Today’s sermon was from Numbers 22:2-21. It is a story of Balaam, a pagan prophet asked by the King of Moab to curse Moses’ people, who were parked very near his border. It is a story made somewhat famous by a talking donkey. God sometimes has to get our attention and He truly did in this case.
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Last week in John 6, we learned that Jesus withdrew into the mountain when He perceived that the people who had witnessed His signs and wonders were wanting to make Him King. (John 6:15) This was due to the shallow faith that most people have when they see a thing that amazes them and they want to see more of it, just for the entertainment value more than anything else. Think of things that you yourself have seen that have attracted you. What comes to mind is musicians or movie stars, maybe even sport personalities. People of all ages are drawn to what excites their interest. Tens of thousands have gone to listen to music or fill a stadium to watch a sporting event. It was the same with these people, they had never seen such a thing as Jesus had done. His reputation as a rabbi and healer was renowned throughout the land and I’ll bet we would have been following Him too, had we lived back in those days.
However, Christ was not doing what He did to entertain them. These Jews were not prone to thinking with their hearts and were known as being stiff necked all throughout their history. Our sermon at First Baptist Church of Grove City MN focused on Numbers 13:21-33. It is where Moses sent out 12 spies into the promised land, to see what it was like. They came back after 40 days and gave their report. They all said that the land was truly one of milk and honey, but this is where their stories diverge. Ten of them then went on to say that the people were large and frightening and lived in fortified cities. They said that we should not enter into the promised land as the people living there would devour them. (Numbers 13:32)
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, told a different story. They said we should go into the land and take possession of it, for God had said He would fight their battles for them. (Deuteronomy 1:30) They truly had faith and believed what God had told them. All 12 of them had seen the same thing, yet the majority of them did not trust God enough to believe what He had said. Keep in mind these people had seen the power of their Creator as they walked across the Red Sea and never got their feet wet. (Exodus 14:15-16) So, a parallel to the people who witnessed Jesus feeding a great many and doing other signs and wonders that all the books in the world could not contain them. (John 21:25)
Jesus was doing these things, not out of obligation for His people, but out of Love. But this Love was not taken in by the people as Love but as attraction to a spectacle that excited them. Who would not want their day brightened by a healing or some miracle that wowed everyone? You’d have something interesting to tell those who were not there. It might even produce pride and condescension in you the storyteller to those poor rubes who had not seen this thing. Curiously, it never produced love for those of their neighbors who had been fed or healed or maybe a demon cast out of. We are told to be more like Christ, (1 Corinthians 11:1) and that does not mean to follow Him around in great crowds to ooh and aww at what He does. So, Jesus withdrew to the mountain, so that the people would not do another foolish thing and try to make Him King. It was getting dark and His disciples went down to the sea and got in a boat and started rowing toward Capernaum. They must have been a little confused as to where their rabbi was. We are not told why they left without Him, only that they did. Something could have been said earlier by Jesus and they were just doing what they were told. Notice also that these men are the parallel to our early story of the spies, these guys are the two that wanted to go to the Promised Land and the crowd following Jesus around are the ten that wanted to go back to Egypt. Why do I say that? These men in the boat followed Christ around and were almost all martyred (John 21:20-23) because of their faith in Him, and entered into the Promised land. The Jews, Jesus’s people, never accepted Him and went back to their stiff necked ways after He left them (Luke 24:51) and basically reaped what they sowed. Culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (Luke 21:5-38)
As His disciples were rowing it became stormy and the sea was tossing them about. (John 6:18) It is my opinion that at times, these boys in the boat and us in the present time, are doing what we are drawn to, by God’s hand and our vaunted free will gets tossed overboard. To put it bluntly, following a divine script, written by our Creator, before the ages began. Nothing happens by happenstance when Yahweh is involved. He is never surprised because He is the author of all, including the year of 2020 and all that happened. Ponder that a bit, and if you start wondering about the evil in the world… Man and satan are responsible for misery and evil. God knows about and allows it, because He uses what is evil for His glory and our own good. The story of Jacob is a great example. Read it: Genesis 50:20.
From the internet: There is an important distinction to be made between God controlling evil and God creating evil. God is not the author of sin, but He can use sinful men to attain an objective. Romans 8:28 says, “For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” “All things” includes both good and bad things. God can use struggles, heartbreaks and tragedies in ways to bring about His glory and our good. Such events, even though we don’t understand the reason for them, are part of His perfect, divine plan. If God could not control evil, He would not be God. His sovereignty demands that He be in control of everything, even “dreaded” nations such as Babylon. (Habakkuk 1:5-11)
God has these boys rowing in a stormy sea so that His glory in the form of his Son can be seen doing another incredible thing. Not to awe them, but to cause them to believe. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
And just like that, they were at their destination. For men who were following Jesus around, this was another example of many they would witness, that this truly was the Son of Man in their presence. What is it going to take to get you off the dime and truly believe in our Savior? For nothing else will get you into the Promised Land. There is nothing so important going on in your lives that would prevent your repenting and following the one True Hope, is there? Only believe and have faith in Him. Trust in Christ for all things and you will reap the blessing of our Father. That or wander our cultural metaphoric desert for another 40 years, and or until you die in your sin. Those ten spies convinced their people not to enter the Promised Land. Doomed their whole generation. We are seeing this same thing today with churches that have opened their doors to the world. Prosperity preaching or Love and inclusiveness for all. Yes, churches should welcome all, but don’t expect to remain in your sin and think that you’ll be heaven bound just because you’ve gone to church. As I’ve mentioned before, the word church, in Greek means “the called.” Not a building but we who obey Christ and council those that insist that God will accept them just as they are. Nowhere in the scripture does it say that. Repent your sins and follow Christ as He is the our only hope. https://www.gracechurch.org/sermons/16914
In short don’t trust any but Christ to keep you in good stead. Recently some churches in our area have closed because they are told it is not safe to worship together. What do you suppose God thinks about that? Psalm 34:3 “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together” yet the government says it’s not safe. The government has intruded into areas where they have no legitimate authority, and yet we continue to let them. I have seen things in the Twin Cities of late that say mask wearing will be with us indefinitely, for our safety don’t you know. The government is going keep us safe from the wrath of God who has given this country over to its sins. The only sure fire and Biblical way to turn around what’s going on in this country is repent, like Nineveh did (Jonah 3). Jonah knew that God was Gracious and forgiving and would probably turn from destroying them when they truly repented, and He did. No reason it would not work here. God loves a repentant heart. He loves you too, pray to Him and ask Him to open your heart and see what happens. Call it a good start.
So, who are those churches trusting when they decided to close the doors for what, safety? If they, who should know better, had read and heeded the Bible, God is in control of all. Still is and that’s why what is happening in our country is not going to stop unless we repent. Do you know how many abortions are going on in this country, every day? Those unborn children, whom God knew every one, are casualties of what is called women’s health care. And yet we wonder why 2020 and now 2021 are turning out the way they have. You do recall the city of Sodom who had a bit of a problem with homosexual activity. Genesis 19:1-38, Ezekiel 16:49-50 So things could be worse for us, you could say.
And if you belong to one of those churches that have closed due to wanting to be safe and to listen to their immoral masters, who have told us they know better. Who are you trusting? Pick up your bible and start reading it, and place your trust in the One who authored it. The One who created you. The One is not at all happy with how we are acting. Repent, now, for the one who will judge the quick and the dead is coming. (1 Peter 4:5)
Romans 15:13 – May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Today’s sermon by Pastor Aaron was based on Numbers 13:21-33. An interesting topic as it is as valid today as it was back then. Who do you trust? In this time of increasing reliance on the words from the government for our well being and safety, who do you trust? The One who created all or a politician/bureaucrat whose primary motive is staying in authority?
10 of the 12 sent to promised land to see what it was like, came back and said “Yes, it is a land of milk and honey” however the people were strong and frightened them. God had told them He would fight their battles for them, all they had to do was trust in Him.
Those 10 didn’t and convinced the rest to listen to their side of the story. Hence, they ended up wandering the desert for another 40 years, until they all died. Their children saw the promised land, they never did, because they did not trust in what God told them.
Don’t be like them, as heaven is the promised land, and you won’t see it if you don’t trust in Christ. Your well being and safety come not from the government, but from above. (James 1:17, John 3:27)
An old friend of ours was at church today. He and his wife had recently moved down to the Bird Island area, about 40 minutes south of us. He told me all the churches down there are closed. It made me wonder who those churches trust. God is willing to fight your battles, you just have to trust Him.
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We continue with John 6, where the people had observed the signs of His feeding of a great many, possibly up to 20,000 souls. They were impressed, how could they not be? Where in their lives had they encountered anything close to this? As such they declared “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:14)
You might think this was good news, the people recognizing something extraordinary in their midst. Most if not all knew about John the Baptist and his saying he is not the Christ but repent now for the Christ coming. (John 1:19-23)
If they had paid attention to the Rabbis in the synagogues, they would have known and expected the Lamb of God to soon be among them. (John 1:29) From this last event, where so many had been fed with just a few loaves and fishes, this looked like their long predicted King had finally come. (Isaiah 9:6–7)
However, this was not what Jesus wanted. For people to see a great event and then proclaim Him to be King. Jesus knew what was in their hearts, just as He knows what’s in our hearts. You can fool those around you with what you say, but God knows what’s in your heart. Remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They sold some property because there had been a great upwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of many:
32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. 34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales 35 and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 5:32-35)
Ananias and Sapphira felt moved and did what others had done, (Acts 4:36-37) but since their hearts were not involved, only their heads, which is the very reason for virtue signalling, they did something truly foolish. Shallow believers think that they can just dip their toes into the righteous waters and that will be good enough. How is it with you? Do you feel drawn to obey God or is it a “do it because that’s what good people do” kind of thing? There is a lot of that going around. God truly knows what’s on your heart so it matters not what you say to anyone, only what you say to the Father. The two who sold property did so because others had done it and they were thought well of. Wanting what Barnabas had received, and to be honored like he had been, but also not wanting to give everything, but keep some back. Keep in mind, there were no rules to giving, just like now. Give what you can, that’s what God asks. But be honest about it. They were not and Peter caught them out. (Acts 5:5-6, 10-11) The young men that did odd tasks for the Disciple were very busy that day.
What have we learned? Hopefully not that you will drop dead if you are dishonest with your Creator, however fear of He who created you is a good thing as stated here: So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. Deuteronomy 6:24
The problem that Jesus had with these people who saw what He did and then were working themselves up to make Him King is it was head knowledge. They had not repented, they were not contrite with the knowledge of their sins. The same thing with Ananias and Sapphira, they were trying to ride in on the honor given to Barnabas. The problem we have is a lack of commitment and honesty with our heart. We know the right and wrong of things as it is written into our hearts. (Hebrews 10:16–17) God wants our whole self to belong to Him, not a shallow, you pray to Him when you’re in trouble, kind of commitment. Jesus wanted these people following Him around to repent and be committed to Him. But it seems they were content to just be followers and you’ll find in scriptures what Jesus thought of that. (Luke 9:23, John 15:5-8, Matthew 10:38, Luke 14:25-35)
When these people were talking about what He had done and were thinking about making Him king, Jesus withdrew to the mountain, alone. He didn’t even bring the disciples with him. (John 6:15) What we are seeing right now in our country, God withdrawing from us. John MacArthur said in a sermon a week or so ago that sin makes us stupid. This is a proverb for our time. Look at what is going on in your life and remove the sin from it. That’s not just a good idea, it’s the Law. Exodus 20, read it if you haven’t and again if you have. Then start in the New Testament, anywhere really and see where sin made people stupid, think Ananias and Sapphira, and where God made simple fisherman into Disciples of the Lamb of God. Consider it homework for the soul. None of us knows the span of our days and when we are dead, we can no longer repent and come to Christ. Don’t be stupid. It is the kindest thing that can be said to you.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Rom. 15:13