Summary
Pastor Jason recounts a story from his childhood to illustrate the concept of "Enough is enough." He draws a parallel to the Israelites' disobedience in Numbers 13-14, where they complained and refused to enter the Promised Land despite God's promises. Israel's repeated rebellion led to severe punishment, with none of the disobedient men entering Canaan. Pastor Jason emphasizes the deeper issue of unbelief and rebellion in Israel's hearts. He warns against presumption and nominal Christianity, urging true faith and obedience. He concludes by highlighting God's promise of a new heart through faith in Jesus, who secures redemption and transformation.

Sermon Transcript

Pastor Jason’s Introduction and Storytelling
Let me tell you a story. I was a naughty boy in primary school. I was part of this group of kids who are notorious, and one of my friends got called up one day. His name is Huan Zhou. I hope Huan Zhou is not in church today, but Huan Zhou was caught up to the front of the class, because, like many of us, he didn't do his homework. The teacher asked him where (his homework was). He began to tell some stories, and she smelled a rat. And all of a sudden––she's never done this before, we've never seen this before––but all of a sudden, she gave a tight slap: “Piak!” across his face. Now that's something you will never hear of today in Singapore. But in my day, those days, well, I guess you can get away with it. But she gave him a real tight slap and said, “Stop your lies.”

I suppose my teacher had enough. Enough from all of us. She's frustrated. Her patience has worn out, and she wants to make sure she communicates: “Enough is enough.” I think about that teacher and Huan Zhou when I think about God and Israel. Israel had been sinning over and over and over again and today, in Numbers 13 and 14, we read as it were, God giving Israel a real severe punishment, saying, “Enough is enough.”

Israel’s Early Lessons and Initial Disobedience
Now you see this is quite surprising, because Israel got a very good start according to the Book of Numbers. The first ten chapters of Numbers are really about God organising and teaching Israel. God teaches Israel that “I will be in your midst”––the centeredness of God in the midst of the camp of the Israelites. And then God taught them lessons about cleanness, what it means to be clean and what to do if you are unclean. It's important because God, who is holy, is in your midst. And then God taught them principles about closeness, what it means to follow Him. So the first ten chapters of Numbers are a great start for Israel.

But things came crashing down soon after they break camp and moved towards the Promised Land. Because in Numbers 11, we read about “complain, complain, complain”. How they complained at Taberah and Kibroth Hattaavah. And then in Chapter 12, Miriam and Aaron would rebel against their brother and really against the leader God has called, Moses. So we come to Chapter 13 and 14, and we see them plunge to a new depth, because here the people of Israel straight do not want to enter the Promised Land. Said, “I will not. We will not go to Canaan, even though God tells us to.” They were filled with complaints and murmurs. They despised God in their hearts, and they even wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb, who spoke God's word to them. This is a new low because here we read how God said, “None of the men who have put Me to the test these 10 times and have not obeyed My voice shall see the lamb that I swore to give to their fathers.”

So Israel has been a rebellious bunch over and over and over again. See, 10 times. Are you sure? Yeah, we kind of looked at it in the beginning of our series in the book of Numbers. I'll just click for you to see and to convince you that God kept good accounts of their disobedience against Him, culminating in this scene in Numbers 14. So the sermon titled today is quite simple: “Enough is Enough”. This is a time for a good, tight slap across Israel's face.

The Spies’ Report and Israel’s Reaction
Let's look at the story. The story begins with Israel nearing Canaan, and they sent out 12 spies, one chief from each tribe. They are good, probably respected, men in Israel. They would go to survey the land that God wants to give to them, the land of Canaan. They will go all the way there, because Moses said to them, “Go look at the people. Look at the city, look at the land, and if you can bring back some samples to see if the fruit is really that great.”

So after that 40 days of espionage, reconnaissance, they came back with a report. They said that, “The land that we saw was indeed a wonderful land. It was a land flowing with milk and honey.” Now I hope you do not think of it like literally, milk spurting out from the cow’s udders or honey flowing from the trees. That's not what it is. I think it is just a way of saying it's a fruitful land. Lots of grass for the cattle to graze, lots of trees and plants and vegetation, fruit abundant, and they brought back some samples. But besides saying that the land is indeed luscious and fruitful, they also said, “The people there, oh, they are big! They are like Shaquille O'Neal. They are giants in the land, and their cities are walled up and fortified.” Now, probably you are like me, city folks. We live in this country, where they do not give us a lot of fortresses. We don't live amongst fortresses. But I was on a trip to Europe; I saw some castles, medieval castles. And from where we were, at the foot of the mount, looking up at the castle, they are quite formidable. They are tall. They seem to be impregnable. And so I can understand a little bit more why they would make this note, this mental note, that in Canaan, whoa, the cities are fortified and walled up.

So they came back and said to Moses and to Israel, “Yeah, the fruit is good, the harvest is good, but the giants are big and the cities are strong. There's no way we can break through.” So Caleb stood up and quieted the people before Moses, because he realized that the 10 other spies are beginning to influence Israel in a negative way. So he said to them, “No, no, no, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” But he is outnumbered. The rest of them, the 10 of them, would say, “There is no way we can overcome it.” They bring a bad report. According to Moses, the report would say something like, “We are not able to go up against the people. They are stronger than we are. This is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are (of) great height. There we saw the Nephilims.”

Now the word Nephilim brings us back to Genesis 6. And in Genesis 6, we studied about the Nephilims in great detail. The Nephilims are a hybrid race of offspring between fallen angelic beings and man––the daughters of men. So they were mighty, strong, big Nephilims, giants, fallen ones. And so now on this espionage, they realize that, “Whoa, the Nephilims are back there, the descendants of Anak. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers when we compare ourselves to them. We are so tiny and small.” So the people of Israel heard all that, and they were disheartened. In fact, they crashed. They began to murmur, complain, cry and grumble, and they said, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!” Aiyah, ke si ka hou la! (Hokkien for “it is better to die”) I think that's probably what they were saying if they were Chinese.

“Why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey! Would it be better for us to go back to Egypt? At least Pharaoh wouldn't kill us. He might work us to the bones, but he won't kill us like these Anaks would.” And so they said, “Let us go back. Let us choose a leader. Let us go back to Egypt. Let's do a reversal of the Exodus. God brought us out, but He's going to kill us in the Promised Land. We need to go back to Egypt.”

Oh, that… that is grievous. And Moses and Aaron knew what it all meant as they fell before the Lord in grief. And Caleb and Joshua would tear their clothes, and then they would appeal to the people of Israel, “Do not rebel against the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us.” The other 10 spies say, “We are going to be eaten up by them!” But Caleb and Joshua, they are of a different spirit. They believe God. They have a different perspective. They do not magnify the opposition. They see the greatness of their God and say, “These people are no match for our God. They will be bread for us. Their protection is removed from them. The Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”

Oh, but the people won't listen. The spies, the other spies, wouldn't listen, and they took up stones to stone Joshua and Caleb.

God’s Response and Moses’ Intercession
And it is at this precise moment that God now appears to Israel in a tent of meeting and said to Moses, “How long will these people despise Me? How long will they not believe in Me?” This is the problem. They don't believe Me. They despise Me in their hearts. And so God says, “I will strike them with a pestilence and disinherit them. I'm going to give up on Israel. Moses, I'm going to make a fresh start. I'm going to start with your family. These guys are incorrigible. They are incurable. I'm going to start with your family.” But Moses loved Israel, and said, “God, please don't do that.” So he bowed before God and prayed.

And notice Moses’ prayer. Moses doesn't pray the merits of Israel. He doesn't say, “Oh, God, You can't do that to Israel. They are such a good people. Actually, You don't see their good. You don't see their kind-....” No, no. He doesn't start with… he doesn't plead at all with Israel's deservedness, for there is none. We must learn effective prayer from Moses in that he prayed not man-centered motivations, but God-centered motivations. Because he said, “Now, if You kill these people as one man, then the nations who have heard Your fame will say, ‘Ah, I know why God killed Israel, because He cannot bring them in, lah. So God killed them, lah.” No, that is a scandal. That is a lie. That would not be good.

So Moses said, “Lord, don't kill Israel for Your own name's sake. Your glory is at stake.” And then he goes on to say, “Not only do I plead for God's fame and glory, but I plead God's goodness and mercy.” Because he says, “Now, please let the power of the Lord be as great as You have promised”, saying,  “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression. You are a great God who forgives. So Lord, forgive to demonstrate your greatness.” So Moses prayed such God-centered prayers, and it is no surprise that the Lord then responded, saying, “I have pardoned according to your word… I will not kill them right now with a pestilence and disinherit them totally. I will not do that now, but there are still consequences that they will have to bear. So, but truly as I live, none of these men who have seen My glory, tested Me these 10 times, disobeyed Me… None of these men shall see the land.” In other words, they will not enter Canaan. These men who have been with you, all of Israel–––they will not enter Canaan. “Their dead bodies shall fall in the wilderness… all these 20 years and upwards who have grumbled against me, they will die in the wilderness. But your little ones, those 20 and below, who you said would have become a prey”––ironic salvation here––”these ones you say will be dead ducks. I will bring them into Canaan just to prove you wrong, just to show that I can. I will bring in and they shall know the land that you have rejected. And your children–––however, it will not be immediate–––they will wander in the wilderness for 40 years because of your faithlessness, until all of you in this current generation shall die.”

The 12 spies. What happened to them? Well, 10 of them would die immediately. So this was a very clear message from God: enough is enough. Now the people of Israel, having seen all that, heard all that, became agitated, stirred and said, “Okay, okay, okay, we will obey God. We will conquer Canaan. We will start the warfare today.” So they tried to go on their own. Now they keh kiang (Hokkien for “overestimating one’s cleverness”). Now they are overzealous. And God actually did not promise to go with them. So Moses said to them, as they prepared for war, “Do not go up for the Lord is not among you.” Now previously, Caleb would say, “God is with us”. But now that they have sinned, now that they have blown it, “God is not with you. Don't go because you are going to lose. You're going to die.”

They ki ki (“went up”). They still go. They don't care what Moses said. They disobeyed and they came back defeated. I think it is quite a simple story at the end of the day. Enough is enough. But I'm not just here to tell a story. What's the point? Well, we got to go deeper and understand what's the takeaway there? What's the message we need to walk away with? What's the lesson we need to learn?

The Deeper Issue: Unbelief and Rebellion
Near my house, I was walking home… actually, last Sunday, I was walking home and I saw this sign on a building out of… on the windows. It's actually from a learning center. It's two phrases that caught my mind. It begins with…number one, “It starts with a ‘why’. Education. It starts with a ‘why’.” It's a good insight, because a lot of times we teach kids how to study, but really they won't be good at how to study if they do not know why they should study. So it starts with a why…how… why things work, why things are as it is. It always starts with a ‘why’. So I want to ask you: what's the ‘why’ in Numbers 13 and 14? Why did God give this passage? What's the main lesson? Well, many people may walk away… many Bible studies, Sunday school lessons… may conclude by saying, “Oh, this is a story that tells us we must not complain, we must not grumble, we must not murmur.” I said, “That's good, but maybe that's not quite enough, because there's something more.”

This is a dashboard. When you turn on your car, the lights go up, but after a while, all the lights here should die down, right? You should not see it. But if you should turn on your car, and your car still persists in these warning lights, what do you do? You drive to the mechanic, and you ask the mechanic to take a look. And you will tell the mechanic, “Just switch off the light. It's okay, lah.” Would you do that? No, you wouldn't do that. You’d say, “Eh, sir, there is this light that is on. Please check my car.” Because you know that the problem is not the light. The problem is deeper in the car. The lights only indicate a problem within. So when we look at Numbers 13, we see the lights flashing. They are grumbling, complaining, murmuring. But the real issue is something deeper, and we need to ask why. It is not enough just to say, “Oh, this is a message that says, don't complain, don't murmur, don't grumble.” We've got to dig further. Thankfully, there is a diagnostician who will diagnose this problem for us, and He is God Himself.

God tells us the real issue, the heart of the issue, because He said in Numbers 14, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in Me?” You know why they complain? You know why they grumble and murmur? Because they don't believe God. They don't believe that God will fulfill His Word in bringing them into the Promised Land. And so they complain. When they see opposition, when they see difficulty, when they see the Anaks, when they see the cities, they say, “Siao liao (Hokkien for “‘oh no”), we are done. We are dead meat, because there's no way we can fight our enemies.” They have totally despised God's help. They have totally despised God's promise. They don't believe that He is good and sovereign and faithful.

This is the heart of the issue. Their hearts were filled with unbelief and rebellion. So the New Testament author, the Hebrews author, picks up on this story and precisely says that the issue here is that their hearts have gone astray: “They've always gone astray in their hearts. They have not known My ways. I was the one who brought them out of Egypt, who performed all these miracles. But they will not believe. They go astray. They have evil, unbelieving hearts.” And that's the scary thing, it is very possible for you to be part of the church community and still have evil, unbelieving hearts, just like it was very possible for 2 million people, most of them, to follow Moses, who is clearly a man of faith, but still have evil, unbelieving hearts. They were externally, publicly identified with Moses, but in reality and practically, they were never believers of God. They had evil, unbelieving hearts.

Some of us, we say to ourselves, when we sin, “Aiyah, no big deal, lah. It's okay, lah. A little sin won't hurt, lah.” And you let that sin and that sinful indulgence continue and grow. You know, if that is your attitude, it may be that you have an evil, unbelieving heart, and it doesn't matter if you were baptised 10 years ago, or if you have been attending Gospel Light for these past 20 years, or if you are reading your Bible every day. If, in your life, you demonstrate consistent, unrelenting, unrepentant, sinful behavior, it may be that you are just like Israel. You look like a Christian, but you really are not.

Some people say that's nominal Christian. Actually, that's a very dangerous term to use. Nominal Christian–– you are Christian in name. Actually, it means that you're not even a Christian! But some people say, “At least I'm a Christian.” No, no, no, no, no! Nominal Christian means you're not a Christian. You're just a church goer. A Christian is not marked by church attendance. A Christian is marked by obedience to God. I'm not speaking about perfect obedience, but I think the Bible teaches us not sinless perfection, but sincere progression. Yes, I'm still going to sin, because I'm not immune from the influence of the flesh, but I am not going to sin the same way I had sinned before I was saved. I'm not going to be sinless, but I will sin less. And if you are still sinning unrelentingly, be careful. Be warned.

And that is why Numbers 13-14 (are) given; that is why Hebrews is given to warn people about the deceitfulness of sin, the hardening of our hearts, and how it may actually prove that you were never really God's child from the beginning. Israel was a generation at that point of time that provoked God to anger, and God said, “They shall not enter My rest.” So, Numbers 13 and 14 is not just a lesson about complain and murmuring and grumbling. I think that's… yeah, we should not do that, of course. But more fundamental than that is that this is a warning about having hearts of unbelief, as will be expressed by a consistent behavior of sinful living before God.

The Promise of a New Heart
Now I said the tuition centre had two phrases. In education, you want to start with a ‘why’. And the other sign says, “It ends with a ‘wow’.” Well, that's a very nice way of, I think, communicating education. If every class in school starts with the children wanting to find out why and always ending with a wow, I think they'll be great students. Don't you think? The Bible, in a sense, gives us the ‘why’. Why study Numbers 13-14? Because it's a warning. So that you will not be presumptuous even as you come to church. And the ‘wow’. The ‘wow’ is that even though you have evil, unbelieving hearts, God can change all that for you, and He's going to do it.

You see, for Israel, God later on would say in Deuteronomy… We're going to come to that after Numbers, after a New Testament book. I will not tell you the book yet. But we'll come to Deuteronomy, where God would one day say to Israel, “The Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring.” You know Israel has evil, unbelieving hearts? It's a dirty heart. But God says, “I'm going to clean it up for you.” That's the idea. We often think that coming to God means that I have to clean up my act, then I come to God. Do you know something? That's what every religion teaches except the Bible. Except the true God of the Bible. Because God says you can never clean up your heart. We are so rotten in sin we cannot change our lives. Jeremiah tells us a leopard can never change its spots. Or the Chinese would say: jiang1 shan1 yi4 gai3, ben3 xing4 nan2 yi2 (Chinese saying that it is easier to change the mountains and rivers than to alter one’s character). There's no way I can change my heart.

But the good news, the ‘wow’ of the Bible, is that God will change your heart! See, the Bible is not primarily bad news. It's good news, but the bad news must be understood first–––that you are rotten and sinful and helpless and hopeless. Then you can turn to God, who will circumcise your heart. And then He goes on to say, “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it too far off.” It's not so impossible as you imagined it to be, because “the Word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” It is so accessible. It is so available.

Now this still sounds chim, ah (Hokkien for deep, profound).  “Kong si mi, ah?” (Hokkien for “what are you talking about?”) Moses, I don't quite understand what you're saying. Well, a shortcut way to understand is to see how Paul quoted in Romans 10, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” He says this is the word of faith that we proclaim. In other words, it is easy when it is borne out of faith, and that faith is that same kind of faith when one confesses with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. In other words, this new heart is accessible to those who have faith, those who believe. And in our day and age today, we understand that belief is a faith that Jesus Christ is the Lord, He is God, the very God, and to believe that He died for us and that He rose again for our sins. When one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, God gives you a new heart. So in Ezekiel, we read, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

The Book of Numbers: I'm bringing us back to the big theme of the Book of Numbers. The Book of Numbers is about Israel and how they are faithless, jia lat (Hokkien for “terrible”) people. You see, a lot of times, I think we have been erroneously taught. In other words, we have learnt a wrong thing. Many people teach that when Israel crossed the Red Sea, that's a picture of salvation. No, they are not saved after they crossed the Red Sea! They are still unsaved in the wilderness because they keep rebelling against God! So please, Israel is not a picture of the good church. No. Israel is a picture of hypocrites––people who claim to be God's people, but actually their hearts are far from him. They are a evil, unbelieving people. But even to such, God remains faithful: “One day, I will still save Israel, and I'm going to do that through the gift of My Son.”

Why is it that God can cleanse us from sin? Why is it that God can set us free? Why is it that God can give us a new heart? Because His Son is going to secure the price for us. His Son is going to die on the cross and pay for our sins. He is going to suffer and die for our sins. So because of Jesus, God can be faithful to undeserving people. Why? Jesus paid it all. Yiren started this day's worship with Christmas songs. So I thought, hey, let's have something ‘Christmassy’. And I remember this song, which is a twist on a Christmas carol, “O Come All Ye Faithful”. But he twisted it to be “O Come All You Unfaithful”. You see, I think that is not wrong. That is actually quite good. We often think that people who come to God are the good people. Well, if you believe in Jesus Christ, He will give you a new heart. You will be good then, and as you are His followers, come to God. That's true. Nothing wrong with “O Come All Ye Faithful”. But there is also validity in this song, or this statement, “O Come All You Unfaithful”.

“You have not been faithful to Me. You have not loved Me. You have not obeyed Me. You have not served Me. But doesn't matter. You don't have to clean up your act. You come to Me and I will clean you up.” The Christian message is not about you being good enough for God. It's about God who is so good that He will be good to those who are dirty and messy and filthy. And when He cleans you up, you have a new heart. And now you will finally love Him and obey Him and serve Him. O, come all ye unfaithful. He is the Lamb. Come to Jesus. He secured the price for you on the cross. He is the Lamb who was given, slain for your pardon. His promise is peace for those who believe, so come though you have nothing. Come because Jesus is the offering. Let's bow for a word of prayer.

I hope today you do not see that this is a sermon to scold you or to shake your assurance in Jesus. This is not my intention for those who are truly His. But I think God intends this story to be a warning against presumption, and it's a loving warning, because if He doesn't warn you, you may just assume, because you are in church because you are a Christian, you have a Christian name, or because you have Christian friends and Christian parents, you must also be a Christian. Oh, He loves you far too much to leave you with that presumption. So consider your life. Examine your life. Are you still living in unrepentant, unrelenting sin? Or would you be able to say, by the grace of God over these years, I'm not sinless, but I do sin less? If so, praise be to God, for He has evidently circumcised your heart, taken a heart of stone and put in you a heart of flesh.

And I urge my brothers and sisters in Christ then to keep following Jesus. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Just to say you believe? No. Following Jesus means in my life, I constantly obey, for I will deny myself and take up the cross. Jesus will be who I serve. Jesus will be who I glorify, and may that last for all the days of your life. That's what it means to endure and to persevere through the ups and downs. I trust God. I trust God, even though my finances are stretched, even though my family is in trial, even though I am perplexed, I keep following, trusting, obeying Him. But if you today recognize that there has been no change in your life, or maybe today is the first time you have been to church, I say to you: hey, Jesus says, “Come, come all who are weary and heavy laden.” You know what's the criteria to come? Not because you're good, not because you're clean, not because you're godly, but if you are weary and heavy laden. If you're unfaithful and you know it, if you're sinful and you know it, you can come and say, “God, give me a new heart.” I do not know how it works, because on one hand, God says, “I will give you a new heart.” On the other hand, He commands us to believe. So I think the best is right where you are, you say, “Lord, I want to believe. Give me a new heart, and I will believe.” So come, come as you are to Jesus and what He has done for you. So dear God, bless each one this day. May we all realise Jesus paid it all. Do not pass your people by. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.