Three Mistakes in the Bible — Numbers 13-14

0:00 But he asked me to read numbers thirteen and fourteen.

0:03 Right.

0:04 So I'm going to read that real quick, for you guys. So, numbers 13. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Barron, according to the command of the Lord.

0:26 All of the men who were heads of the children of Israel. Now, these were their names from the tribes of Reuben and I was asked to skip over the the names but just know that there was 10 men from the tribes and then Joshua and Caleb were also selected from those those men to go to the to spy out the land. Then Moses sent them spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, go up this way into the South and go up to the mountains and see what the land is like. Whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, a few or many. Whether the land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit it are like camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are forests there or not, give good courage and bring some of the fruits of the land.

1:09 Now this time is the season of the first bread craves. So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehab, near the entrance of Hamath, and they went up from... Through the South and came to Hebron, and Heman, Sheshai, and Talmai. The descendants of Anak were there. Now, Hebron was built seven years before so in Egypt.

1:29 Then they came to the Valley Of Eshol, and there, put down a branch of one cluster of crepes. They carried it between two of them on a hole. They after forty days. Now, they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Geran and Kadesh. They brought back word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

1:59 Then they told them and said, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong. Their cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

2:13 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, The Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up and take possession for we are well able to overcome it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, the land through which we have gone despises land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stretch...

2:46 Stature. There we saw the giants. The descendants of Anak came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sites. So we were in their sight. So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and all the people wept that night.

3:00 And the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, if only we had died in the land of Egypt, or only if we had died in this wilderness. Why has the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us select your leader and return to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

3:26 But Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunah, who are among those who had spied at the land, tore their clothes, and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel saying, the land we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread and their protection is departed from them. And the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.

3:55 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me, and how long will they not believe me with all the signs that I have performed among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. And Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear it.

4:19 For by your might, you have brought these people up from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land that they heard... They have heard that you, Lord, are among these people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands above them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill these people as one man, then the nations which you have heard of your fame will speak saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which he swore to give them, therefore, he killed them in the wilderness. And now I pray, let the power of the... My Lord be great just as you have spoken saying, the Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions, but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.

5:09 Part of the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now. Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put me to the test now these 10 times and have not heeded my voice. I shall certainly not see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it.

5:37 But my servant Caleb, because he was different in spirit... Because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully. I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendant shall inherit it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley.

6:18 All of you who are numbered according to your entire number from 20 years old and above, except for Caleb, the son of Jephunah, and Joshua, the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, and your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness according to the number of the days which you spied out the land, forty days. For each day, you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know my rejection. I, the Lord, have spoken this.

6:58 I will surely do so to all. This evil congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness, they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. Now the men who Moses sent out to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land. These very men who brought the evil report about the land died by the plague before the Lord.

7:19 But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunah, remained alive of all the men who went despise the land. Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain saying, here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned. And Moses said, now why you transgress against the command of the Lord, for this will not succeed. Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies.

7:47 For the Lord is not among you. For the Amalekites and Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword because you have turned away from the Lord. The Lord will not be with you. But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.

8:04 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelled in that mountain came down and attacked them and drove them back as far as Hormah. I

8:12 think we... This guy needs the applause or something. And and that's, I mean, that's unbelievable. They tell you in preaching classes and that kind of speech, glad, not to read long passages. We just did.

8:28 We just did or he did, and I appreciate it very much. And, you know, you think about when you when you preach from such a long passage, you have to think about the audience in the sense, will they get it? Are they just tuning you out, etcetera? And that's a possibility. But this is, what we're gonna discuss this this morning is really pertinent to have this...

8:55 These two chapters read to you. And I... You probably followed it and went, oh, what about that? What about this? You did that, I'm sure.

9:05 Maybe not. But, before we get going, I just wanna just say, people have asked me or actually one person asked me, how the... How's the the Ezekiel Project School of Evangelism going? And it's going. And what we're doing, we're doing something a little different, and that is we're on...

9:25 We have live people actually in class, but not this year. We've had this every once in a while where we have had no live students. But we have had, we are online now, and we have had a bumper crop of people coming online. And this this offering, we're gonna offer our whole coursework eventually, and, and to be online. So you can do it from the comfort of your own home, your own living room, and join us.

10:03 We're this this... It's gonna be on Thursday, September 4 starts. It's regular college credit or not college credit, college level, and some of it's post grad. And the the subject matter for this semester and next semester will be systematic theology. And because last semester, we talked about apologetics and it was really well received.

10:29 We had 18 people online coming to that class and they stayed and it was... We even had a guy from Africa come and that was really really good. Daniel from Nayankundi. And so we've got a little card if you wanna get more information. Barb.

10:49 Barb has them. Barb Barb's right there. Yeah. She's got that for you. And sure...

10:56 Shirley would love to have you if you'd like to come. And it's all on Zoom, and you need a computer connection for it. That's for sure. I think there's a tech fee of $50, but we have no tuition. We're a no tuition school, and it won't cost you a penny, but it is college level and some of it is post grad level.

11:19 The Lord was able... I was able to graduate that... Was I here in May, June, July, was it? When was the last time I was here? Do you...

11:29 Anybody remember? Anyway, I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary. I actually made it. I think that the $100 on the forehead really helped. That was supposed to be funny, and it's not working working too well.

12:11 UC, UC California, University of California, Berkeley, one of the most liberal places on the planet. Also, you know, University of Michigan, really liberal. And preached in the open air in the diag and that kind of thing. And one of the one of the sermons I love to preach with a sketch board is and put it up on their three mistakes in the Bible. The un...

12:42 The unsaved person just goes, why knew that you're you're gonna talk about mistakes in the Bible? Yeah. Yeah. We're at three mistakes in the Bible. And we're gonna see those right here in this text.

12:56 We're gonna see here in chapter thirteen one through 25. Israel, the subject of this narrative, makes a mistake thinking that God was not with them. And then they also in chapter fourteen one through 38, we're not gonna look at every every nook and cranny of the Hebrew or anything like that. They made a mistake to think that god did not care. And then something that's going to be maybe a little off, not off, but a change up here.

13:33 Israel made a mistake in thinking that god was with them. And we're gonna look at those. We're gonna look at that. Three mistakes in the Bible. We also, in the open air, we all...

13:46 I say, you know, it's it's really fun because people look at you and go, you believe in mistakes in the Bible? I thought you were a Christian. I thought you believed the Bible, you know, and I I do. But, you know, David made a mistake. Adam made a mistake.

14:00 Eve made a mistake. There's a lot of mistakes in the Bible. And that's supposed to be funny too. And it's not work... I'm I'm really...

14:09 I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I start over. But three mistakes in the book of numbers. And so we're gonna look at this.

14:19 Look at chapter 13 and just park your eyes on that. I'll guide you a little bit. You see here that God God commissions and tells Moses to choose 12 spies, if you please. And this is the 12 spies. And I appreciate Tim reading this and not reading the names.

14:39 We'd still be here because of the names are are tough to tough to get. I mean, Judah is not Caleb. Notice the different tribes, the 12 tribes. But the two that I wanna point out the most is Caleb, the son of Jephani, and then also Hosea, which is now called Joshua. You see that in the verse 16.

15:04 Moses called him Joshua. Joshua, Joshua, and that's really translate translate that into into the New Testament. It's Jesus. This is not Jesus. This is actually Joshua but that's the name action and so you see the work of the of the 12.

15:25 Where were they supposed to do? They're going into the promised land. They come out. They get delivered by Moses. Moses goes into Egypt and they get delivered.

15:37 Now, think about that for a moment. Four hundred and some years, they're under bondage. I mean, they are slaves. In fact, Pharaoh, the king, if you please, of of of Egypt says, okay, we're going to make it life a little more difficult. They were exploding with population.

15:58 The Jews were. They started with 66 souls and then the boom, four hundred years later, we got millions. We got millions and so he said, okay, we want you to make bricks. We we're going to make bricks without straw. And they were under intense, intense persecution.

16:18 Intense persecution. God sends god sends Moses to deliver them. Exodus three fourteen, you see that. Moses says, who am I going to say unto the children of Israel? Who sent me?

16:31 Who's going to who am I going to say sent me? And he god says to him, I am that I am and you shall say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you and that I am is a divine title for god and it literally means in the Hebrew, the self existent one who reveals himself and in John chapter eight, the lord Jesus claims that title for himself. So, he's god in the flesh. The lord Jesus is claiming that he's god in the flesh, okay? So, this is this is Moses gets that commission.

17:13 He goes in. He does the miraculous things. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Darkness, flies, plagues, you know, all these different things and pharaoh actually finally pays attention to all these plagues that come into him especially the one of the the the death of the firstborn. You're you're all going to die and then that's where they had the Passover And it's an interesting thing.

17:39 When they had the Passover, this is where we get the idea of of the Passover. They had to take they had to take a brush, a soffit, and put it in blood of a lamb. And then they had to take it and it's really cool that they had to place it on... This is the Jews now. They had to place the hit of it here, you know, with the blood here, here, and here.

18:05 Do you understand what that is? That's a foreshadowing. Of the the Passover. The Passover that and if the blood wasn't there, the firstborn of that family would die. And all of Egypt, the blood, they didn't put the blood up.

18:23 They didn't put that in there and they didn't have it and and they died. And then finally, pharaoh lets him go. Let my people go, right? And maybe you've heard that song or not, but that's that's what he said. I want you to let my people go.

18:41 And they finally... Pharaoh finally did, and they went out. And there was approximately, just think about this for a moment. I I want you to just envision this. One point one point five to 2,000,000 people exiting out of Egypt.

19:01 In those four hundred years, from 66 souls to 1.5 to 2,000,000 people walking out. And they go out and they they go to the to the the red... The sea. Right? And it parts for them because they're being...

19:20 Now understand something. I I used to live in a... In the country, and we had a 15... A quarter acre pond, 15 foot deep pond. And you get near that edge on the pond and you start you start sinking because of the water leaching right up to the right up to the edge of the grass and stuff, and you get stuck in the mud.

19:42 Right? When they went through the Red Sea, it was dry as a bone. Can you imagine that? Cecil b DeMille did a great job with that in the 10 commandments. He did.

19:58 Somebody said that he took jello and cut it and and shot it, how it was melting and then reversed it, you know. And it went boom like this. And and it just... It was fantastic. The...

20:11 What took place, it was miraculous. And and people poo poo the idea that they went through on dry land. And as the Egyptian army, they chasing them. They're chasing them. The Egyptian army comes through and then it closes in on the Egyptian army and all all those guys die.

20:48 They go to the promised land. So Moses, God tells Moses, I want you guys, I want you to send out 12 spies, one from each tribe of of there's 12 tribes of Israel. I want you to go and I want you to spy out the land. See what what gives on the land. What is on the land?

21:08 And so they come back. They come back after they were they were gone, and then they come back, I think it was forty days. Isn't that right? Yep. They were gone for forty days, and they come back.

21:24 10 of the spies... Oh, like, now they're gonna give a report. Now, can you imagine them giving a report to Moses and Aaron, they're standing there or sitting there or whatever. And people are listening to this. Right?

21:41 And you can't believe how gossip gossiped right out. I mean, can you imagine 1.5 to 2,000,000 people? Think about that for a moment. They come and what do they say? They they...

21:58 That was their work. They were to spy out the land. They come back and they say they say that they've got grapes. They had grapes on a staff. Two guys are carrying a a cluster of grapes.

22:10 I don't know how big they were. Softball, basketball, who cares? They were heavy. You know, and they were big and it was showing the plentifulness of the land that they were going into. This is fantastic.

22:24 Flows with milk and honey. This is incredible. This place is incredible. But they also said they also said some things that were really kind of scary. They were kind of scary.

22:37 Now look at verse 26. It says, and they went and came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the con... Of the children of Israel unto the wilderness of Paran and to Kadesh and brought back word unto them and unto all the congregation showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said, we come into the land to which you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. And they showed the people this great, great things.

23:13 But notice verse 28. Nevertheless, nevertheless, you're gonna have in your Christian life, you're gonna have in your Christian life lots of neverthelesses. You will. Nevertheless. Nevertheless, they're going to say and I don't know how tall these guys were.

23:42 I don't know. When David David slew Goliath, Goliath was about nine and a half feet tall. Children of Anak. Notice what he says in verse 28. Nevertheless, the people are strong that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and very great and moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.

24:07 Oh, yeah. These guys would have been great in any any big 10 school. I mean, they would have... They could have played football. They could have played...

24:16 Can you imagine having a line of guys guys that are nine feet tall, some guy trying to pass the ball? You know, it's not gonna happen. You know, it's just not gonna bat it down or play basketball. Just amazing. And so notice what he says into comparison.

24:31 The Amalekites dwell in the land and the Nagim, the South, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and the edge of Jordan. Okay. So these guys are going up. 10 of them. 10 of them, they're going, hey, this these guys are so tall.

24:50 These guys are so mighty. They're warriors. They're like unbelievable. Caleb knows where... He was there with him.

25:00 He was there with him. He knows the story. He knows how big they are. And what does he do? He knows where these 10 guys are 10 guys are going to...

25:09 Where they're going with this. It's a nevertheless moment. Nevertheless, I mean, this is a great piece of land. This is fantastic. Nevertheless.

25:21 Nevertheless, So what happens, he says in the Amalekites, he dwells in the south there and Caleb came and stilled the people before Moses and said on... And said, let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it. You know what these guys, the people, the twelve ten spies were saying? We can't overcome these guys. We can't do it.

25:48 It's not it's not overcomeable. I don't even know if that's a word. But you can't overcome this. This is not going to happen. We can't overcome these guys.

26:10 Do you know that this is real? Oh, yeah. It's real. Yeah. These guys are warriors, man.

26:14 And we... God is sending us. He delivered us out of Egypt so we can go and die. Are you... This is what's gonna happen.

26:22 Are you... And it just goes on and on. Can that happen to us? Can we have a lot of people who say, hey, yeah, I I I trust God. I trust God for everything.

26:40 I trust God for my finances. Nevertheless, nevertheless, this is what was taking place. This is too insurmountable. It's too much. We can't we can't do this.

26:54 We just can't do this. And so, Caleb stilled the people and really gave a warning. He said, we can go up and we can conquer these people. We can do this. What was the response?

27:10 Notice the response. The we... The the witnesses said, but the men that went up with him, with Caleb, we are not able to go up against those people for they are stronger than we. We're not able to do this. They're way stronger than us.

27:33 We're gonna get wiped out. It's over. It's really over. Do you ever feel that way when somebody... You're you're really the flush of being a Christian and you're really happy and you're trusting god for something and doing it and somebody comes up and says, nevertheless, you can't do this.

27:52 This can't happen in your life. God can't use you this way. God god's... Why would god use you? Nevertheless, and then they say, you just can't do it.

28:09 It's not going to happen. It's it's insurmountable. It is insurmountable in your life. You ever have people say that to you? Even Christians.

28:22 Even Christians will do that to you. They will discourage you sometimes. The greatest discouragement I have ever had in my Christian life of fifty some years, 1971 is when I trusted Christ as my savior. The greatest discouragement that I have ever had, the greatest, I I I'll say maybe even persecution that I have ever had are from other Christians. And I've been on the streets of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland.

28:53 I mean, I've been Atlanta. I've been on those streets. And that's it's been, you know, sometimes it can get discouraging that kind of thing. But the worst discouragement I have ever had are not from the hecklers of black Muslims or or, you know, the atheists or anything. It's from other Christians.

29:12 You imagine that? I have... And I could tell you story after story about that. Hard. It's hard to take.

29:25 And so we're not able to do it, they said, these 10 spies. And they brought up the evil report of the land in which they searched and unto the children of Israel saying, the land through which we have gone to search it is the land that eateth up the inhabitants. Oh, man. We're gonna get wiped up. We're gonna get creamed here.

29:47 All the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants of the sons of Anak who came, who come of the giants, and we were like in their sight, little grasshoppers. We were grasshoppers. Now, I'm six five and a half, and I played basketball in high school and in college. And I've shaken hands with people.

30:11 But one time I saw a guy who played for the New York Jets defensive end, number 99, and his name escapes me. But I shook hands with that guy, and I felt like a little girl. I... My hand just went... I mean, it was like in golf.

30:27 How are you doing? Yeah. And the guy was guy was six nine. And I played against I played against seven footers, know, and I came up... Get this.

30:36 I'm six five and a half. I came up against the guy seven feet. I came up to his armpit. Literally. I had to play basketball in high school against the six eleven guy who later played for University of Tennessee, then the Phoenix Suns.

30:51 He was six eleven. And I boxed him out. I did everything I could to get him away from the bat. He scored 55 off of me. It was great.

31:14 They were like, we're so tiny. These... And if these guys were like nine feet tall, sons of Anak, I mean, Goliath was about nine feet tall. So, these guys were like grasshoppers. They were like, there's no way we can do this.

31:30 How can we do this? How can we take the land? Where god said, take the land. I will be with you and god uses Caleb to say, we are well, we can overcome them. We can do this But they they listened to the 10.

31:54 They listened to the 10. And the congregation lifted up their voice. Verse one of chapter 14, lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night. I mean, think about think about what that means. 1.5 to 2,000,000 people crying.

32:16 They wept all night. You think that there was like a pep rally? No. There was no pep rally. This was like, we're gonna...

32:23 We're done. We're finished. This is over for us. We don't have a we don't have a prayer. It's over for us.

32:33 And what was God telling them? God was telling them, go into the land. I will be with you. I will work with you. I will do it.

32:43 See, this is this is the thing that is so impressive to me about how we apply this these two chapters to our own lives. We cannot live the Christian life. Apart from god's power. You can't do it. I tried to live the Christian life.

33:05 I tried to as a as a young man before I was 18, before I trusted Christ, I tried to be the best person I could ever be. I mean, I I never did drugs. I never drank. I never got loaded. Never.

33:21 I had no idea what that meant, you know. And I think the thing was I saw the vomit on the side of Fred Brower's car after a party. And I thought to myself, these guys and their guys were drinking like crazy. I'm thinking, I am not gonna do this. That was a great deterrent.

33:39 I don't like getting sick. And these guys, I mean, they're falling. I saw one one of our senior picnic. Guy passes out from all this, you know, and so I'm, no, I'm not doing that kind of stuff. And I thought I was mister Goody two shoes.

33:54 I thought I'm going to get to heaven. If there's a way to get to heaven by being good, I'm going to do it. But you can't. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy, he saved us and that's not only true in terms of my life getting saved and having redemption, getting bought my, you know, my sins washed away in a home in heaven, but it's also true in terms of living the life. Paul tells the Galatians, he says, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit?

34:32 Are you, in other words, you get saved by being born again by the spirit of god and you get born, right? You're born again initially. Boom. Are you made now perfect by the flesh? Are you made now mature?

34:45 No. You live the same way you trusted Christ as your personal savior is the same way you grow as a Christian. Same way. By faith. The just shall live by faith.

35:03 The only way to get to heaven is to trust in Jesus Christ as your personal savior. That's the only way. In fact, for years, I tried to get it my way. I could not do it. I couldn't achieve the peace of god that only Jesus Christ can give.

35:25 I love it. I love it because when I trusted Christ as my personal savior, I had peace with god. Nothing greater than that. And the way I maintain that peace in my own life is to consistently trust him. Not to continually be saved, but to be the man of God he wants me to be and to live the Christian life.

36:38 We're so concerned. We're so concerned about them, about the wives and the children. And were not better for us to return to Egypt? And they said to one another, let us make a captain. Let's get somebody else besides Moses and let us return to Egypt.

36:55 Okay. Okay. How does that look? How does that look? Just say, let's get a...

37:03 Let's get somebody returned to Egypt. Okay? Are you gonna... How are you gonna separate the water? You're gonna you're gonna separate the...

37:12 How are you gonna do that? You're gonna go back and forget what God has done in terms of the great deliverance with Moses and with the pharaoh? Hey, hey, pharaoh. We blew it. We know that all the first born in the in Egypt die.

37:28 We we... And we're sorry about that. Can we come back and make bricks? Can we make bricks without straw? We would love to do that.

37:39 And this is what they were asking. Let's go back. Let's go back to the... Go back. And and Joshua, the son of Nun, verse six, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were with them that searched the land, tore their clothes, which by the way, if somebody gets up there and you're in a crisis situation and and then somebody rips their clothes, it's a statement.

38:08 They're making a statement. Those are hand weaved. They didn't go to the store. And, you know, I'm gonna go back to JCPenney's and and get another suit of clothes. I mean, they're renting their clothes.

38:21 This stuff is, you know, priceless for them. And they're renting it. And and these guys are no no slouches. Joshua and and Caleb, they rent their clothes. Wow.

38:38 If the Lord delights in us, then we will bring us into the land and give us... Give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. And then notice the warning. Notice the warning. Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land for they are bread for us.

39:04 Their defense is departed from them and the lord is with us. Don't fear them. So you got the you got the warning right here. They're right on the edge. They're about to cross a line.

39:19 They're about to cross a line here and god puts a warning up. Don't cross the line. They're like bread for us. The children of Anak, the the giants, and all this kind of stuff. The Canaanites, all these ice guys.

39:36 You know, all these guys are are they're like bread for us. Okay. So, when you go to, when you go to, what do you call it? The Olive Garden. You go to Olive Garden?

39:48 And what do you ask a lot of? More salad? Bread. They're like bread for us. Bread is not...

39:59 We just consume it. We just eat it. It's there. We just... You know, it's not filet mignon, it's bread.

40:07 It is bread that in fact, we just chow it down, you know, we're like wood chippers, know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just eat that, got more butter.

40:16 And we eat that. That's what that's what they're saying. Caleb and Joshua are saying they're like bread to us. They're nothing to us. God can give us the victory if we would just focus on him and not the problem.

40:35 We often focus on the problem, don't we? We look at this and that's what, you know, these these guys that go around in the in the big corporations, you know, and they say, well, what are you? Are you a problem oriented person or a goal oriented person? And they say, problem oriented person is you got a problem, you got this goal, but you see this problem in front, we gotta stop. Goal oriented person is a person.

41:02 Yeah, we got the problem but let's get around it. God is a god of goal orientation. He is just look at me and trust me, I will get you to where I want you to go. I will do it. I commanded you.

41:18 I will give you the power and the grace to do it. That's how great god is. But these guys, no way. Caleb and Joshua saying, they're like bread to us, only only trust them. But what do they do?

41:57 These guys are nuts. Are you out of your mind? The 10 guys are going, yeah. Yeah. We got to stone them in the whole of the congregation, 1.5 to 2,000,000 people.

42:06 Hey, let's stone him in that swelling of that loud noise. You know, have you ever been to a Browns game or, you know, it's deafening sometimes, you know? And can you imagine 2,000,000 of that? And yes, stone on. Let's get em.

42:20 Let's kill em. Let's put it, you know, we're going to go back. Let's get a captain from all this stuff is going on and god appears. God stops it And then he tells Moses, I'm going to wipe them all out. I'm going to start over with you.

42:38 Moses intercedes with him. Says, no. The rest of the world has seen. Rahab sought. How god delivered.

42:49 Rahab believed god and was counted to her for righteousness because she saw and she had actually she had heard Rahab in in the town of Jericho had heard about the deliverance of the of the Israelites. Let's let's, you know, she wanted to, she believed god and so Moses said, what's the world going to think about? You're going to wipe these guys out. You're going to wipe these guys out. So, what they thought was this, they thought two things, the Israelites.

43:26 They did not think that god was with them. And they did not think that God cared. How often in your life do you think that God is is absent from your life as a Christian? How often do you feel that way? That God's not there.

43:50 If you've trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, and I hope you have, and I hope you recognize that you... When you recognize that you're a sinner and that you cannot save yourself from your own sin, and you recognize that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and that he did die on that cross and rose again physically from the dead. And you ask him to be your personal savior. The Bible teaches you pass from death unto life. And not only do you pass from death unto life, the spirit of God, God, the trinity actually takes up residence in your life.

44:33 So, we don't ever have to sing, come holy spirit, now is the hour. No, he's already there. If you know Jesus as your personal savior, he's in your life. He's there. If you ask him to be your personal savior, he's there.

44:51 And he's never gonna leave you nor ever forsake you. But these guys, these these Israelites, they did not think that God was with them and they did not think that God cared. Satan does a couple of things in terms of the in terms of the Christian. God doesn't care about you. He whispers to you.

45:14 God doesn't care. God's not powerful enough to to work in your life. He sure is. He sure is but Satan tells you these things and has his demons tell you those things that he comes in and says, no, not powerful enough. It's all man made.

45:36 It's all this religious stuff. We're not talking religion. We're talking about a relationship with a god who cares. That's the difference between religion. That's the difference between religion and a relationship with a god who cares.

45:57 God sent his son to bear your sin. And then he died and put to death that body of sin. We're going to have a baptism and it's going to be reflective of this. You know, buried with Christ, being raised with Christ, and walking in new life. That's the Christian life.

46:21 And that baptism is just a just a representation, an illustration of what takes place in the person's life spiritually. So I look at this and I say to myself, wow. And then we've got the last one. God... They thought that God was with them.

46:42 They wanted to go up and they... There's many more details on this. But understand this, they thought that God was not with them, that God didn't care, and God said, I'm gonna punish you. And you guys who are 20 years old and above will will never see the promised land. You'll never see the promised land.

47:12 And all the kids that you were so worried about and the wives that you were so worried about, I'm gonna protect them, they're going into the promised land. So nobody except Joshua and Caleb except those two. And Moses and Moses didn't go in either. Went into the promised land. You know why sometimes we never see God work in our lives on a personal level?

47:43 Because we don't trust him. We don't take him at his word. I like what Billy Graham once said, God said it, I believe it. That settles it. And that's exactly what God wants in your life.

48:05 As we live the Christian life, God has given us the power. He's given us the word, the information, the knowledge. He wants us to trust him in everything. That's it. That's it.

48:22 I don't, you know, Israel, know, I... And I don't wanna be, you know, you look at Israel and you go, oh, those guys, if they just woulda. If they just woulda done this, if they just woulda done that, if they just woulda, woulda, woulda. Right? I'm just like them.

48:44 Yeah. I'm with you. God... God's talking to us. God is talking to us like crazy.

48:51 I appreciate you you taking the time and listening to me a little bit. We're gonna we're gonna have a a baptism in two seconds or shortly. And... Well?

49:04 Two minutes.

49:04 Two minutes. Okay. Yeah. Two minutes. Yeah.

49:07 We're gonna have that in two minutes. They're all getting ready for that kind of thing. Understand what that is representing. That is representing what takes place spiritually in a person's life when they recognize that they're a sinner and that they can't save themselves from their own sin. Recognize that they've asked Jesus who is god in the flesh to be their personal savior.

49:39 And when they do that, believing that he is god in the flesh, died on the cross, and shed his blood for them personally, for you personally, and then three days later, rose again physically from the dead and that's what this the coming up out of the water represents. The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's going to happen to us too. And this is just a foretaste, an illustration of what that takes place. Father, we just ask you that you would help us and bless this next next thing that's gonna take place as baptism.