26 "God Always Does What He Says" Numbers 26:1-65 | Thursday, April 9, 2026

We'll be in Numbers 26. I actually want

you to start in Numbers 14. I want to

just read a passage here that will help

refresh our memories before we move into

the final section of the book of

Numbers.

Once you found your place, if you'll

stand as we give honor to God's word.

Numbers chapter 14 is where we'll start

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

and then we'll move over to chapter 26.

Numbers 14

is the fallout of the bad report brought

back by the spies about the land of

Canaan, about their faithlessness, their

disobedience, and their rebellion. And

you'll remember that God pronounced a

judgment upon that previous generation

38 years prior to where we are at now in

the book of Numbers. And I want to just

read a few verses beginning in verse 30

that'll remind us of exactly what God

said because you're going to hear some

repeated statements from this as well

that'll pertain to our text tonight.

Numbers 14:30,

Numbers 14:30

the Lord says, "Doubtless, ye shall not

come into the land concerning which I

swear to make you dwell therein, save

Caleb, the son of Japona, and Joshua the

son of Nun. But your little ones, which

ye said should be a prey, them will I

bring in, and they shall know the land

which ye have despised. But as for you,

your carcasses, they shall fall in this

wilderness. So, let's go now to chapter

26.

And it's always our favorite part of the

book of Numbers when we get to read a

bunch of names in Numbers, right? That's

what Numbers 26 is. It's the new census

of the next generation. So, 38 years

later, that entire generation has now

died off completely. As you notice in

verse one, it says, "And it came to pass

after the plague." The plague goes back

to chapter 25 and verse 9 when it says,

"And those that died in the plague were

204,000."

24,000 people died in that plague. And

it's almost like that was the final wave

of death and judgment for the previous

generation.

And so now God is beginning with the

second generation. The same way that he

began the last generation at Sinai,

which is with a counting up of the men

that are able to go forth to war, as

well as the Levites. But we're also

going to notice that it points forward

to the fact that it's time to go into

the land. And then we'll see finally at

the end of the chapter some statements

that reflect what we read in Numbers 14.

So, we're not going to read the entire

chapter, 65 verses of a bunch of names

and numbers. Uh, but we'll jump around

here a little bit. Let's go and begin

reading though in verse number one. And

it came to pass after the plague that

the Lord spake unto Moses and unto

Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,

saying, Take the sum of all the

congregation of the children of Israel,

from 20 years old and upward throughout

their father's house, all that are able

to go to war in Israel. And Moses and

Eleazar the priests spake with them in

the plains of Moab by Jordan near

Jericho. Take the sum of the people from

20 years old and upward as the Lord

commanded Moses and the children of

Israel which went forth out of the land

of Egypt. And so now it's going to begin

with Reuben there in verse five. and it

will continue to give names and numbers

as well as some of the random accounts

and stories that we've seen in the book

of numbers. Now, let's go to verse

number 51.

Verse 51.

These were the numbered of the children

of Israel, 600,000

and 1,730.

So 61,730

people, men that are able to go forth to

war. Verse 52. And the Lord spake unto

Moses, saying, "Unto these the land

shall be divided for an inheritance,

according to the number of names. To

many thou shalt give the more

inheritance, and to few thou shalt give

the less inheritance. to everyone

uh shall his inheritance be given

according to those that were numbered of

him. Notwithstanding, the land shall be

divided by lot. According to the names

of the tribes of their fathers, they

shall inherit. According to the lot

shall the possession thereof be divided

between many and few. Now in verse 57

through verse 61, it's the numbering of

the Levites, which will uh number as we

see in verse 62, those that were

numbered uh of them were 20 and 3,000,

all males from a month old and upward.

For they were not numbered among the

children of Israel, because there was no

inheritance given them among the

children of Israel. These are they that

were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the

priest who numbered the children of

Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan

near Jericho.

But among these there was not a man of

them whom Moses and Aaron the priests

numbered when they numbered the children

of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

For the Lord had said of them, "They

shall surely die in the wilderness."

There was not left a man of them save

Caleb the son of Japa and Joshua the son

of Nun. The title of our message tonight

is God Always does what he says. God

always does what he says. May God bless

his word. You can be seated. We'll get

into our message.

Whenever someone fails to keep their

word, you lose confidence in what they

say. Maybe your boss has promised you a

pay raise time and time again only for

it to never come. And so the next time

he says it, you're like, "Yeah, I'll

believe it when it hits my bank account.

Just stop telling me. Just do it." You

know? Or maybe your husband promised you

an anniversary getaway, but for the

third consecutive year, something came

up and now you're just thinking, I don't

think that trip is ever gonna happen.

That was just for you, Dad. I seriously

had you in mind as I was thinking this.

You might remember as a kid, now I'm

going to pick on myself a little bit.

You might remember as a kid being on the

road with your parents. You're fighting

in the back seat with your brother or

sister and your dad says you wait till

we get home, you know, and now you're

just dreading for the next hour and a

half until you get home of what's going

to happen. And then you get home and you

go to bed and dad never comes. He forgot

to punish you. You know, I remember that

happening a few times. And of course,

when that happens, you're not going to

go remind them, you forgot to punish me.

And I've done that a few times as a dad

myself, too, where I think this last

Sunday, I forgot to discipline. And so,

it's coming tonight, right? Just

teasing.

Don't we often make promises

or issue warnings that we fail to follow

through on?

I think all of us have struggled with

that in our lives. We get busy. We

forget. Sometimes the people around us

are left wondering if we will really

follow through on what we say because we

don't always keep our word. But I want

to tell you tonight that God is not like

us.

God always does everything he says. When

he says he will bless, he blesses. When

he says he will curse, he curses. When

he says he will judge, he judges. But

thank God when he says he will save, he

saves. I'm thankful for my salvation

that God does what he says. That when

you trust Jesus Christ as your savior

and God calls you his own and forgives

your sin and promises you eternal life,

he keeps his word because he's a

faithful God.

But God's faithfulness to his word

also warns us because when God says that

he will judge you if you reject his son,

he will judge you if you reject his son.

All of God's warnings and all of God's

promises come to pass because God always

keeps his word. And that's really what

we find happening in Numbers 26.

You see, many times when we come to a

record of genealogies and numbers, our

eyes roll back a little bit. Or if

you're in your personal Bible reading,

you skip over these and go to the more

exciting parts and the stories like

we've been in here in the middle of

Numbers. But I want us to make sure that

we realize that even genealological

records like this have theological

significance for us even today. Even

today, this census

foreshadows that after 40 years of death

in the wilderness, a conquest is still

coming. An inheritance still awaits. It

shows that God keeps his promises and

fully intends to do so. But it also

recalls God's warning to the previous

generation that every one of them would

die in the wilderness because of their

rebellion and their faithlessness.

Numbers 26 reveals really the

fulfillment of God's warning to judge

the old generation

and his promise to bring their little

ones in. That's what we see fulfilled in

Numbers 26. See, unlike us, God follows

through on every promise and every

warning he ever makes. Every one of

them. Why is it important to understand

that? And what difference should it make

in this next generation? And what

difference should it make in our lives?

That's what we want to study tonight.

And so, as we look at this text, we're

going to see first of all how this

census foreshadows two promises. Then

we'll see it at how it looks back on a

warning and then we will come to make

three applications for us today. Two

promises, one warning, three

applications. Let's start with the

promise here. The census foreshadows

two promises. The first is a promise of

conquest. We read there at the very

start in verse one that the Lord tells

Moses and Eleazar who is the new high

priest as Aaron already died in the

wilderness. He tells them to take the

sum of all the men that are to go forth

to war. Now question, why do you need to

know how many you have to go into war?

Well, it's because battles await you and

wars are in front of you. And so in what

this is communicating is that in spite

of a 38-year delay and in spite of the

death of hundreds of thousands, the

nation is still intact and the conquest

is still in front of them. That God is

going to bring them into the land and he

is going to lead them into battle and

they will conquer and secure victory.

That's what this foreshadows. Battles

are coming but conquest will happen.

The second promise is the promise of

inheritance.

As we look at this genealogical record

um or this these numbers, we notice

first of all a tie back to God's promise

to Jacob as he went into Egypt. If you

would look with me at verse number five,

they start taking the the tabulation

here and it's given now beginning in

verse five. And just notice the way this

is written. Reuben the eldest son of

Israel, the children of Reuben. Hanoch

of whom cometh the family of the

Heanites, of Paloo, the family of the

Palites, of Hezron, the family of the

Hezronites, of Carmi, the family of the

Carminites. These are the families of

the Reubenites. And what I want to point

out to you is that when we studied the

census in Numbers 1, it it mentioned who

the princes were of each tribe. And then

it didn't give a family record. It just

told you the prince and it told you

tying this back to Numbers 1. Moses is

taking it all the way back to Genesis 46

when God appeared to Jacob after he

realized Joseph was alive. Uh God

appeared to him and he said to go down

into Egypt for I will there make of thee

a great nation. I will go down with thee

into Egypt and I will also surely bring

thee up again. He says I'm going to

bring your children back out. And then

it gives a genealogical record that is

recorded exactly as it's recorded in

this particular text. He's connecting

this together that God is fulfilling his

promise to Jacob to bring his children

out because now they are by the Jordan

River. That's where they are. They're

about to cross in. God's about to

fulfill his promise. So, you can see

what's being foreshadowed here both in

the conquest, but then also that the

inheritance is coming. But then also it

speaks back to Numbers 14 when God

promised to bring their little ones that

they thought would be a prey that they

were going to suffer. They were going to

put up with everything in the wilderness

when they should have grown up in

Canaan. They're going to end up

suffering in the wilderness is what God

said. But that generation that you said

will be a prey to your enemies, I'm

going to bring them in. God has now

brought them through the wilderness to

the banks of the Jordan River. And God

fully intends to bring them in because

in verse 52, look what it says. And the

Lord spake unto Moses, saying unto these

the land shall be divided for an

inheritance according to the number of

the names. The number of the names. What

was the number of the names? If you look

back at verse 51, what does it say?

These were numbered of the children of

Israel, 600,000

and 1,730.

And so you've got here 61,730.

You know what the number was before?

63 or 603,550.

A difference of 1,820.

By the time you tabulate the Levites in

who gained a thousand people, there's

only a difference of 820 people from the

previous generation to this generation.

What is that telling us? That even after

38 years of death in the wilderness,

Israel is just as strong today. That

they have not diminished, they have not

weakened, they have not passed or faded

off the scene. know God has raised up

this generation to bring them through

just as he promised to the previous

generation who fell in the wilderness

because of rebellion. God is faithful to

his promise and he's here to give them

the land. It says that they are going to

cast lots for the land and that they are

going to determine who receives what

based off whether they are large or if

they are small. They'll receive an

inheritance in proportion to their

number. But what this is supposed to

show us and show this next generation

who's reading this is that God has kept

his word that he has done what he

promised to Jacob in Genesis 46. And he

has done what he said he would do to

their fathers in in Numbers chapter 14.

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

God has done what he said. And so God

kept two promises that are foreshadowed

in this census. Conquest and

inheritance,

victory

and possession. That's what he's

promised them. Now let's look at the

warning together. And this is at the

very end verses 63 to verse 65. Remember

that in Numbers 14, the Lord warned the

previous generation that because of

their faithlessness and their

disobedience, he would judge them in the

wilderness and they would never see the

land. And that warning is recalled

throughout this census. If we look at

verses 9 through 10, look at what it

says. And let's see if some of these

things sound familiar.

and the sons of Eliab, Neule, and Dayan,

and Abram.

This is that Dayan and Abram, which were

famous in the congregation, who strove

against Moses and against Aaron in the

company of Kora. When they strove

against the Lord, and the earth, opened

her mouth, and swallowed them up

together with Kora. And when that

company died, what time the fire

devoured 250 men, and they became a

sign. The idea of the sign here is they

became a warning to others. Do not rebel

against God and against his leadership

or judgment will follow. They were

assigned to the next generation. I I

didn't mention this, but when you

consider even the very beginning here

where it refers to Eleazar versus Aaron,

that too is a reminder that Aaron has

already died in the wilderness because

of his own rebellion with Moses at the

waters of Mebaha. eventually, and we're

going to see in chapter 27 that God

tells Moses, "Go up into the mountain

and look at the land because you're

going to die up there." That comes the

very next chapter. And so, you have

that, you have Dayan and Abram and the

the and Kora as well. But then, if you

look at verse number 14, it says this,

"These are the families of the

Simeonites,

202,

and 200." I want to point out to you

that the Simeonites have lost over

37,000

people since the first census.

Why is that? In chapter 25, we read

about a prince of a chief house of the

Simeonites named Zimai. And he took a

daughter of a prince of the Medidionites

caused by to his family is what it says

to his brethren. We realize that

families are much larger than what we

consider like our immediate family. This

is talking about to his brethren the

other Simeonites. And it said that as a

result of their sin, 24,000 died in the

plague. Evidently, the majority of those

who died in the plague were those who

were related to the Simeonites because

of their involvement in this. I mean,

it's massive. They lost about 25,000

more people than the next the next

tribe. And so, there was a massive

decimation. Why? Because of idolatry and

immorality in the wilderness.

But then we go all the way forward to

verse 61

and it says this. And Naab and Abaihu

died when they offered strange fire

before the Lord. Remember that all the

way back to Leviticus 10. These two sons

of Aaron. They died at Mount Si. Why?

They did not follow God's command. We

could also mention the one who broke the

Sabbath and was stoned because he broke

the Sabbath. And there were others

mentioned throughout this wilderness

journey that just shows us that this

previous generation was marked by sin

and rebellion. And as a result, they

were judged by God just as God said they

would be. And we're reminded of this

clearly in verses 63- 65.

It says, "These are they that were

numbered by Moses and Eleazar the

priest, who numbered the children of

Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan

near Jericho. But among these, there was

not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron

the priest numbered when they numbered

the children of Israel in the wilderness

of Si. For the Lord had said unto them,

they shall surely die in the

wilderness." And there was not left a

man of them save Caleb the son of Japona

and Joshua the son of Nun. And as I

mentioned in chapter 27, God's going to

pronounce that Moses is going to die

there as well.

But I wanted to point out that this is

the exact wording that God gave to them

38 years ago in Numbers 14.

It's showing us that God always does

what he says.

He always fulfills his promises and he

always fulfills his warnings as well.

And so what does this mean for the next

generation? Why do they need to

understand

that God always does what he says? that

he follows through on every promise and

every warning that he's ever made.

Well, I think there are three primary

applications to this next generation.

The first is this. Because God always

keeps his word, they can trust his

promise.

They can trust that he is going to give

them victory in the land of Canaan. They

can trust that he is going to give them

the land of Canaan as well. And so

because God keeps his word, they can

trust his promise. But then number two,

because God always keeps his word, they

need to heed his warnings. They need to

heed his warnings. God warned in the law

that if Israel rebels, if they fail to

keep his word, his Sabbaths, his feasts,

his jubilees, that he will curse their

land and they will be carried away

captive into a land that is not theirs.

And now that God has fulfilled his

warning to their fathers,

they can know he'll fulfill his warning

to them as well. They must heed his

warnings. But then I think there's this

final application to them because God

keeps his word. If they will trust his

promise and heed his warnings, they will

experience the fullness of the blessing

of God in the land of Canaan. if they

will trust his word and heed his

warnings.

See, these things in numbers were

written for their admonition,

lest they should sin as their fathers

had sinned. But in 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

10, the Apostle Paul also says that to a

church in Corinth, when speaking about

the things recorded in the book of

Numbers, including that plague where

24,000 people died, he said, "These

things were examples for us. They were

written for our admonition. You know

what that word means? Our warning. Lest

we should worship idols as they did.

Lest we should commit fornication as

they did. And so we need to be careful

to be sure that we are following what

the scripture tells us to in terms of

obedience and holiness. And because of

that and because of what Paul said, I

think we are safe to say that the

applications that Israel receives from

this text are the same applications that

we draw from it today who are in Christ.

The fact that God keeps his word yields

those same three applications. Number

one, because God keeps his word, we too

can trust his promises. We can trust his

promise of victory. He's obviously made

a ton of promises, but I'm just going to

stick in line with the text here tonight

that we can trust his promise of victory

to us because when Jesus gave his life

on the cross, he nailed our sin to his

body on the tree. And that means that he

judged all of your sins on the cross.

Which means that you have no eternal

judgment to face, no condemnation to

come and no penalty before God. Even for

the very sins you committed today,

you're free from them.

Now this doesn't mean that we should be

casual about sin. This doesn't mean that

we can sin freely with no consequence.

But it means that because the price has

been paid at any point in time, we can

come before God and confess our sins and

forsake our sins and have a guiltfree

conscience before God. something that

nobody has ever been able to have before

God. Because not because we are perfect,

but because Christ took the guilt and

bore it in his body on the cross. We're

free from it. Jesus defeated sin and he

also conquered our flesh. Your flesh has

been dethroned. It can't be your king.

It can't be your master. It can't chain

you or shackle you because Christ broke

those chains and made you free. The only

way that your flesh gets back on the

throne is if you make way for it. But

it's not because Christ wasn't

sufficient. No, he's promised you and

guaranteed victory over that sin. But

you know what else he's done? Crushed

the serpent's head. He crushed the

serpent's head. That means that as Paul

said in Colossians chapter 2 that he

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

triumphed over all principalities and

powers and rulers of the darkness of

this world. It says that he made a show

of them openly. That's as if he paraded

around Satan and his demons by casting

them out and proving his power over

them. And then when he suffered and died

on the cross, he rendered Satan Satan

powerless to bind you. Satan may oppress

you. Satan may oppose you, but he can

never have your soul. He can never steal

the spirit from you. He can never take

away the eternal life that's been

guaranteed to you. Why? Because Christ

brought the victory over him. He

triumphed through his wounds.

This is your victory.

It's been promised in Christ. And

because God keeps his word, you can

trust his promise. That means in your

life today, you do not have to bow

before sin. It means that you cannot be

bound by Satan. It means that you can

trust in his promise of victory. But I

also want to assure you that you can

trust his promise of inheritance.

Conquest has happened. Another greater

conquest is coming and an inheritance is

guaranteed to us. That is even eternal

salvation, eternal life. God has

promised that King Jesus will lead his

saints into a final revolt against all

the kingdoms of darkness. that he will

destroy them all without us lifting a

finger by merely the word of his mouth.

He is going to divide after establishing

his kingdom. He's going to divide the

land in a new earth to both Israel and

to the nations. He is going to establish

his kingdom of rest, his kingdom of

peace, his kingdom of righteousness. and

we get to reign with him and serve him

and worship him forever and ever. That

is your inheritance, even eternal life.

And as we read on Sunday in first Peter,

that inheritance is incorruptible. That

inheritance is undefiled. It fadeth not

away. It is reserved for you in heaven

who are kept by the power of God unto

salvation. We learned that on Sunday.

That inheritance to you has been

promised. And because God always keeps

his word, you can trust his promise.

It's guaranteed.

But then also number two,

because God always keeps his word, we

too must heed his warnings. We must heed

his warnings. See, God has called us as

his people to holiness,

faithfulness,

and obedience.

And the reality is in modern

Christianity,

people are scared to preach specifics

about holiness

and sometimes even too scared to preach

the clear commands of God to New

Testament believers because we're

worried about being too moralistic and

not gospel- centered enough. But when I

study the Bible, what I find is that the

gospel transforms people still and it

makes them holy and it changes how they

look and it changes how they dress and

it changes how they live and who they

date and it changes all of those things.

It's holiness. It's it's obedience. God

calls us to be pure as singles, to be

faithful in marriage, to be modest in

dress. He calls us to be truthful with

our tongue, to abstain from gossip and

slander of others, to do everything

without complaining.

Did you know that's a command in

scripture? Did you know that every time

you complain, you are sinning against

God, whether it's about stubbing your

toe or it's about what your coworker did

to you or what your boss did to you. Uh

the apostle Paul wrote there in

Philippians, do all things without

murmurings and disputings and especially

in the context of a local church.

And yet in many churches, you'll have

people complaining about the color of

the carpets or the color of the

himynelss or what kind of songs that you

sing or or about this personality over

here that I just don't get with and this

click over here. And you can find

believers just complaining about it.

It's disobedience, friend. God's called

you to a greater holiness than to

nitpick your brothers and sisters in

Christ. He's called us to use our tongue

for good and not for evil. He commands

us to flee from sin and to cling to

Christ. He commands us to resist the

devil and to love one another, to be

humble, kind, and generous. He calls us

not to be covetous and greedy after

filthy lucer.

He calls husbands to love their wives

and wives to respect their husbands and

children to obey their parents. And it

doesn't matter what our culture thinks

today. It matters what God says because

God's word is timeless and eternal.

We're called to live above reproach,

blamelessly, and holy in this world

today. But I do want you to understand

that God calls us to holiness and

obedience not so we can receive his

promise, but because we've already

received his promise. We do not work our

way into favor and righteousness with

God. But when we have Jesus Christ and

the Holy Spirit living within us, that

ought to change our lives. It ought to

change how we treat people in our lives.

It ought to change how we spend our

money if it's wasteful or if it's

invested well and going into the work of

God. It ought to change our lives.

Holiness and obedience is the natural

outflow of every person who has believed

the gospel and received the Holy Spirit.

It's the natural outflow. Therefore,

what God commands, we must obey

or else

he warns of discipline. He warns of

discipline.

God will never take away your salvation

because you sin.

Because he did not save you because you

did not sin.

He saved you by grace. He keeps you by

grace.

But the reality is just as God

disciplined Israel in the wilderness,

God warns his people today that he will

discipline us when we fail to follow his

commands.

What does that look like?

Well, we hope it doesn't look like it

does in scripture, but if it's how it

looks in scripture,

it's a serious warning. Why? Ananas and

Safh

died in front of the whole church

because they lied about an offering.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers

that some of them were sick and weak and

had even died because they took of the

Lord's supper unworthily.

Something as simple as that.

Even Jesus said that when a branch fails

to produce fruit, he will prune it. But

it's so that it will bring forth more

fruit.

And so the reality is that God says,

even when you're saved, if you live in

disobedience to me, I will discipline

you.

Does that bother you?

Well, it's bothered Christians for a

long time because the author of Hebrews

had to say, "My son, despise not the

chastening of the Lord." You know what

chastening is? Discipline.

It's when God pulls out the whooping

stick on us because we've been bad. And

and so that's what discipline is. And

yet he says, "Despise not thou the

chastening of the Lord." Well, why why

wouldn't I I think little of the

chastening of the Lord. He says, "For

whom he loveth, he chastineth." Jesus

said in Revelation 3:1 19 to the

Revelation 3:1

Leodysian church, "As many as I love, I

rebuke and chasen."

God disciplines us out of love because

he knows that the sin that we are living

in is not for our good and it's

certainly not for his glory. He does not

discipline us to hurt us. He does not

prune us because he sees us as

worthless. Sometimes you've got to prune

a tree so that it will bring new life

into it and sprout forth more leaves.

And sometimes God's got to do that in

our life. He's got to cut a relationship

out of our life. Or he's got to cut some

financial stability out of our life. Or

maybe he even has to cut some health out

of our life. We don't know exactly what

it looks like, but all of those things

are things that are mentioned in the

scripture of what can come because of

sin. But the reason God does it is to

bring forgiveness and restoration

through repentance that we may live for

his glory once again. Despise not the

chastening of the Lord. See, because God

keeps his word, not only can we trust

his promise, but we must also heed his

warnings.

But then the final application

is that when we trust God's promise and

when we heed his warnings, we experience

the fullness of his blessings in Christ

even today. I'm talking about a clean

conscience before God. Wouldn't you love

to have a clean conscience before God?

to not go through your life fearing

being caught or being weighed down in

your life because you know you're not

living right before God, but to just be

able to come to church every Sunday free

and clear knowing that your sin is

forgiven, that it's under the blood,

that you're not continually living this

life of sin, and therefore you can sing

God's praise without feeling like a

hypocrite. You can put your offering in

the in the box without acting like

you're paying God off because of your

sin. No, you can just enjoy praising and

worshiping God. You can enjoy unhindered

access to him. Men, did you know that if

you're bitter against your wives, your

prayers will be hindered?

That's what the Bible says.

And so, the reality is is if you are

mistreating your wife, that can hinder

your access to God.

But when you are treating her the way

that God tells you to and you're being

loving and gracious and generous and

kind toward her, then you can come

before God in prayer knowing there's

nothing that stands between us. How I

mean, we sometimes we know when we've

got sin going on in our lives and we

come before God and and we feel like we

got to just clean all of this out before

we can have a relationship with him. And

listen, that's a good place to start is

with the confession of sin and the

cleansing and the renewing of your mind.

But how wonderful it is that if you're

so trusting God's promise of victory and

you're so uh careful to heed his

warnings and to obey him that you can

just come before God and humbly

acknowledge, I know I'm a sinner. I know

I don't belong in your presence, but

thank God you've brought me in through

Christ. And you can just start your

prayer life clean with God. That's a

blessing that Christ died to give you.

It truly is.

When you trust his promise and heed his

warnings, it allows you to experience a

vibrant prayer life, a satisfying

marriage, a loving family, a faithful

ministry, and really the list. We could

go on on and on and on. There are

manifold blessings in our relationship

with Christ. But anytime we fall short

because of unbelief and anytime we fail

to obey him, we miss out on experiencing

the fullness of the blessings that

Christ provided for us.

Trusting God's promise and heeding God's

warnings can help you experience that

blessing because God always keeps his

word.

I can struggle to follow through on

that.

I can put dates on my calendar that get

pushed around.

I can forget my brother's birthday.

Hopefully not any of my kids or my wife,

but a brother's okay, right?

Sometimes I mentioned I'll forget to

discipline my kids on the way home

or to schedule that getaway for our

anniversary. And so because because I

fail and you know that when you fail,

you leave people that you love dearly

deeply disappointed in your life. And

maybe that's been your whole life

experience is everyone in your life,

whether it was your father or if it was

your mother or a friend or a brother,

but but there's somebody in your life

that always said they would do one thing

and never did it. Or they said they

would do one thing and then did the very

opposite. There's someone in your life

that has constantly failed you and it's

brought you to a point where you even

question, will God really do what he

says? Friends, he always does what he

says. He follows through on every

promise and every warning he ever makes.

In one sense,

that is giving a deep sense of assurance

that I know that no matter my sin, no

matter what comes at me in life, God's

true to his word. He's faithful to his

promise. He's got victory for me. He's

got an inheritance for me that is

incorruptible and undefiled and fadeth

not away. I know that I can rest in all

of those promises. And in that sense, it

gives us a great feeling of assurance,

doesn't it?

But it should also in another sense

cause us to carefully live according to

his word knowing he faithfully

disciplines his children he loves.

But if we'll trust his promises,

heed his warnings, we can experience the

blessings of Christ until he re returns

to fulfill every promise that has yet to

be done. He'll do it. If you're here and

you're not a Christian, God has also

given you both a promise and a warning.

The promise is of salvation. That if you

believe on his son who died on the cross

to atone for your sin and rose again,

God promises right here, right now to

forgive your sin, to wipe your slate

clean, to clear you of any and all

guilt. He promises to give you his holy

spirit who will change your life. He

also promises to give you eternal life

in his kingdom if you will believe. That

is a wonderful promise of salvation.

But he also gives a warning that those

who reject his son and die in their sin

will spend eternity in hell facing the

judgment for their sin.

God offers a promise. And if you receive

that promise through his son by faith,

he'll deliver you from death unto life.

So if you've not trusted him, I

encourage you to trust him tonight. If

you're a believer, I encourage you to

cling to his promise no matter what

you're going through in life because

he's faithful to his word. But I also

encourage you to heed his warnings, to

follow his word, to live under his

authority. And as you trust his promise

and heed his warning, you can experience

the fullness of the blessings of Christ

from now till he returns. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word and

for its timeless truths and that even in

something like this census, there is

great theological truth about who you

are. You are true to your word. Help us

to trust your promise. Help us to heed

your warnings and experience the

blessings of Christ. I pray if there are

those who are here tonight or under the

sound of my voice that have not trusted

Jesus as their savior, I pray they would

believe the gospel and trust in him and

be delivered from death into life

tonight. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.