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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Amen. Good evening. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. We're going to get started with song number 143, 143, Blessed Assurance. Let's all stand together for our first song. Song number 143. Song number 143. Sing it out with power unto the Lord on that first song, that first verse. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste, the glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my side. Angels descending, great from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all this at rest. I and my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Lost in his love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's start our service with a word of prayer. Dear God, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, O Lord, for just giving us that free gift of salvation, Lord God, through your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we do pray that you please just bless every aspect of our service, the singing unto you, Lord, dear God. Please bless that and please bless the most of all, the most important part of the service, the preaching of your word. Please be with our pastor, fill him with your Holy Spirit, guide him through the scriptures, Lord God. I pray that you would please also just be with us in the congregation. Help us, Lord God, to be attentive with our hearts and our ears, Lord God. I pray that you please, Lord God, help us, Lord God, to be convicted, Lord God, of any sin that we might have, Lord God, tonight, and just learn from your word and help us, Lord God, to just grow and to apply this sermon to our lives, Lord God, now. We pray now these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 31, He Lives. Song number 31. Song number 31, He Lives. You can see it on that first verse right there, song number 31. On that first. I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever man may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him, He's always here. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart. In all the world around me, I see His loving care. And though my heart grows weary, I never will despair. I know that He is leading through all the stormy blast. The day of His appearing will come at last. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart. Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing Eternal hallelujah to Jesus Christ the King. The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find. None other is so loving, so good and kind. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart. All right, before Brother Maury comes up here, I need to announce two things. First and foremost, I forgot to sing Happy Birthday to all the February people last week. And I know people hold it against me when I don't do that. And they become very bitter and angry and resentful towards me. And so I'm going to make up for that. So whose birthday? I know there's a couple of people who aren't here whose birthday is in February. But raise your hand if your birthday is in February. We got one here. She was angry. She's upset. Okay, what else? All right, one right here. Anybody else? One right there. All right, one right here. Anybody else? All right, let's sing Happy Birthday to those in February. Ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. All right, round of applause. Secondly, I want to say congratulations to Brother Lucas and Leilani. They got married on Friday, man. So give them a round of applause. Congratulations to you, too. Brother Maury, why don't you come on up? All right, good evening, everyone. Great singing. Hey, the muffins were not late, though. We got the muffins on time. All right, just want to throw that out there. All right, thank you guys for coming to our evening service. We want to invite you to our Thursday night service at 7 p.m. We're going through the Book of Isaiah. You can apply the preaching that you heard this morning. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you want to go back and listen to that sermon. So many teams and times are here down below on the left, expecting mothers to continue to pray for them. For some church announcements, we have our soul winning training that has begun and is continuing to go. Please, if you want to come, if you want to learn how to give the gospel, it'll be right after the a.m. service at about 1230. Kids Valentine's Day exchange was today. It went great. My kids are all sugared up. And then we have the home school field trip Tuesday, February 18th at Billy B's. Last week I said Burt's Bees. I don't know if you guys caught that. Giovanni had no problem telling me about that. And my lips are dry or something. I don't I don't really know. I don't know why I said that, but it's at Billy B's. And thank you, Gio, for reminding me that I messed up. It's at 11 at 11 a.m. Address is down there below. And all expenses are paid for. Last last announcement here. We have the Tijuana missions trip Saturday, February 22nd at nine fifteen at the building. All expenses are paid for. Again, apply the preaching that you heard this morning. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and listen to that sermon. That's it for the announcements. Please silence your phones to not be a disturbance to the service. And other than that, you can please open up your hymnals to song number thirty one. Excuse me. We just think that one song number two hundred and thirty heavenly sunlight. Song number two hundred and thirty. And talking to two hundred and thirty heavenly sunlight. Two hundred and thirty. Singing out on that first song, first verse. Walking in sunlight. All of my journey. Over the mountains. Through the deep. Jesus has said I'll never forsake thee. Promise divine and never can fail. Heavenly sunlight. Heavenly sunlight. While we are stolen. While we divide. Hallelujah. I am rejoicing. Singing his praises. Jesus is mine. Shadows around me. Shadows above me. Never conceal my. Savior and guide. He is alight in. Him is no darkness. Ever I'm walking. Close to his side. Heavenly sunlight. Heavenly sunlight. While he was stolen. Glory divine. Hallelujah. I am rejoicing. Singing his praises. Jesus is mine. In the bright sunlight. Never rejoicing. Pressing my way to. Mansions above. Singing his praises. While we are walking. Walking in sunlight. Sunlight above. Heavenly sunlight. Heavenly sunlight. While he was stolen. Glory divine. Hallelujah. I am rejoicing. Singing his praises. Jesus is mine. Amen. We're going to sing it. At this time, our ushers will be receiving the offering. And please turn your Bibles to Numbers chapter 1. And please turn your Bibles to Numbers chapter 1. And please turn your Bibles to Numbers chapter 1. Good evening. So now we're in Numbers chapter 1. Numbers chapter 1. And the Bible reads. The Lord speak unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, and the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, and by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their poles. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe, every one head of the house of his fathers. And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you, of the tribe of Reuben, Eliezer, the son of Sheduar, of Simeon, Shilumiel, the son of Zerushaddai, of Judah, of Simeon, the son of Amminadab, of Issachar, of Nathaniel, the son of Zoar, of Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon, of the children of Joseph, of Ephraim, Elishama, the son of Amminahud, of Ammanasi, Gamaliel, the son of Padazir, of Benjamin, Abidin, the son of Gideoni, of Dan, Ahizeir, the son of Ameshaddai, of Asher, Pagel, the son of Akran, Eliph, the son of Duel, of Naphtali, Ahira, the son of Enan. These were the renown of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of the thousands of Israel. And Moses and Aaron took up these men, which are expressed by their names, and they assembled all their congregation together on the first day of the second month. They declared their pedigrees after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward by their poles. And the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. And the children of Reuben, Israel's eldest son, by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names by their poles, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go to war, those that were numbered of them, even the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred. Of the children of Simeon, by their generations after their families, by the house of their fathers, those that were numbered of them according to the number of their names, by their poles, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred. The children of Gad, by their generations, all their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand, six hundred and fifty. Of the children of Judah, by their generations after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even the tribe of Judah, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred. Of the children of Issachar, by their generations after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred. Of the children of Zebulun by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred. Of the children of Joseph, namely of the children of Ephraim, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Ephraim were forty thousand and five hundred. Of the children of Venasi, by their generations after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, although able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Venasi were thirty and two thousand and two hundred. Of the children of Benjamin, by their generations after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, although able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Benjamin were 30 and 5,400. The Children of Dan by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, although were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even in the Tribe of Dan, were threescore 2,700. For the Children of Asher by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one thousand and five hundred. The children of Naphtali throughout their generations after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men, each one was for the house of his fathers. So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel. Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. But the Levites, after the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them. For the Lord had spoken unto Moses, saying, Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel, but thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all the things that belong to it. They shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof, and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle, and when the tabernacle seteth forward, the Levite shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levite shall set it up, and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts, but the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there should be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel, and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, just thank you for this opportunity. We have to hear the appreciative word. Lord, just please give Pastor Boldness and fill him with the Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches your word unto us, Lord, and that the message that he's prepared tonight can touch the hearts of the congregation tonight, Lord, and that we can come away edified, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. OK, we are in the Book of Numbers, chapter one, and the title of my sermon this evening is Taking the Long Way, Taking the Long Way. And I want to go give an overview sermon on the Book of Numbers and really talk about the self-destruction of the nation of Israel through this book. Now, if you've been following the Bible reading schedule, you've actually started in the Book of Numbers. And quite frankly, I mentioned this, I think it was last week that, you know, a lot of these the books in the beginning of the Bible can be hard to understand, hard to read. You go through Leviticus and it's a lot about the offerings, a lot of instructions regarding the temple and the tabernacle and such. And so we see that sometimes newer Christians have a hard time enduring a lot of these passages. And quite frankly, the Book of Numbers starts off like that. And I know that sometimes Christians have a hard time reading through at least the first 10 chapters of the Book of Numbers, because it's very repetitive and you kind of think to yourself, like, how am I supposed to apply this to my personal life? You know, all these thousands of numbers in these tribes. What does this have to do with me as a believer? But I'm going to explain to you in the sermon how that applies to us today and why the Book of Numbers is very important, especially as Christians to learn from. And so I want to talk about the self-destruction of Israel. And there's a lot of great stories actually in the Book of Numbers, a lot of principles that we can learn. But I'm going to take you through the entire book and just kind of give a synopsis of each of the chapters. Now, in chapters one through 10, we have Moses essentially taking the census of the children of Israel. Now, keep in mind that this is about two, a little over two years after they left Egypt. So they've left Egypt. They're in Mount Sinai, which is where Leviticus is taking place. They receive the laws of God from the Lord. And then now they're ready. Right. And of course, the reason God took them out of Egypt is to bring them into the Promised Land, which is Canaan. Now, keep in mind that from Egypt to Canaan land was only about 11 days journey. All right. So it's only supposed to take about 11 days. It was God's purpose and God's will for them to leave Egypt. You know, they crossed the Red Sea. They go to Mount Sinai to receive the law of God. They, you know, go through the wilderness for 11 days, and then they go right into the Promised Land. That was God's original intent. And the reason we know that is because these first 10 chapters are dedicated to essentially take a census for the men of war. Why? Because once they go into Canaan land, that's exactly what they're going to be participating in is warfare. They're going to war with the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hittites, so on and so forth, and they're supposed to destroy them. So God wanted the children of Israel to essentially number how many men they have from 20 years old and up to make preparations for that warfare. OK, look at verse 45, if you would. Verse 45. It says in verse 45. So so were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers from 20 years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war in Israel, even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. So this is a six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty males. Twenty years old and upward. This is not including the women. It's not including the children, just men who are capable of going to war. It says in verse forty seven. But the Levites, after their tribe, excuse me, after the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them. So the only tribe that was not taken in the census was the tribe of Levi because of the fact that the tribe of Levi was essentially responsible for the priestly duties, right? They couldn't necessarily go to war. Their job was to be in the house of God, to take care of the accoutrements of God, so on and so forth. So the first 10 chapters are really dedicated to making sure that they had this number. They knew how many people they had. And, you know, you kind of wonder, like, how do I apply this spiritually? You know, like this is the first 10 chapters, just all these numbers of these tribes. Well, first and foremost, the way we can apply this is by really just looking at the power of God. And you say, well, how does this prove the power of God? Well, if you have six hundred and three thousand people, men of 20 years old and upward, obviously it's not including the men the women and the children. That means you have over a million people at this time, right? And that's over a million people that God personally delivered from Egypt, right? I mean, that is a supernatural great miracle there. He's literally relocating an entire nation. Not one is lost. And in fact, who's numbered also among the people, the Egyptians? They came along with the children of Israel. So this is a testament to the fact that, you know, God doesn't lose anybody, you know, and whoever he brings out, whoever he brings out of Egypt and takes out of there, he's able to just literally deliver everyone. Not one of them shall be lost. OK. And of course, there's New Testament principles to that. We can say as Jesus Christ brought us out of the fiery furnace of hell. Not one of them shall be lost. Of course, except the son of perdition and referring to Judas, who wasn't saved in the first place. Now, go to Chapter five, if you would number chapter five. So in order to make preparations for war in Canaan, he wants them to know how many soldiers they have that are apt to go to war, that are capable for warfare. But that's not enough. You know, it's not enough to be prepared for spiritual battle. According to the Bible, there needs to be cleanliness as well. Holiness, separation unto the Lord. And so aside from the census is being taken, he also wants the children of Israel to be ritually pure. It says in verse one of Chapter five. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper and everyone that hath an issue and whosoever is defiled by the dead, both male and female, shall you put out without the camp, shall you put them that they defile not their camps in the midst whereof I dwell. So these were obviously precautionary measures that are being taken to ensure that there's no defilement in Israel. You see, it doesn't matter if you have the numbers. It doesn't matter if you have the manpower. If there's sin in the camp, you can't proceed. If there's sin in the camp, you can't succeed. You can't go forward. God's hand is not with you. It doesn't matter how many people you have. And you know, the principle that we can learn there is that as a church, you know, we want to grow numerically. We want people to come to church, but we got to make sure we keep this place clean. Which side note pick up after yourselves, you know, after the service. Amen. And I'm not talking and that's not unholiness, but it's just good stewardship to just, you know, pick up the trash afterwards. But more important than that, even if you leave your little red bull by the chair, just make sure you clean up your lives, right? Keep sin out of your life. Keep sin out of the church, because in order for us to succeed in spiritual warfare against Satan, against the world and against the flesh, we not only need the numbers, but you know what? We need God's hand to be upon us. We need to make sure that we are spiritually pure, that we are confessing our sins, that we're repenting of our sins. And we are keeping the church not only doctrinally pure, but also pure from sin as well. And so we see that in Chapter five, it's a long list of just things that God is instructing the children of Israel to remove defilement from the nation of Israel. Now, in Chapter six is where you have the famous passage of the Nazarite vow. And we're not going to go over that for the sake of time. But it's just instructions for those who are giving a balance of the Lord. It was for a temporary time. You can read that on your own. And then later on, we see that the tabernacle and the priest are then consecrated and then the Passover is celebrated. So this was God's original intent. You know, they leave the they leave Egypt. They go into Mount Sinai. They receive the laws of God. Now they're in the wilderness of Sinai. They are taking the census of all the all the soldiers that are able to go to war. They're given these precautionary measures in order to be clean before God. Some instructions about the Nazarite vowels. They consecrate the tabernacle and the priests. They celebrate the Passover. All right, let's go to Canaan. That's literally what it's supposed to be. But what was supposed to and what was intended to be an 11 days journey ended up turning into a 40 year journey. Why? Because of the fact that Israel self-destructed, because immediately after this, go to Numbers chapter 11, Numbers chapter 11. Immediately after this, we see that Israel begins to disobey the Lord and commit sin and really impede themselves from going into the promised land. OK, you know, we see that the Book of Psalms talks about how Israel limited the Holy One of Israel, not because God is limited in his power, not because he's limited in his might. But you know what? You and I can limit God by our obedience to him. If we allow sin in our lives, if we don't obey the Lord, we can actually self-destruct. We can hinder ourselves from receiving God's blessing. So what's the first thing we see? Well, from Numbers chapter 10 to Numbers 19, we have various stories of murmuring, God providing manna and then God killing people. OK, look at verse one of Numbers 11. It says when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. Now, the Bible is not very clear as to what they're complaining about, but it just sounds like Israel just had it in their nature to just be a bunch of complainers, murmurers, just complain about everything. And it says here that they started complaining. God was displeased with that. It says, And the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. And the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses. When Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Tabara, because the fire of the Lord burnt among them. So we see here that after the consecration, the Passover, the census has been taken. We're good to go. What happens? The children of Israel begin to complain. They begin to murmur. Now, you know, I don't know. But based upon the story, it sounds like God doesn't take well to murmuring. He doesn't send a prophet to say, stop complaining. He doesn't send a prophet to say, hey, stop murmuring and be thankful. What does he do? He says, fire. Now, we know that the children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire by night. And I personally believe he just kind of took that pillar and just went and just took out all the murmurers. You say, man, why would God do that? Well, to teach us, because these things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come not to be complainers, not to be murmurers, to be grateful for what we have. The children of Israel just experienced this great deliverance by supernatural means. God has been with them the entire way. He's shown them visible miracles, visible supernatural occurrences. He's provided for them. He's done everything that he can in order to prove to them that he's with them. And what do they do? They complain. And what does this teach us? Let's not be complainers. You know, don't be a complaining person. And may I say that we as parents need to teach our children to be grateful, to teach them not to be murmurers and complainers, because of the fact that that will carry over with them into their adulthood. We need to teach gratitude towards our family. And it begins with us, my friends showing verbal gratitude. OK. And let me say this. You know, I am the lord of my house. I am the boss of my house. But that doesn't mean I don't say thank you to my wife if she does something for me that, yes, she was supposed to do. You know, it's obviously my wife's responsibility to obey me, to serve me, to do as I tell her. But that's not at the exclusion of saying thank you every once in a while. And, you know, in our house, we set a rule that you need to show gratitude. If your brother or sister do something for you, if mom does something for you, if dad does something for you, if we are a blessing to you, regardless if it's something that you've expected, you should always say thank you. OK. Why? Because once you remove gratitude from your vocabulary and in your heart, you actually begin to cultivate murmuring because you're not grateful for the things that you have and you start comparing, so on and so forth. Now, it could be that what they're complaining about is food. That's what most people complain about. Right. What's with those little sandwiches? You know, this was this is for the soul winners. You know, I have meat that, you know, not of, you know, it's just. Be grateful, you know, just hey, great, we get circles for we get little, you know, coriander things for lunch or something. Don't be like, yeah, you can eat this. This is a banana. Seriously, you know, you know, just be like, hey, you know, by the way, we didn't even announce food. Right. Both we both we didn't. And I told brother Lisa's don't announce it. Don't even put it out because then they won't have the expectation that there's food. That way, when it's there, you know, they'll be grateful for it. Right. And I've learned that when it comes to gratitude, it's easy to be grateful when you don't expect anything. So if you don't expect anything and you get something, you're like, wow, thank you. You know, I'll give you I'll give you a personal example. One time, I don't know, it was after a Sunday night service. I went home and we're eating dinner with my family and I just sat on the couch and it was just kind of relaxing for the day. And my kids just started coming and just giving head massages. And they're rubbing my back and they're rubbing my feet. And I was just like, whoa, what's going on here, you know? And then I was really happy, you know, because it felt good. They're scratching my back and everything. And then my wife later on was just like, you know, you're acting like you're really like happy they were doing this, you know, really grateful for it. I'm like, yeah, of course. I said it because I didn't expect my kids. You know, I don't go home and be like, all right, kick off my shoes. You know the drill, you know. You know, I just expect to go home, be with my family, eat a meal, and that's it. That was just like the cherry on top. And so I received that and I was just like, thank you so much. This is like more than I deserve. And someone might look at it and it's like, no, you deserve that because you're the dad. But here's the thing, even if that's true, I don't expect it. And you know what, I purposely don't expect it. So if I receive it, I'm grateful, you know. So side note here, give dad a foot rub when you go home. I'm not talking about my kids, although that's not a bad idea. How about some of you, you know, give dad a back rub. Give him a scratch back, that's what we call it. You know, scratch his back, give him a foot rub when he gets home. And men, plug your ears so that you don't expect it and you'll be grateful when you get it. Amen. Look at verse four. So they're ungrateful, they're complaining. It says, and the mixed multitude that was among them fell alusting. So we have an issue here because who's the mixed multitude? It's referring to Israelites and the Egyptians. So the Egyptians who are living among the children of Israel are obviously influencing the children of Israel. And they're causing them to lust. And it says that the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? So if I were to surmise what's going on here, you have these foreigners coming to the children of Israel. And they're just like, manna? Manna, where's the meat? You know, where's the protein or whatever? You know, where's the quail? Where's the... And so they're influencing the children of Israel to start complaining about the provisions of God and, you know, seek to have flesh to eat. Look at verse five. It says, we remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. So what do we have here? Well, it doesn't specify who's saying this, but it's obviously by the influence of the Egyptians, even if it's both saying this, right? And what are they saying? You know, they're highlighting all the good things of Egypt, but they're ignoring the fact that they left Egypt. Now, the way we can apply this today is that we got a bunch of Mexicans waving their flags, talking about they want to stay here as they're waving a Mexican flag. And they're just like, oh, man, Mexico is so great. And here's the reasonable conclusion. Why don't you go back then? And let's just be real honest. You know, the majority of those who are protesting and saying that nonsense, they were born here. They don't know anything about Mexico. They speak no Sabo English or Spanish. You know, they can't speak Spanish. They don't know what they're talking about. They're just influenced by the public fool system that made them liberals and made them have a liberal outlook on things. And so they think it's really cool to go protest, but it's such an oxymoron to protest wanting to stay here all the while you're waving a Mexican flag. It's nonsense, my friends. And so, and again, some of these were born here, but they're being influenced by others to say, well, it's just Mexico. Why don't you go back to Mexico? And you say, well, why don't you go back to Mexico? Because I wasn't born in Mexico. There's nothing to go back to. I was never from Mexico. This is where I was born. You know, I don't know if I have to, like, convince you of that, but, you know, I'm not an illegal, okay? Call ICE if you want, you know? But we see here that the foreigners are actually influencing the people of the land and not the other way around. And you know what it causes? It's causing God's wrath to come upon the people, okay? And look, here's the thing is, if people came from Mexico here and they're complaining about, you know, what's going on here, well, here's the thing is that then why did you leave over there in the first place, right? Plain and simple. And so, we have this situation here and they're complaining. They're like, all we have is this manna before our eyes. Look at verse 18. It says, And say thou unto the people, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh, for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. No, it wasn't. Therefore, the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither 10 days, nor 20 days, but even a whole month until it come out of your nostrils. And it be loathsome unto you, because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why come? Why came we forth out of Egypt? So what we have here is God actually gives them what they want, and he's going to allow them to have so much of it that they're sick of it, right? That's what he's saying. Look at verse 31. It says, And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. Skip down to verse 33. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, air, meaning before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. So he's like, I'm going to give you what you want. They get the quail, they cook it, it's ready to go. And when it says, while it was between their teeth, it means that like as they're biting into it, right? That's what it means to be between their teeth, because it says, air, it was chewed. So they didn't even get a chance to really savor it, chew it. They're just like, and then the plague just comes and just destroys a bunch of them. He says, and he called the name of the place, Kibroth Hatavah, because there they buried the people that lusted. What is the principle here? We need to influence the people who come here, not the other way around, right? And also when it comes to the house of God, we need to make sure that we are influencing the people who are coming to our church, not the other way around. We need to make sure that the people understand that this is our home field, right? And that people don't come here, change doctrine, teach nonsense, change the culture here. We need to make sure we tell the people the manna is fine. The manna which God provided the Bible that we're using is just fine. We don't need quail. We don't need whatever. And if God chooses to give us quail in the long run, so be it. But we are happy with what God has provided for us here. OK, so we see here an 11 days journey is starting to be cut short and the people are being cut short. Why? Because of murmuring and being influenced by those who came among them. OK, go to Chapter 13, if you would, Chapter 13. So a ton of them were destroyed simply for complaining and murmuring. And you know what will take you out of church faster than anything else is just being ungrateful for what you have. Maybe you think to yourself, oh, I don't really like this church anymore. I just it doesn't really call my attention anymore. I just don't I'm unhappy with the preach and I'm unhappy with the people. I'm unhappy with the ministry. Well, first and foremost, why don't you stop comparing? And secondly, just be grateful for what you have. Right. So that caused their destruction. And by the way, let me just chase a little rabbit here, just give me about two minutes just to kind of tell you what's the position that we should take as Christians when it comes to the whole deportation and illegal immigration. OK, a lot of people have different opinions, but I'm going to give you the biblical perspective to illegal immigration and deportation. Now, first and foremost, let me just say that obviously we can't really say a whole lot from the New Testament since the New Testament doesn't teach a lot. And I don't know if you know that it's mostly centered around the gospel, spiritual matters, things that really things are just important. You know what I mean? The kingdom of God. So the New Testament doesn't really say a whole lot about it. However, the old we can extrapolate princes from the Old Testament that can help us kind of apply what's going on today. OK. And here are two things that I want to say about that. First and foremost, obviously, the Old Testament is replete with passages that tell us that we need to love the stranger. Right. I mean, who's going to argue against that? It's replete with that. Don't oppress a stranger, love the stranger, you know, let them live among you and be a blessing to them. Why? Because you were one strangers in the land of Israel or excuse me, in the land of Egypt. And so that's pretty obvious, right? But here's the thing is that the command to love the stranger was never given at the exclusion of making sure they kept the law. So Egyptians that lived because there's foreigners in in Israel, right? You had the mixed multitude that came who became citizens, but then you also had sojourners, those who were residents. They would stay there for just a temporary time and then go on about their way. But regardless of who it was, both were actually expected to live and abide according to the laws of the land. And if they broke the laws of the land, for example, those were, you know, if they committed capital crimes, they were worthy of death. OK. And, you know, they're deporting right now, they're deporting like murderers, rapists, pedophiles. People are just guilty of like really serious, serious crimes. And to that I say, well, you should have killed them. But, you know, we'll take the deportation to them. OK. Because one less pedophile in this nation is great. One less rapist in this nation is great. Now, I will say this is that, you know, in Israel, that law applied to the stranger, but as well as to the citizen. So people who were guilty of capital crimes were also put to death. They were also destroyed. But I will say this, too, OK, is that apparently Trump is also seeking to deport even some of the citizens who are guilty of those crimes and send them to El Salvador in that prison system that Bukele has. And I think that's great, too. I prefer the death penalty, but hey, I'll settle for that if that's the case. The point that I'm making here is that that's what would happen. Now, if they committed certain crimes, they weren't necessarily guilty of death or worthy of death, should I say. You know, sometimes you'll hear the phrase that they were cut off from among their people. And there's instances in the Old Testament where that meant being put to death. But the other instances where it meant what? Someone tell me. Yeah, you throw them out, they're exiled. They're removed from the land. They're just completely cut out. They were essentially deported, right? The only difference is, is that they were deported to another nation. They were just removed from Israel. All right. And so, you know, that is what the Old Testament would teach about it. If we're to approach this from a New Testament perspective, though, you know, this is this is the perspective that we should have. This is the belief that we should have. And that is that according to Romans 13, every Christian should be in support of the government enforcing specific laws, right? Laws in general, especially if they're laws that don't contradict the Bible. Right. And if they contradict the Bible, we appeal to a higher power, which is the word of God. And at that point, you know, it's just like forget what the government's saying. We're going to keep soul winning, preaching the word of God. But here's the thing. If it's a law that isn't necessarily contrary to the word of God, then we should be in favor of it. Now, I will say this is that I personally believe that too many Christians have too much of a like a deep opinion on the matter. And I think the New Testament teaches us that regardless of what happens, the Bible teaches that we're dead or both to the Greek and to the barbarian, meaning that we should love the stranger and give them the gospel. Right. So the Apostle Paul, that's what he said in Romans chapter one. And it's of my opinion that if if immigrants came here legally, legally, whatever, you know, when they're at the door, I'm completely unbiased in that area. I want to get that person safe. Right. Get that person. I'm not just like, oh, here's this immigrant. You know, you about to remain an immigrant eternally. You know? No, I want to give them the gospel. I want to get them safe. And no, I'm not going to call ice on them afterwards or something, because because quite frankly, I don't care. OK. And here's the thing is that it's of my humble opinion that if I cross paths with an illegal immigrant who's not saved, God allowed that person to come here to get saved. And if that person gets deported, at least they got deported. Saved, amen. At least they're going back saved. And so, you know, and I don't think people should have this this perspective of like, well, that's just unloving to deport them, because quite frankly, the United States of America is very compassionate, very loving towards immigrants. That's just a fact. OK, and we can go over a ton of examples with Reagan and his amnesty in the 80s and stuff. I mean, this country's very been very gracious towards immigrants, plain and simple. And you say, what if like, you know, good people, though, like hard workers are taken back or whatever? Well, here's the thing is that sometimes good people suffer with bad people. You know, and let's say they don't want to go back to have family here. Because here's the thing. There's immigrants, there's illegal immigrants that are probably going to go back or have the potential of going back. And they don't have anybody in Mexico. Like they live a good majority of their life here. They don't have family over there. They have no one to take care of them over there. Maybe they're, you know, an older woman or something like that. If they go back, you know, that's that's that's a sad situation. Right. And it's of my opinion that, you know, I am not saying that the person who gets deported is a good individual. They're saved or whatever. That it's because of their own crimes or whatever. I just think they are a it's a result of just mass deportation. And when you remove a bunch of bad people, there's some good people that are probably taken to. But let me just finish off with this, and that is that I do not believe Christians should have a super strong opinion on this. Let Republicans have opinions on this. Let them die on that hill. But Christians, we live according to a different worldview. We have a biblical worldview, and I don't think you should lose sleep about it. OK, you should lose sleep over souls. If you're losing more sleep over deportation, illegal immigration, you're not right. You need to make sure that you're heavenly minded and you can have your opinions, obviously, but at the end of the day, we should be more eternally minded, recognizing that at the end of the day, these are souls that need to be saved, et cetera. OK, all right. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. So we're talking about the destruction of Israel. They're murmuring Chapter 12. You don't have to turn there is where you have the famous story of Miriam and Aaron complaining towards Moses because he married an Ethiopian woman. And originally when I, you know, I read this like a couple of weeks ago, and I thought to myself, maybe they're upset because he's being a polygamous because this would be his second wife. But here's the thing is that God goes to bat for Moses. So obviously it's not because of polygamy. It's probably because they're just racist or something. They don't like, you know, I'm assuming she's black. OK, because she's Ethiopian. And they're probably just like, oh, you know, we don't like that. But Miriam and Aaron are stupid because you would think that after seeing everyone die through the pillar of fire for murmuring, they'd be like, you know what? I have my opinions about that Ethiopian woman, but I'm just going to keep my mouth shut because I don't want to burn. But obviously they don't learn from it. She becomes leprous and they end up kicking. They end up exiling her, deporting her for about seven days, and then they can move on after she's reinstated. And obviously there's a bunch of principles that we can learn from that regarding church discipline. I preach sermons on that. That's in Chapter 12. Chapter 13 is a very important passage, because though a lot of people have died already and you see God's judgment already, you know, God is still willing to move forward with the plan. And what's the plan? Go to Canaan land, right? Look at verse one. It says the Lord speaking to Moses, saying, Send out men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Every tribe of their fathers shall you send man, everyone a ruler among them. And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those men were heads of the children of Israel. So what's the purpose? Well, it's like a reconnaissance type of a mission where they just want them to go to Canaan land to develop a report to bring back, to encourage the people of how great the land is. Right. And what what better people to send than the leaders of the tribes? Why? Because everything rises and falls on leadership. If you get a leader of a tribe, he's supposed to be a leader. Have a good outlook, a good rapport. Come back and say, man, you see those grapes? You know, everything is great. Oh, man, wait till you see it. It's going to be so easy to overcome. So from a human, humanly speaking, this is a great idea. And it was meant to encourage them, not discourage them. It was meant for them to see the land and recognize, oh, we can overcome it. But instead, they come back and they're just like, oh, we can't overcome it. You know, there's too many obstacles. Look at verse 25. And it returned from searching of the land after 40 days, and they went and came to Moses and to Aaron, to all the congregation of the children of Israel, until the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh and brought back word into them and into all the congregation and show them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said, We came unto the land where the dal sent us thus, and surely it flowed with milk and honey. And this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell on the land and the cities are walled and very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there and the Amalekites dwell on the land of the south and the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites dwell on the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. So what's going on here? They're like, oh, man, it's great. But, you know, there's all kinds of boogeymen, there's all kinds of bad people. They have strong walls and they're just on every side. And obviously the true leaders of the children of Israel are seeing this and they're just like, oh, this is not good because they're causing the children of Israel to what? Fear. And look what it says in verse 30. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able to overcome it. So he sees that the people are, you know, that's why he says he's stealing the people because they're afraid. And he's just like, hey, let's go. Let's just go right now because we can take it. Sounds great. And this is the kind of leadership we need, by the way. Not leadership that's constantly focusing on the negative, but essentially encouraging the people that we can overcome it. We can take it. We can succeed. Right. Not trembling, scared. You know, I don't think we could do it because the Amalekites are there. Verse 31. But the men that went up with them said, We'd be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. You know, I would have said, Yeah, it's stronger than you because because you're a weakling, you're a wuss. Sit down. Who gave you this job anyways? How do you even become the leader? You're a wimp. You're a punk. And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. Exaggeration. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the son of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. So what are they saying? They're like, Oh, these people are so big. We saw ourselves as grasshoppers. Why are you seeing yourself like that? Right. Just like wimpy, scared. And then he says we were in their sight as grasshoppers. How do you know how they saw you? You know, it's essentially they're projecting upon their enemies what they think about themselves coming to these conclusions. So this is pretty bad. OK, go to Chapter 14, because again, this trip is only supposed to be like, hey, bring back some grapes. Tell us how great it is. Oh, man, so many wells already picked out my house. I know where it's going to be. You know, my vineyard. This is going to be this is going to be cake. It's going to be awesome. You know, let's do it to encourage the people. But instead, they bring back an evil report and an evil report simply means this. They brought back their faithlessness. Because anything that's not a faith is sin. So they start reporting of the evil that's in the land, whereas God told them that it was good. It's a good land. You will overcome it. They're like, no, we can't. That's showing a lack of faith. So what happens? Look at Chapter 14, verse 23. Surely they shall not see the land, which I swear into their fathers. Now there shall any of them that provoke me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with them and has followed me fully, him I bring into the land where into he went and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley tomorrow. Turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. So God is pretty upset and he's like, OK, none of you are going to see Canaan land now. We're turning this car around, right? I'm going to turn this car around, right? And that's that's literally what he does, because he says tomorrow, turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. What is that talking about? You're backtracking. You're going back. And you know what? When you're not exercising faith, you're going backwards, not forward. If you're constantly afraid to step out in faith and put your faith in God for your provisions, for your protection to serve God, you're only going backwards, you're not going forward. Oh, but you don't know my situation. I don't want to hear your evil report, because if God has already set forth that he will provide for you, that he will protect you, that he will bless you and that he will do great and mighty things, which you know not. If you just obey the word of the Lord, I don't care to hear your evil report. And by the way, don't spread your evil report to others, causing others to fear, because what I'm going to do is I'm going to be like Caleb and steal the people and be like, you are able. Keep serving God. Keep winning souls. Keep being a blessing. Keep going forward for God. So he tells them, OK, if you're so scared, you're all going to die. You're going to go backwards and you're going to die. So basically, the book of Numbers is just a giant funeral. It's all it is, because God's like, You know what? We'll see later on. He says basically, you know, originally the census was 20 years old and upward. You guys are going to be fighting. Now it's like 20 years old and upward. You're all going to die. Because I can't use people who are 21 years old and upward because they're all faithless. They don't believe they brought up an evil report. And the exception to this was what? Caleb and Joshua, because they had another spirit and maybe said at First Works Baptist Church that we have another spirit, right? That we're wholly following the Lord, that we're people of faith, that we believe God, that he is and that he is a reward of them to diligently seek him. OK, look at verse 29. This is how I love how this phrase starts. Your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from 20 years old and upward, which have murmured against me. Doubtless, you shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell there and save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh and Joshua, the son of Nun. But your little ones, what you say should be a prey. Then will I bring in. They shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years and bear your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. Now, why did why does he have him wander in the wilderness for 40 years? Look at verse 34. After the number of the days in which he searched the land, even 40 days each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities even 40 years, and you shall know my breach of promise. What do we see here? We see that when the older generation seeks to not have faith in God. Guess what? OK, then God will use your children. You know, God has a plan for all of us. We are as workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. But you know what? If you refuse to step out in faith and have God use you in a great way. OK, he might just remove you out of the way and just allow your children to take that blessing. But here's the thing. Why don't we just both do it? I want to serve God, receive God's blessing, and I want my children to. And I don't want to be a byword in a proverb to my children that I fail to serve God because of my faithlessness. I want to instill faith in my children. I want to instill faith in the word of God. In them of the word of God. I want them to receive the blessings that comes with obeying the Lord. Not me be a byword in a proverb is just like, yeah, I'm serving God. But my dad, you know, he kind of, quote unquote, died in the wilderness. You know what? That goes for all parents who are backslidden, who are at a church, who are not reading the Bible, who are away from God. You know what? If you're still alive, it's because God's merciful to you. But let me just say this. You're just going to die in the wilderness. And I'm going to tell you right now, that is a common story amongst Christians over and over again, of Christians just dying in the wilderness. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness because they didn't want to get right with God. You say, well, then who inherits the land? Who inherits the blessings? Probably their children do. I don't want to be that, you know. See all the wonderful miracles of God and all of a sudden, like I just don't get to see the promised land because I'm just faithless. The wilderness sucks, my friends. And this message goes to anybody who's watching, anybody who's under the sound of my voice, that if you're backslidden, you are in the wilderness. You are wandering for 40 years. You are spinning your wheels. And you know what? If you don't get right with God, your carcass will fall there. That's exactly how it's ended for many people. So we see here that he what caused their destruction, I'll tell you what caused it, murmuring, complaining. I'll tell you what caused it, a lack of faith. In God, in the man of God, cost them 40 years. And you know what? Sin will cost you more than you want to pay, take you farther than you want to go and what was the phrase? Keep you longer than you want to stay. 11 days. 40 years. And you know what? Some people just get out of church to sojourn for a little bit. And you know what ends up happening? They just stay there permanently. I never want to die outside of the will of God. You know, and I hope you don't either. OK, go to number 16, if you would, number 16. What caused the destruction, murmuring, what caused their destruction? You serpent authority of Moses. What caused the destruction? A lack of faith. What caused the destruction? Rebellion amongst the leaders. We see that in number 16. Well, Cora, Dathan and Abiram look at verse one. Now, Cora, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohad, the son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram, the son of Eliab and on the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben took men, and they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel. Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly famous in the congregation, men of renown, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you. Seen all the congregation are holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. And I'm not going to go over this entire story in that read the entire story. But we know this Cora, Dathan and Abiram are usurpers. They want Moses's position. They're not happy with the position they have. They're of the tribe of Levi. They have responsibilities. And in fact, it says here that they're famous in the congregation. But that's not enough for them. OK, and what ends up happening to them? Well, they end up dying along with their supporters in a very supernatural way. May I say where the earth literally opens up, swallows them whole. And they die. OK, now, if if that wasn't enough and look, sometimes I read this, I'm like, man, Israel's stupid. Why is it so dumb? Like, if I could just talk to Israel as one man, I'm like, why are you so dumb? Because after you saw all this, the carcass is falling, fire and all this, you would think like, I'm just going to keep my mouth shut until we get to the promised land. Just not going to say anything, because Cora, Dathan and Abiram literally were just swallowed up by the earth because God allowed that. And then look what it says in verse 42. And it came to pass when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation. Behold, the cloud covered in the glory of the Lord appeared. Oh, I'm sorry, look at verse 41. But on the morrow, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. You idiots. So after Cora, Dathan and Abiram are whacked. Then the congregation comes like, you guys killed the people of God. And it's just like, you want to die, too? And by the way, they do die. God ends up sending a plague among them, which first Corinthians Chapter 10 calls the destroyer, the same destroyer that was in the last plague, the tenth plague in Egypt. He's brought out of retirement and he comes and he just starts killing a bunch of people off. And of course, Moses and Aaron, they take a sensor and, you know, they they they try to make intercessions for the children of God. And look what it says in verse 49. Now they that died in the plague were 14,700 beside them that died about the matter of Korah. What do we have here? We see that people are completely removed from the congregation because they want to usurp authority. And, you know, you can't look at this and say, well, this kind of shows that Moses is just a bad leader. The children of Israel are just, you know, bad completely. Not necessarily because sometimes you got to remove the cancer in order for the children of Israel to go forward. And you know what? I'm not going to say that our church is perfect because we know I know we're not. We might have a church split one day. I don't know. You know, it's my job to make sure that we are dwelling in unity. But you know what? There could be instances where a church has a church split because they're against the pastor. They're against the leaders. They're trying to create a coup with one another to remove themselves from. This happens with fundamental Baptist churches all the time. Well, it's one of the reasons why we don't have Spanish ministries, because they're just commonly known for separating from their church and splitting the church. And so that's not a thing. And we have the example here that God always favors the leader over those who are seeking to usurp the authority of the leader. OK, let's move on here. Go to Chapter 20. Chapter 20 in Chapter 18 and 19. We have chapters regarding the priest and the consecration of the priest and in Chapter 20. We have the Children of Israel resorting once again to their complaining manner because they begin to murmur about water. And Moses essentially at this point forfeits even his right to go into the Promised Land. And of course, later on, even Aaron is stripped of his garments. Look at verse seven of Numbers 20. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod and gather thou the assembly together down Aaron, thy brother, and speaking to the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water and they shall bring forth to them water out of the rock. So shall thou give the congregation and their beast to drink. Now I'm going to skip some of this because I'm kind of running out of time. But Moses, instead of speaking to the rock as God commanded, he smites the rock and essentially kind of destroys or marrs the picture. The symbolism that God had intended. And so because for his obedience to the word of the Lord, God told Moses, you're not even going to go to the Promised Land. OK. And so, you know, I read that sometimes and I feel I feel bad for Moses because he had to like put up with the Children of Israel only to not go into the Promised Land. But quite frankly, he was probably really happy to go to heaven anyways. You know, he's probably like, oh, you know, like I don't have to deal with the Children of Israel no more in the Promised Land. And so that's where that story ends for Moses right there. Go with me if you would to Chapter 22, Chapter 22. In Chapter 21, you have the famous story of the fiery serpents biting the Children of Israel for their what murmurings. So they're complaining, they're murmuring. And what does God do? He sends fiery serpents. Of course, he ends up using that as a symbolic representation of sin and the wages of sin. They make the brass serpent where if they look into the serpent, they can be healed. And of course, that brass serpent represents the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that in John Chapter three. So what causes their destruction? Murmuring. Now, here's the last thing that really kind of is the straw that broke the camel's back. OK, because throughout this, we see that when God says your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, it's not necessarily because God is imposing judgment upon them. They're actually bringing it upon themselves. So it's almost as if God is just foretelling the fact that he knows they're going to murmur. He knows they're going to complain. He knows they're going to try to usurp authority. He knows they're going to just continue to murmur and complain. So he's like, you guys are all going to fall by the wilderness. Your carcasses in the wilderness for your lack of faith and for your murmurings. But here's the thing. A couple of them still could have made it. And what was the straw that broke the camel's back? Sinning against the Lord and the matter of Belpior. OK. Now, in Chapter 22 through 24, you have Balaam, the son of Bozor. OK. And what you have here is a false prophet, which, according to Second Peter, Chapter two is not saved. Now, a lot of people kind of debate this subject and they wonder, man, is Balaam saved? Because, you know, he did speak the word of the Lord and he did prophesy. He blessed Israel, you know, and you know, he was on their side, per se. Or that's at least what it looks like. So wasn't he saved? And the answer that I would give to that is just no. OK. Because those aren't necessarily, you know. It's not evidence of someone's salvation. And I'm explaining to you why. First and foremost, Second Peter, Chapter two is a chapter all about false prophets. And false prophets who are reprobate. And Balaam is named within that chapter. And he's also named in Jude, which is another chapter about reprobates and false prophets. So he's given two mentions. Now, look at Numbers 22, verse 30. It says God came on to Balaam at night and said to him, If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them. But yet the word which I shall say to thee, that shall thou do. And Balaam rose up in the morning, saddled his ass and went with the prince of Moab. And God's anger was kindled because he went and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass and his two servants were with them. So what's going on here? Well, they're going to Moab, and the king of Moab has obviously heard of how dangerous Israel is because they have God with them. So Balak hires Balaam, who's a soothsayer. He's a false prophet to curse the children of Israel so that they don't overcome and conquer him. He sends people to him. He's like, hey, we'll pay you for this. And he's like, I can't go beyond the word of the Lord, because essentially God is impeding him from cursing the nation of Israel. And then he comes to him again and he basically offers him money. He does want to go because he wants these rewards. And God comes to him and says, if the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them. Now, sometimes people look at this particular passage and they get confused because, you know, it's like God says, you know, go with them. But then he goes and then God gets mad at him. And people will point to that and say, oh, see, that's a contradiction. You know, God's allowing him to go. But, you know, once he goes, then he gets all mad. You know, what's up with God? Why is he contradicting himself? But this is not a contradiction because he says, if the men come to call thee, rise up. And the men don't come to him to call him, he just rises up and goes. It's not like they came and offered him again. Immediately after this, he just rises up in the morning, saddles his ass and goes with them with the princes of Moab. Now, why did he do that? I'll tell you why. Because the New Testament says that he loved the wages of unrighteousness. What does that mean? He wanted to get paid. He's like, I'm just going to go because he wants the money. OK. And so Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness. That's why he went. And here's something very interesting. Look at verse 23. And the ass, referring to Balaam's donkey, saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way and a sword drawn in his hand. The ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field and Balaam smote the ass and turned her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in the path of the vineyard, a wall being on this side and the wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself into the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall and he smote her again. And the angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam and Balaam's anger was kindled and he smote the ass with the staff. And listen to this. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass and she, referring to the ass, said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee that thou has smitten me these three times? This is a pretty awesome miracle. The animal begins to speak. OK. Now, if I was Balaam, I would just drop everything that I'm doing and be like, Did you just talk? Forget going to Balak. Let's let's let's go do a carnival or something, you know, a freak show or something, you know. It's like, but he doesn't even like it doesn't even he doesn't even bat an eye at it. Like the ass asks him, What have I done unto thee that thou has smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou has mocked me. It's just like, bro, can you at least like recognize the fact that an animal is speaking English or not English, but they speak it's speaking to you in Hebrew or whatever. I would that there were a sword in my hand for now, would I kill thee? It's like, man, you're so blinded by your lust for money and your anger. You can't even see the fact that a supernatural miracle is taking place. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass upon which thou was ridden ever since I was dying unto this day? Was I ever want to do so unto thee? And he said, nay. He's like, Have I ever wronged? He's like, I guess you haven't, you know. So like the ass has more common sense than than Balaam. He has more common sense not to go than Balaam does. And let me say this. You know, donkeys and asses probably have more common sense than the false prophets of today. Says verse 31, Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way and his sword drawn in his hand. And he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face. So the reason I believe this particular story is here with Balaam is to teach us an important principle. And that is that there are times when false prophets do say the right things. OK, why? Well, because of the fact that, like I mentioned this morning, in order to propagate a lie or to deceive people, truth has to be mixed in. But let me say this. Just because a false prophet says a little bit of truth doesn't lend voracity to that person as being a righteous man. So just because someone says something right once doesn't mean that they're a righteous person. It's just that sometimes the ass speaks. OK. And let me give you some practical examples of this. You know, you can pull up an NIV Bible and someone who uses an ESV NIV. There might be some passages in that Bible that actually say the right things. Did you know that? But does that lend voracity to the ESV or the NIV? No, it's still a dumb ass. It's still a false prophet. It's still unreliable. It's still a donkey. It's still a beast. It's not the righteous word of God. It's not the prophet of God. It's just that sometimes false Bible versions, false prophets, false churches often sometimes can say the right thing. They can actually say, you know, faith, salvation is by faith alone. You know, Greg Laurie can say that every once in a while. It doesn't mean that he's a righteous man. OK, believe it or not, Joel, he might say the right things every once in a while. And, you know, this is very important because there's people online who are like, well, he says he said this here, but they completely ignore the fact that it's he's a beast. Right. And so this is kind of showing us and you're like, is this your proof that he wasn't saved? Well, how about the fact that later on God just calls in Balaam, the soothsayer? You call a safe person a soothsayer? That's weird. He's a soothsayer. He loved the wages of unrighteousness. He's called a false prophet in the New Testament. I don't believe he was saved. Now, the reason he's blessing the children of Israel is because God made him do it. OK, and God can obviously, you know, manipulate the hearts of people to make them do what he wants them to do if the time calls for it. So churches, bad churches say the right thing. Sometimes bad versions of the Bible say the right thing. Sometimes it doesn't lend veracity to what they're doing. Go to Numbers 25, if you would, Numbers 25. So every time he brings Balaam to Israel, he's like he's trying to curse him. And Balaam wants to curse. But then the spirit of God comes upon him and he ends up blessing Israel instead. And you know what? There's bad churches out there and false prophets that have probably blessed fundamental Baptists who are doing the right work. You know, plain and simple. And so it doesn't mean that they're righteous people. And obviously, God's not doing it for Balaam's sake. He's doing it for Balak. And he's doing it for the children of Israel, because at the end of the day, you can't curse whom God has not cursed. That's the main principle there. OK. Now, here's here is the coup de gras to prove that he wasn't saved. Because after all this, you know, people move on from those stories of Balaam and be like, yeah, I think, you know, I think he was saved. But then when you read Numbers Chapter 25, look what it says in verse one, Israel abode and shit him, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people and said the sacrifices of their gods and the people that eat and bowed down to their gods and Israel join themselves into Belpeor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. So after the matter of Baal or Balaam, you have Chapter 25, where all of a sudden the children of Israel are getting involved in whoredom and idolatry. And you kind of wonder, like, where does that come from? Well, the New Testament teaches us that Balaam taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel in order that God may destroy them. So essentially, Balaam came up with this idea like, well, I can't curse them. I can't destroy them, but you can make them destroy themselves. If you can get them involved in fornication, if you can get them involved in idolatry, then God has no choice but to destroy them. And that's exactly what happens in Numbers Chapter 25. They end up destroying themselves, not because they were hindered by Balak, not because they're hindered by Balaam, but by their own foolish decisions to commit sin. That's what took place there with the children of Israel. So what happens here? A ton of people die. Well, in the beginning of the chapter, Chapter one in Numbers, you had a census taken. Well, a new census has to be taken now. OK, because a ton of people have died already. So in Chapter twenty six, a new census is taken and. It's pretty it's pretty interesting here, and this is the last thing I want to mention. And that is, you know, you can tell how you can see how maybe people in the children of Israel were like, wow, do we even have a nation anymore? Look at all the people we kicked out. Look at how many people have left our church. Look at all the destruction. Because if you remember, it was like six hundred and five thousand, six hundred and three thousand, five hundred fifty in the beginning, right? Well, in Numbers twenty six, they take another census and guess how many there were six hundred and one thousand seven hundred thirty. So just like, you know, eighteen hundred less. Oh, wow. But not enough to affect them in a big way. Now, that's kind of crazy, is it not? Because thousands of people died, a ton, not just a thousand eight hundred, like thousands and thousands of people died. But you know, I've learned and what the Bible is teaching us here is that God always makes up the difference. And you just got to trust the Lord. You know, and even though thousands of people died, even when they're going into the promised land, they take another census. Why? Because God wanted to show them, you know, that his judgment is not going to hinder Israel from succeeding. It's not going to hinder their numbers. It's not going to hinder their power, because even then they still have six hundred and one thousand soldiers that can still go out and fight. And at the end of the day, the battle is of the Lord's. All right. And so that's it. Number twenty seven to thirty, you have the land offerings and vows. Thirty one to thirty two, you have war with Midian. Number thirty three, you have a summary of Israel's journey through Egypt. And then lastly, from thirty four to thirty six, you have the instructions about occupying the land. What is the title of the sermon? Taking the long way. You know, I don't want to take the long way to God's blessing. Whatever God has planned for us as a church, get me there as fast as possible. You know, obviously, we got to pace ourselves and we got to get it whenever God gives it to us. But I don't want to extend that trip, though, by murmuring, disputing, by a lack of faith, by usurping authority, by sin in our lives. These are things that can cause us as a church, just like the church in the wilderness, to be hindered and to cause an 11 day's journey to turn into 40 years. So let's avoid that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, I know sometimes Christians, when they read through the Book of Numbers, they can grow weary of it and have a hard time enduring a lot of the numbers and the details that are given. But if we were to just take an overall bird's eye view perspective of the Book of Numbers, it has so many wonderful lessons, Lord. And the senses that's taken of the children of Israel in the beginning shows us that you were able to deliver a great amount of people. And the sense is that taken afterwards shows us that you can still make up the difference in spite of what happened in the past. And I pray that you'd help us to take those principles as we go through the week, Lord. Help us not to lack faith in you. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.