STUDY ON MURMURING N°4
This teaching is the 4th part in a series of thirteen. Please read the other 12 parts.
Nevertheless, we also noted at this level the people's rebellion. They are told to go, but they refuse to obey. But when they are told not to go, that's when they decide to go.
The twelve spies: we also noted the fact that they were not children or immature people who were sent to explore Canaan, but elders, the leaders of the people. So, they were not new converts who misled the people in this manner or who caused the people to miss the Promised Land, but elders from among the people.
What was equally remarkable was the fact that among the twelve spies, only two had faith. This helps us to better understand the passage of Matt 7:13-14 "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. 14Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." We saw that very few are ready to do the work of God without murmuring.
The spies through their incantation falsified their report, with elements to discourage and weaken the people. Numbers 13:27-33 "27Then they told him, and said: We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. 30Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." 31But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." 32And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." Instead of presenting a faithful report, they added words of incantation in order to divert the people. And they did so wilfully. Their wickedness is really palpable at this level. That's what most of their colleagues keep on doing today to wilfully divert the people of God and lead them to perdition. They shall give a serious account to God for that.
For us Christians of today, what kind of Christians do we want to be? What kind of missionaries do we want to be? What kind of role do we want to play in the midst of God's people? To be a subject of scandal, push the people into murmuring, rebellion, revolt or choose the position of Joshua and Caleb? So, it is left to each person to choose the kind of role he wants to play in the midst of God's people.
Mission of agents of satan in the midst of God's people: We noted that there are people whose main mission is to work wholeheartedly to divert Children of God from the path of God. Some among the people had as mission to do everything to prevent them from achieving their objective, to hinder them from entering the land promised by the Lord. And this is the same situation with us today. There are people who have infiltrated our midst just to ensure that none of us achieve his objective, that none of us should be raptured. The rabble did everything to prevent the people from entering the Promised Land. But we see that despite their incantation, there was still a few that did not stumble before them, who remained faithful to their God, who remained unshakable and firm. The fact that those two arrived at the Promised Land is a proof that God's promise always come to pass.
The unfaithfulness of the spies: Numbers 13:2-3 "2Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them. 3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel." We notice that very few are faithful to God. Those chosen among the people for the mission were leaders, elders, yet, it is because of them that the people lost all their blessings. This is how thousands of elders today through their wickedness and incantations make the people of God to lose all their blessings. Nevertheless, there is always a very small remnant, a small minority that remains firm in the faith. Joshua and Caleb remained firm in their faith. They had faith that the Lord their God can do all things, and no purpose of His can be thwarted. Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Beloved, we must keep our faith in God.
We also saw that if the spies had faith, Moses would have entered the Promised Land. Because if they had entered the Promised Land, they would not have been confronted with problems of drought and thirst. They would not have been snivelling in the desert because of thirst in order for Moses to find himself striking the rock instead of speaking to it. These wicked people truly caused Moses to miss the Promised Land.
The people of satan are always ready to stone servants of God: Numbers 14:6-10 "6But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' 9Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them." 10And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel."
Agents of darkness are always there, ready to stone true servants of God. They wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb because they were encouraging them not to despise the blessings of God. Beloved, if you want to die prematurely, show love to agents of satan, try to do good to them. They will stone you; they will devour you without any waste of time. Agents of satan are fundamentally wicked. People who return evil for good, they devour those who love them. We also noticed that satan never lacks servants given that the majority of people on earth belong to him. When you try to speak the language of God, they want to stone you. They are always very zealous for what is evil. Caleb and Joshua try to encourage them but they want to stone them. It's really unfortunate. Proverbs 4:14-17 "14Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. 15Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. 16For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. 17For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence."
We must not provoke the wrath of God. Beloved, we must do our best not to provoke God's wrath. For, when He decides not to give us something, there is nothing else we can do. When He decided that the people will no longer enter the Promised Land, and they all died in the desert. Know that no one can deliver from His hands. Deut 32:39 "Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand."
God's promises: God's promises are for all, but it is for each person to grasp them. God has promised everlasting life to all, but only those who want everlasting life will have it. God makes us go through trials in order to test our faith.
Even though God promised Canaan to the people, we see that they needed to struggle in order to possess it. This reminds us of the false gospel that agents of satan preach today. The gospel of prosperity, gospel of miracles; the easy gospel; note that this type of gospel is the gospel of doom. It is not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord tells us in Luke 9:23 "... If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
We must cling to the promise of God and not to the difficulties on the way. When the Lord sends us we just have to obey; let us not look at the danger with our carnal eyes; let us not see things in a carnal way. Joshua and Caleb had a different way of looking at the situation. They did not look at the giants, the sons of Anak. They instead looked at the promise that the Lord had made to them.
Similarly, we must not look at the difficulties of life, but the promises of God for our lives. There is always a price to pay in order to obtain God's blessings or promises. Caleb told them: "let's have faith in God, let's go, let's not be afraid". He knew that if he looked at warfare in a carnal way, he would never succeed. Similarly, for us who are still alive, let's not look at warfare in a carnal manner; let's not fear the storms around us, but let's rather look up to Jesus. Caleb and Joshua knew that even if there were giants in Canaan, it's their faith in God that would give them victory. If already you reject God, how will you have victories? Given that God is our victory.
When the storm is around, and we begin to doubt, let's sing this wonderful chorus, and our heart will take courage:
Be not afraid of the storm, be calm and be still,
Yes, peace shall come,
And boldly lift up your head,
Look unto Jesus, be full of faith.
No matter who's the tempter, O be not afraid,
In the mighty name of Christ,
The enemy flees, you overcome (x2)
Comment of different reports
Exhortation on children's attitude during service
Avoid teachings of satan's agents who put children out of the Assembly before the service under the pretext that children cannot listen to teachings meant for adults, or that they cannot concentrate for long. We must avoid all such satanic teachings which are only based on human principles. Our teachings should be based only on the Word of God. Know that when children are well brought up, they can bring their parents back to their senses when things are wrong. At times, children pay attention to teachings more than adults. Remember that the teachings that the Lord gives us are for our good. Do not therefore put children outside before teaching. Let's not imitate what happens around us. Let's serve our God. Let's take the commitment for ourselves as Joshua did. He said: Me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Let everyone do what he likes, but for us who fear God, let's serve the Lord. Let's imitate the Lord, let's follow His example even if around us everyone does the contrary. We should not be led by the majority, but we should be led by the Word of God.
If Joshua and Caleb had followed the majority, they would have lost everything. If they had imitated the crowd or conform to the others, they would never have reached the Promised Land. If you want to imitate those around you, you will never enter the Promised Land. Follow the Lord's example, walk according to His word, even if around everybody does the contrary. We should not be led by the majority, but we should be led by the Word of God. Do not allow abominable people to steal your blessings. Fear the Lord and obey His Word. For He alone has the power to save our souls, to open the doors of Heaven for us or to send us to Hell. Know that none can deliver from His hands.
Notion of Rabble
All the groups mentioned this notion of rabble, their negative influence on the people of God, and likened their works to incantations. Among the people, some played good roles and others very bad roles. With the teachings that we have received, we have understood the extent to which those rabble constitute problems in our midst. Hence the notion of separation, we may ask ourselves some questions. For example: if foreigners were not in the midst of the people, would they have escaped all that they went through?
Answer: We may dare say yes, we can truly take the risk to say yes. Since we always need people to trigger disorder. When disorder is not triggered, we still live without disorder, and we can even live in order. As regards foreigners, if we revisit the teachings that we have, we will understand that when the Lord asks us to separate ourselves from people who do not love God, it is not because He is a God who preaches one thing and its contrary. It is not that God preaches love on one the hand and separation on the other hand. It is because we do not understand the thought of the Lord that we find it difficult to understand these things. If we had the Spirit of God and understood the mind of God, we won't find it difficult to understand these things.
We will examine why it is important to put the word of God in practice. Deuteronomy 13:1-11 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' -which you have not known- 'and let us serve them,' 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. 6If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you."
You can see that I have just read the Word of God, without adding anything. If God Himself can say this, then we can begin to wonder. Him, the God of love, the God of mercy, the God of compassion, the God of goodness, the forgiving God; instead of asking us to forgive, He rather says: you shall not you spare him or conceal him, you shall kill him. This is questionable: 1) Does God teach one thing and its contrary? 2) Can God who asks us to imitate Him in His goodness set a trap for us here by asking us to kill some persons, not to tolerate them, not to forgive them, not to shield them?
These are all the things that we must understand. Either what we have just read is true, and we are right in doing what we are doing, or it is false, and those who spend time cursing and slandering us are right.
We will therefore examine it together, in order to correct our mistakes if we were mistaken. Do you believe that the God that we serve, the God of the Bible, is a God who says one thing and its contrary? You all know He is a God of love, isn't He? A compassionate God, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. The Lord reproaches us among other for anger and lack of forgiveness. I promised to come back to these topics because they will be part of the elements that will help us prepare for the rapture. Now that the Lord asks us here: your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9but you shall surely kill him, the million dollar question is this: Why can the Lord leave one extreme to another without any transition? You should understand that it is simply because of things that we have already studied.
I have always told you that if Hell were a prison that will last for 10, 20, 30 or 50 years, the Lord would never have died and many teachings that we have here would never have existed. Because it is possible to spend 10 years in prison and still rebuild one's life once free, even though one would have wasted some years of his life. On the contrary, Hell is an everlasting prison. Moreover, if Hell was a prison in which you are given food each day, while just being deprived of your freedom, it won't be any major problem. But Hell has nothing to do with all of that, it is a fire that burns, burns, and burns again. An unquenchable fire; some people rebuked me in the West Indies that I teach a lot about Hell and that I lay so much emphasis on Hell. I warned the brethren not to listen to them in order not to burn with them in Hell. They know that they are from Hell, and they are struggling to take you along with them to their home.
Know therefore that Hell is real, beloved. It is because Hell is real that we find the Lord pronouncing very harsh sentence against defaulters. Carnally speaking, we find this sentence severe. Imagine that someone just tells you something, and the sentence pronounced is for him to stone him, to kill him, without covering him, without tolerating him, without forgiving him. But what is so bad in just telling someone something that is wrong? This is the carnal manner in which we think. But God who knows the power of incantation, knows that it suffices for you to listen, that you fall into the trap of what you are being told, and the consequence is not just a little punishment here on earth, but everlasting punishment.
Grace be with you all who have Jesus Christ as Master!
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