06/14/2002 Every Action has a reaction
Have any of you ever been lost while driving somewhere?
Maybe in a big city or something?
I missed my turn in Little Rock the first time I traveled there after moving to Arkansas, it was late, it was dark, and I was tired. That was the first time I had ever been to that part of little rock. I had been to the airport before but if you come out of Memphis and go to the Little Rock airport you really bypass the city itself.
But I was on some roads that I had never been on before and I simply missed my turn.
Now, It did not take me long to figure out what I did and I just turned around, I did not have any problem.
But now, I have been completely lost in some big cities before.
I have been lost in Jackson Mississippi.
I have been lost in Memphis Tennessee
I have been lost in Chattanooga Tennessee.
You may want to remember that if you ever go anywhere with me.
But it is amazing isn’t it.
One little wrong turn,
One little slip,
One mistake, and you are going way off over here, when you were supposed to be going over there.
Oh, if you can figure out what you did wrong, you can usually get back to where you were supposed to be going, but it may have cost you something.
Many people miss flights because they made one little mistake going to the airport.
Many people miss meetings,
People have missed a friends wedding, even a funeral,
When we make those little errors it tends to cost us something.
I want you to think of our lives now.
Every single time we make a mistake,
Every single time we go the wrong way,
Every single decision we make, changes our life forever.
We may not know what the change is, but there is a change.
I have not been to school in a long time, but I believe one of the laws of physics tells us that for every action, there is a reaction.
And so it is with sin.
Every time we sin, we take a wrong turn in our life.
“Can we not get back on the straight and narrow?”
Sure we can, but what did it cost us?
The Bible plainly tells us in numerous places that we will have to bear the consequences of our sin.
Now, we don’t have to pay the penalty, Jesus Christ has done that on our behalf, but we do have to bear the consequences.
Now, we may not always recognize what those consequences are, but they are there non-the less.
And even if we do not recognize the consequences, the Bible says that one day we, even Christians will have to stand before the Lord himself and give an account of everything we did with and in our lives.
Boy, if that wont make a man think twice about sinning, than nothing will.
But I want us to go back to the Bible and look at the life of a very Godly man and see what price he had to pay for his sin.
Now, The bible has shown the human side of all the great God fearing men of the Bible.
We see the sin of Adam and the consequences to this very day.
We see the sin of Abraham, and what it cost him and the entire world.
We see the sin of David and what it cost him and his family.
Last week I mentioned the sin of Achan and it cost his entire family their lives.
But today I want us to look at Moses.
Moses was a very Godly man and he spent most of his life in service to God.
But I want you to see what one sin cost him.
Turn with me please to Numbers chapter 20
READ NUMBERS 20:1-12
Boy, what a penalty.
Now, before we look at his sin and the consequences of that sin, lets go back and look at a few other things.
First, I want you to notice that Moses and Aaron were under a lot of Pressure at this time in their lives.
I. Pressure
Look at verse 1
READ VERSE 1
After the Nation of Israel came to Kadesh, their older sister died.
There is one little line in one verse
“now Miriam died there and was buried there.”
It does not mention a big elaborate funeral,
It does not mention a time of mourning for Aaron and Moses.
No,
I mean, they did not even have time to mourn because they were the leaders of the nation of Israel and if you will look at verse 2 it says that they had no water.
READ VERSE 2 PART A
Their sister just died but they had millions of people here with no water before them,
They were under a lot of pressure.
And then the entire nation came against them, ..........again.
Look with me at the next part of verse 2
READ VERSE 2 B - VERSE 5
The whole nation had come against them again.
Time after time after time, God had taken care of these people, they had seen miracles in their midst, they had been given food to eat every single day of their lives.
Every day they had fresh bread on the ground except on the Sabbath but the day before the Sabbath they gathered enough for the next day.
Their clothes never wore out,
Every need was always met,
And they come to this place without water,
And they rose up against Moses and Aaron.
These men were under a lot of pressure.
If you will study, you will also see that at this time it had been nearly forty years since the nation of Israel had started wandering in the wilderness.
We can look back in Numbers 14 and verse 33 and see that God told Moses that it would be 40 years before the nation entered the promise land.
I bet Moses was getting a little ancy, don’t you.
If you will notice, the closer that Christmas gets, the more impatient children get.
The closer the time comes, the more expectant they become.
A couple sets a date to be married, the closer they get to that date, the more they feel like they can’t wait.
That is human nature.
And here was Moses, he had led the nation of Israel for nearly 40 years, he had seen the consequences of national sin time and time again, he had wandered in the wilderness with them all this time, he had seen many of the people die, because God said that all those over 20 years old at the time that the spies were sent to check out the land, all those over 20 years old would die and not enter the promised land.
All of course except for Caleb and Joshua.
For years he had suffered from the penalty of others sins and now the time was coming, the time was drawing nigh, and I feel like he was getting pretty anxious.
We face many different kinds of pressures in our lives don’t we folks.
We face illness, death, disease,
We face financial problems,
We face strife and bitterness,
We to face the pressures of life every day.
Moses and Aaron were under a lot of pressure.
Then I want us to notice, that even while Moses and Aaron were under a lot of pressure, they knew that they still had to find time to Prostrate themselves before the Lord.
II. Prostrate before the Lord.
They knew that even though they were under tremendous pressure, even though they may not have had time to mourn the death of their sister, even when everyone is coming against them,
they had to find time to be still, and be with God.
READ VERSE 6
They had to make time for God.
They had to take time to turn their backs on the people and turn their faces toward God.
But they were leaders, how could they turn their backs on the people.
Have you ever thought of a conductor of an orchestra?
They are considered to be great leaders because they bring a group together to make beautiful music.
Do you realize that a man who wants to lead the orchestra, must first turn his back on the crowd.
Moses and Aaron left the people.
They went away from the congregation
Why?
So they could come to God.
The Bible says that they “Fell on their faces”
They did not walk in and sit down, they did not take a stool,
They did not ease down so that their knees would not pop,
THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES BEFORE THE LORD.
Think about this for a moment,
If you fall on your face before someone, you are not just giving them honor,
You are making yourself completely vulnerable to the will of that person.
If you prostrate yourself before someone, if you stretch out on the Ground before someone,
then you can in no way defend yourself against anything that person wants to do.
Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the Lord, they cast away any thought of being defensive, any thought of what their will was, and they only wanted whatever the Lord wanted to give.
When was the last time we fell on our faces before the Lord?
Oh, I know we pray,
I know we seek God’s will, supposedly,
But when was the last time we came before God, fell on our faces, became completely vulnerable and defenseless before him,
When was the last time we came to him with no thought of what we wanted other than for his will to be done?
When was the last time we came before God and said,
“God, I am giving myself over into your hands,
I have my own ideas, I have my own thoughts but they absolutely do not matter because you know what is best,”
When was the last time we said,
“Thy will be done”?
Ok,
We see that Moses and Aaron were under a lot of pressure,
We know that even though all this pressure they knew they had to find time to prostrate themselves before the Lord,
And when they did this,
We can see that God came into their presence, and replied to them with a Promise of Provisions.
III. Promise Of Provisions.
READ THE LAST PART OF v 6 - V 8
When they got right with God, he promised them that he would supply their need.
And God never goes back on a promise.
If he did, he would no longer be God.
And do you know what?
God has promised us in the book of Matthew, that if we would seek him, if we would do as Aaron and Moses did,
If we would be concerned with his kingdom first and foremost,
He has promised us that he will supply all of our provisions.
And he will not go back on that promise.
So, while studying this passage of scripture, we have seen ;
The Pressure that Moses and Aaron were under,
The fact that even through the pressure, they knew they had to Prostrate Themselfes before God.
And then we saw the Promises of Provisions from God.
Now, this leads us into the next section that I want us to look at.
The fourth thing I want us to look at is;
IV. The Pretentiousness of Moses and Aaron.
Read Verse 10 and 11A
At this point in time, Moses and Aaron failed, like so many of us have done.
They were disobedient to God.
They did not follow the Words that God had given them.
They got just a little off track,
They made just one little wrong turn.
Hey, I can understand how it happened,
We have already said that they were fed up, they were tired, they were under a lot of pressure and all of these people were coming against them.
We can tell that Moses was angry,
He said,
“Listen now you rebels”
That sounds like words of anger to me. He was upset with the whole lot of them. He may not have cared at this very moment weather they got water or not.
I am about to come to another point where some people will disagree with me.
When I prepare a message, through prayer, I try to determine a message that God wants me to deliver. I then read the word and look at cross references, other related scriptures, etc.
I move on then to see what other great men and commentators have to say on the subject.
Then I do my best to let the holy spirit guide me in the meaning of the scripture.
And often times, I seem to come up with a differing opinion from the commentators.
Now, even though I disagree with them at times, this does not bother me in the least.
I feel like I can show you my position on this next issue, and then you can let God guide you.
I am also a simple person, and I think the thoughts I have on this issue, are simple.
The commentators that I read, have said that Moses sinned against God, he was disobedient because he struck the rock twice.
They said this was a sin because God told them to speak to the rock.
They said this was a sin because a rock had already been struck once in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus, this had already been done once to bring forth water.
They say that this rock is a representation of Jesus Christ and that Christ paid the penalty for our sins ONE time, once and for all.
Now, I am not disagreeing with these Godly men, not one bit,
But from the commentaries I read, It seems to me that the most significant sin was left out.
What we are dealing with here now is “Philosophy by Gene”
OK?
This is my opinion on the matter.
I said I wanted you to see the PRETENTIOUSNESS of Moses and Aaron.
I usually don’t use big words like this, and when I do, I try to give a definition.
This word means “having or making claims of self worth, excellence, etc”
Now,
You may say,
“well, he struck a rock twice when God told him to speak to the rock,... This is disobedience, but how is it a claim of self worth or excellence?”
Well, this act of disobedience is important, but that is not where the real problem lies.
Notice with me the last line in verse ten,
Moses said,
“Shall WE bring forth water for you out of this rock?”
They stood before the people, and they took the credit for something that only God could have done.
They made a claim of excellence.
Oh, it was probably unintentional; something that happened in the heat of the moment, but it was still done.
It was like a copyright infringement, taking credit for someone else’s work,
only this was much more serious.
A true miracle can only come from GOD!
Any time you see a man taking credit for a miracle from God, you better not stay in a real close fellowship with him.
I want you to notice a very important point,
Even though Moses and Aaron sinned, God still provided the provisions for the people, He still brought forth the water.
WHY?
Because He promised that he would, and He is GOD.
OK,
We have seen the pressure that Moses and Aaron were under,
We have seen that they had to Prostrate themselves before the Lord,
We have seen God’s promise of provisions,
We have seen the pretentiousness of Moses and Aaron,
Now the last point I want you to see is;
V The Penalty for their actions.
verse 12.
READ VERSE 12
God said that because of their sin, they would not enter the promised land.
Something they had been looking for,
Something they had been working for nearly forty years,
And in one instant,
With one wrong turn,
With one trip down the wrong road,
They failed to reach that destination.
A destination that God had put in place for all the people of Israel, and so many of them took the wrong road, and failed to arrive at their destination.
Every action has a reaction.
Some of you may still be wondering how I decided that the sin that brought this penalty upon Moses and Aaron was their pretentiousness.
Well, I arrived at this conclusion simply because God told us that this was the reason here in Verse 12.
Numbers 20:12
12… Because you have not believed ME, to treat ME as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel……..
He did not say, “because you disobeyed and struck the rock twice”
No,
He said,
“Because you have not believed ME….
You see, God said in;
Leviticus 10:3
By those who come near ME I will be treated as holy,.. and before all the people I will be honored….
God said,
“Since you did not do what I had previously told you to do,
Since you did not set me apart and show me as being holy before the people,
Since you did not give me the glory and honor,
Since you took credit for yourselves in the eyes of Israel,
You will not enter the promised land”
Boy, they sure got a tough penalty didn’t they.
Friends, there is always a consequence for our sins.
We think were getting away with that little sin?
That thing that no one knows about except us and God?
Every time we commit a sin, we take a turn down another wrong road, and we get farther away from the destination that God had originally wanted us to reach.
Or, have we taken credit for something that God has done?
Remember, God owns everything.
Do we say,
“Boy, I sure did good didn’t I.”
“ Boy I sure took care of business.”
“I have led over a hundred people to the Lord.”
Be careful now.
I supply for my family. I take care of all of their needs, that is why I work so hard.
Be careful.
In John 15:5 Jesus said,
John 15:5
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
James 1:17
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Do we give credit where credit is due?
Do we give credit to God for all good things?
Or do we exalt ourselves.
Every decision we make either brings us closer to, or takes us farther away from the destination in this life in which God had originally planned for us to go.
For every action, there is a reaction.
And if you are here today, and you have never accepted Jesus Christ into your heart,
Then you have made the wrong turn.
You are not on the right road,
You are headed for an eternal destination that God did not intend for you.
The Bible says that Hell was created for the devil and his demons,
But if you have never accepted Christ, that is where you are headed.
You can come this evening, as we sing a hymn of invitation,
You can come and accept Christ into your heart, and you can be put on the right road, the road to eternity in heaven.
