Acts chapter 13 verses 17 through
23 and then we're going to take up at point number 2 and try
to make our way through points 3 and 4 today if we can. The apostle having been beckoned
to stand up and speak in the synagogue says in verse 17 of
Acts 13, the God of this people Israel chose our fathers and
exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land
of Egypt. And with an high arm brought
he them out of it. And about the time of forty years
suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their
land to them by lot. And after he had given unto them
judges for about the space of four hundred and fifty years,
until Samuel the prophet, And afterwards they desired a king,
and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe
of Benjamin by the space of forty years. When he had removed him,
he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also
he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse,
a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. Of this man's seed had God, according
to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. When John had first preached
before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people
of Israel, and as John fulfilled his course, he said, whom think
ye that I am? I am not he. But behold, there
comes one after me whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to
lose. The Apostle Paul then ends this
opening discourse, which is an historiography of the events
that transpired from the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through
Egypt up to the point of the Lord Jesus's ministry. And then
he turns to them with men and brethren, children of the stock
of Abraham. And he begins what we call an
exhortation to consider what God has done through history
in the life of his people. You and I are going to back up
now as we did last week and begin to contemplate verses 17 through
19. I'm going to read them and we'll work through our points
and consider their application. Verse 17 is Paul opens up speaking
to his Jewish brethren in the synagogue. He says the God of
this people, Israel chose our fathers. exalted the people when
they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with a high
arm, he brought them out. And about the time of 40 years,
he suffered them, that is their manners, in the wilderness. And
when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided
their land to them by lot." And what you and I recognize in verses
17, through 19 last week, as we are dealing with point number
three in our outline, but we'll start at point number two. As
we noticed in verses 17 and 19, is that what Paul was dealing
with in verses 17 through 19 was the first cause. He was exercising what we call
a first cause principle. He's talking about history and
he's very terse, very sharp. And if you notice the way he
constructs his discourse, he opens up with the God of this
people. Didn't we talk about that last
week? And I said that this was very Jewish. This was very synagogal. This was very tutorial. Paul
knows that he's talking to people who actually believe the word
of God. When you are witnessing to people, you want to know your
auditors. You want to know whether or not
the people to whom you are speaking are already predisposed to believe
the Bible. If they are not, then for you
to just talk as if they know God is to make a grave mistake
on your part, because you are going to be vulnerable to an
apples and oranges discussion. Have you ever started a conversation
with someone? And in the midst of that conversation,
you discover they don't believe what you believe. And therefore
you didn't detect that at the premise of your discourse with
them, there was not an agreement upon certain assumptions that
there is a God, that there is one God, that God has revealed
himself to us through a depository of truth called the Bible. These
are fundamental to whether or not we are going to be able to
engage people successfully or not. What if that person was
an atheist or agnostic? And they had bought into the
notion that you cannot really know if there's a God. And you
certainly cannot tell people that there is a written code
called the Bible by which we can be confident that God is
speaking to us. That'll be the reason why in
many cases when you're witnessing to people, you don't make any
headway because we're not dealing with the presuppositions or the
assumptions that they're holding first, before we advance into
the discussion of theology. On the other hand, what we might
derive from verse 17 is this, that Paul is speaking to the
choir. You guys got that? He's speaking
to the choir. And when you're speaking to the
choir, you are free, if you will, from having to explain every
point you make, because the choir knows what you know. The choir
is acquainted with Bible teaching. It's acquainted with phraseology
that is unique to the church. The choir is acquainted with
terms like God and the works of God and the power of God and
the sovereignty of God. A lot of theological concepts
we already know. When you're talking to the choir,
you can just have at the conversation. This is what Paul is doing. But
when we use the term first cause, what are we saying, ladies and
gentlemen? We're saying that everything starts with who? That's
right. It starts with God. Everything starts with God. If
a person does not believe that God is in control of everything,
then that person doesn't have the biblical God. And when Christians
are taught properly how to communicate the works of God, what they're
going to do is make God the subject of the discourse. And when you
look at the phrase, you'll notice the God of this people, Israel
chose our fathers. So the primary subject is God.
Is he not? The secondary subject is Israel. The action is election. Look at that first line, the
God of this people, Israel did what chose. So we saw earlier
in this, in your point that God did the, what choosing it's God
that chooses. Do we choose God or does He choose
us? Be very clear on that. Do not ever make the mistake
that you somehow are smarter or brighter than other people
and you made your way into the favor of God versus other people.
God is the one that chooses us. He's the one that calls us. He's
the one that comes to us. He's the one that addresses us.
This is why we have the Old Testament narrative to give us these big
illustrations and pictures of how God moves into the life of
His people when they are in a mess and then redirects their life.
And so under point number two, we quickly acknowledge God chose
them, God what? Redeemed them and God what? Suffered
them. That's the way verse 17 through
19 works itself out. The God of this people Israel
chose our fathers. In the latter part, he brought
them out of Egypt. That's called redemption. Verse
18, he suffered their ways. And then in verse 19, which is
where we're about to go now. And when he had destroyed seven
nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their lot to them. What I called your attention
to last week after that, we addressed the issue of first causes was
the issue of instrumentality. What we're doing now, as we look
at the text, is we're being not only exegetical, but we're being
expository too, because instrumentality is the fact that God uses what? Means. Please remember that,
that God uses means. While God himself is the first
cause, God always, always, always, always, without exception, uses
means. God always, always, always, without
exception, uses means. It is the nature of God to necessarily
utilize means by which he not only brings things into existence,
but interacts with them or relates to them. Why is that the case? Well, let's just do a little
bit of biblical theology. This would be called theology
proper if we were in seminary or Bible class. Theology proper
deals with the nature of God. The God of the Bible is wholly
He's harmless, he's undefiled, and he's separate from sinners.
He's wholly harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. The
God of the Bible is infinite in his nature. He's impeccable
in his character and his qualities. And because of the uniqueness
of his being, he cannot have direct communication with his
creatures without his creatures being affected by the uniqueness
of his power and his glory. When God spoke the world into
existence, he spoke the world into existence, what we call
by divine fiat, ex nihilo. He declared it into existence,
which means he used a mechanism by which it was brought into
existence so that it was not brought into existence as we
have already learned as a consubstantial part of God's being. Creation
is existential. It is something that is on the
outside of God, a consequence of the mediation of his word.
So I'll say that one more time, just for some of you who are
ready for this, because what this teaches you is the true
nature of the God of the Bible. God is separate from all of his
creatures because of his nature, but because of his characteristic
and because of his attributes, he communes with his creatures
only through means. So he speaks the world into existence,
right? And the beginning was the word
and the word was with God. And the word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. And there was nothing that was
made that the word did not make. Right. He's spoken into existence. So we have God. We have his word.
We have creation, don't we? The mediation between God and
his ontological nature and creation is the what? The word, the mediation. between God and his ontological
pure nature and all other created things is God's word. And that
word allows us to exist in the presence of God without being
consumed by the nature of God, because the word is the mediatorial
means between us and God. You guys follow that? Right,
and so then subsequent to the word bringing all things into
existence, And if we were wanting to identify the personality of
the Word, we would say that the Word is whom? The Son. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the Word, right? So the Father speaks all things
into existence through whom? The Son. Christ is the mediator
of all things. When creation is then made, creation
is designed to glorify God, but the only way it's going to glorify
God is to function according to the way God made it. The moment
we deviate from our original design, now we diminish our ability
to glorify God as he had created us to be. This is why you and
I have a problem today with this crazy mess of humanity denying
its original design. Because in doing so, we cut ourselves
off from the glory of God, which is the only way we can give God
honor. God speaks it into existence through the mediatorial means
of his word. And then he upholds all things
by the word of his power. Everything is being held up right
now by God's word. You, me, and every molecule in
the universe is kept together, compacted together. It consists
right now in a sense of coherence and purpose as a consequence
of God's word. The moment that God says fall
apart, we will all disintegrate. Every atom in the universe is
upheld by the power of God's word. That's Hebrews chapter
one. That's Colossians chapter one. You guys follow that? And
so what you and I are thinking through when we talk about first
causes is making sure that when we represent God as the first
cause that we don't teach a no mystic view of God or an animistic
view of God that basically says that God is one with everything
that he makes. That's a pagan idea. You guys
follow that logic? Just because God is everywhere
present. And we call that what omnipresence. And just because
God upholds all things by the word of his power, we call that
omnipotence. And just because God governs
all the affairs of the universe, we call that sovereignty. Doesn't
mean that the thing made possesses the same qualities of nature
as the one who made it. For if we hold to that view,
which is called consubstantiation, we would be deifying the creature
because the creature would be tied to God directly in terms
of nature. But there's a mediator between
the creature and God in his ontological nature. And that's God's oral
will be manifested through his son who brings all things into
existence by speaking. So then we are upheld by the
word of God. And while there is a dependence
upon God, and while you and I are glorifying God, when we walk
in our calling, you and I can never say that we are one with
God in the nomistic or the animistic sense that we bear the same nature
of God. That would be a falsehood. So
God is separate from us, but he uses means, doesn't he? Now,
ladies and gentlemen, he uses means for everything. I just
want you to be clear on this, because this will help you when
you deal with God on pragmatic levels, as we're going to see
when we go into our third point. What do I mean that he uses means?
Well, he creates the heavens and the earth, and then he creates
a man to govern the heavens and the earth. And he tells that
man, I want you to be my vicar, my representative, and I want
you to subdue the earth, have dominion over it, control all
things, multiply, replenish, and fill the earth with human
beings that are made in my image. I'm going to give you qualities
and powers and directives and purposes, and you are going to
be the mediator between me and creation. God uses means. Then
having given man these wonderful directives, what does God have
to do in order to help man fulfill his objective? He has to give
man what? A woman. God uses means. So he takes a rib from the man,
creates a woman, and that woman now with man in a complementarian
relationship is able to fulfill the word of God. Is that true?
All right, having then created a duplication process by creating
for man a woman out of man and they're working together in unity
and harmony. What else does God do to facilitate
his will in the life of man? He gives man angels. All the
angels in heaven are designed to serve God's will and to help
the people of God advance in the cause of God. Is that true?
So the angels are ministering spirits, ministering on the behalf
of those who are heirs of salvation from the beginning of time. And
so in the process of God's unfolding will, what we see are the agencies
of instrumentality working. Is that true? Here's another
mechanism, just in case I haven't persuaded you yet. He created
man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils, the
breath of life man became what a living soul. And so man was
a direct product of god versus the animals and other things
being indirect products. God made man as his own handiwork
He therefore sustains man's life not by a direct relationship
with man but by instrumentality For he first created a big old
vegetable garden So that his physical body can be sustained
by an instrumentality called food Do you see the cycle? The process of instrumentality
by which God's will is done is not something that God does necessarily,
but it's something that God does volitionally. Now I'm pressing
this home for this truth, that when we talk about the sovereignty
of God, do not misconstrue the sovereignty of God as not necessitating
means by which it's done. We have talked about this before.
God is saving men and women as he has been from the beginning
of time. Has he not? But God is not coming to men and women
directly by himself, speaking into the hearts and minds of
men and women on a one-to-one level where people are getting
saved because they just bump into God. Remember, even though
he's first calls, he uses what? Means, instrumentality. And this
is the glorious thing about the gospel. God has chosen to save
sinners through sinners. Is that true? God has chosen
to save sinners through sinners. So look at God. This gives us
an insight into the character of God in how settled God is
with his own being, that he has no problem sharing the functional
roles of his creative will with his creatures. You know, some
people are so egocentric that they want to do everything. God
has no problem with sharing with his creatures instrumental means
by which things get done. And also think about this as
we get ready to deal with this secondary but critical component
to the fulfillment of verses 17 through 19. You and I as human
beings are a mess. I do not have to expand on that,
exegete that, exposit that, or develop that. It's just an obvious
statement. I am stating the obvious when
I say that. And so my wife often gets on me when I state the obvious.
So what is your point? You and I are a mess. And yet
God is so settled in his own being that not only does he choose
to, he delights in using us to get the job done and to get the
most important job of eternity bound souls done. Isn't God settled
in the security and wellbeing of his own wisdom and power,
that he could still use fickle creatures like you and me. Silly,
fickle, up and down creatures like you and me. Impotent, powerless. I wouldn't use you. I'm looking
at you, I'm letting you know now. If we gotta save people,
I'm not. I'm looking for angels, I'm not looking for you. But
I'm not God. God can draw a straight line
with a crooked stick. Can he not? And you and I are
a bunch of crooked sticks. And we're thankful that he's
pleased to do so. It manifests an aspect of his
glory that's rooted in his love for his fallen creatures. So
now I wanna call your attention to the second point in our outline,
as I've now laid the foundation for it. In our outline, third
point rather, in our outline, point number three, God working
through who? So I pressed that home because
I'm bound by our text verses 17 through 19 watch what it says
the God of our of this people Israel chose our fathers verse
18 and about the time of 40 years suffered he their manners in
the what that was the time when Moses had authority over the
people as King as prophet as priest as And as a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ head over the new kingdom, right? Moses
points to Christ, right? Moses, the mediator between God
and man there in the wilderness. But Moses didn't take them into
the promised land. Did he? Who took them into the promised
land? Right. So what I am compelled to do
when I read verse 18, verse 19, when I read verse 19 and this
versus terse type as if God knew that he was going to be writing
to people in the 21st century who can't do better than about
a 10 second soundbite. Cause verse 19 covers hundreds
of years. And it actually deals with details
in terms of the book of Joshua and judges that are critical
to our understanding instrumentality. What I want to just deal with
you on tonight is the person of Joshua. And when he had destroyed
seven nations in the land of what? Now who destroyed those
nations? God did. But he used means. Who was the primary means by
which he destroyed those nations? Yes, indeed. Joshua. Not the
Israelites. Joshua. So I need you to get
that. I need you to get that God destroyed
them through who? Joshua. Now remember what I just
stated a little bit? If God asks me, Jesse, He never
does, by the way, he doesn't, he doesn't seek my advice. I've
been, I've been in service for 35, 37 years now. And not one
time has an angel came dispatched to me and said, now, Jesse, we
need you up at the throne room of God. God has a question or
two. He thought you might be able to help him out. It hasn't
happened yet. It might happen in the future,
but as of now, God hasn't let me in on nothing. What he's doing.
He's just giving me his book. And, uh, when I say, that the
instrumentality that we want to consider now is Joshua is
because of the fundamental rule of biblical hermeneutics and
biblical hermeneutics for every crystal centric believer says
that the Bible is about whom that's right the Bible is about
Jesus you missed that point You'll never be able to properly represent
God on an evangelical level. You missed that point. You missed
the way God works. And in fact, when I talked about
instrumentality, we talk, when we think through the chief means
by which God gets anything done, it's through his son. All things
were made by him. And there was nothing that was
made that was not made by him. Ephesians 3.19 says, 3.9 rather,
says that God created all things by Jesus Christ. And the Bible
tells us that when we have a proper lens and we read our Bibles in
an informed way, this book is about one person, and that person
is Jesus. So when we go through the epics
of scripture, whether it's the Genesis narrative of the sea,
the Exodus narrative of the birth, The Canaan narrative of the rule
is all about Jesus. So when God decided to bring
that knucklehead group of Israelites of whom verse 18 says he suffered
them for 40 years into the promise, he determined to bring them into
the promise through whom? Joshua, not Moses. Moses would not be allowed to
bring them into the promise because of Moses's sin and because of
Moses's calling. God chose to bring the children
of Israel into the land of Canaan through Joshua because Moses
was primarily not exclusively a type of the law. The law has
for its synonym in personification, the name, what Moses? We believe
Moses said Israel. Moses is preached in every synagogue. Paul talks about in the book
of acts. Moses represents the law. The law was given by Moses,
John chapter one, but grace and truth comes through home. And
because Moses is a type of the law, Moses could not bring the
children of Israel into the promised land. Otherwise salvation, which
is typified by coming into the promised land would be accomplished
by the works of the law. You guys follow that logic. So
here God, building through history, a pattern of redemption to highlight
the centrality of Jesus Christ, stops Moses from allowing him
to bring the children of Israel in by allowing Moses' sin to
hinder him. Now that becomes sort of another
application or exhortation to you and me as well, like this.
God can call you to an amazing ministry. or a magnificent assignment. And that assignment that he gives
you really does require your full obedience. And yet, if you
and I fall prey to missing the point of the assignment, which
is what Moses did in the book of Numbers chapter 11, when he
was so tired of those knucklehead people of whom he was willing
to die for them a few years earlier, he had got tired of them. They
got on his nerve. Do your Christian brothers and
sisters get on your nerves sometimes? Does your husband get on your
nerves sometimes? Don't turn and look at him. Don't turn and
look at him. Does your wife get on your nerves? You sure enough
better not turn and look. And yet you remember the day
you said, Lord, I thank you for him. I thank you for her. I thank
you for this. I thank you for that. And how
trials can twist your head backwards like Rosemary's baby. And you
fail to realize that God is still in control. And you wake up one
day actually functioning like an enemy of God. Even though
you are God's child, if you and I are functioning carnally, as
we will learn this Sunday, you can actually be an adversary
of the very God who has put you in a state of favor. Is that
true? Why? Because the carnal mind is always,
always enmity against God. It never ever will do the will
of God. Whenever you and I are functioning
carnally, we are backwards to the way God works. God told Moses
to speak to the rock. And Moses's emotions got the
better of him because he was so mad at his brothers and sisters
that that stick that God had given him. See there, even the
mechanism by which you glorify God, you can actually turn that
thing into an instrument of condemnation and scorn. That very stick that
was used to open the Red Sea, to smite Egypt with 10 plagues
and show Pharaoh that he was a peon God, that the true and
the living God governed the universe and could take him out just so
easily. That same rod that Moses used
to open the rock and pour out rock waters by which the children
of Israel were nurtured and nourished and satiated. That same rod this
time was used to glorify Moses and not God. See, on this occasion,
God said, don't use the rod. Its purpose was accomplished
37 years ago when you smoke the rock the first time. That's Exodus
chapter 15 through 17, by the way. And Moses is smiting the
rock was a picture of the law cursing Christ, who is the rock
that had to be smitten in order that the waters of righteousness
might come out by the Holy Ghost and actually save sinners and
quicken sinners and give them life in the midst of this desert
world. You guys see the picture? So
Moses is the mediator between God and man. Man needs a savior
and the law now has to smite the only person that's able to
bear the curse of the law and at the same time provide for
the people the waters of grace that they might live. So moses
used the rod the right way and he did it by faith because he
did it on an obedience to god. Did he not? But for moses to
smite the rock twice Would be to mar the gospel Because christ
must and could only die one time He was crucified once for sin
and had Moses smitten him over and over and over again, we'd
have to believe in the Catholic doctrine of the crucifixion of
Christ over and over and over and over again in the Lord's
table. Am I telling the truth? But what
we understand is he died once for all. So when Moses smoked
the rock a second time, God told Moses, you failed to glorify
me. Isn't that what he literally
said? you failed to glorify me. And because of that, you're not
going into the promised land. Your car is going to fall in
the wilderness this year. And so he said, get Joshua ready. Cause Joshua will be the one
that takes us in. You guys follow me. So now does
not God know how to even use our sin to advance his purposes
in Christ, right? His, our sin does not catch God
by surprise. Does it? It doesn't catch us
by surprise since God sees the end from the beginning. God knows
everything. He knows it's when it's coming.
But here's what you and I better know. When you and I sin against
God, there will be consequences. Moses will tell you, you better
listen to God, because while he had a chance to see the promised
land over up on Mount Nebo, he looked over into the promised
land. Moab he was able to see it. He
couldn't enter in and Typologically, it's the law bringing us to the
promise but never ever bringing us into the promise The law can
point you to Christ the law can tell you what you need to be
right with God But the law cannot provide it for you If there had
been given a law that could have given life then verily Righteousness
would have been by what the works of the law Galatians chapter
3 you guys know your Bibles So I'm just talking off the top
of my head, cause you should know these things already. So what we're
doing is laying out what we call biblical theology history, according
to whom Jesus, and we're coming to understand that God will use
our sin to advance his purposes. Knowing the end from the beginning,
Moses went to heaven. We saw him on the Mount. Didn't
we have transfiguration? He was in glory, but he didn't
get to bring the children of Israel into the promised land.
God wanting to bring them in through a man named Joshua, whose
name means what? Saints, Jehovah saves. Not just Jesus, Jehovah saves. Jehovah saves. Yeshua is the
Hebrew term for Jesus in the Greek. And this is why Matthew
chapter one, verse 21, the angel said to Mary and Joseph, and
you shall call his name Jesus. for he shall save his people
from their sin. So the transference of authority
was taken from Moses and given to Joshua. And Joshua now has
the privilege of bringing the people through the Jordan into
the promised land. And boy, if you haven't read
that account, what a magnificent redemptive truth that whole picture
was. You know, they didn't just walk
over. You know, when Joshua finally settled down with the commission,
cause it took a while, God said, Joshua settled down. Well, I've
been watching you sweating for the last three weeks. Ever since
you was told you were going to be the one to lead these people
in. And Joshua said to the Lord, now, you know, Lord, why I'm
sweating, right? Cause I'm leading these same knuckleheads that
ended up getting my, my predecessor killed. I got to deal with these
knuckleheads and I don't know how I'm going to do it. He had
every right to be afraid. because his head had failed,
his mentor had failed. Why should Joshua think that
he would succeed? Are you guys following the logic?
And what this produces in a person is humility. When you and I receive
an assignment from God, we have to quickly understand that that
assignment is not given to us because of intrinsic qualities
or because we're better than someone else. It's only given
to us by the prerogative of God, by the free prerogative of God,
who is able to make all grace abound in our life, apart from
our inadequacies. But when God gives you an assignment,
the first thing you do is hit your knees and say, Lord, I am
not sufficient for this assignment. I cannot do this assignment on
my own. If you don't give me grace to do this assignment,
I will lapse. I will collapse. I will fail
just as quick as my mentor failed. This is what Joshua struggled
with. And God had to come to Joshua and tell Joshua to be
strong, be of good courage. Have not I told you that I will
be with you just like I was with Moses? Herein lies your confidence. I will be with you. And Joshua
straightened up and said, all right, here we go. And the next
day he had the whole of the nation do exactly what his mentor had
the whole of the nation do before they received the law of God.
Do y'all know what that was? Take a bath. You'll get that in about five
seconds. And, uh, listen, Nora, is Norma here? Is that yours?
That's just yours? Girl, you better come get this right now. Uh, take a bath because God is about
to show up. Remember what he said? Wash for
three days. And on the third day I'm showing
up. And so it implied that for you and me to have got drawn
near to us, we have to be sanctified. Washing is always a symbol of
sanctification. Water follows God everywhere
he goes. Water started creation. and water
is in the new creation. And John said, I saw a throne
and him that sat on the throne. And I saw the lamb of God also
and proceeding from the throne of God was waters that went out
everywhere. And on each side of the waters
were the trees of life. We'll talk about that in our
Psalm study. But the point is water is a symbol of purification,
of cleansing, of sanctification, of life. And so the people of
God had to wash in preparation for a great miracle that God
was about to do on that day. Do you guys remember what God
did in order to let the children of Israel make it over into the
promised land? He had to stop the waters of
Jordan the same way he stopped the waters of the Red Sea. Because
crossing over from one position to another position requires
a miracle. Leaving a former state to enter
into a latter state requires a miracle of grace. To go from
one situation to another in terms of advancement into the will
of God is always a requirement of God acting supernaturally
to get you there. In other words, God had to open
up the Jordan. And he opened up the Jordan all
the way up to the high mountains where the waters run down. The
city that God described as to being the place where the water
stopped way at the top of the mountains was a city of what?
Adam. You guys remember that? He says
in the waters dried up all the way up to the top of the mountains,
even to the city of Adam. And it became a picture of how
God has been saving sinners through the work of Christ, going all
the way back to the fall of mankind. So what he did once he dried
up the rivers is he told Joshua to tell the people y'all stay
back now I need you to stay back for about a mile and a half.
Let the priests go in front of you and The priests are to go
in Bearing the Ark of the Covenant you guys remember that now the
Ark of the Covenant is a picture of whom Christ our propitiation
the mercy seat and points to the atoning work of Christ, does
it not? The Ark of the Covenant possessing the manna of showbread,
or the manna that becomes the showbread as well, and then the
rod, that Aaron's rod that budded, and then the covenants of God,
the Ten Commandments, those three articles were in the Ark of the
Covenant. All three of those articles pointed to the work
of Christ. Christ is our high priest. So Aaron's rod that budded
was the day when God told Israel, Aaron is the high priest I chose,
remember that? Whosoever rod it is that buds, he's the one
that I chose. That rod had to go inside the
ark of the covenant because on that day that the children of
Israel tried to choose their own high priest, God killed a
bunch of them, didn't he? Tried to choose their own king.
The manner that God told Moses to put in a bronze pot, and put
in the Ark of the Covenant was the provision that God had supplied
for Israel all the way through the wilderness. You guys remember
that? Remember how they complain, can God furnish a table in the
wilderness? Can God provide for us? Here
we are in the wilderness, we're in this desert, there's no water,
there's no food. And what did God say? Tomorrow
you shall see the glory of the Lord. And the manna came down
and sat on the ground like hoarfrost in the morning. And when the
fog went away, they had some wonderful pancakes, didn't they?
Wonderful pancakes. And then God gave them fried
chicken in the evening, broiled chicken in the evening. I'm doing
this for my healthy folks, broiled chicken in the evening. Now the
manna represents the Lord Jesus Christ too, doesn't it? I am
the bread of life that comes down from heaven. If a man eat
of me, he will never ever hunger again. So first and foremost,
the rod that budded represented Christ as our high priest. The
manner that's placed in the Ark represents Christ, the incarnate
God. He is our mediator. Without him,
assuming a human nature, you and I could not be saved. And
then what else is in that Ark? The Ten Commandments, which Israel
had broken. Remember that? God had Moses
to make a second set, and he said, put this also in the Ark.
Why put these three articles in that box? Because they were
a testimony. Remember? The Ark of the Testimony. Are we learning something tonight?
So let me go ahead on to develop this while I have you here. The
Ark of the Testimony is God's testimony to man of man's rebellion
and God's solution. The Ark of the Covenant is a
testimony of God of man's rebellion and God's what? Solution. The
very same thing of which man rebelled against, God is using
for his solution. Aaron is a great type of Christ
as our high priest. Is not Christ our solution as
the high priest? The manna is a great type of
Christ, the incarnate God. Is not Christ assuming a human
nature, the solution to our sin problem? Had he not assumed a
human nature, he would never have been able to die on the
cross because God in his infinite nature cannot die. Dying is mutation. God is immutable. God can never
be killed. But if he assumes a human nature,
then he becomes like us. He can bear our sins. He can
bear the judgment of God. And because he was also God,
he can come out on the other side as our great mediator and
high priest. Is that good? And the reason
for which he had to assume a human human nature was because of that
broken law. So when you and I are looking
at the arc of the covenant, we are looking at God's solution.
to man's problem. The Ark of the Covenant points
to who? Christ. Now watch this. Lo, I come in
the volume of the book is written of me to do thy will. So you
can see the children of Israel about a mile away from the Jordan
looking way yonder in front. And guess what they see the priest
doing? Carrying the Ark into the midst of the Jordan. Do you
see that? And then God tells them to stop
in the middle of the Jordan. And when they stopped in the
middle of the Jordan, all the waters dry up because the waters
didn't start to dry up until the priest started putting their
feet in the water. Why? Because the priesthood is
the mediator between God and the people. Remember, the priesthood
is a system of mediation. You shall represent the people
before me, God says. And so even as the church is
the mediation between a holy God and a sinful world, is it
not? The priesthood was a mediation
between a holy God and a sinful nation. So what the people had
an opportunity to do was to see a mechanism, a mediation process
that went before them in order to make a way for them to go
across. And the whole of that priestly
system pointed to the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ, who is
the forerunner of his people, who went before us into heaven
to make a way for us to enter in. And thus we hear the echoing
words of John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes unto the father, but by me. So the priesthood
had to go before the people. And when the priest stood in
the middle of that Jordan and the waters receded, guess what
the people were able to do? Cross over. I want you to watch
this now. The people only cross over when
the ark itself is in the water. The people only cross over when
the ark is in the water and the waters abate. The ark points
to the atoning work of Jesus Christ, does it not? The waters
represents the judgment of God, the wrath of God, Jordan is always
a symbol of death. This is why John the Baptist
was baptizing in the river Jordan. The Hebrew term Jordan means
to descend and it means to descend into hell. Baptism is a dying. It is a burial and a what? Resurrection. Can you imagine
then as the people were told by God after that the priest
stood in the middle of the Jordan I tell the people to go on on
the cross that you got a chance to walk get closer and closer
to the ark Pass that ark by and say hallelujah for the Lord Jesus
Christ if it wasn't for Christ I wouldn't be able to enter into
the promises of God. Do you guys see that? They were
able to enter into the promises of God because of their forerunner
represented in the Ark of the Covenant the Lord Jesus Christ
Do you see these pictures? They are critical to the doctrine.
And so Joshua is the man that leads them into the promised
land. As Hebrews chapter three will tell us, chapter four will
tell us here in a moment. Joshua's name means what? Jehovah will save, the Lord will
save. Joshua is the Hebrew counterpart to the Greek New Testament term,
what? Jesus. Now listen to Hebrews
chapter 4 verses 3 through 8, so that we can understand what
I am talking about in the larger redemptive sense, now that our
hearts and minds have been filled with such an illustrative picture
of what it means in verse 19 of Acts chapter 13. In Hebrews
chapter 3 verse 8, are we there? We were here last week, but I
want you to see it. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation,
as in the temptation in the day in the wilderness, when your
fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my works. And then if you will go over
to verse 18. And to whom swear he that they
should not enter into his what? But to them that what? So we
see that they could not enter in because of what? Now, the
people that entered in, were not the people who perished,
right? The people who perished were the unbelieving old folks
who complained about God's ability to kill the giants in the promised
land. The people that went in were the babies, 20 and under,
right? And so Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 18, except you become like a little child, you shall
never enter into the kingdom of God. So it was these little
children that had to wait for the old folks to die. because
of their unbelief. And then God brought them in
through Joshua. And this is why faith requires
the humility and humbleness of trusting God in spite of the
circumstances. So we read over in chapter four,
these words, cause I want you to see it. And we are told over
in verse, uh, Verse seven, again, he limited a day, saying in David,
today, after so long as it is said, today, if you will hear
his voice, do not what? Harden your hearts. For if whom? Now, who is he talking about?
Joshua. He's talking about Joshua. Watch
this, for if Jesus had given them what? Now see, the context
is about national Israel not crossing over because of unbelief. And now he's talking about the
one who led them in. So don't let the term Jesus here,
Jesus in the Greek mix you up because what the King James did
in other translations have Joshua. How be it what the King James
did is just took the literal word Joshua because in the Greek
it would have been equivalent to Yeshua or Joshua in the Hebrew. And so we understand now the
old testament joshua corresponds to the new testament what jesus
for if jesus had given them rest Then would he not have afterwards
spoken of another day? And so joshua brought them into
their rest. Did he not? As he did for them to enter into
the promised land joshua brought them into their rest He brought
them into the promise. They didn't wander anymore in
the wilderness. Notice what it says, for if Jesus
had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken
of another day. There remaineth therefore a what
to the people of God? For he that is entered into God's
rest has also ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man should fall after the same example.
So what I'm about to do now, go back to Acts chapter 13, what
I'm gonna do now is take that very concise language of verse
19 and show you a couple of wonderful truths around Joshua so that
when you read the book of Joshua, you will always have this framework
and recognize that the book of Joshua is a very unique epic
in Israel's journey and sojourn into the promised land. In Acts
chapter 13, verse 19, and when he had destroyed, how many nations?
Right. God destroyed those nations,
didn't he? Who was the means by which he destroyed them? All
right, so I'm getting ready to tell you something that you may
or may not know, and I'm gonna show it to you in the scriptures,
that the different ethics in the scripture, which are part
of what we call biblical theology, the historical narrative of the
redemptive works of God, teach aspects of theological truth,
that when they're all put together, demonstrate the power of Christ's
redemptive work for us. So when we get to the book of
Joshua, the whole book of Joshua, it is a unique period in Israel's
history that corresponds to the New Testament, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. The period of Joshua, which is
the period of bringing the people into the promised land and them
living in the promised land for some 40 to 50 years while Joshua
lived. Joshua lived to be about 110
years old. I want to show you something. I'm going to show
you the parallels, the powerful parallels between the ministry
and life of Joshua in the promised land and the ministry and life
of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those are the parallels.
Like the Old Testament points to the new, the New Testament
fulfills the old. Is that true? The two must correspond
in order for you to have a comprehensive picture of what God is up to.
That's why Jesus says you are searching the scriptures in John
5 39. And in them, you think you have eternal life. You are
searching the scriptures, but if you don't understand that
the scriptures are pointing to Jesus, you missed the whole point.
This is why when you read the old Testament, if you don't read
the old Testament with new Testament lenses, you will miss the glory
of God. So like tonight, I'm giving you
a blueprint of biblical hermeneutics. Otherwise you can't enjoy the
book of Joshua nor judges or any of the other books because
they were all offices of Jesus. Are you guys following me? So
now follow this. When I say that Paul is using
a first cause principle here, acknowledging in terse fashion
that God was the one who ultimately destroyed Canaan. We do not doubt
that. We do not argue that. That's
an undebatable issue. But what we know is he has, for
some reason, omitted the means. And you and I have the privilege
because we have the whole Bible to go back and look at how God
destroyed them. How did God destroy the seven
nations? Through one man, his name is
Joshua. The book of Joshua is unique
in that the book of Joshua is the history of God destroying
all his foes and giving the whole land of Israel to every tribe. The book of Joshua is unique
in this. Without Joshua, Israel would
have never conquered the land. And here's the point. Without
Christ, you and I would never have salvation. When you read
the book of Joshua carefully, what you read is a warrior king
who leads his people into battle. In every battle he fights, he
wins. Every battle he fights, he advances. He advances to this city and
that city, to this nation and that nation. And eventually he
subdues all the seven nations that God said he wanted to subdue.
Joshua subdues them all. Joshua subdues them all. What is the first major city
that Joshua subdues? We all know it, Jericho. Is that
true? Right because Jericho was a strategic
city set up by the Jordan River by which foes coming into the
land of Canaan could be thwarted off It is for this reason when
Israel came into the land of Canaan Joshua was our Jericho
was already shut up. They had closed their walls.
They had shut their gates They were ready to fight against Israel.
Are you guys hearing me? They were ready to fight against
Israel Except for one sister you guys remember her I believe
you saved me and saved my house. And Joshua said, I put a Scarlet
Scarlet color thread out the window. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. You got that. And when I see
the blood, I will pass over you because you believe my gospel.
You hear me now, right? And so what I'm getting at is
this. You don't want to read your Bible with a shallow comprehension
of just the historical narrative. This book is about Jesus. And
the thing that has fascinated me with the book of Joshua is
how Joshua's campaigns were so massively successful. I wanna
show you just a couple of verses. You got 30 more minutes with
me before I send you home. You're gonna sleep good tonight.
I always sleep good when I spend time with God, don't you? Go
with me in your Bibles to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter
11 going to show you a few things here. We are doing injustice
to this particular reflection and thought only because the
whole of the book of Joshua really requires a meditation and Commentary
really requires going through again. I think I went through
the book of Joshua many many years ago And some of you people
who have a pay con to want to go back and get the cassettes
That's old cassettes I want everything past the priest. I would have
melted those cassettes down and turned them into CDs or something,
but people be wanting to old stuff. And I guess you still
get to suck a little juice out of them or something. 500 years
ago, I taught the book of Joshua and those lessons were They were
very good. But in Joshua chapter 11, by
the time we get to Joshua 10, I'll just say this as you work
through the book of Joshua, if you read it, by the time we get
to Joshua 10, Joshua has figured out that God has given the whole
land into his hand. So, so, so, so here's the point
with, with, with, with being given an assignment before I
share with you these truths, because no person that God ever
uses is any really any more qualified than any other person that God
ever uses. But when God uses a person, he's going to teach
that person exponentially how God works in order for that person
to get the job done. Are you guys following me? So
like Joshua struggled a little bit early on in his ministry.
Yes, he did, but not so much as to make the major mistake
that Moses did. But by the time Joshua gets to
chapter seven and chapter eight, this brother's on the road. with
killing everything in his way. And he comes to discover that
God's on his side, that he can't lose. And you know how confidence
grows when you're in the will of God and you realize that what
God said was true. He's on your side. All you got
to do is keep doing what you're doing and you see the blessings
occur in your life. God opens doors, God shuts doors,
God removes your enemies, He quiets your adversaries and your
foes. You look up and you are dwelling
in peace land, grace land, joy land. Your confidence is boosted
when God is with you. And this is exactly where Joshua
is by the time we get to chapter 11. And so I'm gonna read in
Joshua chapter 11 verses 20 through 23. And I want you to mark the
language because here Joshua is at the peak of his campaign.
And here's what we read in verse 20. Are you there? For it was
up the Lord to harden their hearts. That is the Kings of the Hivites. It was up the Lord to harden
their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that
he might destroy them utterly. I got 25 minutes. Can I stop
here and just give another caveat? Because I've been teaching for
many, many years. And what I know is that there
are a lot of what we call classical questions that Christians raise.
And I love answering biblical questions because that's the
way you develop confidence in the word of God. One of the reasons
why Christians do not have more confidence in the Bible is because
pastors are not equipped and willing to actually study deep
enough and thorough enough to answer questions. They like to
avoid the difficult questions, but the word of God is very clear
when you go deep with God and he can show you truths that answer
really important and germane questions that we're all raising.
Here's a question that every believer would raise. If you
have called me to be successful in this endeavor, oh God, why
do I still have so many enemies coming against me? If you're
opening the door for me to obtain this blessing, why is entering
into this blessing fraught with difficulty? If you've called
me to achieve this particular assignment, why is this assignment
met with the challenges that are in front of me? You know
what you're really asking? You're asking God to give you
the blessing without any struggles. Now hear me now, He never works
like that. He never works like that because
when God gives you an assignment, it is a multifaceted assignment
that has to do first and foremost with His glory revealed to you. With His glory revealed to you.
See, you and I don't ever know enough about our God to not be
learning more about our God every day. And when he calls you on
an assignment, the first and essential student of that assignment
is you. God's teaching you about who
he is. The other thing he's going to
do in that assignment is teach you more about who you are. And then what he's gonna do when
you get comfortable with the framework of the assignment,
this is about me learning more about God. This is about me learning
more about myself because to the degree that I have come to
become honest about who I am, this is another problem with
Christians. Christians have a real difficult time with actually
looking in the mirror and seeing themselves for who they are. Am I telling the truth or what
tonight? Now follow the logic. I want you to see the logic now.
We all tend to make ourselves look better than we really are. But that mirror telling the truth,
brother. That mirror telling, didn't I
say it last Sunday? That mirror telling the truth. Warts and
knots and bumps, extra fat. It is what it is. And the word
of God is a mirror. And when you read it honestly,
you know what it tells you? All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's not a just man upon the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Man has sought out his own
ways. Man does what he wants to. There's
a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. Your thoughts are not God's thoughts.
Your ways are not God's ways. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so God's ways are higher than our ways. Now watch
this. You guys have heard all these verses before, but they
don't come home until you find yourself on your knees, depending
on God. I'm telling you the truth. So now watch this. The primary
objective of a relationship between you and God is your own conformity
to Jesus. The primary objective for God
in his relationship to you when he gives you an assignment is
to grow you up. His job is to conform you to
Christ. This is why assignments always have a measure of difficulty. You will never get an assignment
from God that won't have some weight of burden and difficulty
by which you must say to God, I need your help on this. You
will never get an assignment from God where God will allow
you to do that thing so clean and so smooth that you steal
his glory because you will. And then you start writing books
and patenting that methodology. I'm going to make a few dollars
out of this because I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't hone it down.
I know how to do this thing. Now, as soon as you're doing
that, you have failed to understand that without him, you can do
nothing. Are you guys hearing me? So now
as God is being glorified through you, you're being humbled by
him. In order for God to increase,
you have got to decrease. This is the way God always works. Not sometime, all the time. You and I will never ever do
anything for God of any significance until we are willing to go through
the school of Christ. Are you with me? It's the school
of Christ. It's the school of Christ. There
were 12 men who kicked it with Jesus for a three and a half
year seminary course. By the time they got past the
second and a half year, every time you turn around, they would
sleep. You'll get that in a moment. Courses were hard. Stand up all
night long, burning the oil. Jesus is looking around, they're
sawing wood. Sleep, tired. Do you know why? Because they couldn't keep up
with the master. Do you know why? Because they were operating
largely in the what? Flesh. This is what we're learning
in Romans 7. And over time, rather than them
saying, Lord, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. They started
asking very humbling questions. Are you ready? Like, Lord, teach
us how to pray. Grown men, 500 years old, asking
the master, teach us how to pray. Are you with me? The school of
Christ will humble you. The school of Christ will humble
you. Do you know, after about two years in theology school
with Jesus, you know the common retort that the disciples were
using when Jesus came to them? Lord, we couldn't do it. Lord,
we couldn't do it. Lord, we couldn't do it. You
guys got that? Lord, we couldn't do it. See,
and at that point they were beginning to discover that the power had
to always reside in God. So by the time they reached the
apex of our master's ministry, When he's at the cross, he's
in the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, fellas, I just need
you. I need you to, you my team, you my partners. Remember Jesus,
God doesn't do anything, but he uses mediators. Even Christ
is gonna send mediators out, right? The only reason you and
I are saved is because of the labors and efforts of the apostolic
band. But on the very night that Christ
was betrayed, he asked them to do what? Pray for one hour. They couldn't do it. They were tired after three and
a half years of running with this God man and watching him
go up and watching him come down, crossing land, crossing sea,
healing everything he touched, preaching the gospel. And the
one thing that really got to them, which is germane to where
we are, was everywhere Christ went, he had adversaries. Stay
with me because it's going to come full circle to my point.
Everywhere he went, he had adversaries. And the disciples after a while
were really struggling with the loss of fame and the increase
of ignominy and scorn and ridicule and blasphemy and distortion
of facts and the slander and the poisoning of the whale. He
was born of fornication. You know that, right? Just do
the math. How could that be? Joseph child
do the math. You know how we do do the math.
Do the man he couldn't be he couldn't be my son. He couldn't
be Messiah Messiah is not coming out of Galilee No prophet comes
out of Galilee Which was a big lie, wasn't it? Because the major
prophet that pointed to the true prophet came out of Galilee and
his name was what Jonah Jonah And as Jonah was in the well's
belly three days and three nights, so shall the son of man be in
the heart of the earth. All the theologians were saying,
nah, he from West Oakland, he can't be the Messiah. He from
Hunter's Point, he can't be the Messiah. He from Bay Point, he
can't be the Messiah. He from Louisiana, he can't be.
He was from all those places and he was the Messiah. Are you
guys hearing me? See, their presuppositions had
blinded them to the reality that when Christ came, he came to
assume a human nature that could meet the lowest sinner's needs. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
taking his three, his 12 disciples with him through that three and
a half year course, by the time he comes to his cross work, they
are worn out. Now follow the logic. When you
and I are worn out, God is about ready to use you. Got it? Got it. Am I telling the truth?
See, because what he has to do is drain your strength. He has
to hurry up and get all that bad vocabulary out of your mouth,
which fundamentally starts with the subject. I, I, I, I remember
Peter. I, I, you know, I'm your man,
Lord. I ain't going nowhere. I'll be
with you till the end. Peter was the first one to take
off. Remember this is called the school of Christ. God resists the proud. Do you hear me? And the first
people that he resists it in is his own people. He brings
them low. Are you guys following me so
well? Because grace is only given to the what? Humble, humble,
humble, humble, not humiliated. I love making this distinction.
God never humiliates his children. They are seated in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. They wear for all eternity, the
royal robe of his righteousness. They possess the ring of royalty
and the staff of royalty and the garments of righteousness.
They are in the sight of God, his sons with the same beauty
and splendor of his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. But in order
for us to be there, we have to first be here. Even as Christ
had to come down before he was exalted, so we must be brought
down before we're exalted. And as Jesus said to the disciples
in John chapter 14, you know the way I'm going, because you're
going the same way I'm going. Christ went through humility
too. Did he not? Just think about it. God in the
flesh, suffering all of the opposition and resistance of sinful man
against himself, spitting, scorn, ridicule, lies. suborning false
witnesses to have him crucified. And then on top of that, all
of his closest servants abandoning him. Are you guys hearing me?
And then his father turns his back on him, which is a whole
anthem of theology in Psalm 22 for us who will be in Psalm 22,
facing the glory of God and the atoning work of Christ and this
mystical separation between the father and the son, because the
son now becomes the object of the father's wrath because the
son bears our sin. The son was all by himself. Follow
this logic while I got you. He comes here for us. He comes
here for his father's glory. And he has to come to a point
of which before he gets there, he sweats blood. because of the
implications of where he's going. And when he gets to that spot,
that point in time, that place in time, everyone he loves turns
their back on him. Do you guys got that? See, and
I taught this in marriage class, and this applies here. When we
reject people, we are telling them to go to hell. You got that? When we reject people, we are
saying, go to hell. The worst feeling that a mortal
human can go through and deal with is rejection. And that was
the thing that Christ struggled with. He wasn't afraid of being
punished for our sins, but in his holy nature and in his understanding
of the implications of something he had never experienced. Separation
from his father was just on a human level worthy of requesting an
omniscient God if there was another way. Are you guys hearing me? And the father didn't answer
because the only way in which Christ would be able to return
to the throne was through the passageway, that narrow passageway
of absolute suffering. And that suffering included the
abandonment of everyone he loved, including you and me. Can you
imagine him having knowledge of all things? Having knowledge
of this 125 people in here? Every one of us for whom he would
now be the substitute. He would be the lamb of God.
God would pour out on him an eternity of wrath. The accumulative
fullness of every sinner for whom Christ died from the beginning
of time to the end of time, a number and amount that you and I can't
even begin to contemplate. The weight of God's fury poured
on Christ because of you and me. You guys got that? This is called an unfathomable
love and unfathomable love. And, and, and the son would have
you to love the father too, because the father in love had to turn
his back. If he didn't love me, the father
wouldn't have turned his back. Am I telling the truth? The father
loved me enough to turn his back on his son so his son could take
the hit for me. Are you guys hearing me? See
now now don't ever say you would be willing to give your son up
like that because you wouldn't And you don't have to Because
it was done one time And that's all that was needed But the point
is this as we're this is the point is this as we are getting
ready to wind this down and we'll come back next week the point
is this is that the process of being prepared for service for
god as it was for all of his servants up to the apostles was
the process of humility. You and I have to be brought
low. And if you still are not persuaded of that, just fix your
eyes on Jesus. Cause he had to be humbled before
he was exalted. You guys got the logic? Now then
watch this, watch this in Joshua chapter 11, 21 through 23. So
now, for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they
should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy
them utterly. Whose hearts were hardened? The
enemies of Israel. Who hardened their hearts? The
Lord did. We won't deal with that tonight
because only got 10 minutes, seven, eight minutes. But what
God did was give Joshua's enemies every excuse to marshal together
to oppose Joshua. Now I've said this before. I'm
going to say it again. If you have chosen to make the
true and the living God, your God, then you have chosen also
to make the enemies of the true and living God your enemies. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? See, this is why only few people
are going to enter into the kingdom. Because see, inevitably, when
you choose sides, you're going to have to accept all of the
crazy relatives, You got that? That's why we got to love one
another. Cause I chose God by his grace. I chose him. He chose
me. I chose him. I got to put up with you. You
understand that, right? You understand that, right? These,
my crazy relative is my crazy uncle over here. We got a crazy
uncle, crazy. Y'all know that, right? All part
of the family. It is what it is. It's good stuff. Y'all got to put up with me too. You didn't know that when you
received the Lord, because you thought it was just going to
be you and the Lord. When the Lord switched the position, he
had you look around and you became family members with billions
of other Christians. Crazy folks. Some folks that
you wouldn't want to spend hardly any time on earth with. Now,
I don't mind meeting you in heaven when it's all fixed. When it's
all fixed. Because in heaven it's fixed.
But you can stay over there on that side of where I pray for
you. Pray for me. And that's called family. And he would have us to love
one another out of a pure heart fervently. Are you hearing me? With all of our limitations.
But then not only are we to accept family members, we got to accept
foes. Watch this now. When Israel entered
into their inheritance, which inheritance the Lord had given
to them, they also entered into battle. How many of you guys
been with me for more than five years? All right, so then I have
taught you, haven't I? That when the Lord delivered
Israel out of Egypt in the year 1500 BC, general phraseology, he took
them through a 40 year period in the wilderness, right? And
that 40-year period in the wilderness was to teach them how to fight. You guys got that? To teach them
how to fight. It was boot camp. And after the
40 years was up, guess what he did? He deployed them. The promised
land is deployment. When you and I enter into the
promised land, he deploys us into this world. as his soldiers
to fight the spiritual battles for the objective of helping
sinners be liberated and freed from the bondage of sin through
the preaching and teaching of the gospel and lives committed
to Christ and worship and fellowship and wise witnessing and the whole
panorama of service to God is employment. This is a warfare. Are you hearing me? It's a warfare
for the souls of our children and our grandchildren, the souls
of our relatives, the souls of those we love and care about,
and the souls of lost sinners. When God saves you, he teaches
you how to fight, and then he deploys you. And every local
church is called to be a platoon for the Lord, every local church. And we collectively learn how
to worship God, which is the premise for warfare. Worship
and warfare is the nature of the gospel. Are you guys hearing
me? worship and warfare Warfare and worship. That's the whole
book of Revelation Revelation is worship and warfare Revelation
is worship revelation chapter 4 warfare revelation chapter
12 and there was war in heaven Are you guys hearing me? And that's why when God brought
Israel into the promised land, he strategically set them up
and said, now go destroy your enemies, their enemies. Israel didn't start no squabbles
with those nations. They were in Egypt doing fine
until God adopted them through redemption and told them, because
you are my sons, you are my servants, you are my people, my enemies
are your enemies. Now watch this, and your enemies
are my enemies. That's good. What that means
is my enemies who are stronger than me, I can go to God and
say, God, I'm on your side. This is the problem I had when
you adopted me. Help me with this. God says,
you're on my side. These are my foes. I want you
to wage war against these foes. I want you to tear down everything
that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. I want you
to expose every idol, everything contrary to my glory, every enemy
that opposes the truth, distorts the truth. I want you to cut
the lights on it, show it for what it is. I want you to seek
out lost sinners and deliver them out of the pit of bondage.
I need you to do surveillance. I need Navy seals. I need airmen. I need strategic platoons to
go in. I need all of you to do your
part. the salvation of sinners am I
making some sense brothers and sisters I need you all to do
your part and this is what Joshua's doing now watch this watch this
two minutes I'm just gonna read this through we'll pick it up
next week for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they
should come against Israel in battle that he might destroy
them what see that goes back to Acts chapter 13 God destroyed
them right now watch this But that he that he might destroy
them utterly and that he might have no favor That they might
have no favor, but that he might destroy them as the lord commanded
moses verse 21. Watch this And at that time came
who? There it is and cut off the anikins
from the mountains. You guys remember the aniki?
Those big old giants who cuts off the giants you are christ.
That's good That's good That's good. You know how you hear these
preachers talking about, go get your sword and kill your Johns. You ain't
killing no Johns. Jesus killing Johns for you.
The giant sins, crisis kill the little ones. He has called you
and me to bring in the captivity. Do you understand that? And even
that we have to do by his grace, but you and I, not fighting Goliath,
David, who is a type of Christ fights Goliath. Remember all
the children of Israel watching the battle? Could none of them
steal the glory that came to David alone, could they? Because
that was a battle between one man and one enemy. And that one
man was the mediator of the whole of the tribe of Israel. And that
one man points to who? Christ. Here it is. from the
mountains of Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains
of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel, Joshua destroyed them
utterly with their cities. Is that good? Verse 22. There was none of the Anakims
left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza, and
in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained. And that would be because,
I didn't say go yet, and that would be because, going back
to verse 22, and that would be because God would teach us a
redemptive truth. Watch this now. Some 300 years
later, when he raises up David to deal with this specific group
out of which came Goliath. So stay with me. Remember low
outcome and the volume of the book is written of me. So Christ
is in Joshua here, but he's going to be in David 400 years later.
Am I making some sense? And watch this, God never ever
destroys all our enemies at once so that we never get too proud.
That makes sense, doesn't it? Verse 23, last verse. So Joshua
took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said
unto Moses. Now you watch this, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance
unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes and
the land rested from war. Do you see the picture? Do you
see the picture? Massive success because of the
presence of Joshua. Massive success. And all the
land was given to everybody, right? This here is an allusion
to what will happen on the last day when Jesus come back. We
get the full inheritance when Jesus come back. But right now
we are fighting a battle and we win so long as Joshua is with
us. So long as Christ is with us,
we win. But as soon as Christ has left
the church, then we enter into the book of Judges. Where failure
after failure, after failure, after failure, after failure,
after failure occurs because they did not know the works of
the Lord as Joshua and the generation after them knew. Judges depicts
ministry. without Jesus. You guys hear
me? Let me close in prayer. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank
you for this brief reflection on biblical history and understanding
our need of our savior who has accomplished all things for our
redemption and is working through the church right now to restore
and to redeem and to reconcile and to even repair that which
is broken, that he might be glorified through us. As we go our way,
give us traveling mercies. Take us to our homes, our abodes,
and then prepare us to worship you as you ought to be worshiped,
we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you guys.