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[0:00] Well good morning and a warm welcome to the service this morning first of all let me say relax you were expecting to hear the word through the Reverend Roddy Morrison you still will be we were expecting to be away on holiday this weekend but obviously with circumstances as they have been over the last few days we are not on holiday but we're here and delighted to be able to worship together with you in the service this morning and we welcome especially Roddy Morrison and Chrisanne and Roddy will be conducting the service this morning and tea and coffee will be served at the end of the service and those who are visiting with us it's good to see you and if you're able to stay please do stay and there's tea and coffee at the close of the service the evening service will be at 6 and that will be conducted by Donald John Morrison and Dan Marry as we know him and all are welcome to that service

[1:01] Ladies Bible Study meets at 8pm on Monday that's tomorrow evening and the First Fruit Fellowship Tuesday half past 7, Church of Scotland Hall Road to Recovery meets on Tuesday at 8 in the Community Centre here and the prayer meeting is on Wednesday at half past 7 and kill the cruises Discipleship Explored will continue in the restaurant of the Hotel Hebrides on Thursday at 8pm on Thursday at 8pm and the services next Sunday, 21st of February will be at 11am at 6pm as usual and will both be conducted by myself, God willing and there will be a meeting of the Kirk Session and the Deacons Court on the 22nd of February that's Monday, a week on Monday at half past 7pm at 2 Kylos the manse, assuming it is then an infection free zone these I think are all the inclinations I'm conscious also there was the fellowship on Friday night and if I could say on behalf of Marion and Tini who organised it

[2:09] I thank you to all who contributed and all who attended and those who gave on that evening I, if I remember rightly there was in the region of £580 given on Friday night towards the forthcoming Nepal trip and so we are grateful to all who contributed to that these I think are all the intimations and we'll just pause for a moment and pray our Heavenly Father we thank you for this your day we thank you for a fresh privilege that we have of coming together as your people in the name of Jesus to that place where we are assured that your presence is with us we thank you Lord that you have put in our hearts the desire to come in worship and we pray that we would truly be found in worship on the Lord's day we thank you for your servant

[3:10] Roddy and for Chrisanne and we ask Lord that you would be with Roddy in particular and that you would guide him and lead him and as you have called him we pray that you would continue to equip him for the good works that you keep on preparing in advance for him to do we ask Lord that as he reads your word and as he preaches that he would know the liberty of the Holy Spirit and we pray that the word as we hear it we would receive in the power of the Holy Spirit and that we would recognise it as the word of God and not of man prepare our hearts we pray lead us into worship and all these things we pray together with the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus name Amen Let us begin our worship of God by singing to his praise and glory in Psalm number 1 the first psalm in the psalm book

[4:12] Psalm number 1 and we'll sing the whole of the psalm That man hath perfect blessedness who walketh not astray in counsel of ungodly men nor stands in sinners way down to verse 6 For why the way of godly men unto the Lord is known but as the way of wicked men shall quite be overthrown the first psalm That man hath perfect blessedness that man hath perfect blessedness who walketh not astray in counsel of ungodly men nor stands in sinners way nor sitteth in the scorner's chair but blessedness but blessedness but blessedness and blessedness and blessedness upon God's law and met it is on his law day and night

[5:44] He shall be like a tree that grows near planted by a river which in his season yields his fruit fruit and his leaf fate is never and all he does shall prosper well the wicked are not so but like they are unto the chap which wind drives to and fro in judgment therefore shall not stand such as ungodly are nor in the assembly of the just shall wicked men appear for by the way of godly man unto the Lord is known where as the way of wicked men shall wipe the overthrown

[7:30] Let us again draw near to God in prayer let us pray Let us pray Let us pray Gracious and ever blessed God we are glad to be back here among your people in this part of the vineyard here on earth We bless you and we praise you oh God for the joy that is in our hearts as we gather together as we meet with one another we feel a bond between us between us being strengthened each time and we pray that as we sit under the teaching of your word today that we shall know something of your own presence with us it's good to meet with old friends and it's good to meet with new friends for the first time as we shall be doing later on in this day but Lord how good it is to meet with the greatest friend of all the friend that we have in Jesus and we pray that you would stand among us by your Holy Spirit this morning and make your presence real to us all so that we will be in no doubt at all that it is the Lord's house and that it is the Lord's word the word of the living God that we are studying that we are studying together and that it is his voice that we are hearing and not the voice of a man

[9:13] Lord we pray for your forgiveness for all that is wrong with us we confess before you openly and sincerely that we are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination Lord we are sinners by nature and by practice and although grace has overtaken us and your Holy Spirit has come into the hearts of your believing people yet the remnants of the old nature are still there and they lift up their ugly heads from time to time and only by your grace are we able to subdue these evils that are within us and we pray that you would forgive us cleanse us so that as we go into the rest of this service our hearts will be cleansed our hands will be purified so that we lift up our hearts and our voices to the holiest of all

[10:19] God himself with true knowledge that we are accepted knowledge that we are accepted by him in the merits of his son our saviour who was sinless and spotless even Jesus Christ himself so hear us Lord in our prayers and may this time of worship today at the beginning of our new week be a time of blessing to our souls to equip us to go forward into the rest of the week without faith and our hope and our trust firmly in the God who is from everlasting to everlasting we ask all things in Jesus name Amen Amen Now I know that the Sunday school is off at this time and that the boys and girls are on holiday but there are a few here and there and I wonder if you would come forward to the table here with me and any of the others too because I want to show you something something that is very important yes just stand here because I have been missing this microphone now if I go too near you I will be away from the microphone you know boys and girls that we all have things that we treasure very much things that are important to us things that we value very much things like our homes our mummies and our daddies and things like our friends at school and at home brothers and sisters and people like that but there are other things that we have and we look on them as being without any price we wouldn't give them away for anything in the whole world and these are things like your mummy and daddy your health which is so important and we know that

[12:50] Christians Christians they wouldn't part with Jesus for anything that this world would offer them he is so precious that supposing they were given a thousand worlds they wouldn't part with him but there's a man in the New Testament that we read about he was a a disciple of Jesus and and he was not of that mind he sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and I'm sure you know his name you've heard of Judas Iscariot and he sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and that's the value he placed on the Lord Jesus Christ and we've got a silver piece here somewhere in my pocket and I'll show it to you and it's a genuine silver piece going back to the time of

[13:53] Jesus and there it is that's the size of it that's one silver piece and in those days when Jesus was around you could get one of these pieces of silver silver for one day's wages if you worked hard all day and you came home at night that's all you get and it was considered the same as our day's wages today now Jesus was sold for 30 of these pieces you can handle it and have a look at it that's why I wanted to come forward here you are take it in and pass it on to you each of the three sisters there you are there it is and hand it on to you as well so that you say you had that silver piece that's in it that was dimming to Judas when Jesus was betrayed by him so I leave it here for anybody who wants to look at it it's a genuine silver piece going back to the days of Jesus and you'd get one of these for a day's wages now 30 of them would be equivalent to a month's wages well what is a month's wages?

[15:25] well I've been retired now for a about six or seven years I think it would be about 1,500 pounds for a month's wages and that's what he said he would take for betraying Jesus you can imagine him listening to Jesus telling that he was going to die soon and he was speaking to the disciples about his death that was coming nearer and nearer and off he would go to the priests and to the church leaders and he would say to them right if you want Jesus and if you want to capture him and put him to death then you'd better do it before the Passover feast and I'll betray him to you I'll show you where he is if you give me money you've got to pay me some money before I do it well how much do you want? they would say well how much would you be willing to give me? he would reply to them well would he give me ten pieces of silver?

[16:34] no, no that's not enough ten pieces of silver what about fifteen? no, a lot more than that he would say what about twenty?

[16:45] twenty? twenty is not enough well twenty-five that's all we're going to give you well twenty-five no it's your heart look then if you don't want to give me any more you're going to miss out on having Jesus captured then they would stop and they would put their heads together and they would talk and they they came back and well Judas you're going to get thirty pieces of silver if you if you tell us what Jesus is and lead us to him and Judas said well that's good right then I'll betray him before the Passover feast I'll betray him to you I'll show you where he is and you can take him and you can put him to death and that was what happened the price that he placed on Jesus the Saviour the Son of God was thirty pieces of silver and he sold him for that amount of money now I hope that none of us will ever think of Jesus as being so cheap that we would let him go for anything like that that we would be like the hymn writer who said

[18:02] I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold I'd rather have Jesus than all the world contains of money and of gold and that's what the true Christian says that Jesus is the most precious thing in the world to him or to her so today you'll remember that and you'll remember the little wee coin that you had in your hand and it's a genuine coin going back to the time of Jesus and that was the size of it and thirty of them were given to Judas and he had them in his hand and in his pocket going home but then he didn't value them as much as all that he threw them away and he was very sorry that he had sold Jesus to the chief priests and to the Pharisees and we would be very sorry too if we were in this place so I hope that nobody thinks of Jesus so cheaply as to let anything else in the whole world come between him and our hearts so you'll remember that and we'll have a wee prayer with you now

[19:26] Heavenly Father we give you thanks for the Lord Jesus Christ who came into the world who died on the cross thank you for the way that he was willing to lay down his life for us and we pray that we would value him more than anything in the whole world that he would be more precious to us than fathers or mothers or sisters or brothers or anything that this world contains so we pray for the boys and girls that you would bless them and be with them as they grow up and that they would give their hearts and lives to Jesus early in their lives hear us in our prayers in his name we ask it Amen we are going to sing together in hymn number 241 that speaks of the death of Jesus on the cross 241 there is a green hill far away outside a city wall where the dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all and I believe after the hymn is sung you'll be going off to the Sunday school 241 there is a green hill far away away there is a green hill far away there is a green hill far away

[21:08] There is a green hill far away, outside a city hall, where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all.

[21:34] We may not know, we cannot tell, what pains He had to bear, but we believe it was for us, He hung and suffered there.

[21:58] He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good, that we might go at last to Him, saved by His precious blood.

[22:22] There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin, He only could unlock the gift of heaven and let us in.

[22:46] Oh dearly, dearly has He loved, and we must love Him too, and trust in His redeeming plan, and try His works to do.

[23:10] Now let us hear the Word of God from the Old Testament Scriptures, the book of Numbers, chapter 13.

[23:23] Numbers, chapter 13, and we shall read from verse 26 down to chapter 14, verse 12, and then a few verses later on in chapter 14.

[23:37] So, chapter 13 of Numbers, verse 26. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron, that's the people who had been searching the land and spying out the land of Canaan.

[23:56] And all the congregation of the children of Canaan, at Kedish, they brought back word with them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

[24:09] Then they told him, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit.

[24:23] Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.

[24:59] But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants.

[25:22] And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw giants. The descendants of Anak came from the giants.

[25:37] And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.

[25:48] And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in the wilderness, why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims?

[26:10] Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

[26:27] But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

[26:46] If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into the land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.

[27:03] Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. And all the congregations said to stone them with stones.

[27:14] Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before the children of Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will these people reject me, and how long will they not believe in me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?

[27:32] I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they. And Moses then intercedes on behalf of the people, that God will not strike them down.

[27:50] And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. Verse 20. But truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all these men who have seen my glory on the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it.

[28:25] But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

[28:40] I must stop the reading there. May God bless to us the reading of his own holy word. In his name be all the glory. Let us again bring our ear to God in prayer, this time in the Gaelic language.

[28:56] Let us hear from God in prayer, to tell us we are not speaking to you.

[29:10] Team We will Él and do her end to school, Tennessee and Nodal Spirit.

[30:06] experience. The deep breath NASF and everlasting experience is recognised to Mr.

[30:27] 沒有靴ницы no rejoice,沒有太阻止還 Maplehu一生僧 hoadora,是靠你タfight giuche,你看朝風的深夜什麼rad inMasterg,臨時來看看現在 smartphones it is I have had the younger generation, and although I have the most much� singing,

[31:32] I do not give myself a lesson out by me. I am a radical. I want to say, let me speak. as well as my job, I hope that I have only.

[31:47] Our presence of vários people With E adoptive mixed��rix and filled Funkin alone Theamas with her chest Bel gi Gras She was living all the time The past was a woman No other powerful, nothingical and realistic A displayed sheared flaskets will be wanted a prayer process.

[32:27] Now the writing process is Compos Tony. That's what we can't accept . You gotta pray for this. Then you will have a prayer process by death with your prayer.

[32:41] We will never forget you in meeting you with a prayer grace that will disrupt and by faith we will now get a prayer we will enable you to do it takes time.

[32:54] Amen.

[33:18] Let's sing again to God's praise in hymn number 87. Hymn number 87, Be Thou my mission, O Lord of my heart, Nor be all else to me, save that Thou art.

[33:36] Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. 87, Be Thou my mission. Be Thou my mission, O Lord of my heart, Knock me all else to me, save that Thou art.

[34:19] Thou my best thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

[34:35] Be Thou my wisdom, Thou my true heart. I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord.

[34:51] Thou my great Father, I Thy true Son. Thou in me, willing, and I with Thee one.

[35:07] Be Thou my battle's shield, star for the fight. Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.

[35:22] Thou my soul, Thou my soul, sheltered. Thou my high tower. Praise Thou me, evermore, O power of my power.

[35:38] Riches, I need not, Your God's empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, Thou art always.

[35:55] Thou art the only first in my heart. Thou king of heaven, my treasure Thou art.

[36:10] Thou art the only second in my heart. Thou king of heaven, after victory won. May I reach heaven's choice, O bright and sun.

[36:26] Part of my own heart, whatever before, still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

[36:43] For a few moments together this morning, let us turn to the readings that we've had in the Old Testament and in the Book of Numbers.

[37:00] I'm looking for a text to focus your attention upon in a particular way. Verse 24 of chapter 14 is as good as anyone.

[37:13] God is speaking and is saying, My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land where he went.

[37:28] And his descendants shall inherit it. In these verses that we read together we come across a character whose service to God and commitment to the God of the Old Testament is a challenge to all of us.

[37:48] His name is Caleb, the son of Jephni, of the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve spies who went out to spy the land of Canaan and bring back a report to Moses.

[38:05] His dedication to God and his seal in God's service is second to none. And it condemns the lukewarmness, lukewarmness of our own hearts and of the lukewarmness we find in the church today.

[38:24] His life inspires us. His life encourages us to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called.

[38:36] His name is Caleb and the name Caleb in Hebrew is bold or impetuous according to some commentators.

[38:47] It can also mean dog as far as others are concerned. But whatever the name Caleb means, we believe that this man lived up to his name.

[39:03] But he was a bold and courageous soldier in God's army and he is also seen here as an obedient and faithful servant of God.

[39:17] We all are familiar with sheepdogs in these islands who follow their master obediently and faithfully out into the hills and are working there flat out all day.

[39:34] And they come home tired and weary and hungry. And what happens is the farmer or the shepherd or the crafter will call the dog out to do some extra work.

[39:50] And what does he do? Does he sit there and wait until he is fed? And after he has slept for a while he will then obey the master. No, he is immediately on his feet when he hears his master's voice and off he goes to do whatever his master calls him to do.

[40:11] Faithful and obedient. And that is how we are to be in God's service as well. We may be tired, we may be weary in our service to God.

[40:24] That when he calls us to further service, our response should be, Yes, Lord, here I am. Send me and go off without grumble and without finding any fault.

[40:39] And that is how Caleb was. That is how Caleb was. That is how he lived his life for God in this world. 3440 years ago, according to the commentators.

[40:55] How different this man was from those that Jesus met in the church at Laodicea. When he came to speak to that church through his servant John.

[41:10] He found them half-hearted. He said to them that he would rather they were either cold or hot, but because they were lukewarm, they made him sick.

[41:24] That is what it really means. I will spew thee out of my mouth. Paul, when he was writing to the Colossians, he says this in chapter 3, verse 23.

[41:38] Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not to many. I want to think of three things about Caleb with you.

[42:04] First of all, his character. Then his reputation. And then his reward. His character, first of all. There is a big, big difference between a person's character and his reputation.

[42:21] A person's character is what he really is before God. His reputation is what other people think he is in this world.

[42:33] Now we are far more concerned with our reputation than we are with our character. But God is more concerned with our character than he is with our reputations.

[42:48] Somebody describes a person's reputation like being the shadow something casts before it. Now the shadow can be larger or smaller than the thing that casts it according to where the light shines from.

[43:08] You see maybe a tree in the sunlight as the sun is setting and the shadow is far, far longer and far, far bigger than the actual thing itself.

[43:24] It just depends on where the light is coming from. And it's what is in our heart that God is concerned with. Not what people think about us, but what is in our hearts.

[43:38] And it's what's in our hearts that determines the things that we do in this world. When the other ten spies told Moses that the land of Israel, the land of Canaan rather, was full of giants and fortified cities and obstructions and obstacles of all kinds.

[44:02] Canaan had quietened the people and said, Let us go up at once, verse 30, and take possession of it, for we are well able to overcome it.

[44:13] Now the first thing, and the most important thing that God mentions about Caleb is that he was of a different spirit. Verse 24, a different spirit in him.

[44:28] And it is this same spirit that was also in Joshua. There were two of the men that went to spy out the land. And they stood out among the other ten as being of a different spirit from the rest.

[44:45] And this is what made him the kind of man that he was. He had a conciliatory spirit wanting to quieten the people down, wanting the people to realise that it was a false report that the other ten spies had given.

[45:03] He quieted them down. It's good to come across a person, especially in the church, that is of that kind of spirit, that quietens things and pours oil upon troubled waters and makes things far better than otherwise they would be.

[45:26] He had a conciliatory spirit. He had a conciliatory spirit. He had a cheerful spirit, not looking on the dark side. And that is something that we all are guilty of at times.

[45:39] He was cheerful. He was looking to the God of Providence. And he was something of the same mind as the Apostle Paul was when he said, All things work together for good to them who love the Lord.

[45:55] Don't be worried. Don't be afraid. God is in control. And that is a good message for us to hear today as well.

[46:06] Worried about the future. Worried about what will happen to the congregation in 10, 20 years time. It's in God's hands. He is in control of everything.

[46:19] And he's working out his purposes. He might not be being worked out as quickly as some of us would like, but he is in control. He knows the way that we are to go.

[46:32] And this man was like that. He trusted in the God of Providence. And he wanted to get things started right away.

[46:44] There is no need to sit back. Let us go up at once, he says, at once. And possess the land. He had a courageous spirit standing almost alone.

[46:56] All the rest were against him except Joshua. He was trustful in God. And the people suggested a new leader to lead them into Egypt, back again from where they came from.

[47:14] He urged them not to rebel. Not to turn against God. And not to fear the people of Canaan. The Lord is with us.

[47:25] Do not fear them. And can we not say that as well? That the Lord is with us.

[47:36] This is one thing that I notice every time I come to this congregation. That the presence of the Lord is in the midst of the people. What more do we want?

[47:48] What more do we expect than that? He is in our midst. He is not going to leave us. Let us have that trustful spirit that says, the Lord is with us.

[48:02] Do not fear them. And above all things, it was the Spirit of God and the influence of God himself that was in the heart of this man. When a lamp is filled with oil and it is lit, then it begins to shine.

[48:19] And when the Holy Spirit of God fills the heart of the sinner that is saved by grace, he begins to shine for God for the first time.

[48:33] Let a light shine. Those of us who have been given the Holy Spirit of God at our conversion, let that light shine in all its glory.

[48:44] God promises in Ezekiel 36, 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

[48:58] When God does that, the sinner then sees that the whole course of his life is changed upside down complete. And we have all experienced, those of us who are Christians here today experienced that.

[49:13] When God came into our lives and gave us another heart, another spirit, then the course of our lives was changed forever and ever. And it will be evident in the way we speak and live our lives in the world.

[49:30] Our actions will betray what's in us in our hearts. Our character is what is important. But notice secondly, not only his character but his reputation.

[49:44] God is here speaking to us in this verse and he faces Caleb's conduct to the fact that he has a different spirit in him. Because he has a different spirit, he has followed me.

[49:58] That's the result of having a different spirit. This is the reputation coming out. The spirit that he has in his heart produces fruit in his life.

[50:12] And he followed me, he said. In other words, he never went before the Lord, running ahead of him. That's not the way to live the Christian life at all.

[50:25] Enoch, the Old Testament says, walked with God. And it is with God that we have to walk. Not running ahead of him or lagging behind him as well, but walking with him.

[50:42] You know the children of Israel when they were travelling through the wilderness. The fiery cloudy pillar went before them. They followed the fiery cloudy pillar everywhere it went.

[50:53] When it stopped, they stopped. When it moved, they moved. They didn't go ahead of the fiery cloudy pillar. If they did that, they would see plenty of other clouds in the skies.

[51:06] And they could easily be led astray if they followed these other clouds. They were not to follow any other cloud except the fiery cloudy pillar that God had provided for them.

[51:21] You know so well that the sheep in the eastern countries follow the shepherd. Jesus made that point when he spoke and he said, when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him.

[51:38] And the disciple follows his master without arguing, without disputing. But having sat at the master's feet, he then goes and follows what his master tells him to do.

[51:57] And goes where his master tells him to go. But God says about Caleb something else. He not only followed him, but he followed him fully.

[52:10] Fully. Some followed the Lord and they are like Peter was the night that Jesus was arrested. He followed a great way off.

[52:22] And it's very sad that there are some people who are following Jesus like that. A great way off. And you know you can't depend on people like that.

[52:35] They are with you just now, but then they are missing. The next moment you turn around to look for them and they are not there. Whatever his master told him to do, that's what Caleb did.

[52:49] Wherever his master told him to go, that's where he went. In spite of what he may have felt personally himself. In spite of the cost to himself.

[53:00] He obeyed what the master, God, his creator told him to do. He was not picking and choosing what to do in God's service.

[53:13] We are not to pick and choose where to go or what to do in God's service. We do and we go where God wants us to go. He was ready to fight the giants.

[53:26] Just as surely as he was ready to carry the grapes of Eskel back to the camp. To show that the land was fruitful. We see many who are ready to serve the Lord if it suits them, if it's convenient for them.

[53:42] While we should follow the Lord whether it's convenient for us or not. If we only did what is convenient for us, we would do very little in the Lord's service.

[53:54] The most faithful Christian that I ever came across in my three ministries was a man that I had as an elder in North Fuest.

[54:09] He was an elder in the congregation. He had come to faith while I was there and we made him an elder. And he was a haulage contractor.

[54:22] A road builder. He was driving one of his own lorries. He was a hands-on man. Not sitting in an office but right in the thick of it.

[54:36] And he was very, very busy. And yet he never missed one prayer meeting while I was in use for the seven years that I was there.

[54:47] There was one fearful night when a storm, a snow storm came. And I had been preparing all day the Bible study I was going to give.

[55:00] And when the time came, the snow was so heavy that my wife said, well there will be nobody out tonight.

[55:11] You might as well just not go to the meeting at all. And that preparation will do you for next week. And I said to her, no, we're going to go out to the prayer meeting tonight.

[55:23] Just the two of us. It was just in the hall beside the manse. And we started off the prayer meeting and we sang and we had a prayer and then we had a Bible reading.

[55:38] And the Bible reading was just almost finished when we heard a rattle at the door and hear was Gillespie coming through the door in his working clothes.

[55:51] His lorry was left outside the church. And he came in and took part in the service. What dedication that man had challenges me to this very day.

[56:08] And he has gone to be with his Lord and with his Saviour in glory some years now. If we pick and choose what we are going to do in the service of God, then we would not be much use to our master.

[56:26] You see, there are those who are all right coming to God's house and the Lord's day like this and worshipping regularly and contributing towards the work of the church by their offerings and by their presence even in the midweek services as well.

[56:45] And we are hoping that they will accept the invitation to become members of the church and sit at the Lord's table.

[56:59] And we look and we look and we get disappointment that they are not there. That they are not there. They hold back. They are not following the Lord fully.

[57:12] That is what Caleb was doing. You couldn't imagine Caleb sitting at the back of the Lord's table when the communion season was on. He would be there at the front.

[57:25] He would be there in his place. Following the Lord fully. He followed him sincerely as well. He was not a hypocrite.

[57:37] The twelve tribes, the twelve spies rather that went to report back to Moses, said that the people, yes, there is milk and honey in the land they would say, but it is full of giants and there are war cities in the land as well.

[57:57] And it would be impossible for us to take that land. But Caleb and Joshua disagreed. They said, yes, there are difficulties ahead of us.

[58:11] But God is with us. And we were overcome through him. They were sincere and they dared to stand alone against the rest, even at the risk of being stoned by them.

[58:27] The people of Israel wanted to stone Caleb and Joshua. Caleb stood his ground sincere to the very end.

[58:40] Caleb followed the Lord cheerfully as well. Those who followed the Lord with long, mournful faces and who are always complaining and who are always finding fault and who are always dissatisfied, they're not much of service to God.

[59:01] You see, God wants a cheerful giver going past the plate at the door. He wants a cheerful servant as he sends out men and women to do certain work in his church.

[59:20] God doesn't want slaves to be around his throne in his heavenly kingdom. He wants servants who are full of joy and full of love.

[59:34] Can you imagine the angels of heaven having long faces on them and being grumpy at singing God's praises and doing God's will?

[59:46] They are spiritual spirits that come down to do the work of God here on earth. They are ready and obedient at any time.

[60:01] I think it was Spurgeon who said that the angels serve God in heaven with songs and not groans.

[60:13] But we are so different at times. We complain. God wants the joyful obedience of our hearts. For the obedience that is not cheerful is not obedience at all.

[60:30] Do we serve God then? Do we serve God then from out of love or out of compulsion and force? If we are pressed and gained into doing something for God then we are not serving him at all.

[60:47] We need that our service will be cheerful not gradually.

[60:59] Caleb also followed the Lord constantly. He began and kept on. He had been following the Lord for forty-five years and he never wavered.

[61:14] When others complained and found fault with Moses the way he was feeding the people, he didn't join in to their complaint at all. At the age of eighty-five when he came to claim his inheritance he was still following the Lord as before.

[61:34] How many have kept their cutting edge in the Lord's service to the last? We were discussing that a few nights ago when we were watching the Avapa program.

[61:53] Which I am sure that some of you have seen at the time of the awakening in Lewis in 1950 and 51.

[62:07] Mary Morrison was speaking. And she was an old lady then, coming near the end of her journey in life. She was a bonnie girl when she was in use when I was a young boy of fifteen.

[62:24] And we all admired her in those days. She was beautiful to look at and beautiful to listen to. But at the end of her life's journey she still had the cutting edge to her life.

[62:41] She still longed for souls to be saved. She still longed for sinners to come to Christ. She still longed for the church growing and progressing in the world.

[62:55] It's sad when you see somebody who has spent his life in Christian service. Sitting back, folding his arms, not even attending the Sunday services.

[63:11] Never mind attending the weekly meeting. When you retire, make sure that you keep up the work that you were doing when you were younger.

[63:23] Don't give up until it's impossible for you to go to be with God's people. And Caleb's walk was consistent, whether he was among his friends or among his enemies.

[63:38] It was like that tree that we sang about at the beginning of the service, that was planted by the rivers of water, who gave forth fruit in all seasons.

[63:51] Why? Because his roots, like the roots of that tree, were sunk down deep into God. And that's where our character is.

[64:06] When we sink your roots deep into God, then we're not so easily moved by the winds that meet with us, by the adversities of life.

[64:20] Evergreen, ever fruitful. Let that be your reputation and mine to the day God calls us home to be with himself.

[64:31] But there's also his reward. At the end of this verse, God promises to reward Caleb. I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

[64:46] You know, God fulfills every promise that he gives in his word. He rewarded Caleb, first of all, because he spared his life.

[64:57] And the other ten spies died of the plague. The plague didn't come near Joshua or Caleb. Verse 37, those very men died by the plague before the Lord.

[65:14] But you see, God takes care of his own faithful people. And he will bring them with him to glory. They were seeking his glory every day of their lives here on earth.

[65:29] And now he is ready to glorify them. Those who honour me, he said, I will honour. And that is so true today as it was in the day he spoke it.

[65:42] When Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, she sent a merchantman to Holland that she knew on her business.

[65:57] She gave him some business to do in Holland and he was to be away from his own business for months and end. And he was wondering what would happen to his own business when he was away.

[66:11] Would he go bankrupt or would thieves come in and whatever to spoil his business? And she called him to her one day and she said, if you do my business, I will look after your business.

[66:29] Your business will not suffer if you do my business. And Jesus said, whoever keeps his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will find it.

[66:47] He was rewarded. The plague didn't come near him. He was rewarded also with a long and healthy life. At the age of 85, he was as strong as he was at 45.

[66:59] He still was able to face giants and defeat them. As you can see from Joshua chapter 15, verse 14, he was there fighting the giants at 80, as he was at the age of 40.

[67:17] He also was rewarded in the sense that he was honored by the people of Israel. Of all the Israelites that left Egypt as grown men, only Joshua and Caleb went into the promised land.

[67:34] The rest died in the wilderness. And why? Because of unbelief. Hebrews tell us that. Hebrews tell us that. The writer to the Hebrews, they all died because of their unbelief.

[67:47] I will not let them into my land, God said. But Caleb and Joshua went in.

[68:00] Caleb would be about 20 years older than any of the others who went into the land of Canaan. And I'm sure many of the mothers of Israel would hold up their little children and would say, Look at that man.

[68:15] Have a good look at him. He is a man of God. He is a man who followed God all the days of his life. He's 85 now.

[68:26] He's a man who followed faithfully the God of Israel. Lukewarm Christians said somebody never get honored in the church.

[68:40] They are tolerated. But they are never admired. You never find anybody admiring a lukewarm Christian.

[68:51] Be on fire for the Lord, whoever you are. For the short time you are going to be here on earth. He was rewarded also with being given a harder task to do than the tasks he had done in God's service before.

[69:07] This is something which is peculiar about serving God. When you serve God well in some area, he sends you to another area which is even more difficult.

[69:23] And that's the way he does it. God's faithful and self-servants are sent to deal with more difficult tasks and sent to more difficult situations than ever before.

[69:41] Philip was sent from Damascus, where he had been faithful in the revival that was there, down to the desert to deal with an Ethiopian official of High Rank who was seeking the way of salvation.

[70:02] It's not everyone that God can entrust to go into a situation like that. When God was looking round to see who he would send down to the Ethiopian thresher to help him, he said, I'll send Philip.

[70:21] He did so well in Samaria. He is the man to go to help that Ethiopian high-ranking thresher.

[70:33] And that is how it is to this day. A minister may be in a congregation and he's battered and assaulted in many ways.

[70:46] But what does God do? He's faithful in that congregation in spite of the blows and everything else. He sends him to an even difficult situation.

[71:00] He's proved himself in that situation. He's now ready to take on an even greater challenge. Caleb also had the honour of enjoying what he had once seen.

[71:16] He had just seen the land of Canaan when he was aspiring there. But then he was going to receive part of the land himself.

[71:28] We are able to take it, he said, when others said we can't. We can't cope with the problems that are there. You can.

[71:39] If God is calling you, you can. If God has called us to do some work, then no Christian should say, I can't do it.

[71:55] If God has called you to do it, then you should be able to do it and you should do it. And Caleb was also rewarded by enjoying not only what he had seen and given us an inheritance, but he was able to leave a blessing to his children and Afrin.

[72:16] He had many sons and he had fought in the battles in order to leave an inheritance to his family.

[72:27] He had a daughter we read about, Achsa, and he said the man or the person who will capture Kiriath Sefer, I will give my daughter Achsa as his bride.

[72:44] He wanted a son-in-law, a man who would be of the same calibre as himself. We all want that, don't we, in a Christian life, as Christians.

[72:58] Our children growing up, we're hoping that they'll marry Christian men, Christian women. And Caleb was saying, well, whoever proves that he is a warrior to capture Kiriath Sefer, I will give that person my daughter for his wife.

[73:20] He was delighted to see Othniel coming up after him, a man full of courage and faith. And Othniel took the city of Kiriath Sefer, and he got Achsa for his wife.

[73:35] Later, that daughter came to her father for a blessing. She was given a field, but she also wanted springs of water, and he gave her the upper and the lower springs.

[73:49] You see, the man who follows the Lord fully will have something to leave to his posterity. Something that will be worthwhile.

[74:00] But above everything else that we leave to his posterity, let us pray that we will leave a godly example to them.

[74:11] It's alright, and it's good that we leave the money in the bank and everything else if we can afford it. But I think every one of us can afford, if we want, to leave that godly example to them when we go to be with the Lord.

[74:30] Soon, Caleb went to be with the Lord, to receive the inheritance that is incorruptible and indefined, and that doesn't fade away.

[74:45] His character, his reputation, and his reward. May God help us to take some lessons in this story today.

[74:57] Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for many like Caleb. We've met some of them here on earth.

[75:09] We met some of them even in this congregation itself. And we shall be forever thankful to you for them. Add to their number, we pray.

[75:21] Make us all more like Caleb. In Jesus' name. Amen. When we sing them in Rosen, in 89, in 89, Guide me, O the great Jehovah's pilgrim through this barren land.

[75:42] I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. 89, Guide me, O the great Jehovah., Jehovah, pilgrim, foolish, parent land.

[76:28] I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand.

[76:39] Bread of heaven, bread of heaven. Feed me till my want is o'er.

[76:52] Feed me till my want is o'er. Open now the crystal fountain.

[77:06] Whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy pillar.

[77:19] Lead me on my journey through. Strong deliverer. Strong deliverer.

[77:30] Be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and shield.

[77:43] When I tread the verge of Jordan. Bid my anxious fears subside.

[77:57] Death of death and hell's destruction. Land be safe of hidden sight.

[78:08] Songs of praises. Songs of praises. I will ever give to thee.

[78:22] I will ever give to thee. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you and with all whom you love and with all God's people here and everywhere, both now and for evermore.

[78:49]  Amen. Amen. Amen.