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Foundations for Rebellion - Part 4

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• We're in chapter 16, and we're going to continue today with the fourth and hopefully the final message on this short series on foundations for rebellion. So let's begin looking at verse 1, and we'll read through several verses. "Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up against Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, 'You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?' And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. And he spake unto Korah and to all of his company, saying, 'Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him.'"

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• "Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. This do: take you censers, Korah, and all his company, and put fire therein and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow. And it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. You take too much upon you, you sons of Levi."

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• Now, in this brief series on foundations for rebellion, I've covered, I think, a number of important biblical points. And I think these points need to be kept in mind, especially when you consider these four foundational principles. It was Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1, who wrote, "This second epistle I write unto you, brethren, to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance." And certainly we need to stir up our minds to remember these important things. And we need to make sure that we do not let them slip. That is why Hebrews 2, verse 1 says, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we've heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." So I want to just simply review, first of all, the first four foundational pillars and then what I covered last week, and then continue from there as well. So the first foundational pillar was this: all rebellion begins with a breach in a relationship. It is a disregarding, a dishonoring of a relationship.

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• And I pointed out how Korah, who happened to be the son of Izhar, and Moses and Aaron, who happened to be the sons of Amram—that Izhar and Amram were brothers. So that means Korah was a cousin. And so it is cousin against cousins, basically. And Elizaphan, who was also elevated above Korah, was also another cousin there. So clearly you cannot have a rebellion without a severance of a relationship, whether it's family or whether it's friends.

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• So it always begins like that. Every rebellion always involves a breach in a relationship. The second foundational pillar was discontent with one's calling or one's vocation in life. So Korah, according to the scripture here, was discontented with being a Levite. He wanted the priesthood. That's what Moses said in verses 8 through 10. He said, "Seek ye the priesthood also." So they were upset that Aaron, another cousin, was the priest, and all of his sons were priests. So Korah was not a priest. He could not be a priest.

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• God had not called him to that. And then when you look at the sons of Reuben, they were never involved with anything around the tabernacle, and yet they're discontented as well, and they join Korah and his company. So anytime you get discontented with your calling and vocation in life, it is a foundational pillar of rebellion. That does not mean that we cannot improve ourselves. It does not mean that we cannot change if God opens doors and leads us and guides us. But it does mean that whatever gifts that God has given us, we must be content with those gifts as well. The third foundational pillar was actual disobedience, actual evidence of rebellion, because when Moses then sent to Dathan and Abiram to come up—he had already spoken with Korah—but when he called upon them to come up, they said, "We will not come up. We're not going to recognize you. We're not going to recognize your authority. We're not going to obey you. We will not come." And the fourth foundational pillar of rebellion is always a perversion of the truth and a malicious assassination of character.

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• And so they perverted the truth by saying that Moses had brought them out of a land flowing with milk and honey into the wilderness to kill them and to be a prince over them, to be a tyrant over them, to be a cruel and unrelenting ruler over them. And so they took the title of Canaan land and applied it to Egypt, when Egypt was slavery and drudgery and doing without. And so they perverted the truth of God, and they also then attacked the character of Moses as well. Now I pointed out in Jude 11—and not only was Numbers 16 telling us that Korah was the leader in this, but Jude 11 speaks about the gainsaying of Korah. And the word "gainsaying" is actually the Greek word antilogia, or logia.

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• And it just simply means strife. It means a contradiction. It means speaking against. In other words, Korah was not only speaking against himself, he was also speaking against the truth, because the word logia actually comes from the word logos, which is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 1. And of course, logia is also where we get the English word "logic" from. And so I pointed out the fact that anyone in rebellion cannot think clearly, rationally, and they certainly cannot think biblically. And so here it is, the gainsaying of Korah. And actually, this gainsaying is not just against Moses and Aaron. It's not just against men whom God has instituted as authorities. It's also against the Word of God, the written Word and the living Word, which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now, in the third message, I began to demonstrate the fact that rebellion always brings forth the judgment of God. And I pointed out there are different judgments all through the Bible against rebellion. However, when you get to Numbers chapter 16, this is a unique judgment.

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• And it is unique in the sense that God did something that had never ever been done before. That is, He calls the earth to open up and swallow them down, and then the earth closed up upon them. And the Bible tells us that He did this for a sign and for a memorial. So if you look in your Bibles to Numbers 16, verse 38—Numbers 16, verse 38—the Bible says, "The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar, for they offered them before the Lord. Therefore they are hallowed, and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel." Now the Hebrew word for "sign" is the word oth, which literally means a sign, a token, a warning, a distinguishing mark, or a proof. So clearly then, this is a sign. Then if you look in verse 40, He says, "to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger which is not of the seed of Aaron

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• come near to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah and as his company, as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moses." But note, if you would, He said, "to be a memorial." Now the word is zikron, and it means a reminder, a remembrance. It means a memorial. The censers that these men had, Aaron was instructed to take them and make brass plates and put them around the altar. So anyone then who approached that altar had to remember the fact what God had done to Korah and his company. And He said, "This is a sign. This is a memorial." In other words, you do not rebel against God. You do not rebel against His worship, His ministry, and His orderly way.

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• Now last week I was trying to answer the question as to why the judgment of God in this particular chapter was so severe, and I gave you two points last week. I'm going to mention those and then I'm going to continue from there. First of all, I pointed out the judgment of God was extremely severe because in this judgment there was a vindication of Moses and Aaron. And Moses and Aaron were vindicated in the sense that they were proven to be the ministers of God. And then I pointed out the fact how easy it is today for most Christians to turn around and criticize and condemn the preachers of God. I'm not talking about those who are false prophets. I'm not talking about those people who've entered into the ministry as a profession or as a job. I'm talking about the real, genuine men of God.

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• And I took the time, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, to show you that those preachers of Jesus Christ are here in His stead. And the little Greek word is huper. That's why the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, "We pray you in Christ's stead." So if I said, "Jesus Christ died in our stead," you understand that means that He died in our place. So when the Apostle Paul said that we're here in Christ's stead, that means we're here in His place, and we're beseeching you, he said, in the stead of Jesus Christ. So, in reality, to not hear the exposition of the Word of God, the explanation and the application of the Word of God, is not to hear God, is not to hear the Lord Jesus Christ.

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• So there was a vindication of Moses and Aaron whom God had called in this particular passage. Secondly, that those who will not hear and heed and obey the Word of God communicated from God through His ministers will suffer a devastating loss. So you have to remember that Dathan and Abiram were not only wicked men in this sense of the word, but they were defiant, they were determined, and they were dedicated in their position. So if you look at Numbers chapter 16, verse 27, the Bible says, "So they got up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents."

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• and their wives and their sons and their little children. In other words, they stood in the door. "We're not moving. We're not settling. We're not stepping back. We're not moving. We are here and we are defiant, and we are not going to listen to you, Moses. We're not going to talk to you. We're not coming up."

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• Now, with that in mind, I want you to look, please, at verse 34. Verse 34: "And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, 'Lest the earth swallow us up also.'" Now I want you to know what happened. I was really impressed with this truth, to be absolutely honest. In fact, I thought upon it for several days. It is difficult to imagine, probably impossible to imagine, the extreme horror that these men and women went through. I mean, stop and think about this. Here are these people that are so defiant, so rebellious, so determined.

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• They're not going to listen. They're not going to talk. They're not going to do anything but stand in their rebellion. "Here we stand." And all of a sudden, God opens the earth, and they and everything they have goes down alive, and the earth swallows them up. And the Bible says they fled at their cry. So can you imagine now being so defiant and so determined, and in the last few seconds of your life,

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• you realize how terribly wrong you really, truly were. To be honest, I believe personally that this is going to be one of the great horrors and great terrors on the day of judgment. You remember in Luke chapter 16 where our Lord talked about Lazarus and the rich man, and Lazarus was laid daily at the rich man's gate, hoping to get something, but the dogs came and licked his sores. And the Bible says, moreover, Lazarus died and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. And it said also the rich man died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and he said, "Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." And I don't know if you remember the next words, but Abraham said to the rich man, "Son, remember. Remember that you in your lifetime had your good things, and Lazarus had his evil things. Now he is comforted, and you are tormented. Son, remember." I believe one of the greatest horrors that are going to face sinners at the day of judgment is they're going to remember all the counsel, all the advice, all the

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• pleadings, all the sermons, all the Bible studies that they've ever heard, and they failed to heed. And they're going to remember, and they're going to say, "Oh, if only, if only." But they did not. So there is a truth that people are going to be exceedingly sorrowful at the day of judgment. That is for sure. So here's the third one, and I'm going to begin here. The third reason I believe this judgment is so severe and devastating

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• is that it pictures the doom of all who will not submit to and obey the sovereign God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who deny, reject, repudiate, and refuse to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ will be judged and doomed. May I remind you, first of all, of what our Lord said in Luke chapter 19, verse 27. Here is the parable of the man who went to receive a kingdom, and of course his citizens sent word, "We will not have this man reign over us." But in verse 27, when he comes back with the kingdom, he said, "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me." Slay them before me. Now, there are other great examples of judgment in the Bible, and I want you to look very quickly at 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2, and let's begin reading there with verse 4.

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• Note, if you would, what is said in this passage. 2 Peter 2, verse 4. Look at this.

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• "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto all those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds."

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• Now look at this verse: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." So when the angels that sinned, God did not spare them, the Bible says, but cast them down. So that was an instant judgment. And then he said, God spared not the old world. So the old world basically swallowed them up. That was an instant judgment.

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• And then, of course, he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, where fire and brimstone came and consumed them. That was instant judgment.

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• Now, what I'm trying to show you is this. In Luke chapter 19, he said, "Bring hither my enemies before me and destroy them." But in Numbers chapter 16, it was instant judgment. In this passage, it's instant judgment. Those antediluvians, those people who lived before the flood, were swallowed up quickly. Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed quickly.

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• Now look in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, beginning there with verse 7. And I want you to watch this. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 7: "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels."

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• Now watch closely: "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day." But note, if you would, the Bible says in verse 8 that our Lord is going to return in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.

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• So it's going to be instant punishment in one sense of the word. It'll be instant doom when our Lord comes back. He's not coming as a lamb this time. He's coming as a lion, and He's going to destroy His enemies. So another reason I believe that Numbers chapter 16, the judgment there is so severe, is because it pictures and portrays the final judgment and destruction of our Lord's enemies. Here's the fourth one. It should be evident from Numbers chapter 16 that God cannot be worshipped except by the means which He has ordained. Now I want you to stop and think about that. All fleshly methods, all fleshly ceremonies and rituals are condemned by God. Man may not come to God in any way that he pleases. Man must come to God in the way that God demands, or he will not come to God. It's just that simple. But man has set up his own tabernacles. You must remember now that Matthew Henry said that Dathan and Abiram set up a tabernacle within their compounds, which would have been a tabernacle in competition with the Lord's tabernacle.

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• It would have been in competition with His worship. And of course, what they were wanting was to be priests themselves. They wanted to have their own religion, so to speak. So all worship that is contrary to God and does not come in the manner that God demands is not only fleshly, wicked, and vile, it is really blasphemy.

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• Now, let me show you something. If you were to read Exodus chapter 25, it is that chapter that God instructs Moses on how to build the tabernacle. It is there that God is giving Moses the pattern for the tabernacle. And when you read Exodus chapter 25, when God begins to give Moses the pattern and the instruction to build the tabernacle, He begins with the most holy place, and then He goes to the holy place, and then He goes to the court. When Moses sets up the tabernacle, he begins with the court, to the holy place, and the most holy place. In other words, man cannot approach unto God unless God approaches him first. In other words, Moses could not just say, "Oh, I think I'll build a tabernacle. And I think I'll ordain all these ceremonies. I think I'll ordain all these rituals. I think I'll ordain..." No, no, no. Moses didn't do anything like that. Because God warned Moses, "See that thou make all things according to the pattern which I gave thee in the mount."

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• And what this passage is teaching us is that men come to God only because God comes to them. I was preaching many years ago in Greenville, South Carolina, and I got to the church that night a little bit early, and there was a lady there who was practicing the special that she was going to sing that night. She had a beautiful voice. And here's what she was singing: "I found Him. I found Him." And, you know, it was beautiful. And I listened to her, and I stopped and I said, "You know, that's a beautiful song. The only thing wrong with it is it's unbiblical."

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• She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, you didn't find Him. He found you." "Oh," she said, "in that case," and she started singing, "He found me." That's how she sang that song that night. And that's true. He did find us. He said, "I came to seek and to save that which was lost." We weren't looking for Him. He came looking for us. And that's why in John 6, verse 44, our Lord said, "No man can come unto me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day."

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• Everything must begin with God, or there is no salvation. It's just that simple. You remember that passage in Philippians 1, verse 6? Now listen to this: "Being confident of this very thing." Here's one thing that you and I can be extremely confident in. Listen: "Being confident in this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." So what he's saying is this: if God started it, God's going to finish it. It's just that simple. And may I remind you also Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. The Apostle Paul told those Philippians,

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• he said, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but much more now in my absence." Listen to what he said: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Well, does that mean you can earn your own salvation, you can work your own salvation out? The answer is absolutely not. No. When the Apostle Paul said, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," verse 13 follows verse 12. That's when he said, "For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." So you can't work it out if God doesn't work it in. Now what he's saying is, God has worked it in you; it's your responsibility to work it out. That is, you figure out how to apply it, you figure out how to obey it, you figure out how to bring it to pass in your life. And you cannot work it out unless God has worked it in. So therefore you see the truth of

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• Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." That is why our Lord said in John 14, verse 6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Ephesians 2, verse 18: "For through him—that is, through Jesus Christ—we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." So we come to the Father through Jesus Christ in the Spirit. Now I'm telling you all this is very simple, because we must worship God on God's terms. That's why the scriptures said in John 4, verse 24, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

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• That means all fleshly worship is worthless, useless, void, and blasphemous. I will even go further. You can take that which God has ordained and turn it into nothing but mere ceremonies and rituals and fleshly acts, and it is still rejected and still condemned. I'll show you. Look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1, and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10. Look at this address: "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah." Now who in the world is Sodom and Gomorrah? Sodom and Gomorrah has been destroyed a long time back. Well, go back to verse 1: "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." So Sodom and Gomorrah happens to be Judah and Jerusalem. So he says here, "Now the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah." Now look at this: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord.

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• I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" Now look what he says: "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." See, God ordained all of these things. He said, "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, let

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• us reason together, saith the Lord." Notice, if you would, He's talking to Judah and Jerusalem. God ordained all of the feasts. God ordained all those sacrifices. God ordained everything that He mentioned. But now He said, "You've turned it into ceremonies and rituals, and you're living in sin and disobedience and rebellion, and I will not have it. I will not have it." I want to make a statement. Listen to me carefully: sin, disobedience, and rebellion makes the true worship of God impossible. Impossible. How can you worship God in spirit and truth if you're contrary to truth and not in God's Spirit, or not even in your spirit? You're just going through a ritual. No, you're living a life of disobedience. And what you're doing, you're sinning, not just against God, but you're sinning against your own soul. Let me show you.

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• Go back in your Bible to Numbers chapter 16, and let's begin reading with verse 36. And look, if you would, at what God said to these folks through Moses. Notice Numbers chapter 16. Look, if you would, please, at verse 36: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed. The censers of these sinners'—are you looking?—'against their own souls.'"

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• "Let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar, for they offered them before the Lord. Therefore they are hallowed, and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel." And Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered, and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar, to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger which is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah and his company, as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moses. But note, if you would, God said they offered this offering—what?

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• against their own souls. So when we go through rituals and ceremonies and our hearts are not in the worship of God, it is indeed against our own souls, and it is rejected by God and refused by God. And here's the fifth thing. Fifthly, we see a New Testament truth in an Old Testament example. In this passage, we see the goodness of God, but we also see the severity of God. We see the goodness and mercy of God in that some people escaped this righteous judgment. We see the severity and the justice of God in those that did not escape. Let me show you.

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• Look in Numbers chapter 16, and let's begin reading here verse 23: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.'" Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation—now watch, evidently these people had drawn a pretty good crowd around themselves—and he spake unto the congregation, saying, "Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing

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• of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins." So they got up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children.

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• Now note, if you would, God had mercy upon some, and some had justice. The warning from God was given through Moses, and a number of people heeded it. They departed from those rebels. They got away from them. They got out of the way. They believed that God would judge these people. And so they left. However, let me show you something very strange. I want you to look at this. Look at this. Now, hang on. Moses said, "Get away from these people. Don't touch anything of theirs. Get out of here. God is fixing to judge these people. Leave." Well, many did. But I want you to see something that's very strange to me. Look at verse 33. He says, "They"—talking about Korah, Dathan, and Abiram—"they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation."

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• Here it is: "And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, 'Lest the earth swallow us up also.'" Now, here's a good question. If you knew, and if you really believed that God was going to judge these people, how close would you like to be to them? I mean, if you're close enough to hear their screams, if you're close enough to see the earth swallow them up, you're too close. It would be too close for me. I don't want to be anywhere near anything like that. You're talking about being too close for comfort. And yet, these people who were too close were spared.

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• I would love to have been on the far side. Far away. I don't think I want to hear the screams. I don't think I want to see the earth open up and swallow them. If I believe God's going to destroy someone or something, I want to be as far away from them as I can get. I don't want to be anywhere close to the Great Reset and those folks. I don't want to be any closer to the New World Order. Because God's going to destroy them. It's just that simple. Now, hang on. I want you to see, we see in this passage, the goodness and the severity of God. Here is one truth.

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• We need to know about salvation. In salvation, God gives us grace to disassociate ourselves from sinners. That doesn't mean that we're not compassionate. That doesn't mean we don't get to witness to them. But to be absolutely honest, I have no desire to be around a bunch of drunkards. I have no desire to be around a bunch of thieves. I have no desire to be around a bunch of whoremongers. I have no desire to be around a bunch of murderers. You follow what I'm saying?

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• Why in the world would you want to stay close to these people? I'm just saying, in God's grace and God's salvation, He gives us a sense to stay away from those who are wicked. Matthew Henry said this—listen carefully—talking about these men: "Instead of falling down and humbling themselves before God and Moses, owning their crime and begging pardon, instead of fleeing and dispersing themselves to seek for shelter in the crowd, they

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• impudently stood in the door of their tents, as if they would outface God himself and dare God to do his worst. Thus were their hearts hardened to their own destruction, and they were fearless when their case was the most fearful." Wow. You don't know deception. I want you to look in your Bibles very quickly to the book of Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, and look at verses 21 and 22. This is why I said it's a New Testament truth, but an Old Testament example. So in Romans chapter 11, look, if you would, please, beginning there with verse 21. Because in this passage, the Word of God says it very distinctly. Watch it. Romans 11, verse 21: "For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." And so after learning that rebellion always brings the judgment of God, there's another truth that we must understand in light of this. Here it is: we must learn that our sin always involves others, and often we bring judgment upon other people by our own sins. Now there's a verse in Romans chapter 14, verse 7, that I

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• would really encourage you to memorize. It's a very short verse. It goes like this: "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." No man lives to himself, and no man dies to himself. I think if you and I could learn this principle and apply it to our lives in a daily manner, it would change the way we live. It would make us more holy, more godly, and more obedient. So the point I'm trying to make right now is this: your life, whether it's right or wrong, good or bad, always influences and affects others. Now, it's one thing for a man to sin against God. It's one thing for a woman to sin against God. But when your sin includes others who have no idea what is even going on, that's wicked. So if you look in your Bible to Numbers chapter 16, verse 27 again, watch this: "So they got up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children."

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• Now, I can understand the wife being confederate with the husband. And the word "sons" there could mean either adult sons or young adults. I could understand that. But now we're talking about little children. You know, most people never stop and think that their rebellion, their sin could destroy their own family, their own children. You know, God said in Exodus chapter 34, verses 3 through 5, after He quoted some of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Wow.

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• I want you to mark this down. I want you to think about this. Put it in your heart, on your paper, everywhere. Your sin always affects others. Your life always affects others. You cannot live in a vacuum. Your obedience always affects others. Your holiness always affects others. You are a beacon either for good or bad. You cannot escape this principle. Let me show you another one. I want you to hold Numbers 16, but turn in your Bibles to the book of Joshua chapter 7. Joshua chapter 7. Look at this. Joshua chapter 7. I'm not going to take the time to read the entire chapter.

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• You know the story about Achan. God cursed Jericho, and everything in it was cursed. Nothing was to be taken. Everything was to be burned. It was under the curse of God. And so it was Achan who saw the goodly Babylonish garment, the wedge of gold, and the silver, and he took them and he hid them in his tent. And of course, now Israel is going against Ai, and Israel is defeated. And they come back with their tails tucked between their legs, so to speak. Joshua fell on his face. "Oh God," he said, "what's happening? Israel turns her backs upon her enemies." God said, "Get up off your face. There's sin in the camp." Well, God singled them out. God found them out. So if you look in verse 19 of Joshua chapter 7, watch this. We're going to start: "And Joshua said unto Achan, 'My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done.

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• Hide it not from me.' And Achan answered Joshua and said, 'Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.' So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent, and behold, it was hid in the tent, and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. Now watch carefully: And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold—look on now—and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, 'Why

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• hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day.' And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Achor unto this day." Now, I want to point something out. It's not just that Achan stole. He stole from the Lord. He stole that which was cursed, which brought a curse upon himself.

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• He hid it in the tent. Which would mean this: his wife lived with him in the tent. So did the children. Probably they knew. But you say, "I don't understand why this penalty was so severe." I mean, it's not just the fact that he stole. He stole against God, and he stole that which was cursed. May I remind you of something? Because of his sin, 36 Israelites died. That's how many men the Aiites killed when they went to conquer. So, there were 36 men murdered, basically, because of the sin of Achan. And here, his wife, and his children, and his animals, everything he had is destroyed.

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• Would you stop and think about this? Our sin always affects others. Sometimes, completely innocent children. I hear people tell me this all the time: "Well, Brother Weaver, it's my life. I'll live it the way I please. I'll do what I want to do. What I do doesn't bother anybody else." That's all wash. The man who puts his wife and children in the car with him while he's driving drunk, and he runs head-on into a semi-truck, he just murdered his wife and his children. His children were not involved in his drunkenness, but they reap the consequence of his sin. All I'm saying is, yes, your life affects someone all the time.

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• No one lives to himself. No one dies to himself.

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• Now, I got another thing to cover. I want you to watch this. This chapter is on rebellion. Here is a truth that each of us must learn here. It is: rebellion must be dealt with, either by judgment or genuine repentance, or else it will continue its path of death and destruction. We have not really realized how dangerous rebellion actually is. And if it is not checked, if it is not stopped, it will continue. I want to show you something else. A miraculous escape from judgment, in itself alone, will not stop rebellion. If you'll go back to verse 34, Numbers chapter 16—I know I've read this, but I'm reading it for a purpose—look at Numbers 16, verse 34: "And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, 'Lest the earth swallow us up also.'" So here are people then that have heard these people screaming, crying as they're swallowed by the earth. They're so close they can hear it. They were so close they could see it.

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• Now, listen to me. They knew that God had done this. No one else could open the earth up and close it back up like that. God sent fire from heaven and destroyed the 250 princes. But hang on. Skip down to verse 41: "And it came to pass"—verse 41—"but on the morrow, all the congregation of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, 'You've killed the people of the Lord.'" What? Hang on. "And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment.'

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• And they fell upon their faces. And Moses said unto Aaron, 'Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from before the Lord. The plague is begun.' And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation. And behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.

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• Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah. What? Did you hear this? They just saw the earth open up and swallow people and close back up. They just saw fire from heaven and consume 250 men. And less than 24 hours, they're saying to Moses, "You murdered the people of God. You did it." And that's amazing.

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• A miraculous escape from judgment is not sufficient to stop rebellion. They continued to rebel against God, and His righteous judgment slew another 14,700. You're talking about being hard-headed, stubborn, wicked, rebellious, depraved. I'm going to tell you, Numbers chapter 16 is absolutely full of information that you and I should know. Let me make some applications. The first one is this: it should be obvious that rebellion cannot be tolerated and that it must be dealt with if there is no genuine repentance. If there is no genuine repentance, the only thing that's going to stop it is judgment. And the only thing that's going to stop it is ultimately the death of the rebellious individual or individuals. And here's something else. Rebellious individuals are usually used by rebellious leaders. It's rebellious leaders who want to use rebellious people.

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• In other words, let me put it to you carefully. The rebellious people are useful idiots, until the rebellious leaders have accomplished what they wish to accomplish, and now they become useless idiots, and they're eaten by their own. That's why the communists always teach people to be rebellious, and once the people in rebellion have destroyed society, have destroyed the government, have destroyed the nation, the communists come in and take over, and guess what they do first? They kill the rebellious individuals that they used. Why? Because they know that if rebellion is not dealt with, they'll rebel against them sooner or later, and they'll just have to fight them sooner or later. In other words, they've been taught rebellion, and they must be stopped. It's just that simple.

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• So we need to learn that rebellion is actually a very serious sin and crime against God. Here's the second one. You must let this truth sink deeply into your heart: that your lives and that your sin always affect others. Innocent people often die because of the sins of others. You do not live in a vacuum, and you do not live in neutral zones. Everything that you do, either good or bad, always affects someone else. As someone said, one thing we learn from history is we don't learn from history. And we continue to repeat the same sins over and over and reap the same judgment. Now, before I close, I want to give you one more, and that is this.

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• The twice-repeated truth in the book of Proverbs should strike a sound of warning to everyone who hears this message. Before I give you that twice-repeated truth, I want to give you another truth. Listen to what God said in Isaiah 55, verses 8-9. He said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." So man by nature does not think like God. We must learn to think like God. And so here is what the scripture says in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Then in Proverbs 16, verse 25: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." In other words, to escape the ways of death, we must make sure that our ways are God's ways and our thoughts are God's thoughts.

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• Rebellion has to be dealt with. And if man does not deal with it according to God's Word, God Himself will deal with it. The rebellious shall not escape. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for Your blessing. We ask for Your grace, for Your mercy, Your goodness, and Your kindness. And Lord, we pray that You'll make our hearts tender, make us obedient, make us submissive, make us godly and holy, and give us, Lord, the desire to please Thee and honor Thee. And Lord, may we believe Thy Word and heed it, and turn from any and all sin, and serve Thee, and worship Thee in spirit and in truth. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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• so so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T20:43:17Z