Clean Transcript

What Could Have Been

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• All right, so today we're going to be looking at Deuteronomy chapter 1, and I ask that you would also find Numbers chapter 13, because we're going to be going back and forth for a fuller explanation. So the title of the message is this: What Could Have Been? Think about this. What could have been? So look in Deuteronomy chapter 1 if you would, and let's begin reading there with verse 19.

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• And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea. And I said unto you, You are coming to the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto you. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And you came near unto me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.

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• And the saying pleased me well. And I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe. And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshkol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Notwithstanding, ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

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• Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.

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• And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither.

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• Encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

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• Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went presumptuously up into the hill.

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• And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. And ye returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there. I want you to think about this title just for a moment.

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• What could have been. I suppose probably some of the saddest words in the human language are these: I wish I could live my life all over again, or something like this: if I could undo what has been done, or if I could take back—only if I could take back what I said, if only I could do such and such over and over and over. Someone handed me this this morning and said, "The saddest words of tongue or pen: of all the things that might have been." And when you stop and think about what could have been, the problem is, every one of us have used these two words: if only. In fact, the truth of the matter is, we only say usually "if only, if only, if only," and we keep going, and we understand when we use those two words, that we've really sinned against God, and we've messed up royally, and usually have hurt our family and our friends as well.

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• I've known a lot of young couples. In fact, I married a lot of young couples. And they tell me about their dreams and their ambitions and what their plans are and how they're going to buy this property and how they're going to live happily ever after. And they dream of growing old together. But the truth is, many of them never get to grow old together because usually one violates his oath that he's made to God and to the partner, or someone gets into an argument, and they say things that should have never been said, and then you come back, "If only I'd not said this, if only I'd not done this, if only I'd just simply obeyed." Now, here's the thing. Most of us usually use the words "if only." In the Bible, God says "only if." There's a big difference between these two words. God does not use "if only's." God uses "only if." Let me show you.

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• I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse 5. And then we're going to go to 2 Kings 21. We'll look in Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse 5. Here's what God says: "Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day." It's not "if only," it's "only if." God says my blessings are going to be upon you only if you hearken unto me, only if you obey me. When you look in 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 8, God says this again: "Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them." So God uses "only if"; we use "if only." So if we want the blessings of God, then God is saying we must hearken unto him.

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• Now, our text in Deuteronomy chapter 1 is very revealing. It is a good and a perfect and excellent illustration of what could have been. I can assure you, once I show you the whole story, you'll understand that these Israelites were probably saying, "If only I had not rebelled, if only I had listened." But of course, they did not listen. So if you look in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, there at Kadesh Barnea—Kadesh Barnea was the entrance into the promised land. And so here's what they are told: "And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged." So they're at the gateway of the entrance into the promised land. And God is commanding them to go in and possess the land. God gave it to them.

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• God says, "This is a promise. You need to get up and you need to go to work."

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• Now, look in verse 22. "And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come." And Moses said, "The saying pleased me well. And I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe."

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• Now I want you to stop and think about this. They come to Moses and they make a suggestion. We don't know the lay of this land. We don't know how to get in. We don't know which cities that we need to go to first. So just let's send out some men and let them spy out the land. And here's what they're saying, just so they can lead us into the land and into the cities that we should come to first.

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• Now, to me, that's very reasonable. Moses said it was reasonable to him. And so he chose one man of a tribe to send them out and to spy out the land. So the purpose originally was just to find the easiest and the safest way to get into the land. I mean, who wants to fight needlessly? Who wants to work needlessly and uselessly? I mean, this was a common thought, I'm sure, and very realistic. Now, they did search out the land.

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• Now, if you'll skip down to verse 24, the Bible said, "And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshkol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us."

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• Now, let me just stop there. You know what they brought. I want you to turn back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, chapter 13, because I want you to see a fuller description of this. To me, this is almost unbelievable. So if you look in Numbers chapter 13, beginning there with verse 17, look at what the Bible says. "And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land." Now, look at this.

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• Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes. So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were.

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• Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. And they came unto the brook of Eshkol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. And the place was called the brook Eshkol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

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• Now let me just stop there for a moment. I love grapes. And I've been to California. I've been to the wine country, so to speak. I see where they grow these grapes. And it's astounding when you see a cluster of grapes like this. But when you consider it took two men with a staff on the shoulders of each one to carry the cluster of grapes, my soul, I mean, I don't know how much they weighed, but evidently it was pretty good. And if the grapes were that big, what about the figs and the pomegranates? You know, we have little figs like this around here. I've seen figs that big around. So I'm just simply saying that this was evidently a very, very good land, and they brought all of this so that they could see.

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• Now, try to picture that in your mind. What happened next? Well, what happened next is the spies were giving an account. And of course, if you look in Numbers chapter 13, beginning there, verse 28, here's what they said. "Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we."

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• And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

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• Now, I've got a message I just preached on verse 33, but I want you to note the fact they said, "We were as grasshoppers in their sight." In other words, that's how they saw themselves. And then they said, "And so we were in their sight." How did they know how they thought or how they looked upon them? In other words, that's just a demonstration of fear is what it amounts to. So Joshua and Caleb are the two that brought up the good report, and the other ten brought up the evil report. Now, what happened?

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• Now, I want you to hold Numbers, but look back, if you would, for the summary in Deuteronomy chapter 1, at verses 27 and 28. So when they got this evil report from these ten spies, in Deuteronomy 1, verse 27, "And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us."

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• Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. So now the people are saying God hates us. God just simply brought us out to destroy us.

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• Now, if you will turn back to Numbers chapter 14 and look at verse 31, you'll notice how God interprets not just the report of the ten spies, but also what the people were doing in their attitude and disposition. So Numbers chapter 14 and verse 31, the Bible says this: "But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." So God charges them with despising the land. You cannot despise the promised land without despising the promisor. You cannot despise the gift without despising the giver of the gift. And so God is now charging them with despising not only the land, but also despising him as well. So clearly then.

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• They are in very, very deep trouble, so I want you to take note of verse 27 of Deuteronomy chapter 1. Verse 27: "And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us." Because the Lord hated us.

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• Now, if you'll go back to Numbers chapter 14, once again, let me show you the fuller expression of this. They said the Lord hated us? Wow. Look at Numbers chapter 14, the first four verses. "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Man, they not only are saying that God hates them, they're saying it would be better for us to be slaves in Egypt. It'd be better for us to die in this wilderness. Let's make a captain and we will return unto Egypt.

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• That is despising the deliverance that God gave them. It's absolutely astounding.

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• Now, the Bible said they murmured against Moses and against Aaron. I get tickled every time I read the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. God says to Moses, "Your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt." Moses, when he gets aggravated, says, "Lord, your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt." I heard someone say, if God and Moses ever got together, there wouldn't have been an Israelite left in the land. That's probably true. But God said, concerning Israel, that they provoked him ten times. Ten times.

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• Now, here's an interesting thing. You have to ask, how did they provoke God? We could also ask this question: How do we provoke God? And the answer is they provoke God, and I'm going to show it to you a little bit later, but they provoke God by refusing to hear him, and refusing to listen to him, and refusing to obey him.

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• Now, let me give you a principle here. I could enunciate it. I've got a lot of messages where I've preached this and taught this truth. Who was instructing the Israelites at this point? It would be Moses and Aaron and it happens to be Joshua and Caleb. But God says they're despising his promise and they're despising him.

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• Now the same principle is issued in 1 Samuel 8, where the people were demanding a king so that they might be like other nations, and that he might go out before them to lead them in battle. And God said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8, verses 7 and 8, "Give them what they want." And here's what he said: "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." So the rejection of Samuel and his preaching and teaching was actually a rejection of God. That's what God said. When you get to 1 Samuel 12, again, Samuel said that you've rejected God when God was your king because you wanted a man.

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• So let me just try to enunciate this very plainly. I could look at James and I could say, "I think," or "I believe," or "my opinion." And James could sit there very smugly and say, "Yeah, you're right to your opinion. You're right to what you think." And that's true. My opinion is nothing. And I could say, "Neither is your opinion anything." But let me tell you, there's a vast difference between me saying "I think" and "I believe" and me saying "Thus saith the Lord," and I show it to you from the scripture. You follow me?

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• Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles, hold Deuteronomy 1, but I want you to turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and look, if you would please, at verse 13. I can show it to you both in the Old and the New Testament. But here it is in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And look, if you would please, at verse 13. You see, I've run into this many times in 60 years of preaching.

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• You'll teach something from the scripture, you explain the scriptures, you exegete the scriptures, you explain them, you apply them, and someone comes up and says, "Well, that's just your opinion." No, it's not my opinion if it's in the Bible. It's what God said. So look what happened in 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. Paul is writing these Thessalonian Christians and he says this: "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing." Now here's the good reason they're thanking God without ceasing. "Because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." They didn't sit there and say, "Well, that's what Paul thinks," or "That's what Silas says." No, no, no. They understood that when these men were preaching the word of God, it was the word of God. And the apostle Paul said, "Ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."

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• Now I'll show it to you in the Old Testament. If you will turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. 2 Chronicles chapter 36. And this is a very powerful passage. 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Let's begin reading there with verse 15. Look at this: "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place."

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• Now, let me just stop right there. Any time God has compassion on the people, He sends them His preachers. He sends His prophets. Think about this. Anytime God is ready to curse a people, He removes His preachers or He silences them. What did He do in the reign of Ahab and Jezebel? He took Elijah out of the land for three years. So for three years, they had no word from God. Jeremiah was left in the land. But when you look at Jeremiah chapter 7, God says, "Pray not for this people." Chapter 11, "Pray not for this people." Chapter 14, Jeremiah wanted to pray.

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• He was a weeping prophet. God said, "All right, I'm going to let you pray. But you pray that I'm going to destroy them, because that's exactly what I'm going to do." So Elijah was moved out of the land. Jeremiah was kept in the land, just shut his mouth. So anytime God has compassion, he sends a preacher. When he's going to judge and curse the people, he silences the preachers or he moves them. Now look at this.

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• So let's read verse 15 again. "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place." Now look carefully at verse 16. "But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

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• Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. But verse 16 says they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words—that's God's words. So that is why the wrath of God arose against his people. So what you have in Deuteronomy chapter 1 is Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb all declaring the word of God and here the people are despising to listen to that now.

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• Here's the question that we have to ask. And the question is not to be asked just in light of the Israelites in Deuteronomy chapter 1. It has to be asked also in light of Christians today. Why were the Israelites so fearful? Why were they so unbelieving? Why were they so stubborn and hard-hearted and rebellious? I want you to think about that in light of where we are today in our land.

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• I told our people this morning while I was preaching in Waycross, you know, I have the answers to probably 99% of the problems in America. I do. I have the answers because God gives the answers in his word. But most people would not accept those answers because they don't want to obey God. They want to do what they want to do, but you can't have the blessings of God and rebel against him. It's just that simple.

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• So here's what I'm asking. What in the world is wrong with us today?

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• Now, let me point something out about these Israelites. These people had firsthand knowledge of the power of God, firsthand knowledge of the miracles of God, firsthand knowledge of the preservation of God. They had firsthand knowledge of even the providence of God. Look at it. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 1 and look what he said, beginning there with verse—oh, let's begin reading there with verse 29.

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• "Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them." Why? Look at this. "The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes." Look at verse 31: "And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son." What's he mean? Picks the child up and takes him in his arms.

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• In all the way that ye went until ye came into this place. What? Well, listen, they saw all the plagues in Egypt. They saw that the land of Goshen was cut off. They saw Pharaoh drown in the Red Sea as he was trying to cross. They saw the bodies floating on the shore. They saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

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• They had the manna firsthand. They knew everything that God had done for them. I'm just simply pointing out the fact I cannot fathom how someone with firsthand knowledge could just simply not believe God.

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• Now, if you look in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7, look at verse 19. In fact, this is repeated a number of times in the Bible. But Deuteronomy chapter 7, look in verse 19. Look what the scripture says: "The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid." They saw it. They knew it. They experienced it. How is it possible not to trust God when you've seen firsthand what He has done for you?

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• But you know, that's the same way it is with us. Everything is going well. And we're thanking the Lord and we're praising the Lord.

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• The next thing you know, boy, we hit a big bump in the road. It's either sickness or financial problems or this or that. And all of a sudden we think, "God hates us." What? How is it that we can trust God in all the good times and we can't trust him in the bad times? And yet here these people, they think they're going through a bad time when in reality they're not.

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• Now, I want you to turn back in your Bibles, if you would, to Numbers chapter 14. I told you we were going to be turning back and forth because I want you to see a fuller version of it. So if you look at Numbers chapter 14, beginning there with verse 30. Numbers 14 and verse 30. God says, "Look, you won't believe me. You won't go up. You won't do what I'm telling you to do."

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• Well, you know, your spies searched out the land for 40 days. I will make it 40 years. Now watch this. Numbers chapter 14 verse 30: "Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised."

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• "But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly."

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• Now, I want you to stop and think about this. Hang on. To show you the stubbornness, the hard-headedness, the unbelief, and I'll even go further, I will say the stupidity of the people. God says, "You're at the entrance of Canaan land. All you have to do is go in. I've promised it to you. I'll give it to you." They said, "No. We've heard that it's a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof, the giants are therein, and no, no, no, no, no, we're not going in. We are not going to do this thing." And God said, "All right, I'll tell you what, you've despised me, you've despised my gift, so I'm going to let you wander for 40 years in the wilderness."

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• Now, all of a sudden, they start thinking maybe we should go in. Hang on, look at this. Let's continue reading. Verse 40: "And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned." Now, wait a minute. God says, "I'm going to judge you. I'm going to chasten you because you're not believing me. You're not listening to me. You're not obeying me."

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• Now, when they hear their judgment, they said, "We changed our mind. We're going to fight." Hang on, look at this. "And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you."

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• "But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah." I want you to stop and think about this. God said, "Go up." They said, "We're not." God said, "Don't go up." They said, "We're going up." Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?

  #59 | 36:25 to 36:56 | cleaned

• I just—it boggles my mind. Now you have to remember that these spies were sent out at Kadesh Barnea. Kadesh Barnea was the main entrance into the Promised Land. So here's why I titled this message, "What Could Have Been." I want you to look in your Bibles. First of all, Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verse 14. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and I want you to look at verse 14. Look at this: "And the space in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them." Now, they were 40 years. You remember God brought them out, but from the time they left Kadesh Barnea, went wandering in the wilderness, and got back, it was 38 years.

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• Let me ask you a question. The people were at Mount Horeb. You remember that. And from Mount Horeb, they went to Kadesh Barnea. Do you know how long the journey was from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea? Do you know how long it took? Now, we're talking about 2 million people. There were over 600,000 men of war. Do you know how long it took 2 million people to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea?

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• Well, if you look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 1, I'll show you. Look in verse 2. "There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh Barnea." What? Eleven days? Now they're not right back at Kadesh Barnea. But they are near it because of the brook Zered. The brook Zered happens to be about 35 miles long. It also forms a boundary between Moab and Edom. And brook Zered is approximately 50 miles from Kadesh Barnea. It took them 40 years to get into the promised land when it was an eleven days' journey.

  #62 | 39:06 to 40:17 | cleaned

• This is why I titled this "What Could Have Been." Can you imagine those Israelites saying, "If only we had listened, if only we had obeyed, if only we had done what God had said, if only we had obeyed, we could have been enjoying the land and all the fruit of the land for the last 40 years. But we didn't." A lot of times, we sit back and bemoan in our lives what could have been. I tease Alice a lot. And if the Lord lets us live to January, we'll be married 62 years. I'll look at her and I'll say, "Just think, sweetheart, if I hadn't married you, I'd be single, rich, and happy." Well, that's not true. I am happy now. I'm not rich. I'm not single, but that's fine. But, you know, look at people who've, you know, they just mess up their lives. And they say, "Man, if I had not done this, if I had not done this." So, here's why they wandered 40 years in the wilderness.

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• Let me show you. Look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 26. Here's where we are. Watch this. Deuteronomy 1 verse 26. God told them to go up, possess the land. He said, "I'll fight for you. I'll defeat your enemies." Watch verse 27—or verse 26 first: "Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God." You would not listen. You would not obey. Now, if you'll skip down to verse 32, look what he says in verse 32: "Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God." So here they are not believing, not trusting, and consequently, they are not obeying God.

  #64 | 41:52 to 42:53 | cleaned

• So let me put it to you like this. If you really genuinely trust God, you obey him. If you really genuinely obey God, it's because you trust him. So they wasted 40 years of their lives just simply because they would not listen. If you'll skip down to verse 40 of Deuteronomy 1: "But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea."

  #65 | 42:53 to 43:28 | cleaned

• "Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up." No, no, no. It's too late now. Here's a principle that I tried to teach my children. I don't think it stuck, but here it is. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. It's just that simple. They were commanded to go and they did not. They were commanded to stay and they went. When you think what could have been? What could have been an easy entrance, a successful entrance, a blessed entrance?

  #66 | 43:29 to 44:18 | cleaned

• And all those men that came out would not have died in the wilderness. But they did. We sit back in our lives. And we always say, "What if? What if?" Wow. So let me make some applications and I'm going to show you some other scripture. The first one is this. You must examine your own heart, your own life, and you ask yourself this question. What could have been? If I had listened and obeyed. What could have been? What could have been in your marriage? What could have been in your work? What could have been in your life? What could have been in your family? What could have been in your education? What could have been if you had just listened and obeyed? If you had just hearkened unto the commandments of God?

  #67 | 44:20 to 45:27 | cleaned

• I'm dealing with people right now who know the Word of God, who know the truth of God, and yet they are living exactly contrary to what God has commanded. They're losing their family. They're losing their friends. So, let me put it to you like this. When we think about what could have been, we're actually thinking about the past. In the strictest sense of the word, none of us can change our past. I've often said, Doc, that I'm willing to live my life over if I could start over with the knowledge that I have now. I don't think I want to go back and be as stupid as I was when I was young. But if I could start over with the knowledge I have now, yes, I could handle that.

  #68 | 45:28 to 46:30 | cleaned

• And there are things that I can say, "Boy, I wish I'd never done. I wish I'd never said." And I can assure you there are things like that in your life as well. But although we cannot change the past, we can change the present and we can change the future. By repentance, by faith, and by obedience. It does us absolutely no good to sit around and say, "If only, if only, if only, if only." What we need to sit around and think about is "only if" we obey, "only if" we hearken to God, "only if" we do that which is righteous in His eyes. Let me show you.

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• You're in the book of Deuteronomy. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 6, if you would, in verses 24 and 25. Deuteronomy 6 verse 24 and 25. Look at this. Look what God says.

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• "And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God." Look at this: "for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day." Why does God give us his commandments? For our good, that he might preserve us alive. And then he says in verse 25: "And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." In other words, if we want to be right, if we want to be righteous with God, then we obey. It's just that simple. Because disobedience is unrighteousness. Now.

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• We must hear, we must heed, and we must obey the word of God. Israel could have been in the land 40 years earlier if they'd just listened, hearkened, and obeyed. But they didn't. And so they fell.

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• Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 81. I want to conclude with this passage. And I want you to see what could have been. I love this Psalm. I read it frequently. I love it. It is an encouragement, but yet it is also a condemnation. So I want you to look, if you would, Psalm 81 verse 10. Look what God says: "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt."

  #73 | 48:48 to 49:30 | cleaned

• "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. We have a lot of antiques that are under our carport. Just a lot of farm stuff, because I was raised on a farm. And some of them have little buckets or like that, or little vessels. And we have house wrens. You know those little brown birds? Those little house wrens will come and make a nest in those farm implements hanging on the wall. And we'll go by and we'll look in the nest and we see the eggs and finally those eggs hatch and we'll go by and check on the little birds. I don't know how many times I've walked by and I'm looking to check on those little birds and the time they see me.

  #74 | 49:32 to 50:32 | cleaned

• They start chirping and opening those mouths as wide as—I shake my head. I said, "I'm not mama. I'm sorry. I don't have anything to poke down your throat right now." But you know, that's exactly what God said. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Now, hang on. Look in verse 11. After he made this promise, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," he says, "But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me." Wow. Wouldn't listen, didn't want to have anything to do with him.

  #75 | 50:33 to 51:11 | cleaned

• So what was the result? Verse 12: "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels." Look at the heart of God. Look at this. "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever."

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• "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." What? God said, "If you had just listened to me, if you had just hearkened to me, I should have soon subdued your enemies. I would have turned my hand against your adversaries. The strangers would have submitted themselves unto me, and I would have fed you with the finest wheat and honey out of the rock."

  #77 | 51:53 to 52:25 | cleaned

• Look what could have been. But it was not, because they would not listen. The biggest sin that you and I have, even as Christians, is a failure to listen to the word of God, to hear it, to heed it, to apply it, to obey it. God said, "But my people would not hearken unto my voice." We're in trouble in this country, nationally, societally, ecclesiastically, familially, personally. That's all because we will not listen to the Word of God. We'll not hear it. We'll not heed it. We'll not obey it. What could be in this country, in our nation, if we obeyed God? It would surprise us to absolutely no end. What could be in our churches? What could be in our families?

  #78 | 52:27 to 53:52 | cleaned

• Because God said, "Open thy mouth wide, I'll fill it." What could have been? We can sit back and wish, but we need to understand this, that our lives as Christians teeter back and forth between these two concepts: "if only" and "only if." We say moaning, "If only, if only." God says, "Your blessings only if you hearken unto me and obey me." If we want our mouths filled with the goodness of God, it needs to be "only if" we hearken unto Him.

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• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And Lord, we pray that You would enable us to hear Thee in Thy Word. Father, help us to change our lives. We cannot change the past. But we can change the present. We can change the future by repentance, faith, and obedience. We ask, Father, for Your grace and Your mercy, and that You would help us to love Thee and live for Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T17:24:58Z