The NXR Podcast - September 10, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Binding The Strong Man & Plundering His House ｜ Joshua 11_16-23


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00:00:00.000 This morning, we continue with our series through the book of Joshua.
00:00:04.000 Our text for today is the remainder of Joshua chapter 11.
00:00:08.500 After this week, we're actually going to be skipping forward to the end of the book of Joshua.
00:00:13.540 And then we will finish out the year by teaching through the book of Ezra.
00:00:18.320 The reason why this is something not spur of the moment, but what I planned from the beginning.
00:00:23.480 Joshua does get bogged down.
00:00:26.000 All scripture is God-breathed.
00:00:28.040 It's all useful for training, rebuking, growing in righteousness
00:00:31.640 so that the man of God might be fully equipped for every good work.
00:00:36.360 But what we'll find in Joshua chapter 12
00:00:38.640 all the way to the last couple chapters of the book of Joshua
00:00:41.420 is the allotments of land given out to the various tribes.
00:00:45.240 It matters, but it is a bit dry.
00:00:49.440 So Leviticus is like a Ferris wheel by comparison to Joshua chapter 12 through about 1920.
00:01:00.060 So we will get the whole idea of the book of Joshua.
00:01:03.900 What we're focusing our attention on, for those of you who are joining us for the first time in chapters 1 through 11,
00:01:09.660 is basically the conquest of Canaan.
00:01:12.180 So we're seeing the fights.
00:01:15.400 We're seeing the most exciting scenes of the book of Joshua.
00:01:19.440 how they conquer each of these Canaanite tribes, and we're seeing the conclusion of that, the
00:01:25.100 conquest of Canaan in our text today, the final latter half of Joshua chapter 11. Joshua 12 to
00:01:33.560 the last couple chapters of the book is not the fights and the conquest of Canaan, defeating each
00:01:39.120 of these Canaanite tribes, but rather again, as I've already said, the allotments of land as an
00:01:44.140 inheritance to each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And then it picks back up at the end, which is
00:01:51.000 exceedingly important. That's where we'll pick up, Lord willing, next week. But we see it pick back
00:01:56.840 up at the end of the book with a renewal of the covenant between God and Israel. And so that's
00:02:03.240 really important, this renewal of the covenant now that they are not only a great many people,
00:02:08.500 but they are now officially a nation in a particular nation state. They have come into
00:02:15.840 the land. And so there are particular covenant renewal things that need to be accomplished,
00:02:22.520 but also there are further instructions given to Israel, not just how to behave as the people of
00:02:28.720 God, but particularly how to behave in the land. And so we'll look at that over the next couple
00:02:34.620 weeks, and that'll conclude our series through the book of Joshua. And then, as I said, we'll pick up
00:02:39.140 with the book of Ezra, and that will take us to not only the end of the year, but probably to the
00:02:44.080 end of January, mid-February of next year sometime. And the big idea through all this, Joshua and
00:02:50.360 Ezra, is fairly simple to put it in just a sentence or two. It's the idea is that in Joshua, we see
00:02:59.100 the people of God, Israel, taking the land. And then in the book of Ezra, we see that the people
00:03:06.100 of God were faithless when they were commanded to be faithful. They broke the covenant. They were
00:03:12.040 then removed as a consequence for the rebellion from the land. And in Ezra, they're now coming
00:03:18.140 back in to rebuild the ruins. They came about as a consequence for their own rebellion against
00:03:24.420 Yahweh. So again, Joshua is the initial taking, capturing of the land. And then Ezra is the
00:03:30.580 rebuilding of the ruins as they come back into the land after having been exiled and cast out
00:03:38.520 of the land due to their own faithlessness. And I think that both of those ideas, taking the land
00:03:44.200 and then rebuilding the ruins in a land that has been previously taken in times past, but a land
00:03:51.060 that has been largely lost because of faithlessness,
00:03:53.860 I feel like there are some relevant applicable themes there.
00:03:58.500 When I think of our current hour,
00:04:01.320 these United States of America taking the land
00:04:05.000 in a spiritual metaphorical sense
00:04:07.660 and then being faithless in the land
00:04:10.880 and there being many ruins
00:04:13.640 that need to be by God's grace rebuilt
00:04:16.060 and by God's grace to be rebuilt,
00:04:19.160 not exactly in the same ways, much in the same, recapturing our heritage insofar as it was faithful
00:04:26.920 and true to the word of God, but in the ways that we were not faithful, in the ways that
00:04:31.820 were not in line with God's word, because Western civilization and the foundation of our republic is
00:04:38.920 not infallible. It's not perfect. And so in the ways that we were wrong, as we seek to rebuild
00:04:44.540 the ruins if God would be so gracious as to provide us the strength to do so that we would
00:04:49.260 build back better, but not in a Joe Biden sense. So, okay. So that gives you an idea of where
00:04:56.940 we're going again today, finishing the conquest, the conquest of Canaan in the latter half of
00:05:03.320 Joshua chapter 11. Would you stand with me for the reading of God's word? I'll read our text in its
00:05:07.220 entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, this is the word of the Lord, at which
00:05:11.620 point, I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God. One final time
00:05:17.300 our text for today is Joshua chapter 11 verses 16 through 23. The Bible says this, so Joshua took
00:05:24.960 all that land, the hills and all the south country and all the land of Goshen and the valley and the
00:05:32.380 plain and the mountain of Israel and the valley of the same, even from the Mount Halak that goeth
00:05:40.420 up to Seir, even unto Belgad, in the valley of Lebanon, under the Mount Hermon. And all their
00:05:48.660 kings he took, and smote them, and slew them. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
00:05:55.340 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites,
00:06:00.880 the inhabitants of Gibeon. All other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their
00:06:08.260 hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly,
00:06:14.480 and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses.
00:06:21.760 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron to Debir,
00:06:30.580 from Anah, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel. Joshua
00:06:36.900 destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the
00:06:43.680 children of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod there remained. So Joshua took the whole
00:06:52.100 land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance
00:06:58.080 unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war.
00:07:04.860 This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. One thing that I want us to look at
00:07:11.360 before we get into the meat of the text is this, verse 20, verse 19 and 20. This is a sub point of
00:07:21.060 the sermon today, but it's in the text, and I think that it's important, significant that we
00:07:26.300 don't miss it. Verse 19 and 20 says, there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel,
00:07:32.140 save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. If you remember, when we were in Joshua chapter 9
00:07:40.620 and chapter 10, we saw that the Gibeonites, that they by trickery and by deceit entered into a
00:07:47.340 covenant with Joshua and Israel saying that they were from a far off foreign distant land outside
00:07:52.580 of the boundaries of Canaan. And Joshua and Israel were under direct orders from the Lord through
00:07:58.400 Moses that they should remove and drive out and utterly destroy all the inhabitants of the land
00:08:05.540 of Canaan. For the Lord had determined to give that. It's twofold. One, he determined to give
00:08:10.940 that land as an inheritance to Israel. So the Lord had determined to bless Israel with that land.
00:08:17.300 But the Lord had also determined to use Israel as his instrument to exact his righteous judgment
00:08:24.200 for the prior inhabitants, namely the Canaanite tribes, who were wicked and heinous and idolaters
00:08:31.780 and who had continued in their rebellion against God for at least 400 years, according to what we
00:08:39.720 see in Genesis chapter 15 and 16, what God spoke earlier to Abraham, that the fullness of their
00:08:46.020 iniquity had finally come to fruition. So God is doing two things simultaneously. He is blessing
00:08:52.140 Israel by giving them this land, and he is also using Israel to judge the Canaanite tribes. And so
00:09:00.420 the Gibeonites, under pretense, entered into a covenant with Joshua in Israel. If they had known
00:09:06.660 that they were their nearby neighbors, that they were actually inhabitants dwelling in the land
00:09:11.860 that God had spoken through Moses, that he had determined to drive out all the inhabitants and
00:09:17.280 to give every square inch of that land to Israel as an inheritance. If Joshua had known that the
00:09:23.540 Gibeonites were in fact in the land of Canaan, he would not have made peace with them. But again,
00:09:29.120 under pretense and trickery, they entered into a covenant with Joshua. The scripture says that
00:09:35.000 they did not, that is Joshua, the Israelites, did not seek counsel from the Lord. They entered into
00:09:41.020 a rash covenant. They made a frivolous and rash vow. And yet the vow, even though it was entered
00:09:48.800 into under trickery and deceit, it was a vow nonetheless. And Joshua was obligated to keep to
00:09:56.140 the terms of that covenant that was made with the Gibeonites. But all the other tribes in Canaan
00:10:01.400 were utterly driven out or put to death at the edge of the sword. And that's what we're finding
00:10:08.220 in our text today is the the final completion of this conquest over all the tribes in Canaan. Now
00:10:16.980 one sub point again it says there was not a single city verse 19 and 20 that made peace with Israel
00:10:23.500 except for the Gibeonites those in Gibeon. Verse 20 though then says for it was of the Lord to
00:10:31.300 harden their hearts. Notice this. It is not just that Israel defeated and destroyed or completely
00:10:41.280 drove out all these Canaanite tribes simply because these Canaanite tribes chose to come
00:10:49.100 against Israel, right? That Israel had to engage in self-defense, that they were provoked. That's
00:10:56.520 true. There is a sense in which these tribes, they have human agency, and they did choose to come
00:11:02.220 against Israel. But the text doesn't plainly or only merely say in verse 20 that these tribes
00:11:08.920 were coming against Israel. Israel, therefore, in order to self-preserve, they had to come against
00:11:15.360 these other tribes in order to defend themselves. No, it goes further. It gets into the sovereignty
00:11:20.660 of God, for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, these Canaanite tribes, that they should
00:11:27.660 come against Israel in battle. Why would God do that? Before we get on to, and this isn't all
00:11:33.420 changing gears or changing the subject, this is the same sentence in the very next breath,
00:11:38.160 what I'm about to read, but why would God do that? What the text is saying is not just that
00:11:44.160 the Canaanites were wicked, and so Israel had to defend themselves, and that included putting them
00:11:47.960 to death. No, the text says that God incited, is how we could read that. God incited within the
00:11:56.020 intentions and motives of the Canaanites, incited them to come against Israel. God actually
00:12:01.900 sovereignly intervened and hardened their hearts so that they would go and provoke Israel, so that
00:12:08.140 they would come against Israel. And why? For what purpose? That he might destroy them utterly.
00:12:13.160 that's what the bible tells us that is the answer the answer is that god determined to destroy them
00:12:22.360 utterly so he provoked them by hardening their hearts against israel so that they would seek
00:12:28.500 no quarter so that they would not attempt to make any treaty because the lord had determined to
00:12:35.560 destroy them utterly god in in terms of not chronological order necessarily although this
00:12:41.920 would probably also line up, but in logical order, if we're speaking of in the logical order of the
00:12:46.840 mind of God, what he ordains, then the order would go like this. God determined to utterly destroy
00:12:55.100 the Canaanite tribes. And because God determined that they should be utterly destroyed, he therefore
00:13:01.580 hardened their hearts so that they would come against in rebellion with a stubborn, stiff-necked
00:13:06.500 heart against Israel, despite all the miraculous things that God had already performed through
00:13:12.860 Israel. These people, by this point in the book of Joshua, by this point in this progressive
00:13:19.880 conquest of the land of Canaan, they all know, they all know about Israel's God. They know who
00:13:27.760 Yahweh is. They have heard what Yahweh did in Egypt. Ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea,
00:13:35.180 sustaining his people supernaturally with manna from the sky from the heavens for 40 years as
00:13:43.520 they wandered in the desert they knew some of them may even have spies have been eyewitnesses
00:13:50.720 of the parting of the Jordan River when when Israel first entered into the land of Canaan
00:13:55.420 they have seen the ruins the ash heap of Jericho where the earth opened up and swallowed up the
00:14:03.920 walls and defense of that tribe. They've heard of the conquering of Ai. They know about the five
00:14:11.120 kings who gathered together in unity against Joshua and Israel and how Joshua had all of his
00:14:18.620 chiefs of war in Israel bring out those five kings, lay them on their backs, and put their feet on
00:14:25.240 their necks to show the supremacy of Yahweh that he is greater than all kings and all false gods.
00:14:34.640 What I'm saying is that this is supernatural.
00:14:38.020 This is not just merely a rebellion
00:14:40.560 that the average person might have
00:14:43.900 because they're ignorant of the things of God.
00:14:45.780 Well, I rebelled against God because I didn't know.
00:14:48.940 I wouldn't have rebelled against him
00:14:50.740 if he just, you know,
00:14:52.780 just showed a little bit of effort to prove his existence.
00:14:56.240 But, you know, I mean,
00:14:57.300 even though we live in this miraculous world,
00:15:01.420 even though I wake up with breath in my lungs,
00:15:03.920 you know that's that's not proof right there's no proof for the existence of god if you disclude
00:15:08.740 all the proof of the existence of god right incredible argument made by every atheist
00:15:14.820 well i didn't know and so i it's not that i'm rebellious by nature it's not that i actually
00:15:21.380 have a sin nature that my heart is like stone that in sin did my mother conceive me and an
00:15:29.100 iniquity I was brought forth. That, no, no, no, no, no. That's not it. It's that God has failed,
00:15:34.960 if he does exist, in his responsibility to sufficiently provide evidence for his existence.
00:15:41.680 And because God failed, I then am ignorant, and my rebellion does not spur on my ignorance. Rather,
00:15:49.400 my rebellion, it stems from my ignorance. I have an amoral ignorance. I'm not responsible for that.
00:15:55.860 And because I'm ignorant, which by the way, if I haven't said it already, is God's fault.
00:16:00.560 And because I'm ignorant and it's God's fault, I can't help but rebel against a God that I don't
00:16:05.220 even know exists. That's the way the mind of the unbeliever works, which is completely contrary
00:16:13.200 to what God has said in Holy Scripture. The Bible does not say that men are ignorant and therefore
00:16:19.320 rebel. The Bible says that men by nature are rebellious so that they intentionally do everything
00:16:26.300 they can to remain ignorant. And in fact, because God is exceedingly gracious and kind,
00:16:34.420 they're not truly, in the ultimate sense, ignorant. Because God has revealed himself
00:16:40.400 by what he has made, that's Romans 1, so that all men are without excuse. And so what these men
00:16:49.240 do is because they're not ignorant, but they are in fact rebellious, is that they take the truth
00:16:54.980 which they are aware of and they suppress it by their deeds of unrighteousness. So it is not that
00:17:00.860 they are ignorant because God failed to prove himself and therefore rebel, but rather man is
00:17:06.220 rebellious and therefore he does everything he can to not keep ignorance, but attain a state of
00:17:14.640 ignorance because he actually is born into this world with a basic knowledge not ignorance but
00:17:20.620 understanding that god exists his eternal power his divine nature these things have been clearly
00:17:30.220 not just displayed but romans 1 says perceived god has been faithful to present the message
00:17:39.020 and man, even unregenerate man,
00:17:43.680 cannot help but receive, perceive the message
00:17:47.760 so that all are without an excuse.
00:17:50.280 This is the same pattern,
00:17:52.920 the same principle now applied in Joshua
00:17:55.840 to the land of Canaan,
00:17:58.220 to the wicked pagan inhabitants.
00:17:59.700 What we know is true
00:18:01.520 in regards to soteriology,
00:18:05.840 anthropology,
00:18:06.460 theology the the spiritual state of man before salvation that's the same principle that we see
00:18:14.020 in a practical sense in a in a national and tribal sense with israel and these pagan tribes
00:18:22.400 in the land of canaan for it was the will of the lord it was of the lord to harden their hearts
00:18:29.560 that they should come against Israel in battle
00:18:32.340 so that he might utterly destroy them
00:18:35.700 and that they might have no favor,
00:18:39.220 no quarter, no peace treaties,
00:18:43.480 no terms of covenant,
00:18:46.620 that they would have no favor,
00:18:48.660 no option of surrender,
00:18:50.280 but that he might destroy them
00:18:53.300 as the Lord commanded Moses.
00:18:57.100 So the Lord, in terms of logical order in the mind of God,
00:19:00.840 what he ordained, what he chose sovereignly to do
00:19:04.700 is that the Lord determined to wipe out
00:19:07.660 the inhabitants of the land of Canaan.
00:19:10.880 And he determined this in a technical sense
00:19:14.400 before the foundations of the world were laid
00:19:16.600 as he determines all things.
00:19:18.540 God is not in process.
00:19:21.620 We repudiate process theology, open theism,
00:19:25.420 and any other heresy, and yes, they are heresies.
00:19:29.760 God knows the end from the beginning.
00:19:32.880 And the reason why he's omniscient and knows all that will come about
00:19:36.780 is because he ordained it.
00:19:41.520 But we can say, in the technical sense, before the foundations of the world,
00:19:45.020 but in terms of a literal sense or chronological sense,
00:19:49.140 not logical, but chronological, we know as early as Genesis chapter 15
00:19:53.520 and what God spoke to Abraham, Abraham was sojourning. And I love that that word is used,
00:19:59.440 and it is the word that is used. Abraham is sojourning in the land of Canaan. He leaves the
00:20:05.760 land of his father to go to the land that the Lord will show him, and he's in the land of Canaan,
00:20:10.700 the very land that his descendants, generations later, will in fact conquer and inhabit.
00:20:17.720 it. And the Bible says he's sojourning in that land, which means there are at least in biblical
00:20:24.760 terms and biblical definitions, two types, at least two types of sojourners. There is a sojourner who
00:20:31.780 is in exile in a land that they are not meant to be in, eventually waiting for the Lord to deliver
00:20:38.220 them and take them out. And there are sojourners like Abraham who are not in exile in a land where
00:20:44.480 they don't belong, but in a land that they're currently sojourning in as a stranger, as an
00:20:51.440 alien, a foreigner with people that they do not know, but they're sojourners in that land, not in
00:20:57.180 exile waiting to be beamed up out of the land, but they're sojourning in that land waiting to take
00:21:03.420 the land. And in that sense, New Testament Christians are sojourners in this earth.
00:21:11.000 Matthew chapter five,
00:21:12.080 the meek will inherit the 17th dimension
00:21:14.580 because the world doesn't matter.
00:21:16.180 Wait, I got it wrong.
00:21:17.760 Let me think.
00:21:18.980 Oh, the meek will inherit the earth.
00:21:21.880 That's right.
00:21:24.360 Jesus is king,
00:21:25.800 not just in an ethereal dimension,
00:21:29.060 not just a spiritual king.
00:21:31.360 He is king of kings.
00:21:33.040 Have you ever stopped and wondered,
00:21:34.440 what are these lowercase k kings
00:21:36.900 that Jesus is king over?
00:21:38.980 They are earthly.
00:21:40.040 kings. What are these lowercase l lords that Jesus has lured over? They are earthly lords.
00:21:49.280 And so Abraham is a sojourner in a land that he is meant not to be removed or delivered from,
00:21:55.020 but his future descendants will indeed conquer. And what God speaks to Abraham
00:21:59.680 in Genesis 15 and 16, as this covenant is taking place, is he says that the fullness of iniquity
00:22:08.340 of these inhabitants wicked pagan inhabitants of the land of canaan is not yet full and so your
00:22:15.160 descendants he says will be bound they'll be in slavery bondage for 400 years to another people
00:22:23.420 foreign people this is alluding to their time in egypt but eventually they will then take over this
00:22:30.380 land for then the fullness of the iniquity of the canaanite tribes will be fulfilled and it will be
00:22:38.320 proper and right, not that God would be unjust if he punished them before, but God again, not speaking
00:22:44.740 of his justice, but speaking of the fact that God in his character is long-suffering and slow to
00:22:50.220 anger, at that point, in keeping with the decree of God and the character of God, he will then use
00:22:56.340 the descendants of Abraham to drive out the Canaanites. So again, the order, both logical and
00:23:02.180 chronological is that God sovereignly determines to exact his justice over all these people pagan
00:23:09.700 people in the land of Canaan and the way that he brings it about is that he he doesn't just send
00:23:16.740 Israel to to chase them down as they're just minding their own business right as they're
00:23:22.480 just working quietly with their hands seeking to be at peace with Israel no no no because then
00:23:28.260 Israel would be guilty of certain war crimes. So instead, what God does in order to exonerate,
00:23:36.400 morally exonerate, the actions of Israel in their conquest, which he commanded them to do,
00:23:42.540 but also ensure his justice in the dealing out of his judgment over the Canaanite tribes,
00:23:50.000 what God does is what he always does. He sovereignly intervenes, and he actually
00:23:56.880 hardens the heart of these Canaanites, the very same way that he hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
00:24:04.180 And God does not do this in such a way that the Canaanites or Pharaoh are absolved of human
00:24:09.680 agency and moral culpability. The Bible says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and in the same
00:24:17.400 breath, God hardened his heart. It's both. And you think about that. I mean, think about this in just
00:24:24.680 practical terms if you're pharaoh and it's not like there's one sign and wonder we're talking
00:24:34.520 10 severe plagues in the land of egypt going all the way up to the 10th and this is happening over
00:24:44.260 the course of weeks perhaps months 10 plagues supernatural undeniable miraculous judgments
00:24:53.420 being poured out on Egypt
00:24:55.300 and each of them,
00:24:56.940 while we're on that point,
00:24:58.500 corresponding with one of Egypt's false gods.
00:25:01.900 As if Yahweh is saying
00:25:04.060 with each of the plagues that he pours out,
00:25:06.460 I am superior to Egypt and all its deities.
00:25:11.540 And the last of these 10 plagues being,
00:25:14.080 if you're Pharaoh,
00:25:15.160 your firstborn son,
00:25:17.600 he doesn't wake up.
00:25:20.080 The Lord puts him to death.
00:25:23.420 Think about the resolve necessary in that moment
00:25:27.520 to say, I'm going to mount up all the fighting men in Egypt,
00:25:32.280 all the troops, and pursue Israel still.
00:25:37.520 I'm still not going to let them go.
00:25:40.700 I'm still going to try to run them down.
00:25:45.320 Yahweh has been their great refuge and defense,
00:25:48.600 a strong tower, and he has poured out his power and might
00:25:52.780 in judgment against me and my people 10 times now that I'm still stubborn. That is a stubbornness
00:26:01.680 that I believe is beyond simply the natural rebellion of man. But it makes sense within a
00:26:08.300 supernatural category that the Lord sovereignly hardened Pharaoh's heart. And in Romans chapter
00:26:14.000 9, the apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit, commentating on the events with Pharaoh,
00:26:19.180 Paul says that the Lord supernaturally hardened his heart
00:26:22.740 so that the Lord raised Pharaoh up and hardened his heart,
00:26:27.540 rooted further, supernaturally rooted Pharaoh in his stubbornness
00:26:31.280 so that the Lord might display his awesome power.
00:26:36.300 Think of it like this.
00:26:37.500 When you're God and you have no peers
00:26:41.300 and you want to show off how mighty you are in battle,
00:26:47.380 well what do you have to do well with one hand you lay some blows
00:26:53.100 but you're infinitely more powerful than any of your adversaries so
00:26:58.860 with the other hand you actually have to hold up the very enemy that you're hitting
00:27:03.620 otherwise he'd disintegrate that's what god does with pharaoh he supernaturally sustains pharaoh
00:27:11.180 just so he can get in his right hook
00:27:13.740 so that Israel might praise him.
00:27:16.960 So I can't even get to my right hook.
00:27:18.940 I can't show off any of my combos
00:27:20.360 because if I just blow, he'll fall over.
00:27:23.240 So I'm gonna have to supernaturally harden his heart
00:27:25.580 and sustain him in his rebellion in the one sense
00:27:28.640 so that I can show off how powerful I am
00:27:31.560 against my adversaries in the other.
00:27:35.560 And the same concept is what we see
00:27:37.560 with the tribes in Cain.
00:27:39.360 the Lord hardens their heart
00:27:41.740 so that he might utterly destroy him.
00:27:46.500 And that is the very same principle
00:27:48.620 that we find in terms of salvation
00:27:51.640 and the eternal sense
00:27:53.860 and the spiritual sense with all people.
00:27:58.920 That apart from God's sovereign intervention
00:28:02.000 is my point.
00:28:03.760 Apart from God's sovereign mercy,
00:28:06.480 man remains in rebellion against him and man will not submit to his law for indeed he cannot
00:28:17.020 and that the only way that any man would humble himself and believe the gospel is if God
00:28:25.700 supernaturally and sovereignly intervenes softening his heart melting his heart like wax
00:28:32.400 and causing him to be born again,
00:28:36.300 regeneration preceding faith.
00:28:41.400 All right, two main points from the text today.
00:28:43.860 That was a sub point.
00:28:46.320 Two main points from the text today.
00:28:48.600 Number one, God's grace,
00:28:51.820 particularly in facing last what we feared at first.
00:28:58.800 This is one of the things that we saw in our text last week.
00:29:01.820 we see it again. It's worth reiterating. God's grace, one of the ways that God distributes His
00:29:09.260 grace in our lives as His people, is it not with a 100% guarantee, but ordinarily,
00:29:17.340 as an ordinary principle or pattern, God often, in our sanctification, in our spiritual maturing,
00:29:26.220 God often ordains and allows that we might face last
00:29:31.380 what we feared at first.
00:29:35.720 We fear this particular giant, this particular dragon,
00:29:40.280 this particular enemy.
00:29:43.660 And yet God would have it if we simply trusted him,
00:29:48.440 that the thing that we feared at first
00:29:51.080 is the very thing that God allows us to face at last.
00:29:56.220 and that God allows us, like David,
00:29:59.560 to face lions and bears before Goliath.
00:30:03.340 That God allows us, in his mercy,
00:30:05.880 and this is an example of God's mercy,
00:30:08.440 to be progressively sanctified.
00:30:12.640 Progressively sanctified.
00:30:14.540 Growing each day along the way,
00:30:16.860 facing one challenge that often,
00:30:19.740 in God's ordinance,
00:30:22.340 in his sovereign plan,
00:30:23.980 that one particular challenge today
00:30:25.920 is precisely what prepares us for the challenge tomorrow.
00:30:30.440 And this is a kindness of the Lord to us.
00:30:34.620 I've written in your notes this,
00:30:36.480 Israel's fear of the Anakim,
00:30:38.660 that is a tribe of great giants.
00:30:40.440 That's right, giants.
00:30:42.520 It's just giants, guys.
00:30:44.640 A tribe of great giants.
00:30:46.760 Their fear of the Anakim is precisely the fear.
00:30:50.000 This is the specific fear that caused them
00:30:52.100 to refuse to enter the land of Canaan 38 years earlier
00:30:55.660 underneath the leadership of Moses.
00:30:58.940 And yet, when Israel finally did enter into the promised land,
00:31:04.460 they faced the Anakim last.
00:31:08.340 It was only after God had thoroughly trained them in conquest, in war,
00:31:13.640 that he finally calls Israel to wage battle with the Anakim.
00:31:18.720 God is exceedingly gracious in the order in which he arranges the battles of our lives.
00:31:24.780 Too often we convince ourselves that we must fight our biggest giants first
00:31:30.120 when God would have us fight them last.
00:31:35.340 What happens is that Israel, after having left Egypt, they wander.
00:31:41.140 It's 40 years in total, but there's a pivotal moment two years into their wilderness wandering
00:31:47.980 where they come to the border of the land of Canaan.
00:31:52.380 and at the particular border where they're at in that moment,
00:31:57.360 they send out 12 Israelite spies.
00:32:00.660 You remember this account.
00:32:02.580 And they go in and they see the Hannah king.
00:32:06.340 Not just any of the Canaanite tribes,
00:32:08.520 but particularly this tribe, the Hannah king.
00:32:12.960 And two of the spies, the Israelite spies,
00:32:15.580 come back and say, we can take them.
00:32:17.960 The land is good.
00:32:19.780 And the enemy is formidable, but we have Yahweh.
00:32:24.620 We can take them.
00:32:25.460 That's Joshua and Caleb.
00:32:27.540 But the other 10 Israelite spies, they bring back a bad report.
00:32:31.300 And it's important that we recognize that this bad report is not,
00:32:35.940 the Bible does not say that it is a deceitful or lying or false report.
00:32:42.500 It is merely a bad report.
00:32:44.820 we might illustrate that point by saying that if you god forbid go to the doctor and he runs
00:32:53.620 certain tests because he has concerns and you have concerns you haven't been feeling as healthy as you
00:33:00.080 once did and after performing certain tests the doctor sits you down and he gives you a diagnosis
00:33:08.400 that you have cancer,
00:33:11.640 that would be a bad report.
00:33:15.560 It is not necessarily a lying report,
00:33:20.020 but it is bad news.
00:33:22.800 Bad news does not have to be false news.
00:33:26.380 Bad news and fake news are not the same.
00:33:30.560 Not necessarily.
00:33:33.540 And so these 10 Israelite spies
00:33:36.480 bring back not a false report, not fake news, but bad news, a bad report. Instead of focusing
00:33:44.760 on the goodness of the land and implicitly trusting in the power of Yahweh to defeat
00:33:50.540 whatever inhabitants there might be, they focus on the strength and caliber and might
00:33:56.620 of the enemy. And because of that, the Lord determines that Israel, because of their unbelief,
00:34:05.960 Their fear is an indictment of their trust in Yahweh.
00:34:11.340 They are essentially saying, Yahweh cannot be trusted.
00:34:14.560 And this is the very God of Israel who just performed awesome signs and wonders in Egypt.
00:34:20.280 Who literally parted the Red Sea.
00:34:23.800 You think that's enough?
00:34:25.300 All right, there are giants.
00:34:26.520 Yeah, that's a big deal.
00:34:27.480 That's scary.
00:34:28.980 All right, there's some credence there.
00:34:30.180 Giants, that's a big deal.
00:34:31.760 But our God just caused us to walk across a sea on dry land.
00:34:39.420 So I think we can handle giants if the Lord is with us.
00:34:45.040 But instead, they chose to harden their hearts in unbelief.
00:34:49.360 And as a consequence, a just consequence and discipline for that unbelief,
00:34:55.420 Israel's refusal to trust in God who had been with them and faithful thus far,
00:35:01.760 to wander in the wilderness for 38 more years.
00:35:07.940 Now, let me give you some of these verses.
00:35:10.560 But real quick, remember the primary point,
00:35:12.800 because I'm going to get into giants,
00:35:14.240 but the primary point,
00:35:15.860 the primary point is that God is gracious in his presence.
00:35:20.040 I've said this before, I'll say it again.
00:35:22.060 God is gracious in his presence that he speaks to us
00:35:25.200 by the illumination of the Holy Spirit of the Holy Word of God.
00:35:29.100 God speaks to us in his presence in our time of need.
00:35:33.600 There is grace in every time of need.
00:35:36.660 So God is gracious in at least two ways.
00:35:39.800 One, he is gracious in his presence,
00:35:42.780 that he speaks to us when we cry out to him for help,
00:35:46.200 that he comes to us, he consoles us, he comforts us.
00:35:50.080 He is Emmanuel, God with us.
00:35:53.420 So God is gracious in every time of need through his presence,
00:35:56.860 but also the point that's being made today is in his providence.
00:36:02.880 God's grace in his presence and in his providence.
00:36:07.220 In his presence, that is that the Lord is near to us,
00:36:10.640 near to the one who cries out to him for help.
00:36:14.500 But also God is gracious not only in his presence,
00:36:17.240 in his nearness, in his imminence,
00:36:19.060 but God is gracious in his providence.
00:36:23.020 That God is gracious in the way that he orchestrates
00:36:25.700 and ordains the challenges that each of us face progressively, increasingly, gradually in this
00:36:34.200 lifelong process of sanctification. And so it was with Israel. God would have Israel face at last
00:36:42.200 what they feared at first. That their first fear is they had a king, giants. And yet in terms of
00:36:53.160 the progressive conquest of Canaan, their last enemy, their last adversary that they actually
00:36:59.240 have to engage is the Anakim, the giants, only after progressively and gradually being trained
00:37:06.780 by the Lord in war for at least months, if not perhaps longer.
00:37:16.200 This is the kindness and grace of God, both in his presence, he is near to us,
00:37:22.120 He speaks to us and in his providence.
00:37:26.080 One practical example, the example
00:37:29.180 for the New Testament Christian today
00:37:31.940 of facing our biggest giants last would be death.
00:37:39.160 Death.
00:37:41.680 If no other enemy, then certainly the enemy of death.
00:37:48.860 That Jesus, the better and ultimate Joshua,
00:37:51.440 Joshua is the type of Christ. Jesus, Yeshua, he is the one who faces even death last. It is his
00:37:58.180 final enemy to utterly defeat. The sting of death, for the record, has already been conquered.
00:38:04.960 Jesus defeated the sting of death through his death and resurrection. But death in every sense,
00:38:13.160 literal death, will be finally and utterly defeated by Christ upon his return. But it is,
00:38:19.360 as 1 Corinthians 15 says,
00:38:21.440 the last of his enemies to be defeated.
00:38:24.420 And for us, in this gospel age,
00:38:28.440 it is the last of all enemies to be faced.
00:38:33.100 That we will have many temptations and trials
00:38:36.140 and tribulations, challenges and difficulties
00:38:39.180 progressively throughout the course of our Christian lives
00:38:42.440 in the process of sanctification
00:38:44.340 leading up to the final trial, which is death.
00:38:49.360 and even that is a mercy from the Lord.
00:38:53.720 It is a mercy that we don't enter into the Christian life
00:38:56.940 and first have to face death,
00:39:00.200 but that many of us, not all,
00:39:03.240 there are some who die as new believers,
00:39:06.380 some who have deathbed conversions,
00:39:08.900 although I would caution you,
00:39:10.700 they are few and far between.
00:39:12.420 A person who has chosen to harden their heart
00:39:15.500 throughout the entirety of their life
00:39:17.400 is highly unlikely to soften their heart at the end.
00:39:22.460 Do not put the Lord your God to the test,
00:39:25.720 thinking that I may have time to repent later.
00:39:29.420 But because God is merciful,
00:39:31.460 although few and far between,
00:39:32.880 there are in fact some deathbed conversions.
00:39:36.060 And in those cases,
00:39:37.120 this newly born again Christian
00:39:39.360 is facing death as one of his first trials.
00:39:43.820 But ordinarily, more often than not,
00:39:46.740 For the Christian, we are given in God's kindness.
00:39:50.340 Again, it is a kindness of the Lord,
00:39:52.500 but in his kindness, we are given several years,
00:39:55.360 if not even decades of growing in spiritual maturity
00:39:59.220 and sanctification as we walk with Christ,
00:40:02.440 led by the spirit, trusting the word
00:40:04.700 before we have to endure death.
00:40:09.240 This would be just one practical example
00:40:11.400 in the life of a New Testament Christian
00:40:13.260 that follows in the concept,
00:40:15.200 the principle of what we see with Israel and the Anarchy.
00:40:19.300 The very giants that they feared at first, 38 years prior,
00:40:24.360 turn out to be, in the final analysis,
00:40:27.660 the last enemy that they actually have to face.
00:40:31.860 And if only they had trusted the Lord from the beginning,
00:40:35.200 then that generation that died out in the wilderness
00:40:38.080 would have been able to inherit the promised land.
00:40:40.920 the takeaway for us our first main point the takeaway for us is trust the lord
00:40:48.860 trust that he will not bring us up against any challenge any trial any tribulation any
00:40:56.520 temptation that he is not able to deliver us from he can
00:41:03.400 the second main point i'll do the giants last because i don't want to miss the main points
00:41:10.220 If I miss anything and have to just close the Bible
00:41:12.260 and pray and say, we're done,
00:41:14.300 I'd like to miss out on the Giants.
00:41:15.780 I personally would not like to miss out on the Giants.
00:41:17.940 I think it's awesome.
00:41:18.720 But I've talked about it before
00:41:21.640 and I'm sure there'll be some future moments.
00:41:24.380 But this one's in the text.
00:41:25.280 I told Wes specifically, I said,
00:41:27.260 I'm gonna talk about Giants on Sunday.
00:41:28.560 And he kind of rolled his eyes in a respectful manner.
00:41:32.940 And I was like, I promise you it's in the text.
00:41:34.520 And he's like, it'll be half a verse.
00:41:36.800 I was like, well, I think this one,
00:41:38.260 it might be a whole two verses.
00:41:39.320 All right. So here we go. The second main point from the text today is this. Joshua slays the
00:41:44.700 giants, but Israel is tasked with plundering the house. This is the verse, verse 23, that I use to
00:41:54.180 open up with our call to worship in the beginning of our liturgy this Lord's Day. And I want us to
00:42:01.160 land on this point. So there's only two main points. We did the sub-point. Regeneration precedes
00:42:06.040 faith. God sovereignly hardens hearts so that he might display his power against his enemies.
00:42:13.020 He did that with Pharaoh and Moses. He did it with Canaan and Joshua, and he does it in a spiritual
00:42:18.420 salvific sense for the unregenerate and the reprobate even today in these New Testament
00:42:24.640 times. That was the sub-point. The main first point was God's grace. It comes in the form of
00:42:31.320 his presence, but also in the form of his providence, that God progressively and gradually
00:42:36.480 allows us to face smaller tribulations, ordinarily, not always, but ordinarily at first, preparing us
00:42:44.700 for later and greater tribulations. That's the first main point. And then the second and final
00:42:51.520 main point from today is that Joshua slays the giants, but Israel plunders the house.
00:42:58.160 that's the shadow way of stating it the substance way of stating it is that jesus binds the strong
00:43:08.180 man and the church takes the land in your notes i've written this joshua thoroughly crushed all
00:43:16.640 the strongholds of the canaanite kings and in this sense joshua took the whole land as chapter 11
00:43:23.560 concludes. However, there were still many small towns and villages remaining. It was the task of
00:43:31.160 each individual tribe to fight and plunder the land that was specifically apportioned to them
00:43:37.580 as their inheritance. If these tribes failed to do so, it was not because of any lack in the power
00:43:44.640 of God, but their own failure to take for themselves what Joshua had given and allotted
00:43:50.660 to each of them. In the same sense, Jesus, who is the ultimate Joshua, has already defeated the
00:43:59.040 enemy and conquered the land, but he also calls us into battle to further the secure what is already
00:44:07.760 ours. Mark chapter 3 verse 27, Jesus says this, but no one can enter a strong man's house and
00:44:14.880 plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. Then, indeed, he may plunder his house. This
00:44:22.940 is what Jesus has already done 2,000 years ago in his life, his death, his resurrection, and glorious
00:44:30.960 ascension to the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Jesus has bound the strong man. This
00:44:38.360 does not mean, let me get specific here, without just the post-millennial platitudes, let me get
00:44:44.220 specific. Satan has not yet been cast into the lake of fire. That is a futurist event that will
00:44:55.400 occur, but has not yet occurred. But Satan has been thoroughly bound in such a way that he is
00:45:03.800 no longer able to deceive the nations. That is, deceive the nations to the same degree,
00:45:10.300 in the same manner, with the same level of delusion that he once did before the work of
00:45:17.860 Christ was finished. Satan still prowls around today in this gospel age as a roaring lion seeking
00:45:24.800 who he may devour. But his leash, which he has always been on for the record, has been tightened
00:45:31.240 and severely shortened by the work of Christ. Now, Satan has always been on a leash in the sense
00:45:37.460 that even before the earthly ministry of Christ,
00:45:40.880 Satan still had to report to God
00:45:44.920 in regards to what he was able to do.
00:45:47.900 In the book of Job, we see the sons of God,
00:45:52.920 the Elohim, Ben Elohim,
00:45:56.300 they were gathered before God in a council of sorts
00:45:59.360 and that Satan was among them.
00:46:02.920 He appears before God and God says,
00:46:04.980 from where do you come?
00:46:06.540 Well, what have you been up to from wandering to and fro on the face of the earth?
00:46:10.500 And God says, have you considered my servant, Joe?
00:46:13.680 And Satan essentially says, paraphrasing here, yeah, he's faithful, but only because you've
00:46:18.880 blessed him so much.
00:46:21.540 Who would bite the hand that feeds him?
00:46:25.100 But if you take away that blessing, if you allow me to intervene, he'll curse you.
00:46:32.160 And God does allow Satan to intervene.
00:46:34.560 But notice that the parameters are all set.
00:46:38.740 Number one, Satan has not already previously intervened
00:46:42.620 because God has set a hedge of protection around Job.
00:46:46.080 He has not been permitted, allowed to intervene.
00:46:49.700 When God does finally allow Satan to intervene,
00:46:52.780 he sets the parameters of what Satan can do.
00:46:56.680 That Satan can take away his wealth, even his children,
00:47:00.020 but he cannot harm Job in his flesh.
00:47:03.100 then satan comes back and says well he still hasn't cursed you but life for life flesh for flesh
00:47:11.120 if you allow me to afflict his flesh his physical health then he'll curse you and god allows satan
00:47:19.460 to do even that but at every step of the way god determines the boundaries so my point is this even
00:47:25.860 before the coming of christ satan is on a leash satan is on a leash in the very sense that all
00:47:32.300 creatures are on a leash. Logically speaking, there can only be one autonomously sovereign
00:47:40.860 being in the universe. God is that autonomously free being. The freedom of the potter cannot be
00:47:52.340 restrained or inhibited by whatever freedom the clay might possess. And so because of God's
00:48:00.140 God's autonomous liberty and his sovereign freedom, all creatures, including Satan, have always been
00:48:09.880 limited in their freedom. But Satan was further, and I would argue greatly further, limited,
00:48:18.800 restrained, bound as a strong man of the house being the world. Woe to you, O earth, for the
00:48:24.680 devil has been cast down to you. That the earth was, in a sense, Satan's house. That Adam was
00:48:30.540 given dominion by God, but he forfeited his dominion as a steward in God's house. That is
00:48:36.040 God's earthly cosmos. Adam, as the federal head, steward in the house of God, this physical
00:48:41.440 creation, he forfeited his dominion and handed it over to Satan by his sin. So that Satan becomes
00:48:47.820 the strong man of the house on fair terms.
00:48:52.580 This is why Satan, when he tempts Jesus in the wilderness,
00:48:56.300 he says, if you will bow down and worship me,
00:48:59.140 I will give you all the kingdoms of the world.
00:49:01.480 Now, Jesus' response is not to say,
00:49:03.380 well, I don't care about politics,
00:49:04.720 so kingdoms don't really interest me.
00:49:06.560 I just like to be a pietist.
00:49:09.660 That's not his response.
00:49:12.040 Jesus declines the offer,
00:49:14.440 resists the temptation of Satan,
00:49:15.820 but not because he is uninterested
00:49:17.900 in political kingdoms of this earth
00:49:19.720 but because he is uninterested
00:49:22.240 in having those kingdoms given to him by Satan
00:49:25.240 because he fully intends to take them
00:49:27.980 and he does
00:49:29.680 but it is a real offer
00:49:34.040 when Satan makes this offer
00:49:36.340 to give the kingdoms of this earth to Jesus
00:49:39.560 he is offering to Jesus
00:49:41.580 what he actually has dominion over at that time
00:49:45.200 but no longer.
00:49:49.140 By Jesus' life and death and resurrection
00:49:52.280 and glory is ascended to the right hand of God,
00:49:54.680 the Father Almighty.
00:49:56.100 These kingdoms of the earth no longer belong to Satan.
00:50:00.140 The Third Reich, as bad as it may have been,
00:50:02.500 could be measured in a matter of months.
00:50:06.180 But there has been nothing like Babylon.
00:50:10.960 Nothing like Assyria or Persia.
00:50:15.200 the world has been an incredibly dark place
00:50:19.760 and it still is dark in many regards,
00:50:23.400 but not like it once was
00:50:25.780 because Jesus is the light of the world
00:50:28.880 and he has come into the world.
00:50:34.180 Now, men love the darkness and hate the light
00:50:36.660 because their deeds are evil.
00:50:37.780 And like cockroaches, unregenerate man left in his sin
00:50:41.240 scatters from the light of Christ
00:50:43.240 and congregates in dark corners of the world
00:50:47.500 and continue to rebel against God,
00:50:50.260 trying, seeking, attempting to make the world
00:50:52.520 as dark as he possibly can.
00:50:56.380 But darkness cannot cast out light.
00:50:59.820 Light progressively and gradually
00:51:03.060 through the work of Christ is casting out darkness.
00:51:08.960 And so Joshua,
00:51:09.900 he is the one who drives out and conquers and Caleb with his help conquers the giants in the
00:51:18.840 land of Canaan and then he apportions the land to Israel the people of God but that is not to say
00:51:28.100 it is true and our text ends with these words the land ceased it had rest from war but as you'll see
00:51:35.820 later, there were still plenty of battles left to be fought, but none of those battles were
00:51:43.580 ultimately the war in the sense that Joshua faced as he led Israel in driving out all the main
00:51:53.340 juggernaut kings and kingdoms. Joshua binds Satan, in a sense, and Israel then plunders the house.
00:52:04.380 Joshua removes the kings.
00:52:06.980 He chops off the head of the snake.
00:52:09.440 And then he says, there's still adversaries to be dealt with,
00:52:13.560 but you got it from here.
00:52:16.180 And so too, Jesus in the ultimate sense is the final Joshua.
00:52:20.800 He binds Satan.
00:52:22.680 That does not mean that Satan doesn't have any minions
00:52:25.640 or that Satan himself has been cast into the lake of fire,
00:52:29.100 but Satan is bound.
00:52:30.760 his leash, he still has certain ability to tempt, to push, to prod, to deceive. But his leash has
00:52:38.900 been severely shortened. His influence has been severely lessened. And although we are right in
00:52:45.740 the middle of a spiritual war still to this day, the most decisive battle of this war,
00:52:52.660 the battle of Bunker's Hill has already been fought at the Hill of Calvary and the decisive
00:52:58.300 victory has already been ensured. So that we're simply following up with what Christ has already
00:53:06.460 finished. That's what we see in our text today. God's grace in his presence, but also providence,
00:53:13.700 allowing us to face smaller adversaries first in his kindness, progressively building to facing
00:53:20.000 the Anakim, some of our greatest giants, one example being our own death, last after having
00:53:26.680 been matured in sanctification, and also that Jesus is the better Joshua, and that the sting
00:53:36.300 of death has already been removed, and that Satan is bound, if in no other way he is bound
00:53:41.760 in this sense, he's still alive, he's still on the prowl, but he only had, he has many
00:53:49.760 weapons in his arsenal, but there was only one weapon that was truly lethal, a lethal weapon.
00:53:58.020 And Christ has disarmed him from that lethal weapon. Do you know what that lethal weapon was?
00:54:05.820 Unforgiven sin. The one lethal weapon that Satan had possessed that could ultimately and eternally
00:54:15.820 destroy the sons of men is the penalty of our sin the weapon of condemnation and a condemnation
00:54:24.800 that is not a mere accusation to discourage people but a condemnation that was factually true
00:54:33.720 you send against the triune god a thrice holy god but what jesus has accomplished by his
00:54:42.840 death and resurrection is that the the teeth the fangs have been ripped out of the lion's mouth
00:54:51.460 he roars don't get me wrong he roars but his bark is much bigger than his bite these days
00:54:59.140 he has weapons but his best final and eternal lethal weapon has been stripped out of his hands
00:55:10.240 that he no longer can point to unforgiven sin
00:55:15.580 and say that the justice of God demands eternal hell
00:55:19.780 because that sin has been paid for in full.
00:55:26.620 And therefore we have nothing to fear.
00:55:30.460 This is why the righteous are as bold as lions
00:55:34.420 because the greatest lion of the tribe of Judah
00:55:39.600 was slain for the sins of men
00:55:43.020 so that we stand righteous before God,
00:55:46.280 no longer under any condemnation
00:55:48.700 so that all the accusations of the enemy
00:55:51.540 ultimately ring hollow.
00:55:54.440 That his gun,
00:55:56.480 all of the bullets in the chamber
00:55:59.220 have been removed.
00:56:02.160 He can bark, but he can't bite,
00:56:05.980 not in any eternal, final way.
00:56:09.600 not for the people of God.
00:56:11.940 And so we plunder the house
00:56:14.620 and giants will be talked about another time.
00:56:18.240 Let's pray.
00:56:19.140 Father God, thank you for your word.
00:56:20.800 Bless it to your people.
00:56:22.200 And ultimately, may it bring about your glory.
00:56:25.720 We ask these things in Jesus' name.
00:56:27.820 Amen.