Spiritual Maturity
Regardless of our age and spiritual maturity,
we must guard against making foolish decisions
that can hurt our witness for Jesus Christ.
Here now is Gene:
The setting for this: they ran out of water once again.
The people complained.
They were in Kadesh, which is very close
now to the land.
And as you read the Old Testament,
you realize that was in Kadesh.
They had to wander for 40 years in the wilderness.
Finally coming back and settling at
Kadesh before they could go in.
And God heard their complaint
because water is a necessity.
And so God said to Moses and Aaron:
Speak to the rock and I'll give them water.
But Moses is not very happy with these people.
And here we see Moses humanism,
and frankly, I just don't blame him.
He was angry but in his anger, in his frustration,
he made a mistake. Pretty serious.
So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence
just as He had commanded him. ...
That was obedience. He did that.
...Moses and Aaron summoned the
assembly in front of the rock and
Moses said to them: Listen, you rebels! ...
He's mad. As I said, I can't blame him.
I would have been mad. Probably more
than mad if I'd have made it to that point.
...Listen you rebels! ...
And here was the big mistake.
In front of all these carnal people, Moses said:
Must we? [uh-oh, uh-oh, must we] bring water out
of this rock for you? ...
Now, you know what's happening there?
Taking glory from God.
...[And] then Moses raised his hand and...
Spoke to the rock? No.
...Moses raised his hand and struck
the rock twice. ...
He's mad as a hornet.
...He struck the rock twice with his staff,
so that a great amount of water gushed out...
God honored that, anyway.
...and the community and their livestock drank. ...
But there's a problem here.
...But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
Because you did not trust Me to show
My holiness [My holiness] in the sight of the Israelites,
you will not bring this assembly into the
land I' have given them.
And if you look at the context,
what in essence God was saying:
if I let you gt by with this, Moses.
As much as I love you, Aaron.
As much as I love you.
As much as you've been faithful.
As much as you've prayed for these
people when you probably should have
cursed them in your humanity.
As much as I respect you and you're a
humble man on the face of the earth.
And later God said: There was no
prophet in Israel like this man.
He said: I can't let you get by with this.
Because you did that in the sight of a
bunch of carnal people.
And if they see that you disobeyed and
I let you get by with it,
think what they're going to do.
You're a godly man, Moses.
Think what these carnal people are going to do.
And so Moses paid a price.
Now again, as I look at that story,
I'm very empathetic with Moses.
But I also--I think understanding what God was
doing here. And God never forgot
His servant, obviously.
But He didn't allow Moses or Aaron to
go into the land.
And they were disciplined by the Lord
because they slipped into this
carnal behavior at this stage of their life.
Kind of sad isn't it? But that's why finishing
well is so important
and why do we need to take it seriously.
Because, as I say in the Principle, reading again:
Regardless of our age and spiritual maturity,
we must guard against making
foolish decisions that can hurt our
witness for Jesus Christ.
Now here's the New Testament lesson:
1st Corinthians 10:11 and 12:
Now these things...
Including this event regarding Moses and Aaron.
...Now these things happened to them as examples
and they were written as a warning to us,
on whom the ends of the ages have come.
Therefore, whoever thinks he stands
must be careful not to fall!
And for someone my age who's been in the
ministry over 50 years, that grabs me.
That grabs me. Whoever thinks he stands must be
careful not to fall. And every one of us in
spiritual leadership role, whoever we are,
needs to think about Moses.
If that can happen to Moses,
what about us? It's a lesson--a tremendous lesson.
But here's the good news.
I'm so glad Paul added this
by inspiration of Holy Spirit.
No temptation has ever overtaken you
except what is common to humanity. ...
What happened to Moses is just plain human.
It's human. It's common to humanity.
But here's the great truth:
...God is faithful and He will not allow you
to be tempted beyond what you are able,
but with the temptation He will also
provide a way of escape, so that you are
able to bear it.
In that particular situation,
did God provide a way of escape for
Moses and Aaron? Absolutely.
And in some respects, it's unfortunate
that Moses didn't turn to God and say:
God, I am so angry, I would like to just
wipe these people out right now.
Just like You. Just like You, God.
There were times when You wanted to wipe them out.
I want to wipe them out right now
because they've just been so evil, so wrong.
God, I want to strike that rock.
But I know You don't want me to.
I need Your help. I need to cool down.
I need a way of escape right here.
And I think for Moses, God would put
His arms around him and said:
Moses, Moses, I understand.
I know how you're feeling because I felt that way too.
And God would have come to his rescue.
But he didn't do it in the midst of his anger.
You know the Principle that says:
Be angry and don't sin?
God understood his anger. The problem
is he sinned in the process.
And there's a great lesson there for all of us.
Anger is natural. We've talked about that.
But in our anger, we've got to be careful
because we can do some really stupid things.
Say things we shouldn't say.
Unfortunately for Moses,
this was a pretty serious mistake.
And so consequently God had to
discipline him for it.
[So] what precautions can we take to
avoid making serious mistakes as we
near the end of our life?
2nd Timothy, Principle 9 reads:
Since we will all appear some day before
God and Jesus Christ, we are to diligently fulfill our ministry.
In other words, let's keep our eyes on
the Lord Jesus. On the fact that we will
be rewarded some day.
And we will face the Lord--
not in terms of the judgment of evil and sin.
But the judgment of not being faithful.
And so we need to remember God's
going to reward us for being faithful.
Keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith.
Let's be accountable when we're
tempted to do something we shouldn't do.
Let's seek help. Talk to God about it.
Talk to others. Seek help. And don't react in anger.
Very important Principle that we need to look at.