lord, please forgive us where we failed you in this area and help us to see how great you are and how strong you desire to be on our behalf.
56:48
And like the psalmist, let our prayer be, let God arise and let our enemies be scattered.
56:56
Help us to glorify you even more so by walking in this truth in Jesus' precious name, amen.