The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Christians Must Prepare, Both For Suffering & Victory

00:00:00.000 Amen. This morning we continue once more our series through the book of Joshua. Our text for

00:00:04.580 today is going to be Joshua chapter 11 verses 1 through 15. We're going to focus our attention on

00:00:11.180 verses 1 through 6 and then again later on verses 13 through 15. So verses 1 through 6 and then 13

00:00:18.200 through 15. Let's go ahead and stand now for the reading of God's Word. We'll stand for the reading

00:00:24.480 of the first portion of our text, namely verses one through six, in order to show reverence and

00:00:30.140 respect for God and how he has chosen to reveal himself in scripture. When I finish reading the

00:00:35.040 text, I'll say this is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you

00:00:38.540 would respond by saying thanks be to God. One final time, the text that I'll be reading now

00:00:44.000 is Joshua chapter 11, verses one through six. The Bible says this, when Jabin, king of Hazor,

00:00:51.360 heard of this, he sent Jobab, king of Madan, and to the king of Shemron, and to the king of Ashvath,

00:01:01.040 and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Ereba, south of Chinaroth,

00:01:08.220 and in the low land, and in Naphoth, Dor, on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and the west,

00:01:15.420 the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country,

00:01:20.640 and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.

00:01:25.700 And they came out with all their troops,

00:01:28.540 a great horde in number like the sand that is on the seashore

00:01:32.800 with very many horses and chariots.

00:01:35.420 And all these kings joined their forces

00:01:38.040 and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom

00:01:41.940 to fight against Israel.

00:01:44.200 And the Lord said to Joshua,

00:01:46.340 Do not be afraid of them,

00:01:47.720 for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them slain to Israel. You shall hamstring

00:01:55.160 their horses and burn their chariots with fire. This is the word of the Lord.

00:02:01.660 All right, please be seated. Let's jump in. The first thing that I want us to see

00:02:06.360 here in these first six verses of Joshua chapter 11 today is twofold. One, God's grace in the

00:02:14.880 midst of trials, and two, that it is vital and imperative that the people of God trust in him

00:02:23.100 alone, that God would be the exclusive aim or object of our faith and our trust. So one,

00:02:33.520 God is abundantly gracious in the midst of trials to his people, and his people are expected,

00:02:40.980 their responsibility, our end of the deal, is to trust in God in the midst of these trials

00:02:48.120 and challenges, and our trust in him to be only in him. In your notes, I've written the following,

00:02:56.060 just as Joshua and Israel found great success in conquering their enemies in Joshua chapter 10,

00:03:01.440 God now grants them the same success against an even greater enemy in Joshua chapter 11.

00:03:08.460 In Joshua 10, Israel goes to war against five kings and their armies.

00:03:14.360 In Joshua 11, all the remaining kings in the northern tribes of Canaan now unite against Joshua so that their number was, according to our text, like the sand that is on the seashore.

00:03:27.920 God's ordinary design for the Christian life is that we often face challenges in a progression of increasing difficulty.

00:03:36.180 the victories of our past serve to be the training grounds for the next trial and when fresh

00:03:44.160 challenges arrive God provides fresh grace and assurance that's what we see in verse 6 let me

00:03:51.060 read verse 6 one more time and the Lord said to Joshua do not be afraid of them for tomorrow at

00:03:57.660 this time I will give over all of them slain to Israel you shall hamstring their horses and burn

00:04:05.520 their chariots with fire. What we've seen for those of you who have been here since the beginning

00:04:10.160 of this series through the book of Joshua is a progressive increase in difficulty for the armies

00:04:17.220 of Israel. That at first, when they cross over the Jordan, their first opposition is Jericho.

00:04:25.500 And God does, well, God supernaturally is providing miraculous strength in every single one of their

00:04:31.160 encounters, but especially the first in regards to Jericho. God does most of the heavy lifting for

00:04:37.900 the Israelites. God supernaturally causes the walls to crumble, the outer walls of Jericho,

00:04:44.620 so that the people are disarrayed, that many of them very likely died in the collapse of these

00:04:50.540 outer walls. And the people in Jericho that are remaining are in shock and terror and easy for

00:04:57.280 the Israelites to run down. That's their first encounter. The second is Ai. In the case of their

00:05:03.340 battle against Ai, Ai was actually a lesser challenge than Jericho. So this is the one

00:05:09.040 instance that we find in the book of Joshua where you have a challenge and then the next one is

00:05:14.480 actually easier. But it proves to be more difficult in the subjective sense for Israel because there

00:05:22.320 was sin in their camp. We have Achan who took some of the devoted things that were supposed to be

00:05:28.860 stored in the temple of the Lord, some of the precious gold and silver. He took things in

00:05:35.800 Jericho in that last battle and hid them in the dirt under his tent. It seems as though from the

00:05:41.000 text by way of implication that his children were likely grown and that they were complicit in this

00:05:48.340 deliberate choice to rebel against God's command given through Joshua that they aided their father

00:05:53.360 in this theft and so because of Achan and his household their sin

00:05:59.120 when Jericho is defeated and now Israel is going up to face Ai they are not granted the success

00:06:07.140 that they previously experienced in the case of Jericho in fact they are defeated even then God

00:06:13.180 is gracious. There's only a few individuals who actually die in Israel. They retreat. They're

00:06:20.280 able to get away. And then they come back the right way after dealing with sin in the camp,

00:06:24.640 after repenting before the Lord. And they come back with their full army, over 30,000 fighting

00:06:30.300 men, instead of deploying just a few of their soldiers. And they find success. Then the next

00:06:38.060 difficulty, the next challenge that Israel faces is that we have these five armies. We're skipping

00:06:45.180 ahead a little bit here, but you have five kings that ultimately unite against Gibeon. Gibeon has

00:06:52.000 a covenant with Israel. Israel goes to their aid. And so now they're not just fighting one isolated

00:06:59.000 tribe in Canaan, like Jericho or Ai, but five different kingdoms united. Then after that,

00:07:05.960 after this great victory against these five kings.

00:07:09.260 That's where Joshua has the kings.

00:07:10.980 They're taken, captured, alive.

00:07:12.980 They're held up and concealed in a tomb, a cave.

00:07:17.920 Stones are rolled in front of the mouth of the cave.

00:07:20.300 They go and run down all of their armies.

00:07:23.100 Then Joshua brings the men of Israel back to the cave.

00:07:26.380 They open up the door, remove the stones,

00:07:29.360 and he has each of his captains,

00:07:32.360 his heads of soldiers in Israel, actually put their feet on the necks of these five kings,

00:07:40.780 not in a contentious or arrogant way, but as a form of judgment to those wicked kings,

00:07:48.140 as a warning, a prophetic warning of what would take place for all the other kings out there that

00:07:53.760 may be watching, as God has done with these five kings, he will do to you as well, but also to

00:07:59.720 bolster the courage and the strength of Israel, that they would recognize that the Lord truly is

00:08:05.760 with them. It's similar to the same kind of concept that we find in the life of David. Before he was

00:08:13.160 king, as he was a shepherd boy, God gave him victory over the lion. He gave him victory over

00:08:20.420 the bear. And David uses that mindset. He says, well, God has given me strength to defeat the

00:08:27.220 lie and to defeat the bear. And so this uncircumcised Philistine, namely the giant Goliath,

00:08:33.860 will be no different. Again, the same principle at play, that there is a progression of increasing

00:08:39.640 challenges. And we find this principle in many places throughout the scripture, both in the Old

00:08:45.160 Testament and in the New. And this is a principle that I believe is common, not guaranteed in each

00:08:51.660 and every instance, but common. It is an ordinary principle in the life of New Testament Christians

00:08:58.020 today. Christians in a corporate sense, but also individual Christians and Christian households,

00:09:05.440 families, that God in his mercy, and we should take note that this is a confirmation. If it says

00:09:11.600 anything about God, it speaks of his mercy. It speaks of his kindness that God would allow us

00:09:18.000 to face lions and bears before giants, that God would allow us to face individual kingdoms like

00:09:24.940 Jericho and Ai before facing five kings. And then later on, as we see in our text today, Joshua

00:09:31.640 chapter 11, it's not merely five kings, but it's pretty much all the remaining tribes in the land

00:09:38.280 of Canaan. Joshua and Israel face down the five kings, and then in the latter half of Joshua

00:09:44.860 chapter 10, they defeat the remaining southern tribes of Canaan. And now they're going to the

00:09:50.860 northern tribes that seem to be a more formidable enemy. In fact, the greatest enemy that they've

00:09:57.480 faced thus far, certainly the greatest in number. And that's highlighted explicitly in our text,

00:10:04.180 I believe in verse four. It says, and they came out with all their troops, a great horde

00:10:14.500 in number like the sand that is on the seashore

00:10:18.620 with very many horses and chariots.

00:10:22.080 And that's unique.

00:10:22.820 That's not language that we have found thus far,

00:10:25.920 at least not to that extent in the book of Joshua.

00:10:28.440 So what we're finding is now in Joshua chapter 11,

00:10:31.780 they're facing their greatest enemy thus far in number,

00:10:35.060 but not only in number, quantity,

00:10:37.960 but also in a sense, quality.

00:10:40.640 They've faced giants at this point.

00:10:44.200 And Lord knows I can talk an hour about giants.

00:10:46.560 I get real excited about that.

00:10:47.640 I won't today.

00:10:49.540 But they faced giants at this point.

00:10:51.580 But now they're facing, we could say, technology.

00:10:56.440 And it is a titan, a giant-like technology, at least for their time.

00:11:02.420 They're facing the largest army they've ever faced.

00:11:06.180 and they're facing not just a large army but a a well-equipped army that has many not just some

00:11:14.620 but many horses and chariots so this is the greatest challenge that Israel has faced since

00:11:21.320 crossing the Jordan River as they seek to obey God's commandment to drive out all the Canaanites

00:11:27.120 from the land that God has promised as their inheritance and again we see in this God's grace

00:11:34.600 we see God's grace in two ways. One I've already named, which is the fact that God in his mercy

00:11:40.300 allows us to progress in our maturity and providentially as we're progressing in maturity

00:11:46.980 to progress in the difficulty of the trials and tribulations that we face.

00:11:52.540 All right. Israel doesn't cross the Jordan River and start with this battle. They start small

00:11:58.260 and the challenges increase in the very same way that our maturity, our faith starts small

00:12:06.940 and through the process of sanctification over time, we mature and it grows. And this is a mercy

00:12:14.540 of God. Again, this is not a 100% guaranteed promise, but it is what we might refer to as

00:12:22.960 an ordinary principle. It rings true ordinarily more often than not that God allows us to face

00:12:31.940 various trials, challenges, and difficulties that are within the realm of our maturity

00:12:39.920 during that season of life. He did this with David. He did this with Israel under the command

00:12:46.620 of Joshua. And ordinarily, very often he does it with New Testament Christians in a corporate sense,

00:12:52.600 but also as individual followers of Christ today.

00:12:56.640 So that's the first way that God is gracious.

00:12:59.180 He's gracious in his providence.

00:13:01.420 He's gracious in the caliber of trials

00:13:05.380 that he assigns to us at specific times

00:13:08.600 based off of stages of sanctification in our growth.

00:13:13.760 God is gracious in his providence.

00:13:16.020 God is also gracious in his revelation, in his word,

00:13:20.540 not just what he orchestrates through providence in terms of degrees of challenges at various times,

00:13:27.460 but he's also gracious in his explicit word to his people.

00:13:33.300 What God says to Joshua in verse 6 is do not be afraid of them.

00:13:39.040 God would be perfectly within his rights to say nothing.

00:13:43.240 God's already given them the command.

00:13:44.980 They don't need a reiteration of what obedience would look like.

00:13:51.680 The command was given multiple times through Moses before Joshua ever even came into leadership.

00:13:56.680 And the command has been remade several times underneath Joshua's command.

00:14:01.160 They know what is expected of them.

00:14:03.400 They know precisely what God has commanded them to do, namely to drive out all the wicked pagan inhabitants of the land.

00:14:12.020 what I'm saying is that in this moment as Joshua and Israel are surrounded by

00:14:17.420 the greatest number of opposition they've faced yet God is not obligated in any sense to speak

00:14:26.460 to them why because God has already spoken he's not spoken in riddles or rhymes but he's spoken

00:14:34.800 plainly they know their marching orders they know God's command they know precisely what they are

00:14:41.440 called and commanded expected by God to do to go to war to face down the enemy to face them with

00:14:50.240 courage with everything that they have every resource available to them and to give no quarter

00:14:56.800 no surrender no peace treaties to be made but to face the opposition head-on and to put all

00:15:05.060 the wicked inhabitants of this land to the edge of the sword. Israel is not ignorant, but God

00:15:14.220 is gracious. Israel is not ignorant, but God is gracious. He does not speak in this instance

00:15:22.760 because there is a need for clarity. He speaks in this instance solely on the basis of his mercy

00:15:31.220 because there's a need for courage.

00:15:35.820 Israel doesn't need clarity.

00:15:37.280 The clarity has already been provided.

00:15:39.720 But what Israel continually needs,

00:15:42.040 again and again and again,

00:15:43.720 is fresh courage.

00:15:47.580 And even that is an indictment of Israel.

00:15:50.120 And it is an indictment of us

00:15:52.460 as New Testament Christians today.

00:15:54.900 God has already provided enough

00:15:57.700 merciful confirmation of his presence

00:16:01.200 his help his aid his faithfulness to his covenant people they shouldn't need what I'm saying

00:16:09.680 is that they should not need in this moment another encouragement from the Lord

00:16:15.520 he's already encouraged them quite enough and not merely in word but indeed he has proven

00:16:24.300 his presence, his faithfulness, his provision to his people. And yet he comes to them,

00:16:32.060 not just in providence, what he orchestrates in the natural sense, but he comes to them

00:16:37.700 in his explicit presence, in his word saying, I'm with you. Take courage. Do not be afraid of them

00:16:50.280 for tomorrow at this time i will give over all of them slain to israel so god is gracious in

00:16:59.120 the midst of trials in two ways one in his providence allowing us to face trials as we

00:17:05.100 are able by god's grace to overcome them and second god is gracious not only in his providence

00:17:10.700 but in his presence that he speaks to his people and gives us fresh encouragement from his word

00:17:18.360 by the Holy Spirit, his presence dwelling within us, illuminating the text of scripture,

00:17:24.380 reminding us of all the promises of God, not just 10 years ago when we first began the Christian

00:17:31.640 life, but today, his mercies are new today, every morning, fresh grace, fresh bread, fresh

00:17:39.400 encouragement, even though we may be facing the thousandth challenge and should know by now that

00:17:45.360 the Lord is with us he still reminds his people he speaks to us as a father speaks to his child

00:17:52.460 so that's God's grace in the midst of trials his providence and his presence beyond that we also

00:18:00.680 see in these first six verses that as it pertains to Israel as far as it depends on them God provides

00:18:08.940 grace, but Israel is expected to place in God as their responsibility, their explicit and exclusive

00:18:19.460 trust. God gives grace, but we must trust him. Now, even this trust, we can argue from biblical

00:18:32.560 terms is also something provided by God which is why no one can boast that faith not only grace

00:18:41.100 but faith is the gift of God. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 says for by grace you have been

00:18:49.400 saved through faith. It is the gift of God. There are many who would link that phrase the gift of

00:18:58.240 God only to grace. For by grace you were saved, it is the gift of God. But the text reads,

00:19:06.260 for by grace you are saved. We know that grace is a gift. Grace literally defined as unmerited

00:19:12.300 favor. Grace doesn't need to be described as a gift because grace is, by mere definition,

00:19:20.740 a gift. Grace is gift. It's like saying you are saved by God's gift, which is a gift.

00:19:28.240 Well, we know that. That's what grace is.

00:19:31.160 I believe that in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9,

00:19:33.820 there is a sense in which we could rightly interpret and say

00:19:36.020 that grace is being called a gift.

00:19:37.800 But most importantly, what's being designated as a gift in that particular text

00:19:42.100 is not the grace, but the faith.

00:19:45.380 You have been saved by grace, which of course is a gift,

00:19:49.840 assumed as a gift.

00:19:51.460 That's the definition of grace.

00:19:53.360 But you're not just saved by the gracious gift of God,

00:19:57.000 But you receive this gift of grace through faith, which is also the gift of God, not a result of

00:20:05.020 work so that no man may boast. So God grants grace, but God also grants trust. So there is

00:20:17.580 a deal of sorts, something that God promises to do and something we're expected to do.

00:20:24.020 God promises to provide grace grace in the form of strength courage provision direction all these

00:20:33.300 things by providence by presence in every way God promises that his end of the deal is grace and not

00:20:40.620 end of the deal in a sense that God is morally obligated God is obligated to provide for us

00:20:45.080 nothing but his wrath. But in his gracious covenant, he chooses to extend grace. Now,

00:20:53.720 man's responsibility is trust. There are two ends of this deal. God provides grace. Man provides

00:21:01.280 trust. But here's the thing. Man is obligated to place trust in God. But even that God is the one

00:21:08.120 who upholds. God upholds both ends of the deal. God provides grace, expects trust, but then God

00:21:16.640 gives not only the grace, but also the faith in order to receive that grace. So that even our

00:21:23.620 trust in God's grace, even our faith, which is as a reformers would say, the empty hand that receives

00:21:30.280 the grace of God. If the grace of God is like a baseball, then faith is like the glove, but God

00:21:36.120 gives both. He throws the perfect pitch and he gives you the glove. God does it all. We are

00:21:45.480 expected to put our trust in God and not to hedge our bets, but to put our trust in God alone.

00:21:54.980 But it is, in the final analysis, it is God himself who grants us faith. Faith is not merely

00:22:04.100 something that can be conjured up manufactured by the will and sheer grit of man but faith is

00:22:12.240 something that god provides i believe help my unbelief god gives faith god grows faith but he

00:22:21.800 does so through sanctification progressively as a process in his providence in his presence

00:22:31.720 he does all of this it's all his work it's all his doing which is why he gets all the glory

00:22:37.580 God doesn't share glory with man because not because God is petty or arrogant God doesn't

00:22:46.920 share glory with man because he's just because he's fair and it would be unjust and unfair

00:22:55.900 to accredit man with anything

00:22:59.260 because he hasn't done anything.

00:23:02.940 God gets all the glory

00:23:04.360 because God does all the work.

00:23:08.660 Including not just grace,

00:23:11.260 but providing the faith to receive that grace.

00:23:15.620 And yet, even though God provides that trust,

00:23:19.400 he's the one who gives it.

00:23:22.800 But he is still within his rights

00:23:25.200 holy and just to command it. God commands several things throughout scripture that he ultimately

00:23:32.580 provides. God commands our obedience. But if any man is faithful to obey God's commandments,

00:23:39.320 then what will we say on that final day when we stand before him and he says, well done,

00:23:44.760 good and faithful servant. Pro tip. I would respond by saying, well done, good and faithful

00:23:51.960 leader. If I followed you well at all, it's only because you led me well. It's not because I

00:23:59.420 hung on to Jesus. It's because Jesus hung on to me. It's not because I'm a good follower. It's

00:24:06.940 because you're a faithful leader. In fact, quite the opposite. There were several times that I,

00:24:13.180 like the one sheep that was led astray, I wandered off the beaten path. And it was not that I,

00:24:19.620 because of my own wisdom

00:24:21.500 because of my own righteousness

00:24:23.440 found my way back to the fold

00:24:26.140 but instead the shepherd left the 99

00:24:28.500 he went and found me

00:24:30.460 and brought me back.

00:24:32.980 He will hold me fast.

00:24:36.520 Yes, we are commanded to cling to Christ

00:24:39.680 to trust in Christ

00:24:41.980 to follow Christ

00:24:43.960 to listen to Christ

00:24:45.620 to obey the commandments of Christ

00:24:47.920 and if we do

00:24:49.160 it's because of christ both his grace and his gift of providing the faith necessary to receive

00:25:00.260 that grace

00:25:01.580 so these two things my point is in theological terms they are not mutually exclusive they are not

00:25:10.380 a contradiction of terms they are not opposed to one another god's command and god's gift

00:25:17.980 God can command trust and obedience from his people

00:25:23.460 and in the very same instance be the source of faith and trust

00:25:28.520 and the one who girds up our obedience.

00:25:33.220 It is him who wills and works in and through you

00:25:37.780 in order to do that which is good and pleasing in his sight.

00:25:43.840 That's Philippians.

00:25:44.960 It says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

00:25:49.560 That's your responsibility.

00:25:51.340 That is God's just, righteous commandment to you.

00:25:55.540 Do it.

00:25:56.420 You work out your faith with fear and trembling.

00:26:00.260 And if we finish the verse, it goes on to say,

00:26:05.480 it is he who wills and works in and through.

00:26:10.240 Both are true.

00:26:12.360 simultaneously true one does not contradict the other there are a few things in scripture that

00:26:22.180 to us may be an apparent paradox but in reality in God's reality and in the mind of God and that

00:26:31.780 which actually is there is no contradiction at all God commands man has human agency and

00:26:39.340 responsibility. And yet God is still meticulously sovereign over all things, including our response

00:26:46.620 to him, our obedience, our faith, our trust in such a way that every good and perfect gift comes

00:26:54.000 from him. And so he merits all the glory. So what we find in the first six verses of our text

00:27:04.180 is that God is gracious in the midst of trial

00:27:07.160 both by providence, increasing difficulty

00:27:09.620 along with our sanctification,

00:27:11.200 and in his presence, fresh mercy, fresh grace,

00:27:15.360 a fresh encouragement.

00:27:17.260 Even when we've already received the command

00:27:19.640 and the encouragement dozens of times before,

00:27:23.040 God yet once more provides his grace.

00:27:27.280 Grace in the midst of trials,

00:27:29.520 both by providence and presence,

00:27:31.660 but also our obligation, although this too is his grace, our obligation to trust God.

00:27:40.480 And here's the ticket to trust God alone, not hedging our bets, but to trust God alone in the

00:27:50.220 midst of trials. And where we find this in the text explicitly is at the latter portion of verse

00:27:58.540 6. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire. In your notes, I've

00:28:08.160 written the following. Joshua was perfectly obedient as he waged war against the Canaanites.

00:28:13.160 Not just obedient to engage in war, which he was commanded to do, but he was meticulously

00:28:20.720 obedient in the manner in which he waged this war. God did not only command Joshua to fight,

00:28:28.540 but God also in certain instances commands the way in which Israel fights. And in this particular

00:28:35.680 fight, in chapter 11 of the book of Joshua, one of the specifics regarding not just the command

00:28:44.280 to fight in general, but the manner in which Joshua and Israel fights, one of the specifics

00:28:49.560 that God commands is that they are to hamstring the horses of their enemies and burn their chariots

00:28:56.800 with fire. Remember, as I said already at the outset, this is the greatest foe, the most

00:29:02.960 formidable foe that Israel has faced thus far, both in number as a great horde, their number like

00:29:11.340 the sea or the sand of the seashore, and not only the greatest enemy they faced thus far in quantity,

00:29:18.660 in number, but also in quality in terms of their weapons of warfare and cutting edge technology

00:29:28.980 for the time, horses and chariots. So think about this in practical terms for a moment.

00:29:37.440 If God is giving you supernatural victory over your enemy and you're facing the greatest enemy

00:29:42.800 you've ever faced thus far and you're picking them off one by one to where the enemy is now

00:29:50.000 fallen dead on the ground but many dozens if not perhaps hundreds or even thousands of the

00:29:58.660 enemy's weapons their horses their chariots are undamaged some of them maybe were damaged in the

00:30:06.440 battle you killed this guy but in the process you wounded or killed his horse as well but in some

00:30:11.600 instances, the guy's gone. The enemy, the Canaanite, is dead, but the horse and the chariot are just

00:30:18.760 fine. What would you be tempted to do? I would be tempted to hop on that chariot.

00:30:27.460 I'd be tempted to use those weapons. And in a general universal sense, it's not immoral or

00:30:37.160 prohibited by God to use certain weapons or to plunder certain treasures of our enemies.

00:30:47.140 I've written furthermore in your notes, there are many treasures of Babylon, or in this case,

00:30:54.040 Canaan, that are ripe for the Christian to plunder. Greece is ours. It belongs to the Christian.

00:31:02.020 Rome is ours it belongs to the Christian Babylon is ours it belongs to the Christian

00:31:10.640 and Canaan it belonged to covenant Israel and all that was there there were certain things

00:31:19.860 that God specified these devoted things belong to my house or these things should be burned with

00:31:24.860 fire and destroyed. But most of the plunder, God permitted Israel to take for themselves.

00:31:34.100 And so what we find as a principle is this. There are many treasures in Babylon or Canaan

00:31:38.660 that are ripe for the Christian to plunder. Why? Because all truth is God's truth.

00:31:45.560 So whatever is true is true. Whether the church believed it or whether Babylon believed it. If

00:31:53.100 it's true it's true two plus two being four is true no matter what time or what place because

00:32:01.860 it's god's truth and if a particular place in a particular culture is good at engineering

00:32:09.540 and christians discover some of the things that they have learned and developed over decades or

00:32:18.000 even centuries, if those things are in fact true, we should take them.

00:32:26.860 So what we find at the end of verse six of our text today is unique. And I want you to hear the

00:32:32.300 disclaimer. This is not a general universal commandment to Christians in all places in

00:32:39.600 all times. Never use the resources of unbelievers. That's not the message from the text. This is

00:32:54.340 a unique commandment. This is a particular, specific commandment given to Israel in this

00:33:01.880 place in this time because Israel did in fact as we find later in our text Israel did in fact

00:33:11.260 plunder the treasures of all these northern tribes in Canaan there's only one thing that

00:33:19.320 God says they can't have two things to be precise one is the city of the first king

00:33:27.200 the king of hazer who is the one who deliberately decided to rally all the other kings to come

00:33:37.900 against israel all the other kingdoms in joshua chapter 11 right because they all join together

00:33:45.020 it's not just one kingdom it's it's many kings many kingdoms many tribes all at once so that

00:33:51.080 their number is like a great horde. And all of the cities, all of them, spare one.

00:33:59.080 Israel is allowed, permitted by God, to go inhabit those cities, which is actually a fulfillment.

00:34:05.440 It is a fulfillment of what God had already previously spoken through Moses to Israel

00:34:09.800 in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 10, that you will live and inhabit cities that you did not build.

00:34:15.860 This is a sign of God's grace and kindness.

00:34:20.440 Another one of his gifts to his covenant people, Israel.

00:34:24.040 Not only will I give you land,

00:34:25.740 you won't even have to build some of your cities in the land.

00:34:28.840 You'll just kind of walk in.

00:34:31.380 Oh, there's my house.

00:34:33.460 I get the land, I get the house, I get this, I get that.

00:34:36.140 Not even just the house, like, look at the impliances.

00:34:39.700 Man, these Canaanites were doing well for themselves.

00:34:42.000 Thanks God, it's mine now.

00:34:43.140 and that's that's the the lion's share of what god does it's the minority report

00:34:51.200 throughout the book of joshua when god says no you don't get to plunder this

00:34:55.440 you don't get to have this so in the case of joshua 11 there's only one city one king one

00:35:01.860 one specific place that they're called to burn to completely and utterly destroy with fire not

00:35:08.640 just the inhabitants, but the stuff, their wealth, their resources. And it's the resources of the

00:35:14.940 city of the particular king who devised this rebellion against Israel and ultimately against

00:35:22.540 God. And so it's fitting. God is saying something in that. He's saying you can't have this city.

00:35:28.140 This city can't just be redeemed. This city needs to be destroyed because the rebellion of the

00:35:35.860 federal head of this city, namely the king, was so great that I want to wipe it off of the map

00:35:42.420 so that not even a stain of its history remains.

00:35:48.320 And that's one of God's greatest judgments, by the way. It's not just death, destruction.

00:35:57.020 One of God's greatest judgments that we find out through the entirety of Scripture is this.

00:36:01.800 it is to completely erase the heritage and future lineage of a people or an individual person

00:36:12.960 so that their line is cut off. One of God's greatest judgments is to end the line

00:36:22.380 of a family, a household, a man, or a nation.

00:36:28.220 That there's no posterity, no future descendants

00:36:32.220 to remember their heritage, to continue what they've done.

00:36:38.920 And so what God is doing in the case of Jabin,

00:36:41.700 the king of Hazor, because he's the one,

00:36:44.520 all the kings were wicked,

00:36:45.700 but he's the one who devised the plot

00:36:47.880 to come against Israel,

00:36:49.940 ultimately signifying his rebellion against God himself is to end his lineage, end his heritage,

00:36:57.360 and to, in a sense, add insult to injury. Not only wiping out his descendants, his people,

00:37:05.460 but even the place that they once inhabited. That it would be a desolate place, a forgotten

00:37:11.060 place. So in Joshua 11, there are two, as I said, two instances where God says,

00:37:17.540 you can't have this to his children, Israel. In every other instance, God says, it's yours.

00:37:25.020 Plunder Babylon. All truth is God's truth. The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.

00:37:33.040 Not only will you get the land, you get the house, you get the stuff. It's all yours because God is

00:37:40.240 gracious. See point A all the way back to verses 1 through 6. God is gracious. You can't outgive

00:37:48.080 God. He is generous, abundant in kindness. But the two things that God says you can't have,

00:37:55.380 these must be destroyed with fire. One is the city of the original king who devised the plot

00:38:03.000 against Israel. Two, the horses and the chariots. The horses don't get to be redeemed.

00:38:11.880 They don't get to be plundered. Not in this instance. Again, not a universal rule for all

00:38:17.600 times and all places. God's not against horses. But these horses he was. These horses had to be

00:38:24.220 hamstrung. And these chariots, God is not universally against chariots, but these chariots

00:38:30.320 had to be burned. Now the question is why? Going on in your notes, I've written this.

00:38:38.780 Strategy and innovation are not prohibited. Strategy and innovation are not prohibited

00:38:46.320 for Christians. What we're noticing in verse 6 should be this. But God demands that his people

00:38:54.700 place their ultimate trust in him.

00:38:57.960 We cannot place our trust in the very things

00:39:01.340 that our enemies have trusted

00:39:02.920 while assuming that God will somehow bless that rebellion

00:39:07.920 when it's exercised by us.

00:39:12.180 That's the principle of verse six.

00:39:14.800 It's not that chariots and horses are universally evil.

00:39:20.520 It's not that, well, swords are okay.

00:39:24.700 bows are okay. There's an inherent goodness to this weapon and an inherent spiritual cursed evil

00:39:32.640 voodoo with this weapon. That's not what God's saying. He's not saying, hey, you can't use the

00:39:39.000 tactics and weapons of your enemy because inherently in and of themselves, they're evil

00:39:45.420 and bad. So Christians have to use swords. Only bad people use chariots because chariots are

00:39:52.260 cursed and demonic, but swords are good. That's not what's going on. Christians can use the

00:39:58.820 chariots, but this time they couldn't. This time. Why? Because chariots are bad? No. Because chariots

00:40:08.380 were the very thing that Israel's opponents were trusting in. And the key for Israel is not that

00:40:15.520 certain things are good and therefore can be utilized and these things are bad and therefore

00:40:19.100 cannot. No, the principle is the difference between Israel and her foes is that the kings

00:40:27.560 of the earth trust in princes and horses and chariots, but the people of God trust in the

00:40:35.480 Lord. The advantage of Israel is not horses and chariots. The advantage of Israel is they win

00:40:44.100 despite being small in number,

00:40:47.540 despite being inferior in victuals and provision,

00:40:51.860 despite having lesser technology and weapons of war

00:40:56.900 because their God is great.

00:41:02.160 Is it inherently and universally wrong

00:41:05.200 to go to war against an adversary

00:41:07.760 with greater number than he has?

00:41:10.640 No.

00:41:11.880 That's wise.

00:41:14.100 In almost every instance.

00:41:17.320 But what would be wisdom, 99.9% of the time,

00:41:21.660 would be blatant rebellion and sin if your name is Gideon.

00:41:27.760 Because in that instance, the Lord had something specific to prove.

00:41:33.840 That the battle is the Lord's.

00:41:36.340 And that he can win when numbers are great or when numbers are few.

00:41:40.440 that the Lord is Lord of the battle and that the advantage of his people is that Yahweh

00:41:51.340 is on their side. He is mighty in battle. Psalm 20 verses 6 through 8 says,

00:41:58.560 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven

00:42:04.420 with the saving might of his right hand.

00:42:07.940 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

00:42:10.700 but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

00:42:14.520 They collapse and fall,

00:42:16.320 but we will rise and stand upright.

00:42:20.100 Finally, I've already addressed much of this,

00:42:24.420 but let's finish with the last three verses of our text,

00:42:27.460 verses 13, 14, and 15.

00:42:31.420 The scripture says this,

00:42:32.740 but none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn all these other cities were permitted

00:42:40.200 to stay except Hazer alone that Joshua burned and all the spoil of these cities and the livestock

00:42:49.780 the people of Israel took for their plunder but every person they struck with the edge of the

00:42:55.480 sword until they had destroyed them and they did not leave any who breathed just as the Lord had

00:43:01.960 commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone

00:43:10.440 of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. The late great puritan Matthew Henry, he and John Gill I've

00:43:18.900 used multiple times throughout this series, but to quote Matthew Henry now, specifically in

00:43:25.660 commentating on verses 13 through 15 of our text, Matthew Henry says this, the destruction of Huzor

00:43:32.160 is particularly recorded because in it and by the king thereof this daring design against Israel was

00:43:40.060 laid. The king of Huzor, it seems, escaped with his life out of the battle and thought himself safe

00:43:47.920 when he had got back into his own city. And Joshua had gone in pursuit of the scattered troops

00:43:53.900 another way but it proved that that which he thought would be for his welfare was his trap

00:44:00.380 in it he was taken as in an evil net there he was slain and his city for his sake burned the rest

00:44:11.160 of the cities of that part of the country are spoken of only in general that joshua got them

00:44:18.500 all into his hands, but did not burn them as he did Hazor. For Israel was to dwell in a great and

00:44:27.400 goodly cities which they builded not, according to Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 10. And here we find

00:44:34.820 Israel rolling in blood and treasure, as they were enriched with the spoil of their oppressors when

00:44:41.600 they came out of Egypt, wherewith to defray the charges of their apprenticeship in the wilderness.

00:44:49.620 So they were now enriched with the spoil of their enemies for a stock wherewith to set up in the

00:44:56.620 land of Canaan. Thus is the wealth of the sinner laid up for the righteous. The last thing that

00:45:04.100 I'll say is this. We've already addressed King Jabin and why his city of Hazor was destroyed

00:45:10.760 and burned with fire.

00:45:12.840 We've already addressed now why the horses,

00:45:16.280 in this instance, had to be hamstrung

00:45:19.040 and the chariots burned.

00:45:22.100 But the last thing that I want to address

00:45:23.940 is a practical application for the people of God today.

00:45:28.200 Is what about the other 99%?

00:45:32.400 And we've addressed the things

00:45:33.800 that are devoted to destruction.

00:45:37.100 But what about the 99%

00:45:39.360 that the Lord gives to his people,

00:45:41.880 the wealth of the wicked that actually is laid up,

00:45:44.820 not for destruction, but to be inherited by the righteous.

00:45:48.440 What about that?

00:45:51.060 The only thing that I want to note here at the very end is this.

00:45:55.700 There are times, just like in the life of Israel,

00:45:59.260 under the command of Joshua,

00:46:00.700 just like our text that we saw today,

00:46:02.820 there are times, albeit perhaps few and far between,

00:46:07.220 but both with Israel under the old covenant

00:46:10.280 and with the people of God in this gospel age.

00:46:14.440 We see it both in scripture

00:46:15.940 and we see it in the providence of God

00:46:18.840 throughout the last 2,000 years of church history.

00:46:21.560 There are times where God pours out

00:46:24.540 an abundance of resources,

00:46:27.620 wealth, influence, power

00:46:30.280 to his people in a moment.

00:46:34.640 Suddenly.

00:46:37.220 these are not moments that happen every day.

00:46:42.320 But history proves that these moments do, in fact, exist.

00:46:46.860 Rare, but they exist.

00:46:50.040 They existed with Israel, in their case, before the cross,

00:46:53.820 but they also exist in these last 2,000 years of church history as well.

00:47:01.180 That God sometimes, in his providence, in history,

00:47:04.880 he sometimes shakes things up suddenly he sometimes turns the tide completely overnight

00:47:13.420 to where the people of god were the underdog but all of a sudden they find themselves in charge

00:47:24.480 and so the final note is this i don't have a strategy or a formula i don't believe that

00:47:31.920 the scripture provides such a thing in specific terms. There are principles and commandments that

00:47:37.480 we should be faithful to obey. But in specific terms, I don't have a formula to say how we can

00:47:42.960 turn the tie, how we can all of a sudden go from being underdogs to being in charge. But I do want

00:47:49.620 to say this, there are ways not to make that happen, but there are ways for the people of God

00:47:54.720 to be prepared for when and if that happens.

00:48:00.120 And one of the tragedies that we find in Israel before the cross

00:48:05.080 and with the people of God in church history these last 2,000 years

00:48:10.280 is that when these rare moments do in fact occur,

00:48:14.480 often the people of God do not have the maturity

00:48:17.880 to be able to wield the influence and power and wealth and resources

00:48:23.380 that suddenly come to them.

00:48:27.600 That the people of God are so used to being the underdog.

00:48:31.960 They become so familiar with being persecuted

00:48:35.720 that they have not even thought or planned

00:48:41.620 for the remote possibility of ever winning anything.

00:48:47.520 It's like a coach who's been coaching for a decade

00:48:50.600 and every team that he's coached in every game that they've played has only ever lost

00:48:58.780 and by this time even if it's subconscious he may not even realize it but he's he's tweaked and

00:49:06.960 and developed his whole coaching strategy of how to fall on the sword with dignity

00:49:14.660 how to die gracefully,

00:49:18.800 how to lose fantastically.

00:49:26.040 That coach, of course, goes by another name.

00:49:29.160 It's called Evangelical Christians.

00:49:33.540 We lose down here.

00:49:36.860 We only lose.

00:49:39.900 So lose well.

00:49:40.680 here we'll have a 15 part series on all the different ways that you can fall on your sword

00:49:49.100 and die you can fall on your sword backwards if you're a real serious christian you'll do a triple

00:49:55.780 axle backflip and land on your sword right through your head and god will be immensely glorified

00:50:01.560 the blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church and god in his sovereignty does determine

00:50:11.600 and ordain that his people at various times will be persecuted and some of them unto death and when

00:50:19.720 it is god's design and it happens it is make no mistake glorious

00:50:25.100 but to pretend as though that is the only strategy of God

00:50:31.280 and that in this great story that's unfolding

00:50:36.760 that there are no occasions where the people of God

00:50:39.380 ever have any real tangible victories on earth

00:50:43.880 in God's providence in the course of human history

00:50:47.180 is naive.

00:50:49.040 It is to skip over volumes of scripture

00:50:52.080 as well as history, as well as common sense.

00:50:59.660 And evangelicals, New Testament Christians in this hour

00:51:03.340 cannot afford to be so naive.

00:51:07.860 We should be prepared to be sent off to the gulags.

00:51:15.660 But if we are only prepared for that possible outcome

00:51:19.480 and not equally prepared,

00:51:22.080 To be placed in palaces or to all of a sudden have the ear of kings, then we have only read half of the Bible.

00:51:38.500 We don't know what God is doing.

00:51:41.640 And it is arrogance and presumption to assume that we win in this generation, in this particular way, in this particular place.

00:51:52.740 But likewise, we miss this one.

00:51:56.480 But it is also arrogant presumption to assume that we lose in this way, in this place, in this hour.

00:52:07.580 No man knows the day or the hour.

00:52:09.880 We don't know when Christ will return.

00:52:11.820 We have no clue how long he will tarry.

00:52:14.000 And we do not know what Christ ordained will is in this year of our Lord, 2023.

00:52:22.080 in this nation, in this state, in this county,

00:52:26.440 with this church, with this particular household?

00:52:30.200 We don't know.

00:52:32.360 It could be God's sovereign will that you lose your job,

00:52:36.160 that you're mocked by all your contemporaries,

00:52:39.260 and that you are to abase, not abound, but to abase

00:52:42.720 and to glorify God in contentment in the midst of little.

00:52:47.940 To take joy as you are reviled and you have plenty of scriptures.

00:52:52.080 if that is God's will.

00:52:55.360 But it may also be God's will for some of you

00:52:58.440 that your income triples in a few short months.

00:53:06.340 But all of a sudden, because of God's mercy,

00:53:09.120 not your own doing, but God's grace,

00:53:11.680 that you're exalted.

00:53:15.820 God does exalt the humble.

00:53:18.600 And that's not just a verse about exalting

00:53:21.040 being a physical levitation in the rapture.

00:53:24.960 No, exalting in worldly terms,

00:53:27.920 position, influence, wealth, resources,

00:53:31.700 authority, power, God does do this.

00:53:35.640 100% guarantee, plug in the formula,

00:53:38.620 and now God is owing me exaltation?

00:53:41.680 No, no.

00:53:46.440 But to pretend as though this never occurs,

00:53:49.180 so that here's the problem that I'm getting at

00:53:51.840 so that we should never prepare

00:53:53.640 for the possibility of that occurring

00:53:56.340 is foolish.

00:54:00.300 We should prepare to suffer

00:54:02.380 and if we should be put to the edge of the sword

00:54:07.100 to die gloriously in battle

00:54:10.900 but we should also be prepared

00:54:14.440 for the other part of the story

00:54:16.760 and this may be a spoiler alert

00:54:20.200 if you've grown up in the evangelical church

00:54:23.020 but Jesus doesn't just die at Calvary

00:54:27.640 and I'm going to ruin this story

00:54:30.240 because a lot of you

00:54:30.800 probably if you've been in an evangelical church

00:54:32.560 you've probably never heard this

00:54:33.640 he actually raises again

00:54:36.160 did you know that?

00:54:38.800 we know that he died

00:54:40.540 but did you know that he also was resurrected

00:54:43.740 and that when he came back from the dead bodily,

00:54:48.020 he wasn't puny,

00:54:50.720 but that he actually all authority,

00:54:53.180 not just in the 17th dimension,

00:54:54.800 but on earth and in heaven was given to him

00:54:57.320 and that he gloriously ascended

00:55:00.180 and is seated in majesty and power

00:55:02.520 at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

00:55:05.920 And that with that authority,

00:55:07.580 not only in heaven, but also on earth,

00:55:09.440 before he ascended to the right hand of God,

00:55:12.200 he commissioned you and I as his ambassadors to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing

00:55:21.240 them into the name of the triune God and teaching them to obey all God's commands did you know that

00:55:27.420 we are called to cry out to kings and princes saying kiss the son lest he be angry and his

00:55:34.240 wrath quickly kindled and that sometimes not always but sometimes those kings and princes

00:55:41.080 listen? And then all of a sudden, Constantine joins the team of the Christians? And he's a

00:55:50.660 little bit too zealous. I'll admit that. But imagine if for a century before Constantine

00:56:00.180 comes to power, Christians had serious theological heavy lifting and real good faith, not the

00:56:09.140 gospel coalition good faith but real good faith debates and conversations about christian political

00:56:16.360 theology and what it is to wield power and what it looks like for civil princes to kiss the sun

00:56:23.500 and what that means at a practical legislative legal level if that had happened for a century

00:56:31.940 or two, before a Constantine of sorts, came into power and came into Christ.

00:56:42.780 I think that things would go well. Certainly better. So let's prepare to suffer if that be

00:56:51.920 God's will for our generation at this hour in this place. Trusting in Christ alone. Let's also

00:57:00.920 prepare not only to suffer with him, but to reign with him. And not only the reign that is guaranteed

00:57:09.680 for those who trust in Christ in the life to come, but a reign and rule as Christ's body here on

00:57:16.880 earth in whatever station of life the Lord called us to when he saved us, per 1 Corinthians 7.

00:57:25.660 That is not only addressing being unequally yoked. If you're married to an unbeliever,

00:57:30.760 and then you're saved, you should remain in the marriage

00:57:32.840 if that unbelieving spouse agrees to remain with you.

00:57:35.780 That's not the only instance being addressed by the apostle.

00:57:39.960 It is not only marriage and being unequally yoked,

00:57:42.700 but also vocation.

00:57:44.180 Remember the Roman soldiers that came to Jesus and said,

00:57:46.840 we're your disciples now, we're following you now,

00:57:49.400 what should we do?

00:57:50.180 And Jesus answers by saying,

00:57:51.580 if you're a Christian, get out of the civil magistrate,

00:57:54.080 you need to quit being soldiers.

00:57:55.580 No, that's not his answer.

00:57:59.960 Instead, Jesus answers their question.

00:58:02.280 Essentially, I'm giving you the headline here,

00:58:04.560 but he answers the question by saying,

00:58:06.540 you're a Roman soldier and a Christian?

00:58:09.600 These two things are not diametrically opposed.

00:58:12.580 You can do both, but here's the ticket.

00:58:15.800 You don't take your discipleship of Jesus

00:58:18.960 and morph that to fit Rome in your vocation.

00:58:23.200 You take your Roman soldiership

00:58:25.840 and you squeeze that to make sure it's obedient to Christ.

00:58:31.300 That's what shifts.

00:58:33.100 So you can still be a civil magistrate.

00:58:36.040 You can still be a Roman soldier.

00:58:38.060 You have to do so only Christianly.

00:58:42.800 Prepare to suffer, but prepare for victory.

00:58:46.980 And God sometimes takes forever to do something suddenly.

00:58:51.300 sometimes the tide turns in a moment sometimes israel goes from wandering vagabands in the

00:59:02.900 wilderness to inhabiting palaces and kingdoms enriched by treasure that we know no comparison

00:59:15.900 And this is not only something that God did with Israel before the coming of Christ, but something that God has continued to do, albeit rarely, but it does exist with his people, Christians throughout church history.

00:59:34.160 Be prepared for both to suffer with Christ, if it be his will to reign with Christ, if it be his will.

00:59:42.200 and when we are enriched use everything that is true all truth is god's truth

00:59:50.660 whether it comes from babylon or jerusalem but do not put your trust in chariots trust

01:00:00.320 in the lord let's pray father thank you for your word bless it to your people bring glory to your

01:00:05.960 name in jesus name amen we'll continue to worship the lord now through

The NXR Podcast - September 03, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Christians Must Prepare, Both For Suffering & Victory

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