15 "Faithful Among the Faithless" Numbers 13:1-14:10 | Thursday, December 11, 2025

Let's take our Bibles and go to Numbers

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

And once you found your place there, if

you'll stand in honor of God's word,

we'll go to Numbers

13. And our text this evening will go

from verse number one all the way

actually through chapter 14 and verse

10. A little bit of a lengthier

narrative. We'll jump around here a

little bit um to help us get a good

grasp of what's going on ahead of diving

into our message. So let's look at

Numbers chapter 13

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

verse number one. It tells us at the end

of of chapter 12 that they have now

pitched in the wilderness of Pon after

uh Moses and or Miriam and Aaron had

risen up against his leadership that

that Mo Miriam was smitten with leprosy

and then she had to be shut out of the

camp for seven days and then they were

left there. um waiting for her to be

welcomed back into the camp. And then

they moved on to the wilderness of

Piran. The wilderness of Piran is

located directly south of the borders of

Canaan. There's one wilderness, the

wilderness of sin. That is right between

uh the wilderness of Piran and the

borders of Canaan. And so that's where

they're at locationally. That means that

they're very close.

So close and yet so far. Let's read

beginning verse one. And the Lord spake

unto Moses, saying, "Send thou men, that

they may search the land of Canaan,

which I give unto the children of

Israel, of every tribe of their fathers

shall ye send a man, everyone a ruler

among them." And Moses sent by the

commandment of the Lord, and sent them

from the wilderness of Pon. All those

men were heads of the children of

Israel. And so, it's going to give their

names here over the next several verses.

And then uh Moses is going to commission

them to go and spy out the promised land

and and to see whether it's good or bad,

whether it's fat or lean, whether there

are woods or not, what the cities are

like, what the people are like. And it

tells us that he did so if you look um

at the end of verse 20, that now was the

time of the first ripe grapes. And so

this would have been the most fruitful

time for the land. He wants them to see

the land in all of its glory. And so it

tells us that they went up and they

search out uh the land. They cut off a

big cluster of grapes and bring it back

with a a bowl of fruit as well. And so

um then they come to verse 25. It says,

"And they returned from searching of the

land after 40 days. And they went down,

and they went and came to Moses and

Aaron, and to all the congregation of

the children of Israel, unto the

wilderness of Piran, to Cadesh, and

brought back word unto them, and unto

all the congregation, and showed them

the fruit of the land. And they told

them, and said, We came unto the land

whether thou sentest us, and surely it

flowth with milk and honey, and this is

the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the

people be strong that dwell in the land,

and the cities are walled and very

great. Moreover, we saw the children of

Anoch there, and the Amalachites dwell

in the land of the south, and the

Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the

Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the

Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the

coast of Jordan. You know what they're

saying there? There's people everywhere,

armies everywhere.

says in verse number 30, "And Caleb

stilled the people before Moses and

said, let us go up at once and possess

it, for we are well able to overcome

it." But the men that went up with him

said, "We be not able to go up against

the people, for they are stronger than

we." And they brought 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 is that eateth up the

inhabitants thereof, and all the people

that we saw in it are men of great

stature. All of them.

All of them.

You're telling me there wasn't one short

person in all the land of Canaan? I do

not believe it. For a second,

you can tell that they're really

exaggerating here. Now, it's not just

the sons of Anoch, but it says, "There

we saw the giants, the sons of Anoch,

which come of the giants, and we were in

our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we

were in their sight." And all the

congregation lifted up their voice and

cried, and the people wept that night.

And that's why I sound whiny is because

they wept all night because of what was

going on. Verse two. And all the

children of Israel murmured against

Moses and against Aaron. And the whole

congregation said unto them, would God

that we had died in the land of Egypt?

Or would God we had died in this

wilderness?

And wherefore hath the Lord brought us

into this land to fall by the sword that

our wives and our children should be a

prey? Were it not better for us to

return into Egypt? They said one to

another, "Let us make a captain, and let

us return into Egypt." Then Moses and

Aaron fell on their faces before all the

assembly of the congregation of the

children of Israel. And Joshua the son

of Nun, and Caleb the son of Japan,

which were of them that searched the

land, rent their clothes. And they spake

unto all the company of the children of

Israel, saying, "The land which we

passed through to search it, it is an

exceeding good land. If the Lord delight

in us, then he will bring us into this

land, and giveth us a land which flowth

with milk and honey. only rebel not ye

against the Lord. Neither fear ye the

people of the land for they are bread

for us and their defense is departed

from them and the Lord is with us. Fear

them not.

But the all the congregation bade stone

them with stones and the glory of the

Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the

congregation before all the children of

Israel.

The title of our message tonight is

faithful among the faithless. Faithful

among the faithless. Let's pray one more

time. Lord, I ask you to please speak

through your word tonight that you would

give us the challenge, the exhortation,

the encouragement, and the comfort that

your word is intended to provide for us

tonight. Please help us by your spirit

to understand it. I ask in Jesus name.

Amen. Thank you for standing. You can be

seated.

12 men went to spy on Canaan. 10 were

bad and two were good. What do you think

they saw in Canaan? 10 were bad and two

were good. Some saw giants big and

strong. Some saw grapes on clusters

long. Some saw God was in it all. 10

were bad and two were good. Some of you

know what I'm talking about. Some of you

are looking at me like I'm on something.

I grew up singing that song in

children's classes and in vacation Bible

schools and it has very little

theological depth aside fact that God

was in it all. That one line there. But

it's a fun song that speeds up each time

you sing it and sparks some competition

among the little ones. But that silly

song retells a dark story for the

children of Israel. Perhaps one of the

darkest that because of unbelief, an

entire generation of Israelites are

going to die in the wilderness without

ever experiencing the blessing of God's

promise.

Why

those 10 bad spies infected the entire

nation with a fear that sparked a

rebellion to crown a new king and head

back to the land of Egypt.

While they saw the goodness of the land

that God promised them, they couldn't

get their eyes off the giants, the

walls, and the armies. They were too

tall, too strong, too fierce. They were

the faithless 10. But then there were

the faithful too. Joshua and Caleb. They

did their very best to overpower the

voices of the faithless and to call the

people to trust in God. They were full

of faith that they were well able to

overcome and that God was able to bring

them in.

And so while them strong in faith,

I often wonder in a text like this if I

would have been grouped in to the

faithless 10 or the faithful too.

Because what I know is that God has

promised a good and glorious rest in his

eternal kingdom. But along the way, I

tend to face hardship.

That in life there are mountains to

climb. There are walls to scale. And

there are battles to fight.

There are times when spiritual

oppression is real and very fierce.

Times when people ambush you. Times when

the walls are closing in and life is

just hard.

Sometimes I know I can get weary,

downtrodden, and disheartened by the

struggles and and by knowing even what

could lie ahead. And so I just wonder,

would I be part of the faith? What about

you? Have you ever asked yourself that

question when you come to a text like

this?

I mean, you sure like to think that that

we're able to overcome it not because of

ourselves, but because the Lord is on

our side, like Joshua said, we would all

like to think that we would respond that

way when we're facing the giants of

life.

But oftentimes, I wonder if I'm really

made of that.

And you might wonder the same thing.

And see, we're all going to face

hardship in this life on the way to

Christ's kingdom. We saw that on Sunday

in Acts chapter 14 when the Apostle Paul

Acts 14 · chapter mention

encouraged those believers right after

he had been stoned at Lististra that we

must through much tribulation enter into

the kingdom of God. It's inevitable.

And what we can see today is that many

Christians crumble in fear.

That whenever life gets hard,

they fall away.

We find that when cultural pressures and

the giants of this demonic kingdom of

this earth presses down on believers

that many Christians will quiet down

about their faith. Many preachers in the

pulpit will water down the gospel

message. They'll not preach on sin.

They'll not preach on eternal judgment

in hell. They'll not uh call out uh uh

cultural and moral issues like abortion

and homosexuality and and and

fornication and just act like

everything's okay.

They shy back in their faith.

There are many Christians who are even

abandoning the faith today for one

reason or another. They pack it up and

say, "Let's go back to Egypt."

So what we find is that even today many

people crumble when they're hurt or when

life gets hard.

And so the question really tonight is

how can you stay faithful?

How can you when

the the battles are fierce,

when the struggles are hard,

when the when the results are confusing?

When you when you struggle through the

the battles of this life, you're trying

to have your eyes fixed on the kingdom

of Christ that is to come. You're trying

to trust on the Lord to bring you

through all of these things. And yet,

you can find that you be you are shaken

when you see the size of the armies and

when you see the heights of the walls

and you see the the height of the

giants, the barrenness of the land in

your life.

It can be easy to join with the

faithless majority,

but God wants us to be faithful.

And so, how can you stay faithful

among the faithless as Joshua and Caleb

did?

As we read this entire account, we find

that there was something uh in their

faith. There's something that their

faith was grounded in that gave them the

courage to stand bold when others

crumbled and fell. And if we will ground

our faith the same way that they did,

it'll help you when you face the battles

and troubles of life to stay faithful to

Christ.

God sends 12 spies to give Israel a

glimpse of the goodness of his promise.

That's what this is about. He wants them

to see all that God has in store for

them. He wants them to see based on his

promise all that God is going to

overcome for them just like he had

overcome Egypt for them. Just like he

had parted the Red Sea for them. Just

like he had conquered Amalecch for them

in the wilderness once already as Moses

held up the rod of God. He wants them to

see everything that God has in store for

them. This this journey to spy out the

land is intended by God to instill them

with confidence and rejoicing in what

God's about to give them.

And so he send he tells Moses that he

wants him to send a ruler from every ch

tribe. These would have been influential

men. Why? So that their influence would

carry the rest of the nation to go

forward in faith to possess God's

promise.

And so he gives the list of the names

here in verses 4-1 15. But what we find

is there are two names that stand out in

this account. The first one is in verse

6 of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son

of Japana. Remember that Judah is the

tribe of royalty and it is the leading

tribe. It is the tribe to which Jacob

promised that the scepter would not

depart from his hand until Shiloh comes.

The one to whom it belongs which we know

as the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And so

Caleb is really a a type of Christ here

that he is from the line of Judah who is

going to lead God's people forward in

faith to conquer the territory that God

has given to to ward off and fend off

all of the enemies of Israel. He would

have been leading in the battle as the

chief of the tribe of Judah.

And then you'll notice in verse number

eight of the tribe of Ephraim,

Ohea, the son of Nun. The name Ohea

means very generically salvation.

But it tells us in verse number 16 that

these are the names of the men which

Moses sent out to spy out the land. And

Moses called Ohea, the son of Nun,

Jehoshua,

a a longer form of the name Joshua. And

Joshua means the salvation of the Lord

or the salvation of I am or it is the

Hebrew name for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesua

is the same name. It means that Jehovah

saves. And so what we have now are these

two leading men. And these two men

because of the rebellion of Israel here,

they're going to be the ones to lead

Israel into the land of promise. And and

Caleb goes, "I want that mountain,

Hebron,

the mountain where the giants were, the

mountain that possesses the cave of

Mcpila, where Abraham and his and his

wife and his sons and their wives were

all buried. The first place that God

gave to Abraham and his descendants in

the land of promise." Caleb says, "I

want that mountain. It's the place where

David will reign for the first seven

years."

Joshua is the one who will lead the

entire nation forward to conquer the

land.

These are the two spies that stand out

in this text as faithful among the

faithless.

Moses sends them out to spy out the land

in verses 17- 20. He gives them the

instruction to see what the land is like

and the people and the buildings and the

structures and the armies and and to see

what everything is like. And he tells

him, I want you to bring back some of

the the fruit of the land and and I want

you to to go and it's time of the first

ripe grapes. And so, as I mentioned

before, this is this is the best time of

the year for the land of Palestine. And

God's showing them the glory of the land

and all of its beauty and all of its

fatness and all of its strength.

And so it says in verse 21 that they

went up and searched the land from the

wilderness of Zen unto Rehob as men came

to Hamath and they ascended by the south

and came to Hebron where a Hyman and and

Shack and Talmi the children of of Anch

were. The word Anoch means neck. They

are called the Anakims which means long

necks.

When you think of something with a long

neck, what do you think of? a giraffe.

Giraffes are tall, right? The idea is it

really communicates that these are very

tall, forceful men. They're the Anakims.

It says in verse number 23, "And they

came into the brook of Eshkol and cut

down from thin a branch, watch this,

with one cluster of grapes, and they

bear it between two upon a staff."

We're not talking about the little bunch

of grapes that we bring on Saturday

morning to outreach.

We're talking about these grapes are so

big and this cluster is so large that

two guys have to bear it on their

shoulders by a pole. It's huge. It what

it does, it bears witness to the

fruitfulness of this land. It says there

as well, they brought the pomegranates

and of the figs. This is to be

encouraging to them. They're they're not

only getting a a glimpse of what God has

in store, they're getting a taste of

what God has in store.

So in verse 25, it says they returned

from searching of the land after 40

days.

And so what God is doing is he is he is

giving them a glimpse of the goodness of

the land in all its glory and in all of

its fruitfulness.

And so while they go and spy out the

land, they behold the goodness of the

land. But they also saw the challenges

that lie ahead,

the height of the Anakims,

the size of the walls, the strength of

the armies.

While this spy mission was intended to

instill confidence in all that God would

do and all that God would overcome to

fulfill his promise, it actually has

quite another effect on the majority of

the spies. The majority of the spies

were full of fear. Their first report is

really a mixed bag. It says in uh verse

number uh 26 or 27 it says and they told

them and said we we came unto the land

where it thou sentest us and surely

surely it flowth with milk and honey.

God wasn't lying. It's dripping off the

trees. That's a that's an idiom for for

this thing's got everything you could

ever want. It says look here's some of

the fruit of the land. They show them

the grapes. They show them the

pomegranates. They show them the figs.

and they say, "Man, this is what this is

what the land brings forth. It's pretty

awesome."

But then it says in verse 28,

"Nevertheless,

in spite of how good the land is, the

people be strong that dwell in the land.

And the cities are walled and very

great." They probably saw the the walls

of Jericho there and how massive they

were. and they just didn't see how they

were ever going to be able to breach

through uh those walls. They were too

strong and too big. It says they're very

great. It says, "And moreover, we saw

the children of Anoch there. We saw

those long necked people there and the

Amalocites,

those ones who attacked us and ambushed

us in the wilderness,

they were there. the Hittites, the

Jebusites, the Amorites dwell in the

mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by

the sea and by the coast of Jordan. The

the Canaanites fill the land from coast

to coast,

and there are armies in the mountains,

and there are armies in the valleys.

They're too strong for us. They're

discouraging the people.

In verse 30, Caleb, it says, still the

people before Moses. He said, 'N no, let

us go up at once and possess it, for

we're well able to overcome it. He

expresses great confidence that they can

overcome it. He understands that this is

not in the strength of their might. He

understands that God is on their side

and I'm convinced that's what he's about

to tell them. But before he can even get

there, we have a little bit of

embellishment taking place.

They want to make sure that nobody's

going to going to side with Caleb on

this because they don't want to go fight

these battles. And so it says in verse

31, "But the men that went up with him

said,"We be not able to go up against

the people, for they are stronger than

we, and they brought up an evil report

of the land that they had searched unto

the children of Israel, saying, "The

land through which we have gone to

search it, it is a land that eateth up

the inhabitants thereof." Well, that's a

little different than what they first

said. It's a land flowing with milk and

honey, just like God said. Here's the

Look at this big old cluster of grapes.

Look at these beautiful pomegranates and

these amazing and tasty figs. I mean,

look at everything that the land has.

Yeah, that land we were just talking

about, there's actually nothing there.

It's so rugged. It's so rough. It's so

barren. It consumes everyone who lives

there. Well,

you think this is like a kid who lies

and can't get their story straight,

right? They're like, "There's all these

people and yet they're all eaten by the

land."

He goes on, it gets even better. Look at

verse uh the end of verse 32. It says,

"And all the people that we saw are men

of great stature.

They're all huge. Every one of them,

like even the babies."

But then look at verse 33. And there we

saw the giants, the sons of Anch, which

come of the giants. This word giants is

the word nephilim. You know what the

nephilim are? You go back to Genesis

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. And it's those big, strong,

mighty men of renown that lived before

the flood. The ones that that that sent

the earth into violence and wickedness

and evil that brought about the flood.

The Nephilim are there.

I thought the Nephilim were destroyed by

the flood.

Do you see what they're doing here?

They're making it bigger than it really

is. They saw some Anakims. They saw some

long necked people up in Mount Hebbran,

but now they're saying they're all over

the place. And they're even bigger.

They're not just the the Nephilim.

They're or they're not just the Anakims.

They're the Nephilim. You know, these

big, mighty, strong men.

It says we were in our own side as

grasshoppers.

So, we were in their side.

Did they ask someone?

Do you guys think we're grasshoppers? I

mean, I don't see anything that there

was any conflict at all. In fact, what

you find is when you come to the book of

Joshua and they go into and Joshua only

sends two spies this time. He's like,

"Forget the other 10. We're only sending

two this time." And they go in and they

end up hiding out in the house of Rahab

the harlot. And you know what Rahab

says? The inhabitants of the land, their

hearts are melting before you because of

all the Lord has done for you in the Red

Sea.

>> They had a very skewed perspective. They

didn't talk to anybody because if they

told anybody Israel was on the way, they

would have all been melting away in

fear.

But here's what happens.

When 10 people

respond in fear, it infects the whole

nation.

It says in chapter 14:1, "And all the

congregation lifted up their voice and

cried, and the people wept that night,

and all the children of Israel murmured

against Moses and against Aaron." And

the whole congregation said to them,

"Would God that we had died in the land

of Egypt, or would God we had died in

this wilderness." I I thought about

titling this message, be careful what

you wish for, because that's exactly

what's going to happen to them because

of this rebellion.

They said, ' And wherefore hath the Lord

brought us into this land to fall by the

sword that our wives and our children

should be a prey? We're not better for

us to return into Egypt. They said one

another, "Let us make us a captain and

let us return into Egypt." We're going

back, Moses, whether you're coming or

not.

You can just see the infectious nature

of their fear.

Now they would rather go back and be

slaves than in Egypt than even risk one

more day with the Lord in the

wilderness.

The whole nation is so faithless they're

ready to pack up and go back to Egypt.

Well, while the whole nation is full of

fear, Joshua and Caleb were full of

faith.

You notice in verse six, well, verse

five, it says, "Moses and Aaron fell on

their faces before all the assembly of

the congregation of the children of

Israel." They they they can't say

anything.

There's a revolt going on. But it says

Joshua the son of Nun. So now we have

Joshua kind of taking the lead here as

the first name mentioned and Caleb the

son of Japona, which were of them that

searched the land. Rent their clothes.

What that what that is is it's a it's an

expression of of of deep uh a deep

distress. No, you guys don't know what

you're saying and you don't know what

you're doing. There's something out in

front of us that's very good. There's

something out in front of us that's that

we're very capable of possessing. It

says in verse number seven, "And they

spake unto all the company of the

children of Israel, saying, the land

which we passed through to search it, it

is an exceeding good land. The land is

so good there aren't words to describe

it. It's beyond words.

But then it says in verse 8, if the Lord

delight in us, then he will bring us

into this land and give it us a land

which flowth with milk and honey.

Notice he says, "If the Lord delights in

us,"

the word delights conveys a deep

covenant affection for someone. In fact,

it's first uh used in Genesis 34:1 19

Genesis 34:1

when Sheckchham delighted in Jacob's

daughter, Dina, that he was willing to

do anything in order for her to become

his wife.

It it's used of Moses in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 25:7

25:7 in the context of a man delighting

in a wife. It it is used in the context

of David delighting in Mary's uh in in

marrying Saul's daughter Michael. And

then God uses it in Isaiah chapter 62 to

Isaiah 62 · chapter mention

describe his delight in Israel in

marrying her in entering a covenant

relationship with the nation of Israel.

And so when you see this word delight,

it means to take deep great covenant

pleasure in to be delighting in them.

You see, this is what Joshua has in mind

when he says, "If the Lord delights in

us, he will bring us in." If the Lord

has deep covenant affection for us,

he'll bring us in.

But notice that by Joshua and Caleb's

actions,

their their exhortation, their

challenge, let's go up at once. Let's go

take it. God's going to give it to us.

That what that is doing is they're not

suggesting does God delight in us? I it

it may be possible that he delights us.

No. What they are saying is if God

delights in us, by the way, and he does,

he's going to give it to us. Well, how

did they know that God delighted in

them? Well, it's because when they were

at their worst, God showed them grace.

It's because when they were faithless in

Egypt, God brought them out. God did

mighty plagues there and God parted the

Red Sea and he redeemed them by the

blood of the Passover land. That it's

because of the way that God redeemed

them when they weren't looking for him

at all. The way God brought them out,

that demonstrated his delight. But you

know what else did that? As they went

out into the wilderness after seeing all

the plagues and after seeing the parting

of the Red Sea, they began to complain

in the wilderness. And you know what God

did? He provided them mana and he

provided them quail and he brought water

out of a rock. And then when they go to

Mount Si and they are worshiping a

golden calf there, saying these are the

gods that brought you out of the land of

Egypt that God was was ready to punish

them. And when Moses interceded for

them, God showed them grace. And when

God said, "I'm not going with you." you.

And Moses said, "We're not going without

you." God said, "Okay, I'll go with

you." God demonstrated his faithfulness

to Israel time and time again. In spite

of their lack of faithfulness, Joshua

and Caleb understood that when they were

at their worst, God was at his best. And

that demonstrated to them that he did

delight in them. that they had a deep

covenant relationship with them with him

that was not based on how good they were

but on how good he was.

And so Joshua and Caleb are drawing from

their past experience of redemption to

express faith that the God who brought

them out would surely bring them in.

They call on the people in verse number

nine. Only rebel not ye against the

Lord. Neither fear ye the people of the

land for they are they are bread for us.

That what do you do with bread? You eat

it. Is he talking about cannibalism? No.

He's using an analogy here. He's saying

that that you're worried about us being

a prey for them, our children being a

prey for them. No. No. We're going to

consume them. That's what he's saying.

He says here, "Their defense has

departed from them." See, while while

they all saw that these armies were were

fierce and and and giants and and all of

that, what what Joshua saw was this,

they've got nobody protecting them.

They don't have a god. This word, this

word defense, it's literally the word

shadow.

I imagine as Joshua is saying this that

he looks up at the cloud of God's

presence that has hovered over them by

by a day by day for since they left

Mount Si. God's shadow is cast over

them. And he says they have no shadow

over them. It says and the Lord is with

us. Fear not them. Let's go take it.

God's going to do this.

But it says in verse 10, "But all the

congregation bade stone them with

stones."

Here you have 10 spies who are faithless

and their evil report brings a faithless

rebellion that will not be persuaded

otherwise.

But right there in the midst of it, you

have two men who were faithful.

They were full of faith. They would not

give in to the fear culture.

They saw the same land, the same fruit,

the same cities, the same walls, the

same armies, the same giants. But while

nearly the whole nation responded with

fear, why did Joshua and Caleb respond

with faith?

Joshua and Caleb were full of faith

because their faith was grounded in

God's delight.

It was grounded in the fact that they

knew God delights in us.

The same way a father delights in his

child and the same way a husband

delights in his wife, God delights in

us.

God set his love and affection on

Israel, not because they were good, but

because he was gracious. And because

that grace was often extended when they

were at their worst, they knew that can

only be the delight of God in his

people.

They believed this that the God who is

delighted to bring them out was still

delighted to bring them in

in spite of their faithlessness.

And I want you to know tonight that the

same thing is true in your life as it

was for them. That if you are in Christ,

God delights in you.

He delights in you.

He demonstrated his delight in the way

that he brought you out of sin.

Infinitely holy God. see in me that

would pro possibly bring any pleasure to

his soul.

What is it? Well, when you and I

couldn't help ourselves, God sent his

son Jesus into the world to bleed and

die on a cross for our sin as a lamb

without spot and without blemish. And

his blood atoned for all of your sin.

And it satisfied God's wrath against

you. And when you trusted Christ as your

savior, that blood was applied to you as

it was of the doorpost before the

Passover lamb. And when you and and when

you trust Christ as your savior, God

sets his heart on you, not because you

are good, but because he is gracious. He

He like a father delights in his

children and a husband delights in his

wife. God delights in you. He delights

in me. Christ is listen to this. Christ

is so great that you as a sinner can

have such affection and delight from God

that he would say, "I delight in you."

That's how great Christ is.

because of all our sins and all of our

offenses against God have been totally

removed from us and they've been placed

on Jesus at the cross. Christ's

righteousness has been placed on you to

where when God sees you, he sees you not

as a sinner but as a son.

That's the greatness of Christ.

And so now, in spite of your flaws and

in spite of your failures, in spite of

your times perhaps of rebelliousness,

the anger and the confusion that you've

directed at God at times, the doubts you

experience, the faithlessness that you

have, in spite of all of those things,

God can still delight in you because of

Jesus Christ.

That's amazing.

And as a good father and a faithful

husband, he undertakes your care, your

provision, and your protection through

everything you face in life. The God who

delights in you also fights for you. As

we sang, he will keep you from all evil.

Behind you and before you, he will

sustain you through this journey from

now and ever more.

God does that for you.

The God who delighted to bring you out

still delights to bring you in.

He promises you an entrance into his

glorious eternal kingdom. One that is

free from the sin, the suffering, the

pain, and the death that you experience

in this life. the loss that you face

regularly,

the doubts, the confusion, the health

problems,

the brokenness.

His eternal kingdom is free from all of

that.

His streets are paved with purest gold.

His walls are made of jasper. His gates

are made from his throne. And where the

trees the the leaves of the tree of life

are for the healing of the nations and

its fruit produces eternal life in you.

God is bringing you to a good land, an

exceedingly good land. One where words

fall drastically short of accurately

describing

as what God has in store for you. But

before we get there,

before he brings us in,

there are things he must bring us

through in this broken world. There are

times when God will give you a taste of

his goodness.

Times when you enjoy a fruitful season

of ministry.

times when you enjoy the fruit of a

marriage that you have spent years

laboring in that field and plowing and

tilling soil and planting seeds and

making deposits and he allows you to

enjoy a wonderful marriage. That's a

taste of his goodness.

Times when you're flourishing at your

job, when you're raking in the gold and

are totally satisfied in life, all your

needs are met. They're all cared for.

There are times when you get to

experience that in life. There are times

when life is like a bowl of ripe and

plump and juicy fruit, a massive cluster

of delicious grapes. Life can be that

way at times,

but then there are times when you're

climbing mountains,

scaling walls, and fighting giants.

You face times when there is physical

pain, suffering, and declining health,

bad test results, and bad diagnosis.

You'll face times when you get cheated

out of money, times when you lose your

job, times when the housing market

crashes at the wrong time.

A day may come when you're ambushed by

political giants who seek to destroy

Christianity.

when the battle against Christ rages

throughout the world. That time is

coming.

And it's in those times that faith is

deeply tested.

It's in those times when the faithless

will compromise on doctrine, when they

will turn back on the faith or at least

keep quiet about it. It's in those times

when you could feel like throwing in the

towel, packing up, and just going back

to Egypt. Life was a lot easier before I

started following Christ. You can feel

that way.

There are times when you get your eyes

set on all the obstacles that stand

between here and the good land God is

bringing you to.

And as you take your eyes off of him and

you put them on all those things,

faith begins to dip.

How can you remain faithful

among the faithless?

It's the same way Joshua and Caleb did.

By grounding your faith in the delight

of God.

It is revisiting your redemption.

It is remembering

that God so delights in you that his

only son died for you.

And that God did not make you earn your

way back to him. He did not make it to

where you have to be good enough or you

have to pay enough or you have to pay

take pilgrimages and go on hikes and

follow sherpas and bow before idols and

offer incense and crawl across shards of

glass and coals of fire. No, he didn't

make it to where the any of the expense

was on you, but all the expense was on

his son. He made it by grace alone

through faith alone in Jesus alone. And

when you trusted him, God set his

affection on you.

And now, no matter what you've done,

even your times of faithlessness, God

remains faithful to you. Paul said, "For

he cannot deny himself.

He remains true. He remains faithful."

You got to remember that the God who is

delighted to bring you out of sin is

just as delighted to bring you in. that

he's going to get you all the way to the

promise that he has in store for you.

The God who delights in you will fight

with you and for you in every battle you

face.

Every enemy you face is as good as

conquered. He will deliver you. He will

provide for you. He will protect you.

And one day, he will heal you once and

for all, never to worry about it again.

He'll bring you all the way home to a

land flowing with milk and honey

where you get to enjoy the fruit of his

rest for all of eternity.

And if the Lord delights in you, and he

does,

he'll bring you all the way through

whatever you face here and get you all

the way there. So stay faithful.

ground your faith in God's delight.

But the only way to experience God's

delight is through faith in Christ.

Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith, it is

Hebrews 11:6

impossible to please him." You must

believe Jesus died for your sin and rose

again. You must call on him to be your

savior. But when you do so, God forgives

all your sin. He wipes your slate clean.

He guarantees you victory and eternal

life. He sets his affection on you. Your

salvation, believer, is God's pleasure

and so is bringing you all the way home.

Bringing you all the way to his

presence. So I would encourage you if

you never trusted Christ as your savior

to trust him. You can't have his

affection and his delight without his

son. You must trust in Jesus. But

believer, I want to leave you with this

encouragement

that whatever it is that you are facing,

the giants, the walls, the health

problems, the financial crisis, the

abandonment of friends and family,

whatever it might be.

Get your eyes off all of that.

Ground your faith in the fact God

delights in you. and trust that he'll

fight for you, that he'll get you

through it. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you for your

grace and your goodness to us,

your love and affection for us.

Thank you for demonstrating it in the

way Jesus gave his life for us while we

were yet sinners. Christ died for us.

I pray that you would help weary

believers today,

those who are struggling to exercise

faith among the faithless.

I pray that tonight they would ground

their faith in your delight, knowing you

love them, knowing you care for them,

knowing you will keep them and sustain

them no matter what evil they may face.

and help us all to rest in the promise

that one day we will stand in your

presence in that holy city, a holy

people.

Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and

thank you for your faithful presence in

our lives. We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.