["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Good morning and welcome to Verity Baptist Church.
Let's find our seats.
Take our song books.
Turn to song 375.
Song number 375.
Work for the night is coming.
Song number 375.
Let's go ahead and sing it out.
Work for the night is coming.
And 75 on the second.
And 75 on the last.
Work for the night is coming.
Under the sunset skies.
While the mountains are growing.
Work for day life lies.
Work till the last beam faith.
Day gift to shine no more.
Work for day's journey.
When man's work is done.
Amen.
And we want to welcome you to Verity Baptist Church this morning.
We are so glad that you are with us.
Not only are you with us, but you are on time.
And that's good.
Who feels like they need another hour of sleep?
And I'm with you.
So praise the Lord for that.
It seems like everything is changing.
Everything always changes.
Even time changes.
But aren't you thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't change?
And he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And let's begin the service with a word of prayer this morning.
Let's bow our heads together.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
Thank you for allowing us to gather together today, Lord.
We pray that you would bless this meeting.
And, Lord, we ask that you would be with us as we sing praises to you.
Of course, as we open up the Word of God, Lord, we ask that you would meet with us today.
We pray, Lord, that this would not just be another service, another Sunday.
But that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts.
And that we might draw close to you.
We love you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Turn to Psalm 175.
175 is just like his great love.
175 on the first.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away, to keep me day by day.
It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love on the second.
Sometimes the clouds of trouble meet in the sky above.
I cannot see my Savior's face.
I doubt his wondrous love.
God be from heaven's mercy seen, beholding my despair.
In many births the clouds be green, and sure to be his name.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day.
It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love when sorrow's clouds overtake me and break upon my head.
When life seems worse than useless and I were better dead,
I take my grief to Jesus then, or do I go in vain?
For him he only gives and cheers like sunshine after rain.
Sing it out.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day.
It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love.
You're singing well.
Sing it out on the last.
Oh, I could sing forever of Jesus, love divine.
Of all his care and tenderness, for the years provide the fine.
His love is in and over all, and wind and waves obey.
When Jesus whispers, please be still, and rolls the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day.
It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love.
Good to see you.
Amen.
All right.
Well, let's take our bulletins this morning.
We'll look at some announcements real quickly.
If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand, and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up, and we will get one for you.
The verse this week, Psalm 147, one, praise you, the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant and praises comely.
And that's a good verse there.
We like that.
If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service times, Sunday morning service, 1030 a.m.
We, of course, are glad that you're with us on Sunday morning on the Lord's Day for church.
We do invite you to be back tonight for the evening service.
The evening service is different than the morning service, different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached.
There's one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people under the preaching, of course, of the word of God.
And we'd love for you to join us tonight.
I'll be preaching a special sermon tonight that won't be in our series, and we encourage you to be here, of course, for that.
We look at our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. in the midweek service.
We call it the most encouraging service of the week.
We'd love for you to join us on Wednesday night, of course.
We look at our soul-winning times.
Our main soul-winning time is on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
And then we have additional soul-winning times.
Thursdays and Fridays are postponed for now, but on Sundays at 2 p.m. this afternoon, if you'd like to go soul-winning, we'll have an opportunity for you to be able to do that.
If you are a first-time guest, if it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church, we are so glad that you are with us.
We have a gift we'd like to give you.
As you walk out of the church building this morning, as you go out our main foyer, you'll see a little table set up.
And on that table, you'll see these little gift bags.
Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning.
There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have.
The one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made.
It's called Being Baptist.
It's very well made, very interesting.
We think you'll like it.
And we wanted to give this to you as a gift, so please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out.
And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment and fill out the communication card, which is inserted in your bulletin.
If you need a pen, just raise your hand and one of our ushers will bring you a Verity Baptist Church pen.
You're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well.
We're not going to do anything odd with your info.
We would just like to have a record of your attendance.
We actually would like to send you a little gift, but we need your information to do that.
So please take a moment to fill the card out.
When we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song.
When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering.
And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate.
If you look at the bulletin there, of course we are a family integrated church.
What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service.
We do not separate children from their parents for any reason.
However, we do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
In the auditorium, we ask that we keep the families with younger children towards the back.
And if you don't have any children, we want you to sit towards the front, all right?
Unless you are a distraction, then maybe you should sit in the back.
But if you are an adult that doesn't cause distractions, you've got older children,
then we'd love for you to sit closer towards the front
and leave the back seats for the mothers with young children.
Of course, we've got mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for you as well.
If you're not sure where those are at, you can look at the back of the bulletin.
You'll see a layout of our church building.
It'll show you where the mother-baby rooms are, where the daddy room is.
It'll show you where the restrooms are.
All of the rooms have comfortable seating.
They have monitors set up, or these rooms back here have windows set up
so you can still watch the service and listen to it.
And of course, we encourage you to do that.
If you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you.
The baptistry is filled and the water is warm.
We've got everything you need for you to be baptized.
Just let us know.
You can either let us know through your communication card on the back.
You can check off that you'd like information about baptism,
and we'll follow up with you and talk to you about that.
Or if you've already spoken to somebody, then all you need to do at the end of the service,
after the preaching while we're singing the last song,
if you step out that door, one of our staff guys will meet you there
and we'll get you situated for baptism.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events,
we want you to be aware of several things.
Of course, we're getting into the Easter season.
Easter is three weeks away.
We want you to be aware of a few things.
First of all, we have our annual Lord's Supper service coming up on Wednesday, March 27th.
And the Lord's Supper is always a very special service here at Verity Baptist Church.
And we do it once a year, and we want you to be a part of it.
Even if you don't normally come on Wednesday night, we don't want you to miss it.
We do it the Wednesday night before Easter.
And of course, on Wednesday night, we remember the sacrifice of our Savior and His death.
And then on Easter Sunday, we celebrate His resurrection.
So we want to encourage you to make plans to be with us on Wednesday, March 27th at 7 p.m.
for the Lord's Supper service.
And then also, leading up to Easter, we want you to help us or just consider a couple of things.
First of all, you should have these invitations in your bulletin.
Every one of the bulletins should have a packet of three Easter invitations that are clipped together.
And we want you to use these invitations.
We've got three weeks before Easter.
I want you to notice there it says you're invited to Easter and the grand opening of our new building on Sunday, March 31st.
So Easter is going to be the grand opening of our building.
And we want you to be thinking about who you can invite to Easter.
And if you have a friend or a family member, a coworker or a neighbor,
someone that you've been thinking about inviting, the easiest time to invite someone to church is on Easter Sunday.
So we don't want you to waste that opportunity.
In fact, people that don't go to church are looking for a church to go to on Easter Sunday.
So I want to encourage you and we want to challenge you that you would take however many bulletins you've received.
If you've got one for your family or maybe two for your family,
that you would take these three Easter invitations and that you would give them out this week.
That you would invite somebody to Easter service.
Like I said, it might be a friend, a family member, a coworker, something like that.
It might be a perfect stranger.
Maybe you're going through the drive-thru, you hand it to the person after they give you your food or whatever.
But we want you to be thinking about someone and encouraging someone to join us for Easter service.
And then of course we have our Easter soul winning push.
And we would love for all of our soul winners to be a part of this push.
I want you to be aware on Thursday, March 28th, Friday, March 29th,
we're going to have a time of soul winning at 6 p.m.
And then on Saturday, on March 30th, of course, we'll have our big soul winning rally at 10 a.m.
These are three days leading up to Easter and we want you to be a part of that.
And what we want is for 100% participation.
So if you're a soul winner, make sure that you go to your normal soul winning time.
But maybe consider going to a second or a third for that week.
If you're not a soul winner, then join us.
We'll partner you with somebody who knows what they're doing.
You don't have to speak or anything like that.
But this will be a great time of soul winning right before Easter.
So I want to encourage you to do that and be a part of that.
And then of course if you look at the announcements there,
we have our Next Generation Youth Rally coming up.
We've got a lot of young people signed up for the youth rally.
I don't have the exact number, but I know we're close to what we had last year already signed up.
There's several families that have told me that they're coming.
They've not yet registered, but they said they're coming.
They just need to register.
And so it's going to be a great time.
Young people come from all over the country, and we don't want you to miss out.
So if you're part of the Verity Baptist Church family, you have a teenager,
make sure that they are part of the youth rally April 9th and 10th,
and they can sign up on their communication card,
or you can do it on our website, of course, veritybaptist.com.
Nine chapters a day, because of the fact that we've had a lot of just weeks of transition
and moving from the old building to the new building and all sorts of things going on,
we are going to leave the nine chapters a day list in the back.
Just a couple more weeks just to give you time.
If you completed the nine chapters a day challenge in January and you've not gone back there,
please go back there, check for your name, and mark it and let us know that it's correct.
Because once it goes on a plaque, we're not redoing it, all right?
So you need to look at it now.
If there's something wrong with it, cross out your name and spell it correctly
or fix it for us so that we know what to do.
If your name is not on there and it should be on there, add your name.
There's places for you to do that at the bottom of the pages.
But please go by there and make sure you take a look at that.
Homeschool group, they've got PE class this Thursday, March 14th at 10 a.m.
Don't forget about that.
Choir, they've got practice today at 5 p.m.
Of course, they're practicing for Easter.
There's other things there for you to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service
so that they're not a distraction to anybody.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of March this week.
We have Brother Scott Sweet and his birthday is today, March 10th.
So happy birthday to Brother Scott.
And then we've got Miss Casey Taylor has a birthday on March 11th.
My mother, Glennie C. Menes, has a birthday on March 12th.
And Jonathan Chesick has a birthday March 12th as well.
Montel Johnson Jr. has a birthday March 15th.
Aijana Goncharov has a birthday March 16th.
And Noah Mendoza has a birthday March 16th.
All of those are this week.
And then, of course, we've got the note there.
If you could just help us, making sure that nobody, the upstairs areas are off limits.
So we don't want anybody up there, especially children.
And if you could help us with the kids, making sure that they're not running up and down these hallways.
We would appreciate that.
Just want to make sure nobody gets hurt.
And then, of course, we have the Praise Report, Money Matters, all those things.
And then, of course, we had our vision offering.
We announced this on Sunday night, but we've had more come in to the vision offering.
So let me go ahead and give this announcement one more time.
Of course, every spring we do a special vision offering here at Radio Baptist Church to raise money for special things.
And we've got a lot of things that we need to do and are doing and still need to do here for our building.
But this year, you'll see there the amounts, the total given at church here.
That means that it was given in one of our services or it was mailed into our church building was $81,234.30.
The total given online.
So given online through our website for this year's vision offering was $81,524.81.
The total committed, these are individuals that filled out one of those cards and said,
I commit to give in April or May or June or all of those or two of those was $22,000.
So the total vision offering for this year given and committed, it was $184,759.11.
So praise the Lord for that.
That was, of course, a great vision offering and praise God for that.
There's just a lot that still needs to be done and we're working on those things.
So I think that's it for all of the announcements.
So let's go ahead and we're going to sing the chorus of the week this morning.
We're going to sing How Great Thou Art as we prepare to receive the offering.
And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
Good, let's sing it out.
On the second.
When through the woods and forests claim our wonder
E'er near the birds sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
E'er near the broods and hill the jackal play
Good, sing it like a choir on the chorus there.
My sing, you're gone to me
How great thou art, how great thou art
Then sings my soul, my sing, you're gone to me
How great thou art, how great thou art
I'm going to ask the instrumentalists to just slow it down.
Let's take advantage of this big, echoey building.
You've got to wake up, sing it on the third.
We're going to slow it down, sing it with passion, sing it with purpose on the third.
And when I think that God, His Son, not sparing, sent Him to die
I scarce can take it in good.
That on the cross my burden, gladly bearing, be bled and died
To take on it was.
Here we go, sing it out.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
Good, sing it out on the last.
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, the joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall love in humble adoration
And then proclaim, why not how great thou art
One last time, sing it out.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art
Amen, good singing.
We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time.
Imagine how well you would have sang if you got an extra hour of sleep.
And that's good.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
We thank you for allowing us to gather together this morning.
Lord, we pray that you bless the offering, the gift, and the giver.
We pray that you bless the time set aside for the preaching of your word.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Please open up to Numbers 26.
Numbers, chapter number 26.
If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand.
And I know she can bring you a Bible.
Numbers, chapter number 26.
We read the entire chapter as our custom.
Numbers 26, speaking of verse number 1.
And it came to pass, after the plague, that the Lord spake unto Moses,
and unto Eliezer the son of Aaron the priest, saying,
Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel.
From twenty years old and upward, throughout their father's house,
all that are able to go to war in Israel.
And Moses and Eliezer the priest spake with them,
in the plains of Moab by Jordan, near Jericho, saying,
Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward,
as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel,
which went forth out of the land of Egypt.
Reuben the eldest son of Israel, the children of Reuben,
Hanuk, of whom cometh the family of the Hanukites,
of Palu, the family of the Palites,
of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites,
of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.
These are the families of the Reubenites,
and they that were numbered of them were forty and three thousand and seven hundred and thirty.
The sons of Palu, Eliab, the sons of Eliab,
Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram.
This is that Dathan and Abiram which were famous in the congregation,
who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of,
in the company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord.
And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah,
when that company died.
What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men,
and they became a sign.
Now withstanding the children of Korah died not.
The sons of Simeon after their families,
of Nemuel the son of Nemuelites,
of Jaman the family of the Jamanites,
of Jacob the family of the Jacobites,
of Zerah the family of the Zarehites,
of Sheol the family of the Sheolites,
these are the families of the Simeonites,
twenty and two thousand and two hundred.
The children of Gad after their families,
of Zephon the family of the Zephanites,
of Haggai the family of the Haggites,
of Shuni the family of the Shunites,
of Ozri the family of Oznites,
of Eorai the family of the Eorites,
of Arad the family of the Aradites,
of Areli the family of the Arelites,
these are the families of the children of Gad according to those that were numbered of them,
forty thousand and five hundred.
The sons of Judah were Ur and Onan,
and Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan,
and the sons of Judah after their families were,
of Shelah the family of the Shelanites,
of Phares the family of the Pharsites,
of Zerah the family of the Zarehites,
and the sons of Phares were,
of Hezron the family of the Hezronites,
of Hamel the family of the Hamelites,
these are the families of Judah according to those that were numbered of them,
three score and sixteen thousand and five hundred.
Of the sons of Issachar after their families,
of Tola the family of Tolites,
of Puah the family of the Punites,
of Jashub the family of the Jashubites,
of Shimron the family of the Shimonites,
these are the families of Issachar
according to those that were numbered of them,
three score and four thousand and three hundred.
Of the sons of Zebulun after their families,
of Sarad the family of Sardites,
of Elan the family of the Elanites,
of Jael the family of the Jaelilites,
these are the families of the Zebulunites
according to those that were numbered of them,
three score thousand and five hundred.
The sons of Joseph after their families
were Manasseh and Ephraim.
The sons of Manasseh of Makar,
the family of the Makarites.
And Makar begat Gilead,
and of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites.
These are the sons of Gilead of Jezer,
the family of the Jezerites,
of Helich, the family of the Helichites,
and of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites,
and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites,
and of Shemitah, the family of the Shemitites,
and of Hephir, the family of the Hephirites.
And of Zelophehad, the son of Hephir,
had no sons, but daughters.
And the names of the daughters of Zelophehad
were Melah, Enoah, Hoglah, Milchah, and Tirzah.
These are the families of Manasseh,
and those that were numbered of them,
fifty and two thousand, seven hundred.
These are the sons of Ephraim after their families,
of Shuthilah, the family of the Shuthlites,
of Beger, the family of the Bakarites,
of Tehan, the family of the Tehanites.
And these are the sons of Shuthilah, of Aaron,
the family of the Aaronites.
These are the families of the sons of Ephraim,
according to those that were numbered of them,
thirty and two thousand, five hundred.
These are the sons of Joseph after their families.
The sons of Benjamin after their families,
of Beelah, the family of Beelahites,
of Aspil, the family of the Aspilites,
of Ahirim, the family of the Ahiramites,
and of Shufam, the family of the Shufamites,
of Hufim, the family of the Hufamites.
And the sons of Beelah were Ahrd and Naaman,
of Ahrd, the family of the Ahrdites,
and of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.
These are the sons of Benjamin after their families,
and they that were numbered of them were forty and five
thousand and six hundred.
These are the sons of Dan after their families,
of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites.
These are the families of Dan after their families.
All the families of the Shuhamites,
according to those that were numbered of them,
were threescore and four thousand and four hundred.
Of the Chinne of Asherah after their families,
of Jimna, the family of the Jimnites,
of Jesui, the family of the Jesuites,
of Beriah, the family of the Berites.
Of the sons of Beriah, of Heber,
the family of the Hebrites,
of Malkiel, the family of the Malkielites.
And the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah.
These are the families of the sons of Asher,
according to those that were numbered of them,
who were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.
Of the sons of Naphtali after their families,
of Jaziel, the son of the Jazielites,
of Guni, the family of the Gunites,
of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites,
of Shilam, the family of the Shilamites.
These are the families of Naphtali,
according to their families.
And they that were numbered of them,
were forty and five thousand and four hundred.
These were the numbered of the Chinne of Israel,
six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty.
And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying,
unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance,
according to the number of names.
To many, thou shalt give the more inheritance,
and to few, thou shalt give the less inheritance.
To every one, shall his inheritance be given,
according to those that were numbered of him.
Now a standing of the land shall be divided by lot,
according to the names of the tribes of their fathers,
they shall inherit.
According to lot shall be the possession thereof
be divided between many and few.
And these are they that were numbered of the Levites,
after their families.
Of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites,
of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites,
of Morari, the family of the Morariites.
These are the families of the Levites.
The family of the Libnites,
the family of the Hebronites,
the family of the Malites,
the family of the Mushites,
the family of the Korathites.
and co hath begat Amram.
And the name of Amram's wife was Jacobin,
the daughter of Levi,
whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt,
and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses,
and Miriam their sister.
And unto Aaron was born Nadab and Abihu,
Eleazar and Ithamar.
And Nadab and Abihu died
when they offered strange fire before the Lord.
And those that were numbered of them were 20 and 3,000,
all males from a month old and upward,
for they were not numbered among the children of Israel,
because there was no inheritance given them
among the children of Israel.
These are they that were numbered
by Moses and Eleazar the priest,
who numbered the children of Israel
in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
But among these, there was not a man of them
who Moses and Aaron the priest numbered,
when they numbered the children of Israel
in the wilderness of Sinai.
For the Lord had said of them,
they shall surely die in the wilderness,
and there was not left a man of them,
save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning.
God, I thank you for our church,
for everyone that's here
as they please meet with us this morning,
as you please be their pastor.
Please strengthen them and fill them with spirit.
We love you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, we're there in Numbers chapter number 26.
And of course, we've been in a series
on Sundays in the book of Numbers,
sometimes on Sunday mornings,
sometimes on Sunday nights,
and sometimes on both.
Today we're gonna be in Numbers chapter 26,
and of course, we've taken a break from Numbers
for a little bit because of a lot of different things
that have been going on,
and of course, transitioning into the new building
and things like that.
But I think the last time I preached in Numbers 26
was actually in the old building, excuse me, Numbers 25,
and we're gonna pick up at Numbers 26, of course, today.
Now, Numbers 26, as you may have noticed,
is one of those chapters
that just gives you a lot of numbers,
which is actually why the book
is called the book of Numbers.
The book of Numbers is called the book of Numbers
because of the fact that it numbers the people.
They take a census of the children of Israel,
and we saw when we started.
Now, of course, the book of Numbers is not all numbers.
We've seen a lot of narratives and stories.
In fact, some of the most famous stories
of the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness
are in the book of Numbers.
But the book is called Numbers
because in the very first chapter,
we have a numbering of the people.
And then, of course, here in Numbers 26,
we have a second numbering of the people.
And I do want you to be aware of the fact
that these two numberings,
these two senses that are given of the people
are 40 years apart.
In Numbers chapter number one,
we had them coming out of Egypt.
They'd been out of Egypt for about a year,
and they numbered the people
before they were going to attempt to enter the Promised Land.
And of course, I won't go through the whole story,
but if you've been with us in the book of Numbers,
you know that they did not enter into the Promised Land
because of a lack of faith.
And as a result,
they've actually wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
And here in Numbers 26,
we find ourselves at the end of that 40-year wandering
towards the end of the book.
They're now getting ready again
to enter into the Promised Land.
This is the next generation that's entering in,
and God has them number the people again.
Now let me just say this.
Numbers 26 is the type of chapter that most preachers,
maybe I shouldn't say most preachers,
but many preachers would just skip.
In fact, if you look up the few instances
that you can find a preacher actually preaching
through the book of Numbers,
you'll notice that they'll focus on the narratives,
and then chapters like chapter 26,
chapters like chapter one,
they'll skip because of the fact
that they'll look at it and say,
well, it's just a numbering of the people.
It's just telling us this many people in this tribe
and this many people in that tribe.
Let me just begin by saying this.
I believe, and the Bible says,
that all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and it's all profitable.
We can learn from all of it.
I believe that everything is in the Bible for a reason.
And though this is literally a numbering of the people,
and God is actually telling us how many people
were in each tribe,
I think that there are some spiritual lessons
that we can take from this chapter.
So I'd like to give you this morning
three spiritual applications from this chapter
that I think we can learn.
And before we get into it,
let me just give you the context again,
and we've already spoken about it a little bit.
The children of Israel are a nation.
Now, we've talked about in the book of Numbers
how in the New Testament,
they are referred to as the church in the wilderness.
And we can see that the children of Israel,
the nation of Israel, in many ways represents a church,
and we've learned about that,
and we've seen many applications to that.
But I want you to understand that the children of Israel
also represent an individual.
The wanderings of the children of Israel
in the Old Testament can picture the life of a believer,
the life of a Christian.
Of course, we saw that they were in bondage in Egypt,
and that's where every person begins,
in bondage to sin and to the world.
We see that Moses is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he came to bring them out of bondage.
If you remember, when they crossed the Red Sea,
that is a picture of baptism.
When they entered into the land
and prepared to go into the promised land,
the promised land is not a picture of salvation
or not a picture of heaven, necessarily,
but it is a picture of the victorious Christian life.
When they do finally enter into the promised land
and they begin to conquer the land,
they begin to fight battles, they begin to win,
that is a picture of the victorious Christian life
where someone is growing in their walk with the Lord.
But here, when we see them wandering in the wilderness,
that is a picture of a backslidden Christian,
a Christian who's just wandering in the world,
doing nothing and accomplishing nothing.
And what we have here is the children of Israel
in a spiritual sense has been backslidden for 40 years.
They've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years,
but they're getting ready to get right with God.
They're getting ready to take that next step,
to go forward in their walk with the Lord,
and they're getting ready to enter into the promised land.
And I think what we can learn from this passage
is what steps we can take and things that we can learn
in preparation as we attempt to go forward,
whether it's our church, very Baptist church,
attempting to go forward for God and with God,
of course, as this new phase of ministry in this building,
that's definitely something that we can apply.
But I wanna say also for you as an individual in your life,
as you attempt to go forward for God,
there are some things that we can learn here.
Number 26, I'd like you to look at verse number one.
Those are the Bible says,
and it came to pass after the plague.
And of course, if you've been with us,
you know that we recently dealt with in chapter 25,
a plague that was sent because of the fact
that the children of Israel were worshiping Baal Peor.
If you remember, they were committing fornication,
they were worshiping Baal.
As a result, God sent a plague.
If you remember, Phinehas and the zeal of Phinehas
stopped the plague as a result.
And here the Bible tells us that it came to pass
after the plague that the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saying,
notice what he says here in verse two,
take the sum of all the congregation.
This is the command for Moses and Eleazar
to take a census of the people.
The word sum there is referring to the total number.
And he says, take the sum of all the congregation
of the children of Israel from 20 years old and upward
throughout their father's house,
all that are able to go to war in Israel,
and Moses and Eleazar, the priest, spake with them
in the plains of Moab by Jordan, near Jericho.
And I want you to notice where they're at.
They're near Jericho because they're going to,
just in a little while here, cross over.
Of course, Aaron has already died,
which is why God is commanding Moses and Eleazar,
the son of Aaron, the priest,
because Eleazar has now taken the place of Aaron
as the high priest.
And we're gonna see that Moses will soon die as well.
And Joshua will be the one who steps up
as the leader of the next generation,
who takes the baton and takes the reigns
of the children of Israel.
And they're gonna cross into the promised land,
which is why we see there in verse number three,
that they are near Jericho.
They are encamped near Jericho,
getting ready to cross into Jordan,
and Jericho will be the first city they take in Canaan.
Look at verse four, notice what the Bible says,
take the sum of the people from 20 years old and upward
as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel,
which went forth out of the land of Egypt.
Here's the first point that I'd like to make this morning,
the first application, and it is this.
Before we can go forward, or in order to go forward,
you and I must take inventory.
We must take inventory of our lives.
It's interesting to me,
if you understand the book of Numbers,
you know that the book of Numbers
is a book of organization, disorganization,
and reorganization.
Really, those are the phases
in which you could divide the book of Numbers.
If you look at Numbers chapter one
through chapter number 10,
if you remember when we went through those chapters,
it was chapters that dealt with organization.
Of course, in chapter number one,
we had what we've already talked about,
the first senses of the people,
where God numbered the people.
He had Moses and Aaron go through a number
and get a number of how many people
were in the children of Israel.
But if you remember, that wasn't it.
He also had the camps laid out throughout the,
and he told them how to lay them out.
He put the tabernacle in the center,
and he had them laid out as they encamped
around the tabernacle.
He also explained to them how they were to
journey through the wilderness.
As they were journeying,
they were to go in a certain order,
and they were to do certain things,
and certain parts of the tabernacle had to be taken down,
and then they would follow that,
and then other parts of the tabernacle were taken down,
and they would follow that.
There was all this organization.
Now, in chapters one through 10,
the children of Israel are still quote, unquote,
right with God.
Nothing bad has happened yet.
They've came out of Egypt.
They've spent about a year at the base of Mount Sinai.
They've established the tabernacle
and the Levitical priesthood,
and God is organizing them,
getting them ready to go into the Promised Land.
They were supposed to only spend a few weeks
journeying through the wilderness,
and they were supposed to enter into Canaan land,
and have the victorious life
that God had promised them in the Promised Land.
But of course, you remember the story,
12 spies went into Canaan.
10 were bad, two were good.
10 came back with an evil report.
The people believed them,
and as a result of their lack of faith,
they failed to go in.
And of course, from chapter 11 on,
the book of Numbers has been one disaster after another.
It's been one plague after another.
It's been one judgment of God after another.
It's been the children of Israel just backsliding
and wandering in the wilderness for 40 years,
that we had in the first 10 chapters, the organization.
Then in chapters 11 to really, chapter 25,
we have disorganization.
We have them doing that which is right in their own eyes.
We have them going after sin.
We have them sinning against God.
We have them, and we've had Korah,
and the rebellion of Korah.
We've had all sorts of just chaos,
but now in chapter 26,
they're getting ready to get right with God again.
This is the next generation.
They're gonna enter into the Promised Land,
and this is a phase of reorganization.
Let me just say this.
If your life, if I just described your life,
there was a time of organization,
and there's been a time of disorganization,
then thank God that you can now enter
into a time of reorganization,
and you can begin to get things ready again.
It's interesting, chapter one, he says take a census.
Chapter 26, they're going to reorganize
and get ready to enter the Promised Land,
and he says to them, take the sum of all the congregation.
Take the sum of all the people.
He says take a census, why?
Because before we can go forward in the Christian life,
we must take inventory.
Now, they're literally counting the people.
I'm saying to you that we must take inventory.
He says, be thou diligent, diligent to do what?
Notice, to know the state of thy flocks,
and look well to thy herds.
Of course, Proverbs is being written
to an agricultural society where people had flocks,
and they had harvest, they had fields,
they were farmers, they had herds,
and things of that nature,
and God, and here the proverb is saying,
hey, you ought to be diligent
to know the state of thy flocks.
He said, don't just have flocks,
make sure you count the flocks.
Make sure you know how the flocks are doing.
Make sure you know which flocks are doing well,
and which flocks are hurt,
which flocks, which are injured, what needs attention.
The idea is that you ought to take inventory,
and here, we're talking about flocks,
for them, was monetary, it was their money,
but the idea is this, that you and I,
if we're gonna go forward in life,
we're gonna have to take inventory
of every area in our lives.
You need to be diligent to know the state of thy flocks,
and let me just say this,
and we talk a lot about it here at Verde Baptist Church,
but when was the last time you sat down
and took inventory of your life?
I mean, I'm talking to husbands and wives who,
have you ever sat down and asked yourself,
how's my marriage doing?
How am I doing as a husband?
How am I doing as a wife?
When's the last time, mom and dad,
you sat down and had a serious conversation
about how your children are doing?
How's their heart?
How's their attitude?
How's their spirit?
I mean, when's the last time?
Look, I think, when it comes financially,
you should take inventory, you're out of budget,
you should know, how are you doing financially?
How's your health?
How are you doing in different areas of life?
Here's what I'm telling you,
you will never be able to go forward,
and God understood that the children of Israel
could never go forward into the Promised Land
until they had first taken a census, why?
Because we cannot go forward,
and we cannot accomplish more and do more
if we don't even know how we're doing in life.
So we must first take an inventory.
Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks.
You're there in Proverbs, go back to Psalm if you would,
Psalm 139, and I believe
that you ought to take an inventory of every area
of your life.
Your relationship, how's your career doing?
How are your finances?
How's your business doing?
How are your relationships?
How's your marriage?
How are your children?
How's your health?
You ought to take an inventory of every area of your life,
but let me just say this,
the most important area in which you ought to take inventory
is the area of spirituality.
How are you doing spiritually?
And look, this is not me being a pastor
standing up here behind a pulpit and using preacher talk.
I think sometimes I get up here and I say things like,
how are you doing spiritually?
And people think, oh, well, that's what preachers say,
and you know, it's not me just preaching here
and saying something that sounds spiritual.
I'm literally asking you, how are you doing spiritually?
Have you ever thought about that?
Have you ever considered,
how am I doing in my spiritual walk with God?
How is my relationship with the Lord?
Because the truth is this,
that you will never go forward in your Christian life,
and I will never go forward in my Christian life
if we don't learn to take inventory.
By the way, this is not something that we do once.
We see the children of Israel here doing it a second time.
This is something that should be done on a regular basis.
On a regular basis, you ought to stop and ask yourself,
how am I doing with the Lord?
Psalm 139, if you would,
I'd like you to look at verse 23.
Notice what the Psalmist says here,
Psalm 139 in verse 23, he says,
search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Notice these words, try me, test me,
examine me, look at me.
He says, search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there'll be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
I think every young person ought to ask themselves,
search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there'll be any wicked way in me.
I think every husband, every father, every wife,
every mother, every Christian,
have to take time to search themselves
and ask God to search them and take inventory,
because here's the thing, you will never go forward.
You'll never go forward in the Christian life
until you first take inventory.
So we see number one, that we,
the children of Israel, in order to go forward,
to go forward, you must, and in order to go forward,
we must take inventory.
God says, I want you to take a moment to sum up the people.
Take the sum of the people.
And look, you ought to ask yourself,
how am I doing in all areas that we've talked about,
but spiritually, and look,
you obviously ought to ask yourself,
are you doing more for God?
Are you doing less for God?
Are you doing the same for God
as you were doing a year ago?
I mean, if a year ago you were a three to thrive,
soul winning Christian,
and today you're a Sunday morning only,
you ought to notice that.
Now, do you understand that we're all
in different areas of life?
You say, are you attacking Sunday morning only?
Well, if last year you weren't going to church at all,
if six months ago you weren't going to church at all,
and today you're in church, that's growth, that's good.
Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
But if you were reading your Bible every day,
six months ago,
if you were reading your Bible every day, two years ago,
if you were reading your Bible every day, a year ago,
and you haven't even picked up your Bible in 2024,
you ought to take inventory of that.
You ought to ask yourself, how am I doing?
And what's going on in life?
And what is happening in my life?
In order to go forward, you must take inventory.
Search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there'd be any wicked way in me.
So we see number one, that to go forward,
we must take inventory.
But I'd like you to notice secondly this morning,
that in order to go forward,
you must concern yourself with growth.
What's interesting to me in this chapter,
and we're going to take some time to go through this,
is that as you look at this chapter,
and of course chapter 26 is a chapter
that gives us the numbering of the people.
When you look at this chapter and you compare it,
because remember there are two major senses
in the book of Numbers, chapter one, chapter 26.
There's other places where there's smaller senses
that's being taken of the Levites, and the priests,
and things like that.
But the two big ones are Numbers chapter one,
Numbers chapter 26.
And they're separated by 40 years.
And when you look at them,
you can compare and see, has there been growth?
Has there been positive growth?
Has there been what we might call negative attrition
or growth, negative growth, lack of growth?
Is it neutral?
How has it been?
I think it's interesting.
Let's look at it real quickly.
Notice in chapter 26 and verse five,
we have the first tribe mentioned, Reuben.
Numbers 26 verse five, the Bible says,
Reuben, the eldest son of Israel, the children of Reuben,
Hanuk, of whom cometh the family of the Hanukites.
Something just turned off.
All right.
Thank you.
Of Palu, the family of the Paluites.
Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites.
Of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.
These are the families of the Reubenites, and they
that were numbered of them were, notice here in verse seven,
40 and 3730.
Now, let me just ask, who's a numbers person?
Who likes math?
All right.
Very few of you.
I know there's a couple here.
Anybody like math?
You like math?
All right.
Just so you know, there's a math guy back there.
Just so you know, everybody else hates you.
No, I'm just kidding.
Good, good.
Well, if you like numbers, this is the chapter for you.
Notice here in verse seven, 40 and 3730.
That's how many we have in the tribe of Reuben, 43,730.
Now, if you flip back just real quickly to numbers chapter one,
and you have to do that if you don't want to,
but it's just right there.
If you look at numbers chapter one in verse 21,
I'm not going to take the time to read through it.
But in numbers 121, we have the same senses
of the children of Reuben.
And I want you to notice what the Bible says there
in numbers 121.
It says this, numbers 121.
Those that were numbered of them,
even of the tribe of Reuben, notice, were 40 and 6,500.
40 and 6,500.
So numbers 121, we have the children of Reuben,
or the tribe of Reuben, and they were numbered at 46,500.
There was 46,500 men, because remember, we're numbering the,
this is a military census, so we're
numbering men that are 20 years old and upward
able to go to war.
They had 46,500 numbered in the tribe of Reuben.
Fast forward 40 years later, numbers 26 verse 7,
we have 40 and 3730.
What is that?
That is a negative of 2,770 people.
So they started off with 2,770 more people in numbers chapter
1 than they have in numbers chapter 26.
Now keep in mind, 40 years have gone by.
Many people, if you've been reading the book of numbers
with us, have died.
But in those 40 years, many have also been born.
People have gone married, they've had children,
they've had more children, things of that nature.
So what we're doing is taking a census here,
and what we're seeing is that 46,500
begin with the tribe of Reuben, and 43,730, and 40 years later,
and the tribe has a negative, has a negative of 2,770
less people in the tribe.
Look at verse 8.
Verses 8 through 11 don't deal with the census.
We'll just read it, but I won't spend a lot of time on it.
The Bible says in the census of Palu, Eliab,
in the census of Eliab, Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram.
This is that Dathan and Abiram, which
were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses
and against Aaron, and the company of Korah,
when they strove against the Lord.
Of course, we spent many weeks looking at the rebellion
of Korah, and I'll just say this about Dathan and Abiram.
The Bible says they were famous in the congregation
because they strove against Moses,
and that is the wrong thing to be famous for.
Look at verse 10.
And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up together
with Korah.
When that company died, what time the fire devoured 250 men,
and they became a sign, notwithstanding the children
of Korah died not.
Then notice in verse 12, we have the second tribe,
the tribe of Simeon.
Look at verse 12.
The sons of Simeon, after the families of Nemuel,
the families of the Nemulites, of Jaman,
the family of the Jamanites, of Jacob,
the family of the Jacobites, of Zerah,
the family of the Saritites, of Shaul,
the family of the Shaulites, verse 14,
these are the families of the Simeonites, 20 and 2,200.
So here we have the tribe of Simeon, the second tribe.
What do they end with?
Chapter 14, excuse me, verse 14, they ended with 20 and 2,200.
So there's 22,200.
Let's look back at what they had 40 years ago.
Numbers chapter 1, verse 23.
Numbers 1, 23, we have the tribe of Simeon.
Numbers 1, 23 says this.
These that were numbered of them,
even of the tribe of Simeon, were 59,300.
So 40 years ago, the tribe had 59,300.
40 years later, they have 20 and 2,200.
They decrease by 37,100, 37,100.
Look at verse 15.
We have the third tribe, the tribe of Gad.
The Bible says here in verse 3, the children of Gad
after their families of Zephthon,
the family of the Zephthonites, of Haggai,
the family of the Haggites, of Shunai,
the family of the Shunites, of Ozanai,
the family of the Ozanites, of Eri, the family of the Eriites,
of Eri, the family of the Erodites, of Ereli,
the family of the Erelites.
Look at verse 18.
These are the families of the children of Gad
according to those that were numbered of them.
Notice here, 40,500.
So the children of Gad, the third tribe,
what do they end with in numbers 26?
40,500.
What did they have at the beginning of the census 40
years earlier?
Numbers 1, verse 25, notice what it says.
If you have your place there in numbers 1, verse 25,
those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad,
were 40 and 5,650.
So we had 45,650 in numbers chapter 1.
40 years later, 40,500.
That is a decrease of 5,150.
I want you to notice here, you say,
why are they decreasing so much?
Well, remember the book of Numbers,
there was all sorts of plagues and all sorts
of judgment of God.
I mean, just Dathan and Abirim, remember,
God opened up the earth.
250 men died, then there was a plague after that.
We just saw in numbers 25, there was a plague after that.
Remember the fiery serpents that God sent,
and they were biting the people, and they have to look and live
in order to be saved.
There's all sorts of plagues that God
sent that killed people as a result of the sin of the people.
Plus, people are just dying.
And we have children being born, but they're not
catching up with that.
The tribe of Reuben went negative 2,770.
The tribe of Simeon went negative 37,100.
The tribe of Gad went negative 5,150.
Look at the tribe of Judah, verse 19, number 26, verse 19.
The sons of Judah, and Ur, and Onan, and Ur and Onan
died in the land of Canaan.
And the sons of Judah after their families
were Shelah, the family of the Shelanites,
and Pharise, the family of the Phariseites, and Zerah,
the family of the Zeratites.
And the sons of Pharise were of Hezron,
the family of the Hezronites, and Hamul,
the family of the Hamalites.
These are the families of Judah.
According to those that were numbered of them,
three score and 16,500.
What do we have for the tribe of Judah?
Three score, remember Abraham Lincoln,
four score seven years ago, a score is 20,
three score is 60, so three score and 16,000,
that's 76,500.
So tribe of Judah, in numbers 26, 76,500.
Go to Numbers chapter one, look at verse 27.
Number 127, let's look at the tribe of Judah.
Those that were numbered of them, even in the tribe
of Judah, were three score and 14,600.
So we had 74,600 in Numbers chapter one,
we have 76,500 in Numbers 26.
That is a positive.
There was an increase of 1,900 people.
This is the first time we see an increase.
The first three tribes had negative, negative, negative.
Judah had a positive increase of 1,900 people.
What about the next tribe?
Izzakar, look at verse 23, Numbers 26, 23.
Of the sons of Izzakar, after their families of Tolah,
of the family of the Tolites, of Puah,
of the family of the Punites, of Jashub,
the family of the Jashubites, of Shimron,
the family of the Shimronites,
these are the families of Izzakar,
according to those that were numbered of them,
three score and 4,300.
So three score, that's 60, 4,000, 64,300,
is what we end Izzakar with in Numbers 26.
What do they have in Numbers one?
Look at verse 29.
Those that were numbered of them,
even the tribe of Izzakar, were 50 and 4,400.
So they started with 54,400, they ended with 64,300.
54,400, 64,300.
So here again, we have a positive.
Look at tribe number six, the tribe of Zebulun,
of the sons of Zebulun, after their families of Sirid.
Verse 26, the family of the Sardites and Elon,
the family of the Elonites, and Jaleel,
the family of the Jaleites,
these are the families of the Zebulunites,
according to those that were numbered of them,
three score, 1,500, that's 60,500,
is what the tribe of Zebulun ended in Numbers 26.
Numbers 131 says this, those that were numbered of them,
even of the tribe of Zebulun, were 50 and 7,400.
So in Numbers one, they had 57,400.
In Numbers 26, they had 60,500.
That is an increase of 3,100.
Look at the tribe of Manasseh,
tribe number seven in verse 28.
The sons of Joseph, after their families,
were of Manasseh and Ephraim.
Remember, Joseph was the one son of Israel,
but he was given the double inheritance,
so his two sons became tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Chapter 26, verse 29, here's the seventh tribe
of the sons of Manasseh, of Makar,
the family of the Makarites, of Makar,
begat Gilead, and Gilead became the family of the Gileadites.
Now in verses 30 through 33,
it's not talking about the senses there.
It's talking about different things.
But look at verse 34.
These are the families of Manasseh
and those that were numbered of them, 50 and 2,700.
So the family of Manasseh, or the tribe of Manasseh,
ends with 52,700.
What did they start with?
Numbers 135, those that were numbered of them,
even of the tribe of Manasseh, were 30 and 2,200.
So they started with 32,200.
They ended with 52,700.
That's quite an increase.
They had an increase there of 20,500.
Then we have the tribe of Ephraim, number eight.
Look at verse 35.
These are the sons of Ephraim, after their families,
of Sheutela, the family of the Sheutelites, of Bekir,
the family of the Bekirites, of Tehan,
the family of the Tehanites.
And these are the sons of Sheutela, of Eron,
the families of the Eronites.
These are the families of the sons of Ephraim,
according to those that were numbered of them, 30 and 2,500.
These are the sons of Joseph, after their families.
So they ended, the sons of Ephraim, with 32,500.
Numbers 1.33, they started with,
those that were numbered of them,
even the tribe of Ephraim, were 40,500.
They started with 40,500.
They ended with 32,500.
So we have another tribe that had a negative.
They were down 8,000 people.
Then we have the tribe of Benjamin, verse 38.
And the sons of Benjamin, after their families,
of Bela, the family of the Belites, of Ashba,
the family of the Ashbalites, of Ahiram,
the family of the Ahiramites.
Look at verse 41.
These are the sons of Benjamin, after their families,
and they that were numbered of them were 40 and 5,600.
They ended with 45,600.
What'd they start with?
Numbers 1.37.
Those that were numbered of them,
even the tribe of Benjamin, were 30 and 5,400.
They started with 35,400.
They ended with 45,600.
That's a positive increase of 10,200.
What about the tribe of Dan?
Verse 42.
These are the sons of Dan.
Look at verse 43.
All the families of the Ashumites,
according to those that were numbered of them,
were three score and 4,400.
They ended with 64,400.
What'd they start with?
Numbers 1.39.
Those that were numbered of them, even the tribe of Dan,
were three score and 2,700.
They started with 62,700.
They ended with 64,400.
They had a positive increase of 1,700.
Then we have tribe number 11, the tribe of Asher.
Verse 44.
Of the tribe of Asher, after their families,
he goes on to talk about that.
Look at the number though, verse 47.
These are the families of the sons of Asher,
according to those that were numbered of them,
who were 50 and 3,400.
53,400 is what they ended with.
What'd they start with?
Numbers 1.41.
Those that were numbered of them, even the tribe of Asher,
were 40 and 1,500.
So they started with 41,500.
They ended with 53,400.
That is a positive increase of 11,900.
Then we have the last tribe, tribe number 12,
the tribe of Naphtali.
Look at verse 48.
And of the sons of Naphtali, after their families.
What was their number?
Look at verse 50.
These are the families of Naphtali,
according to their families.
And they were numbered of them, were 40 and 5,400.
So they ended with 45,400.
What'd they start with?
Numbers 1.43.
Those that were numbered of them,
even the tribe of Naphtali, were 50 and 3,400.
So they started with 53,400.
They ended with 45,400.
That is a negative of 8,000.
You say, Pastor, why are you showing us this?
Because there's four of you that like numbers, OK?
And I'm just trying to get on their good side.
What I want you to notice, and what I think is interesting,
is this.
That these tribes, you'll notice,
some are doing really well.
And some are not so hot, right?
I mean, the tribe of Naphtali, we just saw there,
had a negative growth of 8,000.
They were negative 8,000.
While the tribe of Asher was positive 11,900.
And tribe of Dan, positive 1,700.
Tribe of Benjamin, positive 10,200.
Some of these tribes, the tribe of Aruba, negative 2,770.
The tribe of Sittme and negative 37,100.
And what we see is when you compare these numbers,
you see that some of them had big growth.
Some of them had big losses.
Some of them had little growth.
Some of them had little losses.
And what I want you to understand
is this, when it comes to life, oftentimes, because what
we like to do as human beings is we like to categorize,
just have these big, broad brushes
and categorize everything as good and everything as bad.
What I often tell people, especially in counseling,
is this, that nothing is ever as good as you think it is.
And nothing is ever as bad as you think it is.
The truth is that in life, some things are going good
and some things are going bad.
There are some things that are going well
and some things that are not going well.
There's some tribes, like Ruben, that are decreasing, 2,770.
Simeon, decreasing, 37,100.
The tribe of Gad, decreasing, 5,150.
Then there's other tribes that are growing.
Judah, 1,900.
Issachar, 5,400.
Zebulun, 3,100.
Manasseh, 20,500.
And here's what I'm saying to you is in life,
this is how life is.
It's never like this where it's like, everything's bad.
Everything is good.
And if you ever feel like, if you ever think, everything's
bad, everything's good, just realize
that you are thinking that way because you failed to do,
number one, take an inventory.
Do you see what I'm saying to you?
I'm talking about couples coming to my office
and they're like, everything's bad.
I'm like, really, everything?
It's always been bad, always?
From the very beginning.
On your marriage day, when you guys
were sitting there looking at each other and saying, I do,
that was bad?
No, that wasn't bad.
But every other day, really, every day has been bad.
Look, the truth is some days are good, some days are bad.
Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
Then couples come in and I'm like,
I don't think you guys should be getting married.
I think you need to wait.
I think, no, no, it's so great.
It's so wonderful.
Everything's good.
And I'm like, really, everything's good?
Man, look at some things right now.
There's some big major red flags
that you should be looking at.
No, no, everything's great.
Here's the thing.
No, it's not.
It's not.
Just not, I feel like I'm always the person fighting.
Everything's good.
I'm like, no, it's not good.
I'm not saying it's bad, but look,
you got some things you need to work on here.
You got some major red flags here.
You got some questions you need to answer here.
You got some conversations you need to have here.
And then other people are like,
everything's horrible, everything's bad.
And I'm like, eh, it's not that bad.
It's bad because you're focused on the few tribes
that aren't doing well.
But there's other things going on in life.
There's other areas of life that are doing well.
And the truth is this,
that nothing is ever as good as you think it is.
And nothing is ever as bad as you think it is.
So why don't you just take some real inventory of your life
and realize that maybe things aren't going well here,
but here's an area where things are going well.
And maybe things aren't going, are bad here,
and I wanna work on that.
But here's another area where things are going well.
If you look at the children of Israel,
some of the tribes are succeeding,
some of the tribes are decreasing,
some are doing well, some are not doing well,
but this is how life is.
By the way, sometimes you have areas in life
that are not going well, and you focus on that,
and you start fixing that, and that starts going well,
and then this area starts going bad.
And then you gotta go and put some attention here
and focus on this, and hope that.
And then this area, I mean,
I don't know if this is connecting with you.
It connects with me.
Maybe you're just ministries like this,
but ministry's like herding cats.
It's like, you got these people messing up over here.
You get them, you fix them, you get them all situated.
By the time you get these people going,
then these people are on fire, and it's like, good night.
And then you're fixing these people,
and you're trying to help them,
and you get them going, and then these people are back.
And it's like, good, what in the world?
And people are like, is ministry good or bad?
It's good and bad.
It's good for some and bad for others.
That's just how life is.
So don't look at your children and say, they're all bad.
Your parents will be like, my kids are all bad.
Everything's bad about them.
I don't think so.
And if you get that view of them and look at them
as everything's bad, everything's bad all the time,
you're gonna lose their hearts.
Look, sometimes kids aren't doing well.
They're not doing good.
But why not look at some of the things they are doing well?
Sometimes marriages are struggling,
and they're not doing well.
But why not remember some of the good things
that are happening in your marriage?
In life, things are generally going well and not well.
They're going good and not good.
I want you to notice the grand total here, though.
Numbers 26, verse 51.
These were the numbered of the children of Israel.
600,000 and 1,730.
The end number that we get for the children of Israel,
the big census of the entire nation, 601,730.
601,730.
How does that compare to 40 years earlier?
Go back to Numbers 145.
Look at what it says.
Numbers chapter one, verse 45.
So were all that were numbered of the children of Israel,
by the house of their fathers from 10 years old and upward,
all that were able to go forth to war in Israel,
even all they that were numbered were 600,000 and 3,550.
40 years earlier, they had numbered the people,
men able to go to war 20 years old and up, 603,550.
Obviously, if you're counting 603,550 men,
20 years old and up, able to go to war,
then we're not counting women or children in this census,
and this could be a nation of multiple millions of people.
But their military census was 603,550.
Men that they could send to war, 603,550.
40 years later, it's 601,730.
There is a negative, there's an attrition,
there is a negative decline of 1,820 people.
1,820 people.
Now here's what's interesting.
Some of the tribes either grew or declined
by a couple thousand.
Some of the tribes grew by tens of thousands,
and some of them declined by tens of thousands.
But when you put it all together,
they had a negative of 1,820 people.
Now, when you're thinking of it in terms of percentages,
1,820 people in comparison to over 600,000 people
is a diminishable amount.
It's like .003 or something.
It's not something that we would even take
into consideration as growth or decline.
We would look at these populations and say,
they pretty much stayed the same for the last 40 years.
And here's the point that I want to make.
In the book of Numbers, the last 40 years
have not been good years.
They have not been doing anything.
They've been wandering in circles in the wilderness
doing nothing, and as a result,
when we finally take inventory, 40 years later,
we look at them and say, no growth, zero growth.
Now, some of the tribes grew, some of the tribes declined,
some of them had great growth, some of them had really bad,
no growth at all, or they declined by a lot of people.
But when you put it all together, 40 years later,
you would look at it and say, there was virtually nothing.
There was virtually nothing happened.
They stayed the same.
Go to 2 Peter chapter one, if you would,
in the New Testament.
2 Peter chapter one, if you started Revelation
and go backwards, you have Revelation, Jude,
3, 2, 1 John, 2 Peter, 2 Peter, chapter number one.
I began by saying that we must take inventory.
To go forward, we must take inventory of our lives.
You say, well, how do I take inventory?
And what I want to answer for you is this.
Pastor, how would I look at myself and ask myself,
am I backslidden?
Am I wandering in the wilderness?
Am I wasting my life and wasting my opportunities,
wasting the opportunities that God has given me?
And the way that you answer that question
is you ask yourself and you concern yourself with growth.
Because the children of Israel have been wandering
in the wilderness doing nothing, accomplishing nothing,
and there has been virtually no growth.
I mean, literally no growth.
And even when we look at the decline,
it's a diminishable amount.
There's just, they've been doing nothing.
So here's the question I have for you.
What have you been doing for the last 40 years?
What have you been doing in the last four years?
What have you been doing in the last 40 weeks of your life?
Could you look back a year ago and say,
wow, there's been some growth?
Or would you say, eh, it's pretty much the same.
Because you know what the sad thing about most Christians
is that you look at them year after year,
decade after decade, and there's just nothing.
Not good or bad, just nothing.
They're just the same.
Look, let me tell you something.
You ought not be the same person today
that you were 10 years ago.
You understand what I'm saying to you?
If you wake up one day and look 40 years down in the past
and realize, man, I'm just the same person.
I'm just doing the same thing.
I'm just struggling with the same thing
for the last 40 years or four years or 40 weeks.
Hey, let me tell you something.
You're wasting your life.
You're warming in the wilderness.
You're doing nothing.
You ought to concern yourself with growth.
Hey, I want to, our church here is 13 years old,
and I hope that 13 years from now,
I hope that one day when we're celebrating
25 years of ministry, that I could say,
hey, I've grown as a person.
I've grown.
I'm getting better.
I'm getting stronger.
I'm learning more.
I'm accomplishing more.
And in your life, it ought to be the same thing.
I would say the biggest characteristic
of these individuals wandering in the wilderness
was that there was virtually no growth.
Nothing changed.
Everything was the same.
The only thing that changed was that they wasted 40 years.
In the Christian life, we must concern true knowledge
and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience
and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness
and to brotherly kindness charity.
Here we have a strategy of growth.
Remember we read in Proverbs to give diligence
to know the state of thy flock?
Here he says, give all diligence.
He says, I want you to act.
You say, well, I got saved.
Praise the Lord.
How are you saved?
Praise God.
I'm glad.
But you know the Bible says here,
now you should add to your faith.
What should I add to my faith?
Virtue.
What should I then, once I work on virtue,
then what should I add to virtue?
Knowledge.
Well, once I work on knowledge, what should I add to knowledge?
Temperance.
What should I add to temperance?
Patience.
What should I add to patience?
Godliness.
What should I add to godliness?
Brotherly kindness.
What should I add to brotherly kindness?
Charity.
You ought to be growing in your Christian life.
You ought to be growing.
You say, faith.
That's believing, of course.
That's where salvation begins.
We begin.
But look, we don't just get saved through faith.
Of course, we're saved through faith.
But we also walk by faith.
The just shall live by faith.
Virtue is power.
Virtue is where you begin to walk with God
and walk with the Holy Spirit.
And you have the power of God upon your life.
But let's not just have zeal.
Let's have zeal according to knowledge.
He says, get virtue and then get knowledge.
Be knowledgeable.
And then he says, once you have some knowledge,
then let's work on temperance.
Temperance is self-control.
Once you have temperance, he says, let's have some patience.
Once you have patience, let's have godliness.
Once you have godliness, let's have brotherly kindness.
Once you have brotherly kindness, charity.
The idea is this.
In the Christian life, you have to always be growing.
That'll be something you're working on in your life
and saying, I'm trying to get better in this area.
I'm trying to do better in this area.
I'm trying to grow in this area.
I'm trying to learn more and accomplish more.
I'm trying to discipline myself better.
I'm trying to live a better life.
You've got to be growing.
So here's a question I have for you.
Are you growing?
Because if you say, well, no, I virtually
have no growth for the last four years or 40 years,
then you are, by definition, wandering in the wilderness.
2 Peter 3, verse 18.
Notice what the Bible says.
But grow in grace.
But grow in grace, knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever.
Amen.
Go back to Numbers, if you would, Numbers 26.
In verses 52 through 62, we have verses
that don't deal with the census.
But notice verse number 63.
I'd like to show you one last thing
as we finish up this morning.
I'm giving you principles for going forward.
To go forward, you must take inventory of your life.
To go forward, you must concern yourself with growth.
And inventory plays a part in that.
You look at yourself, and you measure, how am I growing?
And if you're not growing, listen, if you're not growing,
you need to do something.
You need to change something in your life.
You need to do something.
I want to concern myself in growth.
I want to get better in my Christian life.
I want to get better in my relationship with my spouse.
I want to get better as a parent.
I want to get better with my finances.
I want to get better with my health.
Hey, concern yourself with growth.
To go forward, you must take inventory.
To go forward, you must concern yourself with growth.
And then I'd like you to notice, thirdly, this morning,
something really interesting about the senses.
We, of course, see that there was virtually no growth.
I mean, there was literally no growth.
And virtually, there was no change to the needle.
A little bit over 1,000 people in the negative,
when we're talking about 600,000 people, is nothing.
But what's interesting is what we find in verse 63.
The Bible says this, number 2663.
These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar,
the priests, who numbered the children of Israel
in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
Notice verse 64.
Verse 64, I think, is interesting.
But among these, among who?
Among the 601,000 people that were numbered.
Among these, there was not a man
of whom Moses and Aaron, the priests, numbered,
when they numbered the children of Israel
in the wilderness of Sinai.
So what is the Bible saying here?
The Bible is saying, when you compare the two senses,
when you compare the 46,500 that were
numbered in Numbers chapter 1 for the tribe of Judah,
versus the 43,730 people that were
numbered in number 26 for the tribe of Judah,
none of the original 46,500 were alive.
They'd all died.
Every number giving in Numbers chapter 1
for the tribe of Simeon, the 50 and 9,300, none of them
were alive when they counted the 22,200 that were in Numbers 26.
Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
In verse 64, but among these that were not,
there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron, the priests,
numbered.
Moses and Aaron's senses, none of those people
that they numbered back then 40 years ago
were there when they numbered the children of Israel
in the wilderness of Sinai in this census.
Now, the reason for that is because God promised, remember,
as a curse to the children of Israel,
because they failed to go into the promised land, God said
that they would all die in the wilderness.
He said that whole generation was going to die.
They wandered the wilderness for 40 years,
and they all died in that wilderness.
And this new census, the point that I'm trying to make to you,
and what I want you to understand
is this, when you look at these two census, when you look
at these two numbers giving here, the 601,730 numbered
in Numbers 26, none of them were the 603,550 in Numbers
chapter 1.
The 603,550 had all died in the wilderness,
and the 601,730 were all new people
that weren't numbered, that weren't even alive back then,
40 years earlier.
Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
Here's what's interesting to me about that,
is that they are getting ready to go into the promised land.
Look at verse 65, Numbers 26, verse 65.
For the Lord had said of them, they shall surely
die in the wilderness.
He's telling us, this is why none, but among these
that there was not a man of them whom
most inerran the priests numbered.
Why?
Because the Lord said unto them, they shall surely
die in the wilderness, and there was not left a man of them
saved.
The word saved means except.
Caleb, the son of Jeffuneth, and Joshua, the son of none.
Because remember, 12 spies went to spy out Canaan,
10 were bad, two were good.
The two that were good were Caleb and Joshua.
They came back with a good report.
They said, yeah, there are giants, but let's go.
And of course, nobody listened to them.
So when God said, you're all going to die in the wilderness,
he said all of them died except Caleb and Joshua.
That's what Numbers 26, 65 is saying.
Go to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, 1st Corinthians 15.
We're almost done, 1st Corinthians 15.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st Corinthians,
1st Corinthians 15.
What can we learn from this?
Well, number one, we learn this, that to go forward,
you must take an inventory.
You must take an inventory of your life.
You must look at the areas of your life
and take a sense and ask yourself, how are you doing?
And in order to go forward, you must concern yourself
with growth.
That's why we take inventory, so that we can look at ourselves
and say, are we growing?
Are things getting better?
Are we drawing closer to God?
Am I a better Christian today than I was yesterday?
Am I a better Christian today than I was a year ago?
You've got to concern yourself with growth.
Because if you do not grow, you're
just wandering in a wilderness.
You're not living the victorious Christian life.
But here's point number three, and we're done.
To go forward, the old man must die.
Here, literally, the old man, the man who said,
we will not go.
We won't listen to Joshua.
We won't listen to Caleb.
We're not going to go into the Promised Land.
They literally died in the wilderness.
And God had them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
So they all died.
And a new generation was taken into the Promised Land.
But let me tell you something.
In your Christian life and in my Christian life,
you understand there's an old man and a new man.
There's the carnal man and the spiritual man.
And if you and I are going to go forward in the Christian life,
that old man needs to die.
When you take that new inventory,
you can only count the new man.
Notice what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 31.
He says, I protest by your rejoicing, which
I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I believe that here we see one of the secrets
to success of the Apostle Paul.
He says, I die daily.
He said, every day I take an inventory.
And every day I make sure that old man dies.
Because you cannot take the old man.
The old man who wants to wander in the wilderness,
you can't take him into the Promised Land
of the victorious Christian life.
Well, what do we do?
You've got to kill him.
I die daily.
This is why Jesus said, if any man will come after me,
let him take up his cross daily and follow me.
There has to be a daily dying to self, a daily saying,
no, the old man is going to die.
We're not going to listen to the old man.
We're going to walk on the new man.
We're not going to walk in the flesh.
We're going to walk in the spirit.
That's the only way to go forward in the Christian life.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
You're there in Corinthians, just flip over to Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
I think it's interesting that they could not
go into the Promised Land till all the old men had died.
You and I cannot go into our Promised Land, the victorious
Christian life, until the old man has died.
Which is why Paul says this in Galatians 2 to 20,
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
He said, look, I'm crucified with Christ.
I've taken up my cross and I followed him.
He said, I have put the old man and the old lust
and the old desires and the old life on that cross.
He said, I am crucified with Christ.
He's not talking literally here.
He says, nevertheless, I live.
But then he says this, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
The goal is God, my friend.
The goal of the Christian life is this, that you would die
and that Christ would live in me.
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now, look, this isn't Bible talk.
Look at it.
And the life which I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me.
So go forward, the old man must die.
There's no way around it.
Because the old man will keep you in the wilderness.
The old man will keep you in the world.
The old man will keep you wandering in circles,
wasting your time.
So like Paul, we must say, I die daily.
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
So will you go forward?
Will you waste another 40 years, four years, 40 minutes
wandering in the wilderness?
Will you waste the time and opportunity
that God has given you?
Or are you ready to say, I want to go forward for God?
Aren't you thankful that God is always advancing?
God is always moving forward.
God always wants us moving forward with him.
But if you're going to move forward,
you're going to have to take inventory.
You're going to have to look at yourself,
really look at yourself and ask yourself, how am I doing?
Search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see
if there'd be any wicked way in me.
Look at yourself, take a sum of your life,
take an inventory of your life, ask yourself, how am I doing?
Concern yourself with growth and ask yourself, am I growing?
And if not, what can I do to begin to grow?
And then we must die to self.
Let him take up his cross daily and follow me.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
And Lord, we want to concern ourselves
with the promised land.
We want to go forward in the Christian life.
We don't want to wander in the wilderness,
wander in worldliness, wasting away, wasting opportunities,
wasting resources, wasting the blessings of God
upon our lives.
We want to go forward with God.
Lord, I pray you'd help us to learn these lessons.
Help us to sit down and take an inventory
and ask ourselves, how am I doing?
Help us to concern ourselves with growth
and to look at those inventories and ask, are we growing?
Is anything changing?
Is anything happening?
Help us to die to self.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray.
Amen.
We're going to have Brother Matt come up and lead us
in a final song.
Just let me give you a couple of announcements
real quickly before we sing the final song.
First of all, I want to, of course,
encourage you to be back tonight, 6 PM,
for the evening service.
And tonight, unfortunately, we're
not going to be live streaming.
I'm going to be preaching a special sermon tonight.
I'll be preaching somewhere else at a camp
that I'll be preaching.
I want to encourage you to be here.
I think you'll find it encouraging and helpful.
And be back at 6 PM tonight.
Just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people
under the preaching of the word of God.
And then, of course, I want to encourage
you to be thinking about Easter.
And you have these cards here.
And I want you to be thinking about who you can invite
to church on Easter Sunday.
And Easter Sunday is the easiest time, the easiest time,
to invite somebody to church.
And if you invite a friend or coworker,
they are likely to come.
So make sure you invite them.
Take these with you out this week.
There's only three of them.
We didn't give you 30.
We gave you three.
And we're just asking that you would invite somebody,
think about someone you can invite.
Give it to a perfect stranger.
But invite somebody to church this week.
And then, of course, if you have not yet
looked at the nine chapters and a plaque back there,
make sure you look at that.
And go by there and look for your name
and do all those things so that we can get that situated
and be done with it.
If there's anything that we can do for you, please let us know.
I want you to know that my wife and I are praying for all of you.
We love you very much.
And I hope to see you tonight at 6 PM for the evening service
while Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song.
Turn to song 197.
197 on the first.
Trust.
Sorry.
I got to start that off.
Can you lead us in a little bit better?
This is a new song.
Can you lead us on the last there?
There we go.
We got it.
On the first.
The trusting heart to Jesus clings.
No any ill forebodes.
But at the cross of Calvary sings.
Praise God for lifted loans.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
Praising the Lord, praising the Lord.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
For Jesus has lifted my load.
The passing days bring many cares.
Fear not, I hear Him say.
And when my fears are turned to pairs,
the burdens slip away.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
Praising the Lord, praising the Lord.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
For Jesus has lifted my load.
He tells me of my Father's love.
That never slumbered I.
My everlasting King above.
Will all my needs supply.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
Praising the Lord, praising the Lord.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
For Jesus has lifted my load.
197 on the last.
When to the throne of grace I flee,
I find the promise true.
The mighty arms upholding me
will wear my burdens true.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
Praising the Lord, praising the Lord.
Singing, I know a long life's road.
For Jesus has lifted my load.
Amen. Good singing before we leave here.
If anybody has questions about salvation,
church membership, or baptism,
the pastor will be at the door.
He'd love to talk to you or direct you to someone
who's trained to talk about that.
I'm going to ask our brother Joe Loqueta,
would you close a prayer for us?
Amen.
All right.