well we're going to turn today to the
book of numbers.
this is the fourth of the
books that Moses wrote and this deals with
Israel's wanderings and Israel's wars in the wilderness
and there are a number of important chapters
as you probably be noticing.
we can't go into every chapter in a
brief study like we are having where we
mostly take just one session to cover a
book.
so what I want to share with you
is the important chapters and I hope that
it wets your appetite to study the scriptures
more deeply and intensely on your own.
now this book is called numbers because the
people of Israel were numbered twice.
Moses took a census of the Israelites.
it says in numbers 1 verse 3 from
20 years old and upwards all those who
were able to go out to war.
they took a census according to the families
once at the beginning of their wanderings and
then later on towards the end of their
wanderings as well.
that you read in chapter 26 and in
chapter 2 you have the arrangement in which
the camps of Israel were to be placed.
God is a God of order and one
of the things you learn from this is
the discipline and orderliness which God taught his
people.
remember there were a bunch of totally undisciplined
slaves in Egypt and God when he let
them out not only redeemed them, not only
baptized them in the Red Sea and baptized
them in the cloud but began to teach
them order, cleanliness, laws of hygiene.
now these are important lessons for us because
there are lots of Christians who say well
I'm saved I'm born again by the blood
of the Lamb but they're not clean.
they don't have any sense of hygiene or
cleanliness in their lives or in their home.
there is no sense of orderliness in their
life.
there's no discipline in the way they spend
their time or their money or the way
they keep their rooms and all this affects
our growth.
I've discovered that whatever experience of the Holy
Spirit you may have, if you are not
disciplined in your life you cannot become a
godly person.
don't think that just because you got experiences
and you know the Lord that's good enough.
the orderliness with which you see the detail
that you see in the book of Numbers,
so many details don't just get bored reading
all that but what you can generally learn
from those many details is the orderliness with
which God conducted and led his people on
and the discipline he wanted them to have.
God is a God of order and when
there is a lack of discipline in our
life we cannot be the men and women
God wants us to be.
I find that, let me give you an
example.
there are people who say the apostles never
went to a Bible school so we don't
need to go either.
well if you are a thoroughly disciplined person
listening to the Holy Spirit I agree with
you.
I never went to one but I disciplined
myself to study the word and I've discovered
a lot of people who try to follow
the apostles without the discipline that the apostles
had.
they know nothing and one thing that some
of you get here is a discipline of
the study of the word.
discipline is so important.
you cannot know God's word if you don't
take pains and discipline yourself daily particularly in
your younger days to study the word and
open yourself to the Holy Spirit.
just if we can learn that from some
of these details that are given in the
book of numbers you go to chapter 7
for example in the offerings of the leaders.
such detail.
one silver dish weighed 130 shekels and one
silver bowl weighed 70 shekels and so much
of it is repetition throughout that but God
takes what we learn there is that God
takes interest in every little thing that every
person offered.
it's not as just a general statement.
I know that 10 of those people may
have offered the same thing but God says
no I'll write down what this person wrote,
gave and what this person gave and what
this person gave.
there we see something of the heart of
God, the nature of God.
he's interested in the individual and particularly in
a time like ours where you know in
a large country like ours and it's very
easy to sort of get lost in feeling
that I'm just one among so many.
you read something like numbers chapter 7 and
see how the Lord took interest in every
single dish every single little thing that every
single individual offered and if you read through
that I don't have time to show it
to you.
you find the Lord could have condensed it
and said all these people gave basically the
same thing.
they generally gives a few things but he
doesn't put it like that.
detail.
you know that God is interested in detail
in your life.
every little thing.
these are some of the lessons that we
can learn as we study these scriptures.
I want to show you here something else
in numbers chapter 3.
I don't know whether you knew know this.
there were 12 tribes among in Israel.
why did God choose one the Levites to
be the priests?
did God pick lots?
was it just because they were favorites?
God has no favorites.
when he chooses a particular person for a
particular task it's because he has that man
is usually fulfilled certain conditions.
why did God choose Paul?
why did God choose Peter?
it was not random.
why does God choose one person today and
not another?
we may all offer ourselves for God's service.
that's fine.
but God picks out some people and he
can pick you out.
there is no partiality with God if you
fulfill the conditions.
Paul says that in 1 Timothy 1 that
Jesus Christ considered him faithful and put him
into the ministry.
God tests our faithfulness.
we'll see that later on in the Bible
too.
but one example of it numbers chapter 3.
it says in verse 40 and 41 the
Lord said to Moses number every firstborn male
the son of Israel from a month old
and upwards.
make a list of their names.
the reason was all these firstborn were supposed
to be killed in Egypt.
they should have died and they escaped because
of the Lord's mercy and the blood on
the doorposts.
but strictly speaking they were considered dead.
dead but alive.
just like we Christians.
we should have died but because of the
blood we are alive.
and then the Lord said verse 41 take
the Levites for me instead of the firstborn
and the cattle of the Levites instead of
the firstborn of the cattle of the sons
of Israel.
so Moses numbered all the firstborn and they
were verse 43 22,273 and they numbered
the Levites and the Levites were 22,000
exactly.
it's almost the same number.
the remaining 273 they had to pay a
redemption price we read in verse 46 and
47.
but the point I want you to notice
here is the reason why the Levites were
chosen.
first of all they were in place of
the firstborn.
the firstborn should have died but they escaped
and therefore they belong to the Lord.
you should have died eternally but you escaped
and therefore like the Levites you and I
are for the Lord.
the firstborn like the firstborn you and I
are for the Lord.
instead of the firstborn the Lord said I'll
take the tribe of the Levites.
but there's one more reason and I want
you to turn back to Exodus and chapter
32.
Exodus and chapter 32 we read here in
verse.
you know this is the time when Israel
was worshiping the golden calf.
verse 26 it says here that when Moses
came and he saw in verse 25 the
people were out of control.
he stood in the gate of the camp
and he said who is on the Lord's
side come to me.
and all those 600,000 people heard it
and the Levites came forth.
all had the opportunity.
the tribe of Judah could have come.
the tribe of Reuben could have come.
none of them came.
the Levites came and stood there.
that was the day God chose them to
be his servants.
he saw one group of people who were
willing to stand against the entire lot of
compromising so-called believers who had been redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb baptized in
the Red Sea baptized in the cloud.
and do you know how God chooses his
servants today?
when he sees one person it may be
you who is willing to stand with God
and with God's servant with Jesus.
Moses represents Jesus here standing and saying who's
on the Lord's side come and stand with
me.
and if you are willing to stand with
him against your compromising fellow believers against your
brothers.
remember Judah Reuben Simeon all these people were
the brothers of Levi.
and stand against their brothers and stand even
against their parents.
God will pick you up to serve him
and he will make a covenant with you
that you will be his servant.
that was the reason.
I want you to turn also to Deuteronomy
and chapter 33 and verse 9 and 10.
it says about Levi verse 8.
this is the blessing with Moses bless the
Israelites.
verse 8 of Levi he said.
Levi said concerning verse 9 concerning his father
Deuteronomy 33 9 and his mother.
I did not consider them.
he did not even acknowledge his own brothers.
he did not regard his sons.
this is in that time you know when
they stood for the Lord.
but they observed thy word and kept thy
covenant.
what was that?
see when these people came and stood with
Moses.
Moses told them in Exodus 32 27 take
your sword and go back into the camp
and kill every man his brother, every man
his friend, every man his neighbor.
don't worry if that's a special friend of
yours.
take the sword and kill and 3,000
people were killed that day by the Levites.
that's what he's referring to here.
that they did not consider whether that person
who were that they were going to kill
was their father or mother or brother.
they were on the Lord's side against their
relatives.
if the relatives compromised, they say you can
compromise.
today we don't use the sword, literal sword.
today we use the sword of the scriptures,
the word of God.
that's what we use.
we're not men of violence.
in those days they use the literal sword.
but we stand with the word of God
against our friends, relatives, neighbors and that's how
the Lord picks us out.
now we turn to Numbers and chapter 4.
I'm just picking out a few things from
the book of Numbers and you can study
it on your own.
I hope it whets your appetite to study
this wonderful book.
in Numbers chapter 4 we read of the
the sons of Levi who were given responsibilities
in the tabernacle.
that was Levi did not choose his own
sons.
no.
it was God.
God may choose my son to serve him
but God must choose him.
I can't choose him.
that's the point.
Levi, God said the sons of Levi have
got to have these responsibilities.
Levi had these three sons Kohath, Gershon, Mererai.
now you know that earlier we studied that
yesterday that the sons of Levi, Nadab and
Abihu offered strange fire and they were killed.
they would have had a tremendous responsibility in
the camp.
the sons of Aaron.
but they missed it.
that we read the other day, the sons
of Aaron.
they could have been in this number who
were doing a ministry in the camp.
but they missed it.
but these people, the tribe of Levi, Kohath
and Mererai and the sons of Mererai, Gershon
and Kohath, they had the responsibility to move
the tabernacle.
the most sacred job in the moving of
the Israelites was given to the sons of
Levi.
and what we see here is that you
cannot take God's commandments lightly.
that's what I mentioned yesterday how Uzzah in
David's time tried to touch the ark because
he thought it was falling and God killed
him and said you are not a Levite.
you're not allowed to touch the ark.
the lesson we learned from that is if
God has not given you a responsibility you
should not try to touch it.
for example when people go and criticize another
church, I say that's none of your business.
are you an elder there?
no.
leave those elders to take care of that
church.
do you criticize somebody else's children?
are you their father?
mind your own business.
when you criticize somebody else's children, you're touching
something which God has not given you to
touch.
when you are trying to sort out something
in another church where you've been given no
responsibility, you're like Uzzah touching the ark.
the ark was to be handled only by
certain people.
so that's what we see here.
and each were given specific tasks.
for example we see here in verse 24
this is the service of the family of
the Gershonites.
verse 33 this is the service of the
families of the sons of Merorah.
it was specific.
and now I want you to see something
interesting in chapter 7.
in chapter 7 we read that the leaders
of Israel, verse 2, made an offering to
the Lord.
and all the leaders that offerings are mentioned.
and they brought their offering, verse 3, six
covered carts, 12 oxen, a cart for every
two leaders and an ox for each one.
so they presented these six carts and 12
oxen.
now when you divide six, now this was
to carry the items of the tabernacle.
now when you divide six carts between three
people, you know, three groups, Kohathites, Merorites, Gershonites.
how many carts do each people get?
how much, how many carts does each group
get?
two.
when you divide 12 oxen among three groups,
how much, how many oxen does each get?
four.
right.
now listen, see how he did it.
so Moses, verse 6, took the carts and
the oxen and gave them to the Levites.
and he gave two carts and four oxen
to the sons of Gershon for their service.
good.
but he gave four carts and eight oxen
to the sons of Merorai.
and verse 9, he did not give any
carts or any oxen to the sons of
Kohath.
because they had a special privilege to carry
the ark and that was not to be
carried on a bullock cart.
the Philistines did that later on and David
did it and that's when it began to
topple and Uzzar touched it.
they were to carry it on their shoulders.
so it could have been very easy for
these Kohathites to say well here God has
given that brother two cars or carts or
cars.
today it's cars those days it's carts.
God's given that brother four cars and here
I have to walk or I have to
cycle to serve the Lord.
you have complaints like that?
God in his great wisdom does things very
exactly.
don't bypass these verses hidden in the middle
of numbers.
there's a message for you over there that
can deliver you from complaining when you see
somebody else has got two cars and you
don't you've got only a cycle.
does God answer these problems?
he does in the middle of numbers.
in these chapters you skip and move on.
I hope I will encourage you thereby to
study the scriptures more carefully.
Numbers chapter 5.
I want to show you something else here
about God's command concerning lepers.
it says in Numbers 5 verse 1 and
2 command the sons of Israel the Lord
spoke to Moses that they send away from
their camp every leper and everyone having a
discharge and everyone who's unclean because of a
dead person.
now there are some people who feel and
who give people a wrong impression that because
the Lord said in Exodus 15 26 I
am the Lord that healeth thee all Israel
got healing.
whenever they were sick they went to the
Lord they were healed.
they were not.
the lepers were not healed.
they were put outside the camp.
here's the verse.
it says command the sons of Israel that
the lepers should trust the Lord for healing.
no.
they should be put outside the camp.
could the Lord heal them?
certainly.
when Jesus came every leper that came to
him he healed.
not even one was left out.
but here the Lord could heal them but
he didn't.
now that's just to teach us that we
should not try to lock God down in
a box.
we make a little doctrine and we say
the Holy Spirit must live within this doctrine.
he's going to heal everybody.
you take that type of position and you'll
be unrealistic and you will kill certain people
who could have been healed with medicine and
do a lot of stupid things like that.
there was a law for the cleansing of
the leper.
we saw that in Leviticus 14 yesterday.
13 and 14.
but here we see here that you cannot
dictate to God and say you said in
Exodus 15 26 I'm the Lord that healeth
thee.
now heal this leper.
we're not going to put him outside the
camp.
the Lord said put him outside the camp.
humble yourself and acknowledge that there are situations
where the Lord does not heal for some
good reason or the other.
see the Bible is very realistic and it's
people who don't study the Bible carefully who
get all these wrong doctrines and the multitudes
of Christians who are being deceived today even
by people who've gone through Bible schools and
got doctorates who do not know the Bible
unfortunately.
who have not studied the scriptures carefully.
I want to ask you my dear brothers
and sisters use your time here to study
the scriptures carefully so that you understand God's
heart and God's laws and God's ways and
lead God's people right.
that is so important.
it grieves my heart when I see poor
people being led astray by leaders who do
not know God and do not know his
word and those poor people suffer.
so there's a very important responsibility that we
have here.
Jesus himself said in the time of Elisha
there were many lepers in Israel.
none of them were healed Jesus said in
Luke chapter 4 but Naaman the Syrian he
was healed.
so that's just in passing.
now I want to show you something here
about restitution.
we saw a little bit about that yesterday
and that's mentioned here in Numbers chapter 5
and verse 11.
no not verse 11 sorry verse 6 to
8.
when a man or a woman commits a
sin acting unfaithfully he shall confess his sin
and he shall make restitution verse 7 and
full for his wrong and add one-fifth
and give it to him whom he has
wronged.
you know it's a sin against the Lord
but it's also a sin against a person
like we saw yesterday about the guilt offering
and it says when you give restitution again
the Lord repeats here give 20% more
because you have cheated that man.
I remember many many years ago when I
got converted one of the things the Lord
spoke to me was to make restitution to
the government and to people concerning things I
had cheated and I was debating in my
mind you know how we can be calculating.
yeah this is how much I feel I
owe.
but I had a little bit of a
doubt was it this much or was it
this much more and the doubt I had
was exactly 20% more and I never
knew about this verse.
I was debating thinking how much should I
give and I was going to give what
is less and then I read this verse.
it was almost as if the Lord spoke
directly to me add 20% and give
it.
let it be more rather than less.
if you're in doubt as to how much
you should give back to somebody give more
rather than less.
that your conscience will be clear in the
day Jesus comes again.
that's what I felt.
I don't want that extra 20% in
my bank and not be ready for the
coming of the Lord.
okay now in verses 11 to 31 we
read of instructions concerning if a man's wife
has committed adultery there's a way in which
God would expose them by taking some water
with the dust from the tabernacle and make
the woman drink it and her belly would
swell.
now the method used in the New Testament
is not with like this with water and
dust but by the discernment of the spirit
like when Peter exposed Ananias and Sapphira supernaturally
by the gift of the spirit something this
woman did in secret was revealed by this
method and by the discernment of the spirit
what Ananias and Sapphira did in secret was
also revealed and as this was a very
important part of the New Testament law discernment
given by the spirit where God gives a
leader discernment to see the true spiritual condition
of a person is a very important requirement
to serve the Lord.
Numbers chapter 6 deals with what is called
a Nazirite vow not n-a-z-a
-r it's got nothing to do with Nazareth
n-a-z-i-r Nazirite Jesus was
not a Nazirite.
the last part of Matthew 2 it says
he was a Nazarene.
sorry Matthew chapter 3 he was a Nazarene
not a Nazirite and he dwelt in Nazareth.
I think that's Matthew 2 perhaps the last
verse.
anyway he was a Nazirine means he lived
in Nazareth and that's referring to the verse
in Isaiah 11 not Nazirite because a Nazirite
had to have long hair he could never
cut his hair he could never drink wine
you know about Samson he was a Nazirite
and it says here in Numbers chapter 6
verse 3 he shall abstain from wine and
verse 5 no razor shall pass over his
head until the days he dedicates himself for
a certain period in Samson's case he was
dedicated for life as a Nazirite.
there were two ways in which Samson could
have lost his strength one was by cutting
his hair and the other was by drinking
wine if he had drunk wine he'd have
lost his strength his strength was not in
his hair his strength was in his dedication
and that dedication was shown by his not
cutting his hair and not drinking wine either
of the two would have made him lose
his strength now Jesus did cut his hair
and he did drink wine so he was
not a Nazirite in verse 22 to 27
we see the blessing number 622 to 27
we see the blessing with which Aaron was
commanded to bless the people of Israel I
just mentioned it here to show you that
this is the greatest blessing that God can
ever give us the greatest blessing God can
ever give us is not healing is not
prosperity this health and wealth gospel is not
the good news that the Bible speaks about
not in the Old Testament and not in
the New Testament when the Lord wanted to
bless the people of Israel he did not
tell Aaron to say may the Lord bless
you with a lot of money with many
children and a lot of prosperity and a
lot of good health no listen to this
may the Lord bless you and keep you
that's my prayer for you keep you from
falling into sin may he make his face
shine upon you that means may you be
able to look clearly into his face every
day because you've got a clear conscience and
may he give grace to you and may
he lift up his face upon you and
give you peace there's no help there there's
no wealth there but there's grace there's peace
there's keeping there is the face of the
Lord shining upon me I say Lord I
don't want anything else I don't care whether
I have help or wealth if I have
this it's enough and he says you invoke
my name like this and I will bless
them this is the blessing of the Lord
that we are to seek even today and
I want to turn out a number chapter
9 we read in number chapter 9 verse
15 to 23 how the Lord led his
people by the cloud that covered it during
the day were 16 and it was enough
by the appearance of fire that had an
appearance of fire at night whenever the cloud
was lifted Israel set out and when the
cloud settled down Israel camped sometimes verse 20
the cloud would linger for a few days
and verse 19 sometimes it lingered for many
days and sometimes verse 21 if the cloud
remain from evening until morning when the cloud
was lifted in the morning they'd move out
if it remain in the daytime at night
whenever the cloud is lifted they set out
now notice in verse 21 it says they
would come and settle down in the evening
and probably in the morning they'd move that's
just one sentence but just think of this
practically what it meant here were people traveling
with their little children with all their tents
and their animals and they had to set
up the tent the cloud is stopped now
let's set up our tent and they spend
many hours setting up their tent and go
to sleep and get up in the morning
and the cloud is moving can you imagine
there the opportunity they have to complain why
can't God wait a few days we just
set up our tent last night you know
a true servant of God will never complain
when God tells him to do that which
is inconvenient maybe he told him to go
and then he told him to return or
told him to stop this is how God
led them by the Holy Spirit led by
the Spirit I told you yesterday that you
can be born of the Spirit baptized in
the Spirit led by the Spirit as many
as are led by the Spirit Romans 814
are the sons of God there's a difference
between a child of God and a son
of God when I say this is my
child and this is my son we're talking
about a grown-up son those who are
sons of God are led by the Spirit
in the cloud led them and they had
no complaint in the cloud stop they stop
and in the cloud move next morning they
were to pack up and they were not
to complain God was very strict against his
murmuring complaining attitude among the Israelites for which
he punished them the Bible says in Philippians
2 let all things be done without murmuring
and complaining one of the things we see
throughout the wilderness wandering wanderings of the Israelites
is murmuring and complaining and if you murmur
and complain my brother and sister that is
the clearest proof that you have not entered
the land of Canaan you are still in
the wilderness I don't care who it is
it may be a pastor a leader if
he won he murmurs and complains he's still
in the wilderness and he will lead people
into the wilderness not into Canaan's land one
proof that we have finished with the wilderness
and got into Canaan's land is we've stopped
grumbling we've stopped murmuring at home and outside
and stopped complaining we've started giving thanks for
what the Bible says 1 Thessalonians 518 and
Ephesians 520 give thanks for everything in all
things okay so whenever the cloud moved they
moved whether it was verse 22 whether it
was two days or a month or a
year sometimes the cloud stayed for a whole
year and the thing is they couldn't predict
it when the cloud stopped you didn't know
how long it is going to stop so
is everyone born of the spirit it's like
the wind blows where it is you cannot
say when the wind is going to blow
when it's going to stop so is everyone
born of the spirit we move with the
cloud okay we move on now to chapter
12 where we read about the complaining of
Miriam and Aaron against Moses Aaron and Miriam
were jealous because they were older than Moses
Aaron was three years older Miriam was probably
12 years older and here was God choosing
this younger brother to be a prophet and
to be the leader it's not easy when
God chooses a younger person to be the
leader but God chose Moses and Miriam and
Aaron they couldn't find any fault in this
man because he was a very humble man
like it says in Numbers 12 3 the
man Moses was very humble more than any
man who was in the face of the
earth and I believe that's written in brackets
if you look in your Bible is written
in brackets to show that Moses did not
write that he wrote the rest of the
book of Numbers and perhaps Joshua inserted it
there that Moses was the humblest man on
the face of the earth and we read
here that when they could the only fault
they could find with him was that this
man Moses went and married a non-jew
so they questioned him about that why is
he married this Kushite woman and it says
and the Lord heard it the Lord hears
whenever you speak against his anointed servants and
the Lord appeared and said call them out
and the Lord came there and said listen
to me verse 6 if there is a
prophet among you I will reveal myself to
him in a vision or in a dream
but with Moses he's more than a prophet
I don't have to speak to him in
visions and dreams I speak to him verse
8 mouth-to-mouth face-to-face now
tell me something my brother sister which is
better for the Lord to speak to us
directly face-to-face when we are awake
or when we are asleep in a vision
or a dream it's very clear from this
passage that the Lord speaking to us face
-to-face is far superior to his speaking
in a vision or a dream and yet
there are so many believers who today think
that if a man has a vision or
a dream he is spiritual no the one
who is more spiritual is the one who
can hear God speaking face-to-face directly
in his heart and be led by the
spirit that is superior to visions and dreams
take time to study that passage and you'll
see it very clearly and then the Lord
was angry with these people and the cloud
withdrew from the tent and Miriam suddenly became
full of leprosy verse 10 and suddenly Aaron
said oh Lord please don't let this sin
be imputed to us because her flesh is
being eaten away and she'll be put outside
the camp and Moses even against whom they
criticized said Lord heal her the Bible says
pray for those who persecute you that was
not an Old Testament commandment but Moses was
a new covenant man living in the Old
Testament is an amazing man just like today
there are people who live in the New
Testament age and live by Old Testament principles
there were one or two in the Old
Testament who live by New Covenant principles it's
not a question of when you live in
history you can live today and be an
Old Covenant Christian for example if you don't
have victory over sin you're like people in
the Old Covenant who had forgiveness but no
victory many other marks of that Moses was
a New Covenant Christian and he prayed for
him and the Lord said okay put her
outside the camp verse 15 for seven days
so that she learns a lesson and then
let her come back and they learned a
lesson for their life but all the others
did not learn a lesson we'll come to
that later when you come to chapter 13
you'll find that Israelites are brought to the
borders of the promised land in a place
called Kadesh Barnea and the Lord said go
in but the children of Israel sent twelve
spies to examine the land and ten of
them came back and said it twelve of
them came back all twelve and said it's
a wonderful land but ten of them said
there are big giants and we cannot conquer
them but Caleb and Joshua said there are
big giants but we can conquer them and
the six hundred thousand Israelites listened to the
majority what we learned from there is it
is very dangerous to follow majority opinion majority
opinion is invariably wrong the way to life
is narrow and few there be that find
it the majority don't find it the way
to destruction is broad and many there be
good going there at if you follow the
majority you will definitely be on the broadway
in Christendom I want to tell you the
majority is wrong don't think the largest church
is the most spiritual church it's not ten
people versus two whose side will you take
God is on the side of the two
Joshua and Caleb unbelief and the devil were
on the side of the other ten and
the Israelites followed majority opinion and that was
why they wandered in the wilderness they had
no discernment to see it's not a question
of whose majority here that is for politics
and for elections here is a question is
whose side is God on and if God
is with one person I would rather be
with him God was with Moses when the
Israelites were worshipping idols and only the tribe
of Levi recognized that and here when God
was with Joshua and Caleb even the tribe
of Levi did not recognize it everybody sided
with the other ten be careful these have
got lessons for us today Christendom is in
a compromising situation today here and there God
raises up people who stand for the truth
of God's Word without compromise if you have
discernment you will see God is with that
man I can sense it I can discern
it I would rather stand with that man
against all of compromising Christendom and you won't
be wrong you will enter the promised land
how do you identify the man with whom
God is he speaks the language of faith
Joshua and Caleb spoke the language of faith
we can overcome we can overcome anger we
can overcome lust we can overcome jealousy we
can overcome murmuring we can overcome sin we
can overcome the devil we're not going to
yield that's the language of the man with
whom God is the man who is not
with God who says no it's we got
to be reasonable I mean you don't understand
anything about psychology I say I couldn't care
less about psychology I believe God's Word you
see these are the ways in which people
go astray human reasoning God has hidden these
things from the clever and the intelligent and
I'll tell you this if you use human
reasoning and all your cleverness and intelligence to
study the Bible I can tell you right
now you'll go astray you need the Holy
Spirit that's why God picked up fishermen not
Gamaliel's scholars he picked one of them Paul
but most of the others were fishermen like
Peter James and John because the others were
so proud of their knowledge that they couldn't
discern where God was the same thing here
so that's what we learned from here that's
why they missed the promised land and God
was so angry with them and he told
them in Numbers chapter 14 and verse 22
surely all these people before whom I performed
all these signs will never enter the promised
land they will all perish these people who
have put me to the test ten times
ten times I don't have time to tell
you but there's not an exaggeration right from
the very first one when they didn't when
they rebelled at the crossing of the Red
Sea there are ten times in which they
rebelled against Moses first in Exodus 14 11
2nd 5th Exodus 15 24 3rd in Exodus
16 verse 2 and 3 4th in Exodus
20 16 20 sorry 5th in Exodus 16
verse 27 and 28 6th in Exodus 17
and verse 3 7th in Exodus 32 8
in Numbers 11 1 and 9 in Numbers
11 4 and 33 and the 10th time
was here in Numbers 30 it was not
an exaggeration 10 times you have rebelled against
me you will not enter the promised land
now we move on to Numbers chapter 16
and you read of the rebellion of Korah
now we would have thought that Korah, Dathan,
Abiram would have learned a lesson from what
happened to Miriam when she was put outside
the camp for seven days all Israel knew
that Miriam was put outside the camp for
rebelling against Moses but sometimes we don't learn
a foolish man does not even learn from
the mistakes of others a wise man learns
from the mistakes of others and most of
those other people learned a lesson from Miriam's
foolishness but Korah, Dathan and Abiram did not
learn a lesson to rebel against authority that
God has placed is a very serious thing
and that's what you see in the book
of Numbers chapter 16 how God punished Korah,
Dathan and Abiram and their families for rebelling
against Moses and they were swallowed up alive
we read of two people who went to
heaven alive Enoch and Elijah in Numbers 16
we read of the only people who were
swallowed alive into hell you read the earth
opened up verse 31, 32 and they went
straight alive into hell the only people as
far as we know who went alive into
hell but the interesting thing we see here
is that when the rebellion started there were
four people verse 1 Korah, Dathan, Abiram and
on and they rebelled against Moses and Moses
said verse 5 come back tomorrow morning and
then we will see and out of these
four people one person got some sense on
that night he repented and next morning when
you read verse 24 you read that only
three people left thank God that one man
saved his family because he got some sense
that night not to join anymore in that
rebellion and we see one more thing it
says here that the Lord told them to
pull away from the tents of Korah, Dathan
and Abiram and something that is not mentioned
in number 16 is the glory of God
to conceal matters the glory of God kings
to search it out in numbers 2611 numbers
2611 you read that the sons of Korah
did not die how is it that the
sons of Korah did not die they were
standing outside the tent with their father in
their rebellion against Moses and God and God
said through Moses pull away from the tents
of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and the sons
of Korah they had not repented the previous
night like on they repented at the last
minute at the last minute they ran away
from their father and they stood with Moses
they said dad we're not standing with you
we're standing with God's man sometimes children have
to stand with God's people against their parents
and thereby they escaped they escaped death and
those sons of Korah wrote Psalms, Psalm 42
to 49 especially Psalm 46 it speaks about
the earth opening up and the waters covering
the thing and he says but we are
still and we know that God is God
God is our refuge and strength and they
wrote another Psalm, Psalm 84 where they said
in verse 10 I would rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell
in the tents of wickedness along with our
dad Korah that's what they meant see those
Psalms become meaningful the Psalms of the sons
of Korah when you see the background to
how God delivered them at the last minute
teaching us that we should be very careful
about rebellion once this rebellion came the next
day the Lord spoke to Moses and said
listen I want to prove to these people
that I'm really standing with you and the
way I'm going to prove to you is
number 17 tell all the Israelites the leaders
to bring a rod each that means break
off a branch from a tree and bring
a rod and write Aaron's name on the
rod of Levi one rod for each of
the households there were 12 tribes and Aaron's
rod that means 13 rods and in the
morning when you put all these rods in
the tent of the meeting in the morning
fruit will come on one of these rods
and in the morning when they came we
read that the verse 8 17 8 Aaron's
rod budded there was fruit on that broken
branch and the Lord said this is how
I identify the man whom I have chosen
the principle is the principle of resurrection life
coming out of a dead branch the power
of resurrection is the means by which God
identifies his servants that means in the midst
of spiritual death God's servants can stay alive
they are not swallowed up by the spiritual
death of the people around them out of
Christendom like Aaron's rod they bud they bring
forth fruit in the midst of death they
don't complain saying oh it is all so
bad around us it makes no difference it
can be terrible around us but we can
be fruitful that is the principle of resurrection
that is how God identifies his servants that's
the mark of God's approval resurrection power seek
it even more than Bible knowledge another verse
numbers 1820 is a lovely verse in the
book of Numbers you read there about the
Lord telling Aaron and that's what the Lord
tells us you shall have no inheritance in
the promised land when you go there I
am your portion and your inheritance I want
to ask you my brothers and sisters there's
nothing wrong wrong in having land or houses
but if you ever get attached to them
and you say this is my portion I'm
taken up with my house and my property
you can never be a servant of the
Lord if you want to be a servant
of the Lord your attitude to everything on
this earth must be I don't have I
may have things here I may have a
scooter or a car or anything but my
attachment is not to any of these things
or even a house the Lord is my
portion and my inheritance the other things the
Lord can take away numbers chapter 20 here
we read of Moses being punished for one
disobedience there was only one time that Moses
slipped up God told him this is the
second time when they were hungry thirsty for
water and this time God said don't smite
the rock but speak to the rock verse
8 because Jesus Christ has to be smitten
only once on the cross the rock has
to be smitten only once after that you
speak you receive the benefit of it that
was the principle that's why the second time
the Lord said the rock is there but
don't hit it but Moses was angry and
he took the rock and verse 11 he
struck it twice in his anger and the
Lord said immediately to Moses because you have
not believed me and treated me as holy
treated my commandments as serious you will not
enter Canaan verse 12 the Israelites were given
how many chances 10 at the 10th time
they were punished Moses only once why do
you know that God expects more from leaders
he'll be merciful to ordinary people nine times
punished in the 10th time but if you're
a leader even once is enough to whom
more is given more is required and Moses
pleaded with God Lord 40 years I've longed
to enter the land of Canaan and here
at the border of the promised land he
misses out on that which he long for
and he humbled himself and he never entered
the promised land but God was good to
him you know when Moses entered the promised
land to any of you remember on the
Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus was there Moses
stood there for the first time in the
promised land God honored his servant in a
much better way than entering here if only
he knew that he would have realized that
God keeps something better for his servants even
when we have failed but he had to
punish Moses publicly so that people knew that
God is strict for one disobedience he could
not enter one more thing I want to
say here did the water flow when Moses
disobeyed yes sometimes even when God's servants disobey
blessings still flows from their ministry what is
that prove he doesn't prove that God's servant
is faithful it proves that God loves the
people God love the people so he allowed
the water to flow when you see a
disobedient servant of God today blessing flowing from
his ministry it proves nothing it does prove
one thing that God loves the people but
it doesn't prove that God is approving of
that servant he dealt with Moses later and
he will deal with that servant later there
are people who will say to the Lord
in the final day Lord we cast out
demons in your name we prophesied in your
name we heal the sick in your name
it was true many people were healed many
demons were cast out but the Lord said
depart from me you did not live a
holy life you lived in sin so you
see God uses disobedient servants that's what we
learned from here because he loves the people
but it does not mean that he approves
of the disobedience of his servant in numbers
22 to 24 we read about Balaam and
this is an important passage for a number
of things first of all we see I
don't have time to go into detail in
this but if you look at this these
three chapters you see Balaam God told him
don't go and when Balak the king invites
you to go and curse Israel don't go
but then Balak the king said I'll give
you more honor more money and then Balaam
said okay let me seek the Lord again
you may find yourself in situations like that
where you sense very clearly that God doesn't
want you to go somewhere and then you
find the salary is pretty good better than
other places and then you begin to say
well I think I should seek the Lord
again and when you attempted to do that
please remember Balaam God doesn't change his mind
just because the salary increased or the perquisites
became better or the honor was greater that's
what we learned from Balaam and what we
learned from there is when the angel tried
to stop Balaam, Balaam couldn't see it even
the donkey could see it a donkey has
got more sense than a man who once
knew God Balaam was a prophet but he
lost his anointing because of his love for
money the love of money blinded his eyes
and that poor donkey the donkey didn't love
money so he could see the angel and
the donkey spoke the first instance of speaking
in tongues in the Bible a donkey speaking
a language that it never learned supernaturally it
spoke don't think that just because somebody speaks
in tongues he is spiritual he may be
a donkey he may not be anything more
than that it may be from God I'm
not questioning that it's from God but it
doesn't mean it's spiritual you see oh speaking
in tongues this must be a spiritual no
no he's only a donkey don't worry but
if a man is spiritual and also speaks
in tongues that'd be something but I believe
the first instance of speaking in tongues in
the Bible the donkey speaking a language it
never learned is to teach us that God
can speak supernaturally even through a donkey but
it doesn't make the person spiritual I hope
you remember that all your life and the
warning that Balaam is to run after money
and then Balaam suggested to the people of
Moab see the best way is pollute these
people send your daughters your attractive daughters in
there they'll get attracted to these daughters of
Moab and they'll sin with them and God
himself will punish them we don't have to
curse them we read that in the New
Testament that's advice Balaam gave and we read
finally that that's how Israel was polluted and
there was one man called Phinehas the priest
who took a spear and killed a man
who had taken a Moabite woman a Midianite
woman and we read that in numbers 25
and verse 10 onwards and because of that
God made a covenant of peace and priesthood
with Phinehas God honors those who stand for
his principles with zeal and that's what we
learn from that passage in numbers 26 we
read of the second census in numbers 27
verse 12 to 23 we read of the
Lord telling Moses appoint Joshua to be your
successor Moses had two sons a lot of
Christian leaders appoint their sons to follow them
in leadership Moses did not he listened to
God and God said appoint Joshua and he
appointed Joshua Moses was a man who knew
God he was not trying to build up
his family I trust that some of these
things that we have studied in this chapter
will give you in this book will give
you an appetite to go more deeply into
these wonderful books of scripture where there are
so many truths hidden so that you can
get much more than what you heard this
morning let's pray Heavenly Father help us to
live by the principles of your word that
you teach us through one book after another
we pray in Jesus name