Life's a bitch, isn't it? Well, there's a future coming. Okay. There is a future coming and If you want to get through this life without going absolutely nuts Then look to the future You have a future if you put your faith in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a future It's not on this well. It is on this earth but it's not in this present world that we live in and And just to show you that, that's the thought I'd take a minute to show you that in Revelation chapter 20 verse 4, if you will, and I saw prongs and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them. By the way, if you're a safe born-again Christian, you're going to be at the judgment of Christ. That's a great white tongue. You're going to be there. It's going to be a great time. Believe me. I'm going to watch out. Go or walk passing. I'm going to watch Hitler walk past the great one. I'm going to watch all these evil people over the years, walk past the Great White Throne and be judged. I'm going to be there. I'm looking forward to it. I have a right to be there. I'm going to take the Lord of His Word. I'm going to say, I'm going to be there, Lord. He's going to say, OK, yeah, I thought you could be good. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God knew had not worshiped to be sneeter as image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads are in their hands and they lived in rain with Christ a thousand years. These are the ones that come out of the seven-year tribulation and they live in rain with Christ a thousand years and so will you. And then if you will turn over, if you will, to chapter 21, if you will. In chapter 21, in verse 1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven in the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The New Jerusalem 1200 by 1200 miles, a big, big city, and it's going to be a ball. It's going to be great. And then in verse 7, he that overcome it, what do you have to do to overcome by the way? Stop standing, right? No, no, that's not what you do. In order to overcome, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's how you overcome. If you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are an overcomer. And if you do that, first seven, he's an overcomer that shall inherit all things. Do you know something? Whatever God has belongs to you. Did you know that? Everything God has belongs to you. You have a right to use it. he's got a 30 foot day liner waiting up there for me. The only trouble is if I could be any more seat. So it'll sit in my backyard, along with my Chevrolet up on block. Now I'm kidding. He's got overcome a challenge here at all things. And I will be his God and he shall be my son. You know the old thing about, we're all children of God. You guys feel okay? But we're all children of God, right? Wrong. You're either child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or you are a child of Satan. Now just keep turning over here. If you will, verse 24, the new heavens and the new earth, and he tells us all about it, and in verse 24, and the nations of them who are saved, everybody who is saved, who overcomes by faith in Christ shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth to bring their glory and honor into it. Everyone who is saved will walk in the new heavens and the new earth, and it's going to be a glorious time. I'm down in chapter 22, if you will. Verse 3, And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servant shall serve Him, and they shall see His face and His name shall be in their foreheads, and there shall be no night there, and they shall—and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever and ever and ever, doesn't say that, that's a little addition, but it's true, they shall reign forever and ever and ever. And then let's see here, back to 21 verse 8, if you will. Now, for the past few weeks we've been talking about Babylon, which is the opposite of the word to God. It's false religion. is false religion. It's that simple. It's not a big city built over an Iraq that's not what Babylon is in Revelation. Babylon is false religion. False religion is founded on a lie. It's not the truth. It's a lie. If it's a lie it comes from Satan. The one thing I hate in this world is false religion. False doctrine. The priest cannot forgive your sins, forget it. Virgin Mary will not forgive you, you cannot pray to her, forget it. Do you ever see these ads in the paper, St. Jude? St. Jude pray for me. What a joke. Pray for yourself if you stupid jerk. You know? St. Jude was just a person. He cannot forgive you. It's false religion. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That is true religion. But in verse 8, but the fearful, notice what he said in verse 7, he did overcome a shower of all things and I will be as good. But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and the word is fornicators here. It should be fornicators. You probably have a hormonger, some of you written in your Bible, it's fornicators and sorcerers and and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and grimstone, which is the second death. None of this stuff is going to be in heaven when we get there. The liars, those who lie about religion, the false religionists, they will not be there. That alone will not be there. The only thing to be there will be the truth. So it's going to be a wonderful time, a great time, and if you want to go through this crazy life that we're coming up on the elections you know and all the world is focused on the elections. And I got to tell you I don't care who the president is. I don't like men up. I don't have any politicians that I like. I don't like any of them. I don't have any use for them. And I don't care who's elected because Jesus Christ is my king. And I don't care who the president of this country is. They can't hurt me. They can't touch me. They they might take my money. I might not be able to buy any food, but I don't care God is going to take care of me He certainly will and it's up to you and I to believe that Jesus Christ will provide all your needs nothing else matters nothing else matters You'll make it through this crazy life Now let's get on the point. I really wanted to discuss this morning So turning your Bibles, if you will, Deuteronomy Chapter 1. I think that's where I'm going to begin. Deuteronomy Chapter 1, we're going to take a look at one person this morning. We've been looking at the law of God and a man by the name of Moses and a few other things here and there. But we're going to take a look at a special man this morning. Well, we're going to take a look at two probably. but I'm going to lay the foundation for the whole thing and do it around me chapter one, if you will. And I've told you this many, many times, so I want you to pay attention to it again, because if I never tell you this again, you'll have it, right? Make a note in your Bible, make a note up here, make a note somewhere. Verse two, do it around me chapter one. Israel had just come out of Egypt. They just crossed the Red Sea, and when they got across the Red Sea, they wound up in a place called the wilderness, which is what? Does anybody remember what that is? You're testing ground. Absolutely. Every Christian is put into the wilderness when you put your faith in trust in Christ. You get across the Red Sea, which represents what? The Word of God and the Blood of Christ, right? You hear the Word of God, you take the blood of Christ, you blab to your sins, you're saved, God takes you across the Red Sea, you're saved across the Red Sea. You come out of Egypt, which is a type of being lost. He puts you on the wilderness testing ground most of us fail. I failed many times. But after he puts us in the testing ground he said in verse 2, it is 11 days journey from Horep to the way of Mount Sira and Tukadesh Parnia which is the Promised Land. Once you get into Kadesh Parnia you have to cross the river Jordan which is the type of what the word of God. So you get into the Promised Land by getting into the word of God learning what the Bible has to say, putting your faith in trust in Christ not Not only for your salvation but for your daily life, we just talked about that a little bit. We're not? Yes. Put your faith and trust in Lord Jesus Christ. That's what pleases God. Religion doesn't please God. Next week we're going to walk down this aisle holding candles. It's going to be beautiful, but I think God will probably blow the candles out. It's stupid. It's religious garbage. Verse 8. It's eleven days journey and God said in verse 8, Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in, possess the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. The land is yours. The promised land is yours, by the way. God promised it to you. It belongs to you. You know what the promised land is? It's the life of service. having all the blessings that God has to offer, simply by serving Him by faith. That's the Promised Land. It's promised to each and every one of you. Now on down, if you will, in verse 23, before they went into the Promised Land, they sent 12 men of the Nation of Israel to spy out the land. Verse 23 and the saying, please be well. And I took 12 men of you, one of the tribe. And they turned and went up into the mountain, came into the valley of Eschhol and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down with us and brought us word again and said, it is a good land which the Lord our God does give us. Notwithstanding, notwithstanding, that's a big word for, but notwithstanding, you would not go up, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord your God. When you murmured in your tense and said because the Lord hated us, He had brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, salvation, to deliver us into the hand of the Amaroids, to destroy us. Is your open plain? Do not many Christians complain? Oh, life is hard. Oh, I got this problem. I got that problem. Oh, this, that's one thing after another. God said, the land is yours, go and possess it. I'll give it to you. That's simple. Verse 32. Yet in this thing, you did not believe the Lord. What pleases God, fate, fate pleases God. If you put your faith in trust and Christ, you said, I'll supply all your needs. Believe it. If you're sick, I'll take care of you. Believe it. Of course, if he wants you to die, you're going to die. There's no way out. We all die. Do we not? Yes, we all die sooner or later, but God will supply all your needs. He will take care of you. Just believe it. Verse 36, Save or accept Caleb, the son of Jeff the, Jeff, Jepuna, how is it? He shall see it. And to him will I give the land that he had trodden upon and to his children, because he had wholly followed the Lord and verse 38. But Joshua, the son of none, who stand up before thee, he shall go in there, encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. So God said out of twelve people that went into spy the land, only two of you will see the land. Now let's paint the whole picture. Israel refused to go into the land. Most Christians received refused to serve Christ. Two out of 12, that's a pretty good indication of how many Christians serve the Lord. Personally, I don't think it's that many. That's two out of 12. I don't of what percentage it is, less than 10% right? 2 out of 10 to be 10% so it's less than 10%. And so because of that Israel wandered into wilderness for 40 years. And yes, who had the wander with them? Caleb and Joshua. Isn't that sad? And Moses too, by the way, you know when we have churches in our society today, the United States of America which I believe about ready to fall. We have so many churches that claim to be Christian, but they don't really trust the Lord. They come to church and they hear some, they have this new revelation. What do you need a new revelation for? Don't you trust what God has already said? And then we roll around on the floor and we sing praises and then we never really learned trust the Lord Jesus Christ. We trust in our own emotions. I was reading an article the other day about a church in Nashville that, oh, they just praise the Lord. You wouldn't believe some of the crazy stuff they did. They do. It's crazy. I bet they don't know anything about the Bible. You know, if you don't know anything about the Bible, you cannot trust the Lord. You can't. Because when bad times come in your life, if you don't know what God has to say, what are you going to rely on? You can't rely on an emotion. That won't do anything for you. You can't rely on somebody singing praises unto the Lord so loud, but the neighbors are one have to hold their ears. You can't rely on that. That won't do anything for you. The other thing you can rely on is what God has to say. God says, I will protect you. If you don't know what the Bible said, you're lost, you're lost, you're lost in the wilderness just like the nation of Israel. But there's always a few, there's a few somewhere that serve the Lord by faith, Caleb and Joshua and Moses and their families, but because the rest of the nation of Israel rebelled, they had to go through all the punishment and all the torment of porting years in the wilderness. but that's not the end of the story. I don't know where you're going to do the Army Chapter 9, if you will. Do the Army Chapter 9. And we have a recollection in Chapter 9 and Chapter 10, also Chapter 8, of the phaser of Israel. And Israel was such a failure, go to verse 13, if you will. Verse 12. Thank God for the verse 12. Due to around the chapter 9 and the Lord's Son to me arise, get me down quickly from here for thy people whom thou hast brought forth out of each of Israel, have corrupted themselves. Remember when they made the golden calf. They have corrupted themselves. They are quickly termed aside out of the way which I commanded them and they have made them a molten image. Furthermore, the Lord spoke unto me saying, I have seen this people and behold it as a stiff necked people. And God said to Moses, let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater, greater than they. God said to Moses, I'm going to wipe out Israel. You think I imagine that. He was really going to wipe out Israel. And so what happened? Moses prayed for Israel. And you can read about that in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Moses said, block my name out of the book, Lord and spare Israel. He was willing to go to hell to give himself for the nation of Israel. Not very many people like that come along, do they? I don't know any people like that today. I'm not one of them. I'm not willing to block my name out of the book for anybody. I'm no Moses. So once in a great while, and then on down if you will in verse 21. And Moses said, and I took your sin, the calf which you made and burned it with fire and so forth. On down in verse 24, Moses said, you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. They were a terrible, terrible, stiff-necked people. Then on down in chapter 10, if you will, do it around in the chapter 10, Moses broke the first two tables of stone, because Israel broke the law. He broke the first two, and at that time the Lord said unto me, You, the two tables of stone, likened to the first, and come up unto Me into the mountain, make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables, which without its break and thou shalt put them in the art. And so Moses wrote two tables, God wrote Moses made the tables of stone, God wrote on them, and Moses put them in the art, and Israel had to carry that art with them wherever they went. A reminder that you are a stiff-naked, worthless people, but God is still with you. And if whenever you and I look at the law of God today, it should always bear reminder that God is still with us. He is always with us. Now, if you will, we're going to take a look at the person that we've been looking at just a little bit, a man by the name of Caleb. So, go in Numbers Chapter 13, if you will. And we looked at this, I don't know if it was last Sunday or Wednesday night or when it was, but we looked at this just a little bit. that. Numbers chapter 13. We took a look at something called the Giants. Now I'm not going to talk much about the Giants this morning, but I am going to say one little thing about the Giants. Look, if you will, in chapter 13, let's see here. Without taking up too much time. Go to verse 28, I guess. Verse 28, chapter 13, remember what we saw, we just read and did wrong. I mean, nevertheless, remember Israel, the twelve people were sent from Israel to go into the lands by out the land. And they said in verse 28, nevertheless, the people are strong that dwell in the land of the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Annex there. The I know it can't you all in the land of the South, the Hidai, Chijibu Sites, Amarai, Chijini-Lai, so we've read all this before. Verse 30 and Caleb still the people. Remember Caleb? We just read about it. Before Moses said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. What did he have? They… Caleb had faith. Why did he have faith? He believed the Word of God. If you believe this Bible, the Word of God, you will have faith in it. You know there are many many people in many societies today that would like to discredit the Bible. And they'll go to great lengths to discredit the Bible, but once you learn the Bible, once you know the Bible, you will know that everything they say to discredit the Bible is a lie. There are many, many things that they go to to try to prove that the Bible is not the Word of God, but once you learn it and once you understand it, the Bible is not a lie and you can prove it over and over again. Caleb believed God. He had faith. But the men that went up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we. You know, on every Sunday morning we have what we call prayer service, don't we? I wonder how many of you honestly believe that those prayers are going to be answered. Well, I do or I wouldn't do it in the first place. I believe our prayers are going to answer. That's why we do it. It doesn't do any good to pray to God unless you believe the prayers are going to be answered. Sort of like the story I heard about the woman you've heard before about the woman that there was an outside of her window was a mountain and for some reason she didn't like the mountain. And she heard somebody say if you pray, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. And so she prayed all night, she got up in the morning, looked out the the window and said, yeah, just as I thought, it's still there. That's the kind of way most people pray, didn't it? Well, I didn't expect the Lord to answer that. That's not the way to pray. When you pray, you say, Lord, I believe you're going to answer my prayer. That's why I pray. That's why we pray. We pray with the intention that God will answer our prayers. Often times you'll answer the prayer in his way, but he will always answer the prayer. said, we pray. How do we pray? By faith. We believe God will answer our prayers. We believe God will bless this little church. I think there already has quite a bit. He will bless your faithfulness. Back to the Bible. In verse 32, when they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched, and to the children of Israel saying, the land through which we have gone to search it, is the land that eaves up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. Great stature. Doesn't mean they were 30 feet tall. Doesn't mean they weighed 350 pounds and were lined backers for the Green Bay Packers. Doesn't mean that at all. It just means they were men of great stature. Doesn't mean they were great men, but let's read on down and you will get an idea of what it really means. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants, and we were on our own side as grasshoppers, and so we were in their side. You see, a person of great stature will look at you as a little little grasshopper. That's how they look at you. And once you begin to look at other people as if they have a lot of great stature, you will begin to look at yourself as a little old grasshopper. I'm going to tell you something, I am not a grasshopper. I don't look at men of great stature, no matter fact, I don't know any. The people that I always look at that had great stature don't exist anymore. Here at the, what do they call them, the Tuskegee Airmen, you ever hear them? They had great stature. They were black. They were rejected by the armed services in the Second World War. They were told they had to do all the hard work, all the lifting and all the dirty work. They said, we wanted to be pilots. So finally, the president of the United States, his wife said, you better let them be pilots. After all, they're Americans, they took a woman and I'll tell you what, they became the best pilots, some of the best pilots during the Second World War. They were honored, they were decorated, they became flying aces, but our society looked on them as grasshoppers. What a terrible thing, huh? But they are my heroes. Those are the kind of people I look on with stature. They ever come all the obstacles. And then you ever hear Harriet Tubman? She was black. She's my hero. What are my heroes? She was a woman of great stature. So whenever you begin to look at someone with great stature who was against God, then you look at yourself as a grasshopper because you don't have any faith. A person of faith says, I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of him. I'm not afraid of the her. I'm not afraid of this. I'm not afraid of that. Because God is with me. You know, look at people with great stature and look at them as giants. You know what the word giants means? It doesn't mean somebody can't feed tall, although they could be. But one time, as the word giants in the Old Testament, means somebody that's 10 feet tall. Doesn't mean that at all. It means someone with great power. It always means something like mighty, a warrior. It always does a bully, a tyrant. That's all it means. It doesn't mean some fantastically created human being. simply means a bully, a tyrant. Someone that you look at as a bully. Someone that you might be afraid of. That's why they look like giants. God does not want you to look at somebody as a giant. Now there are many giants in the ministry over the years. That's a little bit different. But I'm going to tell you there is no giant out there that'll to keep me from serving God. No bully, no tyrant, no politician, no crooked lawyer, no somebody from another church that says you're teaching around nothing like that at all. They looked at us as grasshoppers and so we were in their, in their cycle. I looked at them, I felt like a grasshopper. God does not want you to feel like a grasshopper in anybody's sight or you'll never serving. go through life of coward, a useless, wasted coward, when you could have served God by faith. It always comes back, doesn't it? Turn over if you will to Joshua, Chapter 14, if you will. Joshua, Chapter 14. In Joshua, Chapter 14, go, if you will, to verse 6, then the children of Judah came into Joshua and Gilgal, and Caleb. Remember Caleb? The son of Jeprina, the Kennesite, said unto him, thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me, and the, in, remember this word, Kedish Barnea. Remember that? Wasn't it Caleb and Kedish Barnea that said, yes, I'll go spy out the land. There was 11 days journey into the Promised Land. Remember, if you want to get to the Promised Land, it's only an 11-day journey. Third, very short. And you do it by faith. And then when you get to the Promised Land, you go into it. Yes, Lord, I trust You. I believe in You. I have faith in You. I'm going to serve You by faith. You will get to the Promised Land. You'll get it. And then you go on to say, nevertheless, verse 8, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt and listen what Caleb said, but I wholly followed my God. Why? Because there weren't any giants in his sight. He was not a grasshopper in his own sight. Caleb said, I'm a man serving the Lord. There are no giants. And Moses wore on that day saying, surely the land where on thy feet of trun shall be by in that inheritance. And by children forever because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. You know how many people knew that Caleb followed the Lord? Three people. Moses knew it, the Lord knew it, and Caleb knew it. Do you know if you're following the Lord wholly? That's pretty hard to do it now. I wholly follow the Lord my God. And now behold the Lord have kept me alive, as He said these forty and five years. Even since the Lord spoke His word unto Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now low, I am this day four score and five years old, eighty-five years old. Yet, as yet, verse eleven, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. my strength was them, even so is my strength now. For war both to go out and to come in. Now I want you to pay attention to something. When Israel rejected God, they didn't go into the Promised Land. Caleb and Joshua and Moses and some of the others had to go through all the turmoil, all the turmoil that the rest of the nation did. They were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. They were forced to go through it. They didn't want to. They were forced, but when it was all over, when it was all said and done, the rest of the nation that rejected Christ, rejected God, wouldn't serve Him by faith, died in the wilderness. But Caleb and Joshua came out of the wilderness and inherited the Promised land. Oftentimes, as a Christian, when you serve God by faith all alone, oftentimes you'll be all alone. God will bring you through it, destroy your enemy, and you'll come out of it, smelling like a rose. He'll say, I'm 85 years old now, but I'm just as strong as I was then. The Lord protects you, doesn't? He sure does. Trust in the Lord. He will do it. On down to verse 14. So Caleb gets his inheritance and in verse 14 he brought therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jechda, the genocide unto this day because he wholly followed the Lord and then in verse 8, verse 8 of chapter 15 if you will. Well let's move on to that time. Let's go on down to verse 13 and we'll close. Verse 13. And unto Caleb, the son of Jepna, he gave a part or a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, even the city of Arba, the father of Aenak, which city is he brought. You know what the father of Aenak was? The father of the Giants. You know what Caleb got? What everybody else is afraid of. Everybody was afraid of the Giants, everybody was afraid to go into the land. Caleb finally got what everybody was afraid of. That's awesome. I think that's awesome. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to getting what everybody else is afraid of. It's very simple. The blessings of God. Do you ever see somebody that you ever witnessed somebody that you thought you might be afraid of. I have sort of tested myself. You know what? I was afraid of nothing. There was nothing to be afraid of. That big guy with a large biceps is just as me because anybody else he might trust the Lord Jesus Christ who's going to be a heck of a preacher. He don't have to be afraid of nothing. No thing you have fear is like one man said, fear itself. That's the only thing you have to fear. Serve the Lord, trust Him by faith, and then you can be like Caleb. A giant is only a giant if they're a giant in your own eyes. I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, there are no giants. My heroes are people who've done things in light of all the obstacles. You ever heard of Booker T. Washington? One of my heroes. If you ever notice, I don't have very many white heroes, you know why? Because they've got it easy. The black people have had to overcome all kinds of obstacles to make it in this world. The Tuskegee Airmen had to over, they were told, well, you can't do it, and you're inferior. You're inferior. Isn't that terrible? But you know what? They reminded me of Caleb. And there are eyes that the white people weren't giants. A lot of white people in our society think they're giants. I got news for you. When you meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face, you're going to be a grasshopper. I'm not a grasshopper. I serve the Lord by faith. Of course, I'm not a giant either. I'm only five, five, and then when I put my high heels on, I'm about five minutes, but whatever. It's very simple, isn't it? yourself into the Word of God, believe it, and then serve the Lord by faith. That's all you have to do. Then, you know, if you're not serving the Lord by faith, I don't even know what kind of a life you're living. I don't get involved in your personal life, but I'll tell you what, you're not happy. If you're a Christian and you're not serving the Lord by faith, you are not a happy camper. And I don't even have to know what kind the life you have. I don't have to. I don't have to know what kind of a life you live. I don't have to. I don't have any idea what you do. But if you're not serving the Lord by faith, you're just not happy. And I know that. Let's have word prayer and we'll close this morning. If you're here this morning and you haven't put your faith in Christ, just remember Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins, rose again, proving he was God. And he said, But all you have to do to have eternal life, forgiveness of sins, is put your faith and trust in Him. If you've done that, then He wants you to serve Him by faith like Caleb. And if you serve Him by faith, He promises you the Promised Land. All the blessings He has are yours. And then after you leave this life, leave this earth, leave this world, everything that God has belongs to you. You can't imagine what God has. There's no telling what God has. But whatever it is, it has to be a lot. It belongs to you. And dear Lord, we just thank you for all the blessings you have available. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay, please rise if you will turn to page 55 and we'll sing the last verse