[0:00] Well, tonight I'd like us to turn back to the passage that we read in the book of Numbers. And we can read again just the last two or three verses that we read from chapter 14, reading again from verse 6.
[0:15] Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, The land which we pass through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land.
[0:28] If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bred for us.
[0:43] Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. This incident with the twelve spies comes at a key moment in redemptive history.
[0:57] Redemptive history is the phrase that we use to describe the fact that God's plan of salvation is worked out through various stages of history.
[1:09] And that's why so much of the Bible records key historical events. It progresses across the ages of history and God works out his plan of redemption through these moments in history.
[1:21] Numbers 13 and 14 records a big moment in that redemptive history. And we can see that if we just remind ourselves of the various steps that have been taken up to this point in God's great plan of salvation.
[1:38] If you remember back in Genesis chapter 12, there's a key moment in many ways at the start of redemptive history because God initiates his redemptive plan by entering into a covenant with Abraham and his descendants.
[1:53] That's why Genesis 12 is a really, really important chapter in the Bible. It's one that you should have very much kind of a big signpost to Genesis 12. It should always be in your minds. It's a key chapter in God's redemptive plan.
[2:05] God makes this covenant with Abraham and a key part of that covenant is the promise that Abraham's descendants are going to be given a certain piece of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
[2:17] That's why we call it the promised land. This territory has been promised to Abraham and his descendants. In the generations that followed Abraham, his family grew and grew and grew.
[2:30] And it grew so much that it became a nation, a family nation we could call it. And it's named after Abraham's grandson, who, when we first meet him, he's called Jacob.
[2:41] But God gave him a new name, which of course was Israel. So you have this family nation named after Jacob, named after Israel.
[2:53] This nation has grown, but at the end of Jacob's life, the family moved to Egypt because of a famine.
[3:06] And there the family nation continues to grow, but that growth was viewed as a threat by the Egyptians. And so this family nation of Israel was forced into slavery.
[3:17] But after 400 years in slavery, God raised up Moses to lead the nation out of slavery in Egypt and to bring them back into the land that had originally been promised to them.
[3:30] And that great exodus from slavery is what is recorded for us in the book of Exodus. So they come out of Egypt, they come into the wilderness, and in the wilderness they are given God's law at Mount Sinai.
[3:43] That's another key moment in redemptive history. It all makes perfect sense. Everything God does makes perfect sense. He takes his people out of Israel, out of Egypt. He then speaks to them at Mount Sinai and gives them his law in order to prepare them for life in the promised land.
[4:00] He's taken them out of slavery. Now he gives them the instructions at Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai. And he says, you're ready now to go and live as my people in my land.
[4:11] And so they receive this law and they are finally ready to go and enter the promised land. And as they approach the promised land and prepare themselves to take possession of it, Moses sends 12 men to go and spy out the land, which is exactly where we've jumped into the story of redemptive history in Numbers chapter 13 and 14.
[4:36] This is why it's a key moment, because if you think about it, we are just about to take the final step in the plan that God had made.
[4:47] This is, in many ways, the home straight for the people of Israel. They'd been given all these wonderful promises in the past. They'd been through centuries of slavery. They'd just come out of Egypt in a stunning exodus.
[4:59] They had God's law in place. They were ready to go. They only had to do one more thing. They just had to go and take possession of the land.
[5:10] And this is really what they've been working towards the whole time. The final goal was not to have an exodus. The final goal was not to get a law. All of these were stepping stones to this one big moment, the moment when they would finally take the promised land and live there.
[5:27] It's the last step of the journey. The promises are about to become a reality. It's a big, big, big moment for the people of Israel. And they blew it.
[5:44] What should have been the final step in this great exodus was a failure. The 12 spies went out.
[5:55] And although two of them came back with a positive message, the other 10 gave a negative report, which sent the people into turmoil and fear.
[6:08] And all I want us to do tonight is just to take a step back and to look at the lessons that we can learn from this incident with the 12 spies.
[6:19] If you look at the passage, you'll see that one of the big emphases that's been made before us is the contrast between the 10 and the 2. You've got 10 spies on one hand with one perspective, and you've got 2 who have a different approach.
[6:34] And that contrast gives us some very important lessons for life as followers of Jesus Christ. And so I want us to look, first of all, at six examples of negative errors that we see in the 10 spies.
[6:49] And then I want us to look at six positive lessons that have been exemplified by Caleb and Joshua. So in grand total, our aim tonight is to learn 12 lessons from 12 spies.
[7:02] So let's go straight in and look at the 10 and see what they teach us. Whenever we look at people in the Bible who've made mistakes, it's very easy to criticize.
[7:15] But I have to acknowledge that when I read these verses, in my mind, I look at Caleb and Joshua and I think, oh, I would be like them. And we tend to align ourselves with the two who do well because they're a great example to emulate.
[7:31] And we do want to be like them. And yet the 10 display characteristics and flaws that are so easy for us to fall into ourselves. And as I look at these 10 spies, I need to be ready to acknowledge that I have made the same mistakes as them on many occasions.
[7:52] And we want to learn from that. And we want that to help us to grow and mature in our faith. So where did they go wrong? What six things can we see here?
[8:03] Well, first of all, we see a fear of people. When you look at the report of the spies, they had a very positive report about the land itself. It really does flow with milk and honey.
[8:15] But to them, the people are too strong. We're not able to go up against the people. They are far stronger than we. We read in verse 31 of chapter 13.
[8:28] The 10 spies saw the people and they were intimidated with what lay before them. And it's just reminding us that a fear of people is a constant threat to us.
[8:40] And it can manifest itself in many, many ways. In the case of the 12 spies, these 10 spies, it was primarily a physical intimidation.
[8:50] They looked at the men and they thought, wow, they are big and terrifying. And I can remember feeling like that when I went into first year in the Nicholson. It seems so strange now, but I remember going into the Nicholson and looking at the fifth and sixth years.
[9:05] And they looked like giants. It's quite hilarious now because they're all tiny compared to me. But back then, they seemed so big and so intimidating.
[9:16] And it can easily be like that. We can think, oh my goodness, what's going to happen? And we can be very easily intimidated in that sense. But perhaps more frequently, we're not so much intimidated by what people look like.
[9:33] For us, I think we can be far more intimidated by what people think and by what people say. And in general terms, we can be scared of what people think about our houses or about our achievements or what they would think if they knew our weaknesses or our mistakes.
[9:50] And in terms of our faith, we can be crippled by what people will think of us. What people will think of us if we go to the prayer meeting. What people will think of us if we profess our faith or if we change something at church or if we do something that's different to what's been known before.
[10:08] We can be immensely concerned about what people think of us. And the key thing to see here is that it's very, very easy to hesitate from doing the right thing because we are afraid of people.
[10:29] These spies put the fear of people ahead of the fear of God. And we have to ask ourselves, do we ever do the same thing ourselves?
[10:41] There was a fear of people. Number two, there was a fear of their circumstances. Look again in at verse 31 on chapter 11.
[10:53] You'll see there a very, very interesting phrase. The men who had gone up with them said, we are not able. They looked at their circumstances and they concluded that they did not have the strength, the resources or the ability to take possession of the land.
[11:11] In other words, they were crippled by the mindset that said, I can't do it. That mindset is all the more surprising given everything that they had personally experienced in the astonishing events of the Exodus.
[11:26] So they had seen the plagues in Egypt. They had passed through the Red Sea. They had witnessed the mighty Egyptian army being swept away before them. They had just stood before Mount Sinai and seen the whole mountain shake in the presence of God.
[11:41] They had seen so many amazing things. And yet now, just a short time later, they are crippled by the mindset that their circumstances are insurmountable.
[11:52] And this is an example of how new circumstances can eclipse important memories. That's a really important thing to remember. New circumstances can eclipse important memories.
[12:05] So for us as Christians, there are times in our lives when we feel so close to God. And we think, I'll never doubt again. I'll never doubt that there is a God. I'll never doubt that Jesus is my Saviour.
[12:17] I'll never question any of that again. And yet over time, these things slip out of our minds. And the pressures of life and the challenges that we face leave us struggling and doubting.
[12:30] And that's why it's always so, so good to talk about what God has done for us in the past. Both in terms of our own lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
[12:43] God himself exemplifies this. Again and again, he came to the Israelites and he said, I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. So they're facing a new challenge and a new difficulty and a new fear.
[12:57] And God says, remember what happened in the past. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And what God did in the past should encourage us for the present.
[13:11] For the present. Because it's very, it makes perfect sense. It's the same God that we're following. And so think back to the great events of church history across the past 2,000 years.
[13:24] Think back to the amazing revivals of previous generations when God did extraordinary things in communities like your own. Think back to your own conversion when God worked in your life and threw you to himself.
[13:36] Think back to the times when God was clearly at work in your life. And remember the fact that God has not changed one bit. And that's why we must not let new circumstances eclipse our memory of all that God is and all that God has done.
[13:57] That's why it's good to think not just about the redemptive history in scripture, but also to meditate on the redemptive history of your own life. To think back to the fact that God has brought you here and he's kept you every step of the way.
[14:13] We've got to be careful against a fear of our circumstances. That was number two. Number three. Very, very important one. A very interesting one. One that I'm probably very guilty of.
[14:25] Too much confidence in their own judgment. At one level, the Israelites' confidence seemed to be very low.
[14:36] They were afraid of the people. They were afraid of their circumstances. But in another way, they had far too much confidence in their own opinion. We saw that at the beginning of chapter 14.
[14:48] The congregation raised a loud cry. They grumble against Moses and they say, It would have been better if we had died in Egypt or died in this wilderness. Why is God doing this? Our children and our wives are going to become a prey.
[14:59] It would be better for us to go back. Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt. They are so convinced that they know best. Notice what it says there in chapter 14, verse 4.
[15:13] Let us choose a leader and go back. And that's a very, very easy mistake. So not only can we be crippled by what lies before us, at the very same time, we can place huge confidence in our own ability to judge what is the best thing to do.
[15:33] Isn't that true? You face a difficulty and we think we pass a judgment as to what the best thing to do is. And yet, we should always be cautious about that because their doctrine of sin tells us that our own minds are not trustworthy.
[15:51] And all too often, sometimes we can think that we should do something that is the complete opposite of what we really should do. So our minds can say, in the face of these circumstances, you should do this.
[16:07] And it can seem like such a good idea when in reality it's the very opposite of what we should do. So for example, you might feel that you're struggling with your faith.
[16:17] So maybe the last week or the last month or the past year, you've struggled with your faith. And so you think to yourself, what should I do? And I think, I'll stay away from church.
[16:30] That's the complete opposite of what you should do. We feel to ourselves, I've not been doing so well lately. I shouldn't come and sit at the Lord's table.
[16:42] Don't we think that? We think, I've not been so close to the Lord the last few months, so I'm not going to go and sit at the Lord's table. And so we stay away. That is the complete opposite of what we should do.
[16:54] Sometimes we feel insecure or unfulfilled. So we look for comfort in a relationship that we dive into or into a possession that we buy or into some kind of excessive foolish behavior.
[17:07] And yet that's the opposite of what we should do. So often we point ourselves in the wrong direction and yet we maintain a great confidence in our own judgment.
[17:19] And yet I look at myself and I ask the question, who is the main cause of mistakes in my life? And the answer is me.
[17:33] These ten spies had too much confidence in their own judgment. Number four, they had a distorted perspective. So as well as having too much confidence in their own judgment, these ten and those who listened to them also had a distorted perspective.
[17:52] They had gone out to spy the land and it was very much an exercise in observation. That's what spying is. It's something to look at. It's observing. But their perspective was distorted and they started to think things that were far from true.
[18:09] And that's something that's very easy to do. To convince yourself that something is true when it's not actually true. And that's highlighted by the fact that they thought that it was better to go back to Egypt.
[18:21] They say, would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? It seems almost unbelievable that they would think that. They had been slaves in Egypt.
[18:32] They had been bitterly oppressed. It had reached the point where any of them who had a baby boy, the child was being taken and was under threat of being taken. And killed. They were under awful oppression in Egypt.
[18:47] And yet here they are on the doorstep of the promised land. And they're saying, we would be better off back there. And as absurd as that seems, it is such an easy mistake for us to make as well.
[19:03] Because when you become a Christian, so if you are a Christian tonight or if you become a Christian tonight, which you can because becoming a Christian is a simple, easy thing to do. You just have to trust in Jesus.
[19:14] If you do that, if you become a Christian, then you are set free from a huge amount of awful things in life. So you're free from the emptiness of life that just lives for the weekend.
[19:28] Because in Jesus you now have a joy that is truly satisfying. You're free from the hurt of casual and selfish relationships. Because God's instructions for relationships and for marriage bring a purity and a security that is wonderful and precious.
[19:46] You're free from the search to find meaning and purpose in life. Because now you are a disciple of Jesus. And it doesn't matter whether you're the prime minister or somebody who just works on the croft.
[19:57] You have a purpose because you are serving him as his witness in the place where he wants you to be. You are free from loneliness and isolation because you can come and be part of a church.
[20:07] You have millions upon millions of brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. You're free from the uncertainty of what a day or a week or a year will bring. Because you know that God will be with you and that no matter what happens he will never let you down.
[20:23] And you are free from the fear of death. Even death cannot break or ruin or spoil your relationship with your saviour. And you are free to look forward to all of the astonishing, astonishing blessings of the new creation that God has got prepared for all those who trust in him.
[20:43] We have all of these incredible blessings through faith in Jesus Christ. And yet the devil comes to us and says, Go back. And you'll be better off.
[20:59] And it's absolutely crazy. And absurd. And yet when we face struggles we listen to him.
[21:13] But if we do so our perspective is badly distorted. And if you do ever feel like that, please pray that God would open your eyes again to see what you really have in Jesus.
[21:28] These spies had a distorted perspective. Number five. We see that with these ten spies they represented a wrong majority.
[21:41] So number five is a wrong majority. Nowadays we often rely on the wisdom of the majority. So in politics, particularly in referenda, it's the majority who are right.
[21:53] Or at least it's theirs. The decision is the one that carries. And even in wider culture, the apparent majority view very often tends to hold sway. But of course a majority can sometimes be wrong.
[22:07] And that's definitely true in this case. Caleb and Joshua weren't simply a minority. They were a tiny minority. And yet the two were right and the ten were wrong. And in our lives as Christians, we must be careful about this.
[22:22] Because we need to make sure that our world view is always shaped by scripture. And yet at the same time we are constantly facing pressure to follow a wrong majority.
[22:34] And that's a real danger. You are probably going to face a wrong majority this week in your life at some point. So you might be surrounded by people who think that going and getting drunk is no big deal.
[22:50] You might be surrounded by people who are quite comfortable sitting, gossiping and judging other people. You might be surrounded by people who think it's perfectly okay to have sex outside marriage.
[23:02] And you might be the only one in your group of friends who regards the Bible as authoritative. And even in terms of believing in God, in Britain today we are in the minority.
[23:15] But we must never ever forget if the minority is biblical, then the minority is right. And it's so important that we maintain a biblical world view.
[23:29] And that we guard against following a crowd that is opposed to what God has taught us in his word. These ten were a majority, but they were a wrong majority.
[23:41] And then number six, we see, this is perhaps the most serious, it is the most serious of all. You see in these people a suspicion of God.
[23:55] That's really what laid the heart of the Israelites' failure. There was a suspicion of God. Verse 3 in chapter 14. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?
[24:06] Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Now that's a hugely important point to recognize. The Israelites were suspicious of God. They thought that God was quite happy to see them get hurt.
[24:19] Indeed, they seemed to be thinking that that was God's plan all along. They thought the worst of God. And that's a problem that has plagued humanity ever since the fall of humanity in Genesis chapter 3.
[24:32] Because what happened then? The devil came to Eve and convinced her that God's command was actually going to hurt her. And that God's desire was actually to restrict her and control her rather than bless her.
[24:48] The devil tried to say to Eve, You should really be suspicious of what God is saying to you. And so often we make the same mistake. We think the worst of God.
[24:59] So we think that God's law is going to spoil our lives. We think that following God is going to make life worse. And that for some reason God would want that. And we can think that God brings trials into our lives.
[25:12] Because he somehow likes to see us suffer. The people of Israel were suspicious of God. And they thought the worst of him. Now we have to be absolutely clear.
[25:23] Thinking the worst of God is theologically absurd. And it is a blasphemy against the nature and character of God.
[25:38] And that's because when we are thinking the worst of God. And when we are suspicious of God. We are basically accusing God of being like us.
[25:50] Because we often treat people badly. We often have immoral motives. We often hurt people. And sometimes we can even get a kick out of doing something like that.
[26:04] But God is never, ever, ever like that. And God cannot be like that. Because God is the God of truth.
[26:17] And of righteousness. And of holiness. And of mercy. And of love. And simple, logical common sense. Tells you that God cannot.
[26:28] Simply cannot. Be horrible to us. And he never will be. God never manipulates people.
[26:38] God never cheats. God never deceives. Because he can't. He just can't do these things. God never, ever does anything. That is against his perfect moral character.
[26:51] And he never does anything. That is not done in the best interests of his people. So please, please, please. Don't ever, ever be suspicious of God.
[27:05] Because a suspicion of God arises from a totally inaccurate theology of who God is. These spies were suspicious of God. And that was the fatal mistake that they made.
[27:18] So let's recap what they say. These ten, they were afraid of people. They were, one, afraid of people. Two, afraid of circumstances. Three, they were too confident in their own judgment.
[27:30] Four, they had a distorted perspective. Five, they listened to a wrong majority. And six, they were suspicious of God. And these are all things that can have a very damaging impact on our walk with the Lord.
[27:43] These are things that we must avoid. And yet, I look at myself. And I can see that I've done them all. And I'm sure you're the same.
[27:55] And so we want to ask ourselves, how can we avoid these things? And how can we make sure we don't slip into these errors? Well, as we said already, one of the great emphases of this passage is the contrast between the ten and the two.
[28:12] And Caleb and Joshua are a great example of the godly character and attitude that we want to emulate in our lives as Christians. And so we're going to look very briefly at the lessons we learn from these.
[28:26] And these ones are quicker. So we'll hopefully get through. We'll aim for seven o'clock, maybe a minute or two after. So what do we learn from the two?
[28:37] Well, number one, we learn that it's God who makes the difference in circumstances. Notice what Caleb and Joshua say in 14.8.
[28:50] If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. Now, sometimes when you go to a passage of Scripture, our attention can be drawn to the big words.
[29:03] So we go to a passage, we're reading a passage, we can see big theological words or big terms. And our attention can always be drawn to these.
[29:14] And that's a good thing, the big words are brilliant. But never, ever forget that the we words are brilliant as well. And the we words are incredibly important. And I want to highlight a really small but really important word at the very beginning of verse 8.
[29:27] And that's the word if. If. Because the ten spies and all the people were full of ifs, weren't they? They were saying, if these people are so big, if these cities are so strong, if we are going to be beaten, if our wives and our children are going to become a prey, they are full of ifs, these people.
[29:47] And we are too. If I do this, if I go to church, if I go to the prayer meeting, if I make a mistake, if something goes wrong, if I can't keep going, if I let God down, and all of these ifs hold us back.
[30:00] But Caleb and Joshua are brilliant because they show us that there is only one if that really matters. If God delights in us, then everything else falls into place.
[30:16] And that is the only if that matters. As it says in Romans 8.31, If God is for us, who can be against us? And that is the if that we should care about.
[30:31] And that is the if that you need to build your life on. Because that's what really matters. If we are trusting in Jesus, then God delights in us.
[30:42] His favor rests upon us. He is for us. And that is what really matters. So if you have the Lord Jesus Christ at the center of your life, or if you put the Lord Jesus at the center of your life, then all the other ifs are in safe hands.
[30:59] It's God who makes the difference in our circumstances. Number two, Joshua and Caleb show us that God is able. The ten had come back and they said, We're not able.
[31:14] Caleb said, We are. Verse 30 of chapter 13. Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.
[31:26] And it's just wonderful what he says there. It's so interesting. Caleb does not disagree that the people are big. And he doesn't disagree that the people are strong, because he had seen them himself and he knew that they were.
[31:38] He wasn't blind to the reality that's set before him. He wasn't being irrational. But he also knew that with God with them, they were able to overcome.
[31:51] And that reminds us of a question that we must always, always ask ourselves. Is God able? So is God able to bring the Israelites into the promised land?
[32:04] Is God able to bring people to faith in point? Is God able to use people like you to reach your family and neighbours and colleagues? Is God able to save you and your loved ones and your family and your friends?
[32:19] Is God able to do all these things? Of course he is. Of course God is able. And in everything that we do as a church and in everything that we do as Christians, we must have these words written on our hearts.
[32:35] God is able. God is the one who can do it. Then number three, we see that not only did Caleb and Joshua know that God was able, they also knew that God was with them.
[32:50] They knew God is with us. We see that in verse 8 of chapter 14. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us.
[33:02] They knew that God wasn't sending them in on their own. He was going in with them. And that's a wonderful thing to remember in everything that we do for the Lord.
[33:14] We do it with God with us. That's one of the great principles of following Jesus. Just think about it logically. If you are following Jesus, just think in a very literal sense.
[33:27] If you're following Jesus, that means that there's an irrevocable logical conclusion that he is going ahead of you. And he'll always be with you.
[33:40] And that's a key part of God's covenant promise. With Abraham, with Moses, with Joshua, God came to them and he said these great words, I will be with you.
[33:53] And it's like the seal of God's commission on these great men. He comes to them, he calls them, he gives them a massive task, but he says, I will be with you.
[34:04] And so you look at these men like Abraham and Moses and Joshua, and you think, well, these were amazing men and they did amazing things and they had this amazing privilege because God had come and had appeared to them and he had made a covenant promise with them and he said, go and do this work for me and I will be with you.
[34:22] And you think to yourself, wouldn't it be brilliant to have that? Well, do you know you do have it? Because God has said exactly the same thing to us.
[34:34] Because do you remember what Jesus said in his great commission when he came to disciples like you and like me and he says, go make disciples of all nations and I am with you always to the end of the age.
[34:53] So God is doing for us exactly what he did for the great servants of the Old Testament. He is renewing his great covenant promise that as we go out to serve him, he comes with us.
[35:05] So when you go to work tomorrow morning and when you're praying that you will be a witness in your workplace, God is there with you. When you go back to school or college after the holidays and everybody else around you seems to be following the world, remember that God is right there with you.
[35:24] When you are caring for the responsibilities that you have at home, when you are carrying the burdens of all the challenges and struggles and worries and hardship of life, when things don't go the way we want them to go, never, ever, ever forget that God is with you.
[35:41] That's what Caleb and Joshua knew and that's what we need to remember ourselves. So they knew that it was God who made the difference in circumstances.
[35:51] They knew that God was able. They knew that God was with them. Number four, they also knew that God is to be obeyed. Look at what they say in verse 9 of chapter 14.
[36:02] He says, Do not rebel against the Lord. That's a great reminder that God is to be obeyed. And so Israel here were not simply in danger of missing out on the blessing of the promised land.
[36:15] They were in danger of rebelling against the God of heaven and earth. And that's a very solemn reminder that if God is God, then he is to be obeyed.
[36:26] And Caleb and Joshua here, they're not just protecting their own interests. First and foremost, they are concerned for the honour and worship of God.
[36:40] They want to make sure that God is honoured and obeyed. And that's a really important thing for us to remember. Because when we serve the Lord, it's very easy to be caught up with a concern for growth and for success and for encouragement.
[36:55] And when we do something as a church, we want it to be successful. We want it to work. When we see people wandering away, we want them to come back. But we have to make sure that our primary concern is not for our numbers.
[37:10] And that our primary concern is not for our reputation. Or that our primary concern is not for the Free Church of Scotland. Our great concern is for the honour of God Almighty.
[37:25] And that was what laid the heart of Caleb and Joshua's concern. Don't rebel against God. God is God. We love him. And we want to obey him.
[37:36] And that should always be the cornerstone of our motivation for everything. God is to be obeyed. Number five.
[37:48] God is trustworthy. Because at the heart of Caleb and Joshua's approach was the fact that they knew that God could be trusted. The ten were suspicious of God.
[38:00] But the two knew that God is trustworthy. And that's something we must never, ever, ever forget. God is trustworthy. So with your life this week.
[38:12] With your family. With your work. With the decisions that you have to make. With whatever it is that God is asking you to do. Whatever providence God is bringing into your life. Always remember.
[38:23] God is trustworthy. Caleb and Joshua knew that. And we need to make sure we never forget it ourselves. So the two knew.
[38:33] Number one. That it's God who makes the difference. They knew that God was able. They knew that God was with them. They knew that God was to be obeyed. They knew that God was trustworthy. And finally. They knew.
[38:45] It's nearly seven. We're close enough. They knew that God had promised. Because if you go back to the very start of the passage that we read in chapter 13.
[38:56] It says that the Lord spoke to Moses saying. Send men to spy out the land of Canaan. Which I am giving to the people of Israel.
[39:09] And everything that Caleb and Joshua did was grounded on God's promise. That he was going to give this land to the people of Israel.
[39:21] And that's a vital thing for us to remember. And especially for anybody here who's maybe not yet a Christian. Or not sure if you're a Christian. Or wanting to be a Christian but still not certain.
[39:33] It's really, really, really important to remember this. That every time you hear the gospel. Every time you are told that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved.
[39:45] Every time you are told that whoever comes to Jesus will never be cast out. Every time you are told that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. You must recognize that these are not just empty words of optimism.
[40:00] These words are grounded on the unbreakable irrevocable promise of God. And so you have no reason to fear and no reason to hesitate.
[40:14] You just need to run to Jesus. And ask him to keep his promise to save you. And I can guarantee you that he will.
[40:27] Because he's made that promise. And for those of us who are Christians we need to remember what God has promised as well. God has promised to save his people.
[40:37] God has promised to build his church. God has promised to be with us. And God has promised to use us. To use people like you and people like me. People who are incredibly ordinary.
[40:49] He has promised to use us as his servants. And so it does not matter how big or strong or dark or skeptical or hostile or uninterested the world around us might be.
[41:02] Because with God we can do it. And we stand on his promise. So there you have 12 lessons from 12 spies.
[41:18] And may God make sure that his word is really written on all of our hearts. Amen.
[41:29] Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.