Faithfulness in Action: The Legacy of Caleb

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Let's go ahead and get into our Bible study here tonight.

We're in the Book of Joshua.

We're in Joshua, chapter 14.

I would encourage you to follow along with me.

We've been in the book of Joshua now for quite some time on Sunday nights.

And so if this is your first time with us, don't be afraid.

It's a still, it's a great message outside of the whole study.

Each study in and of itself is important for all of us.

And so in Joshua, chapter 14, by way of context, and I was teaching the discipleship class this evening, we should practice the method of CIA.

You say CIA.

What are you talking about?

In Bible study, we should practice the understanding of context.

We should practice the understanding of interpretation, and we should practice application.

Context, interpretation and then application.

So what's the context of Joshua, chapter 14?

Well, what we've seen is that Joshua and the people of Israel have come into the promised land, that God has promised them for a very long time.

And because of their lack of belief and because of their rebellion, God had delayed that timing for them to go to the promised land.

But we know that Joshua, amongst a few others, were faithful to the call of God.

And ultimately God still blesses them and allows them to go across the Jordan river into the promised land.

There's a lot of battles.

You guys are familiar with some of the famous ones.

There's the battle of Jericho.

There's.

There's a battle in AI and.

And there's all these great victories that they have.

And ultimately, what we're seeing now, starting in chapter 12 and going from 12, 13 and 14 and then on in the book of Joshua, is basically God dividing the land up, dividing the blessings up into different groups.

And we know they're the tribes of Israel.

And we're seeing indications that God is keeping his word to these different tribes.

And last week we looked at God's challenge to Joshua at this time.

Joshua is an old man.

That's not my words.

That's God's words.

If you go back to Joshua 13, it says that God is speaking to Joshua.

And he says, thou art old and stricken in years, but there remaineth yet very Much land to be possessed.

And the lesson really was last week that yes, Joshua was old.

Joshua fought a lot of battles.

He had seen God's hand and it would have been very easy for him to, to just quit, to just be content with the victories that he had already seen.

But God says, you know what, Joshua?

You're still alive.

There's still a plan, there's still a purpose.

Keep fighting.

And we looked at the parallel to that in the New Testament in the book of Philippians when, when Paul is talking in Philippians 3 about pressing forward, not looking back, but pressing on.

And the challenge for all of us is that maybe we've been saved for a long time, maybe we've seen a lot of blessings, and we're physically fatigued or maybe even spiritually fatigued.

The Bible says that there's still work to done, there's still battles to be fought.

And so the challenge for Joshua was this, to push forward.

And then there was the whole understanding of the inheritances that were seen by the power of God.

And now we're going to get to Joshua 14.

And the first five verses speak of more of the dividing of the land.

And that can somewhat seem a little tedious as we're going through the study, but we're going to get to verse number six and we're going to see another individual named Caleb.

And some of you know the story of Caleb.

Caleb and Joshua were the two faithful spies that we saw all the way back in Book of Numbers.

And so we're going to do a little character study in the life of Caleb and how he was a committed follower of God and how God blesses that.

So let's look at Joshua, chapter 14.

It says, and these are the countries which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar and the priests and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes, of the children of Israel distributed for inheritance to them.

And so essentially what this is, is this is describing all the blessings and inheritance that God has bestowed upon his people through their victories and through his faithfulness to them.

Verse 2.

By lot was their inheritance, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine tribes and for the half tribe.

For Moses had given the inheritance of two tribes and of a half tribe on the other side, Jordan.

But unto the Levites he gave none inheritance among them.

And that's a study in itself because the Bible says that the Levites didn't receive any land.

What the Levites did receive was the opportunity to have God as their inheritance, which is an amazing picture that I think all of us can claim as Christians because we have the inheritance, the blessing of being in the family of God and having God as our.

As our gift, as, as the salvation that he extends to us.

So verse four, it says, for the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Therefore they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in and their suburbs for the cattle and for their substance.

As the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land.

So verse five tells us that God had promised this all the way back at the time of Moses.

This is God keeping His word, and this is God's people obeying his word.

So it's a beautiful picture of God's faithfulness to his people.

Even though they have not been completely faithful, he has been completely faithful to them.

And this is their way of identifying and realizing that and dividing the land the way that he requested this.

So verse number six, we're going to see Caleb come back onto the scene.

And really what we're going to do is we're going to read just a little bit here in Joshua, chapter 14, give you some context.

And then we're going to go back to Numbers and we're going to look in the Book of Numbers and see the story of Caleb.

And then essentially what happens is that Caleb claims a promise of God that was given back in the Book of Numbers.

So let's look at verse number six.

It says, then the children of Judah, which all of you know, that Judah was a tribe significant for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is significant is because Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah.

Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua and Gilgal.

And as we've seen in the Old Testament, Gilgal was a picture of God's strength, a picture of the people tapping in and relying in God's strength.

And so this is a place of spiritual growth.

It's a place of spiritual renewal.

It's a place of spiritual refreshment.

And Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, said unto him, thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me and the in Kadesh Barnea.

So essentially what Caleb is doing is he's going to Joshua, and he says, joshua, do you remember the promise that God made to us, the promise that he gave to Moses for us back in those days?

And verse 7 says, 40 years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land.

And I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

And so what Caleb is doing is he's looking back to a time in his life when he was 40 years old.

He says, 40 years old was I when Moses, a servant, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to a spy out in the land.

Some of you know the story.

There's a children's song about it.

There's 12 spies that go and look into the land, and they.

They basically are spying for Moses.

They're.

They're giving the account of what they see.

And if you remember the song, there were 10 spies that went out and looked and they saw what they saw, which were about to go study that.

And they came back with no faith, saying, there's no way that we could go take that land.

And there were two spies, Joshua and Caleb, that went and saw what they saw.

And they saw the same thing which we're going to look at.

They saw the same thing, but they saw it from a different perspective.

They saw it from a perspective of faith.

And so they came back and said, no, we're going to do this.

We can do this.

God's going to give us the victory.

And so what Caleb is doing is he's reminding Joshua, and ultimately he's calling out to God to remember him when they come back to this place of the promises and the inheritance.

Because God made a promise to Caleb so that he could have certain blessings when he was faithful back in the Book of Numbers.

So let's pause there.

That's a good stopping place.

And let's go back to the Book of numbers, numbers, chapter 13.

Numbers, chapter 13.

And we're going to see this account that God gives us here of Caleb and Joshua.

And we're going to see the spiritual blessing that Caleb finds by living a life of faith and trusting in the victory of the Lord.

And so in Numbers, chapter 13, the Lord is bringing the people up to the land of Canaan.

And some of you know, because of the 10 spies giving this report of the fact that there is no hope and that we can't have victory, the people of Israel don't go into that land.

And because of that, God judges them and makes them wander for 40 years.

And actually, all the people that were alive during that time had to die off.

And the only two people that were able to see that promised land was Joshua and Caleb.

And that's what we're seeing come to pass here in numbers, chapter 13.

So let's look at this.

We're going to just go through numbers, chapter 13.

We're going to see the account of the faithfulness of Caleb, and then we're going to transport over to Joshua and we're going to kind of see the culmination of all that.

And we'll try to do that in the time that we have.

And if we don't finish, we'll pick up next time.

So numbers 13.

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.

So let's stop there.

God says, go and look at the land.

But what does he say?

He says that this is the land which I give unto the children of Israel.

So this is a promise of God saying, this land is already yours.

You just have to go take it.

The promise is there.

I'm going to give you this land.

And it says, which I gave unto the children of Israel, of every tribe of their father shall you send a man, everyone, a ruler among them.

So he says, pick one person from each tribe.

Verse 3.

And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent from the.

Sent them from the wilderness of Paran.

All those men were heads of the children of Israel.

So Moses obeys.

Verse 4 lists all the guys that go.

And these were the names of the tribe of Reuben, and so on and so forth.

But ones I want you to see there, we're not going to go through all of them.

But verse 6 of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jeffuna.

And so we see that Caleb is the representative for the tribe of Judah.

And then of course we go down and we see these different names that are.

Are listed here.

And ultimately we have the understanding that out of this group of spies, verse 16, these are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land.

And Moses called Oshi, the son of Nun Jehoshua, which is Joshua.

We see that there's that representation there of Joshua and Caleb.

And so verse 17 and Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said unto them, get you up this way southward and go up into the mountain and see the land what it is.

So really the, the, the goal, the purpose, the.

The marching orders is just to go take a survey.

And the people that dwell therein, where, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad, and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether intense or in strongholds and what is the land?

What what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not.

And be ye of good courage.

Verse 20 tells us that Moses gives them the challenge.

And ultimately we know the Lord gives them the challenge of being of good courage.

That reminds us a lot of Joshua.

1 Remember, Joshua was reminded, be of good courage and bring the of the fruit of the land.

Now the time was the time of the first stripe, first ripe grapes.

Verse 21.

So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin until Rehab.

And the men come to Hamath.

And they ascended by the south and came to Hebron, where Ahiman and these are some interesting names, Shisha and Talme and the children of Anak were Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

And they came unto the brook of Eshkol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes.

And they bear it between two upon a staff.

And they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs.

The place was called the brook of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes.

With the children of Israel cut down from fence.

And they return from searching of the land after 40 days.

So the Bible tells us that they take these grapes, they take these fruits, and they're going to bring them back and they're going to give the report.

Verse 26.

And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, and said, we came unto the land whether thou sent us us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.

And so verse 27 tells us that everything that they've been told from God about this land is true.

God has never misrepresented himself.

God has never lied to them, he's never misled them.

God has been telling them for many years that this is a land of milk and honey.

This is a land of abundance.

This is a land of promise.

This is a land of blessing.

And what they see is just that, a land of milk and honey.

Verse 28.

Though it tells us that they specifically the 10, were living with a lack of faith, this is nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land.

And the cities are walled and very great.

And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the Land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains of the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan.

And so what we can see here is really this.

They're.

They're giving all the circumstantial evidence.

Nothing that they're saying at this point is wrong.

But what they're doing is they're coming at it from a perspective of faithlessness instead of a perspective of faith, instead of a perspective of confidence in their God and the promises that he's given.

They're coming with, look, there's a lot of bad people here, though.

There's a lot of good food, though the land is amazing.

There's a lot of people here that can hurt us.

Verse 30 says, and Caleb, there's our guy for the night.

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.

Now, I don't believe Caleb is saying, hey, we're enough.

We can do this.

We're strong enough.

I believe Caleb, as we see later on, is a picture of faith.

And Caleb is saying, yeah, there's a lot of people there, but God is big enough and we can go in the promises and in the power and the provision of God.

And that's really how all of us should face any hardship in our life.

I mean, we can look around and we can see a lot of problems, we can see a lot of issues, we can see a lot of giants that are coming against us as we see in this passage.

And we can see that there's really two ways that we can look at these obstacles.

There's two ways that we can look at these quote unquote problems.

And it would be this, number one, we can't do it.

That's what we're going to see the other people say.

And then we're going to see that there's people like Caleb that say, yeah, it's hard, yeah, there's going to be a lot against us, but we are able to overcome it in the power of God.

So 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.

So we see really the perspective of faithlessness.

They're looking at just the basic thing that they see before them.

And they see that, hey, we're not.

We're not physically strong enough.

We don't have enough people, we don't have enough resources.

Caleb saw the power of God.

These people saw no power of God.

They saw their own power.

And let me tell you, if we look at situations from our own perspective, yeah, we're not enough.

You know, if you came up to me and you said, you know what?

I got this problem, I got this problem, I got this problem.

And the problems keep stacking up and you tell me all these things and you say, you know what?

I don't know if I can handle this.

And if I'm looking at you from the perspective of you and your power and your strength, and that's all I'm looking at.

You know what I'm going to tell you in my man focused wisdom.

Yeah, you can't handle that.

That's too much.

And that's what we see the world doing.

We see the world telling people, you can't handle that.

So what you need to do is just go find something that can dull your pain.

Go.

Go get your mind off of it.

You know, just go give yourself up to all the things of this world.

But really, when we look at it from the perspective of grace and the perspective of faith, we can say, yeah, I'm not enough to handle the problems, but God who lives within me is enough to handle the problems.

Therefore, we can go forward because the power of God can overcome it.

The Bible tells us in Romans, chapter eight, something amazing.

That's one of my favorite verses.

It says that we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.

More than conquerors or super conquerors in Christ Jesus.

Not in our own strength, but in the strength of the Lord.

So they say, no, we can't go because there's too much there.

There's too many strong people.

Verse 32.

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search, it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.

And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants.

And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.

And.

And so we were in their sight.

And so what happens here is this.

They look at the giants.

And instead of seeing the giants and saying, yeah, God can handle them, they see the giants and think, yeah, we're not enough.

We can't do that.

Even though God told us to take this land.

Even though God has promised us to take this land and that he will give us all the victory.

No, we can't do that because they're looking at the situation at hand instead of looking at the one who created the situation.

And then we, you know, again, chapter divisions weren't there originally.

So the story goes on.

Verse 1 of chapter 14.

And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried.

And the people wept that night.

Why did they weep?

They wept because they were taking the advice from the ones who had no faith.

Verse 2.

And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron.

And the whole congregation said unto them, would God that he had died, that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we have died in the wilderness?

And again, it's just a heartbeat of faith, Faithlessness.

They say, would it have been better if we just, like, died out there?

Why did God bring us all the way here to die?

This doesn't make any sense.

Verse 3.

And wherefore hath God brought us unto 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.

Can you believe that they're at this point thinking it would just be better if we went back into the bondage of the evil Egyptians, that that's how much they had regressed back into their faithlessness, that that faithlessness had brought them to a place of thinking just crazy thoughts.

But that's what happens to us in our own life.

We don't think logically.

We don't think with reason, we don't think with faith when we're walking outside of what God has called us to do.

And these people are so blinded by their faithlessness that they're willing to say that, you know what, it probably was just better that we stayed in Egypt with our captors.

And obviously we know that that's not the way that they should be thinking.

They had had mana come down from heaven.

They had the pillar of fire by night, they had the cloud by day.

They had seen.

These are the same people that saw the Red Sea part right in front of them.

But yet they go back to this.

And they say, yeah, but look at those giants.

Look at the people that are there.

They are going to overcome us.

And so they have no hope.

Verse 4.

And they said, one to another, let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt.

That's how far they wanted to go back to that old way.

They wanted to go back to the bondage.

We look at people today that have tasted so much of the grace of God.

We look at people who have seen God's hand over and over and over.

Again be so evident in their life, but yet, because of a lack of faith, they want to go back to the old way.

They want to turn back to what they think was the safe route.

Even though we know it wasn't the safe route.

It was a route of destruction.

It was a route of bondage.

It was a.

It was a route of death.

But now they're here and they think, you know what?

I don't think God can do this.

We just want to go back.

We want to revert back to the old way and think about even the story of Peter, of just talking about this tonight with our discipleship classes.

Peter was a guy who obviously saw great things.

Peter saw Jesus walk on water.

Peter saw Jesus feed the 5,000.

Peter saw the Mount of transfiguration.

He saw all of that.

But yet you guys know what he did right before Jesus went to the cross?

He denied Jesus.

And there was a lot of things that he could have done in that moment.

But in that moment, he.

He.

He is a broken man.

He says, I go a fishing, I got, you know, I just gotta go back to my old way of doing things.

And yet we see the power of God come back and we see restoration.

But in that moment of faithlessness, in that moment of doubt, in that moment of hopelessness comes really, what we see is sinful, irrational decisions.

And that's what's happening here in Numbers 14.

But what we know is that not everyone did that.

We know that Caleb is one that's standing out amongst the rest.

And so verse four, and they said, one to another, let us make a captain and return back to Egypt.

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel, verse 6.

And Joshua the son of nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes, okay, so Joshua and Caleb are broken over this because they see the flaws, they see the failure of the people and not having faith.

And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, the land which we pass through to search it, it is exceeding good land.

If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us a land which floweth with milk and honey.

We just see two really contrasting types of people.

We see the people that saw the same thing, right?

Those 10 spies saw the giants, they saw the land, they saw Caleb and Joshua saw the land, they saw the giants, they saw the food, they saw the same thing, but just so diametrically different results in what they want to do because of faith.

Faith, Joshua and Caleb have will bring them to a place of trusting the Lord.

The faith that the people don't have is really what we're seeing missing in this case.

It's where they're falling into the trap of doubt and fear and wanting to run away from all of their problems.

So verse 8 shows that they believe that God will do what he says he will do.

Verse 9.

Only rebel, not ye against the Lord.

Neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us.

Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Fear them not really could be summarized there at the end of verse nine.

Really, that's what we see is the difference between these individuals that have no faith and these individuals that have faith.

They say, the Lord is with us.

It's, it's, it's the presence of the Lord in their life that makes the difference.

It's not that they didn't see the giants.

It's not that they really wanted those grapes.

They really wanted those pomegranates.

It was because they believed that God would keep his word.

And the question that we have for us here this evening before us is, are we going to be like those 10 spies who will say that we believe in God until we see the problems at hand and then we want to back up and go away?

Are we going to be like Joshua and Caleb that say, yeah, I see all the things around us, I see the giants around me, I see the problems in my life, I see the news, I, I, I heard the report.

I, I see all the problems.

But you know what?

God is with me through that.

He's going to get us through that.

And there's no reason to fear.

And so instead of fear, there's faith.

And so those are the two things that are being looked at in this passage is are we going to live in fear?

Are we going to live in faith?

You can't live in both.

You, you can't have fear and faith in the same place and say, well, I, I'm, I'm so afraid and I'm not going to trust God, but I trust God.

It doesn't make any sense.

We either going to trust God or we're going to fear and not trust God.

Verse 10.

But 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.

And the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me?

And how Long will it be err that they believe me for all the signs which I have shown among them.

So God asked the question that probably all of us are asking.

What do we.

What does he have to do to get them to believe in Him?

Now we know that God knows the answer.

This was obviously to provoke the people.

God knows everything.

But there's this question here.

He says, why are they still this way?

Verse 12.

I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them and will make of the a great nation, a greater nation, and mightier than they.

And so we're not going to get down this whole study.

But Moses then intercedes for the people of Israel.

He prays for them.

And ultimately we know that God doesn't completely wipe them out, but he does give them that judgment of that they can't enter into the promised land.

But then we go all the way.

Jump ahead with me to verse 38 in Numbers 14.

We're getting somewhere.

We're going to build this.

Okay, verse 38.

But Joshua the son of nun, and Caleb the son of Jeffuna, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

So, so the blessing that we can see there is that ultimately Joshua and Caleb are spared from the judgment of God because of their faith.

And if you, you go up a little bit to a few different verses, we see that verse 30.

Doubtless he shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell there and save Caleb and save Joshua.

And so we see that there is that promise of God to give Joshua and Caleb the opportunity to be in that land, to understand the blessings of God.

And we actually see that there is land that is promised to Caleb.

There is, there's inheritance promised to Caleb in the promised land.

And so God would not allow the generation of unbelief to enter in.

And so he waits for them to die in the wilderness.

And we know that there's other places Caleb actually calls Joshua back to the promise that Moses made in Deuteronomy chapter one.

So we're in numbers 14.

Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter one.

This is why it's so important to understand context.

Because if we just read Joshua chapter 14 and not understand all these promises that are being referenced, we're not going to really see the whole story.

And so In Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 35, we see that there is this, this.

This promise that's given to Caleb.

And that's the promise that Caleb is trusting in all the way in Joshua, chapter 14.

And so again, we as Christians should not provoke God in such a way of pride that we say, God, we demand you to do something.

Because there's some people out there in the world, certain Christian circles that say, you know, we can just demand God to do things for us.

No, that's not what Caleb is doing in Joshua 14.

All Caleb is doing is standing on the promise that God has already given him.

And so as a Christian, we can't demand things from God, but what we can do is stand on the promises that he's given us.

Because God is true to his word every single time.

He is faithful and just.

He is the one who is going to keep his word in every situation.

You know, I love my children so much.

I love my wife so much.

I love my church so much.

But if I give you a promise, I. I'm not 100% in every promise for many different reasons.

One, I might make a promise that I can't fulfill.

You know, if I say to someone, hey, I'll be there, there might be a lot of reasons why I can't be there.

One I might have just forgotten.

Okay, my brain could just have it.

You guys know how that goes.

Sometimes you don't write it down, it just slips out and you just don't even remember it.

And I don't keep my promise.

Maybe I'm, I'm not, but maybe I'm just malicious and say, yeah, I'm not going to keep my promises to anyone that I love.

Okay, well, then I probably don't really love them if I don't want to keep my promises to them.

But let's say I do want to keep my promises and I say I'm going to be there, but then there's traffic, right?

I'm limited in my promises because of the fact that I'm limited in my power.

I'm limited in, in my, my actual, my personal space.

I can't be all places at once.

So let's say some of you have never done this.

But I've done this.

I've promised two different people that I would meet them at the same time in two different places.

And I realized I got a conflict of interest.

I can't be in two places at once.

So my promise has failed.

I say all that to say this.

My promises to you are important, but I can't keep my promises a hundred percent of the time.

But when God makes a promise, he's completely powerful.

He's everywhere all at once.

And when he makes a Promise.

He will keep his promise.

So what Caleb is doing in Joshua 14 is he's standing on the promise that's given to him In Deuteronomy, chapter 1.

Deuteronomy, chapter 1, verse 35, it says this.

Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land which I swear to give unto your fathers.

Save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

He shall see it.

And to him will I give the land that he have trodden upon.

So the land that he went out and spied in, he says, that's the land that I'm actually going to give him because he sowed the seed there.

He went there in faith and he believed.

And so when you guys do get there, Caleb is going to receive the land that he went and spied in.

And he says, and to his children, because he hath.

Here it is, verse 36.

He hath wholly followed the Lord.

This is not Caleb talking about himself.

Caleb isn't saying I.

Because in Joshua 14, if you read just Joshua 14, Caleb says, God gave me these promises because I wholly follow the Lord.

That kind of sounds a little prideful.

Like, what if I got up in front of you and said, well, God gives me all these promises because I. I follow God.

I'm.

I'm perfect.

No, that's not what Caleb is saying.

Caleb is saying, no, that's what God told Moses to say.

God is the one who says that I followed him with everything.

And so what the end of verse 36 in Deuteronomy chapter 1 says is that God blesses Caleb for completely following the Lord with all of his heart.

And that's really what God calls us to do.

God calls us to completely follow him.

The holy follow him.

Now, with all of that being said, we've got a few more minutes.

Let's go back and look at number or.

Excuse me, Joshua, chapter 14, Joshua, chapter 14.

Now, with all of those things in mind, let's go back to Caleb's request to Joshua.

So he goes to Joshua and Gilgal.

He says, hey, remember what Moses did?

Remember what Moses said?

He Sundays, I was 40 years old.

Now, this is much later.

Caleb was around 85 years old at this point.

And.

And so we're going to see what he says about this.

He says in verse number eight, he says, nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt.

But I wholly followed the Lord, my God.

He says, those people that I went with to spy in the land, they were afraid.

They melted.

They were in so much fear, he says, no, but I follow God.

I believe God would keep his word.

And just as much as I believe that God was going to keep his word when we went that first time, I believe that God's going to keep his word by giving me this land that he has promised me.

Verse number nine, he says, and Moses swear on that day, saying, surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because thou has wholly followed the Lord, my God.

The, the challenge for us is not to be perfect, but the challenge for us is to completely follow God with everything that we have.

And when we do falter, to recognize that and to trust in the Lord's grace to overcome those struggles that we might face.

And so no doubt Caleb had struggles in his life.

Caleb's not a sinless person.

That's not what this is saying.

But what the saying is, Caleb says, I fully trust God, and I fully trust God is going to keep his word in this promise.

Verse 10.

And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive.

He says, God's kept his word.

He's kept me alive through all of this.

And that's saying a lot.

I mean, for us, just in general, in America today, if someone lives to the age that Caleb lives to, we're like, wow, that's impressive.

But remember what Caleb is doing.

Caleb is out in the battlefield.

I mean, it's not like he's living a very comfortable life and he's being insulated by all these things.

Caleb has been fighting, he's been battling, and God has preserved him.

And so this talks of God's preservation of his promise.

And so verse 10.

And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive.

And he said, these 40 and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness.

And now, lo, I am this day four score and five years old.

So he says, I'm 85 years old.

This has been 45 years since God's given me this promise.

I don't know about you guys, but if I was Caleb in those 45 years, I might be doubting.

Lord, are you going to keep that promise that you made back then?

Remember, I followed you, I was ready to go.

Lord, are you going to keep this promise?

He says, I'm 85 years old now, but I love verse number 11.

I, I, I don't think this will be my testimony when I'm 85, if I can make 85.

But this is Caleb's testimony.

Catch this.

This is amazing.

He says, as yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me.

So what is he saying?

He says, I'm as strong now at 85 as I was at 40.

He's like, I'm ready to go.

He's like, I'm ready to take this land as my strength was.

Was then.

Even so is my strength now for war both to go out and to come in now.

We could say, well, maybe Caleb just really kept himself fit.

Maybe he, you know, ate a lot of those grapes and pomegranates and he kept that Mediterranean diet and he was really healthy.

We could say that.

Or we could say that God preserved Caleb through this and that God strengthened him for the battle that he needed to fight.

And so verse 12.

Now, therefore, give me this mountain.

He's like, give me the opportunity to claim the promises of God.

Says, it's not too late, but I want to make sure that it's now.

He says, now give me this mountain where of the Lord spake in that day.

For thou heard us in that day how the Anakin's Anakims were there and that the cities were great and fenced.

If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.

Now, the interesting part about this is that those people that were there before are still there at that time.

He says, I was ready 45 years ago, and I'm ready now.

Lord, give me the opportunity to take this land.

And Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephthuna, Hebron for an inheritance.

14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.

Israel.

And the name of Hebron before was Kjath Arba, which is which Arbo was a great man among the Anakin.

And the land had rest from war.

So we'll end there.

But I want to take a few applications for us.

Caleb saw many things in his life.

He goes when he's 40 years old and he sees this land of giants.

And he believes that God would give him that land.

He sees that God would be with him in his power and his provision and his protection.

But yet at the time God told him to wait.

God did promise him, though, that that land would be his.

And through Caleb's life he stayed faithful to the Lord.

And he whole, as it says there, he wholly followed God and again, I do want to take note of the fact that that doesn't mean that he was sinless.

But what that means is that through his life, he committed himself to God.

He was willing to trust in what God had to say.

And God allowed for him to reap the benefits of that blessing by keeping that promise to Caleb and keeping his faithfulness to him in the midst of all of those uncertainties around him.

And so I see a blessing of a man who was faithful.

We see a blessing of a man who committed himself to trusting in the Lord.

And the idea will be this.

Really, the contrast that we see in Joshua 14, in numbers, in Deuteronomy, is that are we going to be those people that live like Caleb and Joshua with faith, believing in what God says, even if it looks like insurmountable odds?

Or are we going to be those people that say, yeah, Lord, we know you said that.

We know you're going to bless us and it would be nice to go there, but it's not worth our trouble.

We're too afraid that we might fall into the trap of these giants, that we might be defeated.

And they don't trust in the Lord.

And you see what happens is those people, they.

They missed out on those blessings.

Those people that lack faith, they.

They, they thought that they were staying safe, but they missed out on all the blessings of God.

And I'm not here today to say you should risk things just to risk things, but sometimes God does call us to take a step of faith and in our perspective, risk something for Him.

Now, let me tell you, when you are stepping out in faith, it's a risk for you in your mind, but it's never a risk for God.

God is never at risk because God knows the end of the story.

And if he's calling us to do something, he's not risking anything.

There's certainty with him and his promises.

But for us, from our human perspective, of course there's a risk because we don't see the end of the story.

We have to believe in faith to see the end goal happen.

And so what I would say is this.

If we want to take risks for the Lord that he's called us to take in our lives, we have to.

We have to do it by faith.

We cannot do it by it making sense to us.

Pastor Carlos mentioned, you know, was it five years?

Was it nine years?

The reason why I remember it, because I vividly remember that time of moving here.

It was.

It was in June.

This June, it will be nine years.

So I'M I'm.

I'm.

I. I lied a little bit.

It's been like eight years and like 10 months.

Okay.

But the idea would be this, that I remember that day when God said, you know, you.

Because I. I made a promise to the Lord.

I said, lord, wherever you want me to go, I'll go.

And I said, but just, you know, like, I circled a couple places on the map.

I was like, you know, like, I don't want to go there.

And not that I didn't know anything about Delaware.

So it wasn't any hate towards Delaware or the Northeast at all.

It wasn't that.

It was just like, I didn't believe that God would want me in a place that was different than where I was from.

And I remember God calling us specifically to this place and thinking, lord, I. I don't know.

I.

There's a lot of risk here.

There was a lot of risk by uprooting a family and moving to a place.

Some of you can identify with that there was a lot of risk in certain things that happened, you know, in the transpiring times that happened.

But what I will say is this.

The best place, the safest place, the most secure place with no risk is in the will of God.

And if God has you doing something and he's led you to a place and he's calling you and he's promised you, hey, yeah, it might look uncertain.

There might be giants out there.

Think about David.

I mean, there's a giant out there, and no one was willing to go out there.

And David said, sure, I will.

I mean, I've got faith that God's going to give us the victory.

So I don't know what the giants are in your life.

I. I can think of some giants in my life.

Not necessarily physical giants, but giants that can come up against us and cause us a lot of fear, a lot of doubts, a lot of insecurity.

Whatever that giant is, goes back to the promises of God and rest in those promises in faith, saying, lord, I'm claiming those promises that you'll give me that land.

Now, I'm not talking about physical land, but what I'm talking about is that all of us have those promises of God as believers that God has given us the opportunity to trust in.

And so Caleb sees the hand of God working 45 years later, 45 years later, he sees the culmination of all this.

But it didn't mean that he just waited.

He didn't just stay back in Gilgal and say, okay, everyone else fight it he was like, I'm ready to fight now.

So he was ready to keep fighting as God had given him that promise.

And I think that's also something to note because, like, in a risk, we think that God's just going to bring everything to us.

But sometimes God allows us to see an opportunity, and then we've got to step through that door.

We've got to take that initiative to say, lord, it's by action that I believe, because I could sit here all day and say, you know, you guys heard the analogy.

There's a chair up here.

Well, I believe the chair can hold me up, but it's until I sit in that chair that I'm proving my faith.

So Caleb proved his faith in the promise of God by saying, lord, I'm ready to go.

Give me the opportunity to go fight those giants.

And that's really what it is for us.

God makes a promise to us, and we take a step of faith in believing in that promise.

And so a question that I'll ask you this evening now, by way of context is this.

What are you willing to risk for the Lord?

Are you willing to risk for the Lord?

Are you willing to take a step that doesn't make sense on paper, but maybe at the end of the day, it might be the greatest blessing that you might have ever received in your life by stepping out in faith?

And so Caleb did that.

And what an amazing snapshot of an awesome story of a guy trusting in God in the midst of people not trusting around him.

Think about that.

Everyone that he knew outside of Joshua had gone because of their lack of faith.

But Caleb stayed faithful.

He stayed strong, and God blesses that.

And may we stay strong in the midst of a.

Of a culture that does not stay faithful around us.

It's easy to drift.

It's easy to take the bait and just kind of go with the flow.

But what I will say is that in a culture that is going the opposite direction from the Lord, we have to fight against the stream.

We have to.

We have to push against the current.

You know, I. I've often said this, and it's not original to me, but in a world full of lies, the truth looks crazy.

And.

And that's where we're at right now.

We're in a place where when we preach the truth, we look crazy to people who are living in craziness.

And so what I would say is this.

Don't allow the distractions and the craziness of this world dictate our truth.

Our truth is found in the word of God.

And our truth is found in the promises of God.

Think about these things.

The promises of God, the power of God, the provisions of God, the presence of God, the power of God, the promises of God, the presence of God, and the provisions of God.

Think about those things right there, because those are what we're trusting in in our life, for our salvation, for our sanctification, for every element of our life.

And so I hope that that's an encouragement for you here this evening.

We'll come back, we'll look more In Joshua, chapter 15, the inheritance of Judah, and ultimately we'll see more about the inheritance of Caleb in, in the next chapter or so.

And then there will be some chapters that we skim through because a lot of it is just telling us about different lands that are given to certain people and not.

They're not important, but there are certain places that we will go a little bit quicker through.

But then we will hit a few different passages of scripture that specifically speak to standing fast in the truth of what God has given us.

And Joshua challenges the people to make a.

To make a decision.

And I'm excited to get to that passage.

Well, we're going to go ahead and close in a word of prayer.

After I'm done praying, I'll have a few announcements and then we'll be dismissed.

Lord, I thank you for this time.

Thank you for the opportunity this evening to study your word, Lord, we're thankful for the opportunity to know you and to know your promises, to know your power, to know your provisions, to know your presence, Lord, to know that faith is the victory that we come to in our life.

And Lord, may we not live in fear.

May we not be like those 10 spies who lived in fear and missed out on the blessings of God.

May we be the ones that walk in faith and walk in your will and risk things on our side to see the certainty of your promises in our life.

So we thank you for that.

I pray that you bless us here this week.

I pray that you speak to us where we need to be spoken to.

And Lord, help us to be able to proclaim your word and your truth at whatever capacity that we are living in our life, whether it be through our workplaces, through our families, through our personal lives.

Lord, may it just be a beacon of light to a lost and dying world that's in darkness.

So we just ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.