NUMBERS 13-14 TRUE AND FALSE REPORTS2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Numbers 13-14 True And False Reports

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. This morning as we look at Numbers chapter 13, I would ask you to start by considering this piece of art that I found. And it's artwork that is done by Light St.

and shadow. It's an image of this very simple thing, right? You can kind of picture refrigerator magnets, you know, the letters, you know, that sometimes you have on the refrigerator. It's a similar thing. These are wood pieces that are placed on a wall, and there's a light to the left, and the pieces are arranged in just such a way that it produces a shadow that looks like the face of a person.

And it's quite amazing if you look at this. This is an actual piece of art. It was done back in 1994 by an artist named Kumi Yamashita, something like that. So it's a really cool idea, and it kind of fascinates me. I'm not artistic at all, but I look at this, and I am able to appreciate the amount of effort and thought that went into this to be able to craft a shadow that looks like a person from...

A simple thing like some letters on the wall with a light there on the left-hand side. And so as you look at this, I would ask you to consider the title of the message this morning is True and False Reports. We're going to be looking at the report of the spies for the land of Israel today. So where we're at with the nation of Israel is they've come out of Egypt. They're in the wilderness area. They're headed towards the land that God promised to them.

But before they go in, the Lord tells Moses, send in some spies. Go scout out the land, get an idea of what is there, and then we'll move forward to enter into the land with the rest of the congregation. And so Moses sends 12 spies into the promised land.

He sends them in, they scout it all out, they walk all around, they check it out, they investigate. And the passage that we read as we started this morning was Moses' instruction to them. Go find out, are they dwelling in tents or do they have strong cities? Are they strong warriors or are they going to be easy to defeat? What's going to be the situation as we enter in to this land that God has promised to us?

And as they come back with this report, well, there's different conclusions that the people come to as a result of this report that they come back with. They come back with all the same facts. Now, if you're familiar with the account, you know that Joshua and Caleb...

are really the only two of the spies who really believed God and called the people to enter into the promised land. The rest of the spies are leading the people away from God and even taking them back to the land of Egypt. And so they come to different conclusions, Joshua and Caleb, versus these other spies, but they see the same things. They explore the same territory. They're together as they work their way through the land. They have the same facts, but what they have...

In conclusion, in their decisions, in their response to it is very different. And it brings to attention the perspectives that they have. And that's what I think is interesting about this idea of the shadows. Now, if you just saw the shadow itself, it would be very easy for you to conclude there's a person there casting that shadow.

But if you see the picture, if you see the whole thing, you understand it looks like a person, but it's not actually a person. And your perspective, well, it changes depending on what you're able to see. Even though it looks like the face of a person, you're able to recognize it's not actually the face of a person. A person is not casting that shadow.

And I would ask you to consider that this morning, because a lot of life, as we face decisions,

As we are processing information that is, you know, being presented to us, whether we're talking about, you know, things that are happening on the news, whether we're talking about things that are happening within our families or workplaces or communities, whether we're talking about conversations or, you know, things that are brought to us and decisions that need to be made, we are processing information continually. And a lot of times, the information that we are receiving, well,

It's really just a shadow. We're not dealing with the realities. We're dealing with a certain perspective that we are seeing or being presented. And there's an important thing that we need to consider, that in this life, God wants us to approach it with his perspective. And our perspective is limited, and we see just a little piece of certain things, certain elements, and God sees the whole thing.

And so he's able to tell us, hey, I know you're very convinced that's a person casting that shadow, but it's just a bunch of letters on the wall. And he's able to present a different perspective than we are able to see. And it really comes down to, as we evaluate these things, faith versus unbelief. True and false reports really come down to faith versus unbelief.

And so we need to consider these things as we look at spiritual things, as we look at practical things, as we process information, as we're sharing information. We need to understand the importance and the place of faith in all of these things. And so we're going to look at four points from the reports of these spies as we work our way through here, chapter 13 and 14.

We're going to start in verses 26 through 29 of chapter 13 with point number one, and that is give a true report. As we have opportunity to share information, as we have opportunity to speak, it is important for us to make sure that we give true reports. Check out verse 25, or sorry, 26 and 27. It says, now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.

Here we see the beginning of their reports. The 12 spies, they go check out the land. They explore it together. They go from top to bottom. They check out the different pieces of the land. They come back and they give this report. And

It's important to note that it's all 12 spies who have come back now and they're giving this report. It's the same report that all 12 spies are giving. Even though they're going to differ in their interpretation, they're going to differ in their conclusions in just a couple of verses, but they got the facts right. They got the facts of their reports in sync. They are together. Joshua and Caleb, as well as the other 10 guys, are delivering the same report.

Again, coming to different conclusions, but it's the same information that they're operating from. And what they say first off in verse 27 is that, well, it truly flows with milk and honey. This is what God promised them way back in the book of Exodus chapter three, when God first sent Moses to the nation of Israel, God said, I'm going to take you out of Egypt and I'm going to take you into a land that flows with milk and honey.

The idea there is that God's saying, I'm going to take you into land that is prosperous, that is abundantly fruitful, so much so that it flows with milk and honey. And what the guys come back, as they explore the land, they come back and they say, it's true. What God told us about this land, it's true. It flows with milk and honey. It is abundant. And they brought back a cluster of grapes to demonstrate, to show.

kind of like an exhibit A, right? To prove this point. Look, it really is fruitful. It really is abundant. This cluster of grapes was so hefty, so fruitful, it had to be carried by two guys. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to the grocery store and seen a cluster of grapes that had to be carried by two guys. I haven't, but hopefully next time we have a potluck, you can bring one of those clusters of grapes. That'd be awesome. But

Here there's this abundant fruit. It's so abundant that they grab this cluster of grapes. They bring it back. They say, look, and I don't know if that was, you know, the grapes were like the size of watermelons or it was just there was so much on the vines that it had to be carried by two men. But either way, there's this physical proof right in front of them here. Check this out, guys. I mean, truly, it is true. This is a land that flows with milk and honey.

They bring a true report, but it's not all good news. In verse 28, it goes on to say, "...nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong. The cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The 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."

So they start out saying, truly, what God said is true. What God said about this being an abundant land, we found that to be true. Here's the evidence of that. However, nevertheless, that doesn't mean that this land is going to be easy, that we just get to walk in and just enjoy all of this abundance without any resistance.

Part of their mission was to check out the abundance of the land and how it was producing. But another part of their mission was to evaluate what's the situation with the enemies who are in the land. Are they in camps? Are they intense? Are they going to be easy for us to defeat? Or is this going to be difficult? And they came back with this true report. This part is still true. Joshua and Caleb are still among these 12 spies reporting this information. It is the truth and

Yes, there is abundance. Yes, there is blessing. Yes, this is going to be amazing, the fruitfulness that we see here, but it is not going to come without any effort. There is going to be some challenges because the people who dwell in the land are strong. This is a true report. There are strong warriors in the land. There are strong peoples. Their cities are fortified and large.

They're not just, you know, like ragtag groups of people scattered about, you know, living in tents. They're organized. They're fortified. Their defenses are strong. They're set up to be able to withstand attack. There's going to be some serious challenges. They point out, hey, we saw the descendants of Anak, which is a reference to these large people, giants. There's giants in the land. They're going to be hard people to defeat, hard cities to conquer.

And there's a good amount of them. It describes the location of this people and that people and that people and that people. And these are in the mountains and these are over here. And it paints a picture of, hey, there is abundance here. Just like God said, there's abundance here. But there's also going to be some challenges. And throughout this whole account so far, the 12 spies are in agreement. This is the condition of this promised land. This is the situation.

They share a true report. I think they set for us a good example that there was opportunity for them to talk about good things and there was opportunity for them to talk about the things that were going to be challenging and they shared the whole picture. If you think about Joshua and Caleb, we recognize them as these are the guys who were the good spies. They wanted the people to go forward even though there were these challenges. They believed that God can...

do this work and he can conquer these enemies and they're challenges but they're not challenges to God they're just challenges in our eyes and God can conquer them but Joshua and Caleb how did they handle that did they did they come back and they say you know there's abundance of fruit uh yeah there's probably gonna be some challenges but don't worry about that don't think about that you know let's just go in and enjoy the fruit they didn't just like pretend there was no challenges

They didn't pretend there was no enemies. They didn't pretend there was no, you know, difficulties in the path ahead. They didn't try to trick the congregation of Israel into entering into the promised land. They honestly presented the truth. There are blessings. There's great blessings. But you also need to know there's going to be some challenges. And here's the situation with

the people, the inhabitants of the land that we will need to face. And they're going to go on to say, God's going to be with us, and he's going to deal with that. But they delivered a true report. They didn't manipulate the report to try to get the results that they wanted or the results that they thought were best. And I think that's important to consider this morning. You know, I want to encourage you this morning to be careful about, well, I'm going to call it managing people.

Sometimes we try to manage the report. We try to manage people. We try to manage the situation. And maybe with great motivations and great intentions. And yet at the same time, I would ask you to consider it and to take those things before the Lord and make sure that you're operating in a way that God wants you to operate in. Let me give you a silly example of maybe what I'm talking about here. You're making plans with someone. Maybe you're going to, you know, hook up with Josh and Yow. And so you're

You say, you know, let's have dinner at 5 o'clock. Now, really, you know you're planning for dinner at 6, but Josh is always late. He's never anywhere on time. So I'm not going to tell Josh 6 o'clock because then we won't get to eat until 7. So I'm going to tell Josh 5 o'clock so that we can eat at 6 o'clock when I really want to eat. And you see the kind of the management that's going on right there. There's like this. Okay, that's not really when it's happening. So tell them church service starts at 930. Okay.

But it actually starts at 10.30. But tell them 9.30, right? So that, and we're doing some manipulation, trying to get the results that we want, but messing with the numbers on the report in order to try to achieve that objective. That's kind of a silly example. But I think it paints a picture for us to help us evaluate some of the things that we might try to do about managing time.

people and managing reports. And we're trying to change information or, you know, kind of manipulate it so that we get the results that we want. And again, maybe even sometimes with great intentions, but I would ask you to consider if that's what Jesus would do. And do you see Jesus doing that throughout his life and ministry in the gospels? And I would suggest that we don't. And again, we can think about these things in the context of spiritual things. In the gospel message,

We're never encouraged or allowed. It's never okay to just kind of like, you know, gloss over the issues of sin and just like pretend, oh, there's no problems or, hey, come to Jesus because then life is just great. You never have any difficulties and there's no trials and there's no challenges. I mean, that's just not the way that it is. We're not allowed to just play with the report and share the pieces that we like to try to get the results that we want.

But you can think about this in other contexts as well. Think about, you know, kind of maybe a more practical idea in the context of marriage. And one spouse is kind of responsible for managing the monies and paying the bills and taking care of the budgets and all of that. And boy, things are really out of line. Things are really out of whack. Things are bad. You know, bills are getting paid late and

Well, but I don't want to tell my spouse. I don't want them to worry. You know, I don't want that. So I'm going to tell them everything's okay. I'm not going to let them know about, you know, I'm not going to, they're going to ask, okay, so how's, how's the finances? How are we doing? Are we, are we doing? Oh yeah, we're good. We're good. No problems. Meanwhile, there's real problems, right? And, and because we're trying to protect that person, quote unquote, protect them, we're, again, we might have different kinds of intentions and motivations driving us to that, but

I would encourage you, I would challenge you to reevaluate those tactics and techniques. I would suggest that God would prefer that we give a true report, that we give an honest assessment about what's actually going on. There's blessings and there's challenges. There's good things and there's difficulties. Sometimes people manipulate their reports because, well, you know, if I give an honest report, if I say what really happened to my boss, well, then I'm going to get in trouble. And so sometimes

Again, there's the changing of the information. There's the manipulating of the report in order to get the results or to avoid the results that we want to avoid. I think we need to be really careful about this. I shared this a while back, but it continues to come to mind that God wants us to be people who are credible. God cares about your credibility and sharing a true report is part of that.

And again, I think we can use Jesus as the example. The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians chapter 4, talks about us growing as believers. And one of the aspects, one of the marks of maturity for us as believers, as Christians, he says is that we're able to share the truth in love. You know, there's another side to this.

as I've been expressing it. You know, you can share the truth but kind of go overboard in that you're sharing the truth, you're saying everything that's true, but you're not doing it in a way that is loving.

And so you can, you know, tell people that, well, without Jesus, you're going to hell in a way that is not at all helpful or beneficial or loving, in a way that doesn't communicate the love of God and grace of God. And although the facts may be true, you know, it's not the truth in love. And so there's a balance to these things. And I'm not trying to say, you know, we always have to unload every fact, you know, possible, but...

But that we don't try to manipulate things to try to achieve what it is that we want or that what we think is best, but that we are genuine and honest in giving a true report. Sometimes people ask, how are you doing?

And we have our normal answers, right? Because, you know, how are you doing is kind of like just a standard generic greeting like, hey, good afternoon. But, you know, how are you doing? And so sometimes we say fine, when in reality, you know, things aren't really fine. I would encourage you every once in a while, give a true report. Share what's really going on. And again, that doesn't mean you have to like unload everything, every detail about, you know, why you're not doing so fine or why you are doing so fine. But,

But the point is, you don't have to pretend like there's no challenges. You don't have to pretend like you never have struggles. You don't have to pretend like you never have severe battles or issues or fights or difficulties. You don't have to pretend that. No, I would encourage you to share a true report. Be honest. Be genuine about...

the things that are actually going on. Now, again, that doesn't mean, you know, anybody who asked you, how's it going? You're required now. You have to tell them everything, every deep secret, every, you know. No, no, no, no. I'm not saying like that, but to think about how we're sharing the report and the things that we're sharing, and is it true? Is it really what is going on? And again, I think Jesus provides a really great example for us. You know, sometimes when Jesus was asked a question,

He just chose not to answer it. And that's maybe one way to handle some of those things that rather than give a false report or to mess with the report, just you don't give the report. And that's something that Jesus did when he stood before Pilate. There was accusations. There was things that were brought against him and questions that he was asked. And sometimes he just, he didn't answer. But Jesus was very genuine, right? I mean, when he was tired, what did Jesus do? He sat down. Remember in John chapter four, he just, I need to rest here.

He also needed to meet with the woman at the well, but he was tired. He sat down. He got away to rest when he needed to rest. He didn't have to pretend like, hey, I always have energy. I always have strength. You know, I'm walking in the spirit. So, you know, I never have any difficulties and no challenges in my life. No, he was tired. He sat down. When he was exceedingly sorrowful in the garden of Gethsemane, he told his disciples that I'm exceedingly sorrowful, even to the point of death.

Watch here and pray with me. I need your help, guys. Pray with me. And Jesus was not opposed to sharing those kinds of things with his disciples. He shared a true report. You can think about Jesus in this way. Did he ever trick people into following him? No, Jesus was not gonna deceive people or try to, well, I'm not gonna tell them the whole truth right now because then they wouldn't follow me. But in fact, Jesus did the opposite. There were people who were following him

who really didn't believe, and he would challenge them. He says, look, you guys need to count the cost. There's a price to pay. I mean, there's difficulties that come with following me. It's not always going to be easy. There's going to be some challenges. He even, you know, flat out said, you can't be my disciple if, and listed some things that, hey, you can't follow me if you're like this. This isn't going to work. Jesus shared true reports about what it required to follow him, to walk with him.

He told his disciples later on, don't be surprised when the world hates you. I mean, there's glory, there's blessings, there's abundance in Jesus Christ. He is the promised land in a way much more than the land of Israel ever was or will be. He is the fulfillment of those things. Did Jesus ever water down the truth to make it more acceptable, more palatable? No, he spoke the truth.

in love in a way that people were able to receive it, even people that it was hard to receive and difficult to understand or difficult to accept, and it challenged their very way of life. But Jesus gave a true report, and I would encourage you that's something that God wants us to consider. He wants us to be men and women who are able to share the truth, the good, the bad, the ugly. Some things are challenging. We don't want to talk about some things, but

You know, there are some things that we need to talk about because it's true, because it is reality and it is what's going on. And so here we see these 12 spies. They're in agreement. The 10 spies who are not good spies and Joshua and Caleb, they're in agreement. They share a true report. They give the good, the bad, the ugly. Here's the situation we face as we head into this promised land. Where they differ now is in the conclusions that they make from this information.

And so we're going to move on to verses 30 and 31. Here we get point number two. True conclusions require faith. The reason why there's a difference in their conclusions is that Joshua and Caleb, they actually believe God. The other 10 guys, they don't actually believe God. And that is what drives the difference in the decisions that they make, the response that they have to the same information, to the same report. Check out verse 30 and 31. It says...

Then 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. But 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. Here you get two completely different conclusions, two completely different courses of action, right? And you can't get more different than this. Here's a group of 12 guys, right?

who come up with, they see the same information, they have access to the same facts, they share the same reports, but they come up with two completely different courses, two completely different conclusions. How's that possible? Well, it's the difference between faith and unbelief. We can take it. There's these challenges. The land is abundant. There is blessings there, but there's challenges also. But God's with us and we can handle this.

The Lord's going to give us this land. That's what Joshua and Caleb said. The other guys say, no, we're not able to go up against. They're stronger than we are. We can't do this. We should just quit now. Joshua and Caleb had faith. The other guys, well, they didn't. Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, that 10 spies emphasized the obstacles instead of the opportunities and concluded that Israel was too weak to conquer the enemy. They walked by sight and not by faith.

Unbelief blinds you to God's greatness and magnifies your own weakness. These guys were walking by sight and not by faith, he says. Now, we know the scripture says the just, the righteous, they walk by faith and not by sight, right? But these guys, these 10 spies, they're doing the opposite. They're walking by sight. Unbelief. They don't believe God. And so they're

not seeing the greatness of God. And they're really seeing, they're paying great attention to their own weaknesses. And they're saying, look, that enemy is big. We're not, we can't do this. And so they come to a completely different conclusion than Caleb and Joshua. Because, well, the true conclusion, what was the reality? The reality was that

If they believed God and entered into the promised land, God promised. He said, I'm going to fight your battles for you. You're going to be involved in the battle, but I'm going to give you victory. The reality was, if they believed God, yes, there were giants. Yes, there were fortified cities. Yes, there was challenges. Yes, there was all these difficulties. But God said, I'm going to... The reality was, God was going to give them that land. He promised to give them that land. Now, this generation is going to miss out on that because...

Because of unbelief. They come to a false conclusion because they don't actually believe God at his word. The author of Hebrews will review this and talk about it in Hebrews chapter 3. He summarizes and says, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. This is the real issue going on here between these 10 spies and these two spies, Joshua and Caleb. This is the difference between

unbelief. This was the issue in the heart of the congregation of Israel. It's unbelief. It brought them to a false conclusion. It took them on a false course of action. It caused them to make a decision that was not the best decision. Not even like, well, it was kind of a good decision. It just, you know, there could have been a better. No, it was like the worst decision that they could make because they would not believe God at his word. They saw the shadow of

They're making conclusions about the shadow, and they're not letting God tell them what really is going on. Here's another example to consider this idea of the shadow a little bit further. This is an object suspended in air, and light is being shown upon it from different directions, and it's casting a shadow on two walls and the ground.

Now, if you are next to the wall with the red shadow, the red light, you can look at the shadow and say, wow, there's a square shadow. And you can start to come to conclusions about what is casting that shadow. Maybe it's a Rubik's cube. Maybe it's a, you know, one of those letter blocks. Maybe it's a post-it note. Something square, that's what I know for sure. And so you're looking at this shadow and you're saying, wow, look at this square, there's a square thing casting this shadow.

Now, right next to you is another person looking at the blue shadow and saying, no, no, no, it's not square. It's round. I don't know how you're seeing square. I mean, look, it's very clear. It's round. It's something round that's casting this shadow. It's probably a ball or, you know, a coin or something like that. That's what's casting this shadow. It's not square at all. It can't be square. No, no, it's round. And for you seeing the red shadow, you're...

It's true for you, right? You're seeing the square. I see a square shadow. And the person who's seeing the blue round shadow, yeah, I see a round blue shadow. That's what I see. Meanwhile, there's a third person looking at the ground saying, no, it's a triangle. You guys are both crazy. I don't know how you see. Can't you see the points? There's three points. That means it's a triangle. There's not four points. That's a square. But no, there's three points. And the reality is the shape has a lot of complexity to it. It has a round side. It has a round side.

From a certain perspective with the light, it does look square. From a certain perspective with the light, it does look like a triangle. It does cast a triangular shadow. But the reality is much more complex than just it's a square or it's a circle or it's a triangle. There's some depth to it. There's some reality there that cannot be seen, but we're trying to come to conclusions just based on the shadow that we see. And it's amazing, isn't it, how

a group of people can look at the same report, same information, same facts, and come up with something completely different. Because, well, there are. There's different perspectives that are casting light and casting shadows that, well, it paints the picture a little bit differently. And so how do we sort through all that? Well, see, here's the real question. What does God see? It's not what do I see, and what do you see, and what does this other person see, and

We'll try to figure out between that. No, no. The reality that we need to ask is, what does God see? What does God say about this? See, because God can describe. God can say, look, here's what you don't see. All you see is the wall, and you see the shadow. But let me tell you what's really there. There's this object, and it's round and comes to a point. So that's why it looks like a triangle. And you can understand the different shadows once you understand the object that is casting those shadows.

But if you're just looking at the shadows, you're thinking that's just impossible. How could that be true and that be true and that be true? It just, it doesn't make sense. We can't reconcile that in our head. Now again, there's spiritual application. There's some spiritual things, some truths that we see the shadow of and we don't understand. We don't quite, I don't get it. How could this be true and that be true at the same time? You know, some people wrestle with the

Free will of man and the sovereignty of God. And they're like, well, how could both be true? It's just, it's not possible. Well, there's some complexity there. And the issue isn't for you to try to figure out how to make the shadows work together. The issue is for you to listen to what God says and take that as the truth. To accept what God says as the truth. This is what we need to do. True conclusions are,

Require faith. You can jump to conclusions without faith. Sometimes jumping to conclusion is like considered faith, but that's not considered faith. No, to come to the right conclusion, to come to the true conclusion, it's going to require that you believe God at his word. It's going to require that you take God's word and you value that and esteem that more than, well, your own opinion.

and your own estimation, and your own calculations, and your own feelings, and your own thoughts. It's going to mean that you believe God above all else. And different people handle these kinds of things in different ways. But sometimes, you know, you're looking at the square, you're saying it's a square, and someone next to you says, no, it's round. And you go, okay, it's round. I'll take your word for it, because I don't really trust mine. That's okay if you're believing God's opinion, and you have that attitude towards God's opinion. But just because someone tells you

That it's round doesn't mean that they understand. You see, the thing is, we need to find out what does God see? Now again, I'm using this as an illustration. I would ask you to consider this in various aspects of your life. When it comes to spiritual truths and spiritual things, there's shadows being cast.

There's conclusions being made. There's things that you're believing, but are you believing them because of things that you're seeing, of events that are transpiring, of things that you've been told, or are you believing them because this is what God said about the reality that is, that he can see the whole picture.

We can come to conclusions about life after death based on, well, I saw this movie about this person who died and then what they came back and said what they saw. And you can come to conclusions about life after death from that if you want to. Is that going to be a true conclusion? Only if it agrees with what God has actually said and what God has actually revealed. What does God see? That's really what matters.

Sometimes we get stuck in our perspective and all we can see is our shadow, you know, the shadow that we prefer and we can't understand. Sometimes it causes us to kind of attack, you know, like the people around us because, you know, you're an idiot. Why would you say that it's round? It's square. It's clearly square. You know, what's wrong with you? And it can put us at odds. But in reality, we both are just seeing a shadow. We're not seeing the real thing and that's why there's the differences. We need to

to come back to the question, what does God see? Not just our own perspective, but what does God see? What does God say? There was an old and very wise Jedi who once said, Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. That was Obi-Wan Kenobi speaking to Luke Skywalker. Okay, it's not biblical, but it's still a little bit true nonetheless. There's a lot of things that we cling on to that...

It's just our perspective. We don't have the whole truth. And we need to be careful to let God and his word override what I think, my perceptions, what I feel, my calculations. I need to let God override those things because many things in life are not actually what they appear to be. Take sin, for example. Sin looks fun. And even the Bible says it is fun for a season.

But then there's this aftermath of destruction that sin brings. And so when you see the whole picture, it's not fun and it's not worth it. You and I, in the moment, in this life, we look at and we go, oh, that looks great. But we're just seeing the shadow. And we have to let God say, look,

I can see the whole picture. I can see the whole thing. And you're just seeing the shadow and you're thinking, yeah, that affair is going to be amazing. That's going to just like be awesome and satisfy you and fulfill you. That's going to be awesome. Great. Yeah, you should go for it. That's your conclusion. You're just seeing the shadow. But then there's this destruction and it's not going to go. It's going to be horrible. Don't do it. And God says that's sin. He calls things sin because of the destruction that they bring.

But we just seeing the shadow think, why would God forbid that? That's going to be amazing. It's going to be the best thing that ever, you know, happened in my life. Because we only see a little bit of what's actually going on. We can look at obedience, obedience to God and go, oh man, that just looks miserable. I mean, who would want to just read this list of rules in this book? And oh man, just horrible. That's just awful. That sounds like a boring life with no joy and

And that might be your perspective. That might be your conclusion. But that is not the reality. Again, the commands of the Lord are commands to us because he knows what's best for us to give us joy, to give us abundant life and life more abundantly. It is many times the opposite of our perception. And that's why we need to let God tell us what is real and what is true. We can look at a situation and base ourselves

our decisions upon how we feel about it, our emotional state, you know, our mental state, and we can come to some false conclusions. But to come to the truth, we must ask, what is it that God sees? What is it that God says about this? Think about the Apostle Paul for a moment in Philippians chapter 1 verse 12. He's writing to the Philippians from prison. And in writing to them from prison, he says, I want you to know, brethren,

Now, if you just look at the shadow and you think about, okay, Paul the Apostle, okay, let's just say he's the greatest evangelist who ever lived, right? Putting him in prison, boy, that's really going to damage the furtherance of the gospel, right?

That's really going to hinder the gospel. It's going to limit the gospel. That's not a good thing. We could easily look at that situation and come to that conclusion, but it's just a shadow. And Paul points this out. He says, actually, so the perception is not reality. Actually, what's happened by this, even though I've been in prison for several years, even though I've been on various trials and gone through all these things, even though all of that

has turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Don't look at the shadow and be thinking that, man, what a defeat, you know, the gospel has been hindered. No, look at the reality. There's much more that is going on that God is doing in this situation, and the gospel is actually advancing because of it. It's not being held back. Many times what we see, our perceptions are not accurate.

Jesus, in teaching the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, said, And we can just look at the shadow of mourning and think, why would anybody say that that's a blessing? How could anybody say that's a good thing? How could anybody say that good can come from mourning? But if you're just looking at the shadow, you're going to have that perspective. If you look at what the Lord says and take that over your own perception, then you can understand there is a blessing.

There is a greater work that God is doing that is going on. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And you can think, how could it be blessed to be poor in spirit? But Jesus says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Later on, Jesus said, there's many who are first who will be last, and there's many who are last who will be first. Again, the perception is often opposite. It's different than what is actually going to take place or is taking place in reality. You see, many times we're living inside of an illusion. We're seeing the shadow. We're operating based on the shadow. We're making decisions based on the shadow. And God says, here's the object. It's completely different than your understanding of

And the only way to get there, the only way to have a true conclusion is to hear what God says and believe what he said and to operate based on that, to make your decisions based on what God says. True conclusions require faith. That's why the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 says this in verse 18, "'We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.'"

Now, in the context, Paul is talking about his difficulties. He says, look, we're having a hard time, harder time than I've ever had before in my life. And my outward man is perishing, but I'm being renewed inwardly. God's doing a work within, but externally, man, I'm really suffering. But he goes on to say, our light affliction is but for a moment, and it's working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

There's an eternal reward that's being built here in this temporary suffering. And so I'm not going to look at the shadow, the things that are seen. I'm going to look at the things that are unseen. I can't see those things, but God can see those things. He's telling me about those things. I'm going to believe him. And I'm going to let him tell me about reality. I'm going to let him override my opinions, my feelings, my thoughts, my calculations. I'm going to let God do that. And so when God says, hey, the best thing for your marriage is this.

Hey, it may not look that way to me, but I'm going to let God tell me what's best for my marriage. God says, the best thing for your career is this. Hey, I may not see it that way. I don't think that it's going to work, frankly, but that's what God says. And so, well, I need to listen to God and let God override because I only see the shadow. He sees the reality. You can apply that again to all aspects of your life. Believe what God says more than what you think, more than what you feel, and more than what you see.

Well, that leads us now into point number three. Looking still at verse 31 through chapter 14, verse 4. Unbelief produces a false report. We're not going to go through all these verses, but you can spend some more time in those later. Let's just jump to verse 32. It says, And 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.

There we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak came from the giants. And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. So we were in their sight. Here the 10 spies give their report. And it's a false report now. When they're just talking about the facts, they're just talking about the information. They were all in agreement. The 10 spies and the two spies, they were all in agreement. But now when it comes to what to do with this information, they give a false report. Here's what we should do. Run.

flee. We can't do this. It says in verse 32, they gave the children of Israel a bad report. This word bad report, sometimes it's translated evil report. Sometimes it's translated false report. It's the opposite of a true report. It's a false report. It's a bad report. It's an evil report.

it brings devastating consequences. It takes them down a path of destruction for these 10 spies themselves, but also has serious consequences because they're involved in influencing others to now disregard what God says and to rebel against God. And there's some serious consequences that come from that. But they present this in a way that seems to make sense. They have their reasons, right? Look,

There's these guys and there's these guys and it's going to be really difficult. Pastor David Guzik has an interesting thought on that. He says, unbelief often presents itself as being factual or practical or down to earth. Yet the most factual, practical, and down to earth thing we can do is trust the word of the living God. Their unbelief was not according to the facts, but despite the facts. And many times unbelief can be presented in such a way that, well, it just makes sense.

And I'm analyzing, I'm thinking through the facts, you know, I'm thinking through the information. So it can be presented in a way like this is just wisdom, right? It's just wise to not believe God. And that's not true. Their unbelief was not according to the facts, but actually it was despite the facts. Because what God had said, including the facts, there is blessing, there's abundant fruit, there are challenges, there's going to be battles. God told them that. What also God tell them? He told them,

I'm going to be with you. I'm going to drive out the inhabitants before you. I'm going to fight the battles for you. You're going to have victory. That's a fact. God told them that. So that's one of the facts that was in the group of facts, but they were disregarding. It was in spite of that. Even though God told them, I'm going to give you victory, they said, we're not going to have victory because they would not believe God at his word. They would not take what God said and

And let that override their own fears, their own emotions, and their own struggles. And so they give this bad report. This is what they share with the people of Israel. It goes on in verse 1. So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And so the children of Israel as a whole, as a congregation, they listen to the ten spies. They buy into this false report. They buy into this false conclusion that

and they rebel against God. But it's not entirely the 10 spies' fault. You can see in verse 30 that Caleb had to interrupt the report and quiet the people before even the other spies had an opportunity to speak. So as a whole, the congregation did not believe, and that's why these 10 didn't believe, because they were part of the congregation. This was just the status of the nation of Israel at this time. They did not believe God. There was a few who did, like Joshua and Caleb.

But as a whole, their unbelief brought them to a false conclusion, took them down a path of destruction. But there was some personal responsibility, some consequences for these 10 guys. If you'll look later on in verse 36 and 37, it points out God brings a specific judgment on these 10 guys because they had a part. They were influential in others not following the path that God had set before them.

And so it highlights these guys. It says these 10 guys, they died in this plague because of their false report, because of their involvement in affecting the people around them with unbelief. Unbelief produces a false report. Well, finishing it up, verses 5 through 10, here we get point number four, and that is faith produces true encouragement. Verse 5 says, "'Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.'"

Verse 8. Verse 8.

Here Joshua and Caleb, because they have faith, because they believe God at his word, they are able to now give some real encouragement. And their encouragement, in contrast to the other 10 guys, is true.

If Israel will listen to Joshua and Caleb at this time, they will be blessed. They will go into the promised land. God will defeat the enemies before them. There will be victory. There will be battles, but there will be victory. Joshua says they'll be bread for us. The idea is like we're going to eat them for breakfast. This is not going to be difficult because God is with us. He believes God. He includes God in the picture, in the perspective, and it enables him to

to be a true encouragement. You know, sometimes we can give encouragement that has no basis in reality. It's just wishful thinking. You know, it's just like, I wish you the best. But they're able to give true encouragement because they're speaking forth from what God has said. This is the truth. This is reality. This is what's best. And when we believe God at his word, it brings us to true conclusions for ourselves, but it also enables us to be able to truly encourage people around us

with the things of reality, with the things of eternity. Faith produces true encouragement. If you really want to be a blessing to people around you, you want to help them for the long run, for eternity, believe God at his word. Trust God. Let God's word preside over all things in your heart. Let God's word be the last word. Let God's word override your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your

Let God direct and dictate and tell you what is real and what is not. Then you'll be able to give a true report with true conclusions, with true encouragement to help people where it really counts and where it matters most. And if we don't do that, if we don't believe God, it's going to bring us to false conclusions.

It's going to take us to paths of destruction. It's going to cause us to be influential in others as well and bring on extra consequences for ourselves because of our unbelief. It really comes down to faith. It's believing God at his word, letting him tell us what is real and what is not, and that being the most important voice of all that we listen to. Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us

Lord, we are bombarded by all kinds of information from various arenas in our life, Lord. There's political things being brought to us. There's spiritual things being presented to us. There's family situations and work information and all of these things. And

There's pressure to make decisions here and to make decisions there. There's pressure to go this way or go that way. And there's all of these things that are happening all around us all the time. And God, I pray that you would give us a moment of clarity right now. Lord, that we'd be able to recognize those pressures and those decisions for what they are. Tactics of the enemy to try to get us to not stop and listen to you. Lord, the most important voice that we need to hear is yours.

What do you have to say? Lord, there's decisions that we have to make. There's things that we see, but they're just shadows, Lord. You know what the realities are. Lord, we invite you at this time to speak to our hearts about those realities. What's really going on? What do you desire? What do you say? And Lord, what you say might be different than what we see. Lord, I pray that you would help us to not walk by sight, but to walk by faith.

to believe you at your word, to obey you even when it doesn't make sense to us, recognizing that you see the whole picture and you're able to determine what truly is best. God, I pray that you would help us to trust you to that extent. And once again, Lord, we ask that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, the one that you call the Spirit of Truth. Lord, that we might be able to recognize what is true, that we might be able to recognize what is from you. And Lord, I pray.

in regard to spiritual things, that you would help us to see the truth, to understand the reality of who you are. In the things involving the workplace or our families or things happening in our communities, Lord, I pray that you would help us to see the truth by your Spirit. Lord, that we would be a true encouragement and able to influence people for good. Whether it's received or not, Lord, that's a different thing, and that's between those

who are receiving it or those who are rejecting it and you, Lord, that's up to them. But Lord, for us, for our part, help us to be able to bring forth some true, some real encouragement that comes from knowing you and what you say. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.