Okay, this evening now I'm going
to take a look at a few verses found in Joshua chapter 15. I was trying to figure out a
title for the message, and this is what I came up with. I'm taking
the title from verse 14 of Joshua 15, and it says here that Caleb
drove thence the three sons of Anak. He drove them out. Caleb drove them out. Now, how could that be? How could
that be? You remember what he said in
chapter 14, verse 12, right across the page? He said, if it so be, the Lord will be with
me, then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord has said.
Just as the Lord said, it came to pass, because His word cannot
fail. His expectation, that is Caleb's
expectation of the Lord's blessing, and the promise the Lord made
to him, it was fulfilled. Even though he was 85 years old,
as we learned last week from Joshua chapter 14 verse 11, the
Lord gave him the spirit of faith, A heart of courage, which never
wavered, which never faltered. Remember he said, turn over and
let's look at that verse again. Verse 11, Joshua 14. As yet I'm strong this day as
I was in the day that Moses sent me. This was 45 years ago. As my strength was then, even
so is my strength now for war both to go out And he said, I
won't come back in. This man, Caleb, was a blessing,
was a blessing to the Lord's people. I'm sure that Caleb,
who the scripture says three times or more, wholly followed
the Lord. It says that three times in chapter
14. I'm sure that Caleb lived by faith. walked by faith, and
died in faith, even though his name is not given in that famous
chapter, Hebrews 11, where it talks about Abraham, Moses, all
those different ones. He mentions Rahab the harlot. He mentioned David. He mentioned
Samuel. Caleb's name's not there. Joshua's
name's not there. Even though their name is not
given in Hebrews chapter 11, as an example of faith, certainly,
He was an example of faith. God says that he followed the
Lord faithfully. We read this in Hebrews 11, 13,
these all died in faith. And I'm sure that Caleb died
in faith. And it said, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded
of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims here on this earth. What a blessing it is. Now, we're
going to die. We're going to die. I read the
obituaries in a paper every time I get the paper. And one of the
things I always notice about the obituaries, what is it that
you normally notice? The age. The age. A lot of people
younger than me, some my age. So, be sure of this, God appointed
the day of our departure And for the believer is a blessed
day. Blessed are those who die in the Lord. I want to die in
saving faith. I want all of us to have that
saving faith of God's elect that believes the promises of God
and acts upon them like Abraham of old, who was strong in faith,
giving glory unto God, being fully persuaded that of all God
promised, He is able to perform. You see, we honor God by believing
Him, don't we? Sure, saving faith honors Him. We honor God by believing Him. It is impossible for God to lie. Hebrews 6, 18, that we might
have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to the hope
that's set before us. And we have a good hope in Christ,
don't we? Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 1, all the promises
of God in him are yes, and in him, and amen, unto the glory
of God by the Lord Jesus Christ. All the exceeding great and precious
promises that God has given us, not, I love what Joshua says
in Joshua 23, when he talks about all the promises of God, you
remember his last words? Of all that God had promised,
Not one word has failed. And that's true. That's true
for us too. Now, I trust we can say with
the Apostle Paul that I can do all things through Christ, which
is my strength. I can do all things through Christ,
who is my strength, and put the emphasis upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. Or we can say with David, the
Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? That
was the promise that Caleb believed God and acted upon it. In and
of ourselves and by ourselves, we can do nothing, right? But with God, all things are
possible. Remember John 15 where the Lord
said, I'm the true vine, you're the branches. He said, I'm the
vine, you're the branches. He that abides in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing, nothing. We are totally dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ for all things. You can't take your next
breath without the Lord giving you the breath of life. Now we
see in this chapter Joshua giving the land to the tribe of Judah
and he does it by lot. As it says in verse one, this
then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah and
their family. These lots were designated by
the command of God and the decree of God, which could not be altered.
We see that in this chapter and the borders of the land of Judah
or the families of Judah, the tribe of Judah were designated
to be exact. And we also see how Caleb is
honored as a member of that family, for he was of the tribe of Judah. Joshua giving and Caleb receiving,
that is the principles of the gospel. Turn back to chapter
11. You remember this verse I pointed out to you? Joshua chapter 11,
verse 23. Joshua giving by the command
of God, and Caleb receiving as the free gift. The free gift,
that is the principles of the gospel. Joshua 11, 23, 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 division by their tribe and the land rested. So Joshua
took and Joshua gave. That's the gospel. What did Caleb
do? When Joshua gave him that city of Hebron, He received it,
didn't He? He received it as the free gift
of God's grace. And that is true of the Gospel.
For ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though
He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through
His poverty might be rich. He blessed us freely with all
spiritual blessings. in Christ Jesus. Now this blessing
that Caleb received in the tribe of Judah goes back to what we
read earlier in Genesis 49 when Jacob prophesied of the blessing
upon Judah and his family. He said, you're going to come
into this land. You remember they were down in
Egypt. And Jacob prophesied, you're going to come into this
land and God's going to give you this land. We also know that
the blessing that the tribe of Judah received looked all the
way forward, not only to the inheritance in the land of Canaan,
but to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what that language is all about in Genesis 49 verse 10. The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between
his feet until Shiloh does come. Who is Shiloh? The Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the son of He is the Prince
of Peace. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. His name
shall be called what? Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. The
Lord Jesus Christ is called the Lion. The Lion is the King, right? The Lion of the tribe of Judah,
he is king of kings and he is lord of lords. David was of the
tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe, and so was The humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember from our study
in Revelation 5? And one of the elders said unto
me, Weep not, behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root
of David, hath prevailed. I love that word. He hath prevailed. He is victorious over all things. Now open the book, and the list
of seven seals thereof. In this chapter, point number
one, Caleb continues to be honored in this chapter by God. In 1
Samuel 2, verse 30, we read this. God says, those that honor me,
I will honor them. And those that despise me, I
will despise. Boy, I want to honor him. How
do we do that? By believing the gospel. Joshua
had blessed Caleb giving him the city of Hebron for his inheritance,
and that was according to the promise that God gave to Moses. Look over back at chapter Joshua
14 verse 9. Moses swear on that day, This
is when the 12 spies came back and Caleb and Joshua said, we
can take the land, saying, surely the land whereon thy feet had
trodden shall be thy inheritance and thy children's forever, because
thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. Caleb received this land by the
command and promise of God Almighty. And Joshua freely gave to Caleb
that which God commanded. Joshua, therefore, was a blessing
to Caleb, was he not? Joshua was a blessing to Caleb.
Now Caleb, in turn, wants to be a blessing to Joshua. You know, they had to be such
close friends. They spent 40 days in that land,
spying out the land, and they said, we can take the land, when
the other 10 spies said, there's no way. Now Caleb wants to be
a blessing to Joshua and give him a part of the city of Hebron.
Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim. the youngest son of Joseph, and
the reference there is 1 Chronicles 7, 27. I had to look a long time
to find that, but I finally, finally did. But notice, if you
will, verse 13. Joshua 15, verse 13, and here's
what caught my attention when I was reading through this. And
unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a part among the children
of Judah. According to the commandment
of the Lord, he gave it to Joshua. even the city of Arba, the father
of Anak, which city is Hebron." Now, here's the point that I
want to make on this. This is what the grace of God
does in us. Joshua was a blessing to Caleb. Gave him that city according
to the command of the Lord. So what does Caleb do in return? He is generous and giving back
to the one who gave him the city to begin with. This is what the
grace of God does in us. We not only believe salvation
is all of God's grace, and that our works have no part in it,
for by grace are you saved, not according to our works, but according
to God's own purpose and grace. But this grace that has worked
in us also makes us gracious, kind, and forgiving to others,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight. Now, as I was working on that
point, A friend of mine, preacher friend of mine, sent me his bulletin.
And I hadn't been getting bulletins from him for a good number of
years, and it just popped up on my screen today, and I read
down through it, and I found this article. And it's by my
pastor, Brother Henry. He's my pastor. And here's what
he writes. The title of the message is,
of this little article, the effects of grace. The effects of the
grace of God. He said, the grace of God makes
all men who feel its power to be brethren. We're all one family
in Christ. Grace makes the prosperous give
his hand to help the poor. Grace makes the healthy to reach
out and care for the weak and sickly. Grace makes the learned
and intellectual to stoop from their so-called dignity and embrace
the ignorant and unlettered. Grace makes the important to
be polite and considerate of the lesser. Grace makes the elder
to be understanding and patient with the impulsive youth. Grace
makes the offended to forgive the offender and to forget the
offense. Let the grace of God lay hold
of a man's heart. Pride and pride, envy, and bitterness
go their way to the graves. I thought that was so good. And
it fits his point exactly. We not only believe the grace
of God, but the grace of God works in us both to will and
to do of His good pleasure. Now here is the second thing
I want us to see in verse 14 of Joshua 15. And Caleb drove
thence, or he whipped up on these three sons of Anak, Shishah,
Ahimon, and Thammai. These were the children of Anak. Now, Caleb had said earlier, if the
Lord be with me, I'm gonna drive them out of the city of Hebron.
I'm gonna drive them out. Now, the Lord being with him,
Caleb did exactly what he said. These three sons of Anak were
called giants. The strong and big men like that
of, when you think of a giant, who do you think of? Goliath,
don't you? In Numbers 13.33, when they went to spy this land
out, and they came back, and here's what they said. There
was, and there we saw giants, the sons of Anak, the same people
we're talking about, which come with these giants, which were
in which come of the giants, and we in our own sight as grasshoppers,
so are we in their sight." Their giants were grasshoppers. How
could a grasshopper beat up on a giant? Caleb did. How did he
do that? He believed God. He trusted the
Lord. Now, similar to what David did
to Goliath. I want us to turn and read that
for just a moment. We don't have the details. Find
1 Samuel 17. We don't have the details how
Caleb beat those three sons of Anak, those giants, but I think
it's somewhat similar to 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel 17, what David did
to Goliath. Remember? Now, let's begin reading at verse
43. And the Philistines said unto
David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And
the Philistines cursed David by his gods? And the Philistines
said to David, Come to me, and I'll give thy flesh unto the
fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Probably
the three sons of Anak, when they saw Caleb coming, they probably
said the same thing. Then said David to the Philistine,
come, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and
with a shield, for I come to thee in the name of the Lord
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand. I'll smite thee and take thy
head from thee. I will give thy carcass unto
the host of the Philistines this day, and to the fowls of the
air, to the wild beast of the earth, that all the earth may
know that there is a God in Israel. And all the assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle
is the Lord, and he will give you into our hand." Now, we don't
have the details of how Caleb whipped those three sons, but
you know it's exactly the same way that David overcame that
giant. You come out to me with a sword
and with a spear, I come to you in the name of the living God.
And we know the rest of the story, how David took out a stone and
slung that stone, hit Goliath in the forehead in that exposed
piece of armor that he had on his head, and then he ran up
and took his sword and took his head from his body. and David
won the victory. Now, that's exactly what Caleb
did, believing God. But furthermore, look at verse
15, back in our text. This is Joshua 15, 15. He went
up then to the inhabitants of Debar, and the name of Debar
was before Kerjeth Cephar. Now, Caleb also went to this
city, which means, and here's what this, Kerjassifar means,
it means the city of books. It was kind of like Athens, the
city of learning, the place of literature. It's a sort of an
academy, a place where there was a library, learn smart people. And Caleb went up and conquered
them as well. This city was also near to Hebron. It was about 10 miles south of
Hebron. God had given him not only Hebron,
but that whole area around Hebron. Caleb said, it's mine. God has
given it to me. I'm going to take it. It belongs
to me. Now it's always right for us
to fight the good fight of faith for the things that God has freely
given to us. For our inheritance, all things
in the gospel are freely given unto us. God who spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely, I love that word, freely give us all
things. All things in the gospel are
freely given unto us. We're justified freely by his
grace. Let us take a public stand. A public stand for the cause
of God and His truth, the things which we have freely received
in the gospel. We have no reason to be ashamed,
no reason to apologize. We don't need to apologize to
all the people that's come and gone through this building, in
these doors. There's been over the 25 years
that I've been here, there's a lot of people come and gone,
come and gone, come and gone. Someone called me one day and
suggested that I needed to apologize to all the people that's come
and gone. I said, apologize for what? For telling the truth?
You see, there's no need for us to be ashamed or to apologize. We preach the gospel and the
sheep of Christ follow Him. Therefore, we don't apologize.
I remember what Martin Luther said when he was called on the
carpet before all those hierarchies in the Catholic Church who had
the power to bind him to the stake and burn him to the stake,
to martyr him. You remember what he said? Here
I stand. I can do no other. Caleb took
a stand and said, Lord, given this land to me, I'm going to
take it. It's mine. and we have the gospel given
freely unto us. The apostle put it this way,
only let your conversation be as we come with the gospel of
Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I
may hear of your affair that you stand fast. In one spirit,
one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and
then nothing, terrified by your adversary. Philippians 1, 27.
And then he says in Galatians 5, 1, stand fast. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. And then in
2 Thessalonians 2, 15, we're to stand fast for the truth that
we've been taught. It's worth standing for. He's
given us the truth. Should we compromise it to get
along? Should we compromise it so we
won't be offensive? I realize it's offensive to the
flesh to tell them they're a guilty sinner and God ought to send
them to hell. Maybe he'll have mercy. I don't
know. But he might. But I'm not going to tone that
down and say, well, God loves you and wants to. He's trying
to save you, poor God. Won't you let him? You see, that's
watering it down to take the offense off. I'm not going to
do that. God helping me, I won't do that.
I must tell you the truth. My life depends on it and so
does yours. The truth will set you free.
Now, Caleb was also generous to his daughter. In verse 16
down through verse 20, and we'll look at this more closely when
we get to Judges chapter 1. And Caleb said, he that smiteth
Curjeth Cephar, and takes it, to him will I give Achish my
daughter. And Othanel the son of Kenaz,
the brother of Caleb, took it. And he gave him Achish his daughters. It's similar to what King Saul
said, you remember to Israel, the man that kills Goliath, he
can have my daughter, Michael. Well, who did David marry? Michael. Michael. And it's similar to
what what Saul did in David's day. And it came to pass, as
she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field,
and she lighted off her ask, and Caleb said unto her, What,
what is that? who answered, Give me a blessing,
for thou hast given me a south land, give me also the springs
of waters. And he gave her the upper spring
and the lower spring. This is the inheritance of the
tribe of the children of Judah according to their father." Caleb
was also generous not only to Joshua, but to his daughter Achish."
And I'm sure we don't know, but don't you imagine that Caleb
was generous to all of his family, all of his children, and his
wife as well. Caleb found her and gave her
a fit husband, Othanel, from his own family, a kinsman, a
nephew, and blessed her not only with land, but with water. the upper springs, and the lower
springs. Someone said, land without water
is like tree without sap, and it's like a body without blood. I mean, you can have all the
finest land, but you're not gonna have any fruit off that land
without water. You know, even today, It's not
such a big deal around here because we get so much rainfall. When I go back home out west
and tell the folks out there, we don't water our lawn. We don't
even water our garden. They look at me like, what? Out
there, if you don't water, things dry up and blow away. I mean,
they put irrigation ditches and sprinklers in every yard they
build to have a sprinkler system. They're still fighting for water
rights out there in that west country, because water is so
precious. You can have, when my grandfather
homesteaded in southern Idaho in 1911, and one of the things, when he homesteaded that
land, It came not only with a deed for land, but water rights. And you can't have a farm without
water, water, water on the land. You must have water to have fruit.
Now, whenever I think about water, these springs of water, the upper
spring, then the lower spring, what do you think about spiritually
when you consider how necessary water is, even to our body naturally? I mean, you can't go but just
a few hours without water. We've been watching that survivor
series on Sunday night about how this man teaches people how
to survive. But one of the critical things
is water. Water. I can imagine being three
or four days in the heat without water. How precious water, water
is. But whenever I think about water
and read of water in the word of the Lord, I always think about
the Lord Jesus Christ who is called the water of life. He
remembered that woman of Samaria as he sat on the well, being
wearied in body, and he asked her for a cup of water. Even
our blessed Savior in his humanity needed water. And then he said
to that woman at the well, he said, you drink of that natural
water and you'll thirst again. But if you drink of that water
that I give you, there'll be a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. Remember what she said? Lord,
give me that water. That's what I want, don't you?
And then our Lord said in John 7, 37, in that last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. Oh, everyone that is thirsty,
come ye to the waters. Come and buy wine and milk without
money and without price. It's free water. You see, in
Christ, we have the blessings of the water of life. In the
nether springs, which is the lower springs, we have the blessings
of Christ in this lower life. In this life we have physical
life upon this earth and our spiritual life upon this earth.
But in Christ we also have the blessings of the water of life.
for eternal glory in the upper springs." And I think that's
what he's talking about. The upper springs are eternal
blessings we have in Christ, and the nether springs, the lower
springs, are the things that we enjoy right now in this life
as believers. Now, a couple more things. In verse 21, talks about all the different
cities, all the way down to verse 62. And what is most interesting
in those cities, and I counted them, there's 111 cities given
to the tribe of Judah in this land of Canaan. But what I find
most interesting, and it's a detailed list, A very detailed list of
all these different cities. What I find most interesting
is that there is no mention of the town of Bethlehem. The Lord
said the Messiah would come and the Messiah would be born in
Bethlehem. Micah 5,1 But thou, Bethlehem, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth
unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth hath
been from of old, from everlasting. Now, what does that teach us?
I think it teaches us something about the lowliness of our Lord
coming and becoming a man in the form of a servant. Our Lord
came in the lowest form, born in a city that's not even mentioned
in the inheritance of Judah, so obscure that it had no name
at the time that this inheritance was given. Born when the Lord
came, he was born in a barn in Bethlehem, laid in a couch off,
raised in an obscure city, not in Judah, but way to the north,
in Galilee, in Nazareth. Anything good come out of Nazareth?
Come and see. He worked in a carpenter shop.
Yet He was God Almighty manifest in the flesh. We see His obscurity
in His coming, the lowliness and the humility of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men, and humbled Himself, became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. God highly exalted him. God given him a name which is
above every name, and hath highly exalted him, that at that name
every knee shall bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, through the glory of God the Father. Now, the last
point, look at verse 63. As for the Jebusite inhabitants
of Jerusalem, The Jebusites, enemies of God. What are they doing in Jerusalem?
That's where they live. The children of Judah could not
drive them out. But the Jebusites dwell with
the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day. Now, I had to
steal this from Robert Hawker, but I don't mind borrowing it.
And here's what he said on this, and I thought it very good. We
have another gospel picture, don't we? Whatsoever was written
aforetime was written for our learning. Now, why couldn't,
I mean, they defeated everybody else in the land. Why couldn't
they drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem? Jerusalem is
the place where the Lord raised up the great temple of God. Built
by Solomon. Remember we studied all the details
of that marvelous temple of God? It was an amazing study, was
it not? It was a royal city, a holy city,
a place where God dwelt, where the priests of God made atonement
on the mercy seat. But them rascals, them old Jebusites,
still dwelling in that holy city. Now, here's what Hocker said.
While our bodies are called the temple of the Lord, in which
the Holy Spirit dwells, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, that is, in every believer,
we still have much corruption in our flesh. We have many Jebusites
within us, don't we? That we are hammered with each
day. Do you have the same problem
that I do? The flesh lusting against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary
one to another, so that you cannot do the thing that you would.
Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. I said that to a man in a store
recently, around here locally. He said, how are you doing? I
said, well, I would do good, but evil's present with me. He
looked at me and said, what? I'll choose the preacher. The
evil's present with you. Ah, they'd have no idea. This
wretched man. You see, we've grown under this
burden of our sinful flesh. We have that new, holy, spotless
nature given of God, a divine nature, but we still drag around
in this body of flesh this old, rotten, sinful, Adam nature. That's why Paul said, O wretched
man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death? I'm
dragging around this body of death. And then he said, thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We've grown under this
burden of our sinful flesh, but one day soon, we'll lay it aside. We'll lay it aside and put it
in the ground to wait our new resurrected body that will not
even have the potential to sin. We'll be just like under His
glorious body. Let me close by reading this,
Philippians 3. For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is
able even to subdue all things unto Himself. As long as we live in this flesh,
we have Jebusites. May God subdue him and give us
grace. He said his grace is sufficient,
and he will. His grace is sufficient. He'll
give us grace for the trial and bless us daily with his presence.
He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Well,
may the Lord bless his word.