Evening Sermon

December 16, 2007

TWO OLD MEN

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Eighty five years old. That seems pretty old, doesn't it. But it really isn't. Last month we celebrated a 90th birthday within our congregation. And several of you wouldn't be that far behind. So eighty five is a good time to celebrate, and it can still be a very meaningful time of life. I have been greatly blessed over the years of my ministry to know and serve perhaps a couple dozen saints at least 85 years old.

I also have a family heritage in which three of my four grandparents lived into their 90s, so if genetics will determine the length of my life, I can expect many, many more years to be in the Lord's service here on earth. And I look forward to that.

But let me ask all of you, young or old, to imagine what it would be like to be over 85 when everyone else around you is under 40. It is one thing to be 85, but it is quite another to be 85 in the midst of a group of people in their 20's and 30's. That is exactly what was going on in Israel. Among the people of Israel, there were two old men, and only two. Everyone else was under 40.

You know the reason why. God had disciplined his people because of their grumbling and unbelief. While Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, all those who had actually come out of Egypt died. Every single person died in the wilderness, except for two men, Joshua and Caleb.

Imagine being one those two men. Do you think they felt old? They sure didn't act old. Joshua, the hero of this entire book, must have been nearly 100 by the time of the conquest. He died shortly after, at the age of 110. He was one of the old men. And the other old man was 85, and he is the subject of our study this morning. His name is Caleb.

The first time we meet Caleb is in Numbers 13, the chapter that tells of Moses' selection of the twelve spies who were to cross the Jordan and search out the land. This was two years after the people had come out of Egypt, and Caleb was forty years old at the time. Forty five more years passed before we reach the time of our text this morning.

Among the 12 spies, Caleb represented the tribe of Judah. Yet Joshua 14:6 tells us that his father was a Kenizzite, and the Kenizzites were not Jews. They were people living in the land promised to the Jews. So Caleb, by ethnic heritage, was a foreigner. We do not know how he came to be in Egypt with the Jewish people. But at any rate, Caleb's father evidently identified with the Jews and was loyal to that new association. So was Caleb. Caleb was a man of faith, remaining faithful to the Lord God of Israel all the days of his long life.

And so today, we'll look first of all at,

I. THE WORTHY EXAMPLE OF A MAN OF FAITH. But as we look at Caleb's example, let me mention something very important. The purpose of studying someone else's example is not so that we can admire it. Rather, the purpose of identifying a worthy example is so that we can imitate it. There is all the difference in the world between admiring someone's spirituality and devotion, and imitating it!

Nothing frustrates me more than people who recognize a godly man or woman, who praise and admire that sincere faith and godliness, but who then fail to make any effort to grow in godliness themselves.

The apostle Paul is direct is his exhortation to his followers, clearly wanting them to imitate him, not admire him:

1Cor. 11:1 "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."

Phil. 3:17 "Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern."

2Thes. 3:7 "For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you."

And he tells us to be examples for others: 1 Tim. 4:12 "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

Titus 2:7 "...in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, 8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you."

And, in 1 Peter 5, Peter specifically tells the elders of the church to be "examples to the flock" rather than "being lords over those entrusted to you." So tonight I don't want you to leave this building with a renewed appreciation for Caleb. I don't want you to leave thinking about how spiritual Caleb was or about how much faith he had. As we study Caleb I want to leave with one thought on your mind: "I want to be like that." I want to stir your hearts to imitate this great man of faith.

Having said all that, let's study the worthy example of Caleb. Two things stand out in these verses. First,

A. His uncompromising faith in God. v.7 "as it was in my heart."

Caleb reported what he believed in his heart, and he believed God. He lived and consistently acted in accordance with the faith that was in his heart. Caleb had a history of uncompromising faith.

Great men are never really complicated. The complicated people are the weak ones, beset by dozens of conflicting causes and motives, never quite knowing how to get it all together. Great men are very simple. They focus their eyes on God, not on their circumstances, and they believe what God says.

Great men are simple men who believe that "if God said it, I believe it, and that settles it."

Caleb's greatness was shown by his faithfulness as a spy. Let me review the story briefly. Twelve men sent to spy out the promised land. They agreed on almost everything. They agreed that the land was flowing with milk and honey. It was a rich land. It was a good land. They also all agreed on the people of the land. The people were numerous, they were strong. In fact, there were giants in the land. And the cities were well fortified.

But they disagreed on one thing. They differed in their awareness of God. The majority of the spies, 10 of the 12, said,

Num. 13:31 "But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

They recommended that the people return to Egypt.

But Caleb and Joshua had another report.

Num. 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."

Num. 14:8 "If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' 9 "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."

The ten looked at themselves and the giants and concluded that a conquest of those people was impossible. Compared to the giants, the Jews seemed like grasshoppers. Caleb and Joshua looked at God rather than circumstances, and when compared to God, the giants were grasshoppers. The majority measured the giants against their own strength; Caleb and Joshua measured the giants against God. The majority trembled; the two triumphed. The majority had great giants but a little God. Caleb had a great God and little giants.

It came down to this. Caleb believed God. He believed that God would enable Israel to conquer Canaan, and he reported to Moses exactly what he believed in his heart. He acted upon his faith. He stepped out in faith. He put his money where his mouth was, so to speak. He was a simple man. His faith was uncompromising.

Let me exhort you today to imitate that godly example. Believe God. If God says it, believe it, do it. Don't make up excuses. Don't look at the downside, and figure out that the giants really are too large and there is nothing you can do about them. Believe God. Believe his word. Believe it with an uncompromising faith.

And imitate also the second aspect of Caleb's worthy example,

B. His wholehearted commitment to God. v.8 "...but I wholly followed the LORD my God." v.9, 14

This is not boasting, not spiritual pride or self-righteousness. Just an honest description of his life. Caleb held nothing back. No reservations, no restrictions, no hesitations. He gave the Lord everything he had.

That is exactly what Jesus calls us to do. Remember his answer when asked what was the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus summarized the whole law in two sentences. He summed up our duty and obligation in two simple, direct, and easy to understand statements.

Matt. 22:37 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Jesus says this is the greatest summary of the law: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

So let me ask you a question. Do you love the Lord your God? I expect everyone of you would say yes, say it sincerely, honestly. I think that every one of you loves the Lord your God. But Jesus says that we are to love God with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, and ALL our mind. Let me ask that question again. Do you love God with ALL your heart?

I have to admit, in repentance, that I have not loved God with all my heart. I want to love him more, that desire is what motivates me. But I have not loved him as much as I could have, with all my heart, with all my strength. I say that not as an excuse, but as repentance.

God calls us to love him wholeheartedly. Many times, we love the things of the world more than the Lord our God, and we must repent of that terrible sin. God calls us to love him wholeheartedly. So don't, don't, admire Caleb's faith without being moved to imitate him.

Illus: Most of you know the story of Chuck Colson, the founder and president of Prison Fellowship. Chuck Colson became a Christian in the midst of the Watergate Scandal, and has been a Christian for 19 years now. As the White House Counsel to President Nixon, he was an insider during the Watergate cover-up, and he plead guilty to obstruction of justice, mainly because his new found Christianity convinced him that he was guilty and he ought to accept responsibility for that.

He served seven months in a federal prison, which isn't a long sentence, but he was certainly ridiculed constantly in the media for his statements about his new Christian faith. When he was released from prison, he was well advised to stay out of the public eye, for otherwise he would never be free from that public ridicule.

For three years he wondered what to do, he wondered what God wanted him to do. He wondered how he could most fully live in obedience to the God whom he loved with all his heart. During those three years he grounded his faith by studying the word, learning and studying with some of the best biblical scholars in the nation.

Chuck Colson hated the whole atmosphere of prisons. He hated everything about prisons, except the men inside them. And on a visit to the Atlanta Penitentiary in June 1978, he discovered what it was that God wanted him to do with his life. He was speaking at the prison that night, and God's spirit used him and his message in a powerful way. And he writes about his thoughts leaving the prison that night:

"How God, I asked quietly, could I have taken so long to figure out where You wanted me? I knew this night, as I had not known it before, that I was at my post, and that for me, it was a life sentence."

The name of that book was Life Sentence. He knew that God had sentenced him to life in prison. He knew that, for him, loving God with all his heart meant going into prisons with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And his response was a wholehearted commitment.

I don't want you to admire Chuck Colson. I want you to imitate him. I want you to realize that for you, too, loving God with all your heart is a life sentence. God had called you to wholehearted commitment. Imitate this worthy example of a man of faith.

Let me return to the big picture, because this chapter is not really about Caleb, but about God's faithfulness. The story of the inheritance of Canaan is a story about God's inheritance to each of us, the blessings he gives us as his children.

And so we see that,

II. BLESSINGS ARE PROMISED TO A MAN OF FAITH. God promised Caleb specific blessings, and he promises us the very same things.

A. God promises a valuable inheritance. v.6, 9

The land was the inheritance. But remember, as we have studied in previous weeks, the land is the symbol of God's redemption. The land represents our eternal inheritance, for we know, along with Abraham, that our real inheritance is eternal.

Hebr. 11:10 "...for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

Hebr. 11:16 "But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

The story of the conquest of Canaan is the story of God's faithfulness to bless his people with an eternal inheritance, which is ours through faith in Jesus Christ.

Eph. 1:13 "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."

Caleb's example shows us another of God's promises, too.

B. God promises needed strength. v.10-11

This is an amazing verse, considering Caleb's age, and considering the fact that everybody else is at least 45 years younger than he is.

God is our source of strength. True literally, physically. God is the god of all life, he is the one who bestows strength for those doing his purposes.

God did the same thing with Moses. Deut. 34:7 "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished."

Does that mean that God will give every person full strength until age 85? No. But it does mean that God will give every person strength to do what he has called that person to do. God will give you all the strength you need, if indeed you will look to him.

That is true physically, and it is true spiritually. And you really can't separate the two. One of my favorite passages of Scripture:

Isa. 40:28 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

Strength is a wonderful blessing. But be careful. The moment you take that strength for granted, the moment you begin trusting in your own strength, you will discover your own weakness! The truth is, God promises his blessings to men of faith. He promises to give you everything you need, when you need it. Yet we still need to receive those blessings, for Caleb's example shows us that,

III. BLESSINGS ARE RECEIVED BY A MAN OF FAITH. Not only does God promise, but he also delivers. And we must receive it.

Josh. 18:3 "Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: "How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers has given you?"

God had promised the land as an inheritance, but amazingly, the people hadn't yet occupied the land. That hadn't yet possessed their possessions. God says, "It's yours. Why don't you go and get it?"

Caleb didn't have that problem. In fact, he was bold and specific in his request. God promised him an inheritance in the land. In fact, Caleb already knew what land he wanted. When he had been out spying 45 years earlier, he had spotted the land of Hebron. Hebron was the place were Abraham was buried, the only piece of land in Canaan Abraham ever owned. Later Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and eventually Joseph were buried there as well. Hebron was the closest thing in Canaan to a sacred Jewish site, and Caleb claimed it for his own.

v.12-14

What does that teach us about receiving God's blessings?

A. Blessings are received when we have the confidence to ask for them. James has another way of putting it.

James 4:2 "You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask."

Of course, he does qualify that a little, warns us about our motives, James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures."

But the truth is very simple. There are some things that you do not have because you do not ask.

Prayer is not magic. You cannot box God into a corner and expect him to fulfill all your requests like a cosmic Santa Claus. God is sovereign, and answers prayer in his sovereign love. Sometimes we ask and God says no. But the truth remains, there are many blessings that we do not have because we have not asked!

Don't be afraid to ask God for anything! WSC Q 98 defines prayer for us as "an offering up of our desires unto God." Some qualifications are given, those desires must be for things agreeable to his will, they must be offered in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. But the most basic definition of prayer is simple: An offering up of our desires unto God.

As long as it is not sinful, as long as it is not contrary to the Bible, ask whatever you wish. Ask confidently and boldly. If there is a desire upon your heart, then ask God for his blessing.

I say that because I know that we are sometimes very timid when we pray. We don't want to be bold or arrogant, we don't want to be presumptuous or impolite. In a previous generation, children were raised not to ask for things, especially when they were in someone else's home. It just wasn't polite.

Illus: I remember having a man over to dinner, who from childhood, had been trained never to ask for anything when visiting in someone else's home. He enjoyed eating, and would eat anything you put in front of him, but he wouldn't so much as ask for salt or pepper, unless it was put on the table in front of him.

That politeness may be a very good idea in our relationships with other people, but it is not an example for our prayers. In our prayers, blessings are received when we have the confidence to ask for them.

Hebr. 4:16 "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

We receive God's blessings when we ask for them. And finally,

B. Blessings are received when we have the confidence to enter battle. Caleb gives us a great lesson. Caleb doesn't ask for the easy way out. I think that many of our prayers may fall into that category. We do, often, pray for the easy way out of a situation.

Caleb doesn't look for the path of least resistance. He isn't the least bit lazy. Caleb doesn't pray to avoid a struggle. He doesn't pray for something comfortable and simple. He prays for a great blessing, to be sure, in asking for the land of Hebron. But he knows that a battle will be needed to take possession of that land.

v.12

For 45 years, Caleb has believed that Israel could conquer the Anakites. For 45 years he has believed that those giants could be defeated. For 45 years he has believed that God had more power than any man.

Caleb believed what he had said 45 years earlier. "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." "If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey." He had believed that for 45 long years of waiting. And he had the confidence to enter battle. He had the confidence to do it the hard way.

I believe that is why God honored his request. There was no selfishness and no laziness in Caleb. To use the phrase made famous by the missionary William Carey, Caleb attempted great things for God and he expected great things from God.

Caleb was willing to do something that was destined to fail, unless God was in it. I think that is a valuable lesson and a valuable challenge for us. We receive God's greatest blessings, I believe, when we are willing to fight for them. We receive God's greatest blessings when we let it all hang out, when we take great risks in doing something that will fail without God's help.

If you are looking for the easy way out, don't expect God's blessings. Blessings are received when we have the confidence to enter battle.

What was the result? Did Caleb defeat the Anakites living in Hebron? He certainly did. 15:13-19

May Caleb's example remind you of the riches of God's blessings given to those who ask. And may his example encourage you to follow in his footsteps.

Caleb could easily be added to the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, that listing of other great men and women of faith. The purpose of that chapter is not to praise them or admire them. The purpose of that chapter is stated in the first verse of chapter 12:

Hebr. 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

But verses 2 and 3 tell us how to do that, how to learn to imitate the worthy example of a godly man. Let that godly example point you to Jesus, such that you will be,

Hebr. 12:2 "...looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls."

So remember, don't just admire those great men and women of faith. Imitate them. With all the troubles you encounter, with all the burdens you bear, with all your desires and all the requests that you lay before our God and Father, "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."

Let me end with that very moving story of Peter walking out to Jesus on the water. Peter had such a strong faith. When he knew it was Jesus out there on the water, Peter said,

Matt. 14:28 "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."

Matt. 14:29 So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

What faith. More than I would have had, I expect. But then, what happened.

Matt. 14:30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

What happened? When Peter saw the wind, he was afraid. When he looked down and saw the water, he was afraid. And he began to sink. But when he had focused his eyes on Jesus, he, too, could walk on the water.

There are lots of winds in our lives. Lots of waves on the waters. Lots of things that cause you to fear. Lots of things that cause you to doubt. And this is the answer to all of them: fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

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