Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20111023.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XIX: Encouragement To Keep At God's Will Amid Great Darkness
(Numbers 13:33-14:24 with Joshua 14:6-15)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    At times we who know God's will just need to be encouraged to keep doing His will amid disheartening spiritual darkness around us:

    (1) I needed this last week as I came across Rodney K. Smith's article, "Nation's Founders wouldn't have targeted Mormons" in the October 17, 2011 USA TODAY, p. 11A. Smith there criticized some Christian leaders who say America was founded as a "Christian" nation so that to vote for former governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to be president was to vote against what America's Founders would want!

    I must agree with Smith's point that believers err in implying that the Founding Fathers officially opposed specific religious entities: they actually tried to do just the opposite, passing the First Amendment in their effort to inhibit the persecution of any religious group, Ibid.

    Yet, the way Smith's article was written left me thinking: "Oh no, there goes the mainstream media again trying to push ecumenism, and this time by painting Mormonism out to be Christian." I cut the article out, planning to take it to the office to use in this sermon only to throw it into the recycle bin and then only to dig it out again in indecision, not knowing if it was worth trying to address in our era of deep darkness. However, one statement in the article was so vexing, I knew I had to counter it. It went: "(A) unique brand of Christianity' on the part of Thomas Jefferson . . . [was] belief that largely centered on Jesus Christ as a great teacher and not a deity." (Ibid.) In the context of Mormonism, this sentence implies that the denial of Christ's full deity in Mormonism is not a denial that should keep us from calling it "Christian" any more than calling Mr. Jefferson "Christian."

    Well, 1 Corinthians 12:3 and 1 John 4:1-3 show that to deny Christ's deity as Eternal Creator God makes one NOT a "Christian"! To deny Christ's full deity as taught in Scripture does not let any human being regardless of pedigree qualify as a Biblical "Christian"!

    (2) Others in our Church face such trials, too: while working on this very sermon's first draft last Tuesday, I got a call from a distraught Church member. He had just heard on a Christian radio station a lesson taught by teachers exalting errant Calvinism in a proud way, so he had turned off his radio set to avoid having to listen any more to it and had immediately called me "just to vent" his frustration!

    We thus ask, "Is there any encouragement in Scripture to keep doing God's will amid great, opposing spiritual darkness?!"

    Need: "I know what God wants from me, but the spiritual evil I face leaves me needing encouragement to keep at His will! Any ideas?!"

  1. Caleb and Joshua faced a humanly very discouraging crisis in standing for the truth amid great spiritual darkness around them:
    1. Ten of the twelve spies gave a negative report, convincing the nation of Israel not to trust God regarding defeating the Canaanites, especially the giants of Hebron, the Anakim, Numbers 13:33-14:4.
    2. However, the two spies, Caleb and Joshua, gave a positive report, trusting God's goodness and Word as the basis of urging Israel to trust God to give them the victory by invading the land, Numbers 14:6-9.
    3. The people chose the view of the majority of the spies and suggested even executing Caleb and Joshua by cruel stoning, Numbers 14:10a!
  2. The contrast in result of the decisions by most of the spies and the people versus Caleb and Joshua offers great encouragement for us to stay faithful doing God's will amid what great darkness we face:
    1. God intervened to protect Caleb and Joshua and to judge the people:
      1. God's glory suddenly appeared at the tabernacle to stop the people from their plan to execute Caleb and Joshua, Numbers 14:10b.
      2. The Lord told Moses of His wish to destroy the faithless people for ignoring all His miraculous signs up until then that showed He had planned to bring them into the Promised Land, and that in their place God would make of Moses a new nation, Num bers 14:11-12.
      3. Moses pleaded with God to protect His own reputation before the onlooking Gentile world that He was able to bring Israel into the Land as promised, and that as He was gracious, God might then forgive the people of their rebellion and unbelief, Num. 14:13-19.
      4. God thus offered not to annihilate the nation (Numbers 14:20-21), but rather to cause all the adults who had ignored His miracles in Egypt and the wilderness so as to distrust Him about invading the Promised Land to die in the wilderness, Numbers 14:22-23.
      5. In contrast to that generation, Caleb [and Joshua] who had shown the attitude of faith in God would the Lord bring into the Promised Land, and Caleb's offspring would possess his plot, Num . 14:24.
    2. The results of this event in Israel's history encourage us to follow the faithfulness of Caleb and Joshua amid great darkness around us today:
      1. All of the adults in Israel who had failed to trust the Lord, those who had wished to die in the wilderness for fear they would be slain by the Anakim were they to invade Canaan -- they died in the wilderness just as they wished, Numbers 14:2, 29; Hebrews 3:17.
      2. However, for trusting the Lord and urging the people to trust Him to enable them to take the land, Caleb ended up a great victor:
        1. God had promised to bring Caleb into the Promised Land where he had traversed, and that his offspring would possess that land where he had traveled as a spy, Numbers 14:24.
        2. For this promise to be fulfilled, God caused Caleb to cross a huge hurdle: (1) God destined the faithless people to wander 40 more years in the wilderness, a year for each day the spies were in the land, until that whole generation had died in judgment, Num. 14:34, 29. (2) However, this would leave Caleb naturally so old that fighing to conquer his plot would be impossible when Israel finally took Canaan. (3) However, Joshua 14:6-11 gives an account of God's miraculous provision for Caleb to overcome this limitation: God preserved Caleb's strength during the 40 years of the fall of his faithless peers, plus the 5 years Israel had started to invade Canaan, so when he was 85 years old, Caleb was as fit as he was at 40 as a spy to fight and take his land. (4) So, at age 85, Caleb asked permission from Joshua to conquer his plot of land in southern Judah, Joshua 14:12a.
        3. Caleb recalled God had promised him the land he had traveled as a spy (Num. 14:24), so he knew he could defeat the Anakim where the spies had taken their fruit samples 45 years before, Jos. 14:12b. He thus asked to conquer Hebron and its Anakim, and Joshua blessed and gave him his request, Jos. 14:12c-13a.
        4. Caleb then conquered Hebron and its Anakim giants who had terrified his peers, the ten spies and the generation that had died in the wilderness, Joshua 14:13b-15; Numbers 13:33-14:1!
      3. Thus, the people who feared the Anakim and wished to die in the wilderness in unbelief were given that wish, but Caleb who wanted to invade the land in faith saw God sustain his youth so he could conquer the Anakim, and was encouraged each day of the 45 years he had to wait to conquer them by God's preservation of his youth.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin, John 1:11-12. (2) As believers, may we see the value of trusting the Lord that we end up not like Israel's faithless generation, but like Caleb!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 The lesson of this sermon is applicable to the issues presented in our sermon introduction, so we apply that lesson here as follows:

(1) We had noted an October 17, 2011 USA TODAY article the ecumenical tendency to call Mormonism a brand of "Christianity."

From this sermon, I am encouraged to do my duty to expose Mormon error, and cite the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (carm.org) that uses only Mormon works for documentation:

(a) Mormon Doctrine, p. 516, asserts "God is married to his goddess wife and has spirit children." Isaiah 43:10 cites God as claiming there never has been nor ever will be any God but Himself.

(b) Mormon Doctrine, p. 163, claims "Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers and we were all born as siblings in heaven to them both." John 1:1-3, 14 says Jesus is the Eternal Creator opposite this.

(c) Mormon Doctrine, p. 193 and Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 8 teach: "A plan of salvation was needed for the people of earth so Jesus offered a plan to the Father and Satan offered a plan to the Father but Jesus' plan was accepted." John 8:44 counters, claiming Satan was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth.

(d) The Journal of Discourses, 1856, vol. 3, p. 247 teaches "Jesus' sacrifice was not able to cleanse us from all our sins, (murder and repeat adultery are exceptions)." 1 John 2:2 counters this, saying Jesus' atonement is the propitiation for the world's sins, and 1 John 1:9 claims if a believer confesses his sins, God is faithful and just to forgive his sins and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness.

(e) Mormon leader Spencer W. Kimball in the Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 206 wrote: "One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation.'" (Ibid., carm.org) Ephesians 2:8-9 counters this claim, saying salvation is the gift of God by grace through faith alone.

(2) Also, in our sermon introduction, we told of the oppression a Church member faced upon hearing a radio program extol Calvinism. Well, Mark 6:6 records that Jesus marveled at the unbelief of people. This shows that Jesus felt that man, not God, authors faith versus what Calvinism claims! Jesus was not a Calvinist, so neither should we be!

Thus, may we follow Caleb's example, trusting God to bless us as we keep doing His will amid great darkness around us!