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FAITH FOR SLAYING GIANTS
Deut. 1:22-32
Sunday Morning Sermon
January 24, 1999
Fair Avenue Baptist Church
Moses is talking to the people about what happened on their way to Caanan, the promised land.
It would be much easier to preach about the grapes of Caanan than the giants of Caanan.
The grapes speak of the wonderful fruit of the land.
The giants speak of the ferocious foes of that land.
But before we can enjoy the spiritual fruits, we must fight out spiritual foes.
The giants of the land frightened away many of God’s people from the grapes of the land.
We will deal more in this message with the lack of faith than with faith itself.
God said, “In this thing we did not believe.”
Some of our old songs have made Caanan a picture of Heaven, but that is just not true.
There was war in Caanan, but there is no war in Heaven.
There were giants to be killed in Caanan, but there is no death nor killing in Heaven.
There was failure and sin in Caanan, but there will be no sin in the land that is fairer than day.
Joshua in the Old Testament corresponds with the book of Ephesians in the New Testament.
Caanan speaks of the possessions of a Christian here and now in Christ.
Evil giants would keep us from laying hold of our great blessings in Christ.
These giants must be slain, but they cannot be slain with doubt and unbelief.
They must be conquered by faith in God and His immutable promises.
The children of Israel did not have such faith.
Twelve spies were sent out into the land. They reported back, “It is just like God said. The cities are well walled; it is a great land flowing with milk and honey. But there are giants in the land. The people are ‘greater and taller than we.’”
When these spies saw the giants, the giants of unbelief, they turned back and were punished for forty years.
Psalm 106:24, “Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word.”
Now, Caleb and Joshua believed that the giants could be slain, “for we are well able to overcome it.”
And forty years later they entered in Caanan.
Today, there are still giants which keep the child of God from possessing all the spiritual blessings of victory that they should have.
Who are these giants?
1. THE GIANT OF DIFFICULTY
“This does not look easy,” was the report.
“The cities are walled and fortified.”
“The people are many.”
God had said many years earlier to Abraham, “I will give you this land of Caanan.”
God also said, “There are seven nations in the land, but I am going to give it to you anyway. You shall drive them out and fear not the face of man, for no one can stand before you.”
But when ten of those twelve spies saw the giants in the land, they said, “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”
Many a Christian expects the Christian life to be easy when it is not.
It is beautiful,
It is happy,
It is glorious,
It is victorious;
But there are giants in the land.
But remember this: there is never a difficulty that God cannot overcome.
Sure, there are giants in the land.
No one has ever said it is easy to be a good Christian.
It is not easy to build a Christian home and family.
It is not easy to live a separated life and win souls.
It is not easy to build a soul-winning church family with a world-wide vision.
It is not easy to stand for something.
There are giants of difficulty who must be overcome.
It was not easy for Joshua and Caleb, but they knew that what God ordered, He would give the power to do.
There is no mountain God cannot remove,
No river God cannot cross.
No giant of difficulty stands between us and our blessings in Christ that cannot be overcome by faith.
1. The giant of difficulty
2. THE GIANT OF DOUBT
Satan is the master of skepticism. He works on the mind of a Christian to get him or her to doubt.
If he can, he will have us doubt our salvation.
But the Word of God takes care of that. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”
The Devil will come to you and say, “How do you know you are saved? Look what thoughts are in your mind, what things are in your heart. Look how you have failed, how weak you are?”
Just quote him the Word of God which says if a person has Christ, he has life, life forevermore.
The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a wonderful verse in His Word in I John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
Listen, there will always be times of doubt.
And one of the best ways to overcome that doubt is to quit thinking you have to FEEL saved all the time.
It will be a great day in your life when you come to the realization that you are saved, not because of feeling, even though I do feel it, but because the Bible told me so.
I don’t depend on feeling to make me know I’m a Christian, but I do feel something.
I feel like I’m a child of the King,
I feel like I’m riding in the chariots of the King,
I feel like the royal blood of the Son of God flows in my veins,
I know that I am saved because the blessed Word of God tells me that I am.
SOMEBODY SAY Amen!
But wait a minute. When you get into this land, this land of spiritual plenty, you will find the giants of doubt.
But listen carefully. Perhaps Satan’s great device is that of deception.
He causes millions of unsaved people to think they are saved.
He also deceives many who are saved into doubting their salvation.
Paul describes the condition of the unsaved when he described the blinded condition of his own people, the Jews.
“For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Rom. 10:2-3
Many lost people think they are saved.
And Satan has made some saved people fear they are lost.
When someone asks me, “How do you know you are saved?”
My answer is:
Because the Bible says I am.
God’s Word says I “shall never thirst” in John 4:14,
I “shall never perish” in John 10:28,
I “shall never die” in John 11:26,
that He will “never leave [me], nor forsake [me]” in Hebrews 13:5,
and that I “shall never fall” in II Peter 1:10.
What more do we need?
Somebody ought to be shouting about now!
God’s Word is David’s sword that slew the giant of unbelief.
We need no other resting place for the security of our souls than God’s own Word, which is settled in Heaven and as unchanging as God Himself.
1. The giant of difficulty
2. The giant of doubt
3. THE GIANT OF DEPRESSION
Hundreds of Christians have said to me since I have been in the Lord’s work, “Preacher, I just feel depressed.”
Some of have asked me, “Preacher, do you ever get down? Do you ever feel depressed?”
And my answer is “Yes.”
And I take comfort in the fact that some of the greatest men in the Bible have gone through the same experience.
If I were to ask you,
“How many here have had a time when you felt that you were in the valley or in the storm,
when you were overcome with melancholy,
when you were despondent and depressed,
and you needed to be lifted up?”
every one of you would life your hand.
WHY? Because in this spiritual land there stands of giant of depression.
And that giant of depression stands there before the child of God to keep him from having what God wants him to have.
The story of Elijah is a classic example of a great man have a time with depression.
You know the story. One day Elijah did a strange thing. He ran into the woods, lay down under a juniper tree and had a nervous breakdown. He came apart at the seams.
He said, “I might as well die. I’ve had it! Enough is enough. I don’t want any more.”
For three and a half years, during the drought, Elijah stood like a giant for the Lord.
Then Jezebel sent him a message: “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them [the prophets Elijah had slain with the sword] by to morrow about this time.” (I Kings 19:2)
“I am going to cut off your head before tomorrow night.”
Elijah ran into the woods, got down the juniper tree and literally requested to die?
WHY? Because the giant of depression had set in.
Jezebel had said, “Oh, you mighty man of God, I am going to get you down,” and she did!
Here is a beautiful thing. In I Kings 19:5 we read that, then Elijah sat down under that tree, “behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.”
How would you like to be awakened by an angel? This angel came and woke up Elijah.
Elijah woke up and say food to eat and water to drink. He ate and drank and went back to sleep.
VERSE 7 says an angel came to him and woke him up a second time and said, “Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.” God gave him strength to go on for forty days and nights.
Oh, listen child of God. When a Christian is depressed, God is able to send an angel to say, “Wake up. Get up and go. I will give you strength.”
God is the answer to depression.
And you might as well realize it, there will always be the giant of depression.
As pilgrims in this barren wilderness world, your journey and mine is “too great for us.”
We need the help of God to stay on top of the circumstances of life.
The same Devil who brought Elijah to a place of discouragement can being you and I to the same place.
Depression or discouragement is a great enemy of our soul.
When we are depressed, we are defeated.
Great visions of service for the Lord are often defeated at the hands of depression.
Depression is often the fear of failure.
Victory over depression comes from faith in God and His Blessed Word.
Isaiah 43:2, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
Our Lord and God promises, “I will be with thee.”
And through raging rivers and scorching flames, He is always near.
Can you say “Amen” right there?
Praise and faith will overcome depression.
Thank the Lord for His blessings and believe His precious promises; then depressions will give way to peace and confidence.
1. The giant of difficulty
2. The giant of doubt
3. The giant of depression
4. THE GIANT OF DELAY
Many a soul is lost because of procrastination.
Many a Christian loses the blessings because he delays.
If God has put it on your heart to do something for Jesus, then do it now because the giant of delay is dangerous.
Hebrews 3:7-8, “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.”
God was saying, “Listen to Me today, listen to Me, not the giant of delay.”
Many a teenager has heard the call of God and put it off and put it off.
Young people, don’t delay.
Don’t put off God’s call on your life.
How many souls have been lost because of delay?
Jesus must have had this in mind when He spoke these words in John 4:35, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”
Delay is not only the thief of time, it is also the thief of souls.
How many times have we heard the testimony of Christians who waited too late to win their loved ones.
How many blessings and opportunities for serve have been lost because of this giant of delay.
Someone wrote these solemn words:
The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one’s health is more.
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
That no man can restore.
1. The giant of difficulty
2. The giant of doubt
3. The giant of depression
4. The giant of delay
5. THE GIANT OF DELUSION
Too many people are living in an unreal world.
Too many Christians just do not see things as they really are.
Christians today need a touch from God to see life as it really is.
Life is real.
Many a person has encountered this giant of delusion.
They see life out of focus, but life is real.
Here is this giant of delusion.
Young people lose the battle to the giant of delusion.
They fail to see the reality of life and before you know their life is ruined.
Sin is real.
Broken hearts are real.
Broken lives are real.
Divorce is real.
Abuse is real.
Death is real.
The sin of rock music is real.
The sin of country music is real.
The sin of alcohol is real.
The sin of sexual promiscuity is real.
The sin of drugs is real.
The sin of immorality is real.
Teenagers, stop living in a world of delusion.
Young adults, stop living in a world of delusion.
Everyone, stop living in a world of delusion.
Learn to see life as it really is.
May God give us faith to see things as they really are and the faith to believe that lives can be changed by the power of God.
1. The giant of difficulty
2. The giant of doubt
3. The giant of depression
4. The giant of delay
5. The giant of delusion
6. THE GIANT OF DEFEAT
Remember our story of the twelve spies who went to check out the land of Caanan?
Hey, if you do not have the faith to look at the grapes of Caanan, you will be tempted to look at the giants.
And if you look at the giants you will say like some of those men said in Numbers 13, “We are like grasshoppers in their sight.”
They got the “grasshopper” syndrome.
We talked about Elijah a few minutes ago. He got the “grasshopper” syndrome.
Elijah got to thinking he was the only one left serving the Lord. He was defeated.
Satan had thrown the giant of depression at Elijah and the giant of defeat got him.
The giant of defeat has gotten so many Christians today.
We must have faith to overcome the giant of defeat.
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