[0:00] Our first reading this morning is from Numbers and chapter 13, which can be found on page 144 in the Church Bibles.
[0:12] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.
[0:27] So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of the men who were heads of the people of Israel. And these were their names, from the tribe of Reuben, Shamua, the son of Saka, from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori, from the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunai, from the tribe of Issachar, Egal, the son of Joseph, from the tribe of Ephraim, Hosea, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Rephu, from the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel, the son of Zodai, from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gadai, the son of Susai, from the tribe of Amul, the son of Gamali, from the tribe of Asher, Sepha, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Naphtali, Rabi, the son of Phopsi, from the tribe of Gad, Guel, the son of Megchai.
[1:34] These were the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land, and Moses called Hosea, the son of Nun, Joshua. Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, Go into the Negev and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not.
[2:14] Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Sin to Rehob, near Labo Hamath.
[2:31] They went up into the Negev and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Shashay, and Talmeh, the descendants of Anak, were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zohan in Egypt.
[2:46] And they came to the valley of Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them.
[2:57] They also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the valley of Eshkol because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.
[3:08] At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.
[3:21] They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, We came to the land to which you sent us.
[3:34] It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.
[3:47] And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negev. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country.
[3:58] And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan. But Caleb quietened the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.
[4:12] Then the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spied out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.
[4:39] And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.
[4:52] The second reading is from Numbers chapter 14. Page 145, Numbers chapter 14. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.
[5:10] And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness.
[5:22] Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?
[5:33] And they said to one another, Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.
[5:47] And 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 passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land.
[6:05] 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.
[6:21] Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones.
[6:32] But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people despise me?
[6:46] And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
[7:02] But Moses said to the Lord, Then the Egyptians were here of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land.
[7:13] They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
[7:30] Now, if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, it is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them, that he has killed them in the wilderness.
[7:44] And now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, as you have promised, saying, The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.
[8:08] Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now. Then the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to your word, but truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory, and my signs that I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times, and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers, and none of those who despised me shall see it.
[8:51] But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit, and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.
[9:05] Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow, and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. Well, thank you very much, Val and Rachel, for reading Val, in particular, those names.
[9:21] That was very impressive, very well done. Again, as with last week, the service sheet is going to be of particular help to us this morning, so do try and get in view of that if you can.
[9:33] On the back, that's going to be where we're heading. But before we start, I'm going to lead us in prayer. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth, shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory, and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have yet put me to the test these ten times, and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.
[10:03] Lord, we thank you that we have a God who is so fixated on his glory, and so committed to his holiness, and his fame being proclaimed in all the world.
[10:15] Father, please, would we heed the warning of these verses, so that we might not put your faithfulness to the glory of your name to the test. Amen.
[10:27] Would life be better if we were no longer a Christian? I wonder if you ever stopped to think that at particular points in time. We could have a lie-in on Sunday. Some of us might be thinking that's the best reason, perhaps, that we wouldn't want to be a Christian anymore.
[10:40] We could avoid youth group, or growth group. We wouldn't have to go through that awkwardness of evangelism, or even the awkwardness of people not listening to our evangelism. We could hold the same liberal, progressive views, couldn't we, as our friends.
[10:55] We wouldn't have to have the awkwardness around the water cooler, or the Zoom meeting, whatever the case may be, when the topic of sexual purity and marriage comes up. We'd probably have more money, wouldn't we?
[11:06] We'd definitely have more time for work, or family, or kids, or hobbies. But most significantly, perhaps, we could determine the plotline of our own lives, couldn't we? We could live how we wanted to live, for what we wanted to live, and we would be the sole author of our life's plotline, God of our own lives.
[11:26] Wouldn't it be better? Wouldn't it be better, therefore, if we were no longer a Christian? Now, Israel was coming to the end of their plotline in Numbers 13 to 14.
[11:37] The plot had began right back in Exodus chapter 3, where God had spoken to Moses in the burning bush to say, I am going to bring you and Israel into the promised land.
[11:48] And so far, we've seen the plagues, we've seen the slavery, we've seen Red Sea, Sinai, Golden Calf, Ten Commandments, preparation of the camp, the wilderness journey has begun, and finally, they're on the edge of the promised land.
[12:00] They're finally there, within spitting distance, the end of God's plotline for them. From 70 in Egypt, at the end of Genesis, to 2 million Israelites on the edge of the promised land, they're finally there.
[12:15] They're finally within grasping distance of God's plotline for them. It would be inconceivable, wouldn't it? It would be insane, wouldn't it, if they were to turn around and turn back now.
[12:27] The end is in sight, a land flowing with milk and honey. I'm sure lactose-free for those of us who don't like dairy. They're right there. All they have to do is step in.
[12:40] That leads us to our first point, again on the handout. God is faithful to his promises, man is still faithless. God is faithful to his promises, man is still faithless. It's worth saying this morning that we're going to be looking at this in a sandwich-like structure.
[12:54] So the passage that we have this morning, our first point is going to be covering chapter 13, verse 1, to 14, verse 10, showing God's faithfulness in mercy. We're then going to jump to 14, verse 20, to the end of the chapter, which is the second point, which is that God is faithful to his judgment.
[13:14] And then the climax of our time together will be that middle passage where we see what God is going to do ultimately. And that will be chapter 13, sorry, chapter 14, verses 11 to 19, God's faithfulness to himself.
[13:29] So God's faithfulness and mercy and judgment on the outside and God's faithfulness to himself in the middle, which we'll come to last. So to begin with, God is faithful to his promises, chapter 13, verse 1, to 14, 10, man is still faithless.
[13:44] The preparations for taking the promised land begins in earnest. Notice God's incredible mercies to the people in chapter 13, verse 1 and 2. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the people of Israel.
[13:58] From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, everyone a chief among them. Now God has already promised them the promised land. He's already told them what it's like. He's already brought them out of Egypt. He's done so much for them.
[14:10] Yet the Lord wants to give them every single reason possible to trust him. He doesn't need to give them this spy mission to see the promised land, but he does it anyway so that they might have every reason to trust him and put faith in his promises.
[14:25] So that's what happens, verse 3. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them, men who were heads of the people of Israel. Verse 16, as after what Val read, these were the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land.
[14:41] And it's significant that we had those list of men, their chiefs. Chiefs in Exodus were the people that God had given Moses to help him make legal decisions. In other words, these are the kind of lawyers of the camp.
[14:52] In theory, therefore, the ones you want making decisions, I'll leave that up to you, whether or not you think that's a good and wise decision or not. And the reason that there is a person from every single tribe is so that when each tribe receives back their leader, each tribe will have someone of their own to tell them, yes, the promised land really is like that.
[15:12] Yes, God's promises really are true. You can trust me. We're used to thinking like that. I think when the coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China, China wouldn't allow any scientists from any other countries for a while to go and check out if China's account of the situation there was true.
[15:30] And we were skeptical, weren't we? China kind of said, just trust us. You know, just trust us. And we're like, no, no, we'd quite like to send some of our own scientists. No, no, just trust us. As in, we're used to thinking in those terms, aren't we?
[15:42] We want a reliable source to tell us what is happening before we make any kind of judgments of our own. And God is incredibly merciful, therefore, in sending a spy mission and sending 12, one from every tribe, to allow them to see what it's really like.
[15:58] So verse 17 to 20, the mission begins with Moses sending them, go up into the Negev and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds and whether the land is rich or poor and whether there are trees in it or not.
[16:20] Be of good courage and bring some fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. And then the people return, they go off onto their spy mission, verse 21, so they went out and spied the land.
[16:33] They were there for 40 days and they bring back the report. They bring back the report starting at verse 25. At the end of 40 days, they returned from spying out the land and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.
[16:52] They brought back words to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land and they told him, we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey.
[17:05] Now notice congregation, that word there in verse 26. Congregation is like the gathered leaders of Israel. So they've gone out and they've come back to the leaders to give their reports and the report that they give is that everything that God said about this land is true.
[17:21] It's all true. It flows with milk and honey. Look, we have some of the fruit that we brought from it. It is a good, fruitful land. God's word is true. So I wonder therefore what you might expect them to say next.
[17:34] We're going to use our cover-up tool which is where we cover up a verse to see if there's a surprise and there always is when we use the cover-up tool. Verse 28, what might we expect verse 28 to say?
[17:45] Let's go. The end is in sight. Everything's been true so far. Surely that's what we're expecting them to say. Verse 28, however, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
[18:07] Doubt creeps in. Yes, everything that the Lord said is true way back from Exodus but we're not sure actually that God is actually going to bring us through to the promised land.
[18:18] Never mind the fact that if you look at the verse on your handout under the first point, Exodus chapter 3 verse 8, pretty much the first thing God ever said to Moses was this, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
[18:39] In other words, God knew that there were other people dwelling there right from day one. This is not a surprise that the promised land is full of people. It's not a surprise to God that they would have to step in to the promised land and take it for themselves but yet doubt has begun to grow.
[18:58] Despite the proof in their hands of God's faithfulness to his promises, they are still faithless. As we saw last week, man has not moved an inch from Eden. Man is still faithless.
[19:09] And just like last week, sadly, tragically, that doubt spreads. Verse 30, Caleb tries to argue with them, let us go up at once and occupy it.
[19:21] But the men, verse 31, who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we are. So, verse 32, they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out saying, the land through which we have gone to spied out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people we saw in it are of great height.
[19:41] Bad there means false. Do we notice that? How can they say in one breath to the congregation, the leaders, that it is a beautiful land full of milk and honey and here is some food and then they twist the report when the doubt grows to the rest of Israel to say it devours people.
[19:57] It devours people. And notice the bizarre hypocrisy in the statement. It devours people but they are really tall. Now, I don't know much about dietary requirements but I know that if you don't eat much you don't grow.
[20:11] So, which is it? Are they really tall or does the land devour them? Which one is it? But they twist it. They twist it. They lie. They lie. They lie. They lie.
[20:21] They lie. that their doubt grows and that they do not attempt to go out into the wilderness, into the promised land and take it for themselves. They lie, in other words.
[20:32] Their doubt causes them to lie. It's not fit for life. It's not what God said it was. We can't take it even if we wanted to. They lie. And notice how the congregation reacts and the people react to this report, 14 verse 1.
[20:49] Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel, all the people of Israel, grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
[21:00] The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become prey.
[21:13] Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? Egypt. And they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. All it took was one report. One report. It devours and they're tall.
[21:24] We can't do it. Caleb, no, no, no. It's just as God says. We can do it. And obviously they choose the option of doubt. Two reports. One God is faithful.
[21:34] One God is not. A man, because they've not moved an inch from Eden, chooses death. Ultimately, they choose death. And the people's rejection of God in 14, 1 to 4 is absolute and devastating.
[21:50] 4 verse 2. Notice all the things that they imply about God. 14 verse 2. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness.
[22:05] In other words, God, you were cruel for saving us. It would have been better if you'd left us in slavery. You're cruel, God. Your salvation is cruel. 14 verse 2. They doubt. They grumble against Moses and Aaron.
[22:17] God, the people that you've appointed to lead us, they're foolish. Why do you give us these leaders, God? We don't want these leaders. 14 verse 3. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land full by the sword?
[22:31] Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? Slavery would be better, Lord, than what you've put us through. Slavery would be better.
[22:42] Death would be better. But perhaps most damning of all, 14 verse 4, and they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. In other words, let's get rid of God, choose our own leader, and go back to slavery and death.
[23:00] Israel wants to reject the Lordship of God completely. Now as an aside, in terms of application for us, here we have a microcosm of every single time we sin. Every single time we sin.
[23:13] What happens when we sin is that we are ultimately saying that we prefer death over trusting God. We prefer death over trusting God.
[23:24] The Israelites actually believe at this moment the distortion of their doubt that returning to slavery in Egypt, returning to death, is better than trusting God.
[23:35] That just kind of puts into context, doesn't it, that when we sin, what are we saying? God, your ways are cruel. My ways are better. God, you're not my leader. I'm my leader. God, I don't believe your ways are good.
[23:47] My ways are good. But what we're ultimately saying is death is preferable. Death is preferable. That leads us on to our second point. And we're jumping now.
[23:58] We're leaving 11 to 19 to jump now to 14 verse 20. God is faithful to his judgments. Man is still faithless. God is faithful to his judgments.
[24:10] Man is still faithless. Now God's anger rightly is kindled here. His plan for his people spanning over 500 years looks set to fail. No matter what he does, it seems the people are still faithless.
[24:23] They still choose death over choosing God. And is God's plan going to fail? 14 verse 11. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people despise me?
[24:35] And how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
[24:45] Do you hear what God is saying? Disinherit them. That I will entirely remove myself from Israel. They'll no longer be my people. I'll leave them to die in the wilderness. I'll start again. That's effectively what God is saying.
[24:57] That's effectively what God is saying. Now Moses intercedes. Wonderfully. Which we're going to come back to in 13 to 19. But for now, what I want us to see, sorry, what Moses wants us to see is God's faithfulness once again, but this time, his faithfulness to judge.
[25:14] His faithfulness to judge. God has warned, again and again and again, that not trusting him is death. He said it again and again and again.
[25:26] And now he is faithful to his word. Verse 20 to 25. Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word, but truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.
[25:50] And none of those who despise me shall see it, but my servant Caleb because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went and his descendants shall possess it.
[26:01] Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow, set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. Now that final command is devastating and desperate.
[26:13] Turn around then if you want death and go right back to where I saved you from, the Red Sea. If that's what you want, go. Man has been saying over and over to God that they prefer death to God so that's exactly what God gives them.
[26:31] Man preferred Egypt, slavery and death to a dwelling place with God in the promised land so that's the direction that God sends them back in, right back to the Red Sea. Verse 26 to 32, it gets even more frightening.
[26:46] And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, how long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I've heard the grumblings of the people of Israel which they grumble against me. Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you.
[26:59] Your dead bodies shall fall in the wilderness and all of your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upwards who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh and Joshua, the son of Nun.
[27:15] But your little ones who you said would become prey I will bring in and they shall know the land that you've rejected but as for you your dead bodies shall fall in the wilderness.
[27:28] So they've been worried. We saw in chapter 14 verse 3 that this mission to go into the promised land would kill their children. That's what they thought God was going to do to them. So God says, okay, if that's what you think, I'll bring your children in and they'll watch you die.
[27:44] In other words, God is utterly faithful to his promise to judge. Utterly faithful. And note the incredible irony in this faithfulness of God. They rejected God's faithfulness so God remains faithful and gives them exactly what they ask for.
[28:00] Exactly what they ask for. They beg God to return to Egypt to have a different leader than God and they beg their children to remain in the wilderness and the faithful God says to his faithless people, okay, okay, I will give you what you want.
[28:15] I will continue to be faithful to you and give you what you ask for. But what you're asking for is death and judgment. That's what you're asking for and that's what you'll get.
[28:30] It's worth pausing here as an aside to say that often we talk, don't we, in terms of that things like hell and judgment are an unfair thing on God's behalf. But can we see here that if man rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, God is not unfair in turning around and saying, okay, if you reject me and the grace of my son, I'm not being faithless by giving you what you ask for.
[28:55] If you keep pushing me away, God is not cruel or somehow capricious for giving us exactly what we ask for. We come now onto the final point.
[29:09] God is faithful to himself even if man is faithless. God is faithful to himself even if man is faithless. Now we come to the centre of our passage and its climax.
[29:23] And here we see the only glimmer of hope for faithless man and it's surprising actually, this answer. It's that the only hope for man is that God is faithful to himself.
[29:36] Faithful to himself. Have a look with me at verse 11. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me and how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that I've done among them?
[29:47] I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. Now notice how Moses intercedes and the reason he gives to ask God to be kind and forgiving.
[30:01] Notice the reason, verse 13. But Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear of it for you brought up this people in your might from among them and they will tell the inhabitants of this land they have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people for you, O Lord, are seen face to face and your cloud stands over them and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
[30:26] Now, if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame or glory will say it is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them that the Lord would be great to give them that he has killed them in the wilderness and now please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised saying the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love forgiving iniquity and transgression but he will by no means clear the guilty.
[31:02] Did we notice the reason that Moses appeals to to say please do not disinherit this people? The reason is so that the world will not disparage, criticize, mock the name of the one true God.
[31:18] in other words Israel getting into the promised land is not the goal it's not God's goal they are the means rather of God displaying his glory to the world.
[31:32] We get reference to God's exodus name in 18 and 19 that he is slow to anger abounding in steadfast love that he's merciful but also that he judges by no means clearing the guilty.
[31:46] That is what God wants the world to know about himself. I want you to imagine that some of you will have CVs here I used to work in recruitment so I've seen more CVs than I care ever to see ever again but if you want templating help then I'm your man.
[32:02] I wonder what do you think God would put on his CV? I want to imagine what would God put on his CV? God wants to give his CV to the world he wants the world to know what he's like what would God put on his CV?
[32:14] Well here God wants to put on his CV that he is merciful yet just. That's what he wants to put on his CV that's what he does put on his CV he is merciful yet just. If you want to know what God is like you need to know that he is merciful abounding in steadfast love yet just.
[32:32] I will by no means clear the guilty. And so therefore Israel is a footnote on the CV of God. Israel's only hope is that God therefore will be so committed to showing his steadfast love to the world so committed to demonstrating his abounding mercy that he will continue to show mercy to them despite their faithlessness.
[32:56] That is their only hope that God will be so committed to the praise of his own name that he will forgive them and not utterly blot them out disinherit them.
[33:07] To conclude Israel has shown themselves utterly faithless we've seen that haven't we week after week after week and it seemed as though God's plot line for them had failed they fell didn't they at the final hurdle spitting distance into the promised land they've even eaten grapes from the promised land and they still say nope time to turn around and back to the Red Sea it looks like they failed that God's plot line has failed but that is not the Bible's plot line the Bible is not about man the Bible is about God God will remain utterly committed to his name which is glory displayed in mercy and justice mercy and judgment salvation and damnation that is what God is supremely faithful to not us in and of ourselves but his name his glory we know that this generation therefore are a warning to us but it's a warning concerning the character of God want us to flick as we finish to Hebrews chapter 3
[34:17] Hebrews chapter 3 as we finish Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 talking about this generation who failed as an example for us Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 therefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years therefore I was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart they have not known my ways as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest take care brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end this generation is a warning to us that God is utterly completely irrevocably committed to the glory of his own name in love and justice and we know don't we as New Testament
[35:39] Christians or those of us who are looking in on the Christian faith which I'm really glad that you're here this morning and we know don't we the lengths that God will go to to ensure the glory of his own name letting every single member of the wilderness generation die letting his one and only son be nailed to a piece of wood by his creatures we know how far the Lord will go to glorify his own name the Lord now only has one thing on his CV only one thing that shows his love and justice to the world which is the cross of Christ because that is where supremely his love and his perfect justice meet God is so committed to his glory he would give his one and only son for it so really the application the one major point of application for us this morning for the Christian and for the non-believer in the room alike is this do you and do we realize that the Lord does not need us at all for his ultimate purpose of glorifying his name
[36:42] God will glorify himself in salvation or and in judgment in judgment it is an unspeakable kindness that God would save any one of us in this room whatsoever but make no mistake Christianity and the Bible and this world and all of history has only one plot line only one the glory of the one true God God can be glorified in saving you he is merciful or he can be glorified in judging you he is just to him as far as glorifying his name it makes no difference it makes no difference Christians would it be better if we were no longer a Christian no is the obvious answer but no because faced with a God who is radically completely committed to the glory of his own name committed to showing his justice and mercy the answer is surely no it is not a twee statement to say it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry and just
[37:50] God because it is and God is not hindered in his mission of glory by judging you or me so those of us who wouldn't call ourselves a Christian in the room the Lord does not owe you anything or me and we've seen if you reject him and ask for death just like the wilderness generation did he will give it to you and he won't be wrong in doing so in fact he will be utterly justified in doing so in fact he will be glorified in doing so we have therefore no choice in that we're all going to glorify God's name one way or another in justice or in mercy in heaven or in hell Christian and non-Christian alike the application is clear let us hold firm to our confession in the Lord Jesus Christ deal in the world blah No chance or a scripture to beine
[38:52] Joey is invade stone to not hear hands in theIVA with suppose?" in the want to know how do that