Right Words Wrong Spirit - Part 2 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! Thou the rays of my God and King, thou triumphs of his grace! This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace.

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Today we continue with the message, Right Words But Wrong Spirit. The text is Joshua chapter 17 verse 14. And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto. But next we see a complaint made. You would think for all the abundant blessings for which the tribe had to give thanks.

There could not possibly have been a complaint. But in that 14th verse it says, And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto. So they were voicing displeasure with God's purpose for them. The land was being divided according to lot.

Now it doesn't give us any detailed information about how that was brought about. But the ultimate end of the division being by lot was that God in His sovereignty was in charge of it. So they were being allotted the portion of land that God intended for them to have.

And the tribe of Joseph is complaining. They are saying, We are great people. Now it could be they only had reference to the fact that they had increased in number.

The population of that tribe had grown by about 20,000 and they were great in number. But it seems from the general spirit of the thing that there was more to it than that. There was a bit of arrogance, a bit of pride.

We are a great people and so we're entitled to more. We're warned repeatedly in scripture about not having a spirit of complaint. In 1 Corinthians 10 and the 10th verse, references made to the fact that even while they were in the wilderness they were murmuring.

And it says, Neither murmury as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Many of them died in the wilderness because they complained. They complained when the water was bitter but God made it sweet by the putting in of a tree. They complained when they were without bread but God rained it down from heaven. They complained because they didn't have meat and God sent in the fowl for them to eat.

God provided for them in every way. But they were constantly complaining about something. It says they were therefore destroyed. Now all these things happened unto them for hours and samples. For they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.

So these things are not recorded in the Bible just as a historical event. They're there for our benefit, for our admonition. Let us then learn that God is greatly displeased with a complaining, murmuring spirit. Their attitude was, Well, if I could just have more, not just what's been allotted to us, if I could just have more, that would satisfy me. And how often that spirit plagues people today, even in a land that is prosperous and blessed so richly as we are in the United States of America. Often a person, rather than giving thanks for what they do have, says, If I could just have a little more, I might be content.

I see pride in these people as they say, We are a great people. And there are other sins that accompany murmuring, sin of envy, sin of covetousness, sin of impatience. So once you get to the place that you're complaining about your station in life, I just don't like where God has placed me.

I want some other position. It doesn't mean that there is no place for forward movement if it's under the direction of the Spirit of God and in harmony with the teachings of His word. But to be grumbling, murmuring, complaining is an affront to the Lord, displeasing to Him. And another thing that makes me think they're complaining was not just a declaration of their growth in size but that they were full of pride. They were prone to complaining. When you go ahead and read about the same people in the book of Judges and on into 1 Samuel, they were still complaining. There were still things that didn't satisfy them and they were very vocal about it. You know, if you become a complainer, you get a lot of practice at it, you get experience and it just becomes the way you are. Whatever comes along, there's some complaint to be made. And that becomes disheartening and discouraging to other people.

We're to be an encourager and an encourager is somebody who is thankful and encouraging thanksgiving in others. While they were complaining about what they had been designated to possess, they were ignoring opportunities of land that rightfully would be theirs to possess that territory. But they didn't want the work that was going to be required to possess it.

They didn't want to have to do what was necessary. You see, a thankful heart always bows to God's sovereignty. I may not understand what's going on at the present. I don't understand what God is doing in my life. I don't understand all of the trials that He has for me to experience, but I'm going to trust Him anyway. See that beautiful example in the case of Job, Job chapter 1 verse 20, when he had lost his flocks and his herds, he had lost his children, he had lost everything. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, and said, Naked came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Oh, that we might have that spirit. I acknowledge that Job went through some difficult times following that wonderful declaration, as his friends came and accused him of having some great sin, and that's why all of this had befallen him. He was troubled, but he still always trusted in God, saying, Though ye slay me, yet will I trust Him. Oh, to bow, when we don't understand, when the way is extremely dark, but to bow, and worship, and acknowledge, I came in this world without anything, I'm going to go out the same way. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. What I had, He had given me. God saw fit for it to be removed, I'm still going to worship Him, and praise Him. A thankful heart will always bow in humility and thanksgiving to give praise and glory to God. Well, then we see that the people offered excuses.

Excuses offered. Look at verse 15. And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites, and of the giants, if ephraim be too narrow for thee. And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron. They say, you know, this hill country is going to be a bit of a challenge. They said it's not enough, but obviously their problem was they didn't want to have to go cut down the trees. It was covered with trees. And Joshua says, go cut them down.

You can develop that hill country and the land that will be good and you can utilize it. But they also brought up the fact that the Canaanites dwell in the valley that would separate us from the hill country and that the Canaanites had chariots of iron. Now we learn that those chariots had an extension of iron that was sharpened, and as they drove those chariots with great speed, it would decimate anything that they passed. If they hit a human being, it would kill them on the spot.

If they hit anything of substance, it would no doubt destroy. Well, from a human standpoint, you can understand their reluctance to want to have to go fight against the people like that. The Canaanites are there.

We don't want to have to fight them. They have reached a place that they were enjoying a reprieve. There have been many battles to fight in the conquest of Canaan. And we read in some of our previous messages about the war coming to an end temporarily, and there was a rest to be enjoyed. Well, there is a rest for God's people to enjoy, but never to the point of becoming complacent or neglecting to undertake the task at hand.

So they were going a little too far with the rest. We've fought all the battles we want to fight. We don't want to have to deal with those Canaanites. We don't want to have to go clear out the land. And so they're making excuses. Verse 17, And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim.

This is another thing. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim, and they may have thought that because he was of their tribe, he would show them special favor. But he demonstrates the fact that as a leader, he is not going to give in to that. He is going to be fair and deal with all issues in a way that would be pleasing in God's sight. And he spoke to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people and has great power. Thou shalt not have one lot only, but the mountain shall be mine.

For it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down, and the outgoings of it shall be mine. For thou shalt drive out the Canaanite, though they have iron chariots and though they be strong. You're going to be able to drive them out. And so as they make excuses, they obviously are forgetting the victories of the past. Yeah, it looked to them like an impossibility to be able to withstand the Canaanites and to cross this valley and to go into the hill country and chop out the forest. But think of all the battles that they had won already.

Though there was temporary defeat at Ai, they ultimately won that conquest. And over and over again, when the ten kings aligned themselves against them, they had victory. In each case, God had blessed them. Well, the same God that had blessed them in the past was going to bless them in the future. They were forgetting the very promises of God. Now, these promises were made before most of these people were born.

But if the parents are doing what they should have, and no doubt in many cases they did, the knowledge of these promises were passed on to them. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 20 verse 1, the promise was made, when thou goest out to battle, because they were looking forward. Moses is instructing the people and looking forward to that time that they would ultimately come into the land of promise. So when thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be, when ye come nigh unto the battle, that the priests shall approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies.

Let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not trouble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. Why would a promise? Why would a people ever doubt with such a direct promise from God? And he says, when you get ready to go, the priests will come out to the forefront and repeat the promise and remind you, you're not going out on your own.

The Lord God will go with you and fight for you against your enemies and save you. Oh, sometimes, do we not falter and fail because we've forgotten the promises of God? We look at our circumstances, we look at the difficulties that we're facing, and we begin to make excuses.

Just like they're saying, that mountain you're talking about is full of timber. We don't want to have to work so hard as to cut it out. And so we look about us today and say, well, these are challenging times that we're living in.

Maybe at another time or season, that might have been a better witness. When people are more open to talk about Christianity, but now if you even try to talk about the gospel, people are offended and are upset with you. And so I just have to kind of pull back and not look for opportunities even to be a good witness and give a testimony for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so you think these are some of the toughest times and yet all you've got to do, whether you're looking at secular history or biblical history, you can see that the adversary for God's people has always been the same. Satan is our great enemy. And in every time, in every era, there has been evil and corruption on every hand, challenges to face, opposition, persecution, so if we spend our time thinking about the giants and thinking about the iron chariots, we're not going to go far. We think about the obstacles and the problems.

We tend to focus on that instead of on the promise of God. All the disruptions caused by the COVID. I had some people visiting with me yesterday from Arkansas that I've known for several years and preached in their church numerous times and it seemed like everything that we would start to talk about, it was either before or after COVID, that that was the mark of time to show the difference between how things were going.

And certainly COVID has caused many disruptions and much anxiety. And so we have that to cope with, but there have been crises of equal proportions that God's people have faced in years gone by and we have to look to him for our help in seeing us through. The basic enemy, the world, the flesh and the devil is the same as it's always been. He said, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And certainly recognizing Satan as our great adversary. A roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We know that he always stands in opposition to the advancement of the kingdom of God and the proclamation of his gospel and then the flesh itself.

The old flesh that's in us all that we have to deal with, weak as it is. The apostle himself said, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But he went on to say, I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ that we can gain victory over the flesh itself. And as all of us as individuals need to be sure that we are not looking at the obstacles. That we're not looking at the Canaanites as it were and deciding that the enemy is too fierce or the mountain is too steep or the work is too difficult.

Let us be sure as a church that we review our blessings as all of us as individuals should be doing. That Joshua, this bold noble leader of God's people was constantly pointing them not to himself but pointing them to the God of heaven that had brought them as a people through all of the wilderness travels. Had brought them safely into the land and had given them victory over one enemy after another.

The same God that had blessed them that the bigger part of the enemies were defeated was certainly able to bless them for the remaining Canaanites and others that still inhabited part of the land. Now to reach the right conclusion for this message, we have to go back to point one. Because if we leave thinking about the objections that the tribe was raising, their complaint, their murmuring spirit, that's not what we want to be upon our mind. But we go back to point number one which was blessings acknowledged. May we individually recall the abundant blessings of God, his daily benefits, his mercies upon us, his saving grace for which we should daily give thanks. Let us review the blessings enjoyed. As a church, let us review his abundant mercies to see that in the most difficult and trying of times, God has been with us, has brought us through those trials and he will yet be with us in time to come. Let's remember that our blessings of the present, the blessings we need individually and personally, the blessings we need as a church, the blessings we need as a country.

All of these blessings, our hope for the present, our anticipation of reaching that home on the other side, it's all dependent upon God's abundant grace and mercy that's given us through Jesus Christ. May we look to him by faith today. May our faith be strengthened as we look upon once more the many, many promises of God, promising to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.

May we be persistent in calling, seeking him because we need him desperately. If your faith is in Jesus Christ, you have that precious hope described by the beloved apostle when he spoke of that day that we would at last be at home with the Lord. Apart from him, there is no hope, there is no salvation.

Not in your worth, not in your morality, not in your religious exercise, but in what Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

As we can see, there are many practical lessons in this Old Testament account of God dealing with his people. May we learn to have a humble and thankful spirit and to be calling upon the Lord for his mercies and guidance and that we may serve him acceptably in all that we do. I hope you'll take time to write us and until next week at this same time may the Lord richly bless you all. I will call upon the Lord, who is burning to be praised.

So shall I be saved, shall I be saved from my enemies. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. That's The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. So will I give thanks to thee and sing praises to thy name.