Grace Bible Church Pastor Teacher Robert R. McLaughlin Friday, November 11, 2016
They refused to operate in the faith-rest drill, this generation of Jews, with a few exceptions, were excluded from ever setting foot into the promise land.
It wasn't a matter of their salvation but the fact that they could not handle stress, they could not handle pressure.
They had one major problem which led to many more - fear.
2TI 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline or a sound mind.
Plague 1 — Water turning into blood resulting all the fish dying; Plague 2 — frogs. Plagues 3 and 4 — Then they were overwhelmed by flies, gnats, and biting insects and wild animals.
Plagues 5 and 6 — Diseased livestock and boils. Plague 7 — Thunder Storms - fiery hail. Plague 8 — Locusts.
Plague 9 — Darkness for three days. Plague 10 --- Death of Firstborn
PSA 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;
ISA 5:4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
What really was a shock to them was the suddenness that came upon them.
Adversity is in evitable, stress is optional.
Adversity is what someone or something does to you, stress is what you do to yourself.
There are two kinds of pressures in life; a. Overt pressure--which in this study will be classified as adversity. b. Inner pressure of the soul--which is classified as stress.
c. Adversity is an outside pressure in life; stress is an inside pressure of the soul. d. Stress is what you do to yourself; adversity is what the circumstances of life do to you.
For the Jews, it was the sudden stress that got to them.
The reason is that so many believers are just not in the spiritual condition to pick up and use the shield of faith and therefore they cannot handle the "fears" of life.
The promise and the principle is found in Psa 56:3 when David said, "When I am afraid I will trust in you.
The word trust is the Hebrew word batach which is the word for body slamming or casting all your worries upon the Lord.
True faith always selects something that is stronger than the problems that one faces.
The faith itself is nothing except for the fact that faith itself reaches out and selects a promise from God or better yet, a doctrine to handle the stress.
Doctrine resident in the soul is the faith that you have which has been stored up in your human spirit.
The suddenness of adversity and even from prosperity, or what appears to be prosperity, causes many believers stress.
The Jews have just been freed from slavery and therefore their big problem is gone.
As they moved out from Egypt and they are rejoicing and filled with all kinds of happiness, then "all of a sudden" a situation of adversity comes to you, and then you become filled with a lot of stress.
They wanted to return to slavery even though they had just been delivered by Jehovah Elohim and they also had one of the greatest leaders in all of human history, Moses, leading them.
The slave mentality is that the individual would rather have security rather than freedom.
They would rather be slaves to Egypt (world) then to be free in the desert (or really the spiritual life).
They wanted security rather than liberty.
Israel is often a perfect picture of our own soul.
For many believers even today, they do not want freedom, they want security.
The solution is the divine solution and it is found in the faith-rest drill as a problem solving device.
***** Sam --- use the chart you made on the mountains, etc.*****
1. A sudden disaster, sudden stress. 2. Hopeless situation.
This is the first time since the Jews were delivered from the slavery that they needed to use the shield of faith which Moses had been teaching them.
Did they believe or pay attention to their teacher and leader---Moses or did they reject his doctrinal teaching.
The suddenness of this thing puts them right into panic palace.
The suddenness of the situation has caused them to become emotional and forget all those hours and hours in Bible class.
One of the main problems the Jews faced in this dispensation of the Law is that they forgot what God had done for them.
Their rate of forgetting exceeded their rate of learning.
We have at least three exceptions at this time. Moses, Joshua, and Caleb.
Moses continued to concentrate on doctrine in this disastrous situation while the majority of his congregation is also guilty of the blackout of the soul.
1CO 11:19 For there must also be factions among you, in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you.
The word for looked is the Qal imperfect of the Hebrew verb nasa which means that they kept on staring.
They did not look unto Christ, instead they concentrated on Pharaoh's army.
Heb 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
They were concentrating but they were concentrating on Pharaoh's army, they completely forgot the grace of God and the power of God....and the marvelous deliverance that they had experienced just a week or so before.
They concentrated on the problem rather than the solution.
"They began to gripe and complain."
"You know God, you know the serpent, after all you created him and you allow him to tempt us.....so it's really your fault!"
REV 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
Notice that the apostle John says Now, salvation, power, and the principle of authority has come.......why?
Because the who questions these things, salvation, power, and authority, is Satan himself who accuses God's people before God day and night.
He wants you to question authority, because he wants you to question, Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
He also wants you to question "the power" which is that power you rely upon, is it the power of God in Act 1:8, Heb 4:12; or the power of self, ROM 10:3.
Questioning the power has always been an issue as noted in ROM 10:3 when the apostle Paul said that the Jews Not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
MAT 22:29 But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God.
Paul also said in 2TI 3:5 that many of the early believers in the Church-age, were "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power;"
1CO 2:5 that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
The big problem that existed in the dispensation of the Law was not the problem of salvation or the problem of what power was needed but it was the problem with authority.
All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
ACT 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered and said, "We must obey God rather than men.
When it comes to something that is the policy of the organization or the job or the church then it is totally wrong to reject authority and question it at all.