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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
We're going to be in the book of Numbers tonight.
Numbers chapter #13 if you find your place there in Numbers
chapter #13 I'm sure a very well known portion of scripture for
us tonight. Nothing new, but I believe
something for us none the less. Something from God's Word,
something that the Lord would have for us if you found your
place there in Numbers chapter 13.
If you could stand, please, in honor of the reading of God's
Word, Numbers chapter 13, We're going to read a bit here.
We'll read the first 3 verses. We'll skip down a bit.
We'll read the remainder of the chapter, and we'll jump right
into us. So if you'd read along quietly
while I read out loud, the Bible says in Numbers 13, beginning in
verse #1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men,
that they may search the land of Canaan, which I have, which I
give unto the children of Israel, of every tribe of their
father. Shall ye send a man, everyone, a
ruler among them? And Moses by the commandment of
the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran.
All those men were heads of the children of Israel.
And he goes through and gives the name of all of those men
down through verse 16. So if you'd pick up in verse 17,
it says, and Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and
said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into
the mountain and see the land. What it is, the people that
dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many.
And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or
bad. And what cities they be that
they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds.
And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be
wood therein or not. And be ye of good courage and
bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the
first ripe grapes. So they went up and searched the
land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehab, as men come to
Hamas. And they descended by the South
and came unto Hebron, where Ahiman, Shishayai, and Talmayai,
the children of Anak, were. Now Hebron was built seven years
before Zoan in Egypt. And they came under the brook of
Eshkol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of
grapes, and they bear it between two upon a staff.
And they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs.
The place was called the brook Eshkol, because of the cluster
of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.
And they returned from searching of the land after 40 days.
And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the
congregation of the children of Israel under the wilderness of
Proran to Kadish, and brought back word unto them, and sent
unto all the congregation, and showed them, I'm sorry.
And brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation,
and showed them the fruit of the land.
And they told him, and said, We came unto the land, whither thou
sentest us? And surely it floweth with milk
and honey, and this is the fruit of it.
Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land,
and the cities are walled and very great.
And moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South, and the Hittites
and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains,
and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us
go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome
it. But the men that went up with
him said we'd be not able to go up against the people, for they
are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil
report of the land which they had searched under the children
of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to
search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.
And all the people that we saw in it are men of great statue.
And there we saw the Giants, the son of Anak, which come of the
Giants. And we were in our own sight as
grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight.
Thank you. You may be seated.
When I was younger, I remember living.
We lived in Florida. We lived on a cul-de-sac.
I remember the day that my dad decided I was going to learn to
ride a bike without training wheels.
It was a good day for me. I thought, you know, we're going
to take off the training wheels. I'm going to get to ride a bike
the way you're supposed to ride a bike.
No training wheels. It's going to be awesome.
So I hopped up on that bike and I took off out into that
cul-de-sac. And I didn't go very far.
I fell and I skinned my knee. And like most young boys who
skinned their knee, I thought it was the end of the world.
And I cried. And I do remember that.
I remember that my dad had, he had a common saying, whenever we
would hurt ourselves, he would come up and he'd say, got any
bones sticking out? You bleeding, you're fine.
That was usually about how the conversation went, and that's
what I got. My skinned, my knee was skinned,
but I didn't have any bones sticking out.
It wasn't bleeding a whole lot. So he said get up, get on the
bike, do it again. And I'm happy to report I can
ride a bike now. OK, If you were worried, I can.
I can ride bikes today like the rest of us just fine.
You got to meet some of my children back there.
James is the second youngest. He's five.
He got his first bike when he was 3 and it did have trading
wheels. He can now ride without training
wheels. The fact that he's very proud
about, but when he first got his bike, there was some learning
that involved. Even though he had training
wheels, so he didn't have to worry about falling over most of
the time, he did have to learn about things like turning.
If you turn the bike too far, you fall.
And he didn't understand this. So we had to learn about that.
He had to learn about how how to how to how to pedal the bike and
how to use the bike and how to ride the bike.
And he was doing really, really well on the bike.
And he enjoyed it and enjoyed it so much that he got to go to a
bigger bike now. Yeah, again, one without
training wheels. I also have a daughter back
there. Her name is Evelyn.
She got her first bike. When she was 5?
No, I know she was 3/2. That's right.
When she was three. I'm sorry.
She got her first bike when she was 3, but it took her two years
to ride that bike. Much to her father's chagrin.
Because I got her the bike and I showed her how to ride it and I
tried to help her and I tried to get her to overcome her fears
and she refused. She was scared.
She thought she was going to fall.
She wouldn't pedal it. She wouldn't even try.
She would rather go and sit on the porch then ride her bike.
And I tried and I tried and eventually she was able to ride
her bike, but it took a long time.
And we like to ride bikes over the summer time.
We go and we ride around Wampatuck and stuff.
And, and this was a couple years ago when all this happened, when
they all started learning how to ride bikes.
I have a burly like a little trailer that we tow and I had to
tow them. So it was.
Very. I was wanting them to ride their
own bike because going uphill with a couple of kids in the
trailer in my shape, it didn't end well for me.
I I could make it up some hills, but there were a couple, you
know, the hills where you think you're at the top and you Crest
it and it's like, Nope, there's another part to it.
Yeah. That that was that's where I
stopped and I walked up hill because it was it was too much
for me. But I wanted them to learn how
to ride their bike because I wanted them to not miss out on
the joys of riding a bike, to be able to to overcome something
that they were scared of, something that was difficult to
be able to rise. To the challenge and conquer the
challenge, and in a sense, to be able to.
Learn to ride a bike. OK, I hope that makes sense.
It's pretty simple. Maybe you remember when you
learned how to ride a bike. But I wanted them to not miss
out on that. And as I thought about that, and
I thought about this passage, I thought about how we've all
stood on the threshold. Of something great, of God's
will for our life. If you will.
They've all, we've all stood on that threshold, whether it be
about about getting married or about children or about a job or
about college, about moving, about a relationship, about.
Whatever. We've all had a moment where we
stood on the threshold and we had to make a decision about
what we were going to do and taking that step was going to be
difficult. It wasn't going to be easy like
riding a bike. It, it wasn't something you're,
you're just going to jump on the bike and start pedaling with no
training wheels and nothing bad is going to happen.
There's, there's some things that are going to hurt.
You're going to have to work for it.
We've all stood on that threshold of seeing God's will
accomplished in our lives as parents, husbands, wife's,
teachers, employees, just as a disciple of Christ.
We've all stood on the threshold.
It could be a choice. You know God's calling me to
give. We have every year we have
missions conference and the pastor calls on us at the end of
the missions conference to plan with faith promised missions
what we're going to give and I pray about it and God lays an
amount on my. Heart.
And often times it's an amount that's more than I want to give,
and I have to make a choice. I'm standing on the threshold of
God's will for my life and I have to make a choice.
Of whether I'm going to take that step of faith or whether
I'm going to turn aside out of fear, out of uncertainty.
The choice of either taking the narrow and often hard way that
God calls us to or turning back and giving up and never
ascending the mountain of God's will and enjoying the blessings
that God wants to give us. You know the the promised land
was the blessing that God wanted to give to his people, to
Israel. He had promised them that land
over 400 years before we get to Numbers Chapter 13, He had
promised. It to them, and here they were,
and they were quite literally on the threshold of seeing God's
promises fulfilled. They were on the threshold of
living in the promised land, the place of blessing, the land
flowing with milk and honey, the land that God had promised them
that was just a beautiful, wonderful land that God said He
was going to give them. He promised them that they would
just have to walk in and walk around in the places where their
feet fell, that that would be their land.
He said that he would send a Hornet that would drive out the
other nations out of the land. These are all promises that you
can read in the book of Genesis, in the book of Exodus, in the
book of Deuteronomy. These are what God said He was
going to do for them. And here they were at Kadish, or
Kadish Barnea as you probably are more familiar with it, South
of the Promised land. All they have to do is cross the
border. And they're there.
That's it. They are on the threshold.
They can see it. It's a step across.
And they're in God's will. They're in God's perfect
blessing for their life. Their enemies would turn their
backs and flee from them. God promised.
God didn't say it would be easy. He didn't say there wouldn't be
challenges. There had been challenges and
obstacles. For 400 years to get them to
this place, but they were on the threshold and all they had to do
was take one step of faith. You know the story, we read the
story, you're familiar with the story.
They don't take the step of faith.
Numbers Chapter 14, not only they do not take the step of
faith, they want to go backwards.
I preached a message on that one too, and I'm not doing that
tonight. We don't have time for both.
But Numbers Chapter 14, they want to go back.
They are so discouraged and disappointed by what happens in
Numbers 13 that they would rather go back.
To Egypt, than take one step and enjoy God's blessing.
Why did that happen? What happened at Kadish Barnia
that caused them to refuse to take that step?
To refuse to step into God's perfect will for their life.
In this passage, the first thing that happens is there are 12
spies that are commissioned and sent into the promised land,
Moses, Moses by order of God. And this happens also in the
book of Deuteronomy. It's, it's a, a companion
passage. And so in that passage it says
that it was the people's idea. It, it's, it's hard to say whose
idea it was first, whether God commissioned it and the people
agreed, or whether people said we want to do it and God said,
let's do it. But the point is here.
God was OK with it. God said this is what we're
going to do. Moses, I want you to send 12
spies in. I want you to pick one from each
of the 12 tribes, a head, a leader, somebody who can
represent the people. And they're going to go into the
land and they're going to spy it out.
They're going to check it out, see what it looks like, see what
you're getting yourself into. And they're going to come back
and report on what they find. That's in the 1st 16 verses.
Is where these spies are commissioned and they represent
representative again of the entire group of people.
They could have traveled anywhere.
I there's a lot of debate about how far they traveled, 250 miles
up to 500 miles. A lot of walking just depends on
how many miles a day they did, how much they stopped to admire
what they were looking at. But they traveled.
They were had 40 days to wander around in the promised land.
They were given directions they were supposed to go.
Here, see this. Do that, come back with some of
the fruit and report. On what they saw, that was the
Commission, that that was the plan.
Moses told them in verse 17 that he they wanted to see what the
land was like, what the people were like, whether they were in
tents or in strongholds, whether the land is good or bad, what
the fruit is like, whether there's wood or whether it's all
grassland. These are the kinds of things
they were supposed to be looking for.
What's interesting though, the Children of Israel.
No one in the Children of Israel has seen this land again for 400
years. Abraham was there, Jacob was
there. Joseph went down Joseph's,
Jacob's son Joseph went down to Egypt.
He was sold into slavery. Then Jacob moved his whole
family down to Egypt. No one's been back.
As far as we know. No one ever went back to Canaan.
No one's seen this land. All they have is the promise of
God to Abraham in the Book of Genesis to go off of what this
land is like. That's it.
No one's seen it, no one knows what it's like, no one, no one
can remember. They just have stories.
But what they did see or what they were about to see wasn't
something that was surprising or shouldn't have been surprising.
God told them there were going to be people in the land in
Exodus chapter 3 and verse #8, He said.
About the land, he said, And I came down, and I am come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them
up out of the hand unto a good land, and a large unto a land
flowing with milk and honey. So he tells them, this is going
to be a beautiful land. And he tells them the play, It's
the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites
and the parasites and the Hittites and the Jebusites.
So they haven't seen it. No one's been there.
But they shouldn't be surprised by what they're going to find.
God said, you're going to find a land flowing with milk and
honey. It's going to be a good land, a
beautiful land. It's going to be a lush green
land. And you're going to find some
people who are living there that I'm promising that I'll drive
them out because their time is up and it's your turn to live in
this land. That's what he promised them.
So they weren't going to see anything new.
They already should have known these things.
God had already told them. What to expect and that he would
take care of it. And so they search out the land
just like God commissioned them to do.
In verses 21 down through 25, they searched out the land.
It says in verse 20 there at the end, it says, now the time was
the time of the first, right? Great.
So it was around July or August. That's when that would have been
OK. They brought back samples.
I've always, whenever I teach this passage to the junior
church kids, we always stop and think about what kind of grapes
need two people to carry them. Those must have been some big
grapes. You had to cut it down, put it
on a pole and carry it between two people.
OK, These weren't your grocery store grapes.
I can pick those up with one hand no problem.
And so can you. These were.
Watermelon sized grapes, I don't know, they were massive.
They brought these back. They cut down this branch and
brought back grapes and pomegranates and figs.
The fruit of the land. Truly the the point of all of
that was to bring it back and say this really is what God
said. It's a land flowing with milk
and honey. I mean, have you ever seen
grapes like this? This is what's there.
And we didn't have to work for it.
We just walked in, walked up, cut one down and walked out.
That's what God said was going to happen.
He says they're going to have vines you didn't plant, fields
you didn't plant, homes you didn't build.
It's everything God promised. That was the point.
That was what they were supposed to come back and say.
It's it's a land full of life, a green, lush, growing land, a
beautiful land. Everything they had dreamed of
and everything God had promised. I also thought it was
interesting in verse 22. It's almost like.
The author hopes these men will notice something he says in
verse 22. And they ascended by the South
and came unto Hebron. It's easy to miss, but Hebron's
a special place. The only piece of land in the
land of Canaan that is owned by anyone related to the children
of Israel is in Hebron, where The Cave of Macpella was
purchased by Abraham to. Bury his wife, Sarah, and to
bury Jacob, Abraham, Rebecca, they're all there.
And they came to Hebron. They passed through Hebron.
I can't help but wonder, did anybody stop and go?
Hey, is that it? Is that where Abraham is?
Who Way back in Genesis chapter 13, God promised we would be
here and look where we are? Did anybody even think about
that? Did they even notice?
It doesn't say, it just says they.
Came to Hebron. Well, it does say what they did
notice. They noticed.
The people says they noticed. Aheman Shishi and tell Mei the
children of Anak they didn't notice.
That this is where. God promised Abraham.
This is the place where God promised that he would bring us
back here and that that we would live in this land.
And here we are, the fulfillment of God's promise.
We're literally standing right where it all started. 400 years.
Ago. No.
What they noticed is, wow, there's some really tall giants.
That's what they noticed. That's what they took note of.
That's what the author indicates that they they saw.
It was here in Hebron where Abraham purchased this property,
where Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah were
buried, where God had given the promise and it.
Should have been the place where they said wow this really is our
land, just like God promised. So with the grapes in hand,
having surveyed the land, having seen Hebron, seen all these
things, they've, they've, they've done everything that
Moses commissioned them to do, that God commissioned them to
do. They've seen the land.
They've brought back the proof that it's a land flowing with
milk and honey. They've seen how green and lush
and beautiful it is. They've seen the people.
They dwell in fortified cities. That was one of the things they
were supposed to see. Do they dwell in tents or do
they dwell in fortified cities? They've seen all of that and
they are ready to. Return 40 days later, they come
back, they crossover back to Kadish and they're ready to give
their report of what they saw. This begins in verse #25 They
return from searching of the land after 40 days.
In beginning in verse #26 they begin their report.
They say, And they went and came to Moses and Aaron into all the
congregation of the children of Israel under the wilderness of
Quran to Kadish, and brought back word unto them and unto all
the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
And they told him and said, We came unto the land, whether thou
sentest us? And surely it floweth with milk
and honey, and this is the fruit of it.
If that's where they ended, things would have gone much
differently. Much differently throughout the
rest of the chapter. Because that's that's a good
report. They came back and they said.
It's exactly what God said it was going to be.
God said it's going to be a land flowing with milk and Honeywell,
we've got these mega grapes here.
It's it's got to be a lush green, beautiful land.
Produce grapes like this and here's the fruits, the
pomegranates, the figs. Man, we've been living out in
the wilderness. God's been taking care of us,
but. Wouldn't you like to sink your
teeth into one of these? Bananas.
I don't know if they had bananas or not, but maybe they had some
bananas. This is the report.
The fruits, the grapes, the beautiful land that floweth with
milk and honey. It's rich in life.
It's green, just as God had promised.
I can't help but imagine as. They're perhaps walking through
the camp coming up to Moses carrying these grapes.
People are probably coming out. Whoa, do you see that?
Is that a grape I've. Never seen a grape like that.
What in the world? Where did that come from?
And they're getting excited, they're getting ecstatic.
This is amazing. This is exactly what God said it
was going to be. They begin to start telling
Moses and people are like. Did he say?
Did he say it's? Flowing with milk and honey.
Wow, what does that even look like?
Man, we're going to be there soon.
This is going to be awesome. I'm so excited.
They're ecstatic. The euphoria of God's people as
they hear this report. The long-awaited Promised Land
is literally. Just over the hills, just over
there, just a short walk and they're there and it's
everything God had promised it to be.
But that euphoria is very short lived.
The Bible says in verse #28 Nevertheless, nevertheless, the
word means despite all of that, here's all the fruit, but
despite all of that, nevertheless.
And their euphoria quickly vanishes.
And it's really, it's replaced with an uproar.
We know it is because later on when we get to it, But Caleb has
to silence the people. They they they do not respond
well to this. Nevertheless, if you're
imagining this, you can just imagine.
They're so excited. Wow, look at those grapes and
they're talking, man. This is a land that flows with
milk and honey. Nevertheless.
What? What did you just say?
What's this? Nevertheless, what do you mean
despite? Have you seen this grape?
What do you mean despite this grape?
Nevertheless they said, yes the land is as wonderful as God
promised, but despite all of that we can't conquer it.
Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land
despite remember that's what it means.
Despite all of this, despite how God's been faithful, despite how
we were in Hebron, despite how God fulfilled all his promises
and has brought us, 400 years later, all the way back to right
where he promised we would be. Despite all of that.
They're too strong. We can't defeat them.
The people who dwell in the land are too strong.
Despite what God did in Egypt with the 10 plagues, what he did
when they crossed the Red Sea and crushed the most powerful
army in the world with an ocean. That he had just parted a few
hours ago. Despite all of that, their
cities are too fortified and we can't get through their walls.
Despite what God has done, bringing us through the
wilderness, feeding us with bread from heaven, rocks that
gave us water enough to feed all of these people and all of their
animals. Despite all that God has done to
bring us here, they have giants. They're too big.
Despite all that, God has done to.
Bring us to this place. To give us this land, despite
the promise of God to drive these people out like a Hornet,
That is what the Bible says. That was the promise of God,
that he would go before them as a Hornet.
If you've ever been chased by a Hornet, you run pretty fast.
That was the image. This Hornet of God would come.
And the Canaanites, they wouldn't even stop to fight the
children of Israel. They take off in the other
direction. God said I'm going to drive them
out. But despite all of that.
There's the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, and there just isn't enough room for
little old Israel to fit in with all of them.
That's what that word nevertheless means.
Despite all of this, we can't conquer the land.
They're on the threshold, literally on the threshold of
taking a step right into God's perfect will for their life.
But despite all that God has done to bring them here, we
can't do it. That's what they say.
That is the report of the 10 spies, rather than focusing on
those grapes. The beauty and greatness of the
land, the huge fruits of the land.
They describe the people of the land, the strong and great
walled cities, the giants. One man said this I quote.
He said matching the abundant and sidisable fruits are the
numerous and powerful people with large fortified cities.
And instead of going to places like Hebron and being reminded
of Abraham and how God brought Abraham from UR all the way to
Canaan, and how God blessed him and how God provided for him,
and how God grew his family and how they are all descendants of
Abraham just like God said they would be like the sands on the
seashore instead of remembering. All of that and focusing on that
they only saw the size of the buildings and the statures of
the people. It's interesting their report
recognizes the faithfulness of God.
They. Use God's own promise.
Surely it floweth with milk and honey.
That is what God said. They recognize the faithfulness
of God to bring them here. And still conclude we can't do
it. They saw what it took to get
them here. They saw bread falling from
heaven. They saw literally the.
Spirit of God descending upon a mountain and the ground shaking,
they saw Moses come down with the 10 tablets of stone.
They were there when he struck a rock and water came out of it,
when the waters of the Red Sea parted, when the Bible says that
hail fell from the sky and burned like fire on the ground.
I've seen hail. I have never seen hail that
catches on fire. But they did.
And yet here they are, recognizing the faithfulness of
God, the power of God to bring them here.
But despite all of that. We can't conquer it.
They're on the threshold, but they don't take the step.
The fabulous Promised Land isn't so promising anymore.
But again, remember. They shouldn't have been
surprised. God told them.
We read it in Exodus 3 verse 8. You're going to a land that's
flowing with milk and honey. But guess what, there's some
people there. The.
Canaanites. The Jebusites.
All of those Ites. They're still there.
They shouldn't have been surprised, but he had already
promised them I'm going to drive them out.
All you have to do is walk in, walk around and wherever your
feet fall, that's yours. You know what's really sad about
this passage and and what happens and and I'm jumping
ahead a little bit here, but that promise that God made where
he said literally just. Walk in.
And start walking and I'll just drive the people away from you.
They never got to actually see that promise fulfilled because
it was a one time promise. The next time, 40 years later,
when they came back, they had to fight.
They had to fight against King Cheddar Laomer and his assembled
armies. They had to fight against
Jericho, fight against AI. God promised them that if they
walked in, he would drive the people out like a Hornet.
And they missed it. And they wandered in the
wilderness for the next 40 years, and they never got to see
that promise fulfilled. Their children had to fight.
Was God with them? Oh, yeah.
Did God give them victory? You can read the book of Joshua.
Oh, yeah. He gave them victory, but did
the promise of God to drive the people out like a Hornet never
came. They missed it.
How sad it is to stand on the threshold of God's perfect will.
The blessings of God are just one step away, a step of faith,
and we miss them. And sometimes we don't get to
come back and see them come fast again.
Oh, God's good. Oh, he's very good.
He's merciful. He's just, he's forgiving.
But that doesn't mean you get a second chance at what he was
going to do, what he was going to give, how he was going to
bless. They missed out.
He never promised it would be easy, but he guaranteed them
victory if they would just follow him by faith.
I think what's also important to recognize here, and we haven't
talked about the other two spies, but what's important to
recognize when you talk about the 10 spies and the two spies
is they both saw the same things.
It's not like Joshua and Caleb were over here looking at green
grass and nice beautiful valleys with no fortified cities.
And the 10 spies were over here. Oh, there's Jericho.
Oh, there's the children of Manic.
They all went and saw the same things.
It wasn't that ten were bad and two were good.
If you've ever sung the junior church song, 10 were bad and two
were good. It wasn't that the two were good
because they didn't see what the 10 spies saw.
Everybody saw the same promised land, the same land flowing with
milk and honey, the same giants, the same walled cities.
But the difference or what? What happens is that two of them
arrive at a completely different conclusion than the other 10.
Ten of them stand there and say, yeah, we know what God has done
to get us here, but nevertheless, and despite all of
that, we can't take the land. But the other two, and really
Caleb is the only one mentioned in this chapter as speaking.
Joshua comes in in chapter 14. I can't help but wonder if maybe
Caleb is the spokesperson because Joshua was Moses's
second hand man. Maybe the people would have been
like, but he's just he, he had, he's always going to side with
Moses. But Caleb was free.
Caleb had no, he didn't have to worry about Moses firing him.
He could, he could have sided with the 10 spies.
It could have been 11 versus 1. So we read about Caleb.
And it says he silenced the people.
He says stop, the people are are getting angry.
If you read in chapter 14, they get angry, though they they weep
all night. They're saddened.
They just said what has God done to us would to God we had died
in the land of Egypt. Those are the kinds of things
that they're beginning to say and and for a moment Caleb says,
guys, listen, wait, he doesn't he doesn't really mince a lot of
words. He just says we read it, but he
says here we let us go up. This is verse 30.
Let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to
overcome it. Well able.
I if you if you look at it in Hebrew, it's literally the same
verb repeated twice. Well able.
This is always saying we can really, really, really, really,
really do it guys, let's go. Just repeating himself, just
emphatic, let's go. We can do this.
We be well able. Well able.
Let us go up at once and possess it.
Caleb stands up. He quiets.
The people let us go. We are well able.
It isn't that he again, he didn't.
It wasn't that he didn't see the children of Anak.
It wasn't that he didn't see the the great walled cities and the
giants and all the people and all the obstacles.
It wasn't that he didn't see them.
Unlike most of the Israelites there, he was one of the few
people who did see them. There are only 12 people at this
point who've actually seen the promised land.
Other than maybe a fleeting glance across the hills.
There's only 12 people who've actually walked in the promised
land at this point. And 10 of them have brought up a
bad report. And two of them are now saying,
no, we can do it, let's go right now.
Just stop all this. God has been faithful.
He will continue to be faithful. Let's go.
We're on the threshold. Just take the step.
We'd be well able let us go up at once and possess it.
He's aware that Israel lacks what they lack.
They lack personnel, they lack resources, they lack the
infrastructure, they lack the budget.
They cannot overcome those obstacles.
He more than anybody else there except 11 other people.
Knows that but when Caleb says let us go we be well able.
The difference is is that his we is taken to an account somebody
that the other we is not see Caleb is looking at the
situation saying OK yeah they got giants and he looks and says
giants, God the rest of them are going giants.
Me. Compared to Goliath, David was
pretty short. Compared to God, Goliath was
pretty short. God brought him down with a
rock, a Pebble and a shepherd boy who used his own sword.
The difference was Caleb when he said we be well able, God was in
that we with God, we can't be stopped with God.
We can take this step of faith off this threshold and he's
already promised I already know what he's going to do.
Let's go do it. I just.
Want to see God drive him out? I want to know what that looks
like to be to just walk onto the battlefield and your enemies are
running away like you're a bee. What does that even?
What does that look like? What does that feel like?
I want to be there. We be well able because God will
fight with us. In chapter 14, Caleb and Joshua
and verse #9 they say this about the, the, the people there.
They said they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from
them and the Lord is with us. Fear them not.
We may be like grasshoppers to them, but you know what
grasshoppers like to eat? Bread.
And their bread. We're going to eat them for
breakfast, guys. That's what it makes me think
of. We're going to eat them for
breakfast because the Lord is with us.
Don't be. Afraid of them?
What do they have that God doesn't have?
Sure. Yeah, the children of Israel are
a bunch of former slaves who just spent a few months
traveling across the wilderness. They're not, they're not battle
hardened soldiers. They haven't lived in a single
place where they fortified against attack.
The city states that lived there in the Canaanites, all these
little groups of people, they were warring with each other.
This was a place, the Canaan land was a place where you would
have to travel through to take goods and stuff up the coast, up
the Mediterranean and up into the north and then back down.
And so there would have been lots of skirmishes and battles.
And so the people there would have been accustomed to battle
like Goliath, if they would have been accustomed to fighting and
going to battle and using weapons of arms that the
children of Israel had none of that.
They, they, they had, they had fought 1 battle.
It was a. Pretty amazing battle.
God stopped the sun in the sky. But they they weren't battle
hardened soldiers. They had God.
That was all they needed to take that step off the threshold.
So Caleb stands up and he quiets the people and he says they're
bred for us, they're depend. Their defense is departed from
them. The Lord is with us.
Fear them. Not the promised land, the
beautiful land. It's right there.
God's perfect will for us. We can do this.
What are you waiting for? Let's move forward.
Well, quickly the other 10. I don't know, They push him out
of the way. Wait, Wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait. Wait, let me tell you.
Yeah, we were there too, Caleb. We know.
What it was like. And they say in verse #31 But
the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up
against the people, for they are stronger than we.
One man described them as this. I thought this was pretty funny,
he said determined to oppressed, determined to depress.
They characterized Canaan as a Jurassic Park inhabited by
humanosauruses who made them look like grasshoppers.
I'm glad you laughed at that, Denny.
Thank you. He likes dinosaurs, so that
might be why. The 10 spies it's interesting to
note their description of the land has changed they started
off by saying, wow, it's a land that floweth with milk and honey
look at the. Fruits.
Look at this. This is awesome.
This is a great land, but there's some there's a problem.
There's some giants there, there's some well fortified
cities there. There's some people who are
strong and great. Now what they say is this in
verse 32, and they brought up an evil report of the land which
they had searched under the children of Israel, saying the
land through which we have gone to search.
It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants.
Thereof, what happened to the land flowing with milk and
honey? How did those giants get to be
so big in a land that eats them up?
How did their? Fortified cities get to be so
big and it's they're contradicting themselves they.
How can they be big and strong in a land that devours them?
And one person commented and said, well, maybe they maybe
they were saying, well, the land devours them because they're
always fighting with each other. But even then they would if they
were constantly fighting, constantly warring with each
other, they would be constantly weakened.
They. Obviously weren't, or there'd be
no reason to be afraid. Of them, the point is that
they've now put on some blinders.
That's what happens when you don't take that step of faith.
You, you, you can see what God has promised.
You know what God has promised. You know what God wants you to
do, but you're afraid to take it.
And suddenly, well, it doesn't really look that good.
I mean, I, I know. That's God's perfect will.
But this, this over here, it really isn't that bad, right?
I mean, Egypt wasn't that bad, was it?
That's what happens in chapter 14.
I mean, guys, I mean, I know that there's big grapes over
there, but you remember the garlic we had back in Egypt?
You guys don't look excited about that at all.
They were, they thought it was better to go back and have
garlic than to go forward and have grapes.
They were completely blinded. Taking your eyes off God and
putting them on your situation will always result in deceiving
yourself, blinding yourself to the blessings of God.
That are right in front of you and they thought Egypt was
better than freedom and they said in verse 31 we be not able
to go up against the people for they are stronger than we are.
As I thought about this and I told you that you know the
story, I wanted to, I wanted to answer the question, why?
Why did this happen? What happened that caused them
to be on the threshold, ready to step into God's perfect will?
And to miss it. And I've already really.
Told you the answer, but I just want to point out some verses
here. Look at verse 27.
And they told him and said, We came unto the land, whither thou
sentest us. They're talking to Moses.
But back at the beginning, who was the one who sent them into
the land? God commissioned that.
Well, Moses, we went to the land that.
You. Sent us to and let me tell you,
it was nice but we can't do it. Well, there's where's God?
Why didn't you say we went to the land that God has brought us
to? Where was he in all of this?
In verse 32 it says this and they brought up an evil report
of the of the land which they had searched under the children
of the of Israel saying the land through which we have gone to
search it. We.
Saw it guys and it's impossible again.
Where was God here was gone back in verse #2 It says this, Send
thou man. This is God speaking, that they
may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children
of Israel. God's already given it, but they
don't seem to remember that. Moses, you sent us there, we saw
it. It can't be done.
Never mind the fact that God said it's already yours.
It's already done. The deeds already signed.
You just got to go in. That's it.
I've already given it to you. Just take the step.
One more verse, verse 22. And they ascended by the South
and came unto Hebron. But what did they see in Hebron?
Only the enemy. I mentioned that already.
That's it. That's all they saw everywhere
they went. God wasn't there with them.
Those 10 spies, All they saw was the enemy, even when they were
standing in a place where they should have remembered.
This is where it all started. After Lot and Abraham parted
ways. The Bible says that Abraham went
to Hebron and made an altar and God promised him, this is going
to be your land. And Abraham purchased a field
there and and a cave, and he was buried there in the promised
land. But where was all of that?
As they passed through Hebron, all they could see was there's
another giant. There's another one.
Wow, look at that city. We're never going to be able to
take that. And they completely erased God.
They looked at the people of the land and saw giants.
They looked at the city and saw high walls and locked gates.
They looked at themselves and saw grasshoppers.
They did not ever once look at their God.
They compared themselves. The 10 spies compared themselves
with the giants and were grasshoppers.
The two spies compared them, the giants, with God, and God was
greater. Caleb's call to go up at once
was based on what God said, not on what they saw.
Hope you catch that. There they were.
They're on the threshold. God said it was in our passage
traverse too. I've given this.
This land is theirs. And Caleb took that and said,
God said, it's mine, let's go. No, he didn't base his decision
about whether or not to take that step on what he saw.
He saw the things that were there.
He saw the obstacles. He saw the giants, he saw the
walled cities. He saw the things that had to be
done to take the promised land. But his decision to take that
step of faith had nothing to do with what he saw.
It was what God said, Let us go up at once, for we are well
able. Well able.
Humanly speaking, the 10 spies were right.
It was an impossible task. Humanly speaking, they could not
take the promised land, they ragtag group of former slaves
against giants like Goliath. They had no chance.
They stood on the threshold of God's perfect will.
I read this, this. I thought this was a great
thought. They stood on the threshold of
God's perfect will and they snatched defeat from the jaws of
victory. Does that sound backwards to
you? That's what they did.
All they had to do was take a step and they were living in
God's perfect will and the enemy was just going to run away.
How hard is it to take a step? Sometimes it's very hard.
Sometimes it's the hardest. Sometimes we get focused on what
you can see. I can't help but think of Peter
walking on water. What happened when he got his
eyes off of the Lord and got his eyes on those waves?
He started sinking. That's what happened.
Man, there they were on the threshold.
All they had to do was take a step.
They missed it. They missed it because they
wrote God off, erased him from the equation, and they only saw
what was right in front of them. They snatched defeat from the
jaws of victory. It's truly a great tragedy to
only ever come close to being in God's perfect will.
I'm going to say that again, it is truly a great tragedy to only
ever come close to being in God's perfect will.
There are no blessings and no promised lands in coming close.
They were close. They were as close as they were
going to get without being in God's perfect will.
And because they didn't take a step of faith for the next 40
years, all the people who were of the age where they could make
a decision, they died walking around in a wilderness and they
never got to see the promised land.
There are no blessings in no promised land in coming close.
They were right there, but they were only living.
They were living only by what they saw, and because what they
saw was hard and they were afraid, they turned back.
Tonight, will you live by what you see or by what God has said?
He's made some promises in His Word.
We have the choice, all of us standing on the threshold of
God's perfect will and we look and we say, man, it's it's
really hard to live for God in this world today.
It's really hard to share the gospel with people today.
It's scary. I don't know how they're going
to respond. I might even lose my job.
What has God said? Am I going to take that step or
am I going to that's too much, I can't do that.
You might never get that chance again.
That blessing that you were going to get.
It may never come back. It didn't for them.
It was gone. Their children didn't get to
enjoy a Hornet that drove the people out.
Their children had to fight for every inch of that promised
land. Was God with them?
Yes. Did God forgive?
Yes, of course he did. He was still with them for the
next 40 years as he led them around the wilderness.
But it was still not a promised land.
It was still a wilderness. You might say, you know what,
this sin, sin that I've been fighting, it's just too much.
I'm never going to get victory over this sin.
God already said that He's made a way of.
Escape, he's already said. If you're saved tonight, you've
been freed from the power of sin.
Are you going to live based on what you see?
I know me. I know what my besetting sin is,
and I know that there are times I look at it and I think there's
no way. He's already said he's made the
way. Am I gonna take a step of faith
or am I gonna turn back? The children of Israel did.
I'm never going to get out of this, this problem with my
marriage. It's just my marriage seems to
be falling apart. My husband, my wife.
What? I don't know what to do.
I don't know how to live. I don't know what, I just don't.
Know have you factored God into that equation?
Your children, our country? You say I tried it God's way.
I just, I just, it just didn't seem like it worked.
Are you going to be faithful? Are you going to take that step
of faith? God called Abraham to leave his
land and go to a land and he didn't even tell him where he
was going. He just said start walking when
you get there, I'll tell you. And that's how we got here was
because one man took a step of faith.
I had no idea where it was going.
You might have a person you've been praying for, man.
This person, my, my brother, my sister, my, my mom, my dad, my
grandma, my grandpa, my friend. Are they ever going to get
saved? Are you going to be faithful or
are you going to look at it and say it's a lost cause?
I'm not even going to try anymore.
It's a tragedy to stand on the threshold of God's perfect will
for your life and turn away from it, to be close and miss it, to
miss the blessings of God. You could be on the very edge of
God's perfect will tonight and you could look at it and say
this is impossible. There's no way, and humanly
you'd be right. It's impossible, just like it
was for the children of Israel. Can I tell you tonight, stop
looking at the giants, Factor God back in, trust what He said
in His Word and take a step. You will not regret it.
I can tell you what you will regret.
You'll regret wandering around in a wilderness wondering what
those grapes might have tasted like if only you're taking a
step. You know what's really another
thing that's sad? In Numbers 14, after God tells
them they're going to wander in the wilderness, they try to go.
Like, all right, got it. You were right.
We're going to go take the promised land.
Remember what I told you? It was too late.
God told them don't go, it's too late.
And they tried to go. They tried to fight their way in
and they lost. People died, they missed it.
They stood on the threshold so close and missed the blessing of
God because they looked at what was in front of them and said
there'd be giants. They're huge.
We're grasshoppers and they're in these walled cities and we're
just, nobody's from Egypt. And they just completely rode
off their God and what he had promised them that word.
Nevertheless, they wrote off everything that He had just done
for them over the last few months back in Egypt, as they
came across the wilderness at Mount Sinai, they wrote it all
off. They forgot it.
They decided it was better to have garlic than grapes.
The Bible. Says we live.
Although I'm sorry, when we live by what we see then we will
always fall short of God's will. The Bible says in Hebrews 11/6.
Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that
cometh to God must believe that he is.
And there's more I know. If we compare ourselves to those
giant situations, then we truly are grasshoppers.
The situation is hopeless. But if we compare our situations
to our God and we trust what He has said, and we remember how
faithful He has been, don't just.
Nevertheless, could you imagine that one word used to write off
the entire book of Exodus? Have you read what happens in
the book of Exodus? There's some amazing things in
the book of Exodus and they wrote off the entire book with
one word. Nevertheless, because of what
was right in front of them. Don't say like those 10 spies we
beat hot Abel and turn back from God's perfect and best and
blessed will for your life. Don't try to go back to Egypt,
the place of bondage. Trust what God has already said
about your situation and be like Caleb.
Let us go up at once. Let's let's do it.
Let's take another one. We be well able, not because of
me or because of you, because of God, we be well able.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.