The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley, Jr. This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace.
If you want the broadcast to continue on your station, it is important that we hear from you and have your support. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. I also encourage you to visit our website at baptistbiblehour.org. Today we bring you the second part of a message entitled, Caleb, An Example for Our Times. But, maybe the Lord really didn't mean exactly what He said. Maybe under the circumstances He meant for us just to go over there and visit periodically and bring some of the fruit back and enjoy it where we are. No need to really put your neck on the line.
No need to really endanger yourself. I think if we do part of what God says, don't you think that's enough? I think the Lord will give us credit for that.
I think that ought to be enough. When you were a child, did your mother ever have one of these good behavior charts where you got stars for the good things you did? And if you had kind of a rough week and you didn't have many stars, but you look at it and say, well, you know, I didn't fill it up, but I got a few. That's not all bad.
It's not all bad. I think sometimes people view themselves before the Lord like that. Well, I didn't quite make it this week. I didn't do everything the Lord said, but I did a few things. Well, it wasn't Caleb's concept. He wasn't trying to minimize the command of God. He wasn't trying to alter or change it. He didn't consider part of it to be unimportant.
That's the thinking that prevails a lot of times today. Well, okay, as long as I take care of some main issues here, the details don't matter, friends. Details matter. What God says counts.
What He says, whether you consider it to be big, medium size or small, it counts. And here was a man of boldness and courage that was willing to follow the Lord fully. If he was like some people, he could have said, well, I can see right now that this report has become controversial. I thought that perhaps when Joshua and I gave our version that there would be a few more on our side. But seeing that we stick out like sore thumbs, seeing that the rest of you feel differently, I really wouldn't want to rock the boat here. So, seeing that this is going to stir controversy, I think the best thing is to back off.
I mean, I'm a man who can tell when he's whipped, so I'm not going to stand out here and try to buck the trend. Have you ever had that spirit overwhelm you? Some people feel perfectly justified in that kind of thinking. Many times an attempt is made to intimidate ministers on that basis. Remember when Ahab came to Elijah and said, oh, so you're the one that's been trouble in Israel.
You're the problem. No, the problem wasn't the prophet, it was the ungodly king. And many times today when a man preaches the truth and tries to call God's people to repentance and bring them back to the principles of his word, and it contradicts somebody's thinking or somebody's man-made tradition, oh, you're the trouble in Israel. Well now, if you really have the concern you ought to have and you see that your stand is controversial, you'll just back off. Well, Caleb's stand was controversial, but he didn't back off.
He said, this is right, this is what we ought to do, and I encourage you to do it. He followed constantly. Some people follow the Lord by starts and stops. They go a little bit and then they stop.
They go a little farther and then they stop again. Caleb constantly followed the Lord. He lived in the wilderness for forty years with murmurers, but he did not become a murmurer.
Now that's difficult. If you live around people who are constantly murmuring and complaining, if you don't watch out, you'll be just like them. If nothing else, you'll complain about them.
You become a complainer, you murmur. But Caleb is living in the midst of a people who murmured and he still constantly went forward serving God. We're warned about this in the book of Hebrews, so you can see that this is clearly not just an Old Testament lesson to look at from a historical standpoint.
This is a principle that needs to be applied in our lives. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 7. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation of the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me, prove me, and saw my works forty years.
Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren.
Here now is the application to you today. Take heed, brethren. Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
But exhort one another daily while it is called today. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Oh, that you might be able to stand firmly, following the Lord constantly. And even when there's attendance in your own heart to murmur, you overcome it by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when you're in the company of other murmurers, that you don't be caught up in that evil way of living, but that you walk before God with a thankful heart. Say, at age eighty-five, Caleb was still following the Lord. He followed constantly. Not just getting all excited for a little while and then fading out. Here one message that kind of stirs you up.
Hell, I'm going to get back on the track, I'm going to straighten things out in my life, and that lasts about two weeks and then it's gone again. Caleb was constantly serving God. And then the next thing we'd like to consider about this man. Not only is it said of him that he had another spirit. Not only do we see that he followed the Lord fully, but he was favored by God.
He was wonderfully blessed by God. Now, I'm not suggesting to you that Caleb could say, I have done such a noble job in following the Lord that I'm entitled to all of these blessings. And yet there is a fact that is clear in scripture that there are going to be blessings that you have in the pathway of obedience that you're not going to have when you're disobeying.
That's just plain and simple. Not that you're ever to the point that you can demand the blessings of God. At best, we are unworthy. But there are blessings to be found in the kind of life that was lived by this man, Caleb, that are not going to be enjoyed otherwise.
Look at the 14th chapter of the book of Numbers once again. Verse 36. And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land, get this, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the Lord.
Now you see, this was serious business. These ten men on the committee could not say, well now wait a minute here, we're entitled to our point of view. Yes, we've agreed it's a good land.
But we really believe it would be unwise to go up and try to take it at this time and we're entitled to that. God deemed them to be in rebellion against him and they died before the Lord by a plague. Joshua and Caleb lived. Not only were they spared that immediate and imminent judgment, but they lived for a long time.
They were the only two, as a matter of fact, out of all of this nation at that time above 20 years of age that were able to finally enter the land and enjoy it. I want to tell you friends that honoring God and obeying Him will indeed mean that there may be many judgments and plagues that will be avoided. There are those judgments which may come suddenly upon others or some that may not fall immediately but ultimately will be meted out by the hand of God that if you stand as Caleb did, serving God fully, that you will avoid.
It meant the difference here between life and death. Not only was he saved from judgment, but he was blessed with strength in old age. Let's look at the book of Joshua chapter 14. Joshua chapter 14 and the seventh verse.
Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to a spy out the land and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Now, here Caleb is reminding Joshua of the past about what his stand had been and what the promises of God were. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God.
Now that might sound to us to be a little presumptuous, but I believe that when you read all that's said here about this man, you find that he was a very humble man. He was surrendered and submissive to God. And when he says that I wholly followed the Lord, he just stated the fact that when everybody else was moving in the wrong direction, I followed the Lord. And Moses swear on that day saying, surely the land where on thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because thou has wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive.
You see, it's acknowledging the providence of God here. The reason I'm still alive and well at age 85, he says, is that the Lord has kept me alive. As he said, these forty and five years, he was 40 years old when he was sent over into the land as a spy. He's now 85 years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, lo, I am this day four score and five years old, as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. Now, how many of you that are 85 or better today could say, I'm as strong as I was when I was 40? I dare say there's some of us that are not quite 85 that say we're not quite what we were at 40. But here's a man that God especially blessed, and at age 85, he says, I am as strong as the day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war both to go out and to come in. In other words, I may be 85, but I'm ready for the battle.
God has given us this land, and there are some enemies occupying the territory that Moses said I could have. Well, I want to claim it. Now, what do you suppose many an 85-year-old would do? Well, it's too bad I didn't get over here when I was younger.
Oh, my. Things just never quite seem to work out right. Here I am. I'm 20 years past retirement.
What can a man 85 do? I'm just kind of in people's way. I mean, you know, I'm just going to put my mind in neutral and coast on down to the end. It's not long. I'll be fading off the scene.
I'm not much anymore. Not Caleb. Caleb was a man of faith. Caleb was a man who walked with God.
Caleb was a man who overlooked the challenges and the enemies because he believed God's promise. He says, I'm ready to go. I don't want those heathen occupying that land. That belongs to God's people. And that particular part of it belongs to me.
And I want to see my children living on it after I'm gone. So I'm ready to go. Now, therefore, give me this mountain. Whereof the Lord spake in that day, for thou hurtest in that day, how the anacoms were there, and that the cities were great and fenced, if so be the Lord will be with me. Then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. What's he basing his courage on? What the Lord said. You see, his confidence is not in himself, but in the Lord and in His Word. And where are you going to find the confidence and courage you need?
It doesn't matter whether you're 85 or whether you're 45 or whether you're 5. You need to find this courage and confidence in the Word of God. Caleb is constantly pointing out, here's what God said. Here's what God promised. And based on His promise, I'm ready to move forward. Just because I'm 85 doesn't mean that I've got to fold my tent and quit.
The opportunity is still there. God has given me the strength and I'm able to win the battle. He could well have reason. You know, maybe at a younger age I might have been able to handle it.
And I really believe what I said back there when I tried to encourage the people to go. But, you know, a man 85 years old ought not to have to go out and fight giants. I mean, there's just no way we can look at that and see that there's not going to be much chance of success. And I don't want to take that on. I mean, I'm at a stage of life now where the battles are behind me.
And I just kind of want to have a little smooth sailing right on down to the end. Any of you here today ever think like that? Say, you know, I carried my part of the load in my earlier years. I was diligent. I was faithful. I studied the Bible.
I ministered to people. But, you know, there comes a time you're entitled just to sit down. Don't you think that's so, preacher? I mean, isn't there time?
See, just because you're getting older, just because your body's wearing out, doesn't mean that there's no more work for you to do. He said, yes, there are giants in the land. The cities are fenced.
The cities are walled up to the sky. But, I'm ready to go because the Lord has said He will be with me. And Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron, for an inheritance. And it says that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And then he took Hebron and it says that the land had rest from war. God blessed him to go in and claim the territory. He won the victory and then the land had rest from war.
Oh, how wonderful to see such an example as this. How wonderful to see a man that was totally committed to the Lord and did not stumble and falter in old age. Do you stand as Caleb did? See, Caleb was blessed in so many ways. He didn't seek the easiest job.
He didn't say, well at age 85 if you've got some little something here that won't take much time and require much effort, I might be able to handle that. No, according to the 15th chapter, the 14th verse, Caleb drove fence the sons of Anak. There were three sons that were the captains in charge of defending that territory and Caleb drove them all out. He didn't look for the easiest job, he looked for the most challenging job because he believed that God was a God of power and no job was too tough if God's on your side. The battle is the Lord's. He was blessed then to enjoy what he had previously seen. The other men on that committee went into the land, saw it as a land that flowed with milk and honey, saw the grapes, saw that it was a marvelous place, but they never entered it.
They died under the plague of God because of their rebellion. But Joshua and Caleb ultimately entered the land and said, we're here at last. God gave us this land, we've talked about this land, we've marched toward this land for years, here we are, we see it, we enjoy it.
You know what a difference. As Caleb looked back over his own life and related his experience, he could recall that I was a man who had committed myself to the Lord and I followed him fully. What about you when you look back? When you look back over your years, can you say with Caleb, I have sought God. I had my failures, but indeed my effort has been to put God first. Or do you have to say many of those years has been given to self, to pride, to greed, and to the trifles of life.
The little insignificant trivial things that today you see mean absolutely nothing. Do you remember a few times when you've gotten all bent out of shape and emotional over some kind of a project you were involved in and you just thought it's got to go my way, I've got to accomplish this and your whole interest was focused on it? Some hobby perhaps, some goal that you set for yourself that you just had to meet it no matter what and you look back and now you say, what difference did it make anyway? And you have much to regret because you were not committed to following the Lord fully as was Caleb. Or has your deepest desire been devotion to God? I want to follow Him. I want to do what's right in His eyes no matter what.
Oh, may that be our concern, each and every one of us. Then in the 15th chapter of Joshua and the 19th verse, Caleb's daughter is getting married and she makes a request of her father and he answers. Joshua 15 to the 19th verse, who answered, give me a blessing for thou hast given me a south land, give me also springs of water and he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. Caleb not only had the joy of seeing and experiencing what he had hoped for and anticipated, that which others had clearly rejected and missed because of their rebellion and their murmuring spirit, but he now has the opportunity to share it with his children.
He can now say to his daughter, yes, I give you this portion of land as a wedding present. Now, certainly all well and good if parents are able to assist their children materially, but even that can sometimes become a problem when children are pampered and given too much. But I believe the lesson from that for us is that as Caleb was able to see his children enjoy the land with him, that if we have faithfully and diligently followed the Lord, we can have the joy of seeing our children enjoy the truth of the gospel with us.
It says, I'll give you the upper springs and the nether springs. What about being able to share with your children, with your loved ones, the springs of gospel truth? There's nothing you can leave them that will be any more valuable. You might leave your children a tremendous amount of land, you might leave them a tremendous amount of money in the bank. And they could well be like some of those who have been born in the wealthiest families that totally destroyed their lives because they didn't know how to handle their wealth.
But what will be left on record? Don't you know that those children of Caleb must have had a good time talking about their father when he passed off the scene? Those grandchildren that came along must have said, well I'll tell you how blessed we are to have had Caleb as the leader of our household.
Think of it. My, what courage he had. When they talked about stolen him, he didn't back up. When there was just two, Joshua and Caleb, to stand against the multitude in the nation, they stood. And they no doubt found courage from that and said, by the grace of God we'll stand too. We want to follow that example. As Joshua had said, as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord.
And while those words are attributed to Joshua, the principle is also seen in the life of Caleb. He was saying, as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. We're following him.
We're committed to him. He's first, he's foremost in all things. And as a result, Caleb had the joy of seeing his children receive the benefits of that great land toward which they had journeyed. Seeing them enjoy peace because now he says that the land had rest from war. Caleb said, I'm willing to fight a battle so my children can later have peace.
Too many parents today are saying, I'd rather have peace now no matter what the future holds. Not Caleb. If the way is tough, if the giants are big, if the cities are walled up, so be it. God's on my side and I'll move forward no matter what.
Where are you today? Caleb was indeed a tremendous example. Caleb is an example for our times because these are challenging times. There are giants in the land. There are fortified cities of humanistic thinking.
The theories that are advanced in the classrooms of many schools across America, far removed from the concept of biblical truth. These are evil times, perilous times, challenging and dark times. We need men like Caleb to stand. And this doesn't excuse those mothers in Israel that need also to stand being an example and a testimony to others. They say I want to do what's right before God no matter what.
So Joshua set a great example of one who obeyed the Lord fully. And if we want to be a friend of Jesus, here's what the Savior says, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. I hope that you'll take time to write us. Till next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. I'll be a friend to Jesus. My life for Him I'll stand. To all who need a Savior my friend I recommend because He brought salvation is why I am His friend. I'll be a friend to Jesus. My life for Him I'll stand. I'll be a friend to Jesus until my years shall end.
