The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Christ’s Full Protection When Our Enemies Attack Us

00:00:00.000 Amen. This morning we're continuing with our sermon series through the book of Joshua. Our

00:00:04.800 text for today is going to be Joshua chapter 10 verses 1 through 15. I'm going to read the first

00:00:10.700 five verses, Joshua 10 verses 1 through 5, from the outset, and I'm going to allow that to be

00:00:17.580 the particular verses that we stand in order to show reverence to the Word of God as He's revealed

00:00:22.800 Himself. So would you join me in standing now? I'll read these first five verses, and then as we

00:00:27.540 work through the sermon, we'll deal with the remainder of the text, verses 6 through 15.

00:00:32.860 So, the text that I'll be reading right here from the outset, again, is Joshua chapter 10,

00:00:36.980 verses 1 through 5. When I finish reading the text, I'll say, this is the word of the Lord,

00:00:41.600 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.

00:00:46.260 One final time, Joshua 10, 1 through 5, the Bible says this,

00:00:51.360 As soon as Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to

00:01:00.440 destruction, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants

00:01:07.400 of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, he feared greatly, because Gibeon

00:01:14.120 was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its

00:01:21.280 men were warriors. So Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Holm, king of Hebron, to Piram,

00:01:29.880 king of Jarmuth, to Jephiah, king of Lachish, and to Deber, king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and 0.90

00:01:40.960 help me and let us strike Gibeon. For it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel. 0.89

00:01:47.920 Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmu, 0.56

00:01:54.860 the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon gathered their forces and went up with all

00:02:00.960 their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it. This is the word of the Lord.

00:02:08.780 All right, please be seated. From the outset, I want to utilize a quote from Matthew Henry,

00:02:14.440 the late great Puritan, in commentating on these first five verses of our text, he says the

00:02:20.680 following, when sinners leave the service of Satan and the friendship of the world, that they make

00:02:27.720 peace with God and join Israel, they must not marvel if the world hate them, if their former

00:02:34.980 friends become foes. By such methods, Satan discourages many who are convinced of their

00:02:41.880 danger and almost persuaded to be Christians, but fear the cross. These things should quicken 0.96

00:02:49.320 us to ask God for protection, health, and deliverance. What we see happening in the

00:02:56.020 outset of our text today is that Gibeon, for those of you who were not with us last week as

00:03:01.500 we focused on Joshua chapter 9, Gibeon, a particular Amorite tribe, Canaanite tribe,

00:03:08.600 made and made, came and made a peace treaty, a covenant with Joshua and Israel. And they did

00:03:16.040 this in faith. They had heard of what Joshua and Israel had done to Jericho, what they had done to

00:03:23.980 Ai, another tribe, Canaanite tribe, and what they had done to previous kings underneath the

00:03:29.660 leadership of Moses as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They had also heard

00:03:35.600 the rumors and the stories of what had taken place in Egypt and how God had delivered Israel

00:03:42.540 with a mighty hand, sending 10 plagues on the Egyptians. And so, Gibeon, this particular tribe, 0.87

00:03:49.540 realized that there was no victory to be had against God's people Israel, that if they tried

00:03:57.560 to come up against Israel, they ultimately would be picking a fight with God. They would be opposing 0.76

00:04:04.360 Yahweh, the God of Israel, and they would be utterly destroyed. And so they recognized that 0.95

00:04:11.260 their only hope of salvation, their only hope of being spared was to go and make a treaty, peace,

00:04:20.700 a covenant with Israel. Now they did this underneath a pretense. They went to Israel,

00:04:27.480 although they were actually, Gibeon was a tribe geographically located in the land of Canaan

00:04:34.620 that God had determined to give to Israel as an inheritance. And Gibeon knew this,

00:04:39.760 even though they lived there and were local, they were nearby Israel, they pretended as though they

00:04:46.680 were actually located in a far off distant land. And so what we saw in chapter nine last week is

00:04:52.640 that the Gibeonites took sacks of food and water and wine, and they battered these articles of

00:05:04.100 their own clothing and their footwear and sandals and the sacks that they used to hold their victuals

00:05:10.680 and all these different things to make it seem as though they had just finished a very long journey

00:05:16.620 to come and see Israel. They even took with them bread that had already gone stale and food that

00:05:24.600 had already been spoiled to make it seem, appear physically, again, as though they had come from a

00:05:30.600 very great distance. And so they told Israel when they came to Israel, we are from a far-off place

00:05:37.400 and we have heard the great tales of what your God has done through you and giving you victory

00:05:43.460 over all these various tribes. And so we are asking that you would make a covenant with us

00:05:49.980 and that you would commit to be at peace with us and that you would not make war against us.

00:05:56.280 And the Bible says in Joshua chapter 9 that Joshua and the elders and rulers in Israel did

00:06:04.020 not seek counsel from the Lord. And so what they did instead, unfortunately, is that they made

00:06:10.700 a rash commitment. They made a vow. They vowed with Gibeon not to put them to death, not to make

00:06:19.380 war against them, but rather to do them no harm and to live at peace with them. They made a vow.

00:06:26.000 They made a covenant. And so we spent lots of time talking about the biblical premise for vows,

00:06:32.940 the biblical premise for covenants. And so Joshua and Israel entered into a covenant with Gibeon.

00:06:39.700 And when they realized, the Bible says, three days later that the Gibeonites were actually

00:06:45.540 their next door neighbors and that they had lied and had not actually come from a far

00:06:51.480 off distant land, but were inhabitants of the land of Canaan, the very land that God

00:06:56.360 had promised to give Israel as an inheritance, the very land that God commanded Israel to 0.64

00:07:01.820 drive out all these pagan Canaanite tribes. 0.95

00:07:05.260 when Israel realized that, uh-oh, we've just made a peace treaty with a particular tribe of people 0.99

00:07:11.380 that God has told us to drive out, they couldn't go back on their word. Joshua and Israel and the 0.56

00:07:19.480 leaders there realized that even though they were supposed to initially in obedience, full obedience 0.97

00:07:25.560 to God's commandments to drive the Gibeonites along with all these other tribes out of Canaan, 0.97

00:07:30.540 they had given their word, they had made a treaty, a covenant, and to break their word would actually 0.99

00:07:36.540 be a greater sin. And then hundreds of years later, we see the power of a covenant. We see how binding

00:07:44.400 our word actually is, how serious an endeavor it is to make a vow before the Lord. We see hundreds

00:07:52.160 of years later, generations past King Saul, the first king in Israel, King Saul in his zeal for

00:08:01.120 the house of the Lord and for the people of Israel, his zeal overstepping his bounds of wisdom and 0.89

00:08:07.460 maturity, he starts to put to death the Gibeonites. And what happens as way of consequence is that 0.98

00:08:15.320 there are three years of severe famine and drought in the land of Israel. And now David comes into

00:08:23.320 the kingship, the throne, succeeding Saul. And David goes before the Lord because Israel is

00:08:30.380 suffering in this intense famine and drought. And he goes to the Lord and says, God, what's going on?

00:08:37.360 Surely we must be in sin. This is not just natural. We recognize that there is a supernatural

00:08:45.400 cause behind this famine. And ultimately, you're sovereign over all things. This wouldn't be

00:08:51.460 happening if you didn't allow it. Is Israel in sin? Have we breached a covenant with you? 0.99

00:08:58.860 And the Lord answers David and says, yeah, Saul did this. When he was king, as a representative

00:09:05.380 head of Israel, with his authority, he breached the covenant that was made generations earlier

00:09:13.140 through Joshua. He breached the covenant. He broke his word. He broke Israel's vow with the 0.90

00:09:20.260 Gibeonites. And in his zeal, he began to put them to death. And David says, well, how do we make it 1.00

00:09:27.100 right? And God sends David to the Gibeonites to say, go to them. You need to make it right and 0.91

00:09:34.080 seek reconciliation and restoration with the Gibeonites, the ones who Israel has offended. 1.00

00:09:39.700 And the Gibeonites say that in order to make it right, blood for blood, tooth for tooth, eye for 0.95

00:09:46.520 eye, life for life, that the sons of the lineage of Saul must be put to death. Now, David spares 0.95

00:09:54.460 Mephibosheth, who is a son, grandson of King Saul, but a son actually of Jonathan because

00:10:00.880 of a covenant that David made with Jonathan. So he can't make this other covenant that Saul broke

00:10:07.320 with the Gibeonites right by breaking another covenant that David made with Jonathan. So he

00:10:12.980 spares Mephibosheth and the Lord allows for this, but he puts other sons of King Saul and grandsons 0.99

00:10:21.180 in his lineage, hands them over to the Gibeonites and they put them to death. And all of a sudden 0.98

00:10:27.440 the famine ceases and God causes it to rain on Israel. Again, there's food in Israel. Things are

00:10:32.820 made right. But the point is to say that is just one example in biblical terms of the power of our

00:10:40.000 word, the power of a covenant. And I don't mean the power of our word in a prosperity gospel

00:10:46.500 heretical sense. I'm not talking about the power of positivity or manifesting or just wishing

00:10:53.020 something into existence, faith in your faith, name it and claim it. It's none of that.

00:10:58.340 But what I am saying is that when we make a vow before the Lord, he will hold us accountable.

00:11:05.160 And that's why Jesus even says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Do not make a vow

00:11:10.880 at all. And we talked about that and said, well, Jesus says no vows at all. So for us now as New

00:11:17.600 Testament Christians in this gospel age since Christ and his life, death, and resurrection,

00:11:23.680 should we not make any vows? And we looked at even the teachings of Luther and John Calvin,

00:11:29.620 who both agreed that you could make vows. When you make a vow, the kind of swearing that Jesus

00:11:36.000 utterly condemns is swearing by anything other than swearing upon the Lord, right? Swearing on

00:11:42.760 the temple. And then, you know, really, you know, the religious rulers of Jesus' day, it was like

00:11:48.700 they were giving their word with their fingers crossed behind their back, trying to escape their

00:11:53.760 promises, escape their vows. So they would say, oh, I swore by the temple, but you're not actually

00:11:58.560 bound by your oath unless you swear by the gold of the temple. Or, oh, I swore by the altar,

00:12:05.160 but you're not really bound by your word unless you swear by the sacrifice that is laid upon

00:12:10.600 the altar. And this is just what the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious rulers of Jesus' day

00:12:16.660 were doing. They were constantly taking the commandments of God, and they were meticulously 0.87

00:12:21.300 twisting them and making them, well, it's like the IRS in our day, right? If you want to oppress

00:12:28.580 people and you want to find a way to basically hold others bound, but you not be bound yourself,

00:12:35.160 what you do is you just extrapolate, right? You have a certain law code that's, you know,

00:12:42.300 1,500 pages long. G.K. Chesterton once famously said, if man will not have 10 commandments,

00:12:49.480 he will have 10,000 commandments. And that's what the religious rulers of Jesus' day were doing,

00:12:54.880 and that's what rulers and tyrants continue to do in our day as well, is they take simplicity

00:13:00.600 that God speaks to us in his word, they extrapolate it out. They add immense overburdening complexity

00:13:09.400 to the word of God to where essentially everyone is now bound by God's law and cannot escape it

00:13:16.320 except for them. They know the tricks of the trade. They know the cheat codes. They know the

00:13:23.840 hacks. You know, so everyone else now is making vows and bound to their word, but the Pharisees

00:13:29.440 have their neat little trick of, well, we make oaths too, but we have the fingers crossed behind

00:13:34.260 our back tactic. So you have to keep your word, but we never actually do. That's the kind of

00:13:39.900 swearing and oath taking that Jesus expressly and utterly condemns in the New Testament. So Luther 0.88

00:13:46.700 and Calvin, back to them, what they said is that among Christians, we should be able to simply let

00:13:52.120 our yes be yes and our no be no. But in a public sense with unbelievers, there is room to make a 0.92

00:14:00.740 vow. And one of the texts that they would cite is that Jesus himself undertook an oath and made a 0.99

00:14:07.040 vow when the religious Sadducees, which would be equivalent to not just religious rulers, but they

00:14:13.020 were also a legal court for Jerusalem and for Israel. They would be kind of the equivalent of

00:14:19.020 a religious supreme court in Israel during that day, they actually call, the high priest calls

00:14:24.900 upon Jesus and he invokes the name of God. He's invoking an oath and Jesus answers him. He doesn't

00:14:31.880 say, well, I won't do that because we don't do oaths anymore. Jesus undergoes by answering the

00:14:38.120 high priest in this, the Sadducees, the supreme religious court in Israel, Jesus, he subjects

00:14:46.000 himself to the oath that's being made. God also makes oaths himself. God, that is God the Father,

00:14:53.860 that when he makes an oath with Abraham, having no one greater to swear by other than himself,

00:14:58.700 he swore in his own name and made an oath. The apostle Paul makes oaths. We see this at least

00:15:04.860 three times in the letters of Paul, usually at the outset of the letter, as he's talking to his

00:15:09.820 immediate audience saying, I care for you, I love you, trying to persuade them that he's not just

00:15:15.180 trying to exert um this this ridiculous authoritarian um domineering power over them

00:15:22.760 but that he actually has godly concern and affection for the people he's writing to he

00:15:27.560 will say things like this i call god as my witness that i have remembered you daily in my prayers

00:15:33.800 that i have uh have deep affection but that is an oath he's calling god invoking the name of god

00:15:40.400 saying, I promise you, I swear. So the apostle Paul swears, Jesus undergoes an oath. God himself

00:15:48.060 makes an oath on his own name because there's no one greater to swear by. So oath-making in a legal

00:15:53.960 court, if you have to give testimony, oath-taking, or perhaps in the military in order to join as a 0.81

00:16:01.800 service member or to be sworn in in a political or civil office, these are things that Christians,

00:16:08.620 I believe can do, and there's a great history of solid theologians saying it is permissible for

00:16:15.740 Christians to serve in these roles, and as they do, inevitably, they will have to undergo an oath. 0.94

00:16:21.640 When they do undergo an oath, they should only swear by the name of God, so they should not make 0.99

00:16:28.360 an oath on anything else. Do you swear by your mother, or do you, you know, no, they only would

00:16:33.640 invoke the name of God, and it should only be in the context of public oaths in society at large, 0.91

00:16:40.680 which encompasses unbelievers. But among Christians, we should simply be able to say 0.88

00:16:46.340 yes, and it means yes, no, and it means no. Because ultimately, and I kind of landed the 0.80

00:16:52.660 plane last week as it pertains to parenting at a practical level, parenting would be a great

00:16:57.740 example, if your children are regularly and consistently asking you as a father or a mother

00:17:03.840 to promise, you promise dad, you promise, what your children are essentially saying is they're

00:17:10.520 indicting you as a liar. They're saying dad's word can't be trusted. So I need to get a promise out

00:17:18.040 of him. Mom's word isn't consistent. Her yes doesn't always mean yes. Her no doesn't always

00:17:23.320 mean no, so I need to invoke some kind of covenant, some kind of promise, some kind of oath out of my

00:17:29.640 own Christian parents because I cannot depend upon them to keep their word. That's what Jesus 0.96

00:17:36.320 is combating. Jesus is combating the finger crossing behind the back. He's also combating

00:17:42.580 swearing by anything other than God alone, who is the source of the temple and the sacrifice and the

00:17:49.120 altar and gold and this. So if there is a swear, an oath at all, it should only be in the name of

00:17:56.820 the triune God. And when it's done, it should not be tricky and overly complex trying to escape your

00:18:04.820 word. And it should only be done when absolutely necessary, when the people you're making an oath

00:18:11.040 with will not merely accept a yes or a no, because for the most part, it's in a public, 0.97

00:18:17.580 society-wide context with unbelievers who do not trust us. That all being said, among Christians

00:18:26.100 in a local church and certainly in our households, in our marriage, in our parenting, we should be

00:18:32.140 men and women of our word where promises and oaths are not necessary to invoke because when we say

00:18:39.720 yes, it means yes. When we say no, it means no. All that back to Gibeon and Israel now. Israel

00:18:47.080 through Joshua and the elders in Israel made a covenant with the Gibeonites. It was made under a 0.99

00:18:53.100 false pretense. The Gibeonites lied to Israel. They said, we came from a long distance. We're 1.00

00:18:58.520 not actually inhabitants of this land that God has promised to give to you as an inheritance.

00:19:03.720 So there's deception. And yet here's the deal. The oath still stands. And not only does it stand

00:19:10.700 for Joshua for the next 15 minutes, for Joshua and Israel and their generation, or for the next

00:19:16.620 couple of years, it stands so strong and so perpetually that generations later with King

00:19:24.780 Saul, when that oath is broken and he begins to do harm to the Gibeonites, God brings consequences

00:19:31.620 on the whole nation of Israel for three years. That's how serious a covenant is. That's how

00:19:38.640 serious a vow or an oath is. Now, that brings us, it gives us the framework and the context for our

00:19:46.440 text today, Joshua 10 verses one through five, starting there, but we'll also look at verses

00:19:51.120 six through 15. Here's the deal. The other Amorite tribes and their kings have now gotten word that

00:19:59.780 Gibeon has made a pact with Israel and they are greatly afraid is what our text says. Look at

00:20:07.660 verse two. He feared, and I believe this is the king of Jerusalem. Yes, this is the king of

00:20:13.640 Jerusalem, one of these Amorite kings, he feared greatly when he heard about this covenant between

00:20:19.540 Israel and Gibeon, because why? Because Gibeon was not a weak city. Gibeon was not a small,

00:20:27.940 pathetic tribe. He feared greatly because Gibeon went out of its way under false pretense to make 0.96

00:20:35.000 a covenant with Israel, despite the fact that Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal

00:20:41.620 cities, and because it was even greater than Ai. Ai is the most recent conquered Canaanite tribe

00:20:49.100 that Joshua and Israel had just conquered. And now Gibeon, they're not smaller than Ai,

00:20:54.720 so they're not looking and saying, well, God gave them victory over Ai, but we're even smaller than

00:20:59.940 Ai, so we better make peace while it can be made, because it's our only hope. No, Gibeon is much

00:21:05.340 superior to Ai. They're much stronger. And yet they still look at this and look at the trajectory

00:21:12.460 and the history of God's mighty hand with Israel against all their enemies. And they say,

00:21:18.300 the only hope we have is to make peace with Israel. So these other kings, including the

00:21:23.560 king of Jerusalem, fear greatly because Gibeon is not some small, pathetic city, but a great city

00:21:30.500 like the royal cities, even greater than Ai, and all its men were warriors. That's Joshua 10 verse

00:21:38.420 2. So this Jerusalem king, he goes to four other kings now and says, our only hope, if we're going

00:21:48.460 to take out Gibeon and Israel, now it's both of them, if we're going to have any chance at victory 0.96

00:21:55.060 whatsoever. Our only hope is to unite. And so five kings, right? It makes me think of, you know,

00:22:02.640 the hobbit, you know, and the five kings, you know, going to the mountains, you know, to go up

00:22:09.100 against, you know, the dwarves who are holed up in the walls with all the treasure after smog

00:22:14.280 leaves. And you have the battle of the five kingdoms, but that's what's going on is you

00:22:17.860 have five kings, but not fighting against one another, but united now in order to go up against 0.53

00:22:23.420 Israel, but first, in a practical sense, they're first going to go up against Gibeon in a retributive

00:22:30.840 kind of way, in vengeance, saying, Gibeon, you're a traitor. You sold us out and we're going to come 0.63

00:22:38.080 up against you. So not just one kingdom, not just one city or one tribe, but you have five different

00:22:45.000 kings now who have decided not even to make war with Israel. Not yet. They'll get there. But all 0.56

00:22:51.500 we have from the outset going on is five different Amorite tribes in Canaan united. So a massive 0.75

00:22:59.760 force, it's not small. This would be the greatest enemy that Israel would face yet. This is like

00:23:05.220 Jericho times five. And so you've got five kingdoms united and their only intent is not to go up

00:23:13.480 against Joshua and Israel, but they go and encamp at Gideon to make war against them, Gibeon. 0.51

00:23:21.500 And this is just a few days, again, to paint the picture here, just a few days into this covenant

00:23:27.900 that Israel made with Gibeon. And again, a covenant that Israel only made with Gibeon

00:23:32.880 because Gibeon lied to Israel. Here's the point. What would you be tempted to do if you were Joshua? 0.79

00:23:42.080 I would be tempted just to let Gibeon die. I'm not going to go and fight five different armies,

00:23:49.120 all united at once that aren't even coming against me in this moment, but are coming against you.

00:23:55.140 And we've been friends for 72 hours. And we're not even really friends. I'd actually kill you

00:24:01.960 myself if I could, but you lied to me and got me to pledge peace to you indefinitely. And this way, 1.00

00:24:08.640 I'm actually not coming against you. I'm not breaking my vow, right? You could get really

00:24:12.820 tricky here. I'm not coming against you. I'm not breaking the vow that I made with you to be at

00:24:17.460 peace with you. I'm just going to let somebody else do my dirty work and actually alleviate me

00:24:22.160 from this vow that I made rashly because you were deceitful. You could almost hear this as good news

00:24:29.500 if you were Joshua. Oh, good. We just made this hasty vow. We should have sought counsel from

00:24:35.080 the Lord. We didn't. That's on us. That was our fault. But Gibeon lied to us. That's the only

00:24:40.340 reason we did it in the first place. And now, I mean, you could work this into saying, well,

00:24:45.400 in God's providence, he's actually freeing us from a rashly made vow with Gibeon by sending

00:24:52.760 these other armies against them to wipe them out. That would be a really natural and reasonable 1.00

00:25:00.340 assessment, but that's not what happens. Instead, what happens is that Joshua and Israel mount up

00:25:08.780 all their fighting men to come to the defense of a group they've had a covenant with for only a

00:25:14.940 matter of days and a group that the covenant with them only exists because they lied in the first

00:25:22.300 place. Verses six and seven. And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal saying,

00:25:30.020 do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us. Help us. For all

00:25:37.220 the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us. So Joshua went 1.00

00:25:43.620 up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of Valred.

00:25:51.360 In commentating on these two verses, namely verse 6 and 7 of our text today, again, the late great

00:25:57.520 Puritan Matthew Henry says the following, the meanest, that is the smallest, weakest, and most

00:26:05.060 feeble, who have just begun to trust the Lord, are as much entitled to be protected as those who

00:26:13.980 have long and faithfully been his servants. It is our duty to defend the afflicted, who, like the

00:26:21.760 Gibeonites, are brought into trouble on our account, or for the sake of the gospel. Joshua would not 0.99

00:26:30.160 forsake his new vassals? How much less shall our true Joshua fail those who trust in him?

00:26:39.520 If I were to boil down the entirety of the sermon today in these first 15 verses of Joshua chapter

00:26:45.460 10 to one point, it would be this, that whether you've been following Jesus for 50 years or for

00:26:54.620 five minutes. If you have been truly born again by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone,

00:27:01.800 trusting in him, you don't get his partial protection. From the moment that you trust in

00:27:10.660 Christ, you do not garnish for yourself his partial power, his partial defense, a piece of

00:27:19.320 his commitment, some of his allegiance, a portion of his affection, but rather the moment you come

00:27:28.020 into covenant, not merely with an earthly Joshua, but with the true antitype, the substance of who

00:27:36.860 Joshua represents, Yeshua, the true and eternal salvific deliverer, Jesus Christ, the son of God

00:27:44.320 When a man enters covenant with Jesus, he immediately, from the moment of his justification, garnishes for himself the full might, the full power, the full protection, the full defense of Jesus Christ.

00:28:02.120 And the first enemy that Jesus runs with all his might, with all his righteousness,

00:28:13.840 with all his power to defend us from eternally, is the righteous, just wrath of God.

00:28:23.240 our greatest enemy from the moment of being conceived in the womb is not our fellow man

00:28:32.500 but a thrice holy God that apart from saving faith in Jesus apart from justification that is

00:28:42.240 God declaring us righteous through faith not works on the basis of Jesus perfect obedience

00:28:49.140 and not our own.

00:28:50.700 Apart from that,

00:28:52.060 apart from conversion,

00:28:53.380 apart from justification,

00:28:54.380 from the moment

00:28:55.340 that you're physically conceived

00:28:56.720 in your mother's womb, 0.99

00:28:58.220 your greatest cosmic eternal enemy 0.98

00:29:01.360 is God, not man.

00:29:05.280 The greatest problem

00:29:06.940 that any of us have

00:29:08.280 is that God is holy

00:29:10.360 and that we are sinners.

00:29:15.080 But Jesus, the better Joshua,

00:29:17.520 comes to our defense.

00:29:20.200 We don't merely have five different armies

00:29:23.060 surrounding us, ready to make war.

00:29:26.340 We have the creator of the universe

00:29:28.860 with his just, not unjust, not unfair,

00:29:33.680 but perfectly fair, merited, just wrath against us

00:29:38.140 for crimes we truly committed.

00:29:41.340 And Jesus, Yeshua, God's own son, comes.

00:29:47.520 And he becomes our defense in the court of heaven.

00:29:52.100 And the defense that he offers on our behalf, for the record, is not,

00:29:56.420 hey, you're being too harsh, God.

00:30:00.560 They're not really that bad, God.

00:30:04.360 No, as all the charges are read against us, as it were,

00:30:08.900 as all the charges are read against us, Jesus, the great defense,

00:30:13.460 his reply is, uh-huh, that's true.

00:30:17.520 all of it. And he does not enter on our behalf a plea of not guilty. He doesn't say, no, no,

00:30:26.600 they didn't do the crime. They're innocent. They're not actually guilty. On the contrary,

00:30:31.600 he enters for us as our defense, a guilty plea. Everything that you've charged them with

00:30:39.660 is true. And in fact, we could go on. They have committed cosmic treason against you.

00:30:52.540 They are vile. They are wicked. Sinister. Malicious. No one seeks for God. No, not one. 1.00

00:31:04.640 Their throats are open graves.

00:31:06.900 They lie in wait for blood. 0.95

00:31:09.320 They are heartless, ruthless.

00:31:14.880 And they are most certainly guilty of every crime for which they have been charged.

00:31:21.840 And the defense that I now plead on their behalf is not that they have somehow not committed the crimes.

00:31:29.540 It is not that they are somehow innocent in regards to the charges.

00:31:34.640 But rather, the plea that I enter on their behalf is this.

00:31:39.780 They are guilty, and it is paid in full.

00:31:45.060 They are guilty, but it has been paid in full.

00:31:53.220 Everything that they accrued and earned for themselves, every penalty, every consequence,

00:32:00.700 I have taken upon myself.

00:32:03.560 The wages of sin is death, and I have died that death under the just wrath of God in their place.

00:32:14.400 As a substitute, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

00:32:21.440 The first thing that I couldn't help but think of as I was reading the text and preparing to preach this Lord's Day is about Jesus.

00:32:30.740 that here's Joshua

00:32:33.340 and if I were him,

00:32:34.700 I would be very tempted

00:32:36.200 to let Gibeon go. 1.00

00:32:38.300 They would send messengers to me

00:32:40.100 and say,

00:32:40.760 come and defend us.

00:32:42.000 Wait,

00:32:43.220 come and defend you?

00:32:45.220 Didn't you lie to me

00:32:46.600 just a few days ago?

00:32:51.920 Didn't you trick me?

00:32:54.260 No, I'm not going to come

00:32:55.100 and defend you.

00:32:57.960 But that's not the way

00:32:59.520 Jesus engages us. We've all lied. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

00:33:08.960 And whether we've been walking faithfully with Christ for five minutes or 50 years,

00:33:15.840 when you get Christ, you get all of Christ. All his devotion, all his protection,

00:33:25.520 all his commitment, everything. And the first thing that Jesus saves us from

00:33:32.640 is actually the wrath of the triune God. But secondly, beyond that point, it is also true

00:33:42.560 that God spares the righteous not only from God's just wrath against us by Christ atoning for our

00:33:50.300 sin and his righteousness being imputed to our account through faith, but in addition to God

00:33:56.300 saving us from himself, God also saves us from our fellow man who would seek to devour us.

00:34:07.120 Jesus said, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves.

00:34:12.660 That when someone comes into allegiance with Christ, just like Gibeon did with Joshua,

00:34:20.300 Those who used to be their friends, like the five kings of the Amorites, 0.85

00:34:26.320 all of a sudden become their foes.

00:34:30.820 Gibeon gains an ally that they previously did not have, namely Joshua and Israel.

00:34:37.680 But in gaining Joshua and Israel as an ally,

00:34:40.840 notice that the immediate consequence is that all their previous allies become their enemies.

00:34:47.200 And so it is when a man follows after Christ.

00:34:54.800 That in taking Christ as our friend, we declare war against the world.

00:35:04.300 When Christ becomes your friend, the world becomes your enemy.

00:35:09.760 those who used to have some kind of relationship

00:35:15.080 affiliation

00:35:17.080 even genuine or what appeared to be genuine affection

00:35:21.020 devotion and commitment towards you

00:35:23.740 will turn on you in a moment

00:35:26.280 those who used to be your friends

00:35:30.480 will become your enemies

00:35:33.000 Jesus promises this

00:35:37.340 he says do not be deceived a student is not above his teacher nor the slave

00:35:43.680 above his master if they hated me they will hate you on account of me the five emorite kings hated

00:35:54.640 gibeon on account of joshua and so too the kings of this earth those who are not in allegiance to

00:36:01.880 Christ will hate you on account of Jesus. 1.00

00:36:08.760 And they will attempt to devour you.

00:36:13.900 And sadly, to go one step further,

00:36:18.220 there are often times where these enemies

00:36:21.260 may even claim the name of Christ themselves.

00:36:27.120 Some of our fiercest enemies

00:36:29.380 might not just be the Ugandan, not Ugandan, Ukrainian rainbow flag pronouns in the profile,

00:36:38.060 you know, progressive, who clearly hates God and is happy to admit it, but sometimes the enemy

00:36:45.920 for those who follow after Christ fully, with full devotion to his word, seeking to be obedient

00:36:55.580 in every commandment, in every realm of life, all of Christ for all of life,

00:37:03.620 sometimes our fiercest opponents will be fellow Christians. In some cases, they are Christians in 0.68

00:37:11.460 name only, not truly born again, a false profession claiming to be Christians, but actually

00:37:18.640 pagan themselves. But in other cases, and these being the most tragic of all, in other cases,

00:37:26.540 we will have, at least momentarily, fierce opponents who actually are born-again Christians,

00:37:35.560 but are compromised. They are born-again. They're not just Christian in name only. They've been

00:37:43.740 regenerate. They truly are brothers and sisters in Christ. In the realest sense, we will spend

00:37:51.660 eternity with them in heaven forever, in perfect reconciliation and fellowship. But for a time

00:38:01.900 here on earth, because of the deceitfulness of sin, which even Christians at times can fall prey

00:38:09.740 to a genuine brother and sister in Christ 0.57

00:38:14.100 can become one of our fiercest opponents.

00:38:19.340 We could have been allied together

00:38:21.840 just a week ago.

00:38:27.580 Storming the gates of hell,

00:38:30.780 arms linked,

00:38:33.120 in full unison,

00:38:35.300 in covenant with one another.

00:38:39.740 That we were united and agreeing, this idol, this abomination is against the word of God.

00:38:49.300 And we need to do battle against it.

00:38:53.600 And so we storm those gates of hell, arm in arm, hand in hand.

00:38:59.700 And then we pivot and say, also this one.

00:39:04.600 And it's at that point that they say, I love that one.

00:39:09.740 I was down to take out wokeness in 2020, 0.98

00:39:17.520 but you want to take out feminism in 2023? 1.00

00:39:24.620 No, our allegiance doesn't go that far. 0.98

00:39:29.400 No, you're actually evil. 1.00

00:39:32.680 You're bad. 1.00

00:39:34.600 You're sinister. 0.99

00:39:36.280 This is extra biblical.

00:39:38.280 You've gone beyond the realms that you're a legalist. 1.00

00:39:42.980 I'm going to destroy you. 1.00

00:39:46.020 I'll pick less fights with rainbow flying homo jihad than I'm going to pick with you over the next few months. 1.00

00:39:55.460 And this is a very real, very real reality that all of us will undergo. 1.00

00:40:04.480 Because it's not just what I'm saying is this.

00:40:07.480 it's not just one moment in the Christian life, namely the moment of conversion.

00:40:15.620 Brothers and sisters, hear me, and this is the main point, and we'll land the plane.

00:40:21.600 The Christian life is not just an initial moment of conversion where all of a sudden we gain Christ

00:40:28.180 as our ally, and then our previous unregenerate allies now become our foes. No, the Christian 0.95

00:40:36.260 life in the same way that it's not just initial repentance for sin, but it is a life of ongoing

00:40:41.360 repentance. Day by day, we're repenting of more and more things that we previously were not even

00:40:48.040 aware of. That sanctification is not just a moment like justification, but it's an ongoing

00:40:53.620 lifelong process. So too, so too is the falling out of friendships. If you will follow Christ

00:41:04.220 and not just in conversion,

00:41:08.280 not just initially,

00:41:10.360 not just for a day,

00:41:11.640 but if your goal is by his grace and his grace alone,

00:41:16.220 every day to come into more and more obedience to his commands

00:41:21.460 and to apply obedience to not some,

00:41:26.340 but all the commandments of Christ

00:41:28.120 and to apply that obedience in every single sphere of the cosmos.

00:41:34.220 Not just your private home, but even in the public sphere of politics.

00:41:42.380 If you're going to obey not some, but all of Christ's commandments,

00:41:47.140 and not just apply that obedience in some areas, but every realm of life,

00:41:52.540 then progressively, because no one does this in an instant,

00:41:56.840 this is a process of growing, process of sanctification,

00:42:00.640 process of growing in obedience, growing in repentance,

00:42:04.220 growing in wisdom, growing in maturity, and as we go further down this path, you'll look to your

00:42:11.960 left, you'll look to your right, and you will find that you have less and less company along the road.

00:42:20.600 That people who are with you in one leg of the journey are with you no longer.

00:42:26.720 And some of them will just be content to stop and say, I've arrived. This is enough.

00:42:34.220 And they'll leave you alone.

00:42:36.120 Others, though, may choose not only to not continue with you

00:42:39.840 in the path of sanctification and faithfulness to God's work,

00:42:43.980 but they might actually turn against you.

00:42:50.660 Israel always killed the prophets. 0.72

00:42:55.040 I've said it many times. 1.00

00:42:57.260 For those of you who are new, I'll say it again.

00:42:59.300 And the prophets were not killed in Israel for being right.

00:43:06.160 Prophets were killed for being first.

00:43:11.120 There are many things that we can say today that everyone would agree with. 0.95

00:43:18.420 And maybe not everyone, but a large amount of people.

00:43:22.220 Like when we say, hey, critical race theory is probably not a good idea.

00:43:27.000 In fact, I think it might be antithetical to the teachings of Scripture.

00:43:32.180 Well, in August 2023, you'll have a lot of evangelicals, sadly not all,

00:43:39.500 but a lot of evangelicals, I'd argue approximately half, say,

00:43:43.320 you're right, we agree.

00:43:47.720 However, if you had said that in 2017 and 18 and 19,

00:43:53.380 you would have the full weight

00:43:58.460 of all of evangelicalism

00:44:00.540 seeking to destroy you

00:44:02.200 now notice

00:44:03.600 your answer has not changed

00:44:05.780 the substance of the argument

00:44:08.820 has not altered in one iota

00:44:11.500 the only thing that's changed

00:44:14.200 in this scenario that I'm positing

00:44:15.960 is the timing

00:44:17.140 the lion's share of resistance

00:44:22.760 will always be most felt by those who are first. 0.96

00:44:29.200 The prophets in Israel were killed by their own people 0.95

00:44:33.700 and they were killed not for being right

00:44:38.060 because the message and substance of what they said

00:44:41.180 was inscripturated and written down in scrolls

00:44:44.240 and later generations of Israelites,

00:44:47.020 Jesus even says himself,

00:44:48.640 would build tombs and monuments honoring those prophets

00:44:52.000 It's saying, we agree with Jeremiah, everything he said.

00:44:55.880 We agree with Isaiah, everything he said.

00:44:58.960 I'm a huge Ezekiel fan.

00:45:00.880 Love that chapter, love that verse.

00:45:04.660 It's not the substance of the prophets

00:45:08.040 that caused them to be put to death

00:45:10.900 because that same message, that same substance

00:45:15.260 would be universally agreed with at a later time.

00:45:19.020 it's not just the nature of the argument that garnishes opposition but it's the timing of the

00:45:30.720 argument it's always those who speak out first those who speak out early but notice brothers

00:45:40.960 and sisters, the only reason why the Overton window ever shifts, the only reason why public

00:45:49.140 discourse ever alters and changes, is because someone said the emperor has no clothes. And I'm

00:45:58.380 not going to wait for everyone to agree to say it all together at the same time. I'll say it now.

00:46:04.140 everyone's pretending but i'll say it now he's naked i know it you know it and i'm gonna say it

00:46:14.940 and that guy might get shot but that guy opens the door for five more guys after him to say it

00:46:24.220 they open the door for then 50 people to say it and then eventually the emperor is hauled off for 0.99

00:46:31.100 being, the fool that he is, and the people gain a victory. This is always the way that it works. 0.99

00:46:38.980 This is the repetitive pattern throughout all of human history, all of biblical history,

00:46:45.000 all of the prophets' history in the Old Testament, and Jesus is the premier example.

00:46:51.400 It goes back to Jerusalem when his disciples urge him not to say, that's the chief place

00:46:58.000 of persecution and jesus says yeah i know that's why i'm going can a prophet ever die out of

00:47:03.460 jerusalem if you're a prophet you're gonna die who's gonna kill you israel where are they gonna 0.85

00:47:10.180 kill you in the capital city that's where they kill prophets i've got to go to jerusalem it's 0.98

00:47:15.940 it's it's unheard of for a prophet to be put to death anywhere else so too you could say today 0.89

00:47:22.700 when it comes to persecution?

00:47:25.100 Is there any prophet 0.65

00:47:25.940 that hasn't been killed by evangelicals? 0.98

00:47:29.660 A prophet must also always be put to death 0.99

00:47:32.640 by evangelicals. 0.99

00:47:37.080 Right?

00:47:37.640 With friends like these,

00:47:39.160 who needs foes?

00:47:42.700 That's story all this time.

00:47:49.660 But the point is this.

00:47:52.700 If Christ before us, who can be against us?

00:47:58.360 Athanasius once said, it is Athanasius against the world.

00:48:04.160 And the world is against Athanasius.

00:48:07.840 But in his case, and as it is with ours, brothers and sisters,

00:48:12.280 it still actually was not a fair fight.

00:48:14.900 because Athanasius plus God is superior infinitely so to the entire world. Better to be you and

00:48:25.480 Jesus and nobody else against the whole world than to unite with the whole world against the

00:48:33.360 triune God and the truth of his word. Let God be true and every man a liar. His word does not

00:48:42.100 change based off of what time it is, based off what

00:48:46.040 generation it is, based off of culture or time or

00:48:50.040 place. God's word is eternal, immutable

00:48:54.160 and inerrant. He has set up patterns for living in

00:48:58.040 his world. They are good and we shall not be embarrassed by

00:49:02.120 them. And someone

00:49:05.940 always has to be first.

00:49:07.520 they don't kill the prophets for being right because later on the rightness of the prophet's

00:49:16.580 message is received by the majority and the people as a whole are blessed because of it

00:49:23.840 but the initial prophet is killed not for being right but for being first

00:49:28.660 but nothing changes in this world if someone's not willing to be first

00:49:33.800 and so i charge you brothers and sisters and members of covenant bible church be willing

00:49:43.000 we're not all going to do it in the same way we haven't all been given the same station in life

00:49:48.660 the same vocation the same influence the same platform that's fine but in your little neck of

00:49:54.640 the woods in whatever vocation whatever influence the lord and his providence has chosen to assign

00:50:01.520 to you, be courageous. Speak the truth. Don't wait for someone else to push back against clown world

00:50:12.860 to make all of a sudden a biblical narrative popular and acceptable and then run out in front

00:50:20.760 of the conservative parade and pretend as though you engineered it. Don't be a hypocrite. Be willing 1.00

00:50:28.800 to say the truth in season and out of season.

00:50:32.880 John Bunyan, a late great Baptist Puritan

00:50:36.440 in Pilgrim's Progress,

00:50:38.140 he describes a man, Mr. Byens.

00:50:42.100 Mr. Byens is a man who says,

00:50:44.440 I love to walk with religion

00:50:46.760 in times when she is wearing her glass slippers 0.91

00:50:51.940 and dressed in royal robes.

00:50:55.920 but when religion is impoverished and embarrassed, well, why go upstream? Why not just

00:51:07.200 sit on the side and wait for the currents to change? And when it becomes acceptable again,

00:51:14.420 when it becomes popular again, when religion is once again seemed as virtuous by the public as a

00:51:21.300 Then once again, I will be pleased and honored to walk hand in hand with religion in the streets

00:51:27.160 when she again is gowned in majesty and splendor. And Christian says to Mr. By-Ins, he said, 0.72

00:51:35.300 you're not a follower of Jesus, essentially. I'm paraphrasing. That's not what a follower

00:51:40.960 of Jesus does. He's not a By-Ins kind of person. He's not a fair-weathered fan.

00:51:46.100 the fair-weathered fan is the one that jesus says on that final day i will say of you

00:51:53.820 you are ashamed of me i am ashamed of you depart from me you workers of iniquity i never knew you

00:52:02.660 one of the tests if you're wanting to grow not just encourage but grow in assurance of salvation 0.75

00:52:10.420 that you truly have been born again,

00:52:12.760 that Christ really is on your side,

00:52:14.900 just like Joshua came to the protection

00:52:17.280 and defense of Gibeon.

00:52:18.920 If you want to know, do I belong to Christ?

00:52:21.240 Do I have that covenant with him?

00:52:23.360 Do I have his full assurance?

00:52:25.260 Do I have his full affection?

00:52:27.380 Do I have all of his salvation

00:52:29.520 and all the benefits of his covenant

00:52:31.380 that he promises to provide?

00:52:33.560 Am I his elect?

00:52:34.840 Am I included in his mercy?

00:52:38.060 What are the ways to know?

00:52:40.420 To be powerfully assured that you indeed are in covenant with Christ

00:52:45.000 and He is in covenant with you, that you belong to Him,

00:52:49.960 is to not be a fair-weathered friend,

00:52:52.680 to not be ashamed of Him when many others,

00:52:56.600 even those who bear His name, are ashamed.

00:53:01.020 Let's pray.

00:53:02.400 Father, thank You for Your Word.

00:53:04.180 Help us to trust in You, to bring You honor and glory,

00:53:07.980 to be shrewd and wise as serpents, 0.97

00:53:10.420 To be careful not to be jerks, but also to be courageous and brave and as bold as lions. 0.97

00:53:22.020 To not have to wait for the majority to say, okay, now we're finally ready to be faithful to God's word. 0.97

00:53:30.640 Help us to be willing to be faithful, even if it means being faithful alone.

00:53:36.360 We pray this for your glory and our good

00:53:38.520 and the good of our children

00:53:40.760 and future generations that might know you.

00:53:44.860 May we would be used by you in your grace

00:53:48.260 to pave the way for them.

00:53:50.540 We pray this in Jesus' name.

00:53:52.340 Amen.

The NXR Podcast - August 13, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Christ’s Full Protection When Our Enemies Attack Us

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