The Sin That Keeps Us Out of the Promise Land — Vincent G. Artese

The sin that keeps us out of the promised land. So we departed from Herob and went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us.

Then we came to Kadesh Barnea, and I said to you, you have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you.

Do not fear or be discouraged. And every one of you came near to me and said, let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come.

The plan pleased me well, so I took 12 of your men, one man from each tribe, and they departed and went up into the mountains and came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out. They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, and they brought back word to us, saying, it is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.

Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you complained in your tents and said, because the Lord hates us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, the people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. Moreover, we have seen the sons of Anakim there.

Taking the First Step but Refusing to Continue

The first point I want to talk about this morning, they took the first step. They took the first step. The story is often told of a farmer's plight. After a horse has been rescued from a burning barn, they sometimes run back inside the inferno and perish.

So is the case here as Moses talks to the church. They took the first steps, but now will not believe God for the fulfillment. After Moses, through his continuous desperate plea, the people say, let us select a leader and return to Egypt, Numbers 14, 11.

The Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, Numbers 14, 12 tells us. The Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy.

He forgives iniquity and transgression, but goes on in the 14th chapter of Numbers to say, the carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness. Those who complained. Now the Hebrew word loin lean means to stop.

They complained, meaning they stopped. By them stopping, they proved their unfitness for the promised inheritance. They took the first steps, but then they stopped. God said in Numbers 14, 12, I will disinherit them.

Disinherit means I'll disown them. I'll cut them out of my will. I will cut them off. Moses put up with his people and he pleaded with God on their behalf. During the few weeks march from Sinai, it's recorded that there was three partial rebellions in that short period of time.

Rebellion had broken out on at least three different occasions, but how many more that are not even mentioned in the Bible? How many took place in the privacy of the people's own tents and in their own minds?

Their rebellion against God. How often after leaving the congregation of the saints, did they only go away to blaspheme Jehovah's name in the privacy of their own homes, in the privacy of their own minds?

How many times after hearing Moses' preaching God's law, did they hold him in contempt? How often did their lack of faith cause them to remain and wander, staying where they were? Their grumbling and their complaining not only brings God's divine judgment on the rebels, but also the faithful suffer in common with the other evils of the exclusion.

For 40 years, they suffer. Now Israel had spent a whole year at Horeb. Horeb represented to Moses the holy place of the burning bush. Horeb represented the place where the water miraculously came forth from the rock.

Horeb also was the place that Israel was commanded to strip off their ornaments after the situation with the golden calf. Now, whether the Christian has experienced at their Horeb, their first real encounter with God, or maybe it's a place where a miracle had taken place, or maybe there was a rebuke and a chastisement from God, we do not stay at Horeb forever.

11 days travel from Horeb until they would reach Kadesh Barnea, Deuteronomy 119. So we departed from Horeb and went through all the great and terrible wilderness, which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites.

As the Lord our God had commanded us, then we came to Kadesh Barnea. The wilderness was terrible, the desert of Paran. It was dusty, it was dry, they were thirsty. It was a most difficult journey and it covered about 150 miles.

This dry part of the desert sat upon a limestone plateau and the people were thirsty. They were dusty and very uncomfortable. Their needs were not being met, so they grumbled and they continued to wander in the flesh.

They did not work together helping Moses. They didn't help the leaders, but instead some of them started rebelling, using their little religion to attack Moses and those that were trying to help them get out of the desert.

They weren't working with God. They weren't working with God's leaders. They were working against them. Most did not trust God, but instead only made temporary agreements with Him, commitments that would meet their own personal needs.

That's what they were after. The Lord says that He will disinherit them. He will not be with them any longer. These are the folks that stopped their spiritual journey and wanted to go back to Egypt. They went back to sitting in their muck and mire.

The church, instead of marching forward in victory, remained upsetting and overbearing. They became a burden to Moses instead of a help. Israel traveled one year, one month, and one week leaving Egypt until they reached the Sinai.

Israel departs from Sinai for the Promised Land after spending 11 months and five days there. They travel and they make about 20 stops over a period of 11 months between Sinai and Kadesh Barnea. They arrived at Kadesh Barnea the first month of the third year, or exactly 24 months after leaving Egypt, according to Numbers 20, verse one, and they spend 38 continuous years at Kadesh Barnea.

They do not leave and come back. They stay there. Only at the end of that period do they leave for the Promised Land and cross the border. Kadesh Barnea is a spring-fed oasis. It's estimated that there's as many as four springs there.

It was just south of Canaan's border, about 90 miles from Jerusalem. They had gotten all the way to that spot and they sat down and moved no more for 38 years. They became inactive. They became lethargic.

There was no spiritual action. They were sleepy. Now, sometimes we think that Israel just walked around in the desert aimlessly during that period, but in reality, they did walk a few years, but they ended up just sitting down.

They sat down and made themselves comfortable at Kadesh Barnea for 38 years. God gave them the promise of entering into His rest, but they sat back and took their own. The once glorious outlook for the church was lost to blinded lust, self-satisfaction, ease and comfort, new experiences that would engage the passions.

No longer were the people desiring God's will. No longer did they believe that He could bring them into the land. They were learning, but they never came to know the truth. They took the first step, but they sat back down in the devil's easy chair.

Moses gave everything he had, all his life to get the people into the holy city. They would not. They refused. They wanted to be comfortable in Kadesh Barnea, the sin that keeps us out of the promised land.

The sin that keeps us out of the promised land. Point number two, the people saw the promised land. Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 20. And I said to you, you have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

Seeing the Promised Land but Failing to Enter

Now experts say that the journey from Egypt to Canaan could have been done by men in about four days, adding women and children and livestock, maybe 11 days, adding the vast amounts of people and the pauses for their sacred obligations, a few more accordingly.

But the Bible narrative tells us in verse 20 that the people arrived there and they were given the privilege of seeing the promised land. Now Kadesh Barnea was hill country. It belonged to the Amorites at this time.

And it sat on the border of the promised land. Israel had reached the very border of the promised land itself. The people could actually stand up on the hills and look out and see the promised land. Why didn't they go in?

Why? They were unprepared to occupy it. In every generation, the church is given a point of time as a supreme moment in history. Every person is placed on earth according to God's perfect timing. The individual parts of Christ's body are called to follow Jesus just as the Jews were called to follow Moses.

Every born-again believer is called to endure hardships and adversity. We are called on to perform a toilsome journey, just as Jesus told us in Matthew 7, verses 13 through 14. He said, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

And there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are few who find it. But he also told us in Luke 14, verses 28 to 30, for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Jesus also tells us in Luke 9, verse 62, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Israel not only took the first step and left Egypt, but now God had shown them their inheritance.

They touched, as it were, the threshold of the promised land, but they turned back in their hearts and they failed to rise to the conception of that privilege. They hesitated, they dilly-dallied, they delayed, they feared, they were uncertain and they failed, they failed.

Paul tells us, look at what they did as an example to us that we don't do the same things. Too many play with opportunity as a toy and when our eyes are finally open to see its value, it's gone and it's vanished.

Jesus said, my soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Every one of us is here for a purpose. There's a supreme moment in every person's life.

Many by never receiving and believing on the truth of the Holy Scriptures are never made aware of this reality and it's gone, it vanishes. Most are too lazy and apathetic to improve their surroundings here during their time.

Israel reached the border of a glorious destiny and they turned back into the desert. What about you, what about you? The path of responsibility to the Christian is very plain, but self-indulgence makes us as blind as a mole.

Why are we seeing a self-consumed church? If you are born again, why are you showing the signs of a prisoner of another country? God's children are free with their lamps burning, waiting for the heavenly bridegroom.

The guests awaiting his arrival are all washed. They're already wearing white. They're alert, they're energetic, waiting with great anticipation for the door to open. Every born again regenerated Christian has seen the promised land and they live as such.

If you have never been given a vision from God on what Christ in you has made you, maybe you've never been born again to begin with. If Christ's words have not penetrated into your soul, you are not alive.

Christians like Levi get up, they leave their old life behind and they follow Jesus all the way into Canaan. And if you're still sitting around in your Kadesh Barnea spring fed oasis and you're refusing to march on, you're not redeemed.

You're still in Egypt, standing on the cliffs of Kadesh Barnea. You have an opportunity to forsake the wilderness. If you're not sure what to do next, God says, call on me and I will answer. Call to me and I will answer you, Jeremiah 33 three, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

Call to him, meaning I will show you. God says, I will give you a message. I will give you personally a verdict. I will give you personally a warning. Now this verse does not stop with the revelation which follows, but it's an exhortation.

It's an appeal, urging and calling the people forward, telling you God is with you. He will not forsake you. Go, go, keep going. When you're in a struggle, the Lord will make you know that these things through him are attainable.

We as believers in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ must continue to move forward in the light of God's word. Let God be true in every man a liar. He said, the promised land is our inheritance.

By faith, we shall enter it. Philippians chapter three, verse 14. On to verse 20. I pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now the goal means the object set up at a distance at which one looks or aims.

God has set Christ up at his right hand. He who is dead is alive forevermore. By faith, you can run this race. Can you enter in by believing on Jesus Christ? The prize can be reached because he's already won.

At the end of the Christian race is heaven. God has said the land is ours because he has given it to his sons and daughters. Verse 15. Therefore, let us as many as are mature have this mind. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

Grow up and start living what you profess is my definition. Verse 16. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. You must walk faithfully with what you have been given if you are to receive more.

If you're playing games, don't be burdening Moses anymore. Get on your knees and pray. Pray to God that you do not become a castaway. Get up and walk and walk and walk until you get there. Verse 17. Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us as a pattern.

Moses and Joshua and Caleb and the Levites, follow them. They're going into the promised land. Verse 18. Not everyone is going into the promised land. Some wanna just sit around and enjoy Kadesh Barnea.

Philippians 3 .18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Get away from those who are the enemies of you entering Canaan.

The self-centered people who go against God's word, sitting constantly in their place of enjoyment. You cannot enter the promised land sitting at the spring fed oasis of Kadesh Barnea. You must get up and walk and enter it.

Verse 19. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. Remember, earthly people turn to dust and all they have to wait for is the second death.

And then all that's gonna happen to them is they're gonna be gathered with the devil and thrown into the lake of fire. Heavenly minded people fill the courts of heaven. Remember that. Verse 20. For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

I'm gonna tell you, if you call yourself a Christian, don't just see the promised land and then sit down. Get up and go in. If you're enjoying Kadesh Barnea, you're gonna be very disappointed because God's people are not there.

Is your complacency the sin that's going to keep you out of the promised land? These messages are entitled The Sin That Keeps Us Out of the Promised Land. We're gonna take a look at point number three, the righteousness it takes to go in and possess the land.

The Righteousness Required to Possess the Land

Deuteronomy 1, verse 21. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it. As the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged. When Jesus spoke of God's kingdom, he never spoke of it in some abstract way.

For Jesus, the righteousness that enables a person to enter heaven was real. The attributes that signify holiness Jesus spoke about must be experientially practiced. Today, false teachers have reduced knowing God to a type of magical wavelength, like God's gonna just send this beam on you and all of a sudden you're gonna be made righteous and holy.

That's false. He does not send religious rays towards sinners, making them believers. Those that incorrectly interpret God's righteousness as imputed leave out about three quarters of the Bible. Imputed in simple terms means associated with, something extended to somebody.

When someone tries to deceptively teach easy believism so that people can remain in their sin and still falsely believe that they can enter heaven, they always teach imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness lets people think that they are being linked or related to somebody, some church or some doctrine that automatically becomes whatever it is to them.

The Bible only teaches imputed righteousness as what God does for us before we are born again. Because we cannot save ourselves, God's grace must be extended to us in order for us to even respond to God.

That's the only time imputed righteousness is talked about in its fullness. If we're gonna enter heaven, we have to experience our own personal righteousness through us following Jesus Christ all the way into Canaan.

It's not gonna be given to us against our will, against our knowledge. It's not just something that we're associated with because we call ourselves a Christian, because we read our Bibles, because we go to church.

We have to actually experience this righteousness. It's not like God sends it to us like beams of righteousness from heaven against your will and against your knowledge as some falsely teach. Looking at Romans chapter five, beginning in verse eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

There you have imputed righteousness. Verse nine, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. Verse 10, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. When we put our faith in the precious blood of Christ as a suitable atonement for our sin, God's grace makes it possible for everyone to be justified by their faith.

God then by removing our sin, our offense, we are reconciled to God. We must remain in that state, or we must once again repeat the conditions that God requires for justification. Justification rightly means that we have properly entered into God's required statutes that he has detailed out for the forgiveness of our sins.

We have entered a covenant or an agreement with God and are 100 willing to do what he has prescribed in order that we might receive forgiveness for our sin. We then are not merely associated with the act of forgiveness, but we are forgiven.

When a person enters wholeheartedly into a consecrated life to God, they are made righteous, not just externally credited with righteousness, but changed to be made righteous, clearly taught to us in 2 Corinthians 5 .21.

For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Only before we are actually born again and justified does the Bible describe the initial righteousness of Christ being imputed towards sinners.

And that's what I read to you from Romans 5 .8. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. After a person is regenerated, the holy seed of Christ enters them through the incarnation of the spirit of Christ represented by the new birth in John 3 .3.

Then 2 Corinthians 5 .21 takes place that we might become the righteousness of God in him. As long as a person remains in perfect agreement and complies with God's terms towards their redemption, that person remains justified by faith.

That person's faith in Christ not only allows God to judicially forgive them of their sin, but also makes that person righteous in their place in Christ. Now that the Holy Spirit lives in that person, that person becomes a temple of God, consecrated, separated from all the profane and set aside for the Lord's use.

That's what consecrated means. As a living sacrifice, that person, as they remain clean and they remain holy because they're set aside for God's use, the righteousness of God is imparted to them. Imparted righteousness is not merely an accredited associated righteousness, but actual righteousness.

Imparted means given the quality. God gives the regenerated believer his quality. Now the Holy Spirit does not enter or stay in a dirty vessel. People, after they trust Christ and who go back to a life of practicing sin are void of the Holy Spirit.

Anyone who teaches differently is being used by seducing spirits to trick people into hell. 1 John 3, verses nine through 10. Whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God.

In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. A one-time conversion, a church membership, a relative who's a Christian, none of these things will do it.

God's righteousness on all who obey. Romans 3, 22. Jesus warned those who were almost Christian in Mark 12, 34, saying, you are not far from the kingdom. Almost Christian, you are not far from the kingdom.

Is that possibly some of us? Are we close but not in? Close is not in. Jesus follows up with the scribe. He says to him, one thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and take up your cross and follow me, Mark 10, 21.

He was not far from the kingdom, but he was not in. Jesus told him, go and sell all that you have. Everything that you value, everything you're trusting in, everything that is supporting you, get rid of that dependency and put it all on me.

You pick up your cross and you follow me. Me only, Jesus says. Returning now to Deuteronomy 1, 21. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it. As the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged.

Moses said, arise, go up and take possession of the land. You are not to fear or be discouraged because God has promised you a victory over the enemies of your soul, but you will not see victory if you sit there without faith in God's power.

You will receive your inheritance, but not if you sit there whining and complaining. You see, conquest is assured to each individual believer. There is no reason to fear or become discouraged. If you are God's people, be courageous and march forth conquering all the enemies who oppose you entering the promised land.

Before a person can truly have faith like Moses or Caleb or Joshua, they have to cease from their own works and be totally committed to obeying God. The faithful men of the Exodus were men of such action.

These men lived and ate and drank and slept and breathed everything for the glory of God. They were diligent at following God. They sold all that they had. They were single-minded. Their vision was single.

They were obedient to the things of God and what He spoke, and they allowed His Word to discern their thoughts and their intents of their hearts, knowing that it was to Jehovah that they were going to give an account one day.

They did not let the disobedience of others keep them out of Canaan. Be sure to hear this. They did not let the disobedience of others keep them out of Canaan. They were convinced in themselves the righteousness it takes to go in and possess the land.

How about you? Are you going to let your sin or the sin of others keep you out of heaven? That's the question. Point number four, do not close your ears. The sin that keeps us out of the promised land.

Hearing God's Revelation and Responding to His Covenant

A fundamental fact that is never argued in Scripture is that God makes Himself known to certain people. The self-disclosure of God through the Scriptures is described by the general term revelation. Revelation means that God uses these means to make Himself known to us.

The means that God uses to make possible a knowledge of God for mankind. In and by Himself, man does not have the knowledge of God. All knowledge of the kind must be granted to him by God. From the beginning in the Old Testament, we read that God is not abstract.

He's not speculative. He's not imaginary. He's direct. And His encounter is person to person. Himself always initially moving towards us. The first divine encounter after sin entered the Garden of Eden was God's call to Adam in Genesis 3 .9.

God went seeking for Adam, asking him, where are you? Jesus said in Luke 19 .10, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. When it came to the Jews, the children of Abraham in the Exodus, which means going out from Egyptian slavery, we see the supreme act of divine grace by Yahweh.

God not only brought His people out of bondage, but also into a special covenantal relationship with Himself that we can read about in Leviticus 25, verse 38, which says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

The book of Exodus is therefore the book of redemption. To redeem means to deliver, to ransom, Exodus 6 .4. I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers.

Skipping to verse six, therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

Verse seven and eight, I will take you as my people and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you as a heritage.

I am the Lord. Now the covenant God was to offer Israel was a binding obligation. A covenant is a solemn agreement made between two parties who stand previously unrelated in which certain mutual obligations are undertaken for the sake of certain benefits which are to result from the connection.

God's covenant, whether Old Testament or New Testament are the basis for human salvation. The promised land for Israel was not what God would do for them but what he would enable them to obtain. As I previously stated in Leviticus 25, 38, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

Now, whether or not the people would enter Canaan was based on if they believed. God had decreed but the people entering was conditional as all covenants are. In the New Testament, the covenant God made with the people according to Romans 1, 16 and 17 is also based on an individual's faith to believe and have vision for what God has decreed.

Romans 1, 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the just shall live by faith, the power of God for salvation through faith for faith. As it is written, he who through faith is righteous shall live. Israel's entering the promised land was not some irresistible magical infusion, but it was a divine human activity that they could reject at any time through unbelief.

God had said the land was theirs for taking, but they were not forced. Israel would need more than to initially believe they must get up and enter it. God's merciful initiative was his grace in allowing them to leave Egypt, but the people had to do the marching of approximately 275 miles.

You notice he didn't send a stagecoach to pick them up. He didn't send a bus or in that case, a lot of buses. He didn't send airplanes. He said, I set you free. Now you go, you walk. God also brought them to the edge of where the Southern end of Canaan meets the Northern tip of Egypt, but it was up to them to enter.

Deuteronomy chapter one, beginning in verse 22, reading to verse 25. And every one of you came near to me and said, let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come.

The plan pleased me well. So I took 12 of your men, one man from every tribe and they departed and they went up into the mountains and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us.

And they brought back word to us saying, it is a good land, which the Lord our God is giving us. Now I want to take a look at a few points here. First, if you look at verses 22 to 23, beginning in verse 22, the people did not trust God.

They didn't trust Moses either. Even after knowing the promise of God and entering into a covenant with him, they wanted proof. Now I don't have the time to get into this, but this is a recap of what's already happened in Numbers chapter 13, verses 18 through 20, where we read about how the faithless spies did not believe they can enter the land at all.

They wanted to know, maybe this is some of you today. Maybe this is what keeps you from moving forward in God. They wanted to know what's the land like. Now, remember God said, go in, I've given you the land, go in and get it.

But maybe some of us are like these faithless spies. They want to know what's the land like, whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds and whether the land is rich or poor.

But in our texts, the plan Moses was told was different. In Deuteronomy 1 .22, they didn't tell Moses that that was all their worries. What they told Moses was this, that their plan of going into the land was more like scouts or surveyors.

And see, Moses agreed with that because they told him that we're going in to search out the land and we're going to bring back word by which way we should go up. See, they're talking about, it's confirmed, we're going in and we're just going to check it out to be sure which way we're going to go in.

But that's not what we read in Numbers 13, 18 through 20 because their faithlessness really comes out in the other verses. Now, the second thing is in verse 25 of Deuteronomy 1, the first part of verse 25, they returned safely.