Welcome to Power For Life. This broadcast brings to you a message of life-changing revival in the Holy Spirit. We pray that today's program will help to spur you on to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life. Now, here with today's message is Tom Hill. There's a saying that says, those who do not remember the past are destined to repeat it. In other words, the implication from this little statement is that we should learn from history. As we look back upon the past, we should see the mistakes and errors that people made and avoid them. In a like manner, we would look back on history and see those things that God blessed and follow them. But if there's one thing that I have concluded from observing history is this. We have not learned from history. For as we look at the current conditions of the Church of Jesus Christ today, we are repeating history. We are following into the same patterns and paths as the children of Israel did in their sin and rebellion against God. And the exact same kind of conduct that they followed we find present in the Church of Jesus Christ today. Perhaps it might even describe your conduct today. For our study, I want us to examine today a passage from scripture that identifies the unbelief of the children of Israel, and what that unbelief caused them to do, and how because of their failure to trust God completely and exclusively, how that impacted and affected their lives. Our passage is taken today from Numbers chapter 21. starting in verse number 4. I'm just going to read a few verses, and then we'll examine it to see the truths there that apply to our lives today. It says this, Numbers 21, starting in verse 4, And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying, Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people died." We find the children of Israel here again. For the thirteenth time, rebelling and murmuring against God because of their unbelief, their failure to trust God completely and exclusively, and it caused them to sin once again. And today I want us to examine this passage and see the effect of unbelief in their lives. And I pray that the Spirit of God will take these truths and apply them in your life and reveal the truth of them to your mind and heart. I pray that the Spirit of God will convict you and identify in your life where you are guilty of the same kind of unbelief as these people were, that He might correct you. change you, conform your life to the truths of God's Word. That's my prayer today as we examine this study from Numbers chapter 21. I want you to notice immediately, upon their taking their course of travel from Mount Hor, we find immediately Unbelief revealing itself in the lives of the children of Israel. And it comes in this fashion. It says, as they went by from Hor down by the Red Sea, that the soul of the people was much discouraged. Unbelief brings sorrow and disappointment. And we notice it right here described very clearly by the children of Israel. Now, just a moment of little background here to understand what's happening. Because they have rebelled against God and doubted His Word, God has said as a judgment, you will travel in the wilderness for 40 years. And during that 40 years, those of you who fail to believe and trust God, you're going to die out. And your children, I will take into the Promised Land. As part of the punishment, He takes them from their vicinity near the Promised Land, and He takes them back almost exactly retracing their steps from the very beginning of their departure from Egypt. For we see He takes them right down by the Red Sea all over again. And it says that they are going to go around and make a compass around Edom. Edom was a group of people who lived in the Sinai Desert, who resisted the passage of the children of Israel through their land. The children of Israel had asked for permission to just pass through their land. The more direct route would go right through their land. And the king of Edom said, not on your life. You're not going to come through our land. You'll take us over and you'll destroy us and you'll steal from us. Don't come anywhere near us. So the children of Israel, in order to get to the Promised Land, and head in that direction, had to make a backtracking circle back towards the Red Sea, around Edom, and coming up then on the east side of the Promised Land. And when that occurred, the children of Israel saw what was happening. And they saw that they were retracing their steps, and they were going right back where they were once sometime previously. And it says they were very discouraged. They were upset and distraught because they could see they were going right back where they had started. Well, why did that happen? Why was that part of the journey? Why did God take them back in that direction? Because of their unbelief. They were beginning to suffer the consequences of their unbelief. For when they were at the very verge of going into the promised land, they rejected it all. They turned their back on it and said, it's filled with giants, they will destroy us, we want to go back to Egypt. Well, God wasn't about to take them back to Egypt, but as part of their judgment against them for their unbelief, they were going to have to spend some time wandering in the wilderness. And so we see that because of their unbelief, it brought into their lives discouragement and sorrow. We also find that as we further progress in this account, it says here that they spake against God and against Moses. And they complained for their condition, for the path that they were taking. We're just retracing our steps and there's no water and there's no food and things are bad. And they were complaining and crying out to Moses and to God. So we find that not only does unbelief cause sorrow and discouragement, But we also find that unbelief brings into our lives a blindness, a spiritual blindness comes over our minds and our hearts that we don't see the truth. Now, they're complaining here once again, as I alluded and mentioned earlier in the broadcast. This is the thirteenth time since they have left Egypt that they complained to God about their circumstances. On every occasion, God made provision for them. So in reality what they are doing in their unbelief is they are complaining against God and their eyes are blinded to the truth. And the truth was this, that God had revealed to them His mighty power on many occasions at the Red Sea, While they were yet in Egypt, on ten occasions he revealed his great power on their behalf that ultimately led to their exodus out of Egypt. At the Red Sea, he parted it and they walked on dry land. He provided water for them on three different occasions, miraculously. He provided food for them every day. His presence was seen by a pillar of cloud by day and a fiery pillar of clouds by night. Oh, God had revealed Himself to them on many, many occasions. Every day they saw His hand and His power. And because of their unbelief, their eyes were blinded to the truth. And the truth was that no, God did not take them out in the wilderness to kill off all of their animals and their food. No, He took them out there to lead them into the Promised Land. And he was going to do that for those who trusted and those who believed. Those who failed to believe and trust God would die in the wilderness for their unbelief. That was part of their judgment against them. And we find here an expression in their conduct of their unbelief. Not only did it bring discouragement and sorrow to their lives, but secondly, it blinded their eyes to the truth. They didn't really comprehend the revelation of God that He gave to them about Himself and His power and His abundant provision on their behalf. They missed it entirely. Their unbelief blinded their eyes. So those are two things that we see here right away. And there's a third thing that we see here. Their unbelief allowed their flesh to dominate their lives. Now, when we talk about the flesh, I'm not meaning their bodies, their hands, their arms, their legs that we commonly think of as flesh. But when the Bible talks about flesh, it's talking about the inner kind of character and conduct of man. He's talking about our opinions, our attitudes, our desires. What is our normal human nature? without God. How do we act and live and behave? That's called the flesh. And the Scriptures give us very clear description about that character, that kind of behavior that is within the heart of mankind, regardless of where he lives. Within the heart of man, the Scriptures say, is murder, adultery, fornication, lying, stealing, anger, wrath, strife, division, and the list could go on, of the various characteristics of what the Bible calls the flesh. Those kinds of characteristics that describe and define human nature without God. Well, when we look at the example of the children of Israel on this occasion, we find that because of their unbelief, That sinful human nature gained control of their attitudes, their opinions, and their conduct, so that it controlled and dominated their lives. I want you to notice how it is expressed and revealed in this circumstance. Notice that it says that they complained to God about the water not having any bread, and then at the tail end of verse number 5 it says this, and our soul loatheth this light bread." Well, what does it mean, first of all, to loathe something? Well, I think most people understand the meaning of that word. It means to have a terrible dislike for something. It is where you reject it and repel it completely. You loathe it. It's a kind of a hatred. It is a very strong dislike. Well, that's the attitude that the children of Israel had. They said they loathed this light bread. Well, we understand, first of all, what it means to loathe something. What was it that they hated? What was it that they rejected and despised? It says here it's called this light bread. Well, what does that mean? What is that describing in their experience? It's making reference to the manna that God gave to them every day. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt and departed that land, they brought with them a certain amount of provisions of food to eat. But it only lasted a short time, of course. Well, what were they to do for food thereafter? God provided for them every day manna. Manna was a bread-like substance that God provided for them on the morning of every day except one day in the week. That was the seventh day, the Sabbath day, the day on which man was to rest and to contemplate and think and worship God. Six days of the week, God provided manna for them. On the sixth day, He provided enough manna for them to package it and care for it that they would have for the seventh day when they would not have any to gather in the morning. So manna was the bread from heaven, the food that God provided for the children of Israel for forty years, six days a week. It's described in the scriptures as being angels' food. We hear a great deal today about angels and talk about angels in our society. Well, in the Scriptures, they're defined and described for us, their tasks and their design, their creation by God. And they feed on manna. It's angels' food. It's God's heavenly food. It was His provision for them. And how did they respond to God's heavenly gift? They hated it. They despised it. They totally rejected it. They didn't like it. They didn't want it. They said, instead of that food that we get from God, that manna, that light bread, instead of that, we want this. And they began to describe the kinds of foods and things that they wanted to eat. And we find in that response and that reaction to God, their flesh, their human nature, the characteristics of their sinful conduct beginning to reveal itself, in that they rejected what God had provided for them, what God designed for them, and instead they said, we want what pleases us. That doesn't please us, this does. And they set their desires and their designs upon that which would please their own human nature. That's called letting your flesh dominate your life. And the Scriptures speak very clearly to this issue. We find in Galatians chapter 5 that the Spirit of God gives us victory over our flesh. That we as believers in Jesus Christ are to walk in the Spirit, it says. living under the authority, the supernatural ability of the Spirit of God in our life, who will produce His character, His conduct in our lives. And in so doing, it will overcome those sinful human characteristics that reside and live and desire to be expressed in every human creature. We find that the children of Israel, because of their unbelief, their failure to trust God exclusively, we find that instead they lived under the control and conduct and impulses, desires, design of the flesh. And instead they set aside heavenly food. They set aside that which God designed for them. They rejected it. They refused it. They loathed it. And instead, wanted and desired what their sinful human nature demanded. Well, what does the Spirit of God want these truths to accomplish in your life today? He wants you to know, first of all, the truth. He wants you to know the truth about unbelief and how unbelief expresses itself. On this occasion, we see that it expressed itself by a rebellion against God, by a failure to see the truth, by a loathing of that which God designed and desired for His people, and instead choosing after that which their flesh demanded and desired. He wants you to know the truth. that those are the expressions of unbelief, a failure to trust God completely and exclusively. Secondly, the Spirit of God then wants to take these truths and He wants to convict you of your sin. I would ask you today, where has the Spirit of God identified in your life this same conduct that we observe from Numbers chapter 21? Where have you loathed the things of God? The things that God desires and designs for you to enjoy, that for you will be helpful and strengthening and beneficial to you. And where you have rejected that and instead sought after that which your human nature desires. Where have you, because of unbelief, had your eyes blinded to the truth? to where you don't see God's power and provision on your behalf, and you question and you tempt His power by doubting Him. Where have you, because of unbelief, had sorrow and discouragement come into your life, just like these people did, because of unbelief? Where would you find your condition today? Would you find yourself innocent or guilty? Has the Spirit of God approved of your conduct or has He disapproved and reproved you? The Spirit of God wants to take these truths today and point out in your life where you have sinned against God, where you have grieved His Holy Spirit, where you have quenched His work in your life. And as a consequence, you lack His supernatural power and authority in your life. The Holy Spirit does that that He might correct you. He doesn't convict you of your sin just to leave you in misery. He doesn't point out and identify in your life your unbelief and your failure to follow after God just for you to then go on living in the same fashion. He does so to correct you. That He might change your life. That He might use their example as an admonition to you. that he might correct you from a life of unbelief to one of trust and faith in God. He wants to correct you. He wants to point out in your life those areas where you need to have sin removed and God's presence indwelling you. We find, very interestingly, when we come to the New Testament, that this very specific instance is described for us as an example to avoid. This very setting we find recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 9. It says, Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. This very instance is given in scripture as an admonition and a warning to us that we might not walk in that same pattern. Avoid their example. Shun their sin. Instead, trust and believe God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and allow the Spirit of God to control and dominate your life. Lastly, the Spirit of God wants to take these truths, not only to teach us, not only to enlighten us, He also wants to convict us, identify in our lives where we are guilty. He then wants to take those truths and correct us, change us, transform us. That lastly, He might conform our attitudes, opinions, conduct to the truth of God's Word. We find the scriptures give to us very clear direction on how we are to live and walk. He wants us to conform our lives according to those truths. I pray that the Spirit of God will take these truths and apply them in your life today. That He might begin a spiritual revival in your life that will revolutionize your life. Change it from this day forward for the rest of your life.