Before turning with me to Joshua
10 tonight, if you would turn with me to John chapter 6. John
chapter 6. After last week's study, I had
a dear friend from North Carolina message me and say, all and none,
two little words with such big meaning. That is so true. All, just a little three-letter
word, and none, a four-letter word. Especially true in the
light of salvation, especially true, particularly true when
it comes to and concerns life eternal. That word all is defined
as the whole quantity or extent of a particular group or thing. the greatest possible amount. As a pronoun, that word all means
everyone. It means everybody, each and
every single person or thing, the whole lot, the entirety. And of course, the word none
is just the opposite. None is defined simply as not
any. Not anyone, not a single solitary
person or thing. Now, here in John 6, verse 37,
the Lord Jesus said, all, everyone, everybody, each and every person,
the whole lot that the Father giveth me, shall come to me,
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. How many of those who the Father
gave to Christ will come to him for redemption and life eternal? Everybody in the world? Every man and woman, each and
every single person born of woman, the whole world, the whole lot?
The world in its entirety? No, that's not what he said.
all that the Father gave to Christ. Every single one of them will
come to Him. And He will cast out, how many
of them? None of them, not a single one. And the other side of that is
this, all that the Father did not give to Christ will not come
and will be lost. And it will be one or the other.
And look at verse 39 here in John 6. And this is the Father's
will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day." Now, what is the Father's will concerning all of those
that he gave to Christ? That he should lose nothing,
not a one, all and none. all will be raised to life eternal
at the last day. Now, this is what God says. Isn't
that so encouraging? Verse 40, and this is the will
of him that sent me. This is the will of God that
everyone, all of them would see at the sun and believe it on
him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day. What's the will of God the Father
for those sinners that he gave to Christ? That every single
one of them will see Jesus Christ, will believe on Jesus Christ,
will be given everlasting life, and will be raised from death
unto life. Turn over a few pages to John
chapter 17. John chapter 17. Look at verse 12, John 17, verse
12. The Lord Jesus said, while I
was with them, now who's he speaking of there? He's speaking of all
that the Father gave him. I was with them in the world
and I kept them, there again, speaking of all that the Father
gave to Christ. I kept them in thy name, Those
all that thou gavest me I've kept and none of them is lost. How many? None. but the son of
perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. And you know,
it's prophesied in Psalm chapter 109 verse eight concerning Judas,
the son of perdition. That word perdition means eternal
punishment and ruin and destruction. That's what Judas was. He was
a son of eternal punishment and ruin and destruction as all who
are without Christ are. And when it says there, let his
days be few and let another take his office. Judas was never one
of those that God gave to Christ. He never was. The Lord had already
said of Judas, have I not chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil. And he spake of Judas Iscariot,
the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being
one of the 12, John chapter six. Judas was one of the 12, but
he was not one of the elect. Now, look at verse 20. Our Lord
said, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, that
them being every single one again that the Father gave to Christ,
which shall believe on me through their word." That's talking about
you and I, those who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who the Father gave to Christ
will be saved and there will be none saved that God did not
give to him. So plain, so simple in the scriptures. They all will see Christ. They'll
all believe on Him. They'll all have everlasting
life. They all will pass from death into life and none of them
will be lost. Isn't that good news? Now turn
with me to Joshua chapter 10. And I want you to look at verse
15 again. Joshua chapter 10 verse 15, and
Joshua returned and all, all Israel with him into the camp
to Gilgal. Not a one of God's people were
lost. Not a single one. All of Israel
was with Joshua, and all of true Israel will be with Christ. He said, where I am, you shall
be also. That's what the scriptures tell
you. Now, what happened to the five
kings? We saw briefly last week. Let's look at it again. Verse
16. But these five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave
in Makeda. You remember they had come against
the Gibeonites because the Gibeonites had joined in union with Joshua. Verse 17,
it was told Joshua saying the five kings are found hid in a
cave at Makeda. And Joshua said, roll great stones
upon the mouth of the cave and set men by it for to keep them.
Then look down at verse 20. And it came to pass when Joshua
and the children of Israel had made an end of slain them with
a very great slaughter till they were consumed, that the rest
which remained of them entered into fenced cities. And all the
people returned to the camp, to Joshua and Machadol in peace,
and none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. And then said Joshua, open the
mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings unto me out
of the cave." You know, since our last study, I've not been
able to get these five kings in a cave off of my mind. I found the names of the nations
that these five kings, these countries in which these five
men were kings very interesting. First we have Adonai Zedek, whose
name means Lord of Justice. He was the king of Jerusalem.
And as you know, Jerusalem means habitation of peace, but his
kingdom was a habitation of false peace. A lot of folks today seem
to have peace, but it's not true peace. And these folks cried,
peace, peace, when and where there was no peace. A lot of
folks doing that today. Then there was King Hoham, King
of Hebron, and Hebron means alliance. And Hoham, which means crushed,
I thought that was interesting, had allied himself with one who
knew no peace, and there was no peace for him either. Then
there was King Pyram, and that means a wild ass. And he was
King of Jarmath, and Jarmath means high. This king was high
and lifted up with pride like the others. And he too cried
peace where there wasn't any. Then there was King Jathia, King
of Lachish. Lachish means invincible. Those
who think themselves to be invincible are usually the first to fall. And then there was King Dabir,
which means enlightened, and he was king of Eglon. Eglon means
ruined. All who think that they are enlightened
and oppose Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, wind up ruined. They had joined forces to make
war against Gibeon because Gibeon had made peace with Joshua. And
because of a covenant with Joshua, and I just love to think about
this, because of a covenant with Joshua, Joshua would fight this
battle for them. And every battle, and Joshua
always won. Isn't it wonderful to think that
our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ fights every battle
for us and He always wins. What do we have to fear? What
do we have to be afraid of? Our Joshua is God. Now in verse six, Gibeon cried,
come up to us quickly, save us and help us. Isn't that the prayer
of every believer? It's the same today. All God's
people cry. in trouble and distress, even
so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. When Peter first walked on the
water, taking his eyes off Christ, he began to sink. You remember
what he prayed? Lord, save me. And I picture
this in my mind's eye. The Lord reached down his hand,
grabbed him from the boisterous waters, brought him into the
boat. He saved him. The woman of Canaan,
whose daughter was previously vexed with the devil, simply
cried, Lord, help me. Oh, we don't have to make long,
pretentious prayers. The Lord hears the simplest cry. Lord, save me. Lord, help me. He did. And we're told at the
sound of Gibeon's cry that Joshua ascended from Gilgal to save
and help and upon the cry of his people, the Lord Jesus Christ
descended from heaven to do the same. Now I was thinking, what
can we learn from these five kings in a cave? I'm not trying
tonight to stretch a type or make a new type or anything,
but I really feel like this is a good opportunity to talk about
these things. I was thinking how much religion
today, false religion, is like that cave at MacDowell. It's
a cave that's cold, dark, damp, hollow, and void of light and
life. And I want to talk to you briefly
about five kings of false religion, five kings of false doctrine
that hide in the cave of religion today. Do you know these five
kings? They too will be destroyed by
our Joshua. First, there's King Free Will. He's the king of human ability.
This king teaches his subjects that although mankind was killed
and dead by his fall into sin, that he's not been left in a
state of total spiritual helplessness. He wasn't destroyed and killed
by the fall, he was just banged up a little bit. that somehow,
opposed to what God told Adam about disobeying Him, that man
is not dead, that God does not and will not interfere with his
freedom and his will to choose life for himself. Every subject
of King Freewill's kingdom possesses the will and the ability to give
themselves life. The nation of king free will
has the ability to choose good over evil because their will
is not enslaved to their sinful nature. These subjects have the
power to either cooperate with God's spirit and be regenerated
or resist the grace of God and perish, but it's in their hands. They believe that their salvation
is found in their ability, that their faith is their gift to
God. And it's man's contribution and
cooperation and salvation that saves him. But King Free Will
is in the cold darkness of religion's cave and his doctrine is hollow
and void of light. Man is unable to believe. Man
is unable to give himself life. No man can come to me that he
might have life. No man will come to me that he
might have life. No man has the ability to come. All who the Father gave to Christ
will come, all of them. Not one of them will be lost.
The sinner is dead, the sinner is blind, the sinner is deaf
to the things of God. His heart is cold like his religion,
like this cave in which he worships. and lives, and His will is not
free. It's in bondage to His evil nature. Therefore, He cannot and He will
not choose good over evil. It takes much more than the sinner's
assistance to be brought to Christ. It takes regeneration. It takes
a new life, a new birth, a new creation by which the Holy Spirit
of God makes the sinner alive who is dead and trespasses in
sin. Oh God, help us to understand
that faith is not something that we contribute to our salvation,
our faith, it's part of God's gift to us in the new birth.
Man must be given life before he can be given faith. A dead
man cannot believe, a dead man cannot come, a dead man has no
faith. It's not his faith that saves
him. It's his new birth in Christ that gives him faith. Faith is
God's gift to a sinner. It's not a sinner's gift to God. Oh, I wish folks could understand
that. We get the cart before the horse. The second king that
we find in this cold, dark, hollow cave of religion is King Conditional. Have you ever heard of him? This
king believes that everything is conditioned upon him and what
he does for himself. This king and his subjects believe
that God's love is conditioned upon man's love for God. That God's election is conditional
upon man choosing God. God's mercy and grace is conditioned
upon his cooperating with God. Letting go and letting God, giving
God his heart. God's choice, election of certain
individuals is conditional upon God looking ahead in time and
seeing who would believe, therefore making man's salvation of man
and not of the Lord. This king teaches and believes
that God selected only those whom he knew would of themselves
freely believe the gospel. Therefore their election was
conditioned and determined upon what man would do, not what Christ
did. That God's choice of particular
sinners was conditional upon man's choice and man's will.
That it was entirely up to man as to who would believe and therefore
be elected unto salvation. Thus the sinner's choice of Christ,
not God's choice of the sinner. is the ultimate cause of salvation. But this too is a cold, dark,
lifeless doctrine that cannot be substantiated by the Bible.
And this king has got to be put away with. On the contrary, God
gives faith and repentance to each individual who he himself
has selected and chosen and given to Christ. And friends, all of
them will be saved, every single one of them. The acts of love,
mercy, grace, and forgiveness, even election, was not determined
or conditioned on any virtuous quality or act foreseen in man. It is God who loves and predetermines
and calls and justifies and glorifies particular sinners while they
were yet ungodly, the scripture says. Oh, God saw you as a good
boy. No, He didn't. You were ungodly. Even while we were yet ungodly,
Christ died for us. God died according to His own
purpose and after the counsel of His own will to save wretches
like you and I. Those whom God sovereignly elects,
He draws and calls to Himself through the power of the Holy
Spirit, and He makes them willing to bow to Christ in the day of
His power. Therefore, God's choice of the
sinner, not the sinner's choice of Christ, is the determined
factor and cause of salvation. And I'm so relieved about that.
If it was up to me, and if my salvation depended on my choosing
of God, I'd never be saved, and neither would you. Then there's
the third king who was once a general in his own army. Maybe you've
heard of the king. He's known as General Atonement. And he is the king of universal
redemption. You ever heard of this king?
He's pretty popular in today's religion. This king's rule proclaims
that Christ's redeeming work made it possible for everyone
to be saved. but did not secure the salvation
of anybody. That's a blasphemous thought. Christ died for all men and women,
making salvation possible, but not certain. Is there any peace
and rest in that? Christ's crucifixion and death
simply enabled God to pardon sinners on the condition that
they chose to believe. But the shedding of Christ's
blood didn't actually put anyone's sin away. Christ's redemption becomes effective
only if man chooses to accept what God has made possible. You've
heard it and so have I. Christ's redeeming work was
intended to save the elect only and it actually secured salvation
and redemption for every single one of them. And if my salvation is dependent
on me choosing Christ, as I said a moment ago, then there's no
hope for me. As a substitute for chosen sinners,
Christ died and he paid the penalty of sin, death being sin's wages. And He did so in the place of
those that God gave to Christ, and all of them that He gave
to Christ will be saved. In addition to putting away the
sins of His elect people, Christ's redemption secured everything
necessary for their salvation, including their faith, which
unites them to God. We're saved by grace through
faith, and that's not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. And that's
what it is. And what a gift it is. Being
God's grace and the faith. The gift of faith is divinely
applied by the Holy Spirit of God to all for whom Christ died. And that guarantees their salvation. Nothing dependent upon me. And
I'm so thankful. I can rest right there. That's where I find my assurance.
You know, the word possible is actually defined as one's power
and capacity to do something. Well, then it's not possible
for me to be saved, because I have no power and capacity to save
myself. If my redemption is dependent
on my power and my capacity to do, then I am sure to be lost. Then we have the fourth king,
found in religion's cave, and this is King Achan. You ever
heard of him? His last name is Resist. King,
I can resist. This king, in his doctrine of
death, believes that the spirit calls and does all that it can
to bring every sinner to salvation. Yet man, having a free will,
can successfully resist the spirit's call. King I Can Resist believes
that the Spirit of God cannot give a sinner life until that
sinner believes. So in essence, man's faith precedes
life and makes this new birth possible. Isn't that what folks
believe? In other words, man's free will
limits the Spirit of God's ability to apply Christ's saving work
And the Holy Spirit can only draw those to Christ who allow
him to have his own way, to have his way with them. And the Spirit
cannot give life until the sinner responds. Okay, Lord, you can
save me now. I give you my permission to save
me. How ridiculous. God's grace is
not effectual and invincible if that's the case. God's grace
is not irresistible if it can be resisted. by man. But God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit would cease to be God if that were
so. Cease to be God. Men that preach such things are
denying God to be God. If God is any way dependent upon
man's cooperation in the matter of salvation. If God can be resisted,
simply put, He's not God. And He's not to be feared. God's
Spirit sees to it that every elect sinner does cooperate,
and does believe, and does repent, and does come freely and willing
to Christ. Why, He made me willing to come
in the day of His power. Every child of God is willing
to come to Him. And why wouldn't it be? Where
else would we go? Thou hast the words to eternal
life. There's nowhere else for us to go. Therefore, God's grace
is irresistible, and it's invincible, and it never fails to result
in the salvation of the sinners that God draws to Himself. You cannot resist the Sovereign. Not alive. Then the fifth and
the last king, or doctrine that hides in this cave of false religion
has the same first name as the last king. His name is King Achan,
and his last name is Fal, King Achanfal. Do you serve King Achanfal? This erroneous and evil king
teaches that those who believe and are truly saved can lose
their salvation by failing to keep the faith. You know, I guess
it was the same not long ago. I had someone not long ago say
to me, keep the faith, brother. And I thought to myself, I wish
I could. But only Christ can do that for
me. I'm kept by the power of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can't keep my faith. If I can be saved by something
I do, then I can be lost by something I do or by something I don't
do. And one who reigns under King Eichenwald will never ever
find peace, never find comfort, and never find rest. You just can't do it. All who
are chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and given faith by the
Spirit are eternally saved. They cannot fall. They cannot
be lost. They are kept by the power of
God. They'll be preserved until the end. Not by their persevering,
but by God preserving them to persevere. And if salvation was
not obtained, it was not obtained by my faith, If salvation was
not obtained by my faith, then faith was the result of my salvation. Therefore, my faithfulness, or
lack of it, whichever it may be, has no bearing on my eternal
security. It's Christ's faithfulness. Now
hear me on this. It's Christ's faithfulness to
me that forever saves me. I'm not going to stand before
God and brag about my faith. But I will brag on His. For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
God forbid. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ,
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, not by the works of the law. For by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified. You cannot do what God requires,
because what God requires is perfection. In whom we have boldness
and access with confidence. Boldness and access with confidence
by the faith of Him. Not faith in Him, but the faith
of Him. That's where we find it. Ephesians
3.12. And Paul said, oh, that I may
be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness
which is of God by faith, by His faith. Philippians 3.9. Friends, we're in spiritual warfare. We really are. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and
against powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take
unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness Christ is the truth. Christ is
our righteousness. And your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Christ is the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, it's the faith of Christ
that saves us. Wherein you are able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation.
Jesus Christ is salvation. Clothe yourself with Christ.
Put on Christ. Oh, that's how we win this battle. That's how we have victory over
this spiritual wickedness. The helmet of salvation and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Jesus Christ
is the Word of God. That's talking about Christ.
All those things are. And do you know what had come
to pass in all these things? We're told right here, verse
22. Then said Joshua, open the mouth of the cave and bring out
those five kings unto me out of the cave. And they did so,
and they brought forth those five kings unto him out of the
cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king
of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. And it
came to pass when they brought out those kings unto Joshua,
that Joshua called for all the men of Israel. And he said unto
the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near,
put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came
near and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua
said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed. Be strong and of
good courage. For thus shall the Lord do to
all your enemies against whom you fight. And that includes
the five kings that we just mentioned. Verse 26, and afterward Joshua
smoked them and slew them and hanged them on five trees. And
they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. And it came
to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua
commanded. And they took them down off the
trees and cast them into the cave, wherein they had been hid,
and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain unto
this very day." Now, friends, when our great Joshua, the Lord
Jesus, comes to deal with these five kings of men and women's
imagination, that's all they are. The same is going to occur. The same is going to happen.
They'll be cast in the cave in which they hid. Great stones
will be laid in the mouth of the cave. They'll remain dead
and imprisoned forevermore, never to raise their pompous heads
again. and all those that have entered
into a covenant with the heavenly Joshua. Are you a Gibeonite? I am. I've entered into a covenant
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus entered into
a covenant with His heavenly Father. And every believer's
peace and hope and rest and assurance is in the King of Kings. The
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, may God be pleased to make
it so for God's glory and His people's good and for Christ's
sake. We have nothing to fear. The
victory's won. The battle's over. It's finished. And that's where we can rest.