F4F | Jentezen Franklin Contradicts Jesus and Hebrews 11

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God.

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So you're familiar with Jensen Franklin, right? We cover him from time to time here at Fighting for the

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Faith and been doing so going all the way back into our daily podcast days.

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And I would note Jensen Franklin just seems like the ah shucks most likable guy ever.

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The problem is this, despite the fact that he seems like an ah shucks kind of a likable guy, he is a terrible and wicked blasphemer and twister of God's Word.

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Case in point, we're gonna be looking at the story from Numbers chapter 13. We'll throw in 14 for good measure.

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And in this text it's the story of the twelve spies who went to spy out Canaan. You know, twelve spies went to spy out

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Canaan. Ten were bad and two were good. What did they see when they spied out Canaan? Ten were bad and two were good.

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Some saw giants big and tall. Some saw grapes in clusters fall. Some saw

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God rule over all. Ten were bad and two were good. Boy, hopefully that takes some of you back.

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But so what we're gonna do, we're gonna take a look at Numbers 13, Numbers 14, and we're going to note that the

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Bible teaches us how to understand really kind of big picture types and shadows.

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So think of it this way. In the Old Testament, there's this theme regarding the Promised Land, and here's the question

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I have for you. What is it pointing to? What is the Promised Land pointing to?

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Now, in order to answer the question, we're gonna really need a biblical text to bear that out, and thankfully we have that.

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God's Word tells us exactly what the Promised Land, you

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That being the case, Jenson Franklin is going to come up with his own idea as to what the

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Promised Land is pointing to, and unfortunately it contradicts God's Word, and it contradicts

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God's Word badly, and by doing so, he's going to scratch itching ears and tell people what they want to hear, but he's not gonna rightly handle this text at all.

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This is going to be a doctrinal biblical train wreck that we're about to watch from the most aw shucks kind of likable guy out there, but again, he's a wicked wolf in a twister of God's Word.

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So let's do this. Let's whirl up the desktop, and here's my web browser.

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The name of this message we're gonna be listening to is titled, The Power of a Proper Perspective.

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Okay, Power of a Proper Perspective. Here's Jenson Franklin. In Numbers chapter 13,

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I want you to see this. Then they came to the valley of Eshgal, and they cut down the branch of the cluster of grapes.

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Already we got a problem, and I mean a big one. He's starting in the middle of the story.

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Verse 23. My question for Jenson Franklin at this point is, are you too busy right now to actually read

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Numbers chapter 13 verses 1 to 22 so that people can understand the context, or is the reason why you're starting at verse 23 and not giving them the context so that you can impose your false teaching on this text?

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I'm gonna kind of go with the second one on this, but we continue. And they carried it between them on a pole.

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They also brought some palm granites and figs. I want to talk to you about the two mentalities that people have.

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Moses sends the children of Israel. He actually says, give me 12 spies.

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Moses get 12 spies, 12 because there were 12 tribes, one from each tribe, and send them over into the promised land.

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I want them to get a foretaste of what I have for them. They go to Eshcol, and they find grapes and figs and palm granites, and they're so huge, it's so big, it's so amazing that they say, we've got to take two of them.

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The Bible said two of them had to carry it. I can't prove this, but I think I know which two carried it. I think it was

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Joshua and Caleb, because the other ten were a bunch of losers. Amen. They were leaving. Israel was leaving

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Egypt, the failure zone, headed to the promised land, the success zone, flied into the success zone.

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All right, we're gonna have to spend a little time on this text, and we're gonna do what

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Jensen Franklin didn't do. We're gonna look at it in context. So the text in question is

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Numbers chapter 13, and we're gonna throw in 14, because this is part of a bigger narrative.

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So Numbers 13, Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which

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I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.

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So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of Yahweh, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel, and these were their names.

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First from the tribe of Rumen Shammuah, the son of Zachor. From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Judah.

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Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Issachar. Egal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Ephraim.

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Hosea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Benjamin. Palti, the son of Raphu, from the tribe of Zebulun.

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Gadiel, the son of Zodi, from the tribe of Joseph, that is from the tribe of Manasseh.

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Gadi, the son of Susi, from the tribe of Dan. Amiel, the son of Gemali, from the tribe of Asher.

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Sathur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Naphtali. Nachbi, the son of Vapshi, from the tribe of Gad.

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Geul, the son of Malki. These were the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land, and Moses called

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Hosea, the son of Nun, Joshua. And you'll note

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Joshua in the Old Testament is a type in shadow of Christ, but all that being said here, you'll note we have representatives from all 12 tribes of Israel.

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That's how many tribes there are, there's 12, and they all have a representative, and here's what's going on then, is

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God is, in a sense, kind of giving them a foretaste of what it is to come. Go and spy out the land that God is about to give you.

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So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and he said to them, go up to the Negev, and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not.

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Be of good courage, bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes, so they're under orders, bring some of the fruit of the land, and it just so happened that it was the grape harvesting season.

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Okay, so they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lehob Hamath, sorry,

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Lebo Hamath, and they went up into the Negev and came to Hebron. Ahimon, Seshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak were there,

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Hebrew. Hebron was built seven years before Zohan in Egypt, and they came to the

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Valley of Eshkol, cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between the two of them.

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They also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there, and at the end of 40 days, hmm, 40 days, that's kind of a big number.

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How long did the children of Israel spend in the wilderness? 40 years. How many days did it rain?

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40 days, 40 nights. You'll note the number 40 kind of represents, well, if you would, in the types and shadows, a human lifetime.

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That's kind of the idea. So at the end of 40 days, they returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paranah, Kadesh, and they brought back word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

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And they told them, and they told them, we came to the land to which you sent us.

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It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.

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And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the

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Negev, the Hittites and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea along the

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Jordan. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are able to overcome it.

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Caleb has faith. He believes God. And why shouldn't he?

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Where are these people? They're in the wilderness at the moment. Where were they just a few weeks before, a few months earlier, in slavery in Egypt?

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How are they no longer slaves in Egypt? God rescued them. God delivered them by a mighty hand, and judged

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Egypt painfully, if you would, as a result of their refusal to let the people of God go, and they suffered greatly for their misstep in not obeying

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God. And so Caleb knows full well no one's going to be able to stand against God.

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Nobody can. And so he says, we're well able to overcome that. Why? Because Yahweh.

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So when the men who had gone up with him said, well, we're not able to go up against these people. They are stronger than we are.

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So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, the land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw it are of great height.

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And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. Nephilim, by the way, it's a

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Hebrew word for giant. That's what this is. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seem to them.

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Chapter 14 then continues. So then all the congregation, they raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night, and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

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The whole congregation said to them, oh, would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness?

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Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? And there it is.

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That's what we call a loaded question. And what are they assuming? They're assuming evil of God.

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That God did not intend to really bring them into the promised land, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.

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But instead, God's intent all along was to bring them into the wilderness and then kill them by the hand of the

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Canaanites and the Jebusites and the Amalekites. So note, who are they slandering here?

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God. Who are they refusing to trust? God. That's the problem. This is the result of their lack of faith.

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So why is it that Yahweh is bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a come a prey.

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Oh, would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

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They would prefer slavery. They believe God, his intent is to kill them. So then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.

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And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes.

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And they said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we pass through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land.

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If Yahweh delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us.

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He. They have faith in God. They believe that Yahweh is going to make good on his promises, and they have really good reason to do so.

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It is a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against Yahweh. And that's what they were doing.

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And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them, and Yahweh is with us.

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Do not fear them. Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones, but the glory of Yahweh appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

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Yahweh said to Moses, how long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me?

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And in spite of all the signs that I have done among them, yep, I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.

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But Moses said to Yahweh, then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land, they have heard that you,

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O Yahweh, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Yahweh, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

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Note, Moses is engaging in intercessory prayer. He is praying on their behalf so that God does not destroy them.

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Now, if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame, they will say, well, it's because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them and that he has killed them in the wilderness.

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And now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, as you have promised, saying,

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Yahweh is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation.

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You'll note that Moses here is praying a prayer that God would forgive them, and he's using the words that he heard from God himself.

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When Moses was hidden by God in the cleft of the rock, and his hand was over the cleft of the rock, and the glory of the

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Lord passed by, he heard these words, so he's praying them back to God. Please, then, pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.

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And then Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your word, but truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have put me to the test these ten times, and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers, and none of those who despise me shall see it.

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But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

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Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the

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Red Sea. So you'll note then that what happened is that God punished the ten spies who didn't believe, and he blessed

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Joshua and Caleb for their faith and not doubting him. So this is a story about trusting

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God. And trusting God for what? Deliverance for the promised land.

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The question now then stands, what does the promised land point to? So here's where we're going to note.

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We have a biblical text that clearly tells us. And so there's a way in which this text, this story, does relate to us.

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So here's what it says in Hebrews 11, the great whole of faith passage. By faith

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Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

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By faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

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For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is

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God. By faith Sarah received power to conceive even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

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Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore.

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All of these died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

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For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

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But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their

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God, for he has prepared for them a city. The promised land, according to Hebrews 11, is a type and shadow pointing to the new earth, the new heaven, the heavenly

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Jerusalem come down from heaven to earth. The promised land is a type and shadow of life eternal.

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So let me ask you this, what's bigger, your sin or Christ's forgiveness?

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You see, if you think that, oh man, there's just no way that God can bring me safely into the real promised land, into eternal life, and there's no way that Jesus's death on the cross covers all of my sins,

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God is not strong enough to bring me into the promised land. That's how the connection is made.

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The type and shadow gives way to the substance, and the substance, according to Hebrews 11, the substance is eternal life.

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So you can see then how this works out. This is what this passage is about. Well, Jenson Franklin is really gonna biff it here bad, and you'll note he's already set himself up for sound biblical exegesis failure.

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He's not going to rightly handle this text at all, he's not interested in doing that. So let me back it up just a little bit so that we can remember the context, and we'll continue on with this false teaching.

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Ten were a bunch of losers, amen. They were leaving, Israel was leaving Egypt, the failure zone, headed to the promised land, the success zone.

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The success zone versus the failure zone. Already he's imposing things on the biblical text that shouldn't belong there.

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And before they could get into the land of dreams, because the Old Covenant, they have...

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The land of dreams? Yeah, I'm detecting a sneaky fast one here.

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A land of promise, but under the New Covenant, we have a book of promises.

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So Canaan does not represent to the Israelites then, it did not represent heaven.

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And here's where he directly contradicts Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11,

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I've already shown you, shows that the promised land is a type and shadow of eternal life, the new heaven, the new earth.

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That's what it's pointing to. And here, Jenson Franklin directly contradicts

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God's Word. Listen again. It does not represent to the Israelites then, it did not represent heaven.

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And it doesn't represent heaven to us, it represents the place where we dream to be with our families.

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Your dream may be to see your son off of drugs. Your dream may be to see... So the promised land is seeing your son get off of drugs.

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No, it's not. Hebrews 11 makes it very clear. The promised land points us to eternal life, the new heaven, the new earth.

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Your family restored. Your dream may be to be healed in your body, to see your business prosper. God enjoys seeing his people living in a land flowing with milk and honey.

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This was God's dream that his... No. Let's come back to that Hebrews text.

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All of these died in faith, not having received the things promised. Note the antecedent. By faith,

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Abram obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

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By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob.

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All of these, Abraham and Sarah, they all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

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For people who speak thus make it clear they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

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But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be their

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God, for he has prepared for them a city. He's flat -out contradicting this text.

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I mean, straight up flying in the face of it. Hebrews 11 tells us to understand the proper way of interpreting the promised land, and he is contradicting and basically saying, oh no, no, no, no.

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The promised land is you having a great life in the here and the now. Here's the other issue.

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This directly contradicts Christ. John chapter 15. Consider these words of Jesus.

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Jesus says to his disciples, if the world hates you, know that it's hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

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Remember that the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

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If they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

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If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

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Whoever hates me hates the Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my

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Father. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

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They hated me without a cause. So Jesus is preparing us in this lifetime not for wonderful things happening, this life being a land of milk and honey.

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He's preparing us to be hated. John 16 .33, Christ says,

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I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace, but in the world you will have tribulation. But take heart,

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I have overcome the world. So what is this fellow doing?

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He's scratching itching ears. 2nd Timothy chapter 4, Paul says to Timothy, I charge in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

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For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, sound doctrine, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

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They will turn away from listening to the truth and they'll wander off into myths. And that's exactly what

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Jenson Franklin is preaching right now. Myths. It is a myth that God wants you to live a life of flowing of milk and honey and that the promised land points to all the wonderful things that God wants you to have right now in this sinful, cursed creation.

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No, not even true at all. Backing this up so that you can hear what he said and we'll continue with the context.

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So Canaan does not represent to the Israelites then, it did not represent heaven, and it doesn't represent heaven to us.

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It represents the place where we dream to be with our families. Your dream may be to see your son off of drugs.

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Your dream may be to see your family restored. Your dream may be to be healed in your body, to see your business prosper.

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God's, God enjoys seeing his people living in a land flowing with milk and honey.

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This was God's dream. This is, this is prosperity gospel stuff. That's what, this is the prosperity gospel.

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It's a heresy. His dream that his people, we know natural Israel for us in our faith is a type of spiritual

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Israel, the church, and we've been engrafted. That's true. Look at that. He understands how types and shadows work, but he denies what the scripture says regarding the types and shadows regarding the promised land in order to put his own spin on it.

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And so I want you to understand Canaan was a type of heaven, was not a type of heaven, it's a type of victory here in some area of your life that you need a victory.

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No it's not. It's an interesting, he totally biffed it there. He, it was a

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Freudian slip. Listen again to the Freudian slip where he says Canaan is a type of heaven.

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He knows what Hebrews 11 says, and here he's contradicting it on purpose.

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And so I want you to understand Canaan was a type of heaven, was not a type of heaven, it's a type of There's the

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Freudian slip. He didn't mean to say that, but now he wants to teach mythology and the, and the word of faith, prosperity heresy.

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It's a type of heaven, it's a type of victory here in some area of your life that you need a victory. No it's not.

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That is not what the Promised Land is in Hebrews 11. I stand on those words and I deny yours.

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Victory. Moses sent 12 men and they, and God said I have three objectives that I want to get into these spies.

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Number one, God said I want them to get a vision of where they're going.

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Where, where did he say that? I just read out numbers 13 and 14.

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Where did it say that God wants them to get a vision? Huh? You got to see it before you can get there.

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I want them to get over there and I want them to get a picture, a photograph of what

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God wants them to be and to do, the purpose that they are to have. Hmm, that sounds a little slippery.

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Let's, let's just fact -check that again. We'll just go back to numbers 13. Yahweh spoke to Moses, send men to spy out the land of Canaan which

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I am giving to the people of Israel. I am giving them, God says, from each tribe of their fathers. You shall send a man, every one a chief among them.

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So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of Yahweh, all of the men who were heads of the people of Israel.

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Yeah, there's the funny thing is, is that nowhere in that text, in that narrative, does it say anything about God wanting them to get a vision?

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Nope. You just added to the Scripture after twisting it, sir. You will never achieve beyond where you are until you get a picture, a photograph of where you're going.

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Why? Hmm, so the reason why God wanted them to get a picture is because you can't ever get to where you're going until you get a picture of where you're going.

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Numbers 13 or 14 doesn't say anything about this. He's inserting that into the biblical text.

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So he's contradicted Hebrews 11 and he's isogyed. It's read something in to Numbers 13 that isn't even there to create a doctrine that doesn't even exist in the

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Bible. Proverbs 29 and 18 said, without a vision the people perish. Proverbs 29, 18.

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Major twisted text. Let me show you this. Proverbs 29, 18.

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Okay. Proverbs 29, 18. This is a verse that the

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Word of Faith, prosperity heretics constantly twist, and it's real simple to untwist it, but let me show it to you in the

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King James, because that's the version of the Bible that they're quoting here.

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Where there is no vision, the people perish. Okay, and so they quote that, but note here that in the

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King James, there's a colon. Let me show it to you in the ESV, because the

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ESV, I think, actually has a better translation than the King James at this point.

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Oops, got to make that bigger. Okay, here's what the ESV says. Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, comma.

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You'll note the complete thought isn't done here yet. So where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

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What prophetic vision is Proverbs 29, 18 pointing us to? The Bible.

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And so, man, Jensen Franklin is on a roll here. He is in defiance of the clear commands of Scripture to rightly handle the biblical text.

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He has contradicted Hebrews 11. He's isogeted something into Numbers 13 that isn't there, and now he's twisted up Proverbs 29 and 18.

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This is crazy. Why Proverbs 29 and 18 said, without a vision, the people perish.

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Without a vision. And the vision it's pointing to, the prophetic vision, is the Bible. Blessed is he who keeps the law.

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Vision, young people, become unrestrained. If you don't know who you are and what your purpose is, that's why you just go with anything and everything.

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You have to have a vision. God wanted His people to have a vision. What kind of vision do you have?

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But the text doesn't say that. What kind of you have of your future, what kind of vision do you have?

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God is a God of vision. God is a God who says if you can see it - where are you getting this idea that God's a god of vision?

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I - I why are you saying these words? This has nothing to do with Numbers 13. What vision do you have of yourself?

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What kind of vision do you have of your future? What kind of vision do you have? God is a

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God of vision. God is a God who says, if you can see it, you can do it. If you can see it, you can be it.

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Where does God say if you see it you can do it, if you can see it you can be it? Give me a biblical text that says that.

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Show me one. When I look at this church... And I'm gonna note something here.

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Take a look at this shot. This man is a mega church pastor, multi -site, across two coasts, okay?

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Why is this auditorium filled? It's not filled because these people want to hear

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God's Word rightly taught. The reason why this auditorium is filled, and there's thousands of people there, is because he's an ear -scratcher.

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He is telling people what they want to hear, and in their greed, in impenitent greed, they are listening to this man because this guy is telling what they want to hear rather than preaching what they need to hear.

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That's the reason why this church is so big. And all these people here, I had to get a photograph of what

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God wanted me to do with my life or I would still be in a cornfield in eastern North Carolina.

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Nothing wrong with a cornfield in eastern North Carolina, that's a good place to start for what

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God had for me. I love that, but what I'm saying is I began to catch glimpses of what

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God could do if I would just believe Him, and it all begins with a picture. You got to see yourself beyond where you are.

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Again, where does it say it all begins with a picture? Which biblical text says that? In order for a doctrine to be biblical, you know, the

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Bible actually has to teach it. Get in, go down to the enemy's camp and listen to what they are seeing and what they're saying.

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They're more afraid of you than you realize. You are a mighty man of valor. You've got to see yourself. Now you're twisting up the story of Gideon.

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As a good dad, you've got to see yourself. Just because you never had one doesn't mean you can't be one. You've got to see yourself.

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I got to have a picture of me being a good whatever, a good employee, a good husband. No text says this.

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And misapplying Gideon's story is horrible. You're now egregiously adding to your already blasphemous sermon.

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...as a blessed family. My family is not cursed. My family is not just gonna suffer trials and tribulations.

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I call down the blessing of Abraham. My family's not gonna suffer trials and tribulations, he says.

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Jesus says, I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace, but in the world you will have tribulation.

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He just contradicted Jesus. Wow. So who are you gonna believe?

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Jensen Franklin or Jesus Christ? I'm gonna go with Jesus. I'm just, if you're shocked about that answer, you shouldn't be.

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I am on my family and I see my family blessed. Give God a praise if you believe it. The children of Israel, here's the point.

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And everyone's clapping because he's telling them what they want to hear.

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He's scratching their itching ears. God let them bring those greats back from Eshcol to get a picture in their minds of all the people who didn't see it.

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Oh, if I could, I want that now because God works through pictures. But that's nowhere stated in Numbers 13 or 14 or any text that references that passage.

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Get a picture of yourself free from alcoholism if you're addicted to it. Get a picture of yourself free from depression.

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Rather than repent of your alcoholism and ask

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God to forgive you and ask God through the power of the Holy Spirit to help you bear fruit in keeping with repentance and be sober as he commands, you're supposed to just get a picture of it?

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What? Picture that you're free from drugs if you're struggling with it.

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It all begins in a service like Alcoholism and drug abuse are sins, sir, and they are handled the way that all sins are handled through repentance, the forgiveness of sins, and the power of the

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Holy Spirit in dwelling the believer to mortify their sinful flesh. And it calls for humbleness and prayer.

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What is this? This is no solution to deal with sin at all. This is where God begins to say, there's so much more that I have for you than you can imagine.

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Get in your mind a photograph of God's promise. See it first. Secondly, the second reason that he wanted them to go over into the promised land.

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This is a big one. He wanted them to taste the grapes. He wanted to give them a foretaste of what

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God was going to do. He wanted them to have an appetizer, a sample platter, no more leeks and garlics from Egypt for you.

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You're moving into a better life. You're moving into a land of dreams. Now note, he's already stated that this is a type and shadow of the blessing and abundance that God wants to give you here and now.

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And you're not going to experience tribulation even though Jesus said you would. You're moving into something greater than you can produce.

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I'm your God. I'm Jehovah Jireh. I'm Jehovah Shaddai. I am your source. I want good for you and not evil.

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I know the plans that I have for you. Plans of good and not evil to give you hope, to give you a future.

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There's only two mentalities. You're either a great taster or you're a giant talker.

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Because 10 of the spies came back, they saw the exact same thing as the two who were positive.

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That's right. If you think that this life is full of persecution, like Jesus says, you're a grasshopper mentality kind of person.

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We can take the land. We're well able. And notice they didn't come back and talk about their

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God. They came back and said, we are as grasshoppers in their sight.

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There are people and they have giants in the land and we are as grasshoppers. They had a grasshopper mentality.

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You either have a grasshopper mentality or a great taster mentality. And so they were...

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Talk about twisting this text. Wow. So if you're not a prosperity word of faith person, you have a grasshopper mentality.

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Talking about how big the greats were, but here comes Joshua and Caleb. And they're talking about... One is talking about the giants are huge.

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The other two are coming and stand up and I could see Joshua and Caleb say, yeah, but the greats are huge. No, God is giving them the land.

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We already read Numbers 13 and 14. We know exactly what Joshua and Caleb said.

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Oh, but the devil is so big. Oh, but our God is so big. Oh, but there's a lot of sickness and disease going around.

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But here's... Listen to this. Listen carefully to this part. Listen, listen, listen again. Oh, but the devil is so big.

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Oh, but our God is so big. Oh, but there's a lot of sickness and disease going around.

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But here's how great tasters talk. You can tell a grasshopper by their vocabulary. So sickness and disease going around.

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We can't. It's not possible. Nobody, everybody else can, but me. Nothing good ever happens to me.

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Woe is me. Woe is me. We are not called to be grasshoppers. We're called to be great tasters.

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Come on. This has nothing to do with God wanting to give you abundance in this life at all.

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Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't lay down. And here's, this is what I want you to see. Giants never showed up until they got to the land of promise.

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When God allows you to have to confront gigantic problems, it's just God's signpost.

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So giants now stand in for gigantic problems in your life. No, they are not.

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That you're at the beginning of your miracle. We take that as a negative. See, it's all about your perception.

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That's the third reason why God sent them over. He wanted to check out their perception. Which text says that again?

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What was their perception of himself? What was their perception of their enemy? What was the perception of their

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God? And that's the three things you're gonna have to deal with. You'll note the reason why he's able to come up with these three things and just mysteriously make them part of this text is because he only read one verse.

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He didn't read the narrative. He didn't read numbers 13 and 14. And by only quoting one verse, he's able to make it appear, wow, this is all the other stuff that's part of this passage.

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But none of it's part of it. If you're ever gonna walk by faith and do what God has put you on this planet to do, number one, what is your perception of yourself?

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They said we are as grasshoppers. I'm nobody. I'm nothing. You know, the Lord really spoke to me this week about this and he said you need to work on that one because I have a lot of insecurities.

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So God speaks to you directly. But God didn't see fit to tell you, don't you dare twist my words.

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Don't you dare contradict Hebrews 11. Don't you dare insert things into the biblical text that don't belong there.

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God's talking to you directly but not rebuking you for twisting up his word and teaching false doctrine.

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You're not hearing from God, sir. That wasn't God who was talking to you. Even 61 years old,

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I can't hardly take a compliment. My mind races as I play the sax or something and somebody will say, that was amazing.

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And my mind's thinking, boy, you must not listen to really great saxophone players. I'll play the piano and somebody said, boy, you can really play.

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I always compare myself with somebody else. You preached a great sermon. I'm learning. I'm just now learning.

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Numbers 13 and 14 have nothing to do with how well you play the saxophone or the piano or how well you take compliments from people if you're good at either of those.

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That you know what? Never apologize. Never belittle what God blesses you with.

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It may not be as good and as great as, but I'm not a grasshopper. And what I do, nobody else can do just like me.

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And so I think I'll just be me and God. And we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

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I need you to give God a praise. We can do all things through Christ through a verse taken out of context.

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Wow. This is egregious. Boy, he's got them all worked up in the front.

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So this is exactly what I wanted to hear, man. Don't you dare tell me to repent. Turn to somebody and say,

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I'm not a grasshopper. I'm a great taster. Yeah.

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Word of faith. Prosperity heresy on steroids here from an aw shucks, likable kind of guy, you know?

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My goodness, young people, when you meet somebody, don't give them a little dead fish handshake. Don't even know how to shake.

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I mean, grab that hand like a cowboy. Grab that hand like a man. Grab that hand firm.

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Look, I'm riding that. What does this have to do with numbers 13 and 14? Nothing.

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But here, not over there. Look, I'm straight in the eye and say, I know who I am.

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I know who my God is. I know that the one in me is greater than he that is in the if God before us who can be against us.

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God's not about you always. Listen, I believe in humility, but humility is not putting yourself down.

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Humility is lifting God up in your life and giving him all the glory. And there's a difference between humility and just belittling yourself.

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Grasshopper complex. Yeah, the grasshopper rhetoric from the 10 spies has nothing to do with how you perceive yourself at all.

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And that's not the takeaway. The type and shadow of the promised land points us to eternal life in Christ Jesus, which

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God gives as a free gift. And that's the point. Jesus bleeds and dies for your sins and mine on the cross so that we can be forgiven and pardoned and given eternal life.

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Just like God said, let me come back to this text in numbers 13.

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Note says, Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which

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I am giving to the people of Israel. Giving. God gives eternal life for the sake of Christ who bled and died.

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He pardons the iniquity of all who call to him in repentance, asking for forgiveness, trusting that Christ has bled and died for their sins.

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God gives eternal life to everyone who believes in him. That's the point of this text.

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That's what the types and shadows point to. Hebrews 11 makes that clear. Jensen Franklin, mark and avoid.

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Oh yeah, he's likable. Oh yeah, he seems like just somebody you'd love to sit down on a warm summer evening out there on his porch, sipping sweet tea and talking about,

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I don't know, whatever. But you don't want to be hearing God's Word from this guy because he can't rightly handle a biblical text and he's a wolf and he's leading people to hell so that they will never enter the promised land, the true promised land that the

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Old Testament promised land was always pointing to. Keep that in mind. So hopefully you found this helpful.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.

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