Our text this evening is found in Num 14:8  If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. This is the admonition of Joshua and Caleb to the Children of Israel as they were encouraging the Israelites to go into the land of Canaan with confidence in the Lord. After thus speaking before the multitude of the people, the response they received was the desire of the people to stone these two faithful and courageous witnesses of the Lord God Almighty. Rather than to heed the expressed confidence that the Lord was in control, the Israelites chose to try to deaden the voices that so fully proclaimed the omnipotence and omniscience of the Great I Am. Yet, Joshua and Caleb did not waiver in their confidence in the Lord, and they were the ones, chosen by God, to eventually lead the next generation of Israelites into the Promised Land.
What is it that allowed these two men to stand before the hostile elements of their own people and to refuse to deny the truth of God in their hearts? They could easily have given themselves over to the popular idea and saved themselves the hardship of fighting against the current of popular ideology. But rather, they chose not to deny what they knew in their hearts as the reality of their God. Why? What is it that makes our hearts willing to suffer the abuse of this age, rather than to succumb to the easy road of denial and subjection to the elements of this world age? 
There are many aspects in answer to this inquiry. Martyrs of Christ, through the ages of the history of mankind could be found to delineate the hearts that they had before God in denying their own lives for the sake of the testimony of the truth of God in Christ Jesus. But, this evening, I would like to concentrate on a single aspect of the reality of Christ that is bubbling in my heart as I consider Joshua and Caleb’s stand before the Children of Israel. They knew the truth, and refused to set it aside because of their confidence in the Lord God Almighty! They knew the Lord would do that which He had promised.
This is a key fact in our lives before God. All of our days, as His people, are set in the knowledge that God is the One in charge of our lives and that He will have His way to bring forth the truth. In that confident assurance, we live forth our lives before Him, day in and day out. This is not the vision of a grand and epic event in our beings, but a moment by moment trust in the faithfulness of God to fulfill that which He has already accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Initial to our consideration is an understanding that this is not a confidence that has any basis, whatsoever in our abilities, or in our limited human understanding. This age is so wrapped up in the deceitful concept that we are capable of making every decision on our own, with no need of outside intervention. We are daily bombarded with the human ideals of self-realization, self-improvement, self-confidence, and self-reliance. The whole focus of education seems to be centered in the detrimental aspect of building self-worth as the end-all to the problems that are daily faced in our school yards and in our workplaces. If we have enough confidence in our abilities, so goes this concept, we will not need anything else in order to build a better life for ourselves and be able to withstand the negative aspects that are inherent in our society.  
It is this elevation of mankind that brought the curse of sin upon the very head of humanity, and removed humanity from the fellowship that was always intended by God. The idea that man could be a god unto himself, without the need for the dependence upon God to establish and to keep humanity unto Himself in all His Grace and Blessings, is the avenue of man’s disintegration at the Garden, and now. The terminology has changed, the path of seduction has changed, but the reality is just as devastating as it was for Adam and Eve, and all mankind since the fall. It matters not that self-promotion is the socially acceptable manner of living in today’s world, it is still sin. You can call it anything else, wrap it in all kinds of pretty verbiage, and it still reeks of the foulness of putting our interests and our desires over those of the Lord. 
Another aspect of humanity that is situated in this element of human endeavor is the idea that we are who we are and nothing can change it. So often we hear and, yes, we use the phrase that “It is just the way I am. I can’t change my human tendencies or the nature with which I have lived my entire life. I am who I am, and what I am”. This falsity has the same effect as a weed that is infesting a garden. One can chop off the top, but the root system is so entrenched in the soil that it seems nothing can make a difference. Human nature always seems to find some crack from which to sprout and infest the avenues of our earthly walk.
The excuse, and that is the exact essence of it, is a very believable and convincing one that has plagued humanity from the removal from paradise unto this day. “I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t help it.” It is a sad statement and a true statement, in the sense of the lack of ability to truly be solidly opposed to those human natures that were instilled in our beings from birth. The devastating measure of the inability of mankind to do any less than what our sinful nature dictates is the very history of the fallen man. Death, corruption, absolute despotism, and vial depravity are the cornerstones of who we are in our selves. If we plan to use the basic elements of our humanity to try to establish some spiritual growth in this age, we are doomed to immediate and utter failure. We have no avenue, in ourselves, of being anything other than what we are apart from Christ. That is the key to everything in our beings.
It is only in the life that we have in Christ that we can see ourselves as other than what our old nature has infested. It is only in Christ that we can be freed to be what God desires, rather than what we desire. It was so fully apparent to God that the only manner in which to rid mankind of the devastating nature of self was to completely eradicate that old nature and instill a new nature, a spiritual nature, a pure nature, the very nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. There has been a radical change in our entire focus of life. Who we were is no longer who we are in Christ. We can no longer use the old excuses. Our lives are fully subject to the life of Christ Who now lives forth from us unto others. The confidence that we have is no longer in ourselves, but in the One Who has transformed us from our old nature and given us a new, vibrant nature that is alive unto God by the Holy Spirit. 
Suffice it to say that the confidence that we are dealing with rests wholly in the Lord to do that which He states He will do. It is a charge that He has laid upon Himself for our sake and has nothing to do with any human determination, or characteristic, or natural tendency.  He, Alone, will accomplish that which He desires in our lives, and that is the very key of the consideration before us. Apart from His actions and His abiding presence in our lives, we are lost. That is the basic element of spiritual truth that we must have in place in our hearts. It is that realization that first causes us to even desire to know more of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and our Loving Heavenly Father.
Think back to the time when the Lord made Himself very real to us, when we could not live without accepting Him into our hearts. Our whole being was consumed with the knowledge that we were forgiven and now in a proper relationship with the Only, True, Living, Loving God of all creation. He so loved us that He made the provision, through the giving of His Only Begotten Son, to redeem us unto Himself. He was the One who initiated this course of our lives. He is the One Who knew, before we were even born, that our hearts would be open to accept Him and to live unto Him, fulfilling His eternal plan and purpose of Love. We had no part of earning any of the glorious life in Christ that was opened to us by the Loving Grace of God. We were simply the willing recipients of so great a love in Christ Jesus. 
As that is the truth of our salvation experience, so also is it the truth of the life that we now live in Him. Our part is to live in the confident assurance that God has all things well in hand. It is the living expression of the faith that we have in God to make our lives that which is fully in line with His desire to have a living relationship with us.
As this is the reality of our lives, we will find several elements that come into the soul of our beings before the Lord. We will discover that we have an increasing confidence in the Lord, that finds expression as we realize that we need to live by faith, as we call it, an utter reliance upon God in every situation in our lives. Additionally, there is the aspect that our lives become a living testimony to the One Who has preeminence in our beings. It becomes readily evident by whom we live on this earth. 
It is in times of strife and anguish that the residents of this world age are brought into the truth of the Word of God in our lives. His promises are fulfilled in the very beings of His people, as we have been admonished over the course of our walk as a fellowship in Him. We are not looking for the troubles and the cares of this realm to fall upon us. We are not masochistic in our desires on this globe. Rather, our lives, through the faith of the Holy Spirit in action, are the means by which God can prove Himself faithful and true, day in and day out. The Psalmist knew the reality of the confidence of a life hid in the Lord God Almighty and gave complete expression to that in the Third Psalms. LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me.  Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.  I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. 
There is much for us in this psalm, as in every Word that proceedeth forth from the heart of God, but the focus rests on the fact that, when we are looking to God to fulfill His truth, our lives are filled with confident assurance. Please be aware that we must never tempt the Lord to get us out of the troubles that we have brought upon ourselves through our own wasted endeavors. That is not what we have before us. No, the focus is a life that is seeking after God’s way and His will to be in evidence in the realm that we inhabit. As that fact becomes evident, our lives will be the subject of the various elements of this age which God will use to bring forth more and more glory unto Himself through the singular miracle of a life hid in Christ. The Psalmist is confident in the Lord in three elements that are vital to each of us.
First, he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him. The aspect of our prayer life is in the hub of our confidence with the Lord. We are given access to the heart of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We can call upon Him and know that He will hear our requests, our cries, and our vocalized fears. It is a comfort to know that He is there to hear our petitions and our anguished voices in the distress of our souls. And, not just listen, but respond to them, soothing us as we face the onslaughts of this age in Him. The Psalmist fully mentions the fact that God heard Him, and made known to him the fact that He heard him, in which the psalmist took great comfort. In our lives, sometimes all we need is to be able to talk to someone and have them listen to us with a comforting spirit. That is exactly what the Lord does through His Holy Spirit; He comforts us with the knowledge that He has heard our petitions and is acting on them in His grace and mercy and omnipotent power.
The second element before us in this passage of Psalms is that the Psalmist is not afraid. Even with 10 thousand camped against him; He has the confidence in the Lord to face whatever the day may bring. That confidence is in the reality that God is working on his behalf. Those thousands upon thousands are ominous to the human eye and heart, but of what consequence are they to the power of God Almighty? That is an area that we need to come to rest in, as we face the day to day aspects of life on this earth. We are, sometimes, so caught up in the fears that plague our human eyes and soul, that we forget Who is on our side, guiding and keeping us unto Himself. When we are looking at the circumstances, they are overwhelming and seemingly without let up or without solution. But, when our eyes focus on the face of Jesus Christ, and His glory, in the midst of every moment of every day, the circumstances become seen for the avenue of glory that they will serve to bring forth unto God. 
It is so easy to panic with our selves in view, and yet so wonderful to trust in the Lord, when we see Him in action to make Himself known in our midst. He is the source of all salvation. This is not just unto repentance, and unto eternal life through Jesus Christ, the greatest salvation experience of all, but on a daily basis. It is true; we see salvation in the face of God every time we look to Him to get us through the daily grind. We see the miracle of His saving grace in the hearts of our children, and in the lives of our parents and loved ones, as we turn them over to the Lord, for Him to have His way, to His end and purpose in their beings. Each day is a miracle of the saving grace of God. Each moment is a salvation experience in the knowledge that He reigns eternally and supremely, against all human odds and endeavors. 
There is a rest in Him that fills our hearts as we realize this truth, and that is the third element of the Psalmist’s heart.  …thy blessing is upon thy people. The people of God know the blessing of God day in and day out. As He proves Himself faithful and Just in our lives, we are blessed by Him. As He sends forth His body of believers to be the living evidence of the so Great Love of God, we are blessed in the confident assurance that there is no God other than the Lord God Almighty, Faithful and True. We are not a people without a living relationship, through the Holy Spirit, with our God. He makes Himself known in the actions of His people, in the expressed Love of His Son, and in the effective ministry of His Holy Spirit. There is no avenue of our lives that He does not touch with Himself, and in that we are given blessing upon blessing. There is no small measure, there is no large measure, there is only Christ living His life out from us unto others, and that is the greatest blessing of all.
Ps 20:1-7 The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions. Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. The Psalmist continues his theme of the confident assurance that God will do that which He promises in His own name. The very name of the Lord is sufficient to bring forth a confident assurance that all is well in His hand. The peoples of this world have placed their hope and their trust in the elements that are simply not sufficient to make a difference. So often, we read and hear of those who are looking for a miracle in the realm of science or technology. There is a craving for some manner of human invention or discovery to make a better life for those suffering through the decay of this age. If one rejects God, mankind has no other avenue of hope apart from himself, and the things that he knows and can study. Yet, the puniness of the wealth of man’s knowledge becomes more and more evident in the simple structure of the way a seed becomes a flower, or a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Man can try to explain the process, but can never create the result. Only God can create in such perfection, and He alone is the basis of our confident assurance that He is in control of all the elements of this, His creation.
As an aside, and I hope you will forgive me, but it is completely beyond my comprehension to realize that God knows me, knows us, in the midst of the multitude of people and of created things that He has put forth by His Hand and by His heart. To consider just the billions of inhabitants of the earth at this moment is mind-boggling, and then to multiply that by all the masses of inhabitants that have preceded us and that will follow us, and yet, God knows you and He knows me. Not as a group, not as a generic human being, but as a son, a member of His very family. He has an invested interest in you and in me, in Christ Jesus. He is taking the time to develop, in you and in me, a relationship with Himself. He knows us. He knows our heart. He knows our thoughts. He knows our desires. He knows our dreams. He knows our every pattern of behavior, and He still chooses to love us unto Himself in Christ. We mean something personal to Him. We are created in the special relationship that is unique to man with God. In that truth, there is a confident knowledge that God loves me, and loves you, and that He cares what we do, what we say, and what happens in our lives. He knows each day and what it has to bring forth to us, and how He will be enabled to work in and through us.  
This becomes evident in Ps 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. We walk with God through the every avenue of this world’s pathways. He is with us and He is our guide and our protector. Nothing comes into our life that does not first come through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So often, we find ourselves so mired in the seemingly endless onslaughts of each day, that we forget by Whom those elements have been chosen to work in our lives to the perfection of Christ Jesus. None of us will ever face the full force of the hatred that nailed Christ to the cross and tried so futilely to keep Him from rising triumphantly on the third day. His victory has shattered the full force of the power of darkness to reign, except in the hearts of those who refuse to accept the love of God in Christ.
But, for those who know the Lord, for those who have accepted Him into our hearts, for those who are learning that God has a better and more fulfilling way of living forth on this earth, there is no other way to live. We are confident in the grace of God to us ward in Christ Jesus. Our lives are the living witness of the victory that He established in His glorious resurrection, as He pulled us up from the graves of our humanity and placed us into the spiritual realm of His Life. 
Ps 27:3-5 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. Christ is that rock of salvation. It is in Him that our confidence is fully realized and established from this day until the breadth of the eternal ages. He will not be broken asunder and in Him, we will not be shaken, ever!