Sermon Tone Analysis

A shoe salesman was sent to a remote part of the country.

When he arrived, he was dismayed because everyone went around barefooted.

So he wired the company, “No prospect for sales.

People don’t wear shoes here.”

Later another salesman went to the same territory.

He too immediately sent word to the home office.

But his telegram read, “Great potential!

People don’t wear shoes here!”

Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life.

Joni Eareckson Tada

What is your perspective of life?

Today’s text present two perspectives.

Two ways to view life and two ways to live life.

Do you live in the company of the ten or the two?

In order fully to understand the previous commandment, we must look at it in connection with a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy, where Moses, in going over the facts of Israel's marvelous history in the wilderness, reminds them of the following important and interesting circumstance

In order fully to understand the previous commandment, we must look at it in connection with a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy, where Moses, in going over the facts of Israel's marvelous history in the wilderness, reminds them of the following important and interesting circumstance

Now here we have the moral root of the fact stated in

It is evident that the Lord gave the commandment concerning the spies because of the moral condition of the people.

Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those soul-stirring words of Moses

It is evident that the Lord gave the commandment concerning the spies because of the moral condition of the people.

Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those soul-stirring words of Moses

Now here we have the moral root of the fact stated in .

It is evident that the Lord gave the commandment concerning the spies because of the moral condition of the people.

Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those soul-stirring words of Moses

Should not the Lord’s testimony be sufficient and satisfactory?

The Lord himself had spied out the land and told them all they needed to know.

Could they not trust His report?

Had the Sovereign God not selected this land and allotted it for the seed of Abraham, His friend?

Did God not know all about the difficulties?

Was He not able to conquer them?

Why, then, did they send spies?

Brother and Sisters, these questions are a stress test for our heart’s this morning.

They seek to reveal whether or not a dangerous condition exist, unbelief.

Today’s text is not written down for us to criticize the ways of Israel in the wilderness or to point out their error here, and failure there.

Their story is an admonition to us this morning.

It is a beacon, erected by a faithful Father, to warn us off from the dangerous shoals, quicksands, and rocks which lie along our course and threaten our safety.

May we heed His warning and reap its reward for this is His design in penning such a record.

THEY DOUBTED THE GOODNESS OF GOD

The suspicious of God’s goodness began with our first parents and continues until now, yet he has filled the world with abundance and multiplied His loving kindnesses to His creatures.

He fulfilled the promise of His covenant by sending His only-begotten Son to die yet; we still question His goodness.

For what is “God” but “good” written in brief?

Charles Spurgeon

Doubting the truthfulness of God is utterly unreasonable.

If God possesses any falsehood, then He is by definition a false god.

Look back upon your own experience and find, if you can, a single instance in which God has been unfaithful to His promises.

Do you believe anyone in the past or present, in heaven or in hell could produce a testimony against God faithfulness.

If we could find one instance where He broke His promise, we would be justified in our doubts.

If we could uncover one authenticated case, fully established, in which God had acted contrary to His promise or failed to keep His word, then we could doubt.

However, not one levied accusation has ever been proven.

When a man is suspected of untruthfulness, we usually connect to him some motive for it but what motive can be alleged of the Lord?

He knows all things from the beginning and therefore makes promises based on His keeping of them.

God is not obligated to make promises.

God makes promises because it is His nature to prescribe and perform them.

God is immutable.

Therefore, any word uttered by Him will stand fast.

An unchangeable being cannot be fickle.

Man can search with all his soul, mind, and strength but there does not exist one supposable reason why the Lord should not be faithful.

How dare we, then, without the slightest cause, cast suspicion upon the truthfulness of the Most High?

Brothers and Sisters, unbelief of God’s word ought, therefore, to be impossible.

It ought to be beyond the bounds of possibility that we, God’s own children, should doubt the truth of His promises!

You could not make a true-hearted child suspect his father of falsehood.

If he heard such an accusation brought against a loving and kind father, he would be irate.

He would not want to hear disproving evidence; he would say, “It is impossible.

I know my father.

I know his character.

I have seen him.

I understand him.

I cannot bear hearing him slandered and I do not need to hear him defended, for of this I am sure—that he cannot lie.”

INDIANA JONES PICTURES

Brothers and sisters, may it never be said that the children of God doubt their Father?

I have heard some professing Christians say that they find it hard to believe His promises and yet they do not appear to be concerned about their condition.

What must be their opinion of God if they find it hard to believe Him?

Think of it again—a child of God finding it hard to believe his own Father—his heavenly Father!

If it has crossed your mind, scout it, and with many tears confess it before God, for to a child of God it ought to be impossible to doubt His Father’s truthfulness.

For many of us doubt should be impossible because of the many proofs that we received demonstrating the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises.

He has answered the prayers of some of us in a way that has drowned our eyes with tears of joy.

Most, if not all, have felt amazed at the mighty goodness of our God and this should make doubt impossible.

Let us resolve with the help of God’s grace to doubt the evidence of our eyes and not God.

Let us remember that our eyes will deceive us, but God will not.

Let us doubt our human intuition and inclinations but never doubt our God.

Let us be suspicious of ourselves but never our God.

Be suspicious of everything except God.

Doubt your feelings they can seldom be relied upon.

If all your friends and trusted confidants unanimously conclude that your case is hopeless and the promise cannot be fulfilled, reject and refuse their flesh and blood counsel.

Let God be true and every man a liar and everything a liar.

If your hope is in God alone then you have all that you need.

Every promise of God first comes from the Father’s lips it is then revealed by the Holy Spirit and finally it is sealed by the blood of Jesus.

A single doubt of a promise of God casts a dishonor on the Trinity.

It is a triple transgression.

Do you not find it strange how we can be so confident about so much and yet not exercise the same confidence towards our God?

We all believe in gravity.

Why?

Because we have seen it in action so often, we expect to see it.

Yet this certainty is not as certain as we might believe.

This certainty has been suspended.

Was it not at the Red Sea that water stood upright?

We wake each morning with certainty that our sun will rise at the appointed time.

Why?

Because we have seen it in action so often, we expect to see it.

And yet there was a time when there was no sun to rise or set, and there will be a time when the sun shall be turned into darkness, and day and night shall cease.