Grasshopper Heresy

Welcome in the name of Jesus tonight. Shall we just pray together? Lord Jesus, King of kings, Lord of lords, we delight to come into your house. Lord, we want to know your presence.

Touch us now, we pray, by the Holy Spirit. Let us feel you closer than the next breath, closer than the person alongside of us. And Lord, we invite you to minister into our lives tonight as we worship you, as we listen to your word.

Lord, take the steps you want to with us. Make us willing vessels to be changed into the people of God that you want us to be. And now Lord, give us a will to worship you.

Lord, we desire to worship you. We need to worship you, Lord Jesus. Meet with us, enable us to do so.

We pray in your name. Amen. So let's sing truth, shall we, as we join in three, five, two.

In hymns of faith, how good is the God we adore. Sing this to one another and unto the Lord. Please stand.

Scripture is from Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. The Lord said to Moses, send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.

From each ancestral tribe, send one of its leaders. So the Lord commanded Moses, sent them out from the desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. Moses gave Hosea, son of Nun, the name Joshua. When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, go up through the Negev and onto the hill country.

See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land. It was the season of the first ripe grapes.

So they went up and explored the land from the desert of Zin, as far as Rehob, towards Leba, Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Haman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. Hebron had been built seven years before Zin in Egypt.

When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites had cut off there.

At the end of 40 days, they returned from exploring the land. They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole of the Israelite community at Kadesh in the desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.

They gave Moses this account. We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit.

But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev, the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are.

And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. All people we saw there are of great size.

We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. Let's go back to Numbers and the passage which Andy Williams from Maybridge just read to us.

Interesting passage of Scripture because it says these words in the 33rd verse of the 13th chapter. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. If you were to ask me what plagues the Christian church in the 20th century more than perhaps any other infection, I would argue from this terminology which will surely stick in your minds this evening, the danger of grasshopper heresy.

Now, I was on the Pakistan front of the Himalayan mountains just a few days ago, and I climbed one of the hills and asked the Lord as I was climbing, if he would reveal something to me to share with the particular conference that I was to address later on. And not only did I feel that he gave me something from his word for them, but also for for yourselves this evening. Grasshopper heresy has as its creedal statement that we are utterly inadequate to do the work that God has given us to do.

It also says that God is not omnipotent, and the task of winning the world for Jesus Christ is utterly absurd. Grasshoppers are interesting creatures. I think at the insect level they are equivalent to the camel at the animal level.

The camel is recognized as being, mythologically speaking, with a certain amount of humor in the comment, the only animal that was constructed as a result of the debatings of a committee. The grasshopper is angular. It's also very weak.

And here are certain men who have been sent by Moses to engage in reconnaissance of the promised land. Do you remember the Hebrews had been enslaved in Egypt for some years, and miraculously they have been delivered, and now they're on the border of re-entering the land that God gave to Abraham several decades, indeed centuries ago. Twelve strong, true men, seemingly so, are elected by Moses to make this reconnaissance, and they penetrate the land, and they spy it out, and Moses tells them, you remember in the reading, to bring back an evidence of the lusciousness of the vegetation and the wonder of that land which flows with milk and honey, or so they thought.

And when they came back, as befits parliamentarians from Westminster, there is a conflict of opinion. There is a majority report, and also a minority report. No one argues as to the good of the land, but the argument really pivots around the possibility of the Hebrews penetrating the promised land, getting rid of the tribes, the primitive tribes that are there, and reclaiming it for the Lord.

When I was a kid in Sunday school, we sang a good chorus. It was earthed in scripture. Twelve men went to spy in Canaan.

Ten were bad, two were good. Some saw the giants great and tall. Some saw that God was in it all.

Ten men went to spy in Canaan. Twelve men went to spy in Canaan. Ten were bad, two were good.

Well, grasshopper theology is the theology that goes along with the majority opinion which said, well, the land is a good land, but contrast to what the inhabitants of the land are like, we are so feeble in our own eyes, we're just like grasshoppers, and it is utterly impossible for us to go into the land and to claim it for the Lord. Grasshopper heresy, it plagues the Christian church. It says that we ourselves are utterly inadequate.

It speaks of low self-esteem. Now, in one sense, it's good to be humble, but you can take your humility almost to the point of extremism, and then it becomes sinful when you say that you are so enfeebled that there is nothing or little that you can do in the name of the Lord. Grasshopper heresy, we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes.

The world will never be one with that attitude. Here is David. He's a young man, and there's not a vestige of that heresy in him.

He goes down the valley of Elath, you remember, and there's that overgrown Philistine. The Philistine with his loud mouth brags as to his ability, and David is not intimidated at all. He cuts him down to size with his own language, and he says, you come to me, and you're armed in all your equipment, but I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel this day.

Your body will be fed to the birds. No grasshopper heresy there. Here's another man I name in the Old Testament.

He's called Nehemiah, and on one occasion, he's intimidated, or so it would seem. He's back in Jerusalem. He's given an impossible task to do, to build the walls of Jerusalem, which had been ransacked decades ago, and to re-smelt the gates and hang them afresh, and there's a reaction against what he's doing from those who live in the land, and knowledge of this is given to him, and it's suggested that he should show a clean pair of heels, and he says, should such a man as I flee, there's not a trace of the heresy, you see.

Now, here's an example that eclipsed them all. Here's our blessed Lord, and he stands before Pilate, and punishes Pilate. He, too, is in one sense very much like the Goliath of Old Testament days.

His words run ahead of him, and he says to the Lord Jesus, do you not know that I have power to have you killed or to release you? Don't you feel in my presence quivering like a leaf? And far from doing that, our Lord Jesus cuts Pilate down to size, and he says, you would have no power at all unless it was given you from above, and one day, Pilate, you will see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. You see what I mean? These examples in the Old Testament and our blessed Lord in the New Testament, and we could go on to the history of the Acts of the Apostles, the development of the expansion of the Christian church. You can sift the record.

You can analyze the statements. You can investigate the narrative, and you will find that one thing that is absent is the heresy that says spirit-filled men and women cannot achieve something for God. Our Lord Jesus knew nothing of the grasshopper heresy.

You see, the problem with this heresy is it spreads like the plague. Verse 31, the men who had gone up with him said, we can't attack these people. They are stronger than we.

Verse 1 of the 14th chapter, that night, all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, if only we had died in Egypt or in this desert, why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? You wonder why the New Testament speaks about doubt as being a sin. Oh, you of little faith, says our blessed Lord when he's speaking to his disciples, and he loves his disciples.

Wherefore did you doubt? Doubt multiplies, and here are these men, and they're instilling doubt into the Israelites, and it becomes a problem for Moses. It alarms the people. It exacerbates the difficulty, and it brings dishonor to the Lord.

And so, the Lord speaks against these people. Verse 23 of the 14th chapter, not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

You see, the heresy, the grasshopper heresy is actually an insult against God, because it says that you cannot take God at his word. Don't you understand that the Israelites in Old Testament days were given a task to perform, not in their own strength, but in the name of the Lord? And I want to say to you, beloved Christian person this evening, when God puts his hand upon you and commissions you to do a task, he does not expect you to do it in your power, in your name. You are enfeebled.

But the New Testament says that the weaknesses that are ours, we pass over, so to speak, to our Lord Jesus, and we receive in exchange his strength. That's why the Apostle Paul, who recognizes at the human level that he's just a weak individual, can say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's why the New Testament writers can say that in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors.

Grasshopper theology, it belittles man. It spreads like a disease. It insults God.

How then, if you recognize in some degree this condition, do you deal with it? There is a sense in which it's true to say that all Christians ought to wear bifocals. I mean by that that Christian people are called to be men and women of double vision. There is the vision of the now and the immediate.

There is the vision of the hereafter and the ultimate. Let me give you an example. Here's a prophet, and he's got a servant with him, and there's a great deal of political difficulty.

I haven't time to go into it. It has to do with Samaria and the armies, the enemies of Israel, and this prophet seems to be utterly unimpressed by the fact that he's walked into a veritable lion's den, and the servant's getting very agitated. Is it right that we should be here? Our lives are in jeopardy, and so the prophet turns to the man with his eyes upon the Lord.

He says of his servant, Lord, open his eyes and let him see, and the hosts of God appear encamped on the horizon, standing on the hillsides on the mountains. You see my point? So, the man was taken up with the immediate on what he could see at one level of vision, and the tragedy of Christian people is that some of us only have one level of vision, but we are called to be people with twin vision, wearing bifocals. Come back to my text.

We seemed like grasshoppers. You see, we seemed like it. Here is a metaphor.

Here is an analogy, but here is an illusion. Men and women of God are not grasshoppers. They're not fragile creatures.

Their lives are not lived at the whim of other people. They are folks who have committed themselves to the great God of glory. Their destiny is sealed within the providential workings of the plan of God.

You see at the human level, our Lord Jesus seems to be a pawn, doesn't he? He is Herod. He is Caiaphas. He is Annas.

He is Pontius Pilate, the whole motley crew, and they plot and they connive, and there's Judas, this treacherous man who's selling his best friend for 30 wretched pieces of silver, and it seems that our Lord Jesus is caught within pincer movements. But when what happens to our Lord Jesus is theologized, in other words, when it's seen from that secondary truer vision, the purposes of God, later on the disciples in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles will be saying that Jesus was brought into the influence of Pontius Pilate, and he was delivered up to be crucified as a result of the permission of the Jewish religious leaders, but at the divine level it was by the express wish of God. This is what he wanted, and this is what our Lord saw.

That's why when he anticipates the crucifixion, and he speaks of it in Mark's gospel and the rest of the gospels, he never refers to the crucifixion without also referring to the resurrection. You see, he's got bifocals. He sees the immediate, and he also sees the ultimate.

He's no grasshopper. He's a mighty son of God. Should such a man as I flee, you come to me with all the power of the Roman Empire and all the ingenuity and the connivance of the religious establishment in Jerusalem, that I stand before you in the power of almighty God.

Be careful what you do with me, for you do not see all that I see. To correct your grasshopper theology, you have to wear bifocals. That's why the apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, and John, writing in the Apocalypse, in the Revelation, makes reference to the eyes of our heart being illuminated.

You don't have eyes down here, do you? What's he mean? Well, it's metaphor. What he means is this. There's a spiritual vision.

We were singing of this in one of our choruses earlier on, weren't we? And we'll sing it again. Open our eyes. See the glory of the King.

Christian people do not go into the promised land, so to speak, with only one vision. They go with twin vision. Our promised land is the world.

And the Lord says in the Psalms, I think it's the eighth Psalm, ask of me and I will give you the heathen for my inheritance. Do you know what we were doing in our conference? Most of the people coming from the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where it's dangerous to be a Christian. Just a few days ago, I was in a jeep that had been riddled with 40 bullets, as the extremist faction amongst the Muslims in the refugee camps had tried to take out one of the leading Christian workers.

They'd abducted another, and he hasn't been heard for 18 months. Dangerous being a Christian out there. But you know what we were claiming? We were claiming that the sons of Ishmael, the Muslim people generally speaking, would one day respond to the gospel of Jesus.

And we were having a little debate as to what we'd do with the mosques when that happened. Now, you're disturbed by the man who stands in the minaret, the tower, and calls you to prayer at five o'clock in the morning. But we thought we'd retain that.

But from the minarets will be sung at five o'clock, when morning gills the skies, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised. Ask of me and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance. And it's only the heresy of those who represent the Grasshopper Brigade that would say that that is asking too much.

God, you see, is on the side of the minority report here. There's a man by the name of Caleb, verse 24 of chapter 14, because my servant Caleb had a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly. I'm not a Christian.

I'm not a Christian. I'm not a Christian. I will bring him into the land he went to and his descendants will inherit it.

The final corrective for the Grasshopper heresy is to open your heart to the fullness of God's spirit. Caleb has a different spirit. There's a different power that indwells him, and that's the reason why he goes along with the report of the goodness of the land and of the nature of the opposition.

But he is able to say in the opening verse that we can go forward. The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good, verse 7. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. If the Lord is pleased with us, you see, he's a Calvinist, is Caleb.

He knows about the providential dealings of God. He's got bifocals. He's got the spirit of God in his heart.

He realizes that when God gives you a task to do, it can be performed. My brothers and sisters, in a moment or two, we take bread and wine here. How do you see that bread and wine? Sometimes in my early years at the tab, a verse would be quoted that I'm not too sure I go along with only bread and only wine, yet to faith the solemn sign of the human and divine.

Only bread? No, it's not only bread. It's not only wine. As we take it in remembrance of our blessed Lord Jesus, there is a spiritual awareness of his presence which he releases.

And that bread and that wine, it speaks to us of a mighty victory. We see Calvary. It seemed to be an awful shame.

It seemed to be a tragic failure. But when Jesus looked forward to Calvary, he didn't see it like that. He saw it as a mighty victory because he knew that on the third day he'd be raised again in the power of an endless life.

When we take this bread and this wine, we think not only of his death. We think of his mighty resurrection. And we know that through that death and resurrection, salvation is directed to all who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.

There was no vestige of an inaccurate low esteem in the life of our beloved Lord. He wore bifocals. He had a tremendous faith in God.

He did not allow doubts to overwhelm him. And today, I call you from the heresy of the grasshopper theology into a deeper faith and an awareness that our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think. You want to be a Christian? It's possible by his grace.

You want to know more of the fullness of his spirit? It's possible because of the provisions that Jesus has made. You want to live life not with one vision but double vision? That can be granted to you as we come to him now and ask him to open our eyes and to warm our hearts, as in a moment or two, we invite you, if you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, to take this bread and this wine in remembrance of him. Let's pray.

See the glory of the King. Let's listen to that. Let's stand and sing.

It's 99.0 in the white supplement. Open your eyes.