The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - If Christ Has Enemies, Why Don’t His Followers？｜ Joshua 5_13-15

00:00:00.000 All right, listen, guys, I get it.

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00:00:40.740 Today, we're continuing with our sermon series through the book of Joshua.

00:00:43.900 Our text for today is Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 through 15.

00:00:48.860 Again, that's Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 through 15.

00:00:52.020 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's word?

00:00:55.840 I'll read our text in its entirety.

00:00:57.540 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

00:01:00.600 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:01:05.500 One final time, our text for today is Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 through 15.

00:01:11.420 The Bible says this.

00:01:13.120 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked.

00:01:17.500 And behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.

00:01:23.580 And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

00:01:29.040 And he said, No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

00:01:34.500 Now I have come.

00:01:36.480 And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him,

00:01:41.380 What does my Lord say to his servant?

00:01:43.680 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.

00:01:53.480 And Joshua did so. This is the word of the Lord.

00:01:57.620 All right, please be seated.

00:02:00.960 The three points that I want to make today, simple but important nonetheless.

00:02:07.160 Number one is this, the Lord is dressed for battle.

00:02:11.640 The Lord is dressed for battle.

00:02:14.320 Secondly, the Lord is on our side.

00:02:17.980 He is not neutral.

00:02:19.700 He is on our side.

00:02:22.100 Lastly, the church is militant.

00:02:24.980 The church on earth, you and I who are in Christ in this life, until we breathe our last and go to be present with the Lord in heaven, here on earth, the church is militant.

00:02:39.040 It is at war.

00:02:40.860 First, the Lord is dressed for battle. In your notes, I've written the following.

00:02:45.260 This man who was standing before Joshua with his sword drawn in his hand was clearly no mere man, nor was he merely a created angel in human form.

00:02:57.100 Instead, he was undoubtedly a divine person, physically manifest in the form of a man.

00:03:03.800 Therefore, this is no one less than the Son of God.

00:03:08.640 This is the Lord Jesus Christ manifested as a theophany.

00:03:14.600 This reality is further clarified by the fact that Joshua paid homage

00:03:19.240 and even worshiped unto him by calling him Lord

00:03:22.900 and by acknowledging that the ground on which he stood was holy.

00:03:28.100 John Gill, the late great Baptist, who preached in the very same church 100 years prior to Charles Spurgeon, in commentating on our text today, says the following.

00:03:40.100 Joshua gave him religious worship and adoration, which had he been a created angel, he would not

00:03:47.520 have given to him, nor would such a one have received it. If this was an angel, when Joshua

00:03:54.800 fell on his face and began to worship him, the angel would have told him to stop. If this was

00:04:00.340 merely a man, the man might have received, being sinful, chosen to receive praise and worship

00:04:06.000 from another man. But Joshua would have picked up on this and would not have offered worship.

00:04:11.940 So if this was a mere man, Joshua would not have worshipped. If it was a mere angel,

00:04:16.560 the angel would not have received Joshua's worship. Rather, this is the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:04:22.240 Now, in terms of chronological order, this is before the cross. This is before the earthly

00:04:28.740 ministry of Jesus Christ before the incarnation. But Jesus did not come into existence at the

00:04:37.040 point of the incarnation. He is the eternal son of God, eternally begotten. There is never a time

00:04:44.660 in which the son was not. The gospel of John in the opening chapter says in the beginning was

00:04:51.020 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So before the incarnation took place,

00:04:59.860 before Jesus was born of the woman, born of Mary, Jesus eternally existed as the Father and as the

00:05:09.020 Spirit, as a most pure Spirit without body, parts, or passions, equally divine to the Father and the

00:05:18.740 Spirit, equally worthy of worship, honor, and praise as to the Father and the Spirit. Before

00:05:27.120 Jesus took on flesh, he still existed. He is not made. He is not created. Rather, he is eternally

00:05:36.500 begotten. Now that said, Jesus did appear in the Old Testament before literally taking on a second

00:05:45.540 nature, namely the human nature, taking on flesh in the incarnation. Jesus still had not yet been

00:05:52.540 incarnate, had not yet taken on physical flesh, a second nature, the human nature, but he still

00:05:58.520 physically was manifest, revealed himself to Old Testament saints. He still appeared at various

00:06:07.180 times to individuals such as Abraham. Or we would also argue that Jesus appeared in Nebuchadnezzar's

00:06:14.660 fire along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When they would not bow the knee to the civil 0.71

00:06:20.800 magistrate, they were thrown into the fire as punishment. And yet the servants of Nebuchadnezzar

00:06:27.780 said, how many men did you throw into the fire? Was it not three? And yet there is a fourth with

00:06:33.680 his face shining as though he is the son of man. The son of man being the most popular and frequent

00:06:42.580 title that jesus used even for himself son of man not saying that he's not divine oh i'm not

00:06:50.100 the son of god i'm merely the son of man no son of man is picking up on the words phrasing of

00:06:56.880 ezekiel the prophet that talked about the promised messiah the christ who was the son of man and that

00:07:04.540 is implied also the son of god so what we find in the old testament before in chronological timeline

00:07:12.780 before the incarnation before jesus took on flesh jesus still at various times appeared as though

00:07:22.400 in human form and this theological term for such an occasion is theophany this was a theophany

00:07:31.200 Jesus appearing, in this case, to Joshua.

00:07:35.340 I personally believe, and many other biblical scholars would agree,

00:07:39.060 that when God walked with Adam and Eve before sin entered the world,

00:07:44.180 which, as we saw last week, did not take very long,

00:07:47.580 but during this brief moment of God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day,

00:07:52.560 I believe that this, too, was the second member of the Godhead,

00:07:56.880 namely, Jesus Christ the Son, pre-incarnation, but in human form, a theophany. A theophany of

00:08:05.780 Jesus walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. And so we have not a man, not an angel,

00:08:14.620 but the Lord Jesus Christ standing before Joshua and announcing himself as the true and rightful

00:08:23.100 commander of the armies of God, the armies of the living God, both heavenly armies, legions of

00:08:32.320 angels that Jesus himself says in his earthly ministry that if I wanted to, I could call down

00:08:38.580 a legion of angels and decimate Rome and Israel, for that matter, if I wanted to in a moment.

00:08:46.420 Jesus is the commander of angelic armies,

00:08:49.880 but he is also the commander of his people on earth.

00:08:55.020 His people at this time in this gospel age being Israel,

00:08:59.840 that is true Israel,

00:09:01.720 Israel according to the promise,

00:09:04.020 the church, you and I.

00:09:06.220 And in the Old Testament,

00:09:07.340 he is the commander of angelic hosts and armies,

00:09:10.640 but also armies on earth being Israel according to the flesh.

00:09:14.400 under the old covenant of which Joshua is a general in that army. So Joshua in the earthly

00:09:21.760 sense is the general of the armies of the Lord, human armies, namely Israel, the nation state.

00:09:28.580 And yet standing above Joshua is a greater general, the ultimate general, the true and

00:09:35.120 rightful commander, the Lord Jesus Christ. You might compare it as an analogy to the chronicles

00:09:43.440 of Narnia, that you have Peter, the high king, and he truly is king of Narnia. He is king seated at

00:09:51.360 Caer Peravel. There are two kings and two queens in this instance in the golden age of Narnia.

00:09:59.040 But Peter is high king above Edmund the just. Peter is the true and rightful king of all of Narnia.

00:10:06.540 and yet there is still an ultimate king above him.

00:10:11.740 The lion, the great lion, Aslan.

00:10:15.700 And when Aslan comes on the scene, 0.86

00:10:17.680 it is not just Narnians, dwarfs and centaurs that fall before him,

00:10:23.780 but Peter himself would pay homage.

00:10:27.220 In the same way, Joshua is the successor of Moses.

00:10:31.100 He is the highest standing human officer in all of Israel.

00:10:34.540 He is the rightful and true general of the armies of the Lord here on earth at that time, namely the nation state of Israel.

00:10:44.380 And yet, even though Joshua is the highest human officer in the land, he is the general of the armies of Israel.

00:10:52.120 There is an ultimate general above him who has authority both over angelic armies and armies here on earth.

00:10:59.580 The Lord Jesus Christ, who has now appeared to him.

00:11:04.540 So who is this? It is Jesus.

00:11:07.880 And Jesus comes to him, not dressed for some kind of banquet or ball,

00:11:15.340 but rather he is dressed for battle.

00:11:18.860 He's not only dressed and prepared for battle by having his weaponry on his person,

00:11:24.840 a sword in his scabbard at his side,

00:11:29.480 but the text says that the sword is actually in his hand and drawn. So he's not only girded for

00:11:37.520 battle, but he's in a battle stance. He's not only prepared, but he is ready at that very moment

00:11:45.240 to wage war. And this is why Joshua asked the question, are you for us or for our adversaries?

00:11:55.500 Are you for us or against us? It would be one thing for the Lord Jesus to appear to Joshua

00:12:03.500 dressed for battle to wage war against their adversaries with his sword in that moment in

00:12:10.220 its scabbard, tucked away. But he comes with his finger on the trigger, so to speak. He's not just

00:12:18.780 armed. He's at the ready. The safety is off, which is why it's a legitimate question to ask on

00:12:26.800 Joshua's part. Wait a second. Clearly you're here for war, but you're so ready at a moment's notice

00:12:34.560 to wage war. I have to ask, are you here to fight me right now in this very moment? But Jesus

00:12:44.000 comforts and consoles joshua by answering his question not with the word neither as many 0.68

00:12:52.820 pietist impotent cowardly effeminate evangelicals would insist but rather he answers the question by 0.53

00:13:02.220 saying no you want to talk about bible myth busters you want to talk about misinterpreted 0.98

00:13:10.500 verses in the bible time and time and time again here's one for you joshua says are you on our side

00:13:18.760 or are you with our adversaries and every evangelical wants to answer the question by saying

00:13:25.460 well the answer is neither right because at the end of the day that's really the character and

00:13:32.360 heart of god if you want to understand god this is all you need to understand god is fiercely

00:13:38.760 committed to neutrality said the bible never

00:13:44.260 the answer is not neither the answer is no and every serious theologian and biblical commentator

00:13:54.920 in looking at this particular text says that the no is in reference not to both parts of joshua's

00:14:02.340 question, but merely the latter. Are you for us or are you for our adversaries? It's two questions

00:14:09.980 technically. And the Lord Jesus is answering the most recent of those two questions, namely the

00:14:17.180 second question or the latter portion, latter half of this one question, if you want to treat it as

00:14:22.880 a whole. So what he's saying is this, not neither, but no, no meaning, no, I am not for the godless

00:14:30.860 Canaanites. No, I am not here to reinforce your enemies. No. In a sense, what he's saying is,

00:14:42.600 I am with you. And brothers and sisters, that is the Lord's answer. It was his answer then,

00:14:50.520 and it is still his answer today. The Lord is for you. He is not for the pagans.

00:15:00.860 The Bible doesn't just say that God hates sin.

00:15:03.900 The Bible says he hates sinners.

00:15:10.360 And in his mercy, God chooses at times according to what he decrees

00:15:15.800 to take some sinners like you

00:15:19.140 and to change your heart to make you a saint.

00:15:24.640 Praise be to God.

00:15:26.740 That is one way that God overcomes his enemies.

00:15:30.240 That is one way that God decimates His adversaries.

00:15:33.980 Is that He melts their hearts.

00:15:37.200 He causes them to have a new disposition.

00:15:40.640 He causes them to become new creatures in Christ Jesus.

00:15:44.660 And He grants to them the gifts of faith and repentance.

00:15:48.440 That the God that we once hated now is the God that we love and serve.

00:15:53.660 Praise God.

00:15:54.280 but that is not the only tool at his disposal god uses grace but god also utilizes justice

00:16:08.500 ephesians chapter 1 repeats the phrase three times throughout this single chapter

00:16:16.240 to the praise of his glorious grace and the principle that's articulated in this first

00:16:23.700 chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is that we were enemies, but God predestined us

00:16:29.640 in Christ Jesus. That he overcome our hostility. He changes our nature. He called us and chose us

00:16:39.040 in the beloved. And he did this to the praise of his glorious grace. So God saves sinners

00:16:45.960 to make himself look glorious. 0.99

00:16:51.220 But it is also true,

00:16:53.620 by way of implication,

00:16:55.620 if not even hermeneutically necessary inference

00:16:59.540 from Ephesians 1,

00:17:02.260 cross-reference taken with a whole biblical theology,

00:17:05.280 the entirety of the book of Romans, certainly,

00:17:07.900 that God saves sinners

00:17:09.360 to the praise of his glorious grace

00:17:11.840 and God damns sinners

00:17:14.040 to the praise of His glorious justice.

00:17:17.020 He does both.

00:17:19.520 Both.

00:17:21.540 That hell speaks a magnitude

00:17:24.200 about the glory of God.

00:17:29.500 Heaven displays God's glory.

00:17:33.660 Hell displays God's glory.

00:17:38.380 God is just and God is good

00:17:41.380 in both instances.

00:17:44.040 In both instances. 0.99

00:17:47.760 Christian, God has enemies. 0.99

00:17:50.640 The question for the church today is, why don't you? 0.97

00:17:56.020 I'll say that again.

00:17:57.620 Christian, God has enemies. 0.94

00:18:00.620 The question for the church is, why don't you? 0.96

00:18:05.700 There are really only two answers to that question.

00:18:09.000 one and i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you'll be able to conclude and

00:18:18.620 ascertain from this first option i'll lay before you that this is not a good option

00:18:23.040 that it's radically presumptuous arrogant and prideful but the first option is this

00:18:29.520 that god has enemies but his people the church do not have enemies because somehow the followers of

00:18:37.400 Jesus, are better at being committed to the truth and loving people than Jesus himself was.

00:18:48.340 Again, that's the option that's arrogant and presumptuous. That's the wrong answer. Now,

00:18:56.100 nobody will actually verbalize that. Nobody will come right out and say it. But that is the logical

00:19:02.460 conclusion of many evangelicals today the enemies of christ they killed him but the reason why they

00:19:12.320 they love his followers is because we've sold out on truth no no no no it's just because we're

00:19:22.800 fiercely committed without an ounce of compromise to all the truth and principles and law word of

00:19:27.540 god and yet also more winsome than jesus no woe to you christians

00:19:37.040 when the new york times will publish your articles 0.91

00:19:41.700 woe to you evangelical 0.73

00:19:46.220 when you're condemning uganda for simply advocating for god's law 0.95

00:19:57.540 black laws matter

00:20:00.580 Uganda forever 0.94

00:20:03.840 now the reality is that God's law matters 0.96

00:20:10.460 and any nation that will adhere to God's law

00:20:14.160 over time will be exalted

00:20:16.220 some of you watched the interview that I did with

00:20:19.660 Votie Bakum a while back

00:20:21.420 he talks about

00:20:23.220 the distinctly Christian preamble

00:20:26.420 that was recently adopted to the Constitution in Zambia.

00:20:30.580 But in contrasting that with the Christian heritage

00:20:34.420 that we have here in America. 1.00

00:20:37.600 The Christian heritage is better. 1.00

00:20:40.960 But it's better only today. 1.00

00:20:44.560 It's only better today.

00:20:46.820 Because if you turn your back on the Lord Jesus Christ,

00:20:50.640 well, the heritage will be there for a while.

00:20:53.440 But eventually it will dry up.

00:20:55.700 Now, why can a generation of people completely and publicly and explicitly rebel against God and still reap his blessings?

00:21:07.140 It's not just because of God's mercy, his long suffering, the fact that he's slow to anger and abundant in love.

00:21:15.020 That's part of it.

00:21:16.640 But it's also because God is just.

00:21:19.800 The reason why a generation of people can forsake the Lord and still receive His benefits

00:21:25.440 is because God is merciful, but also because He's just.

00:21:30.480 What do I mean by Him being just?

00:21:33.280 You might say, if you're rebelling against the Lord,

00:21:35.800 the just thing would be for you to reap the consequences.

00:21:39.740 But not, however, if God promised prior generations that He would be faithful to their children.

00:21:48.800 And now it becomes not only a matter of God's mercy and kindness, but his justice.

00:21:53.420 Remember, the scripture says God will not be mocked.

00:21:55.900 A man will reap what he sows.

00:21:57.820 If one generation sows and works and plants an entire apple orchard,

00:22:04.500 well, you'll be able to eat the fruit of those trees for a little while.

00:22:09.940 That's not God actually saying, hey, I don't really care about justice.

00:22:14.580 I don't really care about holiness.

00:22:16.100 You can make light of my law.

00:22:18.120 you can make light of my precepts and you'll still receive good things. No, that's not God

00:22:22.860 honoring the generation that's rebelling, that refuses to plant, that refuses to tend the

00:22:28.120 orchard. That's simply God not being mocked, keeping with his promise that a man will reap

00:22:33.980 what he sows. It is God keeping in faithfulness and justice to the prior generation, to the prior

00:22:40.660 generation. That's what it means for a nation to have a Christian heritage. The heritage of the

00:22:46.720 Christian faith is so deep in our nation that it will take a few generations, even generations of

00:22:54.800 utter rebellion against God. It will still require a few generations for that heritage to completely 0.69

00:23:03.600 dry up. Without tending the orchard at all, there will still be apples because that orchard is so

00:23:11.560 strong and so deep and so many trees in the past were planted and tended well there will be apples

00:23:18.620 for multiple generations and there will be multiple generations of people getting to enjoy

00:23:23.500 apples while hating orchards and that doesn't just speak to the mercy of god because those who hate

00:23:30.940 orchards certainly don't deserve to have apples so it is merciful but it's not just the mercy of

00:23:37.140 God. It speaks to the justice of God. That God doesn't just come in and burn up the orchard

00:23:43.940 at the first sign of rebellion. That the hard work of faithfulness in past generations

00:23:51.440 will continue to last until it dries up. And so in that sense, the heritage, the Christian

00:23:59.680 heritage of America supersedes a Christian

00:24:03.760 preamble in Zambia. 0.85

00:24:07.780 Today, you would rather be here, even as the White House 1.00

00:24:12.060 is lit up with the pride flag 0.99

00:24:15.840 colors. Better to live here than to 1.00

00:24:19.840 live in Zambia. My point, though, is to say, 0.99

00:24:23.220 give it 200 years.

00:24:24.920 zambia is planting apple trees

00:24:31.020 and apple trees take a while to grow so no there's not a lot of apples there

00:24:38.080 not today but if we stick with our path here and by god's grace they stick with theirs

00:24:47.020 over there then in 200 years well that's why right now it's you know you kind of you know

00:24:54.860 cast your bread seven times on the water not knowing which will return right there's there's

00:25:00.060 a biblical principle for diversifying when it comes to investments so i you know i was going

00:25:04.860 to have the grandchildren zambia fund saving for that just in case well now it's going to be you

00:25:10.020 know 50 50 between you know the zambia and uganda fund right because both are great options not today

00:25:16.600 but they have a lot of promise a lot of potential because at the end of the day god's word is true

00:25:24.020 The nation that fears the Lord will be exalted.

00:25:29.420 It doesn't matter what color their skin is.

00:25:34.840 The only reason why the West has been blessed by God

00:25:38.680 is because of the gospel of Jesus Christ

00:25:41.640 that took root all the way from King Alfred till today.

00:25:48.880 And God can do it with anyone he wants.

00:25:51.860 In fact, that's what we see in the scripture, is that sometimes what the Lord will do in order to bring low the haughty, the proud, is that the Lord will actually raise up someone else, someone who is a nobody.

00:26:08.680 Just to show that it's not about the man.

00:26:12.300 It's not about the people.

00:26:14.400 It's not about the nation.

00:26:16.640 It's about the Lord.

00:26:19.160 It's about the Lord.

00:26:21.360 Sometimes God will do it, not even with another people.

00:26:25.540 But sometimes God will, just to prove his point,

00:26:29.040 show that he can garnish glory for himself with inanimate objects.

00:26:34.740 And if you don't praise me, the rocks will cry out.

00:26:40.120 One, because God will receive praise, one way or another.

00:26:44.140 but two, the rocks would cry out as an indictment

00:26:48.540 of God's image-bearing creatures who chose to rebel.

00:26:58.640 Are we for God or against Him?

00:27:02.280 He's for us, so long as we remain faithful.

00:27:07.860 The question, though, is are we for Him?

00:27:12.240 So all of this back to enemies.

00:27:15.000 God has enemies. 0.99

00:27:17.700 But a lot of Christians today don't.

00:27:21.180 And they don't have enemies not because they're actually gracious or kind or merciful or winsome or strategic or shrewd.

00:27:30.800 The reason why today's Christians, especially here in the West, don't have enemies is because we don't look like Jesus.

00:27:42.400 We don't look like Jesus.

00:27:45.060 There's just not that much to hate.

00:27:50.660 And there's also not that much that is a threat.

00:27:56.000 Jesus was put to death.

00:27:58.560 But he wasn't put to death because he was viewed as someone who was insane or crazy. 0.94

00:28:05.480 A man who merely lost his mind.

00:28:08.660 Jesus was put to death 0.88

00:28:11.820 because he was viewed as a legitimate threat

00:28:14.300 and not just a threat

00:28:17.840 strictly in an academic

00:28:20.800 philosophical sense

00:28:23.340 he wasn't merely a threat to the way that people think

00:28:27.400 he was a threat in the physical

00:28:30.020 literal sense to the way in which people lived

00:28:32.720 there's a reason why Pilate was very concerned

00:28:37.220 about Jesus being called a king.

00:28:41.040 There's a reason why Herod tried to kill Jesus

00:28:43.680 when he was still just an infant.

00:28:46.180 Not because merely a Messiah had been born,

00:28:49.660 but a king had been born.

00:28:53.440 Herod understood more about the coming of Christ

00:28:56.100 and what it meant than Russell Moore does.

00:29:02.620 Herod knew that the coming of Jesus

00:29:05.400 didn't just mean that people would worship him privately

00:29:08.880 in their sweet, precious little hearts in the 17th dimension.

00:29:13.080 Heron knew that Jesus coming to earth,

00:29:15.680 not only as spiritual Messiah,

00:29:18.060 but as earthly, literal king,

00:29:20.360 that what this meant was that eventually

00:29:22.420 all the kings of the earth

00:29:24.320 would be subdued by him

00:29:26.680 and subjected to him.

00:29:30.440 He's king of kings,

00:29:32.340 lord of lords.

00:29:33.420 yeah they killed jesus 0.72

00:29:36.400 and the apostles were killed as well and christians were drawn and quartered some sawn in two

00:29:45.280 beheaded even crucified upside down thrown into the lion's den before lions in the coliseum

00:29:53.100 all these things were done in the first century

00:29:57.400 and some of these things are still done to this day

00:30:02.640 but not like the first century

00:30:06.740 to pretend that things have not changed

00:30:10.660 is naive

00:30:11.880 to say we lose down here

00:30:16.400 from a microphone

00:30:18.640 while being recorded with video

00:30:21.380 piped to millions of people

00:30:24.860 on the other side of the planet

00:30:26.820 who are being converted by the Spirit of God

00:30:29.360 is such a thick ironing.

00:30:32.020 I can't even begin to put it into words.

00:30:41.540 To lose.

00:30:44.140 As you've written commentaries

00:30:46.300 that millions of people have read.

00:30:48.980 As you have a showdown with the governor

00:30:51.420 of your state and win.

00:30:54.560 I pray that if God would be so gracious 0.86

00:30:56.740 that he might enable me to lose half as well as MacArthur.

00:31:02.920 Incredible losing.

00:31:04.700 I would love to lose like that.

00:31:11.340 No, we win.

00:31:13.760 We win.

00:31:15.920 The world is changing.

00:31:18.560 And it's not all for the worse.

00:31:21.360 Some of us will lose our lives.

00:31:24.340 Some of us may be martyrs.

00:31:25.780 Some of us may be thrown in prison.

00:31:27.440 And we may not see all the particular victories in particular battles that we'd like to see in our lifetime.

00:31:35.660 But the gospel continues to pervade.

00:31:39.960 The crown rights of King Jesus are continually pressed forth over all the earth.

00:31:49.880 Jesus has enemies.

00:31:51.780 But one by one, they're being subjected as a footstool under his feet.

00:31:59.980 Many of his enemies have already been conquered, and many more are still left to be conquered.

00:32:08.240 God is for us.

00:32:10.720 That is not a question that's left open-ended in our text today.

00:32:15.480 But the question that each of us must answer is whether or not we're for him.

00:32:21.780 Jesus in a theophany appears to Joshua

00:32:26.120 as the true commander of Israel 0.84

00:32:28.400 and even the armies of heaven

00:32:30.060 and he shows up with a sword drawn in his hand.

00:32:35.020 And his answer to Joshua,

00:32:36.260 are you for our adversaries?

00:32:37.900 The answer is no.

00:32:40.340 No.

00:32:43.460 Jesus is for us.

00:32:45.280 And it's not just Jesus meek and mild.

00:32:49.160 But Jesus dressed for war.

00:32:51.780 And He is for His church and for His people.

00:32:56.400 But the question remains, are we for Him?

00:33:00.880 Will we take a stand?

00:33:03.020 Will we speak the truth?

00:33:08.900 And I think one of the reasons why we don't,

00:33:13.900 and this gets to the last point of the text today,

00:33:17.120 one of the reasons why we don't take a stand

00:33:20.160 is because we don't fear God.

00:33:25.000 Not nearly as much as we fear man.

00:33:29.220 One of the things that happens here with Joshua,

00:33:31.840 remember,

00:33:33.140 because I think I said something in passing last week

00:33:36.200 that mixed up the chronological order

00:33:38.440 of the narrative through the book of Joshua.

00:33:40.900 So let me correct that today.

00:33:42.940 This is right before they're going to go up against Jericho.

00:33:46.500 So far, God has parted the Jordan River

00:33:49.280 and we saw a portion of the Jericho story,

00:33:53.700 but that's because the spies were sent out ahead of time

00:33:56.480 and had a discourse with Rahab.

00:33:58.920 But the battle at Jericho has not yet commenced,

00:34:02.260 but it's about to.

00:34:04.080 And so where we are right now in the book of Joshua

00:34:08.040 is that Israel has just passed over the Jordan River,

00:34:11.960 miraculously,

00:34:13.680 and they've just renewed the covenant with the Lord

00:34:16.220 through circumcision and eating the Passover.

00:34:19.940 They've just now stepped into the land of promise 0.95

00:34:22.820 so the manna has ceased.

00:34:25.640 They're now able to have grain and storehouses,

00:34:30.400 namely the storehouses of the wicked.

00:34:32.760 As they conquer these cities,

00:34:34.580 the wealth of the wicked will be laid up for the righteous.

00:34:38.040 They too will plant and grow their own grain,

00:34:40.300 but they don't have to wait for a harvest.

00:34:42.000 They can have food right now

00:34:43.600 by simply following the Lord Jesus

00:34:45.440 in obedience and conquering their adversaries

00:34:48.240 and taking what they have stored up.

00:34:51.340 So all these things have taken place.

00:34:53.160 It's right before the battle with Jericho.

00:34:56.040 And it's likely that even though the Lord

00:34:58.700 has been so faithful thus far

00:35:00.540 and he's demonstrated and manifest

00:35:02.480 his supernatural power

00:35:03.940 in the parting of the Jordan River,

00:35:06.220 even though he's supernaturally sustained his people

00:35:08.660 the last 40 years

00:35:10.180 as they journeyed through the wilderness,

00:35:13.780 Joshua in Israel is still probably at some level wrestling with doubt

00:35:20.360 because Jericho is a fortified city

00:35:23.640 a juggernaut, indeed a great threat.

00:35:28.260 And so Jesus appears to Joshua

00:35:30.940 and he appears to console him

00:35:34.820 to comfort him

00:35:36.640 and to comfort him through fear.

00:35:39.460 joshua was probably concerned how is this going to happen how are we ever going to be able to

00:35:48.620 conquer jericho but when jesus appears joshua's not worried about conquering jericho anymore

00:35:57.280 joshua is worried about the greatest adversary potential adversary he's ever witnessed namely

00:36:05.220 Jesus who's standing right in front of him. He's like, forget about Jericho. Are you against me?

00:36:15.360 Are you coming to battle me? Because if so, I'm in really big trouble.

00:36:21.420 Jericho is a small threat by comparison to you. The commander of all the armies of earth and

00:36:30.260 armies of heaven are you for us or are you for our adversaries essentially what Joshua is asking

00:36:38.800 is this he's saying I no longer need to consider the variables of who's stronger who has the

00:36:46.280 advantage Israel or Jericho because because a variable has just entered the equation that's so

00:36:57.440 massive that all that matters now is this third party and whose side they're on right if even if

00:37:07.340 joshua in his mind was thinking israel is like like an inch and jericho is a foot israel is the

00:37:18.300 strength of ten men but but jericho is a strength of a hundred well when jesus walks into the

00:37:25.280 equation. The 10 versus 100 is inconsequential now. It no longer matters, right? It's like if

00:37:34.340 you ever play, you know, on like a family vacation. And it's never fair, I might add.

00:37:40.880 The rules don't make any logical sense whatsoever. I've been told again and again it's just about

00:37:45.440 spending time together. So that's something I've had to come to terms with. But you're playing like

00:37:51.460 a game, like Scattergories or something like that. It's like, you get a point. You get a point. You

00:37:56.240 get a point. And now all of a sudden, you know, it's like 10 to 3. All right, bonus round. And

00:38:02.160 the next question is worth 10 trillion points. You're like, what have we been doing this whole

00:38:08.300 time? 10 trillion? Like what math did you learn? What scale is this? You've just rendered the last

00:38:16.920 two hours as completely irrelevant. I don't understand, right? Well, again, the point in

00:38:23.940 that scenario is to spend time with one another. The point is also to pity the weak. To pity the

00:38:30.300 weak. It's the equivalent of passing out, you know, participation trophies. Okay, so these things

00:38:36.140 happen. It's a part of life. But it is a good illustration for the scenario of what's going

00:38:43.680 down with Jericho versus Israel, Joshua being confronted by Jesus. Right? Jericho has got 10

00:38:52.700 points on the board. Israel's got, well, they had zero, but then, you know, the Jordan River parted

00:38:58.660 and now we'll say that's 2.5. It's 10 to 2.5. But then the bonus round starts. Jesus walks in. He's

00:39:06.260 worth an infinite amount of points. So all that matters for winning the game at this point is

00:39:11.860 whose side is Jesus on? 0.99

00:39:16.720 Better to be, as Athanasius once said, 0.94

00:39:19.900 you and God versus the whole world 0.94

00:39:22.180 than you and the whole world against God.

00:39:31.800 You've got to play the right odds.

00:39:35.260 It's helpful to put things into biblical perspective.

00:39:41.860 Everybody being on your side, being seated in the chief seats in the marketplace, receiving the honor and accolades of men.

00:39:55.100 At the end of the day, none of these things matter.

00:39:58.720 What matters in terms of winning the war, not just a particular battle at a particular time, in a particular place,

00:40:07.400 But winning the war, all that matters is whether or not the Lord is on your side.

00:40:14.680 Because he wins.

00:40:17.460 And he doesn't just win suddenly and cataclysmically and spiritually.

00:40:25.420 But he wins gradually and progressively and tangibly.

00:40:31.500 and we may not get to see all of those winds and our brief vapor of life here on earth

00:40:41.420 but he does win he does conquer yes he died he was crucified but jesus himself said unless a seed

00:40:53.360 dies and is planted in the ground. It cannot come to life. It cannot grow.

00:41:04.560 Jesus died as a seed dies. He was buried as a seed is buried under dirt.

00:41:12.260 But that's not the end of the story. It's not the end. The end of the story is not that Jesus

00:41:18.760 died and was buried so that we know that in following jesus we can expect to have the same

00:41:25.100 results that he did now jesus chose to die even though he didn't have to jesus was buried

00:41:33.780 so that like a seed he might sprout and multiply other seeds all over the earth

00:41:42.340 so that eventually the tree might cover the whole face of the earth that the glory of god would

00:41:48.500 fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea, like leaven working through a whole batch of dough.

00:41:56.920 The Lord is on our side. We're not sovereign. He wins, and he wins tangibly, and he wins

00:42:04.420 progressively, and he doesn't win despite the church. He will win through his church,

00:42:09.640 his militant church here on earth. That said, we don't know every battle he'll win,

00:42:18.120 How he'll win.

00:42:19.760 When he'll win.

00:42:22.560 We've seen these last 2,000 years

00:42:25.080 that one of the ways Jesus wins

00:42:26.960 is it will take two steps backward

00:42:30.680 and then three forward.

00:42:33.340 And then five steps backward.

00:42:36.040 And then six or seven forward.

00:42:38.940 And then another step forward

00:42:40.160 and another step forward

00:42:41.140 and another step forward

00:42:42.040 and then 500 steps backward.

00:42:45.120 But then 700 steps forward.

00:42:47.380 there's no biblical promise for America

00:42:52.420 I don't know what God's going to do but in terms of is it possible that God would win the world

00:43:02.860 to himself progressively gradually over time and one of the ways he would do it is by proving to

00:43:09.760 all the nations of the earth that his glory and majesty and the blessings of his law that flow

00:43:16.880 from Mount Zion have nothing to do

00:43:19.320 with anything inherent to man

00:43:21.100 and that he would prove this point

00:43:23.640 by decimating the West

00:43:25.580 and in order to rouse a godly jealousy in us

00:43:30.300 that for the next 500 years or 1,500 years

00:43:34.200 that he would bless Africa, 0.96

00:43:36.900 that they would send a dollar a day 0.88

00:43:40.180 so that a little white kid in America

00:43:42.020 could get a Christian education?

00:43:44.440 It's possible.

00:43:47.680 America's not promised anything.

00:43:51.960 All God's promises for this nation

00:43:54.000 and every other nation for that matter

00:43:55.840 are conditional.

00:43:59.680 The new covenant is not conditional.

00:44:02.740 It's grace.

00:44:04.160 But we're not talking about the new covenant.

00:44:08.500 The nation that fears the Lord will be exalted.

00:44:11.820 The nation that rebels against the Lord

00:44:14.040 will be brought low. 1.00

00:44:16.880 There were promises for Israel 0.57

00:44:19.120 under the old covenant.

00:44:21.840 God fulfilled them all. 0.81

00:44:24.260 And Israel was faithless. 0.76

00:44:26.660 And the covenant is over. 0.86

00:44:29.300 There are promises for the church

00:44:31.160 made up of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

00:44:34.000 And those endure forever.

00:44:36.700 Those are the true promises for true Israel 0.96

00:44:39.060 according to the promise. 0.84

00:44:42.780 But in terms of promises for Zambia or Uganda,

00:44:46.880 or England, or America.

00:44:49.840 Unconditional promises for these nations do not exist.

00:44:54.840 If you kiss the sun,

00:44:57.100 his anger will be satiated,

00:44:59.340 and his blessings will flow.

00:45:01.660 If you rebel against the sun

00:45:03.880 and seek to break the bonds apart,

00:45:06.300 he who sits in the heavens will laugh

00:45:08.980 and hold you in derision.

00:45:12.180 That's it.

00:45:15.480 At the end of the day,

00:45:16.620 the only thing that matters is the bonus round.

00:45:21.460 Is Jesus for us or against us?

00:45:24.180 He is for us.

00:45:26.420 We have that promise in his word.

00:45:28.680 Paul says,

00:45:30.760 the angels or demons,

00:45:32.040 things present or things to come,

00:45:34.980 heights or depths,

00:45:36.820 that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

00:45:41.060 That if God is for us,

00:45:42.440 who can be against us?

00:45:43.700 but the question again remains are we for him will we stand for him

00:45:50.340 the last thing that i'll say is this you've heard of gospel-centered preaching

00:45:56.380 gospel-centered preaching is a biblical preaching it's a blessing to be sure

00:46:04.080 but there is also such a thing as hell-centered preaching hell-centered preaching in our

00:46:12.040 generation has been radically underestimated Jonathan Edwards made use of it from time to time

00:46:18.220 and it was highly effective leaving call marks in the back of the pews people were so scared they

00:46:25.560 were clutching on for dear life trying to make it through the sermon and many were brought to faith

00:46:32.520 in Jesus Christ that infamous sermon sinners in the hands of an angry God and what we find

00:46:40.120 throughout the scripture both of the old and new testament for that matter is that god

00:46:45.320 he promises incredible blessings to those who fear him who trust and obey but god in his love

00:46:55.240 also threatens terrible things to those who rebel and both the threatening of his judgment

00:47:02.540 and the promise of his blessing

00:47:04.740 are two incentives

00:47:06.680 that bring people to faithfulness.

00:47:11.600 And when it comes to not fearing man,

00:47:15.280 I think that's the biggest thing

00:47:16.440 that I want you to see in our text today.

00:47:18.580 Joshua, when Jesus is standing in front of him

00:47:20.980 with a sword in his hand,

00:47:22.640 Joshua is no longer worrying about Jericho.

00:47:25.820 He's only afraid,

00:47:27.940 only concerned about God.

00:47:32.540 Jesus standing in front of him, are you for us or are you for our enemies?

00:47:38.600 So how do we stop fearing man?

00:47:40.600 Well, this is where Jesus answers the question by preaching a hell-centered sermon.

00:47:45.080 We might have wanted a gospel-centered sermon, but he gives us a hell-centered sermon,

00:47:48.900 a powerful sermon nonetheless.

00:47:51.280 Do not fear man who can kill the body,

00:47:54.480 but after having killed the body can do nothing more to you,

00:47:57.480 but rather fear God who sent his only son to die.

00:48:01.160 No, fear God who can destroy the body

00:48:03.500 and after having destroyed the body,

00:48:05.260 cast your soul into hell. 0.63

00:48:08.320 Powerfully motivated preaching.

00:48:11.280 Jesus is a fantastic preacher.

00:48:13.700 It's a good sermon.

00:48:17.180 Why do we fear God?

00:48:20.240 We fear him on two accounts.

00:48:22.500 One, because he did send his son to die for us.

00:48:27.100 He's better.

00:48:27.880 he's better than our adversaries who hold out to us promises but then always betray

00:48:37.880 promise but never deliver god is not a crooked and corrupt politician

00:48:46.800 he always delivers what he promises so we should submit to him and fear him because he's good

00:48:54.920 But we also should fear him because he is terrible in his judgments.

00:49:03.080 And whatever adversaries we have on earth with man, they can only do so much harm to us.

00:49:11.920 But God not only has power over the body, but also the soul.

00:49:18.360 He is the greater adversary.

00:49:20.660 we can take on the whole world

00:49:25.260 but we can't take on him

00:49:28.840 fighting against God

00:49:31.680 even if you have 8.2 billion people

00:49:34.320 aligned and unity in your ranks

00:49:37.100 is no more promising

00:49:40.380 than a gnat trying to fly

00:49:42.480 through Niagara Falls

00:49:43.820 he is impossible to defeat

00:49:49.240 No one can thwart his plans.

00:49:54.020 It should matter more to Christians to have God in our corner than the New York Times.

00:50:02.560 It should matter more to Christians to have God in our corner. 0.88

00:50:09.540 Than the LGBT, LMNOP, Homo Jihad. 0.90

00:50:15.220 It should matter to Christians more that we have God in our corner than any man. 0.73

00:50:26.000 God is to be feared.

00:50:28.760 God alone is to be feared.

00:50:31.620 He is jealous for his glory.

00:50:34.100 That means he is jealous for our devotion, both in our love of him and in our fear of him.

00:50:42.500 He is not a neutral God.

00:50:45.040 He is not a passive God.

00:50:47.600 He is the Lord, dressed for battle.

00:50:50.280 As John Gill goes further to say, I don't have time to read it,

00:50:54.140 but his sword has been drawn ever since the serpent slithered up in the garden.

00:51:02.080 He promised to put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

00:51:06.600 And from that day, not just in the times of the Old Testament or the days of Joshua in Israel,

00:51:12.900 But all the way up until this very hour, the Lord has been dressed for battle and his sword is in his hand and his church as soldiers and his army here on earth is militant.

00:51:28.920 We are in a time of war, not peace.

00:51:32.820 And all that matters at the end of the day is that we remain faithful to our great commander in chief, the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:51:42.900 All that matters is the bonus round.

00:51:46.220 Is Jesus for us or against us?

00:51:49.640 He has promised that he is not neutral.

00:51:53.100 He is for all those who are for him.

00:51:57.180 Let's pray.

00:51:59.020 Lord, we thank you for Jesus.

00:52:02.200 We thank you that he is meek and mild.

00:52:05.240 He is the lamb who was slain.

00:52:07.560 But he is also the lion of the tribe of Judah.

00:52:10.440 He is the great warrior dressed for battle and that through his church here on earth, that he is one by one subduing his enemies.

00:52:22.940 We don't know what the future has for us in this place and in this hour, but we know the outcome of the war.

00:52:31.480 And our job is not to predict the outcome of every instance, but simply to be faithful to what you have revealed in your word.

00:52:46.540 To be obedient, not crafty, but obedient.

00:52:54.680 We don't need to partner with people who hate you.

00:52:58.500 We don't need the L and G and B to take down the T and Q and plus.

00:53:07.320 We don't cast out darkness with a slightly lighter shade of darkness. 0.81

00:53:14.760 What absurdity. 0.98

00:53:17.060 What foolishness. 0.74

00:53:19.780 Help us to remain uncompromising. 0.68

00:53:22.640 Help us to remain devoted to you and your law.

00:53:31.060 Equal weights, equal measures.

00:53:34.800 Let justice flow.

00:53:37.840 Not half justice and half wickedness.

00:53:43.020 Not taking bribes, not showing partiality.

00:53:47.300 Not delaying justice.

00:53:49.620 let us stand for what's right even if in a practical sense it seems as though it'll never

00:53:59.300 work open our eyes like the servant of Elisha whose eyes were open to see that there were

00:54:07.060 heavenly armies surrounded that we actually outnumber our adversaries when we take Christ

00:54:13.980 into account. We're not in a position where we have to concede. We don't have to write treaties.

00:54:24.600 We don't have to wave the white flag of surrender. We're not outnumbered. We never have been.

00:54:33.300 We have the great equalizer. We have the great variable that determines the outcome of every

00:54:40.940 battle. We have the Lord Jesus Christ on our side. Help us not to betray him. Help us to remain

00:54:51.380 faithful. Open our eyes. Give us faith. Give us courage for your glory and for the good of those

00:55:02.000 you're saving. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Can I be frank with you for just a second

00:55:08.840 right here at the end. Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry,

00:55:13.580 and from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. I cannot thank you enough. However, some of you,

00:55:20.840 you just, you can't afford it. In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest.

00:55:27.260 I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy. Our nation and our totalitarian 0.94

00:55:34.240 political elites lost their minds over the last three years due to COVID. We have written checks

00:55:42.440 that we simply cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession.

00:55:48.380 We are living in a recession right now regardless. Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of

00:55:56.040 eggs at the grocery store. You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor

00:56:02.640 should you, but you could still help us tremendously. I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do

00:56:09.620 so, take one minute of your time. Leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform,

00:56:17.000 iTunes, Spotify, whatever that might be. This is the way the system works. We want to be innocent

00:56:23.280 as doves, but shrewd as vipers. We need to be strategic. You leave us a five-star review and

00:56:30.440 our podcast shows up for more people. And the Word of God and courageous theology applied in

00:56:37.920 practical ways to every realm of life gets out there. Help us get it out there. Thanks for tuning in.

The NXR Podcast - June 04, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - If Christ Has Enemies, Why Don’t His Followers？｜ Joshua 5_13-15

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

The NXR Podcast - June 04, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - If Christ Has Enemies, Why Don’t His Followers？ ｜ Joshua 5_13-15

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

SUNDAY SERMON - If Christ Has Enemies, Why Don’t His Followers？｜ Joshua 5_13-15