# Who are you seeking council in

Key Passage: Deuteronomy 1
Date: June 7, 2024

Would you turn to Deuteronomy chapter number one. We have been on the life of Moses now for over a year, and we’re hitting some highlights. We’ll be winding it down in the next bit on the life of Moses. Let me just say a word about Deuteronomy. I’ll maybe wait for just a second while you’re finding it.

The book of Deuteronomy, the vast majority of the book, is basically Moses, just a little before he stepped out into heaven. He is giving his last words. He’s reminiscing a little bit with the children of Israel. He’s telling them about what had happened, his side of the story, a little bit of a charge to them right before he passes. He passes the baton over to Joshua. God used him to do that, and he’s just given him a charge. Sometimes he is listing their flaws and what they did wrong and whatnot. That’s Deuteronomy. Much of it is just that.

So we’re going to start in Deuteronomy. The instance that we’re going to look at is when the children of Israel—it’s been almost two years, right at two years since they left Egypt. Remember they crossed over the Red Sea, then the wilderness and Mount Sinai. Now they’re getting to what is called Kadesh-Barnea. It’s the southern part of the promised land, the land that God wanted them to enter into.

Let me say this about the promised land. A lot of times we’ll compare the promised land to heaven. I don’t get too fussy about that, but technically that’s not really accurate. When you get to heaven, you won’t have to fight anymore—Jebusites and Canaanites and Hittites and all that. It’s not a biblical comparison. The biblical comparison of the promised land is the promised Christian life. God promises it to you: a life of joy, a life of peace. You still have battles, but you have joy and peace in the midst. You have power in prayer, usefulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s a true biblical example of what the promised land is. So they came to the southern part. They could have entered in, and remember they sent in the twelve spies. Now, we’re going to look a little bit at that. That’s what we’re at right here in Deuteronomy.

Usually it’s talked about over in Numbers, and we’ll get there in just a second. But we’ll look over in Deuteronomy first of all, when Moses is kind of reliving it a little bit. So look in Deuteronomy chapter number one. Look in verse number 19, please, of God’s word.

Look at verse number 19. Verse number 19: “And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us: and we came unto Kadesh-Barnea.” That’s right on the border, southern border of the promised land. “Now I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us.” I’ve got those three last words underlined in my Bible: “give unto us.” “Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of our fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.” And he came near unto me, every one of you, and said, “We will send men before us, and they shall search out the land for us, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.” And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe. We won’t read the rest of it. Just want you to kind of notice that in Deuteronomy.

Numbers says God told them to send in those twelve spies, and he did. Of course, the Bible never contradicts itself. But over here in Deuteronomy, you’ll notice that Moses says, “Hey, God’s going to give you this land, go out and possess it.” And the people came to Moses and said, “Hey, can we send them some spies?” There’s a debate about which one came first. I tend to think this: Over here in Deuteronomy, as Moses is reminiscing about what happened, Moses said, “Hey, God’s giving you this land, go in and possess it.” And the people came and said, “Hey, Moses, we need to go search this land out.” And Moses said, “All right, sounds like a pretty good idea.” I think Moses sought the Lord over it because we do know the Lord was in it. That’s the way I tend to think it happened: the people came, and God did allow it and actually told them to do it.

Now look over Numbers chapter 13. We’re just giving you some thoughts on that very quickly before we get to the heart of what we want to discuss tonight. Now we’re over in Numbers 13. It’s probably the most popular place that this incident is talked about. We’re going to be in verse number one. Numbers 13, look in verse number one.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel.” Notice that: “I give unto the children of Israel.” “Of every tribe of your fathers shall ye send a man; every one a ruler among them.” That’s interesting. It seemed like when God got involved, and they sought the Lord, God said, “All right, let’s do it.” But he wanted a ruler from each tribe. Verse number three: “And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.” Verse number four through verse number 15 lists the names, and I’m not going to do that for you. Let’s jump down to verse number 17.

Verse number 17: Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said unto them, “Get you up this way southward and go up into the mountain.” I want you to notice how clear the instructions are, just specific instruction Moses gives them. He tells them which way to go into the promised land and search it out. He tells them what avenue to go: the south and up to the north and so on. Now watch what he told them. This is what I want you to look for, starting in verse number 18. Verse number 18, very specific: “And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many.” He said, I want you to check out the type of land. Is it like Middle Tennessee? An inch under dirt, rock everywhere? Is it like the red clay of Georgia? Or is it like the sand of Florida? Or is it the black dirt of North Dakota? I want you to check out what the land is. He’s given specific instructions what to look for. “And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many.” You’re looking at the people. Look at the land. What kind of land do they have? Is it hilly? Flat? “And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad? And what the cities that they be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds?” Are they living in tents? Are they building houses? Are they living in caves? What kind of houses do they have? Are they fortified or not? Verse number 20: “And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean.” Is it fertile? Can you put a garden in there? Or is it going to take three tons of rock out before you can plant a tiny garden? That’s Middle Tennessee. “And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.” He said, “Hey, look, bring some of the harvest, bring some of the fruit of the land.” The time was the time of the first ripe grapes. He said, “I want you to go and bring back some of the food from there.”

So he sends them in. Moses said, “Man, let’s go take the land, let’s possess it. God’s going to give it to us.” The people came, “Moses, we’ve got to send some spies in.” That’s a pretty good idea. Moses goes to the Lord. The Lord says, “Yeah, but I want you to send in leaders of every tribe.” They go with very specific instructions on what to do: check out the land, the people, and bring back some fruit if you can. They come back 40 days later. I want you to see what kind of report they give. Are you with me out there? We’re just trying to follow this through quickly.

Verse number 26, Numbers 13: “And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh: and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.” By the way, they had this fruit. Look back up in verse number 23: “And they came to the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, they bare it between two upon a staff.” Can you imagine the size of those grapes? They had to put the cluster on a pole and two men had to carry them. That’s a good garden! They brought back some pomegranates and things too. Man, you talk about a fertile land.

We’re in verse number 27. “And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us; and surely it floweth with milk and honey.” That means ice cream, by the way, folks. “And this is the fruit of it.” That’s grapes, pomegranates. “Nevertheless the people be strong.”

First of all, they give the report of the land. It’s a good land. It flows with milk—that means good pasture land. But then, verse number 28, everything changes: “Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” That’s what they were supposed to report.

Watch here in verse number 30. Caleb was a wise man. Caleb sees what’s going on before it even happens. Verse number 30: “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”

The longer you think about this thing, the more fear you’re going to get. God’s already told us. We’ve already got the commission. Let’s go. Caleb is stilling the people. He says, “Let’s do it. Don’t get debating about whether we should do it. God’s already told us what to do.”

Did God send the spies in there to decide whether to go in there or not? It was already supposed to be decided a long time ago. It is the promised land; God said, “I’m giving it to you.” The spies were not supposed to go in there to figure out if they could win the battle or not. That wasn’t their job. They were overstepping their bounds. God had already made the decision.

Verse number 31: “But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” They brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying: “The land, through which we passed to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants.”

Wait a second. You just said it’s flowing with milk and honey. The people are strong in there. They’ve got fortified cities. Now you’re telling us that land eats up the people that are in there? When you get real fearful and go against the Lord, you lose. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You’re saying one thing, now you’re saying this. Which one is true?

“And all the people that we saw in it were men of great stature.” I don’t think all of them were. We know there were some giants there, but where there’s a giant, there’s always short guys like me around. I guarantee you not all of them were big old fellas. But this evil report—man, they begin to exaggerate how bad things are. Aren’t we like that when we live in fear? We start exaggerating how big and how bad their problems are. That’s exactly what these guys are doing.

Verse number 32: “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” You know what the problem was? They were looking at “we” instead of “He” (God). When you get your eyes on yourself, it always leads to one or two things: either pity or pride. They were looking at themselves: “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers.” Don’t look at yourself. That’s going to lead to problems, or it’s going to lead to pride, which leads to falling flat on your face. What a sad, sad thing.

Sometimes they would just go in circles, literally in loops for the next 38 years, just wandering through the wilderness aimlessly. They missed the victorious Christian life. You meet people like that—someone saved, growing in the Lord, and then something happened, and they did not enter into the victorious Christian life. They backslide out of church and just wander around for years. This was their moment; this was their opportunity. Eventually, they said, “Well, we’re going to go enter in and do the battle on our own.” God said, “No, don’t do that. I’m not with you right now.” They went on in their stubbornness and got wiped out. Hebrews 3 talks about their unbelief.

Let’s learn a couple of lessons about how they made this wrong decision. Number one: Those twelve spies were not supposed to be deciding whether they could win the battle or not. That was not their job description. They were trying to take on a whole lot more than they should have, because God had already told them what to do. Aren’t we guilty of that? “Well, I don’t know if I can witness or not.” God has already told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That’s already determined.

These spies—their job was to find out the strengths and weaknesses.

Be so very careful about who you get your counsel and advice from. They listened to the wrong people, and they paid the cost.

They didn’t need any advice about whether to enter the Promised Land or not. God had already given them clear leading and clear instruction. They already had the advice. They didn’t need to seek counsel about whether to enter in. Be so careful when God gives you clear leading; there will always be people who say, “Nah, I don’t know about that.” You’ll always hear things like, “Everybody’s got to sow their wild oats.” But God has already given you a clear leading on what you are supposed to do.

There were opposing sides of advice: the ten who said, “We can’t do it,” and the two who said, “We can do it.” Especially nowadays, with the internet, you can pretty much find anything you want. You can find both sides on almost any subject. It’s amazing how people know which person to go to for the advice they want to hear. You know who’s going to give you what you want, and so you go to that person.

They made their decision out of fear. The ten were instilling fear in them. Fear is never a good decision-maker. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Fear is not a good decision-maker.

The majority of the advice out there was wrong. It was ten to two. If you are especially on the internet, I would say the vast majority of advice you are going to get on the internet is junk. The devil is the god of this world. More often than not, be careful with that. We are swimming upstream, folks. More often than not, no—always. I am not saying the majority is always wrong, but be very, very careful. In this situation, for sure, the majority was wrong, dead wrong. Most people are saying that; that doesn’t make it right. The majority of people in the world die going to hell, too. Be careful of that.

What are you looking for in advice or counsel? Number one, look to God, His Word. God had already given clear instructions: “I’m giving you the land. I want you to go in there and possess it.” God had already spoken to them; it was already laid out from God’s Word. Go to God’s Word: what does God say about this subject?

Number two: Is the person you are getting counsel from a godly person? If they talk about the subject but cannot mention God, I probably don’t want their advice because I like to be blessed. You are looking for a godly individual.

Number three: Someone that has success in that area. The two good guys were Joshua and Caleb. What was Joshua’s role for years? He led in wars and battle; he was their general. He had very good experience as far as leading in warfare. What was Joshua saying? “God’s going to enable it, so let’s go do this thing.” It is always easier to tell somebody how to do something than to do it yourself.

If you want advice on marriage, find someone that has been married a long time, and they have a good, happy marriage. If you want godly children, go to someone whose children have turned out pretty good. The guy that’s in debt up to his ears, you might not want to get financial advice from him. You are looking for someone that has had successful experience.

I called a pastor years ago, a good guy with a good number of children who turned out pretty good. I had a question about childhood issues. He said, “Brother Paul, I’ve had times like this with that one of my children.” Years later, he was pastoring for us, and the same thing happened in his church. He leaned over and told me, “I have the same problem in my church.” That’s the difference between someone going through it and someone who can only tell you how to do it.

Number four: Does the Holy Spirit bear witness with the advice they gave? Does it ring true? Do you have peace about it? That’s advice from God. He bears witness with our spirit.

Usually finding the right decision, the will of God, takes a lot of time. That’s what we don’t like. Usually, it is going to take a little time and a lot of prayer.

My wife and I were reminiscing about when we moved here to start the church. We had sought the Lord over that for so long. We prayed for hours and hours together about that decision. We moved here, didn’t know anybody. That very first get-acquainted service we had—I thought a bunch of people were going to show up. It was Thursday around 7 o’clock, and not one person showed up, just me and my wife and my two kids.

But God had given us such a peace. We went home that night just with such joy, even though nobody came, because God had given us peace about the decision. God can give you peace to the point where when you face the battles—win or lose, good or bad, 100 people show up or nobody shows up—you know you are in the will of God. He is very capable of letting the peace of God rule your hearts. He can give you that peace about His Word.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Who are you seeking council in - - Wednesday PM 02072024