[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. So in Numbers chapter 14, it's a change of pace. Here, we're going to do something different.
[0:11] I was going to ask Uncle Sam to read this for us because him being a lawyer, and that's kind of the mode in which it would be in. The pastor ended last Thursday night in Numbers 14.
[0:23] We weren't there on Sunday night because the morning preacher preaches too long and he had to do the message in the evening service. But when the pastor left Thursday, he was talking about God was gracious, but he's also holy, and in his holiness he said, guys, you've sinned against me and you're not going to enter into the promised land.
[0:40] And we saw that and it was hard. The pastor always preaches his best sermons, the one he leaves out of the country. He should meet us halfway a little bit. If he could kind of fumble the ball a little bit on his way out, it would help us.
[0:51] But the message is wonderful because we're reminded of the grace of God and we need that. And if you cut the grace of God out of the Bible, then you just have a funny-looking book cover that you're carrying around with you.
[1:02] But the reason that his grace is so amazing is because he is holy, he is just, he hates sin because he loves us, he hates it in his life. And we saw that and he told that to them. But then we get to Numbers chapter 14 and he says, Even so, even if you do not get to go into the promised land, I am God and I am good and you should continue to worship me.
[1:26] And that's what he told them there. And starting in Numbers 14, for time's sake I won't read the entire chapter to you, but let me read, follow along with me in the Bible here because I'm going to jump around at Numbers 15.
[1:36] I'm sorry, I've been saying 14. But Numbers 15 and verse number 1, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When you become into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you.
[1:52] Your heart ought to shout Amen because their heart would have. Because he said, you're not going to get to enter in because of your sin. Forty years you're going to wander around because of your whoredom and all that you're doing.
[2:02] Your kids are going to follow around for forty years. And instead of continuing on the same point in the next chapter, he says, when you come into the land of your habitation, he reminds them.
[2:14] He says that you're not going in, but your children are. And let's talk about it as if it's going to happen. And let's prepare. And he's going to teach a generation of people what to tell their children.
[2:25] That you're going to prepare your children for this promised land. You see it again in verse number 18. It says, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When you come into the land whither I bring you.
[2:37] If you heard God said, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them. If you were Moses to the children of Israel, you'd have to kind of duck down and wait and say, What is he going to say? And when he says, speak unto them, that's his graciousness of continuing to communicate.
[2:51] But he says, let's go ahead and move past this. The penalty has been applied. You've done wrong. You're not going to enter into the land. But now let's talk about what's going to happen when you do.
[3:02] And I will make an offering, verse 3, By fire unto the Lord, A burnt offering or a sacrifice in performing a vow, Or in a free will offering or in the solemn feast, To make a sweet Savior unto the Lord, And to the herd of the flock.
[3:13] And that's going to continue down to verse number 13, A sweet Savior unto the Lord. Verse number 14 is going to tell, And 15 is going to say that it's the same for the stranger. Those that happen not only instruct your children, But you need to instruct the strangers, The non-Jewish people that were fallen, That came out of the Gentile nations.
[3:31] And then in verse number 24, Down to verse number 36, He's going to talk about two different types of sin. If you've committed by ignorance, In verse number 24, Without knowledge of the congregation, There's a sacrifice to be made there.
[3:48] But then, in verse number 31, If you despise the word of the Lord, In verse 30, And the soul does presumptuously a high-handed sin against the Lord, Then you know that's a sin unto death.
[3:58] And He tells them what the plan would be. They will take you outside of the camp, And you would be stoned. And in 37 through 40, He's going to implement something That will remind them of whose children they are.
[4:12] He will remind them that they belong to Him. That they are part of a priestly people. In Matthew chapter 23, In verse 5, It says, But all their works they do, For to be seen of men, And they make broad their philosophies, And enlarge the borders of their garments.
[4:32] And so the fringes there, Is what they enlarge. And if you're reading that in the New Testament, You're saying, What's the big deal about, What are you dealing with? Is this about fashion? What's going on?
[4:42] Why are they enlarging this? And they were amplifying the fact, That they belonged unto the Lord. That they were a priestly people. But their heart was not following after the Lord, As it should.
[4:53] And at the end of this chapter, We're going to see how that came into play for us. So, The first part of the chapter, Is about the sacrifices, The peace offering. The second part, Was about the stranger, That's going to be taught, The generations to come, And the children.
[5:07] And then the law, Regarding the firstfruits, Will be, More detailed will be given. Provision was made, For forgiveness of sins, Due to ignorance, And oversight, And also the penalty, Of the commission, Of against a sin, That was blatantly against the Lord, What would happen.
[5:22] And then some tassels, Will be worn on the four corners, Of their outer garments. So first of all, Verses one and two, We're reminded that grace is greater, Than all our sins.
[5:33] When he says, Speak unto the children of the Lord, When they come into the land, God says, This is still my promise, And that you will not stop, What I am doing. He is moving forward, With his plans.
[5:44] We've seen four chapters, Of turmoil, And grumbling, And murmuring, Rebellion, And unbelief. And then God says, Speak unto the children, I have an unwavering promise. This is how serious he is about, Fulfilling his promise.
[5:57] That it will not stop. Matthew 3, 9 says, And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father, For I say unto you, That God is able to these stones, To raise up children unto Abraham.
[6:08] He says, I am so serious about fulfilling my promise, That if you will not get in line, I can raise up stones here, To make it happen. Last Sunday at the football game, Andrew's little brother, Got in Robert's way, He decided he wanted to try, To take his flags off of him, And Robert says, If you, He taught him, What is the second law of thermodynamics?
[6:28] He taught him something, Because Caleb, He kept going in the wrong direction, Robert went right through him. He said, I am an unstoppable force. You are being modest, Robert. I am proud, But he kept moving there, He kept going, This unstoppable force.
[6:42] And God says, Even though you have sinned, Even though you have not been faithful, I remain faithful. And don't doubt it. And in those times when you are saying, God, I know that I haven't been faithful to you, He reminds you, I know you haven't, But I am an unmovable force, That I will fulfill my promise, My promise is to be good unto my children, And to work all things, For my good, Or for our good, For his glory.
[7:04] And I pray you recognize the night, Regardless of how you failed in the past, God is still working a plan, You are still here, Hearing from him, And could you imagine, Any day we wake up, And the Bible is not blank, He is continuing to fulfill his promises to us, Man fails, But God saves the day, Let man set up any business, And again and again, Under the most favorable circumstances, And he will be sure to become bankrupt, And that's what you follow, From the garden, To the judges, And all through the Bible, Regardless of the environment that's given, And the millennial to come, No matter what the conditions are given, Man will fail, But God will save the day, The book of Judges, You see this pattern of sin, Consequence, Repentance, Restoration, The cycle continues, Here in Numbers 14, We don't even get that far, There's the sin of judgment, The intercession, And then more sin, And more rebellion, And grace is shown, In allowing us to be stewards of the truth, For the next generation, He says, You've messed up, But I'm going to still allow you, To teach it, To the next generation, And to the stranger here, Even though the adult generation,
[8:05] Had been sentenced to die in the desert, It became necessary, For the younger ones, To understand the requirements here, For the sacrifices, Also for the stranger, They were preparing them, For the day in the church, That we would preach it, To the strangers as well, So first of all, Simply grace is greater, Than all our sins, And in 3 through 21, We look at sacrifices, And detail, Being given to them, Give the very best of everything, The God in worship, It is to bring God what he wants, And how he wants it, Because we recognize, What he has done for us, And who he is, And that's how we worship him, He told two brothers, In the very beginning, What he wanted, And worship was not only, Bringing it to him, But doing it the way that he said, Because it's obedience, Obedience is better than sacrifice, Because obedience brings worship, Unto our God, Anytime you read, A sweet savior unto the Lord, We're talking about worship, And what does it smell like, It smells like obedience, It smells like gratitude, It smells like submission, Unto the Lord,
[9:06] So no more animal sacrifices, And so what do we do now, And Philippians 2, 17 tells us, Yea, And if I be offered unto the sacrifice, And service your faith, I joy and rejoice, With you all, That we give our lives out, In service to him, And that is what brings him, Honor and glory, And worship, And that's why, Worship is not confined, To the beautiful song, That we just hung, In that moment, But it can happen, Tomorrow morning, On your way to work, And at your work, And during your work, And all those times, It can happen, Because it's submission, It's obedience, It's him, And there's many ways, To suffer outside, Of being a martyr, We work so hard, To avoid discomfort, And in doing so, We miss the opportunities, Of worship, We're told to endure, Good, Endure as a good soldier, I was thinking about that, On Veterans Day, When God wants to tell the Christians, What is a standard, For enduring hard things, He says a soldier, What a compliment, To anybody that will ever be a soldier, That when God wants to say, Here's a definition, Of enduring hardness, He looks to the soldier,
[10:07] And so that enduring hardness, That discomfort, That brings it to him, Jim Elliot, Life says, A life cannot be surrendered, In a moment, That which is lifelong, Can only be surrendered, In a lifetime, Daily, Obedience, Submission, And worship to our God, Many things are said, About the different types, Of offerings here, We see for sure, That it's the best, Of many different categories, And God deserves, The preeminence, In every area, Of our life, Remember being in high school, And a youth pastor, Asking me to write up, The priorities of my life, And where God belongs, And I put God at the top, And I put family, And I put all that, And he says, This is the right order, But do you understand, Preeminence means that, God is number one, At number one, And he's number one, At number two, In the family, He's number one, In your job, He's number one, In every area, Of your life, He's not just isolated, Where you do that, God thing there, And then you can go, And do numbers two, Three, Four, And five, As long as number one, Is getting enough, That in every area, In good times, He's being worshipped, In bad times, He's being worshipped, And everything that's given to us,
[11:08] We give over to him, In worship, And if you give your time in here, That he still deserves your worship, When we give financially, If you give in here financially, He still deserves your worship, In serving him, That in no area, Can you say, I'm doing so much, That this other area, Belongs to me, That violates all of what worship is, And that it has to be wholly given, Unto the Lord, And we see it's things, That we cannot give now, It's things that, They're going to tell him, He's saying, He's talking about animals, And sacrifices, And things they don't even have, There in the desert, You're going to get to a place, And when you get there, I want this, Of them, It doesn't seem like a sacrifice, From that point of view, We'll just say, It's an oxen, That wasn't in here, But he says, You're going to sacrifice, A tenth of an oxen, A fourth of an oxen unto me, And they're thinking, Well that sounds great, Because we don't have, Any right now, To give to you, And so when we get into, The promised land, If you want to give us a whole one, We'll gladly give you, Part of it, Or if you want to give us ten, We'll be glad to give you, Five of them,
[12:09] And that's what they're seeing, Before they even got to it, And this thing of worshiping, From giving of our lives, It's only able to worry about, Because we have it given to us, That we worry about, Giving things, Say financially, That most of the world, Doesn't even live on, The reason that we're so scared, About giving this fraction, Of our income, Is because it's so big, And the reason it's so big, Is because we live off of, So much, In this world, And if we could take a step back, And say, I wouldn't have any of this to give, If he didn't hand it to me, If he didn't give it to me, Then we see it's easier, But then we start living off of, And it's harder, And he's saying, Even before you get used to, Having all these things, I want you to know, They belong to me, And I want you to tell your children, That they belong to me, And we're frightened, God is talking about, What they will give, We must be thinking about, How tremendously awesome, The promised land would be, They could have never given, These offerings in slavery, The list that was given there, They couldn't have done it in slavery, If they would have dreamed, Of giving it to God,
[13:09] They couldn't have offered, That type of offering to God, But he says, I'm taking you into a promised land, And you're going to be able to worship me, With the best of every category, And could you say, Search my heart, Oh Lord, And say if there's any, Mediocre way, Mediocre way in me, And see if there's any, Atrophy in me, Not just any wicked way, But say God, Is there an area of your life, Is it my family, Is it my hobbies, Is it my time, What is it, Is it my home, Is there some area of your life, That says God, I will double up in this one area, To give you, But I'm asking that you leave, That closet alone, And we can't do that, That is not worship, That is not pouring our lives out to him, That is sorting out to him, That's letting him come to our garage, And pick out whatever, We don't want, And it says God, All of our life belongs, To you, But then we get here, And we may have to hit the snooze button, On the back there in a second, Okay, But we recognize the seriousness, Of our sin here, All sin must be dealt with, There's a type of sin, That there's a sacrifice for,
[14:09] And they call it the sins of omission, They were the sins of ignorance, The sins that happen in our lives, They're the sins that when you got saved, You were still doing those things, And then you're, Like a year later, You're looking back and thinking, What in the world, Was I thinking, As a new Christian, I shouldn't have been doing these things, But you didn't know, You hadn't been discipled, You hadn't grown, Your heart was given to the Lord, But you just didn't know, And he says, I've made provision for you, I love you, And I've taken care of these things, But it had to be dealt with, The sin has to be dealt with, Sin and sacrifice, The man's of a holy God, Set forth the type of sacrifice, That are needed, Holiness says, Someone must die for your sin, But grace says, Jesus has already done it for us, No sin gets swept underneath the carpet, Jesus says, A sacrifice has to be given, For these sins, Of that, And these aren't blatant sins, These are the things, That we do, And that we feel this remorse for, That we're not shaking our fists, In the hands of the Lord, And we feel, And we repent from,
[15:10] And we ask him, To do this, We should study, To get behind these areas in our life, We should not just think, That they're small things, You might say, We shouldn't say, Well there's no one perfect, So I'll become lazy, In my pursuit of holiness, Well I want to remind you, Someone was, And is perfect, And his name is Jesus, And he died for that sin, That you think is no big deal, And so it has a big price tag, Grace doesn't say, I forgive you, Because sin wasn't a big deal, Grace says, Sin is horrific, But I paid the price for it, So we should never minimize, Our sin, When we recognize, That God has shown, Our grace upon us, And there's a personal punishment, Nobody in this time, Had any excuse about the Sabbath, When they were told, And the time that they were living in, They had no excuse, And a person in blatant sin, Says, I'm going to defy the God of heaven, As we now see that, And the sin of unbelief, I want nothing to do with you, I'm separated from this people, And that group of people, They separated from them, Took them out of the camp,
[16:10] They didn't know what to do with them, And they stoned them, And they said, This is not, The community of belief, This is not what we've, Come together to believe, That sin must be dealt with, And in here, Inside of this, We have to remind people of that, And we have to be loving, And say, I love you, But sin cannot be, We can't tolerate sin, I love you too much, To let you just continue, In your sin, That we would separate from them, And that we would mark them, Not because we're better, But because we love them too much, For them not to know, That this is a big deal, And what's going on, That that person, That was blatant in sin, They couldn't continue in the community, Letting kids grow up, And seeing this person, Lead and teach, And do things, They had to be, Taken out and separated, And said, You are no longer, One of us, You no longer represent, What we believe, And how much worse is it, For those that reject Christ, If those that would, In Hebrews it says, He that despised Moses' law, Died without mercy, Under two or three witnesses, And how much more, Sore punishment, Suppose ye, That you shall be taught worthy,
[17:10] Who are trodden under the foot, Of the son of God, The unbelief, Is a much greater sin, This type of waving their fist, To say, I know what you believe, I know what the Bible says, But I don't care, You know, My children, They do a lot of wrong, Alright, They do a lot of things, But when I'm able to punish, Or I'm able to talk to them, And their heart is soft, And they want forgiveness, That's a pretty small day in my life, But when they get to a point, And they would, In pride, Look at me and say, I know what you want, But I don't care, That would break my heart, That would be taking it, To a whole nother level, That would bring it to a point, That unless that attitude's corrected, I couldn't deal with them, I couldn't work with them, And that's what God is saying here, That that guy that was picking up sticks, He wasn't just picking up sticks, He was waving his fist at me, And says, You are not God, You are not good, I will take care of myself, And it seems harsh, But this is the punishment, For all those, Who do not believe, And I just remind you in here, That no sin is swept under the rug, That no small sin is swept under the rug, That Jesus Christ died for them,
[18:13] The sin of unbelief is a big deal, But every other sin is a big deal as well, Because he had to die for those, It's simplistic, But I remember being told when I was younger, If you were the only person who ever lived, And that was the only sin that you ever committed, That God because of his mercy and his holiness, Would have to come to the cross and die for you, To allow you to be with him, And that just, That would convict your heart about it, So let's fight sin, Let's go against it, Let's not celebrate that grace happens in of itself, Without going and fighting the sin, That causes it in our lives, John Owen's a Puritan, Which is a good person to read after, But don't invite him to any birthday parties, They just wouldn't be a lot of fun to hang out with, But John Owen, He said a few things, And I'm just going to summarize them here for you, But before I pray, I want to encourage you in this area, God is good, And even when we're not, During any time in our life, God is good, And he is holy, And we saw that in verse 14, But here's some things, That I want to make you think about, When it comes to sin in our lives, We should search our heart for deep rooted sins,
[19:13] The kind that happen on autopilot, Those that have become habits, That are just there, We have a high tolerance of sin, In our lives, It's just there, And we leave it, Well let's ask God to search our heart, And say, Get those deep rooted things out, Secondly, Recognize its impact upon your life, Think about the joy that is lost, Think about the strain upon your relationships, Do not minimize it, Recognize it as against a transgression, Against the holy God, When you're driving down the road, And God's dealing with you with a sin, Don't let Satan tell you, This is not a big deal, Take it in and say, It's affecting my joy, It's robbing my relationships I have, This is a big deal, And then cry out to God for deliverance, What is in your, What you ought to want it more than your next breath, And say, God, I can't live with this sin anymore, I can't tolerate this in my life anymore, Because it's making a division between me, And you, And that fellowship that I want, And every relationship that I have, And then ask God to take that weight off of your heart, I've never lifted weights,
[20:15] Surprising to many of you, But there's a person that's a spotter, And they're lifting the weights, And when you just can't take it anymore, You would cry out and say, Take this from me, And you've got to get it off of you, If you lift it there, And I was lifting with Zach Elrod, And I had that moment for me, I'm like, Zach, If you don't take this off of me, I will die, Please take this off of me, And that's where we're at, I picture myself in the car, Where I do thanking, But your prayer closet where you're at, And say, God, I know that I've acted like this as a small thing, And I know to the world that we live in, It's not a big deal, But I'm tired of tolerating sin in my life, Because there's more for me, Take this off, Take this from me, Cast it away, And give it to him, So I ask you some questions in here, I'm talking to young people, Especially in here, What if your phone was taken from you, Or what if you realized your phone was on, And somebody had called you, And they heard that entire discussion, What if somebody grabbed your computer, And they searched your computer, What if you were audited financially, What if a heart was, What if a screen was placed,
[21:16] Demonstrating everything upon your heart, What if people knew what you would do, If given the opportunity, And all those things, And so much are already true, Because we live before the eyes of the Lord, He sees us, And he is holy, And he knows all those things, And he knows them, And he knows much more than we can even think, That he goes deeper, Than any relationship we would have, So we should cry out for deliverance, And then we consider the patterns that are going on, When does this sin readily make itself available, And there when it does, Chop its head off, Say I notice that you show up around this time, And when you do, I'm ready to cut your stinking head off, With the word of God, I'm ready to avoid that place in my life, And then lastly here, Expect comfort and strength from God, As you do all of this, Expect that God would help you put your sin to death, Because that's what he wants to do in your life, And expect that he is going to give you a peace, That you're going to move away from it, Quicker than you ever think, And within a short amount of time, You're going to say, That was not part of my identity,
[22:18] And that was never who I was, And so they needed a reminder here, God says, You need a reminder that I'm good, Regardless that you're not going into that, And you need to train it, You need a reminder that I am holy, And that sin can't be dealt with, And so all these single truths, And so 37 through 41, He says, Verse 39, And it shall be you for a fridge, We're talking about these ribbons of blue, That you may look upon it, And remember all the commandments of the Lord, And do them, That you seek not after your own heart, And your own eyes, After which you use to go a whoring, That you may remember all, And do all my commandments, And be holy unto God, And I am the Lord your God, Which brought you out of the land of Egypt, To be your God, I am the Lord your God, Blue and purple were the colors of the kings, Those that sang the crayon box song, Which my kids are teaching me, Because I don't know it, But we learned that blue and purple are royalty, And so he says do that on the fringes, Hannah Littlefield would be glad to make a t-shirt, She loves making t-shirts, So in here tonight,
[23:18] Before we leave, You can dedicate the making a t-shirt, With blue fringes on it, To remind you, Or you can listen here, To what you need to be reminded of, And it's this fact, That you are children of the king, Should we get fringes, Having trouble remembering that you need grace, That you are lacking your heart of worship, That you have forgotten about these sins, And you haven't been taking it seriously, You need some blue fringes on your life, You need to be reminded right now, That 1 Peter 2.9 says, That we are a kingdom of priests, That we are a holy nation, The reason blue was there, Because in the tabernacle, And with the priest, That was associated with it, And now you are associated, With the God of heaven, That you are now his tabernacle, And he works inside of you, Inside the tabernacle, Was the law written, Inside of our hearts, It's written upon there, Upon, Not just on stone tablets, But now upon our hearts, Inside the tabernacle, The spirit of God dwelt, And now we have secured, And been secured, By the Holy Spirit, It is true, That we should not run, In the church building, But it's even more true,
[24:20] That we should not let sin run free, In our hearts, It's true, We should worship, When we gather together, But it's also true, That we should worship, When we are alone, In all of our daily activities, Because we are now, The tabernacle, We are a holy priesthood, And that single truth, Ought to cause you to worship, That single truth, Ought to remind you, That God is good, That single truth, Ought to cause you, To wage war, Upon sin, And say it does not belong, In my life, So tonight, Remember that, There's blue ribbons, Upon your life, You have been marked, By it, And that God is good to us, And do business with sin, Praise the Lord, For his grace, But also thank him, For his holiness, That he loves you, Too much to allow sin, To abound, The reason that grace abounds, Because sin did, But he meets his holiness, With his grace, That he didn't have more holiness, Than he had grace, To meet, But for every ounce of grace, That was shown, It was because of, His holiness, And that we were sinners, In need of him, Let's pray,
[25:20] Heavenly Father, I thank you for the book, Of numbers, And I thank you for the reminder, The children of Israel were given, And I thank you for the reminder, That I am getting right now, And I have this week, That I am a child of the king, That I wear blue fringes, Upon me Lord, That I have a crown, Upon my head Lord, That someday, That will be placed there, When I see you, Upon your throne, And because of that, I want to live different, In this world, And I want to hate sin, I want to make much of you, I want to worship you, With my entire, Being, And soul, The spirit of everything, About me, This message was recorded, At Vision Baptist Church, In Alfredo, Georgia, For more information, Log on to, www.visionbaptist.com, Where you can find, Our service times, Location, Contact information, And more audio, And video recordings,