Faith That Could Not Be Frustrated

Faith That Could Not Be Frustrated

Text: Joshua 14: 14

Intro: Faith. What a wonderful, biblical, truth! It is the spiritual key that opens the storehouse of the riches of God. Faith is that which brings the promises of God into our possession, making them a personal and practical reality. I once heard Manley Beasley, a great man of faith, say something like this: “Faith is acting like a thing is so, when it is not so, so that it will be so.” Please keep in mind that faith is not some emotional leap in the dark, but rather, it is standing on the truth of God, as revealed in His Word—His promises. This idea is found in the words of the Apostle Paul, who said, “And being fully persuaded that, what he (God) had promised, he was able also to perform” (Rom.4: 21). That doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to explain how God’s going to do it, or that you’ll be able to touch it, smell it, or see it, at that moment. But as Brother Manley also said, “…When a child of God has a need, it is the evidence that the supply is already there” (Manley Beasley, Faith Workbook, published by Christian Litho, Inc., Zachary, LA. 70791; copyright 1973 by Manley Beasley; pg. 50).

Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was a man who possessed the audacity to simply believe what God had promised, and act as though it was so, when it wasn’t yet so. He did not allow visible circumstances to dissuade him from declaring God’s promise as fact. He lived as though he already possessed what God had promised him, even though he did not see the reality of it for 45 years after the promise was given. “What a noble way to live,” you might say. But folks, nobility has nothing to do with it. You see, “Faith must be tested in conflict to see if it is only head faith or heart faith, which brings living reality” (Ibid, pg. 26).

I want us to dwell for a while on the faith of Caleb, a “Faith That Could Not Be Frustrated.” I believe we will discover that the principles involved here directly apply to where our church is at this point in time.

Theme: Caleb had a faith that could not be frustrated, due to:

I. GOD’S PROMISE TO CALEB

A. Caleb Recounted The Facts.

Joshua 14: 6 “Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.

7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

8 Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God.

9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord thy God.”

NOTE: [1] Notice, in verse eight, that Caleb said that certain ones who had been sent to spy out the land with him, had “made the heart of the people to melt.” In other words, these folks influenced the congregation of Israel with their unbelief, so that they became disheartened and discouraged. This was a serious matter to God. “There is not a sin you can commit: adultery, drunkenness, murder, that so humiliates and infuriates the nature of God as unbelief” (Ibid, pg. 38). Don’t ever think that your words and life don’t influence others.

Like Father; Like Son

“Among the more than 3,000 Americans who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, there is one father/son combination. The father won it for a single act of bravery in a crucial battle of the Civil War. By the time he retired in 1909, he was the ranking officer in the United States Army and one of the most famous soldiers of his era.

“But his son rose to even greater fame. In 1941 he headed up the U. S. forces in the Philippines, and he led the gallant defense of the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor. Although the battles fought there ended in defeat, the bravery displayed by the Americans and their leader provided inspiration to thousands of soldiers and sailors and to millions of workers on the home-front.

“This man’s name was General Douglas MacArthur, and his father was Arthur MacArthur, Jr. No doubt the son’s greatness can be traced in part to the outstanding heritage left to him by his dad.