The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Roe Is Dead： Why The Church Must Celebrate & Secure The Victory ｜ Joshua 6_6-21

00:00:00.000 Amen. All right, today is going to be part two of Joshua chapter six. Right now we are preaching

00:00:06.020 through the book of Joshua. Last week, if you were with us, we began Joshua chapter six. We dealt

00:00:11.780 with verses one through five. And today we will be dealing with verses six through 21, six through

00:00:20.040 21. So we'll deal with the remainder of the chapter. Part two, Joshua chapter six. Last week

00:00:25.940 was verses 1 through 5. This week, Joshua chapter 6, verses 6 through 21. However, the portion that

00:00:32.440 I'm going to read aloud that I'd like to ask you to stand for is verses 6 through 16. So would you

00:00:39.020 join me in standing now for the reading of God's Word? I'll read that portion of our text today.

00:00:44.460 Our whole text is Joshua chapter 6, verses 6 through 21. The portion I'll be reading is Joshua

00:00:50.820 chapter 6, verses 6 through 16. When I finish reading the text, I'll say this is the word of

00:00:56.620 the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to

00:01:01.540 God. One final time, the portion that we're reading today is Joshua chapter 6, verses 6 through 16.

00:01:08.780 The Bible says this, so Joshua the son of Nun called the priest and said to them, take up the

00:01:14.640 ark of the covenant and let the seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the

00:01:21.080 ark of the Lord. And he said to the people, go forward, march around the city and let the armed

00:01:26.620 men pass on before the ark of the Lord. And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven

00:01:32.560 priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets

00:01:39.080 with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. The armed men were walking before the

00:01:44.460 priests who were blowing the trumpets and the rear guard was walking after the ark while the

00:01:50.140 trumpets blew continually but Joshua commanded the people you shall not shout or make your voice

00:01:56.580 heard neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day that I tell you to shout then you

00:02:04.020 shall shout so he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city going about it once and they came

00:02:10.880 into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and the

00:02:16.060 priest took up the ark of the Lord and the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns

00:02:21.340 before the ark of the Lord walked on and they blew the trumpets continually and the armed men were

00:02:27.600 walking before them and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the Lord while the trumpets blew

00:02:33.420 continually. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned into camp.

00:02:39.920 So they did for six days. On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched

00:02:47.100 around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around

00:02:53.880 the city seven times. And at the seventh time when the priest had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to

00:03:00.920 the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city. This is the word of the Lord. All right,

00:03:08.960 please be seated. I'm going to begin in dealing with Joshua chapter 6 verses 6 through 16 by

00:03:17.660 reading a quote from Matthew Henry, a late great Puritan, in his commentating on this particular

00:03:24.280 portion of our text. He says the following. Here we have an account of the Calvacate which

00:03:32.740 Israel made about Jericho, the orders Joshua gave concerning it, as he had received them from the

00:03:40.100 Lord and their punctual observance, that is Israel's obedience of those orders. We do not find

00:03:47.120 that he gave the people the express assurances that God had given him that he would deliver the

00:03:53.720 city into their hands. But he tried, that is Joshua tested Israel, whether or not they would obey

00:04:01.120 orders with a general confidence that it would end well. And we find them very observant, both

00:04:07.860 of God and Joshua. This, I believe, is relevant at all times. It's the word of God. It's always

00:04:14.560 relevant. But in one particular way that I'd like to apply it would again be to the issue of abortion.

00:04:21.100 in short i'll say this obedience is better than pragmatism obedience is better than pragmatism

00:04:33.560 joshua was given certain orders from jesus we saw that at the end of joshua chapter 5

00:04:42.100 that the angel of the lord who we believe was a theophany of the second member of the trinity

00:04:48.740 Christ Jesus himself, before the incarnation, came and met with Joshua. And he was dressed for battle.

00:04:56.380 Not only was he girded with the sword, but the sword was out of its sheath and in Christ's hand.

00:05:04.100 He was at the ready, ready for battle. And Joshua asks the Lord, says, are you for us or for our

00:05:12.000 adversary? Whose side are you on? And Jesus does not respond, as many have misinterpreted,

00:05:18.520 by saying neither. I'm neutral. I don't take sides. No, that's not what God says.

00:05:27.420 Politicians say that. Many evangelical pastors say that, but Jesus doesn't say that. He answers

00:05:35.260 in the negative, not by saying neither, but by saying no. And his no is in reference not to the

00:05:42.040 entirety of the question, but rather the second half. Are you for us or for our enemies? No,

00:05:50.060 that is, I am not for your enemies. And then Jesus gives to Joshua very particular instructions,

00:05:58.840 the exact instructions that Joshua then relays to the people of Israel, that they should walk

00:06:04.900 around the city of Jericho once for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day, with the

00:06:12.820 trumpets blowing, the ark of the covenant of the Lord being carried at the head. And then on the

00:06:19.380 seventh day, after circling the city of Jericho and its walls seven times, that they should give

00:06:25.060 a great shout unto the Lord, for the Lord has given to them the city. Now, we don't know if

00:06:31.900 Joshua shared with Israel every single detail of the assurances and promises he was offered.

00:06:40.740 We know that Joshua was very thorough in regards to the command. He told Israel everything that

00:06:48.300 he had been told by Jesus in regards to what they should do, how they should obey. But in regards

00:06:56.400 to whether or not Joshua was quite as thorough in regards to conveying the sense of promise and

00:07:03.440 assurance and certainty that obedience to these commands would indeed pay off, that it would

00:07:10.840 succeed, that it would work, we don't know. The text doesn't tell us that. Matthew Henry, I believe

00:07:16.780 we would be in good company to agree with him, but he at least suspects, although it's not explicitly

00:07:22.520 said one way or the other, he at least suspects that there was much more thoroughness in Joshua

00:07:28.720 relaying to Israel the exact commands which must be obeyed rather than the exact promises and

00:07:35.280 assurances of what the results would be if these commands were obeyed. And so too, in that regard,

00:07:43.660 it relates to us. The New Testament church, wherever she finds herself, whether in this

00:07:50.460 country or another. We have exact commands from the Lord. And we have general promises.

00:07:59.460 But we do not have exact promises that relate to every single obedience of every single specific

00:08:08.040 command. So what I'm saying is this. We have a general promise, I believe, per Isaiah chapter 2,

00:08:15.520 Isaiah 65, Daniel chapter 2, Matthew 24, Matthew 28, Matthew 16, and the list goes on,

00:08:26.060 but I think that that should suffice. We have a general promise that Christ will build his church,

00:08:34.360 that is grow, expand, increase his church, not merely sustain it. Christ is not merely sustaining

00:08:42.500 his bride as a man would sustain his family. But if a man is building his family, we would assume

00:08:50.140 that he is adding to its ranks, not just sustaining it, but that he is building his house to build is

00:08:57.680 to expand and increase. And the promise in Matthew 16 that Christ gives is that because he is the

00:09:04.000 head of the church and the church is his body, his body here on earth, his hands and feet, Christ will

00:09:11.640 not only protect and defend and sustain his body on earth his church but actually expand and

00:09:18.380 increase and build it of the of the increase of his government there will be no end not just the

00:09:28.280 the once cataclysmically suddenly establishment of a universal government not not that there is

00:09:35.940 no government. And then one day, boom, here it is. And it's all done. Increase implies progressive,

00:09:45.220 gradual, not cataclysmic, but rather progressive and gradual through a process over time. And so

00:09:53.320 we have general promises from the Lord, not only that he will sustain his church, but that he will

00:09:59.860 progressively expand and build his church. And I know that you've heard me say this many times,

00:10:05.380 But by God's grace, there are new people who come to our church every week who may not be aware of

00:10:10.660 this. But Matthew 16 says that as Christ promises to build the church, the gates of hell will not

00:10:17.980 prevail against it. Now notice the gates of hell are defensive, not offensive. This is not weaponry,

00:10:27.380 but rather the gates of hell signify the defense of hell. So what is the offensive weapon

00:10:34.900 in this particular equation given to us by Christ Jesus himself. The weapon is not hell.

00:10:42.620 The weapon is the church. That the church would increase and be built, and that the defensive

00:10:48.940 measures of hell will not ultimately be able to withstand the battering ram of the church. 0.78

00:10:56.920 Now, eschatology, for the record, as I said last week, is a point at which Christians,

00:11:02.180 Orthodox, faithful Christians can agree to disagree. That does not mean we are relativist,

00:11:08.680 someone is right, and someone is wrong. So I'm not saying that all the positions are correct,

00:11:14.700 but there is a difference between wrong doctrine and heretical doctrine. I'll say that again.

00:11:23.160 There's a difference between wrong doctrine and heretical doctrine. There are plenty of doctrines

00:11:29.860 which are wrong, but are not heresy. Therefore, we're not relativists. We're not saying everybody's

00:11:36.520 right and we should preach against such doctrines, but we should also be careful to define our terms

00:11:42.580 to say, I believe that this is wrong and all wrong things that are not true ultimately have

00:11:50.360 a harmful effect. But there are degrees of harmful effects. There is certain food that you can eat

00:11:58.160 that ultimately over the course of 30 years will do you harm. And then there's food that's

00:12:05.920 literally poisoned that will kill you in 15 minutes flat. There's a difference. There's a

00:12:12.900 difference between unhealthy food that kills you over 30 years and literal poison that kills you

00:12:20.860 in 15 minutes. And that's the difference between wrong doctrine and false doctrine. Things which

00:12:28.040 are unbiblical and those things which are heresy proper. And when it comes to eschatology, 0.94

00:12:35.560 if you are pre-millennial and believe that Christ will establish his kingdom cataclysmically,

00:12:41.300 that is orthodox and you are welcome in this church. However, regardless of how you see it,

00:12:48.760 whether you're post-mill or pre-mill or all-mill, which is usually just a placeholder for someone

00:12:53.840 who hasn't made up their mind, that's fine. We'll welcome you as well. Regardless of where you stand,

00:13:00.060 we all believe that Christ wins. We all believe Christ wins, but there is still a distinction,

00:13:07.680 and the distinction is not a moot point. It's not merely semantics. The distinction is theological,

00:13:16.020 biblical, and it matters. We all believe that Christ wins, but the distinction is how.

00:13:21.960 does Christ win cataclysmically and suddenly and relatively soon despite a weak yet surviving

00:13:32.740 church or does Christ win over a long period of time gradually and progressively not despite a

00:13:41.480 weak yet surviving church but through an expanding and victorious church that's the question

00:13:50.880 we all believe Jesus wins to make it very very succinct we all believe Jesus wins some believe

00:14:00.900 that Jesus will win despite the church some believe that Jesus will win through the church

00:14:06.160 I am of the latter persuasion I believe that Jesus will win through the church not that he

00:14:14.200 needs the church, but that he is designated and chosen in his grace and mercy, that his victory

00:14:22.420 would be brought about through his people progressively and gradually throughout history,

00:14:30.320 real human history. So that, as 1 Corinthians 15 explicitly says, the last, not first,

00:14:38.120 but rather last of his enemies to be defeated shall be death.

00:14:43.720 Because why?

00:14:45.180 Because progressively, systematically, one by one,

00:14:48.860 through real human history and time,

00:14:51.700 through the battering ram of the church,

00:14:54.140 pushing back inch by inch the gates of hell which will not prevail,

00:14:59.120 Christ has systematically, progressively defeated one by one all of his enemies

00:15:04.320 so that they might be made a footstool for his feet,

00:15:07.060 so that as 1 Corinthians 15 says,

00:15:09.600 the last of his enemies, not the first,

00:15:12.280 but the last of his enemies to be defeated

00:15:14.400 upon his physical final return would be death.

00:15:20.100 Dispensationalism, if logically pursued,

00:15:25.000 if the implications are logically drawn out,

00:15:28.360 dispensationalism would deny this.

00:15:32.340 It would insist that upon Christ's return,

00:15:36.660 that death will be laid in its grave,

00:15:38.740 that death will be defeated,

00:15:40.140 and all other enemies will be defeated likewise.

00:15:45.180 At worst, death will be defeated first,

00:15:48.660 and then the other enemies,

00:15:49.980 as he establishes his earthly kingdom,

00:15:53.320 in which place it would be the opposite of what Scripture says

00:15:56.400 in 1 Corinthians 15, that death is defeated last.

00:15:59.360 Or at best, not straw manning,

00:16:02.140 but steel manning the opponent's position,

00:16:04.140 at best you would have to believe that both death and every other enemy of Christ will be defeated

00:16:09.700 simultaneously. But what you cannot hold is that death would be defeated last. That death would be

00:16:16.500 defeated after a whole other group of enemies has already been defeated. And in that regard I do not

00:16:25.200 believe that the pre-millennial position is biblical. It is not heresy but I do not believe

00:16:32.100 that it is biblical. So all that being said, general promises. I believe that there is a

00:16:39.800 general promise given to the church, the people of God in this gospel dispensation, this church

00:16:47.580 age right now, right here, that we win, that we win down here. That doesn't mean we win every battle.

00:16:57.580 that doesn't mean we win in every generation that doesn't mean we win in every nation

00:17:03.980 but that there is a general promise not only that christ will return and that will win despite

00:17:10.840 a losing church but that christ will return for the kingdom to be handed over to the father

00:17:18.080 that there is a sense in which it will be complete upon his return not incomplete then

00:17:25.380 instantly made complete at his return, but that progressively Christ is doing it. It all belongs

00:17:32.500 to him. It's all his glory, his power, his doing, but Christ moving in and through his people.

00:17:39.980 Christ to his head of the church, working through his body here on earth, accomplishing all his will

00:17:46.720 on earth as it is in heaven, proving that the Lord's prayer was not assigned to us as an arbitrary

00:17:53.880 exercise, but that we were actually to pray for something that the Lord intends to answer

00:17:59.960 and that progressively throughout human history in this gospel age, that enemies will be in fact

00:18:07.240 subjected to Christ's feet. I believe that. And I believe that Roe is an example of that.

00:18:14.860 And I believe in a larger sense that abortion and all its hideous shapes and forms will prove to be 0.73

00:18:21.620 another example of that. That there will be a time where people will say, can you believe

00:18:29.080 that anyone ever thought that this was permissible, much less moral? And that that rhetoric,

00:18:37.960 that discourse will not just be the discourse of the redeemed after Christ returns, but in this

00:18:45.400 moment of history, before Christ's physical final return, that people here in this world,

00:18:51.200 in this gospel age would say abortion is hideous

00:18:55.160 and we will never ever allow it again.

00:19:00.160 I believe likewise it will be said socialism is hideous

00:19:05.360 and it will never ever be allowed again.

00:19:09.940 Communism, which I repeat myself,

00:19:13.300 but communism like socialism is hideous

00:19:16.040 and will never be permitted again.

00:19:20.000 One by one, enemies will be subjected.

00:19:24.080 Part of the proof of this is Isaiah chapter 65,

00:19:27.960 which says that no longer will the child die in infancy.

00:19:33.340 But it also says in the very same breath

00:19:36.140 that the youth shall die at a hundred.

00:19:39.600 The question that I would ask is this,

00:19:43.620 that when Christ finally returns,

00:19:46.400 at His physical final return

00:19:49.340 in the new heavens and the new earth,

00:19:52.140 does anyone die?

00:19:54.480 There are those, the reprobate in hell,

00:19:57.540 who shall experience the final death, 0.95

00:20:00.600 the eternal death,

00:20:02.100 cast into the lake of fire,

00:20:03.580 who die forever.

00:20:05.900 But will anyone physically die

00:20:08.220 once Christ has physically returned?

00:20:11.400 Once the new heavens and the new earth

00:20:13.220 are fully established in the age to come, do people still die? And the answer from Scripture

00:20:20.180 is an emphatic no, a resounding no. So Isaiah chapter 65 cannot be speaking of what life will

00:20:28.920 be like after Christ returns. It says no longer will a child die in infancy. That would include

00:20:36.180 abortion infancy in the womb and yet it also says that the youth shall die at 100 which means what

00:20:45.520 you're living in a time in real human history before the final physical return of christ

00:20:51.020 where people still die albeit later and that's meant to be one example and testimony of the

00:20:58.880 progression of christ's kingdom that now instead of people saying he died at 50 he was so young

00:21:04.560 that people should say he died at 100.

00:21:07.880 He was just a youth.

00:21:10.380 The youth shall die at 100.

00:21:13.780 You might say, that'll never happen.

00:21:15.380 Things have only gotten worse for 2,000 years.

00:21:17.720 Brothers and sisters, let's just, at this point,

00:21:19.560 it's not even theological.

00:21:20.720 It's simply just logical.

00:21:22.540 It was not that long ago

00:21:24.140 that if someone lived to be 50 years old,

00:21:26.840 we said, he's ancient.

00:21:29.480 I can't believe he made it to 50.

00:21:31.520 if someone died at 40 we said what a full life

00:21:35.680 and i'm not talking about a thousand years ago this was normative in every culture in every

00:21:43.400 place in every time until very very recently very recently and so we can already say that

00:21:53.240 there is a sense in which death is being pushed back even now it is the last of christ's enemies

00:21:59.800 to be truly and fully defeated.

00:22:02.720 But even now, through the advance of the gospel,

00:22:05.780 there are real, tangible, earthly implications.

00:22:09.700 And you might say, what do life spans,

00:22:11.860 human lifespans have to do with the gospel?

00:22:14.360 Everything.

00:22:16.540 It is because of the Christian worldview

00:22:18.820 and the gospel of Jesus Christ

00:22:21.680 that medicine has advanced.

00:22:24.700 Are there corruptions?

00:22:26.120 Yes.

00:22:27.240 Satan always seeks to take that which is good

00:22:29.780 and twist it and pervert it.

00:22:32.540 Is all medicine moral?

00:22:34.820 No. 0.99

00:22:35.720 I would never make such a naive and foolish claim. 0.93

00:22:40.840 But don't forget when that ambulance drives by 0.91

00:22:44.020 and you see a serpent wrapped around a staff on the side, 0.84

00:22:47.320 that is a reference to Christian faith. 0.96

00:22:50.980 That's not Islam. 0.62

00:22:52.420 That's not secularism.

00:22:54.220 That's not atheism.

00:22:55.660 that's Christ that Moses was to fashion a bronze serpent when the people of Israel because of their

00:23:02.720 rebellion were getting bit by poisonous vipers and dying and growing ill in the wilderness

00:23:07.580 Moses was instructed and commanded by God to fashion a bronze serpent and to secure it on

00:23:13.920 a staff and to raise it up hoist it up so that anyone in Israel who had been bitten by the

00:23:19.380 poisonous vipers in their midst if they were to look they didn't have to crawl to it they didn't

00:23:25.140 have to touch it. They didn't have to kiss it. They only had to see it, to look. And if they saw

00:23:33.500 this bronze serpent held up by Moses in the wilderness, they would be made whole. And so too,

00:23:39.780 this became a symbol of health and medicine in the West. Christian roots, Christian roots.

00:23:50.020 and this was ultimately not just a further medicine and a practical physical sense

00:23:56.240 but it was ultimately meant to be a symbol a type and shadow of Jesus Christ himself

00:24:02.460 that one eventually would be held up on a wooden staff a tree and that all who would look to him

00:24:13.420 not work for him not crawl to him not run to him not touch him but if they only would look with the

00:24:22.680 eyes of faith and see him that they would be healed of all their infirmities not mere infirmities of

00:24:31.660 this life in the physical sense but that they would be healed of that wretched eternal infirmity

00:24:38.100 of sin and that they would be spared the wrath of god if they would see him jesus says this even

00:24:47.700 of himself that i will be lifted up and draw many to myself and so the implications of the gospel

00:24:58.600 have gone forth in the spiritual eternal salvific sense yes and amen but always with the advancement

00:25:06.240 of that which is spiritual, if it is in fact true, there are tangible implications in that

00:25:13.980 which is physical. See, that's part of the problem with modern New Testament 21st century

00:25:23.100 Christianity is that we have so divorced the spiritual from the physical, the eternal from 0.59

00:25:30.900 the temporal. They were not even faithful to what the scripture teaches any longer. Again, not heresy,

00:25:40.340 but unbiblical nonetheless. I would argue, I know that this is controversial, but I think it matters.

00:25:48.120 I'm not just trying to make a statement to shock and all. I think it matters.

00:25:52.360 dispensationalism I believe will not kill you like poison in 15 minutes

00:26:00.720 but like jack-in-the-box three times a day it will kill you over 30 years

00:26:07.460 and if it's jack-in-the-box three times a day let's be honest maybe 10 15

00:26:12.000 not minutes still years but still dead

00:26:16.200 and i believe that not only can it do this i believe that we can prove from western history

00:26:25.380 recent history that it has done this that from darby and schofield over the past 150 years

00:26:34.420 in the west that the church has lost its potency that the church has in large part become in the

00:26:44.740 truest sense, pietistic. Piety, that is private practices of holiness like prayer and fasting

00:26:53.420 and scripture reading and study and generosity and alms to the poor. Piety, true piety,

00:27:00.080 is wonderful and biblical, commendable and commanded actually for all those who claim

00:27:07.860 to follow Christ.

00:27:09.860 But pietism, unlike piety, 0.99

00:27:12.940 is a cancer.

00:27:15.700 It may not be heretical poison

00:27:17.540 that will destroy within 15 minutes,

00:27:21.300 but it has been able to take down

00:27:23.700 entire societies in the West

00:27:25.920 over 150 years.

00:27:29.380 It has done this. 1.00

00:27:33.620 The Puritans would be

00:27:35.320 disappointed, to say the very least, in much of American evangelical theology today. 0.56

00:27:47.260 And the reason why I'm attempting to draw the correlation is because I want Christians to

00:27:53.500 understand that what we believe spiritually absolutely impacts our lives tangibly.

00:28:03.000 and to say anything otherwise is pietistic.

00:28:10.900 It is to pretend as though we're living on this higher plane,

00:28:17.060 but that none of our beliefs and none of our practices

00:28:20.880 have any effect in the real world whatsoever.

00:28:25.200 It is to render the gospel of Jesus Christ impotent.

00:28:29.340 It is to take all the commands and the principles of Scripture

00:28:34.100 and make them weak and watered down.

00:28:39.820 So we have general promises.

00:28:43.180 We do.

00:28:44.440 And not just the general promise of a cataclysmic renewing of all things by Christ,

00:28:51.940 But leading up to that point, a progressive, tangible victory of Christ through His church

00:28:59.580 in human history. That things will, one by one, enemies of Christ be defeated. And upon His return,

00:29:08.280 death will be the last thing defeated, not the first. Lifespans increased because of the Christian 1.00

00:29:16.260 gospel, while death is still occurring. One of the promises is that, again, Isaiah 65, 0.97

00:29:23.700 the infant shall not die. No longer, no longer shall anyone die in infancy.

00:29:32.340 And lifespans have now been increased so that we would say that someone was a mere youth

00:29:36.480 if they should die at a hundred. But take those two things and put them together.

00:29:40.900 the conclusion is simple

00:29:44.000 Christ is not yet in Isaiah 65

00:29:47.240 physically and finally returned

00:29:49.240 and laid death in its grave

00:29:50.600 because people still die

00:29:52.000 albeit at a hundred

00:29:53.340 but they still die

00:29:55.060 and yet infants don't

00:29:58.440 people still die

00:30:00.040 but infants don't

00:30:03.240 that infant mortality

00:30:05.280 I believe this

00:30:06.560 I believe it

00:30:07.860 not because I've been wearing tinfoil on my head

00:30:10.660 this past week, I believe it because the Bible teaches it, that infant mortality will be defeated

00:30:18.020 before Christ's final return. And that means, brothers and sisters, infant mortality in every

00:30:25.540 shape and every form. That through medicine, technological development, children will no longer

00:30:36.220 die in infancy. I think even of the Canales, that because of advancements in modern medicine,

00:30:47.060 your child is alive and well. Praise God. And as a church, let's continue to pray for the Canales

00:30:54.820 daughter. She was born 10 weeks early, Kevin. Is that right? It's not that many years ago,

00:31:02.920 not at all, that if that had happened, the child would be dead. Praise God for the advancement

00:31:10.780 of medicine, which all of that has been accomplished on the back of the advancement

00:31:16.080 of the Christian faith. And if you doubt that for a moment, look to the world and the places where

00:31:23.060 there's the least advancement in medicine, where there's still the most prevalent diseases, many

00:31:29.260 of them that could be commonly overcome. Look to the places with the most sickness, the lowest

00:31:35.420 lifespans, the lowest poverty, the most corruption, and try to find the common denominator. I'll clue

00:31:46.480 you in. The common denominator is not people of color. The common denominator is nations that had

00:31:56.680 not been touched by the Reformation. Whiteness is not the Savior. Jesus is. And it just happens 0.98

00:32:07.940 that in God's sovereignty, he predominantly worked within Western European countries that

00:32:15.120 happened to be white. And if we continue to harden our hearts in rebellion, well then 500 years from 0.74

00:32:24.640 now Western European nations will be in utter disgrace as we're fairly close today. And those

00:32:32.140 nations with which fear the Lord will be exalted. And right now the trajectory looks like nations

00:32:39.440 with a little bit more melanin. And God will do it just to humble the proud and exalt the humble.

00:32:49.100 He does it with individual people and he's done it with societies. This is the nature and character

00:32:53.920 of god you can take it to the bank so nations with less corruption

00:33:00.560 nations with a better legal system with more prosperity with all these different things

00:33:09.000 and with longer lifespans are nations that were touched and impacted and shaped by the reformation

00:33:18.840 so the general promise i believe for us today is that we win and we win down here

00:33:30.460 because christ wins and he has chosen to win through us

00:33:36.000 here are some general promises that we don't have we don't have a general promise that america

00:33:44.240 will last. We know that the church will, and we should pray and work and give it everything we

00:33:50.740 got that America would as well. But we don't have a promise in Scripture that America will endure.

00:33:57.320 The replacement of Israel under the old covenant is not America. The replacement of Israel is the 0.83

00:34:04.660 church. The church. And the church will endure, and again, as I've already said, not merely endure, 1.00

00:34:11.860 but expand and increase so we have a general promise that we win but we don't know we don't

00:34:21.840 know if in this place at this time with whatever particular battle is before us in this moment

00:34:29.440 if we win on that front

00:34:31.780 and so just as the people of israel as they come up against jericho they had a general promise

00:34:43.040 that the lord would be with them and that they would conquer but they didn't know precisely

00:34:50.220 what that might look like joshua it seems he did but whether or not he gave to israel all the

00:34:59.460 particular assurances he had been granted from the angel of the lord jesus himself the text does not

00:35:06.720 disclose to us and so i believe again the relevant principle as it pertains to you and i christians

00:35:15.100 the new testament church today is this obedience is better than pragmatism

00:35:22.040 think of the people of israel and joshua says all right we've crossed the jordan river

00:35:30.760 we've renewed the covenant with the lord the covenant that your fathers forsook by their

00:35:37.300 unbelief and rebellion in the wilderness but you now have been circumcised and you now have

00:35:44.560 partaken of the Passover meal the Lord he is your God and you are his people and it is now time for

00:35:53.820 him to fulfill his promises to your father Abraham Isaac and Jacob we're going to take the land and 0.99

00:36:02.780 we're going to start with the juggernaut right in front of us that is Jericho one of the greatest 0.92

00:36:08.460 fortified cities in all the land of canaan and the people of israel we might only assume would

00:36:15.660 respond by saying great how are we going to do it and then joshua says we're going to go for a walk

00:36:23.860 a long walk and we're going to do it for seven days and on the seventh day we're not going to

00:36:33.700 walk less. We're going to walk seven times more. And then we're going to give a great shout unto

00:36:40.620 the Lord, and he will bring for us a great victory. I mean, obviously, this would be difficult to

00:36:52.320 believe. Let me put this into very clear terms. On the anniversary of Roe being overturned,

00:37:01.860 And you might say a law, a bill being passed and turning into a law that would say abortion at any time, not just a heartbeat bill, not just at six weeks or eight or 10 or 12, but abortion at any time from conception.

00:37:25.800 and that being fertilization, not implantation.

00:37:30.740 Abortion in a clinic or abortion by a potion and pill

00:37:35.120 in any time, in any way, is murder.

00:37:41.800 And not only will we give a slap on the wrist 0.69

00:37:44.260 and a fine to the hit man, that is the abortion doctor, 0.76

00:37:49.020 but the woman who conspired to murder her own child

00:37:52.700 will be treated in the same fashion with equal penalties, giving equal protection,

00:38:00.440 therefore testifying to equal value of the life of the unborn, she too will be condemned as a

00:38:08.240 murderer. But there are not two victims, but only one. And if a man pushed her to it, well then he

00:38:15.520 would be condemned as a murderer. And there are many today that would say a bill like that

00:38:22.440 It just won't work.

00:38:25.800 I'm sure that there were many who were tempted to say

00:38:28.500 in the day of Joshua,

00:38:30.300 walking and shouting won't work.

00:38:34.480 And they were wrong.

00:38:38.400 Ordinarily it wouldn't work

00:38:39.880 unless you've received a divine ordinance from God.

00:38:45.720 If you're coming up with this idea on your own,

00:38:49.720 if you're saying,

00:38:50.580 we're going to take out Jericho by going for a walk for seven days and then shouting and that's

00:38:56.080 your idea then you're going to be put to shame but if it's God's idea and he explicitly tells you

00:39:05.000 that it's his idea then you don't do what you might deem as being pragmatic

00:39:12.100 instead what you do is you obey you simply obey and in that regard brothers and sisters it's no

00:39:22.080 different jesus has not met with me in the way that he met with joshua all right that would be

00:39:29.840 just another example i give you guys some clues from time to time if you ever hear me say something

00:39:34.180 like that then that's another time where it's like all right let's sing send them out to pastor

00:39:37.680 you know not to pastor but pasture like he's he's done he's done if he's saying he met with

00:39:43.860 Jesus face to face he's done so I'm not claiming that but here's the beautiful thing Jesus met

00:39:49.320 with Joshua but but for you and I he wrote a book he wrote a book we have this book and the book

00:39:59.000 tells us what is just and what is right and the book also tells us what is an abomination to the

00:40:05.300 lord what he detests one of the things that god hates is unequal weights and scales and an example

00:40:14.080 of unequal weights and scales would be to say that if you murder your five-year-old child in a back

00:40:19.960 alley that you would be treated for homicide but if you do it five years and one month prior

00:40:27.580 that you're actually not only penalized,

00:40:32.960 but you're actually heralded and esteemed

00:40:35.800 as a victim who has survived your difficult trial.

00:40:42.160 That, brothers and sisters, is not an equal weight,

00:40:45.700 equal measure, equal scale.

00:40:49.440 And I understand the sentiment.

00:40:52.360 I remember hearing this all the time.

00:40:54.580 that america won't change through legislation but through heart transformation

00:41:04.500 and you can't argue with a statement like that because after all it rhymes

00:41:10.020 and when it comes to infallible truth spoken from the pulpits of evangelical churches in america

00:41:18.540 rhyming seems to be the highest standard. And if a pastor rhymes, then it can't be wrong.

00:41:26.400 But then you look at some of the statistics. 16,000 homicides in America annually.

00:41:34.800 But over the past 49 years, an average of 1 million abortions. And those just being the

00:41:42.880 ones that are recorded, not dealing with early abortion through pills. 16,000, 1 million.

00:41:53.840 And I can't help but think that the drastic difference between those two numbers might

00:41:59.880 have something to do with the law. It seems as though that the heart of man, desperately wicked

00:42:08.800 as it is in need of heart transformation? Yes. In need of the gospel? Yes. But that even for the

00:42:15.840 sinner whose heart is not transformed, that he may be deterred, not in his inward intentions 0.94

00:42:22.180 and wickedness, but in his outward actions of wickedness, that those outward behaviors that

00:42:27.800 are evil may be deterred by certain penalties. It seems as though people will gravitate towards

00:42:36.060 whatever particular crime is legal and therefore not a crime. 16,000 homicides, 1 million abortions.

00:42:48.580 And since the overturning of Roe and certain individual states, putting laws into play,

00:42:57.500 much more work to be done to be sure, but putting certain laws into play, abortion has gone down

00:43:04.420 in certain states. Tragically, it has gone up in other states. 0.86

00:43:11.600 And so the battle is not even near to being over. But the point is this, that legislation does matter.

00:43:21.140 That laws actually do. Just laws curb evil. Just laws curb evil. Not evil of the heart.

00:43:30.860 only the gospel can do that but it does curb evil that is insofar as evil's outward manifestations

00:43:41.020 and that matters and to be a christian who says that it doesn't is to be a pietist of the highest

00:43:50.320 order it is almost to deny the faith paul says that if a man does not care for the members of

00:43:57.840 his family, even of his own household, he is worse than an unbeliever and has denied the faith. So

00:44:04.640 too, a man who would say that there should be no motivation or incentive or desire or work towards

00:44:12.340 laws that might curb evil in the external behavioral realm, that would be in many ways

00:44:21.100 equivalent to a man who says, I do family worship with my children every day. I just don't feed them.

00:44:27.840 well we want to say what a spiritual guy you should be an elder of the church

00:44:33.180 well if we're to obey scripture and agree with paul inspired by the spirit we would say

00:44:38.040 you're actually going to be excommunicated from the church there are pagans who who are better 0.53

00:44:47.300 than you. And Christian faith has tangible results. Christian faith has fruit that's visible,

00:45:02.920 witnessable. And it comes about, this fruit, through obedience. It doesn't come about by

00:45:13.680 Israel saying to Joshua walking and shouting makes no sense it won't work

00:45:22.160 it's too bold the normies aren't ready for that kind of rhetoric they can't handle it this will

00:45:30.200 never pass it'll never work you got to be a little bit more winsome you got to be a little bit slower

00:45:36.620 you got to kind of coax people along and maybe we can have a law like that down the line no no no

00:45:42.060 no, just obedience, just obedience. So if God says, walk and shout, you walk and shout.

00:45:52.000 And if God says in his law word, which he has equal weights and equal measures,

00:45:58.320 then it's equal weights and equal measures. What the penalty is for those who have been born is 0.98

00:46:04.500 the penalty? For those who are unborn. The logic is simple. It's three very simple steps. Equal 0.66

00:46:14.860 penalty. That's the only way that you can claim there are equal protections. And equal protections

00:46:22.760 are the only way that you can argue equal value. You cannot, as a Christian, say, I believe the

00:46:31.900 child in its mother's womb is just as valuable as any other human life, but I will not equally

00:46:37.560 protect it. I won't. That would be the equivalent. If we were to take that into any other realm of

00:46:48.440 society, it would immediately be condemned and rightfully so. But that would be the equivalent

00:46:53.900 of saying, you know, if you kill a Hispanic person, life for life, you get the death penalty. 0.99

00:47:04.300 But if you kill a white person, you get a $4,000 fine. And then to turn around and say, 0.99

00:47:13.240 Hispanics and whites, our nation believes that they're equal. Would anybody believe that? 1.00

00:47:18.820 no of course not we have declared open purge season on one group of people

00:47:29.340 and it's not a particular ethnicity despite the popular rhetoric from progressive leftists

00:47:37.840 now the only group of people that it's okay to mistreat is those people which have not been born

00:47:46.380 and that should be rectifying and the walls of roe falling in our nation is one step towards

00:47:58.620 rectifying that but the final thing that i want us to see in our text today is this

00:48:04.780 verses 17 through 21 and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the lord for

00:48:12.400 destruction only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she 0.98

00:48:18.620 hid the messengers whom we sent but you keep yourselves Israel from the things devoted to 1.00

00:48:25.160 destruction lest when you have devoted them you take any of those devoted things and make the 0.85

00:48:30.640 camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it but all silver and gold and every

00:48:37.600 vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So

00:48:44.360 the people shouted and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the

00:48:50.260 trumpet, the people shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat. So the people, notice this,

00:48:58.340 went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted

00:49:05.860 all in the land to destruction both men and women young and old oxen sheep and donkeys with the edge

00:49:13.620 of the sword the final application for our text today I've already alluded to it but to drive it

00:49:21.320 home I believe there are at least two applications the personal individual application as it deals

00:49:29.800 with indwelling sin for the Christian who is still in the process of being further and further

00:49:36.600 sanctified, but also sin at the societal level, sinful laws, and sinful external behaviors such

00:49:47.820 as abortion. I've written the following. It is not enough to obey God in part. The people of Israel

00:49:55.440 witness God's deliverance of victory over their enemies. But notice this. But they were then

00:50:02.040 expected to secure that victory by putting all the inhabitants of the city to death.

00:50:09.580 Too often the people of God are content to merely subdue sin rather than mortify it. We cry out to

00:50:17.060 the Lord, trust in his promises, witness his powerful deliverance, but then allow our sin

00:50:23.000 to live. We are satisfied to capture sin, but unwilling to deliver the death blow. Instead,

00:50:31.560 we make provisions for the flesh, as John Owen would say, so that sin might still be available

00:50:37.640 to us at some later time. That's the individual application. For you, brothers and sisters who

00:50:47.140 are in Christ saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone we are called as Israel was

00:50:54.480 to follow up on God's deliverance to follow up on God's victory when God saved you

00:51:05.800 he removed a heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh I believe that conversion can be

00:51:14.080 likened to the walls of Jericho falling down. But Israel was then not commanded to merely march,

00:51:23.880 shout, watch, and rejoice. Now Israel, as they were rejoicing with the walls falling down,

00:51:33.000 was called to further obey. Not just obeying to the point of the walls collapsing,

00:51:39.940 But then the next wave of obedience, pursuing the enemy and our case, that being indwelling sin and pursuing it all the way in conversion.

00:51:54.580 God has caused the walls of stone to collapse.

00:52:00.360 That is justification, salvation in the initial sense.

00:52:06.160 But in sanctification, we are to run down every single thought

00:52:13.340 and take it captive, to make it obedient to Christ Jesus.

00:52:19.500 We're not meant to be merely content with the initial wave of salvation,

00:52:25.060 with the stony heart being removed and the heart of flesh coming in its place.

00:52:31.500 But we are to pursue all indwelling sin.

00:52:36.160 to every crevice,

00:52:37.960 to every rock which it might be hiding under.

00:52:41.980 Not so that we might merely capture it,

00:52:45.500 subdue it,

00:52:47.160 imprison it,

00:52:48.780 but to mortify it. 0.93

00:52:50.760 To put sin to death.

00:52:54.200 That's the individual application 0.88

00:52:56.480 as it pertains to Christian.

00:52:58.780 Justification, conversion, 0.95

00:53:00.860 that's the walls falling down. 0.99

00:53:03.200 But the lifelong process of sanctification, mortifying sin, that's like Israel then going 0.92

00:53:12.800 into the city after the walls had collapsed to put each of the Canaanites to the soil, 0.91

00:53:19.920 following through, not just being content with an initial victory, but securing the victory. 1.00

00:53:27.440 You know what I'm talking about.

00:53:30.600 Sin is common to man.

00:53:32.600 Therefore, I know you know what I'm talking about.

00:53:35.760 There have been certain sins, I have no doubt, in your life,

00:53:39.700 which you have had moments of brief, short-lived victory.

00:53:45.980 What we might even call windows of grace.

00:53:50.600 Where you cried out to the Lord.

00:53:52.280 You knew that you were a slave in a particular area.

00:53:55.280 You had little victory over that particular sin. You needed a miracle, like a shouting to God and

00:54:03.880 stone walls falling down miracle. And the Lord in his mercy granted that miracle. And you experienced

00:54:13.000 at least for a moment, for a season, as long or brief as it may have been, victory over a particular

00:54:20.180 sin, in a particular area where previously you had been held bound for years. And some of you

00:54:28.020 have stayed free and some of you have not. And I present to you that perhaps one of the reasons

00:54:38.020 for those of you who have not stayed free is because although you cried out to the Lord

00:54:45.020 and He caused the walls to initially collapse,

00:54:48.940 you didn't follow through.

00:54:51.560 You made, as John Owen, the late great Puritan,

00:54:54.860 once said, provisions for the flesh.

00:54:59.120 That you asked the Lord to give you victory over lust,

00:55:03.280 for instance.

00:55:05.260 But you still allowed certain things in your life

00:55:09.000 without accountability.

00:55:10.040 like allowing certain members of the house of jericho to live that initially conquered they've

00:55:20.100 retreated for a moment but you're allowing them the opportunity to rebuild and to tempt you at a

00:55:26.140 later time we must be ruthless with sin i don't have time today to get into the conquest of israel

00:55:37.960 and putting both young and old to the sword. 0.89

00:55:42.100 It was just and holy and right

00:55:44.500 because God commanded it.

00:55:46.560 And God is just and holy and right.

00:55:50.780 The ethics are sound

00:55:52.500 because God said so.

00:55:55.680 And God's right.

00:55:57.420 God is true.

00:55:58.960 And every man a liar by comparison.

00:56:02.820 So that's all the time I have

00:56:04.420 to explain why it was permissible 0.96

00:56:06.400 for Israel to put them to the sword. 0.97

00:56:08.320 But I will say this 0.74

00:56:09.480 in terms of application for us.

00:56:12.520 With the same ruthless 0.97

00:56:14.360 diligence that Israel displayed 1.00

00:56:18.520 in putting every inhabitant 0.99

00:56:20.740 of Jericho to the sword, 1.00

00:56:22.640 so too we must have 0.57

00:56:24.320 that same ruthless attitude

00:56:26.540 when it comes to our sin.

00:56:30.780 Do not treat your sin with mercy.

00:56:34.800 sin has no mercy for you so give it no mercy do not be compassionate with your sin it will have

00:56:46.920 no compassion for you sin will pleasure you for a time but in the end it is bitter

00:56:56.300 and it will expose you and shame you

00:57:01.300 and bring you to ruin.

00:57:05.020 Sin hates you, so hate it back.

00:57:11.320 I've found in my own life, not as a pastor,

00:57:13.960 but merely as a Christian,

00:57:15.240 I have never been able to kill the sin

00:57:18.100 which I did not hate.

00:57:21.140 And I've never been able to truly

00:57:23.200 and sufficiently hate a sin.

00:57:25.080 until I've come to see how much that particular sin hates me

00:57:30.300 and all those that I love.

00:57:35.100 Being a husband now and a father

00:57:37.420 has helped me to see truly the vile, sinister nature of sin.

00:57:45.300 Sin, as it turns out, not only hates me and seeks to destroy my life,

00:57:50.500 but it seeks to destroy my family.

00:57:53.580 The greatest potential enemy of my family

00:57:56.360 isn't the progressive liberal out there.

00:58:00.800 They are a danger and a threat, make no mistake.

00:58:04.640 But the person who could most easily destroy my family is me.

00:58:11.640 And so because I love my family,

00:58:14.640 I must hate my sin for the threat that it poses.

00:58:19.580 and ultimately because I love my savior I must hate the sin which nailed him to a tree

00:58:28.660 it is not enough to be converted to initially repent the life of the Christian as Luther

00:58:38.820 argued is a life of ongoing continual repentance and that's what it was with Israel it wasn't

00:58:48.000 just that initially they miraculously crossed the Jordan, renewed the covenant, and the stone walls

00:58:53.340 of Jericho fell. But they then began, not just in the instance with this one particular city of

00:58:59.500 Jericho, but with all seven tribes in Canaan. Progressively, over time, incessantly, continually,

00:59:08.700 they had to drive them out. That's what sanctification is. Sanctification is a lifelong

00:59:17.260 process that you will not finish until you stand before him and you see Christ as he is face to

00:59:25.540 face. Lifelong process of ruthlessly hunting down sin and putting it to death. So yes, let's fight

00:59:37.320 the culture war. But if anyone desires to fight the culture war as a substitute for fighting his sin,

00:59:47.260 His own sin, in his own heart, in his own life, in his own family, he is a hypocrite. 0.98

00:59:55.320 You must do both. 1.00

00:59:58.300 You must do both.

01:00:01.540 So at the individual level, the walls of Jericho did not only fall, but upon them falling, 0.79

01:00:09.500 Israel did not just celebrate and rejoice, but they pursued the enemy unto death.

01:00:15.160 so too at the individual Christian level in your conversion initial repentance initial victory and

01:00:21.720 deliverance over sin in part do not just celebrate celebrate to be sure but do not only celebrate

01:00:30.460 but pursue rejoice in your justification and pursue sin unto death in sanctification

01:00:39.060 and at the corporate societal level don't just let us rejoice today this lord's day

01:00:46.940 in the one year anniversary of the falling of roe but pursue one state at a time one bill at a time

01:00:55.200 and not through pragmatism doing what we think might work but according to obedience

01:01:02.760 and what God says will work.

01:01:07.300 Hashtag abolitionist.

01:01:09.700 Let's pray.

01:01:11.120 Father God, thank you for your word.

01:01:13.480 Thank you for the truth.

01:01:15.280 Help us simply to obey.

01:01:18.300 The results belong to you.

01:01:20.340 The general promise is that you win

01:01:23.540 and you win not despite us losing down here,

01:01:27.460 but you win through us winning,

01:01:30.460 ushering in your kingdom pushing for the crown rights of king jesus but in the progressive

01:01:38.820 long-term winning of this war there will be for the people of god many individual battles lost

01:01:45.660 some of us may be martyrs some of us will lose battles that we hoped so desperately to succeed in

01:01:55.740 but your general promise remains the same and regardless of the result our job is obedience

01:02:04.400 to what is written

01:02:05.820 the hidden things the secret things belong to the lord to you but that which you have revealed

01:02:16.200 belongs to us and our children forever so let us bind them and tie them on the mantle of our

01:02:23.660 door place. Let us recite them and tell these things which are written, that is your law,

01:02:31.120 your precepts, your commands to our children in the morning and in the evening. But let us not

01:02:37.120 be like a man who merely hears your word, but then does not obey. Like a man who looks into a mirror

01:02:43.560 and sees his reflection, but then when he turns around at once forgets his appearance. But rather

01:02:49.580 let us be like those who hear, who recite the signs as Eustace and Jill Pohl did, but then also

01:03:00.820 obey. If we know your law, recite and memorize and meditate upon your law, but we do all this

01:03:11.260 without obedience and we only increase our guilt before you that we know and yet still did not

01:03:21.260 obey so father give us sharp minds to know your truth but give us soft hearts to obey your truth

01:03:30.420 even when it seems that it is not pragmatic even when it seems in practical ways to be the opposite

01:03:39.300 of what would bring about success.

01:03:43.300 Walking and shouting didn't seem like a winning strategy.

01:03:47.160 But if your word has said it,

01:03:50.760 then we should obey it.

01:03:53.300 Help us to obey your word.

01:03:54.840 For your glory, for our own individual good

01:03:58.120 as we fight against indwelling sin,

01:04:00.520 for the good of our homes, our households and families,

01:04:03.820 and for the good of our nation,

01:04:06.260 for the good of society.

01:04:09.300 We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - June 25, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Roe Is Dead： Why The Church Must Celebrate & Secure The Victory ｜ Joshua 6_6-21

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