Numbers: Access Denied

(Key NT Passage I Cor. 10:1-13)

Introduction:

·         Genesis: 

o   Creation/Fall

o   Redemptive Act: Noah – God preserves a Godly Line

o   Covenant with Abraham

o   God’s people end up in Egypt through God’s providential work in the life of Joseph

·         Exodus

o   The Hebrew people become great in number and are enslaved in Egypt

o   God calls Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land

o   They camp at Mt Sinai for a little over a one year period, here God makes them a nation by establishing the stipulations of the covenant – The Law.

·         Leviticus

o   God gives instructions for how he is to be worshipped and how the nation is to reflect the holy character of God through the observance of the law

I.                     God Prepares His People for the Promised Land

a.       Chps 1-4

                                                               i.      The Warrior Census of all males 21 and over who are able to go to war – 603,550 or @1/3 of US active duty armed forces.

1.       Notice how God orders his people.

                                                             ii.      Levitical Census – God set-aside a special tribe called the Levites.  There special charge was the tabernacle.  The tabernacle was at the center of the camp and this is where God’s presence rested.

b.      Chps 5-6

                                                               i.      God teaches his people about purity and gives them a walking picture of what it means to live separate as a nation – The Nazerite.

1.       The importance of purity in the church today.

                                                             ii.      God promises his Abiding Presence

1.       Aaronic Blessing – 6:22-27

2.       Cloud leading them as a reminder of his presence – 9:15-23/10:11-13

                                                            iii.      As God prepared Israel to enter the Promised Land, He is preparing for himself a people to enter the true Promised Land in the future.

1.       He has given us the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, so that we access to the covenant promises.

2.       He has given us his spirit – the Holy Spirit. He is the real, and active, and powerful presence of God in our hearts

3.       The Holy Spirit is just as real and powerful as the presence of God in the wilderness. 

4.       But as we see in the nation of Israel, God’s presence does not guarantee faith in his promises.

II.                  The People Fail to Trust in the Promises of God (Chapters 11-16)

a.       The New Testament Key Passage Points Us to the Book of Numbers – I Cor. 10:1-13

                                                               i.      Antidote to Evil (I Cor. 10:6)

1.       Numbers 11-14 demonstrates a complete lack of faith on the part of Israel.  When we see their blatant distrust and disobedience, it should cause us to desire the exact opposite for our own lives and church.

a.       They Failed to trust God by constantly complaining (11-12)

                                                                                                                                       i.      They complain about their circumstances (11:1)

                                                                                                                                     ii.      They complain about their cook (11:4-6)

                                                                                                                                    iii.      They complain about their commander and chief (12)

b.      They Failed to Trust God by Outright Disobedience (13:1-14:10)

                                                                                                                                       i.      God has Moses send out spies, who are the leaders in their camps, with the promise of success.

                                                                                                                                     ii.      13:25-27

1.       They confirm the Lord’s Description

2.       They completely deny the Lord’s ability to fulfill His promise to them. (13:28-14:10)

3.       Only Caleb and Joshua Believed – the rest wanted to stone them.

                                                             ii.      Analyze Our Spiritual Condition(I Cor. 10:12-13)

1.       Numbers 14-16 demonstrates God’s judgment upon disbelief.  This should give us cause to analyze our own hearts.  Disbelief is rebellion, to fail to take God at his word is sin.

a.       14:10-12 – The Danger of Disbelief

b.      14:13-20 – The Declaration of God’s Heart

c.       14:21-23 – The Death Sentence on an entire generation – 603,548 men would die in the wilderness before the Israel can enter the Promised Land.

                                                                                                                                       i.      These are the men God ordered for battle.  They saw the plagues in Egypt, the heard the cries of the Egyptian’s first born as the angel of death passed over their homes with the blood on the door posts, they walked across the Red Sea on dry land, they had witnessed the provision of God, they had even promised to walk in obedience….yet they still failed to believe the word of God.

                                                                                                                                     ii.      God has ordered His church battle.  Most of us in this room claim to be Christians, redeemed from our own slavery to sin.  We are on our own journey to the true and final Promised Land.  God has promised that the Gates of Hell will not prevail against His church.  The church is poised to used by God in mighty ways, in great ways.  The Scriptures says that the Harvest in Plentiful!

                                                                                                                                    iii.      We can make a choice as a local church.  We can be used by God and take him at His word, or we can die in the wilderness of discontent and disobedience!

                                                                                                                                   iv.      We must analyze our hearts lest we fall!  Notice the connection between dissatisfaction and sin.  Again and Again the people complain and then sin.  It is obvious from the book of Numbers that God despises whining and complaining.

1.       We should not complain about our circumstances.

2.       We should not complain about his provision

3.       We should not complain about the leadership God places in our lives.                                                                                                                                    

 v.      Are you complaining about these things in your heart?                                                                                                                                  

vi.      I pray that our church will cultivate an attitude of encouragement!

1.       Encouragement towards one another.

2.       Encouragement to know and obey God’s Word

3.       God uses a culture of encouragement to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

a.       Who wants to be a part of a whining rabble?  Is that a reflection of the Glory of Christ to a world in need of the gospel?

b.      Well – if it were different I wouldn’t complain….Isn’t that what the people of Israel said…if I only had meat, if only this or that.

c.       God uses people and churches who make a decision to cultivate a culture of encouragement and faith.

d.      Great people and Great churches despise gossip, slander, divisiveness, and mistrust…these things are not from the Lord, they lead to spiritual death!                                                                                                                                

vii.      I Thank God for the leaders he has given this church!  And I pray that we will analyze our hearts and determine not to go the way of the complaining Israelites.  God is worthy of our complete trust and praise for how He has provided for us in this local church!III.                God Perseveres with His People (17-36)

a.       God proves gracious although the people continue in their sin.                                                            

  i.      Moses sin’s (20:8-12)                                                           

ii.      The People Grumble Against Moses (21)

1.       God send’s the plague of Serpent’s                                                         

 iii.      Immorality on Idolatry (25)

1.       God destroys the rest of the rebellious generation

b.      The Promise Land is Still In View                                                             

  i.      A new generation emerges 601,730 warriors.                                                          

  ii.      Will they take God at His Word and enter the promised land?                                                        

  iii.      God is promise keeper….not even a rebellious people can thwart his promises.

IV.                Conclusion:

a.       One pattern that emerges in this story of Israel is that God continually provides a way of salvation for His people

.b.      John 3:14-15

c.       The Words of CH Spurgeon’s  about his Conversion.I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache. The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, — LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. (ISAIAH 45:22)V.                  He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus: —
“My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!” said he, in broad Essex, “many on ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some on ye say, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin’.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’VI.                Then the good man followed up his text in this way: — “Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me; I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sittin’ at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!”VII.              When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, “and you always will be miserable — miserable in life, and miserable in death, — if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.” I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said, — I did not take much notice of it, — I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, “Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.” Yet it was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say, — “E’er since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die.”