In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not hesitating or delaying when it comes to following God's will. He uses the example of the Israelites in the Bible who hesitated and failed to enter the promised land. The speaker encourages the audience to recognize the value of opportunities and not to waste them. He also emphasizes the need to have a purpose in life and to strive towards it, using the example of Jesus who willingly faced his troubled soul for the purpose he came for. The sermon concludes with a reminder to fear, love, and obey God, and not let sin or the disobedience of others keep us from our heavenly inheritance.

The sin that keeps us out of the promised land. So we departed from Herob and went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea, and I said to you, you have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it. As the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged. And every one of you came near to me and said, let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come. The plan pleased me well. So I took 12 of your men, one man from each tribe, and they departed and went up into the mountains and came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out. They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. And they brought back word to us, saying, it is a good land, which the Lord our God is giving us. Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you complained in your tents and said, because the Lord hates us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, the people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. Moreover, we have seen the sons of Anakim there. The first point I want to talk about this morning, they took the first step. They took the first step. The story is often told of a farmer's plight. After a horse has been rescued from a burning barn, they sometimes run back inside the inferno and perish. So is the case here as Moses talks to the church. They took the first steps, but now will not believe God for the fulfillment. After Moses, through his continuous desperate plea, the people say, let us select a leader and return to Egypt. Numbers 1411. The Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me and how long will they not believe me? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them. Numbers 1412 tells us the Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy. He forgives iniquity and transgression, but goes on in the 14th chapter of numbers to say, the carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness. Those who complained now the Hebrew word loin lean means to stop. They complained, meaning they stopped by them stopping. They proved their unfitness for the promised inheritance. They took the first steps, but then they stopped. God said in numbers 1412, I will disinherit them. Disinherit means I'll disown them. I'll cut them out of my will. I will cut them off. Moses put up with this people and he pleaded with God on their behalf. During the few weeks march from Sinai, it's recorded that there was three partial rebellions in that short period of time. Rebellion had broken out on at least three different occasions, but how many more that are not even mentioned in the Bible? How many took place in the privacy of the people's own tents and in their own minds, their rebellion against God? How often after leaving the congregation of the saints, did they only go away to blaspheme Jehovah's name in the privacy of their own homes, in the privacy of their own minds? How many times after hearing Moses is preaching God's law, did they hold him in contempt? How often did their lack of faith cause them to remain and wander, staying where they were? Their grumbling and their complaining not only brings God's divine judgment on the rebels, but also the faithful suffer in common with the other evils of the exclusion. For 40 years they suffer. Now Israel had spent a whole year at Horeb. Horeb represented to Moses the holy place of the burning bush. Horeb represented the place where the water miraculously came forth from the rock. Horeb also was the place that Israel was commanded to strip off their ornaments after the situation with the golden calf. Now whether the Christian has experienced at their Horeb their first real encounter with God, or maybe it's a place where a miracle had taken place, or maybe there was a rebuke and a chastisement from God, we do not stay at Horeb forever. 11 days travel from Horeb until they would reach Kadesh Barnea, Deuteronomy 119. So we departed from Horeb and went through all the great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea. The wilderness was terrible, the desert of Paran. It was dusty, it was dry, they were thirsty. It was a most difficult journey and it covered about 150 miles. This dry part of the desert sat upon a limestone plateau and the people were thirsty. They were dusty and very uncomfortable. Their needs were not being met so they grumbled and they continued to wander in the flesh. They did not work together helping Moses. They didn't help the leaders, but instead some of them started rebelling using their little religion to attack Moses and those that were trying to help them get out of the desert. They weren't working with God. They weren't working with God's leaders. They were working against them. Most did not trust God but instead only made temporary agreements with him, commitments that would meet their own personal needs. That's what they were after. The Lord says that he will disinherit them. He will not be with them any longer. These are the folks that stopped their spiritual journey and wanted to go back to Egypt. They went back to sitting in their muck and mire. The church instead of marching forward in victory remained upsetting and overbearing. They became a burden to Moses instead of a help. Israel traveled one year, one month, and one week leaving Egypt until they reached the Sinai. Israel departs from Sinai for the promised land after spending 11 months and five days there. They travel and they make about 20 stops over a period of 11 months between Sinai and Kadesh Barnea. They arrived at Kadesh Barnea the first month of the third year or exactly 24 months after leaving Egypt according to Numbers 20 verse 1. And they spend 38 continuous years at Kadesh Barnea. They do not leave and come back. They stay there. Only at the end of that period do they leave for the promised land and cross the border. Kadesh Barnea is a spring-fed oasis. It's estimated that there's as many as four springs there. It was just south of Canaan's border about 90 miles from Jerusalem. They had gotten all the way to that spot and they sat down and moved no more for 38 years. They became inactive. They became lethargic. There was no spiritual action. They were sleepy. Now sometimes we think that Israel just walked around in the desert aimlessly during that period. But in reality they did walk a few years but they ended up just sitting down. They sat down and made themselves comfortable at Kadesh Barnea for 38 years. God gave them the promise of entering into his rest but they sat back and took their own. The once glorious outlook for the church was lost to blinded lust, self-satisfaction, ease and comfort, new experiences that would engage the passions. No longer were the people desiring God's will. No longer did they believe that he could bring them into the land. They were learning but they never came to know the truth. They took the first step but they sat back down in the devil's easy chair. Moses gave everything he had, all his life to get the people into the holy city. They would not. They refused. They wanted to be comfortable in Kadesh Barnea. The sin that keeps us out of the promised land. The sin that keeps us out of the promised land. Point number two. The people saw the promised land. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 20. And I said to you, you have come to the mountains of the Amorites which the Lord our God is giving us. Now experts say that the journey from Egypt to Canaan could have been done by men in about four days. Adding women and children and livestock, maybe 11 days. Adding the vast amounts of people and the pauses for their sacred obligations, a few more accordingly. But the bible narrative tells us in verse 20 that the people arrived there and they were given the privilege of seeing the promised land. Now Kadesh Barnea was hill country. It belonged to the Amorites at this time and it sat on the border of the promised land. Israel had reached the very border of the promised land itself. The people could actually stand up on the hills and look out and see the promised land. Why didn't they go in? Why? They were unprepared to occupy it. In every generation the church is given a point of time as a supreme moment in history. Every person is placed on earth according to God's perfect timing. The individual parts of Christ's body are called to follow Jesus just as the Jews were called to follow Moses. Every born again believer is called to endure hardships and adversity. We are called on to perform a toilsome journey just as Jesus told us in Matthew 7 verses 13 through 14. He said enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. But he also told us in Luke 14 verses 28 to 30 for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish all who see it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Jesus also tells us in Luke 9 verse 62 no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Israel not only took the first step and left Egypt but now God had shown them their inheritance. They touched as it were the threshold of the promised land but they turned back in their hearts and they failed to rise to the conception of that privilege. They hesitated. They dilly-dallied. They delayed. They feared. They were uncertain and they failed. They failed. Paul tells us look at what they did as an example to us that we don't do the same things. Too many play with opportunity as a toy and when our eyes are finally open to see its value it's gone and it's vanished. Jesus said my soul is troubled and what shall I say father saved me from this hour but for this purpose I came to this hour. Every one of us is here for a purpose. There's a supreme moment in every person's life. Many by never receiving and believing on the truth of the holy scriptures are never made aware of this reality and it's gone. It vanishes. Most are too lazy and apathetic to improve their surroundings here during their time. Israel reached the border of a glorious destiny and they turned back into the desert. What about you? What about you? The path of responsibility to the Christian is very plain but self-indulgence makes us as blind as a mole. Why are we seeing a self-consumed church? If you are born again why are you showing the signs of a country? God's children are free with their lamps burning waiting for the heavenly bridegroom. The guests awaiting his arrival are all washed. They're already wearing white. They're alert. They're energetic waiting with great anticipation for the door to open. Every born again regenerated Christian has seen the promised land and they live as such. If you have never been given a vision from God on what Christ in you has made you maybe you've never been born again to begin with. If Christ's words have not penetrated into your soul you are not alive. Christians like Levi get up they leave their old life behind and they follow Jesus all the way into Canaan. And if you're still sitting around in your Kadesh Barnea spring-fed oasis and you're refusing to march on you're not redeemed. You're still in Egypt standing on the cliffs of Kadesh Barnea. You have an opportunity to forsake the wilderness. If you're not sure what to do next God says call on me and I will answer. Call to me and I will answer you Jeremiah 33 3 and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Call to him meaning I will show you. God says I will give you a message. I will give you personally a verdict. I will give you personally a warning. Now this verse does not stop with the revelation which follows. But it's an exhortation. It's an appeal urging and calling the people forward telling you God is with you. He will not forsake you. Go go keep going. When you're in a struggle the Lord will make you know that these things through him are attainable. We as believers in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ must continue to move forward in the light of God's word. Let God be true and every man a liar. He said the promised land is our inheritance by faith. We shall enter it Philippians chapter 3 verse 14 on to verse 20. I pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now the goal means the object set up at a distance at which one looks or aims. God has set Christ up at his right hand. He who is dead is alive forevermore. By faith you can run this race. Can you enter in by believing on Jesus Christ? The prize can be reached because he's already won. At the end of the Christian race is heaven. God has said the land is ours because he has given it to his sons and daughters. Verse 15 therefore let us as many as are mature have this mind and if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal even this to you. Grow up and start living what you profess is my definition. Verse 16 nevertheless to the degree that we have already attained let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. You must walk faithfully with what you have been given if you are to receive more. If you're playing games don't be burdening Moses anymore. Get on your knees and pray. Pray to God that you do not become a castaway. Get up and walk and walk and walk until you get there. Verse 17 brethren join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us as a pattern. Moses and Joshua and Caleb and the Levites follow them. They're going into the promised land. Verse 18 not everyone is going into the promised land. Some want to just sit around and enjoy Kadesh Barnea. Philippians 3 18 for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Get away from those who are the enemies of you entering Canaan. The self-centered people who go against God's word sitting constantly in their place of enjoyment. You cannot enter the promised land sitting at the spring-fed oasis of Kadesh Barnea. You must get up and walk and enter it. Verse 19 whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who set their mind on earthly things. Remember earthly people turn to dust and all they have to wait for is the second death and then all that's going to happen to them is they're going to be gathered with the devil and thrown into the lake of fire. Heavenly minded people fill the courts of heaven. Remember that verse 20 for our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I'm going to tell you if you call yourself a Christian don't just see the promised land and then sit down. Get up and go in. If you're enjoying Kadesh Barnea you're going to be very disappointed because God's people are not there. Is your complacency the sin that's going to keep you out of the promised land? These messages are entitled the sin that keeps us out of the promised land. We're going to take a look at point number three the righteousness it takes to go in and possess the land. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 21. Look the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you. Do not fear or be discouraged. When Jesus spoke of God's kingdom he never spoke of it in some abstract way. For Jesus the righteousness that enables a person to enter heaven was real. The attributes that signify holiness Jesus spoke about must be experientially practiced. Today false teachers have reduced knowing God to a type of magical wavelength. Like God's gonna just send this beam on you and all of a sudden you're gonna be made righteous and holy. That's false. He does not send religious rays towards sinners making them believers. Those that incorrectly interpret God's righteousness as imputed leave out about three quarters of the bible. Imputed in simple terms means associated with. Something extended to somebody. When someone tries to deceptively teach easy believism so that people can remain in their sin and still falsely believe that they can enter heaven they always teach imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness lets people think that they are being linked or related to somebody some church or some doctrine that automatically becomes whatever it is to them. The bible only teaches imputed righteousness as what God does for us before we are born again. Because we cannot save ourselves God's grace must be extended to us in order for us to even respond to God. That's the only time imputed righteousness is talked about in its fullness. If we're going to enter heaven we have to experience our own personal righteousness through us following Jesus Christ all the way into Canaan. It's not going to be given to us against our will, against our knowledge. It's not just something that we're associated with because we call ourselves a christian, because we read our bibles, because we go to church. We have to actually experience this righteousness. It's not like God sends it to us like beams of of righteousness from heaven against your will and against your knowledge as some falsely teach. Looking at Romans chapter 5 beginning in verse 8 but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for There you have imputed righteousness. Verse 9 much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath through him. Verse 10 for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only that but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation. When we put our faith in the precious blood of Christ as a suitable atonement for our sin God's grace makes it possible for everyone to be justified by their faith. God then by removing our sin, our offense, we are reconciled to God. We must remain in that state or we must once again repeat the conditions that God requires for justification. Justification rightly means that we have properly entered into God's required statutes that he has detailed out for the forgiveness of our sins. We have entered a covenant or an agreement with God and are a hundred percent willing to do what he has prescribed in order that we might receive forgiveness for our sin. We then are not merely associated with the act of forgiveness but we are forgiven. When a person enters wholeheartedly into a consecrated life to God they are made righteous not just externally credited with righteousness but changed to be made righteous. Clearly taught to us in 2nd Corinthians 5 21 for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Only before we are actually born again and justified does the Bible describe the initial righteousness of Christ being imputed towards sinners and that's what I read to you from Romans 5 8 but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. After a person is regenerated the holy seed of Christ enters them through the incarnation of the spirit of Christ represented by the new birth in John 3 3. Then 2nd Corinthians 5 21 takes place that we might become the righteousness of God in him. As long as a person remains in perfect agreement and complies with God's terms towards their redemption that person remains justified by faith. That person's faith in Christ not only allows God to judicially forgive them of their sin but also makes that person righteous in their place in Christ. Now that the Holy Spirit lives in that person that person becomes a temple of God consecrated separated from all the profane and set aside for the Lord's use. That's what consecrated means as a living sacrifice that person as they remain clean and they remain holy because they're set aside for God's use the righteousness of God is imparted to them imparted righteousness is not merely an accredited associated righteousness but actual righteousness imparted means given the quality God gives the regenerated believer his quality. Now the Holy Spirit does not enter or stay in a dirty vessel people after they trust Christ and who go back to a life of practicing sin are void of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who teaches differently is being used by seducing spirits to trick people into hell. 1st John chapter 3 verses 9 through 10 whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. A one-time conversion a church membership a relative who's a Christian none of these things will do it God's righteousness on all who obey Romans 3 22 Jesus warned those who were almost Christian in Mark 12 34 saying you are not far from the kingdom almost Christian you are not far from the kingdom is that possibly some of us are we close but not in close is not in Jesus follows up with the scribe he says to him one thing you lack go your way sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and take up your cross and follow me mark 10 21 he was not far from the kingdom but he was not in Jesus told him go and sell all that you have everything that you value everything you're trusting in everything that is supporting you get rid of that dependency and put it all on me you pick up your cross and you follow me me only Jesus says returning now to Deuteronomy 1 21 look the Lord your God has set the land before you go up and possess it as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you do not fear or be discouraged Moses said arise go up and take possession of the land you are not to fear or be discouraged because God has promised you a victory over the enemies of your soul but you will not see victory if you sit there without faith in God's power you will receive your inheritance but not if you sit there whining and complaining you see conquest is assured to each individual believer there is no reason to fear or become discouraged if you are God's people be courageous and march forth conquering all the enemies who oppose you entering the promised land before a person can truly have faith like Moses or Caleb or Joshua they have to cease from their own works and be totally committed to obeying God the faithful men of the exodus were men of such action these men lived and ate and drank and slept and breathed everything for the glory of God they were diligent at following God they sold all that they had they were single-minded their their vision was single they were obedient to the things of God and what he spoke and they allowed his word to discern their thoughts and their intents of their hearts knowing that it was to Jehovah that they were going to give an account one day they did not let the disobedience of others keep them out of Canaan be sure to hear this they did not let the disobedience of others keep them out of Canaan they were convinced in themselves the righteousness it takes to go in and possess the land how about you are you going to let your sin or the sin of others keep you out of heaven that's the question point number four do not close your ears the sin that keeps us out of the promised land a fundamental fact that is never argued in scripture is that God makes himself known to certain people the self-disclosure of God through the scriptures is described by the general term revelation revelation means that God uses these means to make himself known to us the means that God uses to make possible a knowledge of God for mankind in and by himself man does not have the knowledge of God all knowledge of the kind must be granted to him by God from the beginning in the old testament we read that God is not abstract he's not speculative he's not imaginary he's direct and his encounter is person to person himself always initially moving towards us the first divine encounter after sin entered the garden of eden was God's call to Adam in Genesis 3 9 God went seeking for Adam asking him where are you Jesus said in Luke 19 10 the son of man came to seek and save the lost when it came to the Jews the children of Abraham in the exodus which means going out from Egyptian slavery we see the supreme act of divine grace by Yahweh God not only brought his people out of bondage but also into a special covenantal relationship with himself that we can read about in Leviticus chapter 25 verse 38 which says I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God the book of exodus is therefore the book of redemption to redeem means to deliver to ransom exodus 6 4 I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers skipping to verse 6 therefore say to the children of Israel I am the Lord I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments verse 7 and 8 I will take you as my people and I will be your God then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and I will give it to you as a heritage I am the Lord now the covenant God was to offer Israel was a binding obligation a covenant is a solemn agreement made between two parties who stand previously unrelated in which certain mutual obligations are undertaken for the sake of certain benefits which are to result from the connection God's covenant whether Old Testament or New Testament are the basis for human salvation the promised land for Israel was not what God would do for them but what he would enable them to obtain as I previously stated in Leviticus 25 38 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God now whether or not the people would enter Canaan was based on if they believed God had decreed but the people entering was conditional as all covenants are in the New Testament the covenant God made with the people according to Romans 1 16 and 17 is also based on an individual's faith to believe and have vision for what God has decreed Romans 1 16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith the power of God for salvation through faith for faith as it is written he who through faith is righteous shall live Israel's entering the promised land was not some irresistible magical infusion but it was a divine human activity that they could reject at any time through unbelief God had said the land was theirs for taking but they were not forced Israel would need more than to initially believe they must get up and enter it God's merciful initiative was his grace in allowing them to leave Egypt but the people had to do the marching of approximately 275 miles you notice he didn't send a stagecoach to pick them up he didn't send a bus or in that case a lot of buses he didn't send airplanes he said I set you free now you go you walk God also brought them to the edge of where the southern end of Canaan meets the northern tip of Egypt but it was up to them to enter Deuteronomy chapter 1 beginning in verse 22 reading to verse 25 and every one of you came near to me and said let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come the plan pleased me well so I took 12 of your men one man from every tribe and they departed and they went up into the mountains and came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out they also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us and they brought back word to us saying it is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us now I want to take a look at a few points here first if you look at 22 to 23 beginning in verse 22 the people did not trust God they didn't trust Moses either even after knowing the promise of God and entering into a covenant with him they wanted proof now I don't have the time to get into this but this is a recap of what's already happened in Numbers chapter 13 verses 18 through 20 where we read about how the faithless spies did not believe they can enter the land at all they wanted to know maybe this is some of you today maybe this is what keeps you from moving forward in God they wanted to know what what's the land like now remember God said go in I've given you the land go in and get it but maybe some of us are like these faithless spies they want to know what's the land like whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak few or many whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds and whether the land is rich or poor but in our text the plan Moses was told was different in Deuteronomy 122 they didn't tell Moses that that was all their worries what they told Moses was this that their plan of going into the land was more like scouts or surveyors and see Moses agreed with that because they they told him that we're going in to search out the land and we're going to bring back word by which way we should go up see they're talking about it's confirmed we're going in and we're just going to check it out to be sure which way we're going to go in but that's not what we read in Numbers 13 18 through 20 because their faithlessness is really comes out in the other verses now the second thing is in verse 25 of Deuteronomy 1 the first part of verse 25 they returned safely they also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and they brought it down to us it says the third thing is the proof of what Moses told them from God was true verse 25b they brought back word to us saying it's a good land which the Lord our God is giving us but you see what cadiz barnea represents is where the people come to a place of decision but they refuse to meet the conditions of what the spirit was requiring in order that that person would enter the promised land see a person who's on the border of Canaan and God says go in and possess the land there's a little voice inside that says no no don't do it but God said do it no don't do it a person who's on the border of Canaan and God's telling him go in go in other voices join in in unison and they all shout out you can't you can't you soon become an unbeliever but they're still sitting by the spring with God's people so I'm one of them now from this point beware of this because from this point everything becomes deception in hypocrisy this person has closed their ears to the revelation of God they have no vision from this point on this person is only in it for what they can get for themselves like Cain they bring the fruit of spies but it's not what God required God said go in see God wants us all to be like Caleb history tells us 45 years later Caleb was still on fire for God he still said we can go in and we could take it I want this land for my family and my inheritance I can do it I can do it that's the kind of faith faith that is never lost faith that believes that the Lord God Adonai could conquer any giant now the problem is some people never leave the border of Romans 7 and enter into the promise of Romans 8 they get bogged down in Romans 7 and forget Romans 6 and Romans 8 on both sides of it God says that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you are you going to be like Caleb are you going to be like Cain the sin that keeps us out of the promised land when we close our ears to God the sin that keeps us out of the promised land point number five rebelling against God Deuteronomy chapter 1 verses 26 to 28 nevertheless you would not go up but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and you complained in your tents and said because the Lord hates us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us where can we go up our brethren have discouraged our hearts saying the people are greater and taller than we the cities are great and fortified up to heaven more ever we have seen the sons of Anakim there now as I said in earlier discussions because the book of Deuteronomy is a summary of the first four books of the Bible what we're reading here in Deuteronomy chapter 1 already took place in numbers 10 13 and 14 the account of what has already passed in the wilderness from years 1 to 40 Deuteronomy is a type of recap Moses is talking here to a new generation the former had all been destroyed except Joshua and Caleb now any one of you that wants to take a shortcut to heaven live your lives like Joshua and Caleb that's the short version live like those two men you might say but I don't understand read the stories everything the Bible says about Joshua and Caleb and you'll see what I mean now Moses wants to impress the hearts of those that are hearing him on this day remember it's a new generation it's the children and the grandchildren of all those that refused to enter the promised land by telling them of their obligation to God and prepare them for the inheritance God has prepared for them Moses tells them of how it is absolutely necessary for them to fear love and obey God he repeats the 10 commandments he explains each of them and the rules belonging to them confirming the whole law he wants to make sure that this next generation understands he's about to die and he wants everybody to know he explains the promises if the people keep them and the awful judgments against those who break them Deuteronomy 126 nevertheless you would not go up but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God now the Hebrew says verse 26 like this but you would not go up and were rebellious against the mouth meaning you went against the express will of almighty God see when we look at that we say what's the big deal they didn't go in there is a big deal because God told them to go in it's no different than every other command that people just ignore people wonder God said go in and possess the land now Jesus spoke of this type of person in his story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 Jesus tells of Abraham's words to the rich man after he requests after he himself finds himself in the eternal flames of hell when he asks if Lazarus could be sent to his father's house to warn his five brothers of his punishment and the agony he was now experiencing for refusing to obey God and receive his full salvation Jesus tells the first answer Abraham gave to the rich in Luke 16 verse 29 Abraham said to him they have Moses and they have the prophets let them hear them now the rich man like many of the Jews in Deuteronomy think they know more than their leaders they don't want to listen and then they start getting a self-righteous attitude the rich says in Luke 16 30 no he's telling father Abraham now he's in hell he's already been disobedient his whole life but now he's telling Abraham no think about it it's amazing no father Abraham but if one goes to them from the dead they will repent signs again like the unfaithful spy sign people looking for signs totally opposed to faith but looking for signs Jesus said a wicked and perverse generation seeks for signs now here Jesus tells us that Abraham rebukes the rich man in Luke 16 31 and he tells him this he says if they do not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead now this is where the wicked lie this is where they stay the saddening fact of a haughty proud heart the truth is Jesus is telling us right here in Luke 16 they will not repent no matter what if somebody is raised from the dead right in front of them they will not repent that's the sad fact of those that will not enter in they will not get up but they will continue to rebel against the command of the Lord Hebrews 3 18 says and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who did not obey for every father that did not obey there will be a son in hell for every mother that does not obey there will be a daughter in hell every person who claims to be a Christian and does not have the testimony of the Holy Spirit is a hypocrite and Jesus says that that person is no different than Matthew 23 beginning in verse 28 to 31 I will explain further to you even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrite because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say if we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets pretenders keep both themselves and others from entering the kingdom of God even though they see the fact that their fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers are going to hell they still practice their hypocritical religion and have more excuses than faith they have watched for years how their parents are caught up in this world they lie and then they do the same things it's amazing to me the people said to Moses in Deuteronomy 128 where can we go our brethren have discouraged our hearts saying the people are greater and taller than we the cities are great and fortified up to heaven moreover we have seen the sons of Anakim there so many falsely confess to be followers of Christ but they're deceivers and they're being deceived James tells us in James 1 21 and 22 therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves only when the word of God is received and acted upon do we remain free from sin bondage and are we prepared to enter the promised land Matthew 7 verse 21 not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name that's the people in the church you know people in the world don't prophesy people in the world don't cast out demons that's people that go to church that read their bible that do their devotions verse 23 i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them i will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock deuteronomy 127 again and you complained in your tents you stopped because of your stubbornness you stopped and you said because the lord hates us he has brought us out of the land now this is the harshest statement regarding the depravity of a sinner's unrepentant heart you'll notice how now they're blaming god and blaming moses now this is the final step in a backslider's heart just before they begin to wander in the wilderness and they're no longer divinely led at this point they grumble about what's being asked of them they start using excuses they've made up their minds we will not go up no matter what the pastor says we're not doing it they hate the light of jesus because it's exposing too much about themselves and they're uncomfortable now they don't like it they don't want to change and when they're called to change they just grumble selfishly they become the captain in their own heart and they turn back to bondage everyone associated with them is going to die on the way back to egypt you realize that because god has called us out of egypt to reach the people that we are closest to and when we turn back they're not going to make it they're going to die on the way just like this first generation did and god is trying to speak to these people through moses he's telling them you could have been freed you could have freed others but instead you went back to your tents you sat down and you grumbled now everyone around you is going to die your fathers your mothers your brothers your sisters your children are all going to die because you were called you were given this message but you just went back and you stopped it would have been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness then having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered them 2nd peter 2 21 are you going back to your tents and grumbling maybe you want to go hang around with cora maybe you want to go hang around with mariam zimri and cosby maybe you want to go complain against moses because he continually tells you get up and get going you're supposed to be possessing the land it's not about you it's not about your selfishness and your satisfaction you're responsible for every person you come in contact with if they die on the way back to egypt it's going to be on your hands because you have been shared the truth what about you today are you going to go and leave here and go back to your tents and grumble or are you going to take a javelin and put it right through the sinful heart that's existed in your family for many years that's the only way the plague of sin is going to be stopped are you going to continue to rebel against god allowing your sin to keep you and others out of the promised land i pray not i pray that each one of you would be inspired to go in and possess the land god has given it to his children but you gotta get up amen