If you'll open your Bibles to
Joshua chapter 11. Joshua 11. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father,
bless this gathering this morning. And once again, we pray that
the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ would be revealed to us
in this story from the book of Joshua. In Christ's name we pray.
Amen. Now, chapters 10 through 12 record
the conquest of the remainder of the land. And we've been a few weeks on it. Hopefully we'll get done this
week. But I want to look at something
in verse 10 and 11 of chapter 11. We'll read that. It says, And this is after he
had battled, I believe, well, several of the kings of that
area. And remember, kings back then
were just the leaders of walled cities and the territory around
them. And it says, at that time, Joshua
turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. Hazor had been the head of all
these kingdoms. Everyone in it they put to the
sword. They totally destroyed them,
not sparing anything that breathed, and he burned up Hazor itself. We'll go on, verse 12. Joshua
took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the
sword. He totally destroyed them as
Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. Yet Israel did not
burn any of the cities built on their mounds except Hazor,
which Joshua burned." And so here, you know, it's giving kind
of a summary of the defeat of all those kings. The battle with
them had begun when Jabin, the king of Hazor, had gathered Several
of the other kings contacted them and said, we've got to go
out against these Israelites together in force or they'll
pick us off one by one. Well, of course, it didn't matter
how many of them conspired together to defeat the Israelites because
the Lord fought for them and there is no person nor combination
of people or any other kind of beings who can defeat the Lord.
But when these various cities were defeated, we read that Joshua
put to death the kings of all of those cities and everyone
in them. Once again, a brutal sort of
war, but it's just a description of the fact that in spiritual
things, all which stands opposed to God will be destroyed. Period. It will be. As we go
out as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and we preach the
gospel, whenever we, symbolically speaking, take
a city, all that is in it is destroyed. And we mean by this
that the king of that city, self is destroyed, and another king is put in its place,
and we know this isn't done all at once, in a sense, because
we're still in the flesh, the flesh has not yet been destroyed,
but it will be, but it no longer dominates our thinking in things
regarding, or things pertaining to God. in things of the Gospel
and in how it is we relate to God. But the Gospel, not only as a
message, but the Gospel accomplished by Christ, being applied by the
Spirit of God, will, in time, utterly destroy everything that
is there by nature. and replace it with that which
has been born again supernaturally. The Lord God said in the book
of Revelation, behold, I make all things new. So in a very
real sense, salvation is not a reformation of what's already
there. It is a destruction. of what
is already there, replacing it with something brand new. But
there's a distinction to note in the way these cities were
handled. All the living things in Hazor and the other cities
that conspired with that city, all the people were destroyed. And then Joshua destroyed the
city itself of Hazor. But they did not destroy the
other cities. They took the spoils out of those
cities. I assume that they were walled cities and so the walls
weren't torn down or it wasn't burned. And I see in this a pattern
of what the Lord Jesus Christ does in the salvation of his
people. Why was even the city of Hazor
destroyed? Hazor was the city from which
the rebellion started, from which it came. And I believe in some,
you know, we can look at this and, you know, I'm kind of known
for being able to see patterns and sometimes I fear maybe I
see patterns where patterns don't exist. But I see a pattern here. The devil is the very first rebel
against God. And he it was that brought our
race, the human race, into rebellion. And the Lord Jesus Christ, it
is said of him that in his work, he crushed the head of the serpent. You crush the head of a snake,
snake done, dead. And the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ utterly destroys that wicked spirit that first
rebelled against God and is the father of all lies, he's the
father of murders, he's the father of every evil thing in the universe,
and he's utterly destroyed. But what does God do when he
saves someone? And I believe that that is symbolized in what they did to
the cities other than Hazor. They went there and they took
out the king and all the people. In other words, everything living
in these other cities is destroyed. But the city wasn't destroyed.
New people occupied it. And you and I, and if we're going
to take this, the battles of Israel in conquering
the land, we're looking at that as a picture of how the church
works in this world. And we go out preaching the gospel.
Now, we go and, as it were, confront a city. And everything in it
that stands opposed to God is taken out through the preaching
of the gospel. It's destroyed. But the person isn't. Now, one thing, it says the king
in all these cities was killed. Man considers himself to be the
king. One of the first evidences of regeneration of being born
again is that the person gets off of his own throne, bows before
the Lord Jesus Christ, and gladly acknowledges him to be Lord. The king has been brought down.
And all those other aspects of our nature, the nature we got
from our parents, I think it's It surprises me how much gospel
material some people can hold to, and yet it seems like they
believe something that goes way out in the left field somewhere.
And I know that's my right, so I guess left field's over here.
But this idea that the children of believers possess something
that the children of unbelievers don't, I'm sorry, the only thing
that we passed on to our children was our sinfulness, our genetic
makeup, and our natural rebellion against God. The children of
believers are as lost as the children of anyone else. And they are every bit as much
in need of a sovereign work of God's grace as is any other person
in the world. Now, the children of believers
certainly have advantages, just like the Jews did. If their parents
believe God, worship, take their kids with them, well, their kids
get to hear the Gospels. A lot of people that grow up
in this world, they're born, they live, they die, and they
don't even know that such a person as Jesus exists. What a wonderful
advantage to know the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
children of believers have an example of faith set before them. These are advantages, yes, but
none of them guarantees an eternal blessing of grace. They need
the Spirit of God as much as any. Nonetheless, when God sends
his gospel to a person with the intention of saving them through
that gospel, that is natural, all that a person
has from their parents is put to the sword, but a new man is created. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. Now, I don't want to spend too
much time on that particular scripture. Paul is not speaking
there in 2 Corinthians 5, I believe it's verse 17, talking about
man being a new creation. He's not talking about the new
birth. What he means there is, if a
person's in Christ, then so far as the law is concerned, so far
as any judgment of his sins is concerned, it is like he is an
entirely different person from what he was. And that's why,
right after it says, the old is gone, the new has come. If any man be in Christ, he's
no longer in Adam, therefore, He's the same guy or woman, you
know? I mean, we would see him as the
same person, yet in the eyes of God, he's another person and
sin doesn't attach to him. But that is exemplified or that
is symbolized in those cities which were defeated And all that
had breath in them was put to the sword, but the cities were
spared and new life entered in them. And it was occupied by
different people. And you look at a believer from
the outside, he looks just like he did before God gave him faith. But inside, it's a new person
in there. A new person that believes different
things than what he once believed. And it took longer on that than
I intended, but I can't remember if there was ever a time when
I said, well, that didn't take as long as I thought it would.
So now let's go on with what is supposed to be the lesson
of today. Verse 21, at that time Joshua went and destroyed the
Anakites from the hill country, from Hebron, Deborah, and Anab,
and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill
country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them
and their towns. No Anakites were left in Israelite
territory, only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod did any survive. So Joshua took the entire land,
just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance
to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land
had rest from war. Now, this is the record of the
last battle that Joshua led. And as the last battle, it pictures
for us What is the last battle, the
last victory, shall we say, that is achieved by our Lord
Jesus Christ? And that is the battle over death,
the victory over death. In this battle described here, there is a singularity
in the language as it relates to who fought and won this battle. Now we know that Joshua went
out and the armies of Israel followed him, but the Holy Spirit
describes the battles this way. Joshua went and destroyed the
Anikites. Joshua totally destroyed them
and their towns. Joshua took the entire land.
Now, that reminds me of that image or that vision that John
saw in Revelation It says, and I saw heaven standing open and
behold a white horse and he that sat upon him, upon it was called
faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And then it says, and all the
armies which were in heaven followed him. But from that vision, there
is no question as to who is waging the war and winning the battles,
that one on the white horse called Faithful and True. And on his thigh was the name
written, the word of God and King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We, even in our lives, we wage
battles, though we don't wage war the way the world wages war.
But still, we're in a battle with the world. We're in the
battle with the world as it is directed by its head, so to speak,
the devil himself, and as he works through his various agents
to trouble us and works within our minds to bring up doubts
and confusion and fear and all that. These battles there, but
this is what in military they would call mopping up. The enemy's
already been defeated. Remember how when David killed
Goliath, once he brought down Goliath, well then all the armies
of Israel came pouring out of their hiding places, you know.
But what were they doing? Did they meet Goliath's allies
on the field, you know, and they come head-to-head, you know,
hand-to-hand combat? No. As soon as Goliath fell,
the armies of the Philistines turned and ran, and the Israelites
were just pursuing them. And when they'd catch up with
one of them, they killed him and stripped him of anything
of value. That's all that went on. It's not like the Israelites
gained a defeat over the Philistines. David did. And the Israelites just kind
of mopped up after the real battle was over. But Joshua is the one accredited
with all the victory here. And the reason is simple. In
Acts 4, verse 12, it says, salvation is found in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given to men by which
we must be saved. It is recorded in Hebrews 10
verse 14 that Christ by himself put away our sin. And then it
is written that by one sacrifice, Christ has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy. All the praise of heaven is reserved
for one person. the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in the book of Revelation,
there's visions of God, visions of our Lord Jesus Christ, visions
of martyrs and others of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of those are seen. Of course, praise is given to
God. But so far as praise given to a human being, the only human
being in heaven who gets praise and honor is our Lord Jesus Christ. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Worthy art thou, for thou hast
redeemed us by thy blood. Not one of all the armies which
were in heaven that followed this one on the white horse,
not one of them is going, did you see how many I killed? Did
you see how much progress I made? I've told you before how the
church that I grew up in would have their watch night service
on New Year's Eve, and during that there was an opportunity
given for people to stand and quote, give their testimony. I do not recall one person standing
up and testifying of what God did. they would talk about what they
had done. And they would say, of course, we give the glory
to God. You know, that was kind of that little footnote at the
end. Or they'd say, well, God enabled
me to win 25 people to Christ. Well, it was a testimony, all
right, but it was not a testimony of the things of God. The armies of heaven never boast
of their victory. They boast of the victory of
their captain, the Lord Jesus Christ. We should have the same
attitude. Another thing to note in this
battle is the enemy that it has destroyed, and that's the Antiquites.
The Antiquites were the descendants of Anak, And they played an important
role in the history of the people of God. It was because of the
Antiquites that the Jews had refused to go into the Promised
Land nearly 40 years before these events. Remember the 12 spies were sent
in. And of the 12 that looked over
the land, 10 of them said, yes, it is a good land, flowing with
milk and honey. However, the Anakites were there. Now,
the Anakites were descendants of the Nephilim, the giants. And these ten spies said, you
know, when we saw them, we were like grasshoppers in our eyes
and in their eyes. That's all we were. And the sight
of the Antiquites filled them with fear. Fear of what? Fear that they'd get killed if
they went in and tried to take the lamb. And because of that
fear, they refused to go in. And in their refusal to go in, they remained forever, or for
the rest of their lives, children of bondage, never experiencing
the freedom and liberty of the land of promise. Now let's look
at several scriptures here. If you'll turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. And begin reading at verse 25. And Paul is speaking of the resurrection. And he says, for he, that is
the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 11.25, for he must reign until
he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be
destroyed is death. Now, Death has been dealt a fatal
blow in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, one of
the most noteworthy treatises or books written by faithful
men of the past, it's a book I've never read because the fellow
is extremely hard or difficult to read, a fellow named John
Owen, and he wrote a book called The Death of Death in the Death
of Christ. And the mortal wound has been
inflicted, we understand that. But why does it say that the
last enemy to be destroyed is death? Well, the full destruction
of death is not accomplished until God's people are raised
from the dead. And our bodies are transformed
to be like his body. And everything that is connected
to sin and death is gone forever. It says he must reign, and he
is reigning right now. You know, when it says he must
reign, does not mean that every one of his enemies has yet to,
excuse me, has already been destroyed. It means he's in charge that
no enemy of his can survive. And he will destroy all of his
enemies. and the last one to be destroyed
is death. Now look over at Hebrews 2, verse
14. One of my favorite texts of Scripture. If it's alright to have favorites. It's all Scripture, but I think
one of the reasons that the Bible is such a big book is God revealed
His truth in so many different ways. And there is a way that
it is revealed that is suitable to each of his elect, that they
hear it and understand it. And I just love what the writer
here says, verse 14 of Hebrews 2, since the children, that is
the children of God, have flesh and blood, he too shared in their
humanity, so that by his death he might destroy him who holds
the power of death, that is the devil. And free those, now look
here, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery
by what? By their fear of death. Death is the elephant in the
room. It is everybody sees, but nobody talks about. Why? Well, naturally speaking, there's
nothing we can do about it. All of us will end up at that
point at some time, one way or another. And in the grand scheme
of things, it's of little consequence how long it takes us to get there. Now it speaks of the fear of
death. Death by itself is not what causes
the fear. It could be an unsettling thing.
There are some who believe, particularly the atheists, they say, well,
we're just like the animals. We come into existence and then
we cease to exist. Now, to me, I hate that kind
of thought, that there would come a time when I wouldn't exist
anymore. But Hebrews 9 verse 27 shows
us what the fear of death is. It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, the judgment. That's where the fear is. The
knowledge that death, the experience of the death of this natural
life simply ushers us in to being judged by God, and the conscience
of man is such, he knows he's guilty, and this judgment is
not going to turn out well for him. Now, the devil uses that to hold
people in bondage. The devil's saying it's freedom,
but it's not, it's bondage. Because what he says is, through
their conscience. He's saying, huh, you're going
to die and you know it, and you know you're going to face God,
and you know that it's not going to go well with you, you better
straighten up your life. Remember, there's those Ten Commandments
over there. You better put them up on your wall, look at them
every day, read them. When you go to church, read them. Wouldn't
want you to feel comfortable there. Wouldn't want any preaching of
grace to be able to penetrate that declaration of the law which
does nothing but show that you're a sinner and worthy of death
and certain to receive it. Keep them up there. Don't ever
allow yourself to be free. Don't ever think that there's
any way that you could be free from the condemnation of that
law apart from you keeping it. And if not that law, the devil's
got plenty of agents in the world that will create other laws. And therefore, men and women
are held in bondage And the chain that holds them is their fear
of death. What did the Lord do? Well, let's
look at 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1, beginning in verse
9. It says, who, that is God, who
has saved us and called us to, with a holy calling, not because
of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and
grace, this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the
beginning of time, But it has now been revealed through the
appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who has destroyed death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Our Lord said a seemingly contradictory thing as he approached the house
of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and said to one of the sisters,
and I forget just which one of them he was talking to at this
time, but he said, he that believes in me will never die. Wow. But then Lazarus believed Christ,
and he was dead. So the Lord went on and said,
and he that lives and believes in me, though he die, yet shall
he live. He clarifies the point he's making.
Brethren, this body will die. And as much as our flesh resists
that, God be thanked that someday we'll be done with this. Because
if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything,
everything that brings you sorrow, grief, doubt, fear, it's all
connected somehow with this body. It is still under a curse. It
still operates according to the principles of law and legalism. It thinks that way naturally.
And that's why you and I, we are believers, but there's a
constant conflict that goes on in our mind. And when we sin,
we can be brought into a state of fearful condemnation again. And the only reason we don't
stay there is because the Spirit of God is more powerful than
our flesh, and He works in us to recall the Gospel to us. But
still, it's all coming from here, and when God puts that to death,
when God finally says, okay, that's the last breath I'm giving
you, and we fade from the consciousness of this life, what happens? Immediately,
we enter into the consciousness of a life without sin. without fear, without confusion,
without any of the things we hate about this life. He's destroyed death. It no longer
has power over the believer. It comes. It terrorizes. And it takes out, you know, using
that image of death that we have, the guy in the black robe with
the scythe, you know, it comes harvesting all the people. But
here's the thing, the moment it harvests one of the children
of God, Christ is there. And their spirit is taken away
to be with Him. Free from all that causes us
trouble. He has destroyed death and brought
life and immortality to life through the gospel. All right.