Trusting in Christ alone to take us to heaven

Deuteronomy 1:2 (ESV)
It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

It is eleven days' journey from Horeb.. to Kadesh-barnea. The reason why this is included is to show clearly that it does not usually take 40 years to get from Horeb to the gates of Canaan. Israel was not lost in the wilderness, nor did God misguide them. But it happened so that the Word of God could be fulfilled that all the first generation would perish in this wilderness and never see the land of Canaan. Israel knew how long it took to go from Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea, because they had gone through the way before:
Deuteronomy 1:19 (ESV)
"Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea.
They knew that the way normally takes about 11 days on foot. But the fact that it took 40 years to come back near to Canaan shows that God purposely led them in the wilderness and made the first generation to perish, because of their unbelief.

Israel left Mount Sinai in only the second year (Numbers 10:11). Which means, if from there to Kadesh-Barnea only 11 days, Israel could have entered into Canaan only in that year. It could have taken only 1 year from exodus out of Egypt to the promised land. But instead it took them 40 years. Why? Because they did not believe in God's word, and because they did not trust in God.

The penalty for not believing in God is severe. It can turn 11 days journey to 40 years of vanity. Israel wasted 40 years in the wilderness because they did not believe that God could take them to the promised land. See how briefly Moses describes the wasted years in the wilderness:
Deuteronomy 2:1-3 (ESV)
"Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the LORD told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. [2] Then the LORD said to me, [3] ''You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward
"And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir" is all Moses says about those years. Sure, things happened during those 38 years, but anything worthy of repeating, any great achievements? No. They are just wasted years, filled with vanity, chasing after the wind. What can we learn then: unbelief wastes our time. It is true. Unbelief makes us to waste our precious time, doing nothing of significance. And it is God who subjects us to this vanity, when we do not believe in His word and His power. This first generation could have captured the land of Canaan in the second year of exiting Egypt, and their children could have grown up in the land of milk and honey. But because of unbelief, their children had to suffer in the wilderness. Let us be warned: because of our unbelief, our children will suffer vanity and have their lives wasted. The futility that our next generation suffers will be our fault, if we do not believe in the Lord, and prepare the Kingdom of God on earth for our children to live. We must fight unbelief for our next generation. The first generation could have enjoyed those 38 years in the promised land, eating the good produce of the land. However, because of their mockery of God through unbelief, they spent those years eating nothing but Manna and Quail. They so missed the good food from Egypt, but because of their unbelief, they did not get their hearts' desire. Why? Because they through their unbelief said in themselves, 'God is not able, God is not trustworthy'.

And we know what happened to the first generation. Not only did they wander around the desert aimlessly, but they died. Death is the penalty of unbelief. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust in His power alone to take us to heaven, we are taken immediately from death to life. We are saved by believing in the promise of God that says, 'Whosoever believes in Jesus Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life'. There is no wasted time. The moment we believe we are straightaway taken to the promise land to begin fighting the good war for the Kingdom of God. But when we don't believe in God's Good News, nor trust in Christ to take us to heaven, not only shall our lives be wasted on vanity, but we will receive death as the reward for our sins. For everything done apart from faith in Jesus is only sin:
Romans 14:23 (ESV)
But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
And the wages of sin is death, as it says in Romans 6:23. Unbelief in God's promise and His power is the father of all sins, and it is the beginning of death.

Adam heard the promise of death in the command that he received from God in the garden of Eden:
Genesis 2:17 (ESV)
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
But Adam did not believe in God's promise nor God's power in judgment. For listen to what the devil told Eve:
Genesis 3:4-5 (ESV)
But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. [5] For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The devil is telling Eve that basically God is afraid, that once she and Adam eats of this fruit they will be like God and God would not know what to do if they become like Him. What weak and pathetic image of God the devil paints for her! And Adam and Eve took up this lie, and ate the fruit of the tree, disbelieving God's promise of death in His commandment, nor His power to do this. And by their unbelief, death entered the world through their sin.

Just as God has pronounced His promise of death through the commandment to Adam, God has pronounced His promise of life through His everlasting Gospel for whoever believes in Jesus. Jesus Christ is the tree of life. His promise is this:
John 6:53-54 (ESV)
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. [54] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Whoever believes and trusts in Jesus will have eternal life. This is God's promise to us. But, as he did to Eve, does not the devil come to those have heard this Gospel, and says, 'You will not live. Christ is not able to save you. How can simple faith save you? You must add works! You must do good works. Can Christ's works alone save you? It must be your works with His! You can do it, you can be like God, you can save yourself!' Have we not heard all this rubbish before? These are all lies from the devil, and it is rampant in the world. And Christians are in danger of believing in this lie. Remember when Paul said:
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. [4] For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Sincere and pure devotion to Christ is that which does not go astray from His true Gospel. It is not about working and trying your hardest. It is trusting in Christ alone. It is believing that Christ's works on the cross and the resurrection is enough to save us and give us life everlasting. It is never straying away from this precious truth of faith. Any gospel that entices us to trust in our own works, our own strength, and tempts us to glorify ourselves and not Christ, we can spit on as an unclean thing. Any other gospel that even an angel comes to us and presents to us, we are to reject, and pronounce a curse upon it:
Galatians 1:8 (ESV)
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Not as though there is such thing as another 'gospel'. There is no other Good News. There is only bad news outside of Jesus Christ. What good can anything in the world give us? What good can sinful man give to us? What good can any created thing give to us? The only Good that can ever be given to us GOD. God Himself is our good news. Christ Himself is the Gospel. Shall we then go after another Saviour than Christ, our Creator and our Brother? Christ is our only hope. What good hope can we ever find outside Him? There is only death and destruction, futility and sorrow, outside the safe refuge of Christ our Lord.

So then, shall we not learn from the Israel's 40 year chastisement? Let us test ourselves today whether we are trusting in Christ to take us to heaven, or whether we are trusting in our willpower. Good works is only the fruit of our full faith in the Lord, but even they are imperfect, mixed with our sin, and cannot be trusted. Salvation is by trusting in Christ's works alone. Unless we want to perish, and be sent into everlasting burnings, let us believe in God's promise in the Gospel, and trust in Christ's power. He is alive. He is able. He can take us over the Jordan. Praised be to Jesus Christ who alone is able to save sinners!:
Psalm 146:3-4 (ESV)
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. [4] When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
Isaiah 12:2 (ESV)
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."