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Tim James

Joshua's Last Battle

Joshua 11:21-23
Tim James March, 3 2017 Audio
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Well, it's good to be back with
you again. Pray the Lord to give us something
to say. I can't imagine anybody in the
free world wanting my brain, except maybe to do some scientific
research on the missing link, maybe. Joshua chapter 11. I'm going to read verses 21 through
23, Joshua chapter 11. And at that time came Joshua,
and cut off the Anakims from the mountains of Hebron unto
Debar, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and all
the mountains of Israel. Joshua destroyed them utterly
with their cities. And there was none of the Anakims
left in the land of the children of Israel. Only in Gaza and Gath
and Ashdod there remained. So Joshua took the whole land
according to all that the Lord said unto Moses. And Joshua gave
it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions
by their tribes. And the land rested from war. Now, in this short passage of
Scripture is the account of the last battle, the last battle
that Joshua fought, his final campaign. He was an aged man
now, but some say he was possibly 110 years old when he fought
this battle. The remainder of Joshua's life
from this time on, following this victory, is spent dividing
the spoils of his victories among the tribes of Israel. The spoils
are the promised land, Canaan, which God had promised, and He promised it to Abraham
long ago in Genesis chapter 12. Now, while they're in this land,
there will be other battles fought, but not for possession of the
promised land. There will be battles fought,
but not for possession of the promised land. That belongs to them. The battles
yet to be fought are for the glory of God and
for the enjoyment of what they have been given by the grace
of God. Joshua's last battle will be
finished, and he will sit in his final battle as an aged and
old conqueror, like an old lion, and who shall rouse him up? Those
skirmishes will ensue as the remainder of the land is possessed
by its respective owners. The people of God are not fighting
to gain anything here. The fights are not to gain anything.
Because they already have it. They already have it. Their fights
will be for the glory of God and to enjoy what God has freely
given them. And that's the fights we have today. For the glory
of God. and to somehow start enjoying
what God has given us, like our brother said, being thankful
and praised unto God for what He's done for us. The last battle
for the promised possession is over. The victory is won, and it's
done for all time. Now this victory, we know, mirrors
the result of the Lord's champions that had preceded Joshua, like
Abraham, who with 318 men had defeated 5 kings to rescue his
nephew Lot, or David defeating the Amalekites and recovering
all his wives, and the same kind of language is used there if
you want to turn over to I Samuel chapter 30. We read these words about David's
battle, In I Samuel chapter 30 and verse
18 it said, And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried
away. And David rescued his two wives,
and there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great,
neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they
had taken to them. David recovered all. That's the same type of battle
that's been won here. The final battle, this glorious
victory over this particular enemy, and it is a particular
enemy here in Scripture, pictures the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary, utterly defeating every foe and securing the inheritance
for the elect in the time that follows until Christ comes and
makes all things new. The church during the Gospel
Age has, is, and will and does engage and
fight individual battles. You fight them and I fight them.
All of us do. Most of them are with our own
selves. But nonetheless, we do fight the battles. The Lord said
to Peter that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the
church. That means we're going against hell. When a company
battles against you, it don't bring its gates with it. You
attack the gates. The church in that sense is a
militant, and we go out with a singular weapon, the Word of
God, and that's it. And we know, and it still stands
as mysterious language to me when I really try to think about
it, that Christ is my shield and my defender. His Word is
my sword and my strength. He's my shield and my buckler
and my high tower and all of that is because God gave me faith
to believe that so. I can't prove anything. And neither
can you. What a crazy bunch of people
we are. We go out and battle things we can't see. Knowing
they're evil and vile. We do it with the Word of God. By words. Knowing that we're
protected. And yet nobody can see our protection,
not even ourselves. Isn't God-given faith a wonderful
thing? To be able to believe God's Word. To believe God's
Word. But we are engaged in these battles.
But we are not engaged in these battles to gain anything. Because
Scripture said, All things are yours, and you are Christ's,
and Christ is God's. They are complete battles. But the battle for the soul of
men is over. It's done. It's finished. And
it was accomplished 2,000 years ago on Calvary's tree. All things
belong to the children of God. This world, this universe, and
the universe and the world to come belongs to the children
of God. Because Christ has finished the
battle and has dispersed it and all things to His children. David spoke of being returned
to the joy of his salvation. And that many times that's why
we fight the battles. So can we can appreciate what
God has done for us. The majority of the battles we
fight are in our own selves. The flesh
against the spirit. Principalities, wickedness in
high places. But we don't weep because there
are no more worlds to conquer. We fight as defenders of what
we already possess. The land is ours. A gift of grace. God makes that clear in Deuteronomy,
if you read it. Not because of your righteousness.
Do you have these houses that you didn't build? This land that
you didn't cultivate? This cattle that you didn't grow?
These fields of corn that are yours? Not for your righteousness,
because you're a stiff-necked and uncircumcised people, but
for my glory and for my sake. The land belongs to the people
now, as Joshua has finished this battle. bought and paid for by
the blood shed, and what is ours is bought by the blood death
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. And HE is our conquering
hero. HE, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Heavenly Joshua. And the war is over. It says
it right here in verse 23, and the land rested from war. So
for the children of God, We can beat our swords into plowshares,
it's over. You lions can lay down with you
lambs, and you wolves can eat hay with the bullocks. It's over. It's done. Salvation is finished. And in our text, Joshua confronts
and defeats the last enemy of Israel, the true last enemy of
Israel. And the gospel allusion is obvious. And the context of these three
verses sets forth the glories of our Lord in His confrontation
and defeat of the last and greatest enemy, death and unbelief. He defeated them. He defeated
them. There's a whole lot for us here.
Note well the singularity of the language as it relates to
who fought and won this battle. There is no doubt that the army
of Israel was with Joshua when he engaged the enemy, but God
was inspired. No name entered into the ledger
of the victor, but one name, Joshua. Joshua came and cut off
the Anakims, he said. Joshua came and cut off the Anakims.
Joshua destroyed them utterly. Joshua took the whole land. Who did that? Joshua did that.
The reason for this is profound in its simplicity. There is but
one name and no other name unto heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. All glory for the salvation of
the elect belongs to our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
people who were with him are representative of those who were
spiritually in Jesus Christ, in the Beloved, just as we sang.
as he accomplished his great mission on Calvary Street. Now,
he did it, but he wasn't alone. We were with him, because we
were in him. We were in him. Our Lord's life
and death were attended by all whom he came to redeem. We were
with him in his baptism when he said, Suffer it to be so,
for it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. All the elect
were in Christ when he went to the cross. When He rose from
the grave and when He ascended on high to take His rightful
place at the right hand of the Father as absolute Lord over
all. Scripture declares that over
and over again. The victory and the glory for
it belongs to Christ. So we praise and exalt His name. He put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. He perfected forever them that
are sanctified. And the new song we sing is worthy
as the Lamb that was slain, that has redeemed us by His blood
out of every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and made
us kings and priests unto our God. Y'all don't look like much,
and neither do I. But you're kings and you're priests
unto God because Christ has made it so. The old spiritual says,
were you there when they crucified my Lord? And the elect say resoundingly,
yes indeed I was. I was there. The second thing
that is of great import is the enemy that is engaged and destroyed
in this last battle. This enemy is important. And
I found this in the study of the Old Testament. We're up to
Isaiah now. I said about 10, 12, 15 years
ago I'm going to try to preach through the whole Bible. I don't think I'm going to make
it, but I think I'll probably die before I finish, but I'm
going to try anyway. And I found this to be true from
Genesis to Revelation, that the salvation of God's people is
the destruction of their enemy. In fact, the concept of salvation
means nothing. Really, unless you're held captive
by someone. Unless you can't do anything
about your captivity, salvation means nothing. I know the word
is bandied about and people talk about it. It's this general thing,
this common thing that's offered and out here, but that's not
salvation. You've got to be in jail before you can be released.
You've got to be held captive before you can be saved. And
for you to be released from your captivity and brought out of
that jail cell, God's got to kill and destroy the one who
holds you captive. And this is what this passage
and all the passages concerning salvation is about. Who did he
fight? The Anakims. That's a rowdy bunch. He fought the Anakims. Now the
Anakims were the descendants of Anak. They played an important
role in the history of the people of God. A very important role. They were the people who were
giant in stature, fierce in battle, and were the source of the fear
of the people of Israel, and the ultimate disclosure of the
mother of all sin. The sin of unbelief. Anak was
used. The Anakims were used to disclose
unbelief. The fear of the Anakims was a
deciding factor in the refusal of the words of Caleb when he
came back with the other spies, and Caleb said, We can have these
guys for lunch. That's what he said. Read it.
We'll read it in a few minutes in chapter 14 of Numbers. He
said, We'll have these guys for lunch. It won't be a problem.
God's with us. But they wouldn't hear him. In
fact, they said, We don't believe you. We want to kill you. They
wanted to stone him for it. They wouldn't hear the words
of Caleb, and instead they embraced the lies of the false spies,
all ten of them. And to the people of God, the
Anakims represent the fear of death. Because of them, the people refused
to possess the land that God had given them. Hold your place
at Joshua and look back at Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13, the last
verse is verse 33. We'll read verse 33 in the first
verse of chapter 14. And there we saw the giants,
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and
the people wept that night. We don't want to fight these
people. We don't want to go in battle. And the truth is, they
couldn't beat them. Of themselves, they couldn't
beat them. But in this final battle, Joshua destroyed the
Anakims. Anakim is the proverbial elephant
in the room. the thing that all the people
envision looming before them all the time of their days here,
the dark Paul, that sort of Damocles that hovers above their head
the horrific harbinger of their own horrible end the entire lifetimes
of people in this world are spent in the fear of death in the fear
of death but Joshua cut off the Anakins Joshua destroyed them
utterly Joshua took the whole land, and this is precisely what
the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people. O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Jesus Christ has defeated both,
both death and the grave. Hebrews chapter 2 says that's
why He came. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14
says, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, and the chronology of this is very interesting. for as much then as the children
were partakers of blood, they were already his children, they were partakers of flesh
and blood, he also likewise himself partook of the same, that through death, that is,
through his death, he might destroy him that had the power of death,
and that power had to do with the fear of death, the fear of
death, and that is the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were their lifetime subject to bondage." There's
one thing that ruled over them, right? That's one thing they
were bound by. For verily he took not on himself
the nature of angels, but he took on himself the seed of Abraham. And we know the seed of Abraham
is all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ according to
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 26. Wherein all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people. He did that. He destroyed death
by His death. He destroyed death for us. We're
not going to die. I know this physical body will
die, but it'll be resurrected one day. But we will, the Bible
says, go to sleep. We'll be transformed. We'll be changed. I don't understand
any of that because I've never died and neither have you. And
nobody who died has ever come back and said anything about
it except for one man, and that was Simon Paul the Apostle, because
I believe he was stoned at Lystra and died and went to the third
heaven. And he came back and said, I can't talk about it. I just can't, it's not lawful
for me to say what happened up there. But I went there. But this death has been, death
reigns over us. We think, people think that they're
free and there's nothing to worry about in this world, that nothing
controls them, that they control their own destinies, which is
stupid. I mean, that's not even good
English, is it? If it's a destiny, you can't
control it. If you can control it, it ain't
a destiny. Because a destiny's a sad thing.
It's just foolish for people to talk like that, but people
talk foolish anyway. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, by His death, took us out of
the hands of our sovereign. What sovereign? Death. Death
hath reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who have not
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. The same
chapter in Romans 5 says, Sin hath reigned unto death. Who's it reign over? God? No,
it reigns over me. I am born under sovereigns death
and sin that rule my life until I am delivered by the might and
power of almighty Christ and that by him going to that cross
and paying the debt that I owed which was one death to God which
I could not pay and survive he paid that debt with his death
he set me free death by death That's how it
happened. That's why we celebrate that
act of the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the fact that He
lived perfectly. And He did. But we don't know
anything about that. We can't even imagine it with
our own sinful minds. He lived righteously before men,
but nobody knew it. You reckon a person can be righteous
and nobody know it? I reckon they can. I'm righteous
and nobody knows it. And so is every child of God.
They're righteous with the very righteousness of God. Christ
has been made unto them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. They are righteous! Well, how do you know? Looking
at them, you'll never know. Because they themselves don't
know it, save God has given them faith to believe it in His Word. I have no proof of any righteousness,
save this Word. God said it. I'm glad he said
it. I'm glad he said it. And we're
thankful for Christ's perfect righteous life. But that didn't
save us. His perfect righteous life fit
Him to be the perfect sacrifice to God. Two thousand years ago on Calvary's
tree, our Lord freely, voluntarily, and by His own power, He who
is life, stopped living, because the debt
for sin is death. Now, men did their worst with
Him. When they beat Him and pummeled Him and put a crown of thorns
on His head and ripped His flesh up, men did their worst. And
then God did His worst in those three hours of darkness. God
wore Him out. He rolled up His sleeves and
beat Him to a bloody pulp. for our sins and in those three
hours Jesus Christ suffered an eternity of hell whatever hell
is three hours you're talking about great in three hours he
suffered a an eternity of hell for us God pummeled him poured
his wrath out upon him held back nothing vengeance against sin
that roiled in the heart of Almighty God was poured out on Jesus Christ
but that did not kill him He carried it out on the other
side and said, My God, why is that forsaken me? He's still
alive. And he said, I thirst. And he
said, it is finished. And what did he do? He died. And in that moment, all things
that were necessary for me to stand accepted before God were
done. that death and so we take people
and we say if you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ confess him
in baptism and what do we do we give ourself over to some
preacher that's crazy we say preacher put me into an element
that I can't live I can't breathe take me and plunge me to where
I cannot live plunge me into death and bring me back out again. Why? Because that's what we celebrate,
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we take the Lord's table.
We take the bread and the wine. This is my body broken for you.
This cup is a new covenant in my blood. As often as you drink
it, do it in remembrance of me. You do show forth my death until
I come again. Jesus Christ came and died and
dealt a death blow to death. Our death. What a glorious and
a wondrous thought. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which He has given us in Jesus Christ,
and He has brought immortality to life. through his death, to
light through his death. And the response of the people
to the report of the Anakims and Numbers is the revelation
of the nature of unbelief. Unbelief is rampant. We're full
of it. We are. Thank God it's held down
by the Spirit of God. But we're full of unbelief. I
wish I believed. I wish, sometimes I think, boy,
I wish I was a believer. I know I am, but sometimes my
unbelief overwhelms me. Unbelief is the mother of all
sin. Unbelief was the reason why Adam ate what God had prohibited. He didn't believe God. And that
plunged the whole human race into ruin and unbelief, and the
result of that was death, both spiritual and physical. And unbelief is not the absence
of belief. It's not the absence of belief.
It's a refusal to believe God. Unbelievers believe a lot. Listen
to them. They believe a lot of stuff.
They believe in themselves. Unbelief does not believe the
truth, yet it does believe. It believes the lie. That's what it believes. Therefore,
all unbelief in reality is in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ
and His accomplished work. All unbelief is in reference...
In fact, as I read the Old Testament and the pictures of the Lord
Jesus Christ and He's set forth in the Old Testament, I find
this to be true. And I believe the more I think about it, the
more it seems reasonable to me that everything in this world
is about Jesus Christ. He's the center of the universe.
And every lie is in reference to Him. Every falsehood is in
reference to Him. Because He is the singular and
absolute truth. He's not a truth. He's not some
truth. He is the truth. And if there
is the truth, then everything is seen in light of the truth. He's the center of it all. He's
the center. And that's what John said. He
said, when the Holy Spirit comes, He's going to convince men of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin, because
you don't believe on me. That's sin. That's unbelief. The people refused to go into
the land and possess the land, the promised land, because they
did not believe that God had already finished the work. That's
one. He said, take it. It's yours. It's yours. Walk
in. Walk into those houses. Anybody
in those houses, say, get out of that's my house. Wait, you
can't do that. Yes, you can. That's your house.
I give you that house. I give you that land. And I will
fight for you, and I will go before you, and I will destroy
the enemies before you. Take it! And they said, we don't
believe He's done that. Because we see some giants over there. We see some big people, some
strong and powerful people. So they refused to go in and
possess the land. Because they didn't believe that
God had already finished the work in giving them land. Men
do not fly to Christ alone for salvation because they believe
that He has not finished the work. If they believed He had
finished the work, they'd come. They'd come in troves. We stand
up and tell them, He's finished. It's done. It's done. You don't
have to do nothing. Don't do nothing. Don't do nothing. Be
a do-nothing. Please. Right where you're at,
old Scott, you say, come to Christ and don't move a muscle or bat
an eyelid. Come to Christ right where you
are. Men believe that there is work
left to do. That's why they don't come to Christ alone. They believe something for them
to do and they manifest their unbelief by believing their ability
to accomplish whatever it is that needs to be done. This manifestation
of unbelief is seen usually in one or two ways. They are revealed
in the reaction and action toward the report of the Anakims and
the Amalekites. In chapter 13 of Numbers, in
verse 31, they said, oh, they're giants over there. They're giants
over there. We can't do anything about them.
They're too big for us. The false teachers are not confessing
their inability, though it would seem that way.
They said, we can't do it. What they are doing is confessing
that the possession of the land actually relies on their ability. That's what they're actually
confessing. We can't beat him, but if he could, it'd be ours.
It'd be ours. And much like the man who says
that he'll get saved after he cleans up his act or straightens
out his life, and that's false humility born of belief that
he can make himself suitable and acceptable before God. It's
also like the man who says he's done too many sins and awful
things to be forgiven. This again is nothing more than
saying that if he was a better person, he would be suitable
for salvation. Both of these excuses are belief in self and
unbelief in the truth of salvation. You see, the promised land has
already been secured by God. Salvation has been wrought. Unbelief
is always rejection of the gospel. It's always his rejection of
the gospel. Back in Numbers chapter 14, Caleb told them. He told
them what was when he came back. Numbers chapter 14, in verse
6 he says this, And Joshua the son of Nun, and
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the
land, rent their clothes, because the people were crying, in chapter
13 and 14. And they spake unto the company
of the children of Israel, saying, This land which we pass through
to search it is exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in
us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us,
a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against
the Lord. Neither fear ye the people of
this land, for they are bread for us. We'll have them for lunch.
They are bred for us. Their defense is departed from
them. And the Lord is with us, fear
them not. But all the congregation bade
stone them with stones, and the glory of the Lord appeared in
the tabernacle, the congregation before the children of God."
And the Lord goes on to say, I need to wipe this people off
the face of the earth. He's not talking about the Anacams. Secondly, unbelief is manifest
not in excuse, but in an ignorantly bold and egregious self-deception
that a person can, by his own tenacious power, accomplish salvation
by himself. That's the height of unbelief.
The basis of this is found as God winds this thing up, the
catalyst. of this unbelief of truth in
Numbers chapter 14 in verses 40 through 45. Here God has said
to Israel, to those who were above 20 years old when they
came out of Egypt to make a 40 year journey in the wilderness,
the journey would have only taken 11 days, that's how long it takes
to walk from Egypt to Canaan. It took them 40 years, why? Because
they rebelled against God. So God says, since you won't
believe, every one of you above 20 years old, turn back, go back
into the desert. You're going to die in the desert,
become nothing but a bunch of dried bones and carcasses. You
can't go in. First He says, take the land.
They said, no, we're afraid. And then He says, you can't have
the land. And listen to their response.
This is unbelief. Verse 40 says, And they rose
up early in the morning, and gath them up into the top of
the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we will go into
the place the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned. When he said,
Go, they said, No. When he said, You can't go, they
said, No. That's unbelief. It's unbelief. And Moses says,
Wherefore ye do transgress the commandment of the Lord, but
it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among
you, that ye be not smitten before your enemies. And the Amalekites
and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall
by the sword, because ye have turned away from the Lord. Therefore
the Lord will not be with you. But they presumed, to go up unto
the hilltop, and nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the
Lord was not with them, or departed out of the camp, didn't depart
out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites
dealt with the hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even
to the whoremen. But they said, that's unbelief. Unbelief can't
believe. Unbelief doesn't change to belief.
It never will. An unbeliever suddenly doesn't
change his ways and become a believer. It's impossible. Unbelief always
says no. Unbelief always says it can't
be. God had killed the false teachers
back in verse 37 and left alive those who told the truth in verse
38, and now He's commanded the people, because of their unbelief,
to turn back into the wilderness. They respond by not doing it.
Say, no, we'll go take the land. Now the Lord has said that they
cannot go up. We're going up to possess the
land. And they say for the same reason that God said. God says,
you're not going in because you've sinned. And they say, we're going
in because we've sinned. Strange language this. They say
they will possess it for the same reason God says they won't
possess it. God said you sin, therefore you
cannot have the land. They say we have sinned, therefore
we will go up and possess the land. Now they are not saying
that sin gives them rights to the land, but they say that by
going up and possessing land, they will undo and overcome the
effect of the sin that they have. That's hubris. They will by obedience undo their
disobedience. How many manifest their unbelief
in going to the law for salvation rather than obeying the gospel?
How many presume to go up and possess the land when it only
belongs to those who trust that God has possessed it already
for them? Unbelief once again is manifest in the belief that
salvation, possession of the promise, is dependent upon men
and not on the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua
has already done it. And they say, we'll have something
to do with it. So they are plagued by unbelief. The elect are yet believers. Unbelief always results in death.
the joshua's destroyed the last interview c doors and and is given the people
their inheritance in the primary gift that is bestowed his faith
and that's what it does faith believes what else does it do
they don't do nothing really it no when the lord said only
believe i think it was the emphasis was on The word only. Only believe. Not only believe. Only. That's all. Don't do anything
else. Don't do anything else. Christ
has fully procured everything for us. He's even procured our
works for us. Don't you know that? I don't
even know what they are. Of course you don't. You ain't
supposed to know what they are. Because if you knew what they
were, you'd keep record of them. I know how you are. You'd write
them down so you'd let somebody else know about it. And you might
even try to keep silent about it for a while. But, oh, you'll
pray and wait for the day when somebody mentions something where
you can tie it into the conversation. I'll guarantee you that. No,
you don't know your works. You don't know what they are.
Well, how do I know I'm doing them? Because God said you would.
your is workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto this word which
God is before day that you should walk in you don't walk in what
I have God talks about strange things
being you know things that he's paid attention to get a glass
of water so much thirsty well you know I think about like building
a church or an orphanage or something there's some people have built
churches in order to Matthew chapter 7 and God never knew
they knew their works God has equipped you for the
work He has prepared for you, and whenever that work and you
end up in the same place, it will be done, and you won't even
know it. You know what you'll be doing?
You'll be living your life, because your life is predestinated
also. All that's taken care of. It's
all bought and paid for, folks. The whole land is their inheritance,
not by law, but by grace, by a promise given to Abraham back
in Genesis 12. It ends up in Zechariah saying
there ain't no more Canaanites here, no more Canaanites in Canaan,
only God's people. In the last great battle, Joshua
destroyed the Anacamps, removed the fear of death, the source
of it, which is unbelief. and divided the inheritance to
those whom God had promised it to, the children of Abraham,
way back in Genesis chapter 12. Men hear the words, no man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him.
And they say, yes I can. No you can't. They hear the words, all that
the Father gives to me shall come to me. And they say, I can reject that. I don't have
to come. I have a will. That's unbelief. It's unbelief. It'll always act
the same way. Tell a person they can't come
to Christ, they'll say, I can too. Tell a person that Christ's
going to draw all these people to Him, they say, well, I can
reject that. The answer with unbelief is always no to God.
But listen, the battle's won. The victory's done. Joshua's
done it all. It's yours. Enjoy. Enjoy it. Land of milk and honey. Read that old fella sang a song
one time, said, today I walk where Jesus walked. Today I did.
So did you, if you're a child of God. Right now you're walking
in Emmanuel's land. Why? Because the battle's over,
boy. Enjoy. Well, okay. Thank you, thank you. And I'm so glad it's so. Let's bow for prayer. Father,
we thank you for your goodness, for your mercy, and for the finished
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help your people to rest and
to rejoice and to find the peace that comes
with believing. We thank you that our Joshua
has given us the victory. We pray that you'd bless your
word to our hearts. Bless us as we partake together
of the food and the fellowship. Bring us back tomorrow that we
might hear again from you. For we pray and ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.
Tim James
About Tim James
Tim James currently serves as pastor and teacher of Sequoyah Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Cherokee, North Carolina.

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