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.
“Our children may not follow that closely in our footsteps. Yet the virtues of courage, honesty, and love for God can leave such a deep impression on their lives that whatever their career, they’ll never forget the example set for them. ‘Like father, like son’ is a compliment when both generations walk in the ways of the Lord.”
Source unknown. Contributed by Dr. J. Mike Minnix, Editor, PastorLife.com.
[2] Caleb, even after 45 years of enduring the hardships of the desert, had not forgotten God’s promise to him (v. 9). He was now ready to collect on what God had promised so many years before. Dr. J. Mike Minnix admonishes us with these words, concerning God’s faithfulness:
Promise?
We make a lot of promises to others and many promises are made to us. Sadly, too many promises are broken on both ends of the equation. God, however, never breaks a promise.
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Don’t let the broken promises of this world keep you from believing the promises of God. God will always act, “...according to His promise” (2 Peter 3:13). “God is not a man that He should lie...” (Numbers 23:19). God says, “I will not fail you, nor forsake you,” (Joshua 1:5) and He meant exactly what He said. So, whatever you are going through today, lean heavily upon the promises of God—they never fail—or maybe it is better to say that the promises do not fail because GOD NEVER FAILS!!!
Dr. J. Mike Minnix, Editor, PastorLife.
B. Caleb Received God’s Favor.
1. Caleb received the favor of God because of his great faith.
Num.13: 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.”
Num.14: 8 “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.”
NOTE: [1] Some might have called Caleb foolish for talking this way, in light of the tremendous odds Israel was facing. But he was simply agreeing with what God had already promised.
Num.13: 1 “And the Lord spake unto Moses saying,
2a Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel…”
[2] Moses later reminded Israel of what God had promised them:
Deut.6: 23 “And he (God) brought us out from thence (Egypt), that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.”
[3] Folks, the issue today is: “How much do we really believe God?” Christians are forever misunderstanding this point. Bro. Beasley once noted:
Some people get the idea that it is by the amount of praying that a person might do that they have success. But when you read the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, you will find out it is not by praying, it is simply by faith. Some people think that it is because of their lack of prayer that they fail. You can pray until you are blue in the face, but if you do not believe, you are still going to fail.
Some people have the idea that it is the amount of labor or work you do—that doing is going to bring success. You can labor all you like but if faith is not present, you will fail. It is faith that makes it possible for God to operate. And unless God operates, man’s operation is in vain [“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it…” –Ps.127: 1a]. This world is not interested in what you are doing for God. The world is interested in what God is doing for you.
Manley Beasley, Faith Workbook, published by Christian Litho, Inc., Zachary, LA. 70791; copyright 1973 by Manley Beasley, pg. 33.
[4] Wiersbe offers the following, in an effort to clarify what faith really is:
True Bible faith is not blind optimism or a manufactured “hope-so” feeling. Neither is it an intellectual assent to a doctrine. It is certainly not believing in spite of evidence! That would be superstition.
True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.
Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Confident, published by Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois; pgs. 120 & 121.
2. Caleb received the favor of God because of his fearlessness.
Num.14: 9 “Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.”
NOTE: [1] I’m not saying that Caleb was some sort of Hebrew “Rambo,” who laughed in the face of certain doom, but that his faith in God overshadowed any trepidation he might have had. In actuality, Caleb already knew what the outcome of the impending battle would be, since God had already promised to give Israel the land. The Bible tells us:
2 Tim.1: 7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
1 John 4: 18a “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear…”
[2] It’s time that Christians stopped walking around scared to death of the enemy, and started realizing that, “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4: 4b). Had Caleb allowed his fears to reign instead of his faith in God, he would never have received such a wonderful inheritance from God.
[3] The majority of Christians are not able to benefit from the promises of God, because they are not using the key that unlocks God’s storehouse—FAITH. Caleb was fearless by faith.
Heb.11: 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
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6a But without faith it is impossible to please him…”
3. Caleb received the favor of God because of his faithfulness.
Joshua 14: 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.
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10 And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old (85 years old).”
NOTE: [1] While Israel was wandering, Caleb was waiting. Though Caleb’s waiting was the result of the unbelief of others, his faith in God enabled him to endure the wait. Faith never gets in a hurry, for God’s Word says, “…he that believeth shall not make hast” (Isa.28: 16b). God had given Caleb a promise, and he trusted God unswervingly to fulfill it, even though he had to wait for that unbelieving generation to die off before he could actually take possession of his inheritance (Deut.1: 35, 36).
[2] Caleb knew how to walk in faith, and he very literally did so for 45 years. You see, while the unbelieving Israelites focused on the daily grind of the wilderness, Caleb focused on the divine God of Wonders, of whom he was assured of the fulfillment of the promise. That fact is important because:
Faith grows by being occupied with who God is, His plan, His provision, and His purpose.
Our faith is never according to our experience. Our experiences are according to our faith. Existence of faith in the heart is manifested by works in the life. The works will always equate the faith.
A faith which does not walk may soon become too weak to stand.
Manley Beasley, Faith Workbook, published by Christian Litho, Inc., Zachary, LA. 70791; copyright 1973 by Manley Beasley, pg. 27.
[3] There is a principle involved in Caleb’s waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promise, of which we need to be aware. As Caleb trudged through the desert for 45 years, due to no fault of his own, surely there must have been days when it seemed that everything he was enduring, called God’s promise a lie. Oswald Chambers explains why God sometimes allows this to happen:
God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience…God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality.
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, published by Barbour and Company, Inc., Westwood, NJ 07675; pgs. 136 & 137.
II. GOD’S PRESERVATION OF CALEB
A. By Faith Caleb Had Stayed Alive.
Joshua 14: 10a “And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years…”
NOTE: [1] Caleb’s faith in God had literally kept him alive, so that God could make good on His promise to him. God is faithful, and He will be debtor to no man. God always keeps His promises.
[1a] Caleb stayed alive, in spite of the fact that he spent time behind enemy lines, as a spy (Num.13: 1-2, 6).
[1b] Caleb stayed alive, in spite of the fact that his own people threatened to stone him, along with Joshua, because they insisted upon going to battle to possess the land of Canaan, in obedience to God (Num.14: 10a).
[1c] Caleb stayed alive, in spite of the fact that he had walked for 45 years through a dry, barren desert, fraught with all its dangers.
[2] Manley Beasley, now deceased, once gave this true account of how faith had kept him alive.
In 1970 I was in the hospital with seven terminal diseases. The doctors said I would die, but God told me that I would see my children’s children [Ps.128: 6]. For months I continued to die, but I refused to doubt His promise. The fact that I am writing this in 1978 ought to indicate the outcome, but the point is that we can believe it is so when it is not so, in order for it to be so, because God has said it is so.
Manley Beasley, Faith Workbook No.2, published by Murdock Printing Company, Memphis, Tennessee; Second Printing, May 1981, Copyright 1979, Manley Beasley; pg. 3.
B. By Faith Caleb Remained Strong In Old Age.
Joshua 14: 10b “…and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
11 And yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.”
NOTE: At this point, Caleb was 85 years old. He was not only still strong in faith, but in physical force and fortitude, as well. In principle, this teaches us that faith is never passive. Faith does not mean that we do nothing, but that we believe something. We believe what God has promised (Rom.4: 18b tells us that Abraham believed “…according to that which was spoken”). Even though the outcome was assured, Caleb would still have to fight the enemies of Israel in order to take possession of his inheritance. For that he would need physical vitality. The wilderness journey had not been pleasant, but it had been spiritually productive. He was about to exchange the promise for the reality of possession.
C. By Faith Caleb Was Still Aggressive.
Joshua 14: 11b “…as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
12a Now therefore give me this mountain…”
NOTE: Dear child of God, please understand that there is no retirement age for Christians. The Lord’s soldiers must remain faithful until the battle is over. You may protest that your body isn’t as healthy and vigorous as it once was; and without a doubt, that may be true. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t stand firm in faith and faithfulness toward your God and Savior. That doesn’t mean that you are useless to the kingdom of God. That shouldn’t mean that you stop praying and standing in the gap for the work of God. Paul said, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor.15: 58). Don’t quit; the battle isn’t over yet.
There Ain’t No Rear
“During the War Between the States,” writes Gary Redding, “a Union solider from Ohio, was shot in the arm during the battle of Shiloh. His captain saw he was wounded and barked an order: ‘Gimme your gun, private, and get to the rear!’
The private handed over his rifle and ran toward the north, seeking safety. But after covering two or three hundred yards, he came upon another skirmish. Then he ran to the east and into another part of the battle. Then he ran west but encountered more fighting there. Finally, he ran back to the front lines, shouting: ‘Gimme back my gun, cap’n. There ain’t no rear to this battle!’
When it comes to spiritual warfare, there ain’t no rear!
Preaching, Apr/May, 1990. Submitted by Dr. J. Mike Minnix, Editor, PastorLife.
III. GOD’S PRESENTATION TO CALEB
A. Caleb’s Faith Ultimately Produced Possession.
Joshua 14: 12 “Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.
13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.
NOTE: Caleb’s unswerving faith in God’s promise resulted in the reality of personal possession. That’s in keeping with what the writer of the book of Hebrews says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb.11: 1). Folks, those who have an “everything is going to work out, and be all right” view of faith, are likely missing the ultimate point of Bible faith: “Faith is…substance…” (Heb.11: 1a).
B. Caleb’s Faith Ultimately Produced Peace.
Joshua 14: 14 “Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
15 And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.”
NOTE: Faith is diametrically opposed to fear, and is its absolute opposite. The Christian who lives in faith toward God will enjoy overall peace and rest. In closing, I want to leave you with these words from Manley Beasley:
The life of faith is a conquering life, an abundant life, a fruitful life, a joyful life, a life of rest, and a life of liberty. If your life is anything but what has been described here then your faith is not right. These provisions have already been made for you by the Lord and HE is waiting for you to claim these provisions by faith. Remember, the JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.
Manley Beasley, Faith Workbook, published by Christian Litho, Inc., Zachary, LA. 70791; copyright 1973 by Manley Beasley, pg. 39.
Theme: Caleb had a faith that could not be frustrated, due to:
I. GOD’S PROMISE TO CALEB
II. GOD’S PRESERVATION OF CALEB
III. GOD’S PRESENTATION TO CALEB
