SUNDAY SERMON - Binding The Strong Man & Plundering His House ｜ Joshua 11_16-23
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Summary
In this episode, we continue our series through the book of Joshua and look at the final half of the book, where we see the final installment of the conquest of Canaan and the return of the Israelites to the land after being exiled from the land due to their own faithlessness.
Transcript
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This morning, we continue with our series through the book of Joshua.
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Our text for today is the remainder of Joshua chapter 11.
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After this week, we're actually going to be skipping forward to the end of the book of Joshua.
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And then we will finish out the year by teaching through the book of Ezra.
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The reason why this is something not spur of the moment, but what I planned from the beginning.
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It's all useful for training, rebuking, growing in righteousness
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so that the man of God might be fully equipped for every good work.
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all the way to the last couple chapters of the book of Joshua
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is the allotments of land given out to the various tribes.
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So Leviticus is like a Ferris wheel by comparison to Joshua chapter 12 through about 1920.
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So we will get the whole idea of the book of Joshua.
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What we're focusing our attention on, for those of you who are joining us for the first time in chapters 1 through 11,
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We're seeing the most exciting scenes of the book of Joshua.
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how they conquer each of these Canaanite tribes, and we're seeing the conclusion of that, the
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conquest of Canaan in our text today, the final latter half of Joshua chapter 11. Joshua 12 to
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the last couple chapters of the book is not the fights and the conquest of Canaan, defeating each
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of these Canaanite tribes, but rather again, as I've already said, the allotments of land as an
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inheritance to each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And then it picks back up at the end, which is
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exceedingly important. That's where we'll pick up, Lord willing, next week. But we see it pick back
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up at the end of the book with a renewal of the covenant between God and Israel. And so that's
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really important, this renewal of the covenant now that they are not only a great many people,
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but they are now officially a nation in a particular nation state. They have come into
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the land. And so there are particular covenant renewal things that need to be accomplished,
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but also there are further instructions given to Israel, not just how to behave as the people of
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God, but particularly how to behave in the land. And so we'll look at that over the next couple
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weeks, and that'll conclude our series through the book of Joshua. And then, as I said, we'll pick up
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with the book of Ezra, and that will take us to not only the end of the year, but probably to the
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end of January, mid-February of next year sometime. And the big idea through all this, Joshua and
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Ezra, is fairly simple to put it in just a sentence or two. It's the idea is that in Joshua, we see
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the people of God, Israel, taking the land. And then in the book of Ezra, we see that the people
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of God were faithless when they were commanded to be faithful. They broke the covenant. They were
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then removed as a consequence for the rebellion from the land. And in Ezra, they're now coming
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back in to rebuild the ruins. They came about as a consequence for their own rebellion against
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Yahweh. So again, Joshua is the initial taking, capturing of the land. And then Ezra is the
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rebuilding of the ruins as they come back into the land after having been exiled and cast out
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of the land due to their own faithlessness. And I think that both of those ideas, taking the land
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and then rebuilding the ruins in a land that has been previously taken in times past, but a land
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that has been largely lost because of faithlessness,
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I feel like there are some relevant applicable themes there.
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these United States of America taking the land
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not exactly in the same ways, much in the same, recapturing our heritage insofar as it was faithful
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and true to the word of God, but in the ways that we were not faithful, in the ways that
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were not in line with God's word, because Western civilization and the foundation of our republic is
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not infallible. It's not perfect. And so in the ways that we were wrong, as we seek to rebuild
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the ruins if God would be so gracious as to provide us the strength to do so that we would
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build back better, but not in a Joe Biden sense. So, okay. So that gives you an idea of where
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we're going again today, finishing the conquest, the conquest of Canaan in the latter half of
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Joshua chapter 11. Would you stand with me for the reading of God's word? I'll read our text in its
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entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, this is the word of the Lord, at which
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point, I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God. One final time
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our text for today is Joshua chapter 11 verses 16 through 23. The Bible says this, so Joshua took
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all that land, the hills and all the south country and all the land of Goshen and the valley and the
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plain and the mountain of Israel and the valley of the same, even from the Mount Halak that goeth
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up to Seir, even unto Belgad, in the valley of Lebanon, under the Mount Hermon. And all their
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kings he took, and smote them, and slew them. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
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There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites,
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the inhabitants of Gibeon. All other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their
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hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly,
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and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses.
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And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron to Debir,
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from Anah, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel. Joshua
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destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the
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children of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod there remained. So Joshua took the whole
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land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance
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unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war.
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This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. One thing that I want us to look at
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before we get into the meat of the text is this, verse 20, verse 19 and 20. This is a sub point of
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the sermon today, but it's in the text, and I think that it's important, significant that we
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don't miss it. Verse 19 and 20 says, there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel,
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save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. If you remember, when we were in Joshua chapter 9
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and chapter 10, we saw that the Gibeonites, that they by trickery and by deceit entered into a
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covenant with Joshua and Israel saying that they were from a far off foreign distant land outside
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of the boundaries of Canaan. And Joshua and Israel were under direct orders from the Lord through
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Moses that they should remove and drive out and utterly destroy all the inhabitants of the land
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of Canaan. For the Lord had determined to give that. It's twofold. One, he determined to give
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that land as an inheritance to Israel. So the Lord had determined to bless Israel with that land.
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But the Lord had also determined to use Israel as his instrument to exact his righteous judgment
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for the prior inhabitants, namely the Canaanite tribes, who were wicked and heinous and idolaters
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and who had continued in their rebellion against God for at least 400 years, according to what we
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see in Genesis chapter 15 and 16, what God spoke earlier to Abraham, that the fullness of their
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iniquity had finally come to fruition. So God is doing two things simultaneously. He is blessing
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Israel by giving them this land, and he is also using Israel to judge the Canaanite tribes. And so
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the Gibeonites, under pretense, entered into a covenant with Joshua in Israel. If they had known
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that they were their nearby neighbors, that they were actually inhabitants dwelling in the land
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that God had spoken through Moses, that he had determined to drive out all the inhabitants and
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to give every square inch of that land to Israel as an inheritance. If Joshua had known that the
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Gibeonites were in fact in the land of Canaan, he would not have made peace with them. But again,
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under pretense and trickery, they entered into a covenant with Joshua. The scripture says that
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they did not, that is Joshua, the Israelites, did not seek counsel from the Lord. They entered into
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a rash covenant. They made a frivolous and rash vow. And yet the vow, even though it was entered
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into under trickery and deceit, it was a vow nonetheless. And Joshua was obligated to keep to
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the terms of that covenant that was made with the Gibeonites. But all the other tribes in Canaan
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were utterly driven out or put to death at the edge of the sword. And that's what we're finding
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in our text today is the the final completion of this conquest over all the tribes in Canaan. Now
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one sub point again it says there was not a single city verse 19 and 20 that made peace with Israel
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except for the Gibeonites those in Gibeon. Verse 20 though then says for it was of the Lord to
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harden their hearts. Notice this. It is not just that Israel defeated and destroyed or completely
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drove out all these Canaanite tribes simply because these Canaanite tribes chose to come
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against Israel, right? That Israel had to engage in self-defense, that they were provoked. That's
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true. There is a sense in which these tribes, they have human agency, and they did choose to come
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against Israel. But the text doesn't plainly or only merely say in verse 20 that these tribes
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were coming against Israel. Israel, therefore, in order to self-preserve, they had to come against
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these other tribes in order to defend themselves. No, it goes further. It gets into the sovereignty
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of God, for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, these Canaanite tribes, that they should
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come against Israel in battle. Why would God do that? Before we get on to, and this isn't all
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changing gears or changing the subject, this is the same sentence in the very next breath,
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what I'm about to read, but why would God do that? What the text is saying is not just that
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the Canaanites were wicked, and so Israel had to defend themselves, and that included putting them
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to death. No, the text says that God incited, is how we could read that. God incited within the
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intentions and motives of the Canaanites, incited them to come against Israel. God actually
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sovereignly intervened and hardened their hearts so that they would go and provoke Israel, so that
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they would come against Israel. And why? For what purpose? That he might destroy them utterly.
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that's what the bible tells us that is the answer the answer is that god determined to destroy them
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utterly so he provoked them by hardening their hearts against israel so that they would seek
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no quarter so that they would not attempt to make any treaty because the lord had determined to
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destroy them utterly god in in terms of not chronological order necessarily although this
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would probably also line up, but in logical order, if we're speaking of in the logical order of the
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mind of God, what he ordains, then the order would go like this. God determined to utterly destroy
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the Canaanite tribes. And because God determined that they should be utterly destroyed, he therefore
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hardened their hearts so that they would come against in rebellion with a stubborn, stiff-necked
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heart against Israel, despite all the miraculous things that God had already performed through
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Israel. These people, by this point in the book of Joshua, by this point in this progressive
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conquest of the land of Canaan, they all know, they all know about Israel's God. They know who
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Yahweh is. They have heard what Yahweh did in Egypt. Ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea,
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sustaining his people supernaturally with manna from the sky from the heavens for 40 years as
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they wandered in the desert they knew some of them may even have spies have been eyewitnesses
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of the parting of the Jordan River when when Israel first entered into the land of Canaan
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they have seen the ruins the ash heap of Jericho where the earth opened up and swallowed up the
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walls and defense of that tribe. They've heard of the conquering of Ai. They know about the five
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kings who gathered together in unity against Joshua and Israel and how Joshua had all of his
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chiefs of war in Israel bring out those five kings, lay them on their backs, and put their feet on
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their necks to show the supremacy of Yahweh that he is greater than all kings and all false gods.
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Well, I rebelled against God because I didn't know.
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just showed a little bit of effort to prove his existence.
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you know that's that's not proof right there's no proof for the existence of god if you disclude
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all the proof of the existence of god right incredible argument made by every atheist
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well i didn't know and so i it's not that i'm rebellious by nature it's not that i actually
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have a sin nature that my heart is like stone that in sin did my mother conceive me and an
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iniquity I was brought forth. That, no, no, no, no, no. That's not it. It's that God has failed,
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if he does exist, in his responsibility to sufficiently provide evidence for his existence.
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And because God failed, I then am ignorant, and my rebellion does not spur on my ignorance. Rather,
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my rebellion, it stems from my ignorance. I have an amoral ignorance. I'm not responsible for that.
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And because I'm ignorant, which by the way, if I haven't said it already, is God's fault.
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And because I'm ignorant and it's God's fault, I can't help but rebel against a God that I don't
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even know exists. That's the way the mind of the unbeliever works, which is completely contrary
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to what God has said in Holy Scripture. The Bible does not say that men are ignorant and therefore
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rebel. The Bible says that men by nature are rebellious so that they intentionally do everything
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they can to remain ignorant. And in fact, because God is exceedingly gracious and kind,
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they're not truly, in the ultimate sense, ignorant. Because God has revealed himself
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by what he has made, that's Romans 1, so that all men are without excuse. And so what these men
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do is because they're not ignorant, but they are in fact rebellious, is that they take the truth
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which they are aware of and they suppress it by their deeds of unrighteousness. So it is not that
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they are ignorant because God failed to prove himself and therefore rebel, but rather man is
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rebellious and therefore he does everything he can to not keep ignorance, but attain a state of
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ignorance because he actually is born into this world with a basic knowledge not ignorance but
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understanding that god exists his eternal power his divine nature these things have been clearly
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not just displayed but romans 1 says perceived god has been faithful to present the message
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theology the the spiritual state of man before salvation that's the same principle that we see
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in a practical sense in a in a national and tribal sense with israel and these pagan tribes
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in the land of canaan for it was the will of the lord it was of the lord to harden their hearts
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that they should come against Israel in battle
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So the Lord, in terms of logical order in the mind of God,
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what he ordained, what he chose sovereignly to do
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and any other heresy, and yes, they are heresies.
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And the reason why he's omniscient and knows all that will come about
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But we can say, in the technical sense, before the foundations of the world,
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but in terms of a literal sense or chronological sense,
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not logical, but chronological, we know as early as Genesis chapter 15
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and what God spoke to Abraham, Abraham was sojourning. And I love that that word is used,
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and it is the word that is used. Abraham is sojourning in the land of Canaan. He leaves the
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land of his father to go to the land that the Lord will show him, and he's in the land of Canaan,
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the very land that his descendants, generations later, will in fact conquer and inhabit.
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it. And the Bible says he's sojourning in that land, which means there are at least in biblical
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terms and biblical definitions, two types, at least two types of sojourners. There is a sojourner who
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is in exile in a land that they are not meant to be in, eventually waiting for the Lord to deliver
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them and take them out. And there are sojourners like Abraham who are not in exile in a land where
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they don't belong, but in a land that they're currently sojourning in as a stranger, as an
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alien, a foreigner with people that they do not know, but they're sojourners in that land, not in
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exile waiting to be beamed up out of the land, but they're sojourning in that land waiting to take
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the land. And in that sense, New Testament Christians are sojourners in this earth.
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kings. What are these lowercase l lords that Jesus has lured over? They are earthly lords.
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And so Abraham is a sojourner in a land that he is meant not to be removed or delivered from,
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but his future descendants will indeed conquer. And what God speaks to Abraham
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in Genesis 15 and 16, as this covenant is taking place, is he says that the fullness of iniquity
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of these inhabitants wicked pagan inhabitants of the land of canaan is not yet full and so your
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descendants he says will be bound they'll be in slavery bondage for 400 years to another people
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foreign people this is alluding to their time in egypt but eventually they will then take over this
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land for then the fullness of the iniquity of the canaanite tribes will be fulfilled and it will be
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proper and right, not that God would be unjust if he punished them before, but God again, not speaking
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of his justice, but speaking of the fact that God in his character is long-suffering and slow to
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anger, at that point, in keeping with the decree of God and the character of God, he will then use
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the descendants of Abraham to drive out the Canaanites. So again, the order, both logical and
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chronological is that God sovereignly determines to exact his justice over all these people pagan
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people in the land of Canaan and the way that he brings it about is that he he doesn't just send
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Israel to to chase them down as they're just minding their own business right as they're
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just working quietly with their hands seeking to be at peace with Israel no no no because then
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Israel would be guilty of certain war crimes. So instead, what God does in order to exonerate,
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morally exonerate, the actions of Israel in their conquest, which he commanded them to do,
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but also ensure his justice in the dealing out of his judgment over the Canaanite tribes,
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what God does is what he always does. He sovereignly intervenes, and he actually
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hardens the heart of these Canaanites, the very same way that he hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
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And God does not do this in such a way that the Canaanites or Pharaoh are absolved of human
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agency and moral culpability. The Bible says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and in the same
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breath, God hardened his heart. It's both. And you think about that. I mean, think about this in just
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practical terms if you're pharaoh and it's not like there's one sign and wonder we're talking
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10 severe plagues in the land of egypt going all the way up to the 10th and this is happening over
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the course of weeks perhaps months 10 plagues supernatural undeniable miraculous judgments
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corresponding with one of Egypt's false gods.
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with each of the plagues that he pours out,
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I am superior to Egypt and all its deities.
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Think about the resolve necessary in that moment
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to say, I'm going to mount up all the fighting men in Egypt,
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Yahweh has been their great refuge and defense,
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a strong tower, and he has poured out his power and might
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in judgment against me and my people 10 times now that I'm still stubborn. That is a stubbornness
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that I believe is beyond simply the natural rebellion of man. But it makes sense within a
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supernatural category that the Lord sovereignly hardened Pharaoh's heart. And in Romans chapter
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9, the apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit, commentating on the events with Pharaoh,
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Paul says that the Lord supernaturally hardened his heart
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so that the Lord raised Pharaoh up and hardened his heart,
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rooted further, supernaturally rooted Pharaoh in his stubbornness
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so that the Lord might display his awesome power.
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and you want to show off how mighty you are in battle,
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well what do you have to do well with one hand you lay some blows
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but you're infinitely more powerful than any of your adversaries so
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with the other hand you actually have to hold up the very enemy that you're hitting
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otherwise he'd disintegrate that's what god does with pharaoh he supernaturally sustains pharaoh
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So I'm gonna have to supernaturally harden his heart
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and sustain him in his rebellion in the one sense
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man remains in rebellion against him and man will not submit to his law for indeed he cannot
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and that the only way that any man would humble himself and believe the gospel is if God
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supernaturally and sovereignly intervenes softening his heart melting his heart like wax
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All right, two main points from the text today.
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particularly in facing last what we feared at first.
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This is one of the things that we saw in our text last week.
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we see it again. It's worth reiterating. God's grace, one of the ways that God distributes His
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grace in our lives as His people, is it not with a 100% guarantee, but ordinarily,
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as an ordinary principle or pattern, God often, in our sanctification, in our spiritual maturing,
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God often ordains and allows that we might face last
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We fear this particular giant, this particular dragon,
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And yet God would have it if we simply trusted him,
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is the very thing that God allows us to face at last.
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is precisely what prepares us for the challenge tomorrow.
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Their fear of the Anakim is precisely the fear.
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This is the specific fear that caused them
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to refuse to enter the land of Canaan 38 years earlier
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And yet, when Israel finally did enter into the promised land,
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It was only after God had thoroughly trained them in conquest, in war,
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that he finally calls Israel to wage battle with the Anakim.
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God is exceedingly gracious in the order in which he arranges the battles of our lives.
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Too often we convince ourselves that we must fight our biggest giants first
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What happens is that Israel, after having left Egypt, they wander.
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It's 40 years in total, but there's a pivotal moment two years into their wilderness wandering
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where they come to the border of the land of Canaan.
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and at the particular border where they're at in that moment,
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And the enemy is formidable, but we have Yahweh.
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But the other 10 Israelite spies, they bring back a bad report.
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And it's important that we recognize that this bad report is not,
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the Bible does not say that it is a deceitful or lying or false report.
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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
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once did and after performing certain tests the doctor sits you down and he gives you a diagnosis
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bring back not a false report, not fake news, but bad news, a bad report. Instead of focusing
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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
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of the enemy. And because of that, the Lord determines that Israel, because of their unbelief,
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Their fear is an indictment of their trust in Yahweh.
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They are essentially saying, Yahweh cannot be trusted.
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And this is the very God of Israel who just performed awesome signs and wonders in Egypt.
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But our God just caused us to walk across a sea on dry land.
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So I think we can handle giants if the Lord is with us.
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But instead, they chose to harden their hearts in unbelief.
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And as a consequence, a just consequence and discipline for that unbelief,
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Israel's refusal to trust in God who had been with them and faithful thus far,
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the primary point is that God is gracious in his presence.
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God is gracious in his presence that he speaks to us
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by the illumination of the Holy Spirit of the Holy Word of God.
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God speaks to us in his presence in our time of need.
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that he speaks to us when we cry out to him for help,
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that he comes to us, he consoles us, he comforts us.
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So God is gracious in every time of need through his presence,
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but also the point that's being made today is in his providence.
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God's grace in his presence and in his providence.
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In his presence, that is that the Lord is near to us,
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But also God is gracious not only in his presence,
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That God is gracious in the way that he orchestrates
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and ordains the challenges that each of us face progressively, increasingly, gradually in this
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lifelong process of sanctification. And so it was with Israel. God would have Israel face at last
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what they feared at first. That their first fear is they had a king, giants. And yet in terms of
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the progressive conquest of Canaan, their last enemy, their last adversary that they actually
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have to engage is the Anakim, the giants, only after progressively and gradually being trained
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by the Lord in war for at least months, if not perhaps longer.
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This is the kindness and grace of God, both in his presence, he is near to us,
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of facing our biggest giants last would be death.
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If no other enemy, then certainly the enemy of death.
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That Jesus, the better and ultimate Joshua,
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Joshua is the type of Christ. Jesus, Yeshua, he is the one who faces even death last. It is his
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final enemy to utterly defeat. The sting of death, for the record, has already been conquered.
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Jesus defeated the sting of death through his death and resurrection. But death in every sense,
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literal death, will be finally and utterly defeated by Christ upon his return. But it is,
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progressively throughout the course of our Christian lives
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It is a mercy that we don't enter into the Christian life
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is highly unlikely to soften their heart at the end.
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For the Christian, we are given in God's kindness.
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but in his kindness, we are given several years,
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if not even decades of growing in spiritual maturity
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the principle of what we see with Israel and the Anarchy.
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The very giants that they feared at first, 38 years prior,
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the last enemy that they actually have to face.
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And if only they had trusted the Lord from the beginning,
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then that generation that died out in the wilderness
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would have been able to inherit the promised land.
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the takeaway for us our first main point the takeaway for us is trust the lord
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trust that he will not bring us up against any challenge any trial any tribulation any
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temptation that he is not able to deliver us from he can
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the second main point i'll do the giants last because i don't want to miss the main points
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If I miss anything and have to just close the Bible
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I personally would not like to miss out on the Giants.
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And he kind of rolled his eyes in a respectful manner.
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And I was like, I promise you it's in the text.
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All right. So here we go. The second main point from the text today is this. Joshua slays the
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giants, but Israel is tasked with plundering the house. This is the verse, verse 23, that I use to
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open up with our call to worship in the beginning of our liturgy this Lord's Day. And I want us to
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land on this point. So there's only two main points. We did the sub-point. Regeneration precedes
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faith. God sovereignly hardens hearts so that he might display his power against his enemies.
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He did that with Pharaoh and Moses. He did it with Canaan and Joshua, and he does it in a spiritual
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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
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his presence, but also in the form of his providence, that God progressively and gradually
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allows us to face smaller tribulations, ordinarily, not always, but ordinarily at first, preparing us
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for later and greater tribulations. That's the first main point. And then the second and final
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main point from today is that Joshua slays the giants, but Israel plunders the house.
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that's the shadow way of stating it the substance way of stating it is that jesus binds the strong
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man and the church takes the land in your notes i've written this joshua thoroughly crushed all
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the strongholds of the canaanite kings and in this sense joshua took the whole land as chapter 11
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concludes. However, there were still many small towns and villages remaining. It was the task of
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each individual tribe to fight and plunder the land that was specifically apportioned to them
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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
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to each of them. In the same sense, Jesus, who is the ultimate Joshua, has already defeated the
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enemy and conquered the land, but he also calls us into battle to further the secure what is already
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ours. Mark chapter 3 verse 27, Jesus says this, but no one can enter a strong man's house and
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plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. Then, indeed, he may plunder his house. This
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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
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does not mean, let me get specific here, without just the post-millennial platitudes, let me get
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specific. Satan has not yet been cast into the lake of fire. That is a futurist event that will
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occur, but has not yet occurred. But Satan has been thoroughly bound in such a way that he is
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no longer able to deceive the nations. That is, deceive the nations to the same degree,
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in the same manner, with the same level of delusion that he once did before the work of
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Christ was finished. Satan still prowls around today in this gospel age as a roaring lion seeking
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who he may devour. But his leash, which he has always been on for the record, has been tightened
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and severely shortened by the work of Christ. Now, Satan has always been on a leash in the sense
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that even before the earthly ministry of Christ,
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they were gathered before God in a council of sorts
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Well, what have you been up to from wandering to and fro on the face of the earth?
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And God says, have you considered my servant, Joe?
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And Satan essentially says, paraphrasing here, yeah, he's faithful, but only because you've
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But if you take away that blessing, if you allow me to intervene, he'll curse you.
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Number one, Satan has not already previously intervened
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because God has set a hedge of protection around Job.
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He has not been permitted, allowed to intervene.
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When God does finally allow Satan to intervene,
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That Satan can take away his wealth, even his children,
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then satan comes back and says well he still hasn't cursed you but life for life flesh for flesh
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if you allow me to afflict his flesh his physical health then he'll curse you and god allows satan
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to do even that but at every step of the way god determines the boundaries so my point is this even
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before the coming of christ satan is on a leash satan is on a leash in the very sense that all
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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
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restrained or inhibited by whatever freedom the clay might possess. And so because of God's
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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,
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restrained, bound as a strong man of the house being the world. Woe to you, O earth, for the
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devil has been cast down to you. That the earth was, in a sense, Satan's house. That Adam was
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given dominion by God, but he forfeited his dominion as a steward in God's house. That is
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God's earthly cosmos. Adam, as the federal head, steward in the house of God, this physical
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creation, he forfeited his dominion and handed it over to Satan by his sin. So that Satan becomes
00:48:52.580
This is why Satan, when he tempts Jesus in the wilderness,
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what he actually has dominion over at that time
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and glory is ascended to the right hand of God,
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These kingdoms of the earth no longer belong to Satan.
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the world has been an incredibly dark place
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And like cockroaches, unregenerate man left in his sin
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through the work of Christ is casting out darkness.
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he is the one who drives out and conquers and Caleb with his help conquers the giants in the
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land of Canaan and then he apportions the land to Israel the people of God but that is not to say
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it is true and our text ends with these words the land ceased it had rest from war but as you'll see
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later, there were still plenty of battles left to be fought, but none of those battles were
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ultimately the war in the sense that Joshua faced as he led Israel in driving out all the main
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juggernaut kings and kingdoms. Joshua binds Satan, in a sense, and Israel then plunders the house.
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And then he says, there's still adversaries to be dealt with,
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And so too, Jesus in the ultimate sense is the final Joshua.
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That does not mean that Satan doesn't have any minions
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or that Satan himself has been cast into the lake of fire,
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his leash, he still has certain ability to tempt, to push, to prod, to deceive. But his leash has
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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,
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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
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finished. That's what we see in our text today. God's grace in his presence, but also providence,
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allowing us to face smaller adversaries first in his kindness, progressively building to facing
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the Anakim, some of our greatest giants, one example being our own death, last after having
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been matured in sanctification, and also that Jesus is the better Joshua, and that the sting
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of death has already been removed, and that Satan is bound, if in no other way he is bound
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in this sense, he's still alive, he's still on the prowl, but he only had, he has many
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weapons in his arsenal, but there was only one weapon that was truly lethal, a lethal weapon.
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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
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death and resurrection is that the the teeth the fangs have been ripped out of the lion's mouth
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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
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and say that the justice of God demands eternal hell
00:55:34.420
because the greatest lion of the tribe of Judah