Tag: faith
Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: God Keeps His Promises

Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: God Keeps His Promises

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We have come to the last post in this series on Numbers 14. I have shown you Israel’s sinful fear, their lack of faith, and their false repentance after God confronts them. But Numbers 14 also gives us a positive picture of courageous faith, God’s merciful character, and Christ’s mediation. In this final post, I want to answer the simple question: Has God rejected Israel for their disobedience? Will God keep His promises to bring them into the land and bless them?

God will still keep His promise because He is faithful

Numbers 14 ends in a depressing place. Israel attempts to enter the land by their own strength against the advice of Moses. What happens? Complete defeat. The last verse in Numbers 14 has the Israelites routed by the Amalekites and the Canannites. At this point, you might say to yourself “Israel is hopeless! How is God going to stay with them? Will God continue to be faithful when Israel is unfaithful and disobedient every single step of the way?”

Numbers 15:1-2 comes with an answer:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you,

Numbers 15:-12, ESV emphasis added

Not if Israel comes into the land: when Israel enters it. At this point your mind should be blown. God is still going to give Israel the land He promised them. After all Israel’s rebellion, after their false repentance, after they tried to claim the land without him. What kind of God would respond in this way?

A promise-keeping God. It is who God is fundamentally.

After all that happened in Numbers 14, after all the sin Israel committed, God is still committed to keeping His promises. God is a promise-making, promise-keeping God. Even human rebellion cannot thwart God’s sovereign plans. Paul explains this truth in 2 Timothy:

If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:13, ESV

God cannot deny Himself. Even when His people are faithless. Why is God so faithful to you time and time again? Why is His covenant love, his steadfast love, so inexhaustible? It isn’t because Israel is great. It isn’t because you and I are great. 

God’s love is great because God Himself is great.

There is of course discipline when you sin. You saw that in Numbers 14. God does not let the guilty go unpunished. But He is rich in forgiveness, in faithful love. When you are tempted to believe God will give up on you or that He will not fulfill His promises in Christ because of your unfaithfulness, remind yourself it isn’t about you. It is about how great God is.

Numbers 14 and the Gospel of Jesus

In 2 Timothy Paul says Scripture can make one wise unto salvation in Jesus Christ. So how would someone reading Numbers 14 anticipate Christ? I would say there are at least two ways.

1. The New Covenant is necessary

Israel had the law, had a mediator, had God among them, but they still rebelled. Why? Because of unbelief. Even though Israel had the law:

  • They didn’t have the power in themselves to keep the law
  • The law didn’t produce faith in God
  • The law was still outside of them and it didn’t bear the fruit of trust in the Lord

And if you keep reading the Old Testament, this lack of fruit and faith continues. God sends prophets again and again to call out Israel for their unbelief and disobedience. The law does not fix either problem.

That is why the promise of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31 is so amazing. God says it won’t be like the covenant He made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt: God promises to put His law within His people, on their hearts.

In Numbers 14, Caleb and Joshua had faith in God’s promises and begged Israel to believe too. In Jeremiah 31 God says that won’t happen anymore:

  • “No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother saying “know the Lord””
  • Why? “Because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.”

Numbers 14 should cause you to ache for the New Covenant. And how is God going to bring about this new covenant? 

Matthew 26 gives us the answer: “Then Jesus took a cup and after giving thanks gave it to them and said “Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood that establishes the New Covenant, it is shed for the forgiveness of sins.”

God is going to establish a New Covenant. But establishing it will be costly. The price: the blood of His own son, Jesus Christ. The New Covenant wasn’t free. If you are a believer and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, if you are set free from the curse of the law, and if you know the Lord, realize that all that came with a price.

Jesus had to bring it about. Through His blood alone.

2. Only those who believe enter God’s promised rest

Hebrews 3 and 4 looks back on Israel’s history, including Numbers 14. The author sees Numbers 14 as a warning for people who read it. The author of Hebrews saw that even though this generation of Israel was redeemed from Egypt and saw signs in the wilderness, they still rebelled. The result? God swore in His wrath, as we saw in Numbers 14, that Israel would not enter His rest. The promised rest in the promised land.

The author of Hebrews in 3:19 gives the same conclusion you saw in Numbers 14: Israel was unable to enter because unbelief. Then Hebrews turns to us and gives us a warning.

If you hear about the rest promised in Jesus Christ, the rest from having to earn your standing before God, do not harden your hearts. Don’t be like Israel who stood at the edge of the promised land yet did not enter because of unbelief.

You can hear the gospel a hundred times but if you never actually believe it, you won’t enter the rest Jesus promises.

Let me say it again because it is a crucial takeaway from Numbers 14: You can be as close to the promises of God as Israel was, but if you don’t believe them, they won’t do you any good. You can be around God’s promises, you can hear the gospel, you can even be an upstanding member in a Church but unless you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you will perish outside of God’s promises.

Conclusion: Flee from unbelief, have faith in God’s promises

So, by way of summary, let me remind you the main point from this series: Israel did not enter the promised land because of their unbelief in God. And as I just explained above: you can be as close to God as to see His miracles, and yet still perish because of your lack of faith, your rebellion, and your false repentance.

I think Hebrews 4 gives us the best ending word: “So, let us make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.” Let us pray the Holy Spirit would work in our hearts so that you and I behave like Caleb. He was loyal to the Lord and His promises. Israel was fearful of men, but Caleb feared God. And in the end, Caleb, through his faith, ended up entering the promised land.

If you missed a post in this series, click here. If you want to listen to a sermon I preached on Numbers 14, click here. Subscribe and share below. Be sure to follow The Average Churchman on Instagram so you can get more content.
Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: Caleb’s Courageous Faith

Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: Caleb’s Courageous Faith

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What is “courageous faith?” How does bold belief in God and His promises manifest itself? So far in Numbers 14, I have shown you how faith of any kind was completely absent from the nation of Israel. They were afraid of the people of the land. Israel wanted to turn back and return to Egypt. Even when confronted with God’s just judgment, Israel chooses to continue in unbelief rather than respond in true repentance.

Israel’s behavior in Numbers 14 is a stark warning of the consequences of unbelief. But thankfully, Numbers 14 doesn’t just give us a negative example of what not to do. Instead, the Holy Spirit has included in this account an example of courageous faith, even in the midst of widespread unbelief. This faith is exemplified by Caleb. If you don’t have an Old Testament “hero” yet, I would strongly suggest you consider Caleb. He is easily one of my favorite Biblical individuals.

In this post, I want to look at Caleb’s courageous faith, its source, and finally Caleb’s legacy. By studying Caleb’s role in Numbers 14, you can live out what Paul says in Romans 15:4.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:4 ESV

The call to courageous faith

At one level, Numbers 14 focuses on contrasting the unbelief of Israel as a whole with the faith demonstrated by Caleb (and Joshua). If you remember, Israel was terrified when they heard the spies’ report on the promised land. They had not even directly seen the land firsthand, but their reaction was immediate weeping and unbelief.

Joshua and Caleb actually saw the land. They entered it. And their reaction is completely different to Israel’s reaction.

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. 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 bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

Numbers 14:6-9 ESV, emphasis added

Of all the spies who saw the land, only Joshua and Caleb remained faithful. They both knew that the strength of God’s promises were greater than the strength of the people in the land. And so, in the middle of Israel’s weeping and wailing and rebellion, Caleb and Joshua pleaded courage.

Several times in these verses they repeat “Don’t be afraid!” Why? Because God is fighting for Israel. Notice: Caleb and Joshua had the exact same information as the nation of Israel had. They were in the same exact circumstances. But rather than let external circumstances challenge their belief, Caleb and Joshua examined their circumstances in light of their belief.

Courageous faith means holding on to and acting on God’s promises even in frightening circumstances. It means trusting the Lord even if no one else around you is.

The basis of courageous faith

How could Caleb and Joshua have this confidence? Their courage isn’t a reckless foolishness or some abstract thing. The basis of courageous faith is the Lord and His promises. Joshua and Caleb hold fast to the belief that God will bring them into the land and God will enable them to defeat the nations.

Unlike the rest of Israel who was quick to forget God’s promises and His purpose for bringing them out of Egypt, Joshua and Caleb actually apply the promises, believe them, and live them out. To put it another way, Caleb and Joshua’s theology actually changes their response to this situation.

Want to test your theology? Watch how you respond to trying circumstances, discouragement, and difficulty.

Caleb and Joshua’s theology is practical and logical: God promised them this land. Therefore, if God wants to give it to Israel, the strength of the nations is irrelevant. Why? Because God is sovereign not only over Israel, but also the nations. Notice in Numbers 16:9, Caleb and Joshua point out that the nations’ “protection has been removed from them”.

The courage Caleb and Joshua are calling Israel to is not wishy-washy, abstract, or foolish confidence. It isn’t self confidence. It is courageous faith. Faith-fueled courage. Israel was looking at their circumstances purely in human terms. But Caleb and Joshua knew that God would keep His promises.

But courageous faith can be costly as well. Caleb and Joshua call out Israel’s sin in verse 9: do not rebel against the Lord. Joshua and Caleb label Israel’s fear and lack of trust in the Lord as rebellion. And Israel’s response is to try to stone them both.

Not trusting the Lord and His promises is a form of rebellion.

Caleb’s reward and legacy

But how does God respond to Caleb and Joshua? In the midst of this decisive judgement, God rewards their courageous faith. God not only punishes unfaithfulness; He rewards faithfulness. Those who believed His original promise received further promises.

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.

…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.

Numbers 14:24, 30 ESV

Joshua and Caleb pleased the Lord through their faith and lived to enter the promised land. The rest of Israel died because of their unbelief. If you fast-forward to when Israel actually enters the land, Caleb still has as much faith and boldness as he did in Numbers 14.

Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.

Joshua 14:6-14 ESV, emphasis added

40 years after Numbers 14 and Caleb is still talking about God’s promises. I find it interesting three times Joshua 14 talks about Caleb being loyal to the Lord. Five times it mentions God’s promise to him. After 40 years wandering, Caleb is still ready for battle and to claim what God promised him. And in the end, Caleb receives the promised inheritance. It took years and years but Caleb’s faith was not disappointed.

Faith means loyalty to the Lord just as unbelief is a form of rebellion.

Conclusion

Numbers 14 sets Caleb and Israel in stark contrast. Israel through their fear forfeited entering the land for 40 years, but Caleb through faith was promised a special portion of the land and lived to possess it. What a legacy! Caleb was loyal to the Lord even when in the minority. He knew God would fulfill His promises.

Matthew Henry in his commentary on Numbers 14, leaves us with the perfect application:

“Those that would follow God must have another Spirit from that of the world. The Spirit of faith of Caleb.”

Matthew Henry

When you see the courageous faith of Caleb in the promises of God, may you “go and do likewise.”

Click here to read any posts in this series you might have missed. If you want to listen to my sermon on Numbers 14, click here. Check out my other ongoing series “Happy?” where I expound on what the Psalms have to say about happiness in the world.
Your Faith Needs Encouragement (Part 2)

Your Faith Needs Encouragement (Part 2)

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In the last post in this mini-series on Romans 1:11-12, I showed you what “encouragement” meant and what believers are encouraged by in the New Testament. The question to answer now is how can another believer’s faith be encouraging? Paul actually calls the encouragement of faith a spiritual gift in Romans 1:11-12.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Romans 1:11-12, ESV emphasis added

Paul connects encouragement to faith. How does someone’s faith encourage or comfort you? How can your faith encourage or comfort someone else? In this post, I will give two ways and then describe the commonalities between Paul and the Roman Church that make this mutual encouragement possible.

Strong faith sets an example

Throughout the Bible, God gives us examples of strong faith. God doesn’t just say “have faith”. He also gives us practical pictures of what faith looks like. A great example of this is found in Luke 7 where Jesus marvels at the faith of the Roman Centurion.

You remember the story. A centurion’s slave was sick, and the centurion requested that Jesus heal him. In humility and faith, the centurion tells Jesus “There is no need to actually enter my house. You have authority simply to say the word and my slave will be healed!” How did Jesus react? The text says Jesus was amazed at the Centurion’s faith and said to the crowd “I have not found faith so great even in Israel.”

Jesus holds up the Centurion’s an example of strong faith to the crowd around Him. The Centurion was humble, came to Jesus in that humility, and had confidence in Jesus’ power and authority to heal. This is one way faith is an encouragement. When you demonstrate a strong faith in Jesus, other people are encouraged to imitate that faith.

Your faith can comfort other believers by setting an example of humble trust in Jesus and God’s word.

“Faith in God” can become an abstract thing in our minds, something very “heady” or intellectual. But thankfully in the local Church body, God gives us living and breathing examples of what faith looks like. A brother at my local Church mentioned a few weeks back “sometimes you don’t know how to live out a command of Scripture until you see another believer living it out.”

Faith is an encouragement because it sets an example to those around it. That is one reason Paul is anxious to come to Rome. His faith is going to set an example to the Roman Church, and the Roman Church’s faith is going to display what faith in Christ looks like to Paul.

Seeing faith in action increases our endurance

Faith doesn’t just set an example of the type of faith you should have. When you see someone’s faith in action, that encourages your faith to become more steadfast. This is exactly what happens in the 10th and 11th chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews 10 gives the problem with the Christians the letter was written to: they have faith, but they need endurance.

The author of Hebrews gives these Christian’s the encouragement to continue in the faith, to not draw back. How does the author of Hebrews then encourage enduring faith? In chapter 11, Hebrews gives a long list of what faith looks like in action.

Hebrews 11 goes through tons of Old Testament believers who had faith in God’s promises and lived in accordance with those promises. These examples didn’t just have faith, they acted on that faith. And did this in the midst of suffering and trial!

Then after going through this “cloud of witnesses,” the author of Hebrews turns again to the Church and says “therefore, you also run this race with endurance!”

When you see other Christian’s exercising faith, it encourages your faith to endure.

How? You see that you are not alone. That God was faithful to believers in the past and will therefore you can trust that He will hold you fast in the present. Hearing about someone’s faith in action encourages your faith to endure. And you know this is true in your own experience.

How many times have you read about some great missionary or Christian figure and felt your own heart hunger to live out your faith? When you see other people’s faith it gives you an example to follow and it also makes your own faith stronger.

That is how Paul can his faith and the Roman Christian’s faith can mutually encourage each other. Paul can say this because faith sets an example and also strengthens the other person’s resolve.

The foundation of mutual encouragement

But there is a final question to ask: what do Paul and the Church in Rome have in common? This might be one of the more important questions you could ask Romans 1:11-12. The apostle Paul is going to Rome and is excited to have his faith encouraged. But how could this happen? What common ground does Paul and the Roman Church have?

Apparent differences between Roman Church and Paul

If you take a superficial look at Paul and the Roman Church, they do not have a lot in common. If you focus just on externals, Paul and the Roman Church are pretty different.

  • Paul is from a completely different part of the world.
  • Paul lived and grew up in a completely different context than these Roman believers.
  • Paul an apostle specifically called by God.
  • Paul studied the Old Testament with Gamaliel, Roman Church was likely not near “his level”
  • Paul was traveling around planting Churches, Roman Church likely had a more ordinary local ministry

If you step back and look at the superficial differences, it should make you think “how could Paul and the Roman Church have anything in common? How could there be mutual encouragement when they had completely different backgrounds, lived in different parts of the world, had different levels of intelligence and Biblical knowledge?”

But if you leave the superficial, external differences, you can see just how similar Paul and the Roman Church were at a spiritual level.

Commonalities between Paul and Roman Church

Despite these superficial differences, Paul and the Roman Church on a spiritual level have many things in common. In fact, the whole of the letter to the Romans demonstrates the rich spiritual commonalities Paul and the Church in Rome have.

Same problem: Sinners under God’s wrath

Paul and the Roman Christians had the same fundamental problem: the wrath of God on their sins. Paul persecuted the Church. We might not know the specifics of what sins the Roman Church members were guilty of before believing in Christ but we do know “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Paul and the Church in Rome had the same problem, the same problem you and I face: every human has not given God the glory due to Him. Rather than glorifying God, acknowledging Him, worshiping Him, thanking Him, every human has exchanged God’s glory. Given it up. Instead we build idols of self or out of material things.

Neither Paul nor the Romans before they were saved looked for God. No one seeks after God, no one does good, not even one. Paul thought he was doing good when he persecuted the Church, but no, it was rebellion.

The law could not help either of Paul nor the Roman Church either. For “by the works of the law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, because through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Paul and the Roman Church had the same problem when they were unbelievers: their sin and rebellion. It manifested itself differently, but deserved the same punishment: the wrath of God.

Same need: Christ’s righteousness

And so, because Paul and the Roman Church had the same fundamental problem, they had the exact same need:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Romans 3:21-22a, ESV

That is what Paul and the Romans both needed. The law was a dead end, they could never keep it but God has made another way. “For what the Law could not do because it was weak because of the flesh Christ did.”

Jesus. He is the end of the law for all who believe. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the only way God can be just and justify sinful humans. Paul and the Church had only one question they needed to answer, the question every human being has to answer: “How can God still be perfectly righteous, perfectly just and yet forgive me?”

Through Jesus. God’s righteousness has been manifested, displayed, shown apart from the Law. How did God do it? God put Jesus forward as a propitiation. Jesus paid the punishment for those who would believe in Him. When Jesus was on the cross he cried “My God my God why have you forsaken me?” It wasn’t for His own sins that Jesus suffered.

It was because “God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all!” “it pleased God to crush” Jesus. Why? So that by His wounds, we can be healed. That payment, that righteousness is given to all who have faith in Jesus and His sacrifice. It is what Paul and the Roman Church both needed.

They were different in so many ways, but Paul and the Roman Church were now united. They were united in that they had both received mercy! Magnificent mercy! Costly mercy!

Paul and the Church had the same background and the same need. And everyone in the world also has the same background and need.

Have you received God’s mercy in Christ? Have you believed upon Jesus and this gospel?

The world tells you that you have a lot of problems and gives you a lot of solutions but the Bible is the only place you can find the truth about yourself. The truth about your real problem. And God offers to you His very son as the solution.

If have not repented, turned from your rebellion against God, and turned to Jesus by believing in His death on the Cross, there is only one implication for you: believe. Do not delay. There can be no encouragement for a faith that doesn’t exist. You must have faith before your faith gives and receives encouragement.

Conclusion

Paul and Roman Christians were united in all the important ways. They had the same needs, same present reality, same future. Therefore the encouragement really can be mutual. Even though Paul and the Roman Church had different backgrounds, they could speak into each other’s lives because their lives were the same in all the important ways, in all the essential ways.

Christians need other Christians so that their faith can be encouraged and can endure.

Fellow believers are one of the main sources of comfort God gives. Your faith can both set an example for someone else and also encourage a fellow believer to endure. The reason any believer can encourage you is that you are UNITED to any other person who believes in Jesus.

In the final post in this mini-series, I will lay out 5 practical implications of these truths from Romans 1:11-12.

If you missed Part 1 of this mini-series, find it here. You can also listen to me preach this text here.
Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: Unbelief in God

Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: Unbelief in God

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Unbelief in God and His promises is often your fundamental problem in life. It keeps you from the happiness you desire. Unbelief can lead to sinful fear of man. It is based on feelings rather than revealed truth. And in Numbers 14, unbelief in God is the sin that ultimately keeps Israel from entering the promised land.

In the last post of this series, I discussed the progression of sinful fear in Numbers 14:1-4. Israel started out weeping out of fear. Then they started complaining. And finally Israel fell into outright rebellion against God. Israel declared it would be better for them to appoint their own leader and return to Egypt, the place the Lord just freed them from.

Then, God shows up. God declares His take on Israel’s situation. How does the Lord interpret Israel’s rebellion?

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 have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Numbers 14:11-12, ESV

Israel’s problem is unbelief in God

There are two parallel statements in Numbers 14:11-12. The first is “how long will this people despise me?” and the second is “how long will they not believe in me?” The primary question you must ask as a reader is what is Israel not believing about God? The answer from the text: Israel isn’t believing God is powerful enough to keep His promises.

Israel thinks the problem is the nations in the promised land are just too strong. But that isn’t the main problem.

God declares that Israel’s problem isn’t nations around them or their circumstances. It is a wrong theology, a wrong view of who God is.

God goes as far as to say Israel has despised Him. That is strong language. How has Israel despised God? By their unbelief. God says Israel has no excuse for their unbelief because He performed plenty of signs and wonders among them. 

As my Pastor always says, unbelief in God is not an intellectual issue. Israel did not need more signs or more evidence of God’s power and ability to keep His promises.

What belief in God looks like

It is interesting to contrast Numbers 14 with what happened in Exodus 14.

29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:29-31, ESV emphasis added

This text details Israel’s reaction after they cross through the Red Sea and God destroys the Egyptian army. The text says God saved Israel from the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead. Israel observed this great act of God on their behalf. What was their response?

  • They feared the Lord
  • They believed in the Lord
  • They believed in His servant Moses

There is a connection between seeing what the Lord has done and fearing Him and believing in Him. In Numbers 14, you see the opposite of this.

Instead of fearing the Lord, Israel is fearing the nations. Nations not any more powerful that Egypt who God defeated clearly and decisively. Instead of believing in God and in His servant Moses, Israel is ready to rebel and go back to slavery.

God looks at this fear and lack of faith and calls it for what it is: Israel is despising Him. Rejecting Him.

The high cost of unbelief in God

God does not deal with Israel’s unbelief lightly. In Sailhamer’s excellent commentary, he points out that all Israel is going to face in the rest of the Pentateuch is a consequence of their unbelief in God. They are going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Not enter the promised land. A whole generation is going to die.

Why? Because of something Israel did in the past? Because of a battle they lost?

No. All these consequences are going to happen to Israel simply because they failed to trust in the Lord.

Unlike their behavior in Exodus 14, Israel is not properly fearing the Lord and believing in Him. If you read through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers up to this point, Israel has seen even more miraculous signs than they had in Exodus 14. But as I said before, unbelief isn’t based on lack of evidence. Israel had plenty of reason to believe God was powerful enough to bring them into the land.

How awful a sin is it to not believe in God? God is prepared to destroy Israel because they are not trusting Him. Is this too harsh? I mean, the nations in the promised land really are strong. Doesn’t God know trusting Him in spite of circumstances is difficult? Is unbelief in God really that big of a deal?

The answer God gives is this:

Lack of faith in God is equivalent to rejecting God

Without faith it is impossible to please God. The righteous will live by faith. Walk by faith and not by sight.

Israel had the promise that God would bring them into the land. They had seen the power of God displayed. They knew God had brought them out of slavery. So why are they fearful? Why are they rebelling?

Unbelief. Lack of faith in the promise of God. It might not sound like such a “big deal”. But unbelief in God is a rejection of Him. It is trusting in something other than His word as truth. Israel was walking by sight, not walking by faith in God and His promises. The consequences of unbelief are severe because God is so incredibly great and powerful.

Application #1: Your specific sins are fundamentally based in unbelief in God

This text should shape our thinking of what sin is. Fear and sin are related fundamentally to unbelief. You might fight and struggle with a myriad of different sins. Different people you know might fight different manifestations of sin. But everyone’s fundamental battle is against unbelief. It is a fundamental sin.

God is a promise-making, promise-keeping God. He doesn’t ask us to fulfill His promises; He asks us to trust Him (think Abraham). Simply believing in Him and His promises pleases the Lord. Therefore, not trusting in the Lord displeases Him. Unbelief in God and His promises is never a neutral thing.

A lot of times in my own life, I treat trusting in the Lord as something I can either have or not have. It becomes like a cherry on top of the Christian life.

It is also very easy in the Church to talk about trust in Lord very casually. A situation or a trial comes up and you here something like “Oh I just need to trust the Lord”, or “I’m struggling to trust in the Lord.” This makes it sound as if belief in God is a part of the Christian life rather than essential to it.

Believing & trusting in the Lord is not something you can choose to do or not do depending on your circumstances. It is the essence of the Christian life.

And belief in the Lord’s promises is essential when things get difficult. Often times, you and I have a very superficial view of our problems. So, we end up going after very superficial solutions. When you are faced with a difficulty, or problem, your first question should not be “how can I fix this problem?” Or even when faced with your own sin, your first question should not be “What can I quickly do to stop feeling guilty?”

When faced with a problem or your own sin, your first questions should be: What promises of God am I not trusting? What am I actually believing to be true? 

What promises of God should you have trusted to avoid this situation? What are you functionally believing to be true about God? Are there things you say you believe, but you aren’t living in light of?

That is what Israel needed to do in Numbers 14! To say “Wait a minute, we are fearful because we have forgotten God’s promises!”

Application #2: Know and trust in God’s promises to you

God promised Israel the land and that He would defeat the nations currently living in the land. A very specific promise, God explicitly gave to Israel. You might think that you don’t have any promises like that.

But you have to understand God bathes his people in promises.

If you read the New Testament, you see just as many promises (if not MORE) than the nation of Israel had at this point!

  • We are promised if we suffer with Him we will reign with Him! 
  • We are promised if we are faithless, He is faithful because He cannot deny Himself!
  • We are promised all things work out for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose!
  • We are promised God will make a new Heavens and a new earth where JESUS will reign forever!
  • We are promised that the sufferings of this present time are not WORTHY to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us!
  • We are promised that God has given us EVERYTHING we need for life and Godliness!
  • We are promised if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead you WILL be saved!
  • We are promised Neither death nor life nor ANYTHING in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Promise after promise after promise. Most of your problems in life are because you aren’t believing the promises!

Just like Israel. The next 40 years wandering in the wilderness comes simply from not believing and trusting in the Lord’s promises even though God has proven Himself again and again.

So next time you are faced with a problem, a sin, a difficulty, the first question you should ask is “what am I actually believing? What am I trusting in here? Am I trusting in God’s promises or is it not?”

  • When you are disciplining your children and it doesn’t seem to be working what promises should you trust in?
  • When there are difficulties in your marriage and you feel bitter or discouraged what promises aren’t you trusting?
  • When your career isn’t going as you wanted it to or you get passed up for a promotion you feel you deserve, what promises do you need to run to?
  • When you are single and you can’t seem to find contentment as you wait on a spouse, what promises aren’t you trusting?

The Bible says God is sovereign and has declared the end from the beginning. So stop and consider before the Lord what promises you are not believing

You are not in control of your circumstances. But in your circumstances, you can choose to trust the Lord and His word.

Always remember: unbelief in God is a sin. It is not a neutral issue. Personally as I have studied this text, I have found myself praying more “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!” May we all grow in faith in God’s promises.

You can listen to my whole sermon on Numbers 14 here. You can find a tools I used to meditate on the application of this text here and here. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to make sure you never miss a post or a new tool.
Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: Numbers 14 Sermon

Fear, Faith, & False Repentance: Numbers 14 Sermon

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I recently preached a sermon on Numbers 14. My Pastor was out of town, and he asked me to cover for him. I have decided to make this sermon available on this blog.

In a previous post, I discussed some of the challenges with preaching narrative. Numbers 14 was a difficult text to preach in one sermon. But it contains a lot of rich theology.

I think in particular, Numbers 14 reveals how sin flows out of unbelief. Unbelief in God’s promises. In His power.

It took me a while to get the sermon written. I would work on the sermon every morning for a couple hours before heading to work.

But in my opinion, take every opportunity you get to preach God’s word. It is an amazing privilege.

I personally love the sermon writing process. You start out digging deep into God’s word on your own. Then you think how you best can present your insight to the congregation.

You write an outline. You check your conclusions with commentaries. Then, you meditate on the text until you develop useful applications.

Finally, after much prayer and wrestling and rewriting, you present it to the congregation.

I think Piper says it best in this excellent book on preaching: “Preaching aids worship and is worship.”

How true that is. I hope this sermon on Numbers 14 is a blessing to you. I have attached the video below, followed by the audio file.

Audio file here.

Any comments or thoughts? Feel free to reach out! If you want my thoughts on illustrations in preaching, see this previous post.