Gooding, David: 1 - The Captain of Our Salvation

Thank you, sir, for those kindly words of welcome. I should just like to explain to visitors that the demolishing of the old hall was nothing to do with my preaching. But being with you today revives in me the most vivid memories of your kindness to me in those days, now seemingly so far off. I particularly remember a series of studies that we did together on the Levitical offerings. They remain still deeply etched in my memory. So it is a delight and a great pleasure to be with you, and I trust to renew acquaintance and to make new friends in these brief days that we have together. I have myself just come back from meetings in Austria. I bring you the greetings of your fellow believers from assemblies both in Salzburg and in Graz. It has been a pleasure to be with them and to see how God is working. The assembly in Salzburg, not itself, I suppose, more than eight or nine years old, just, uh, last Sunday or the Sunday before, hived off because in those eight years, God has so blessed them that they were reaching nearly the hundred mark in their membership, so that they have hived off happily, and now there is a new assembly in Helline. These are young people, for the most part, between twenty five and thirty five. God is working among them and among their unsaved relatives. They send you their greetings, and they ask for your continued prayer on their behalf. Now, tonight and in the coming nights, we are to be thinking together in the book of Joshua. So shall we refresh our memory of some of its contents by reading at some length in its pages the book of Joshua, beginning in chapter one and verse one. Now it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Chapter three and verse seventeen. And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all Israel passed over on dry ground until all the nation were passed clean over Jordan. Chapter four, verses ten and eleven. For the priests which bear the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over. Chapter eight, if you will, please. Chapter eight, verse twenty five. And all that fell on that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not back his hand wherewith he stretched out the javelin Until until. he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Verse thirty. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones, upon which no man had lift up any iron. And they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And he wrote there upon these stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests, the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as the homeborn, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded that they should bless the people of Israel first of all. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them. Chapter uh ten, if you will, please. Chapter ten, verses twelve to fourteen. Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jashar? And finally, from for the moment, some verses from chapter eleven. Chapter eleven, verse uh fifteen. And the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. Verse eighteen. Joshua made a long, made war a long time with all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took all in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses. Verse twenty three. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord spake unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land had rest from war. God give us good understanding of his holy. Greatly daring, I have proposed that in these coming evenings we study together the book of Joshua. I say greatly daring because I know it in my heart that all of you have long since been experts in this happy portion of God's holy word. Why, Joshua is a favorite book, is it not? Ever since the infant sees his pictures of the tumbling down of the walls of Jericho. Scarce anybody, save the newest of converts, but what doesn't know all about the book of Joshua? Nonetheless, it is sometimes the familiar things that speak loudly to our hearts, do they not? And in days of turmoil and stress, prove once more their comfort and their assurance. Indeed, you know, right from the earliest centuries, the Christians loved the book of Joshua. Justin Martyr, for instance, could be taken as an example of many, for the early Christians who spoke Greek soon observed that the name Joshua in the Hebrew of the Old Testament was the equivalent of the name they had come to love so dearly above all other names, the equivalent of what in Greek is Jesus. And with an irresistible urge and an instinct taught by the Holy Spirit, they came to see in the histories of Joshua pictures and shadows and types and prototypes of the glorious things that their greater than Joshua had done for them. We shall not be far wrong in the cor- if in the course of these evenings we take it so ourselves. I bid you sit back a while, even if sometimes the going will be a bit tough. I bid you sit back a while and prepare yourselves to enjoy this glorious spectacle, this marvelous exhibition, these beautiful prototypes of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. What else have we, my dear brethren, if we haven't Jesus, our blessed Savior, and his so great salvation. He is the, not only the author and finisher of our faith, he is the captain of our salvation. And if I have it right, that lonely night, at least lonely for Joshua, when he stood in the dark, the semi-darkness, awaiting the attack on the formidable walls of Jericho, and lifted up his eyes and saw, and there stood a man with a sword drawn in his hand. And he went to him, you remember, and said, are you for us or against us? Neither, said that glorious man. I'm come as captain of the hosts of the Lord. We pause in our speaking and our studying at this point. Oh, my brothers and sisters, as we read these ancient stories about how the great captain of salvation appeared to Joshua, let each one of us prepare our hearts. Who knows, by his grace, that before we have finished these studies, that glorious captain of our salvation shall fulfill his promise once more that he gave us when he left, saying, I will not leave you comfortless, I come to you, even this night. Oh, shall we not believe his promise, that if we re- as we read this book of Joshua and think of him, our greater than Joshua, our great God and Savior, the captain of our salvation. Shall we not believe his promise, and we too shall sense him near us? Come as captain of the Lord's hosts. But if the very name of this book suggests it is going to be about our Savior and our salvation, we rightly inquire at the beginning, do we not? What aspect of our salvation shall it speak to us of? The answer is clear. It will speak to us about our great and measureless Inheritance. inheritance. Joshua, as we notice, is the great leader that brought Israel across Jordan, defeated all their enemies, brought them into their inheritance, and distributed it to each one. How wealthy we shall feel as we study this book, and it talks to us about our great inheritance. We shall feel like giving thanks to the Father, surely, who through Jesus Christ, his son, has delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love, and has made us sufficient, has made us meet, has qualified us for partaking in the inheritance of the saints in light. So particularly, as we study the first half of the book, shall we be thinking of the Savior, and how, and on what conditions, and by what ferocious battle has he brought us into our inheritance? But even as I say that, I'm aware that perhaps nestling in your mind just at this moment is a question of interest. And now, what is this preacher going to tell us about our great inheritance and the land of Palestine in particular? Is he going to fall into the trap of saying that our inheritance is in heaven? Let's test him out. Well, I, I was actually thinking of talking about our inheritance in heaven, you'll say too, yes. You'll say, why not? Because Peter does, doesn't he, in his first epistle in chapter one? He says, we've been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. We are in process of being kept by the power of God as we journey through our desert in great anticipation of entering our heavenly inheritance. Of course I'm going to talk about our inheritance reserved for us in heaven, and haste the day, my brothers and my sisters, when at last we shall be there. And not only, of course, our inheritance in heaven. As we read the story of Joshua, how he brought Israel into the land of Canaan, it is child's play to observe how many battles had to be fought, not only by Joshua, but by Israel themselves. And that, as the theologians have reminded us, properly tells us that there is an inheritance for us now, into which we already enter. As Paul tells us, for instance, in the letter to the Ephesians, we have been raised with Christ. We are at this moment seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Thank God our Joshua has already brought us into our inheritance. We sit with him in heavenly places. But then again, as Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter six, there is fighting still to do, is there not? And just as Israel, when they entered Canaan, must fight constantly, so we too, though already we sit in the heavenly places in Christ, we too must learn to fight, or we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, mights, and dominions, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. So then, this book is going to talk to us about our blessed Savior. It is to talk to us about our salvation. It is to talk to us in particular about that great inheritance into which the Lord Jesus has brought us. The early questions that the book will raise is how did Israel get into this inheritance? And similarly, it will ask us the questions, how and on what terms did you get into your inheritance? And here, perhaps we need to go slowly in our thinking, because Joshua has been a book much talked about, has it not? And very frequently people have found in Joshua exceedingly helpful lessons that run a little bit like this. Now you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, like the Israelites were redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb. Now you have an inheritance given you, as Israel had an inheritance given them in the Promised Land. And the lesson of Joshua, so some say, is that now you must really strain every nerve to make sure you enter into your inheritance. The inheritance has been given you, but you must be like Caleb, that fine old warrior of Israel, who fully followed the Lord and at the age of eighty plus was still chasing giants off his inheritance. You must be like that. You must not be content to be saved, to be redeemed, to be justified, to be sanctified. Now you must press on, as Paul tells us in Philippians three. Press on for the prize, possess your possessions, and however gray and hoary the beards of the giants that face you, you must learn to fight them, to enter practically into the joy of your personal spiritual inheritance. And you'll know, I'm sure, that there's a great deal of truth in all those lessons, else they wouldn't have been preached, would they? And I suspect that the second half of Joshua concerns itself precisely with those things. But if we would keep our minds clear and not get ourselves confused in the first half of the book, we shall have to observe exactly what the first half of the book is about. It is not about how did Israel develop their inheritance. Important that wa- as that was, there was a prior question, and that was this. How did they ever get into the Promised Land anyway? You see, our good friend Caleb, once he got in, well, he felt it was very simple. All you had to do was to run down the road, climb Mount Hebron, chase the giants out. Well, that's simple to Caleb, you see. But there's always a prior question. Before Caleb, uh, could chase the giants off his inheritance, he had to get into Palestine, didn't he? And pray, how did he manage to do that? The first half of Joshua is going to be, therefore, this elementary story, glorious nonetheless. How did Israel get into the inheritance, and on what condition? How and by what battles, tactics, and strategies did the great captain of their salvation bring them into their inheritance, so that having been brought in, they might subsequently develop their own particular themes. And here we must notice an important historical thing. The conquest of Canaan, so we gather from the books of Joshua and Judges, was in two separate stages. We mustn't confuse the two with each other. The first phase of the kingdom, uh, of the conquest is what we shall be talking about in these studies, for the most part. The second phase tells how when the land was conquered, the tribes separated and went each one to its own inheritance that had been given them by the Lord. And when Judah had taken his inheritance, then the individual Judahites went and captured the towns that lay in their part of the country and settled down in them. That was the second phase of the conquest. The first phase was very different. The first phase that occupies the first thirteen chapters of the book is the phase in which Joshua led the combined armies of Israel and led them all round Palestine, breaking the power of the opposition. At that stage, you remember, no tribe was allowed to settle down into its inheritance. Chapter one of the book of Joshua reminds us that the two and a half tribes that had been given territory to possess on the east side of Jordan were reminded by Joshua of their duty. Now look here, he said, you two and a half tribes. I know Moses has given you territory, and that's your inheritance already on the east bank of Jordan. But as Moses commanded you, I'm expecting you to obey his command and to keep your promise. You are not to settle down in your inheritance. You are to keep together with the main armies of Israel for as long as it shall take for the combined armies of Israel to go the length and breadth of the land, and as a combined army to break the power of the opposition. That first phase, of course, was exceedingly important. You just imagine what would have happened if the moment they had crossed Jordan and destroyed Jericho, the two and a half tribes had gone back to their inheritance east, and Judah had said, I want to settle down in Jericho, and that left only about six or seven tribes to keep the battle on. And suppose that when the six tribes got nor- got south and they defeated the southern confederacy of kings, then three or four more tribes have hived off and said, we're going to settle down now, goodbye to the rest of you. It would have been a pitifully weak army, wouldn't it, that would have tried to march north to confront those sophisticated and very powerful Canaanites that resided in the northern cities. It would have been, in fact, suicide to attempt it. The only hope of victory lay in the very fact that they didn't try to possess their possessions, but kept together. And when they destroyed Jericho or destroyed Ai, the Ai, they didn't try to settle down. They had to keep with Joshua and the united armies, and first of all, break the power of the enemy within the land. That was the first phase. And when it comes to its end, at the end of chapter twelve, it is written that the land had rest from war. And then, and only then, did the second phase begin. Begin. As we think of that, therefore, I ask us to put this entry into Canaan into its larger historical context. What is it that Joshua is doing? And why is it so tremendously significant? Why, the answer is this. Way back in the book of Genesis in chapter fifteen, we read how God made a covenant with Abraham. He promised Abraham that he would be given a seed, a posterity. And Abraham believed the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. The good man was justified by faith. Then, in the very next breath, God promised to give him the land of Canaan as an inheritance. Way back there, hundreds of years before Joshua, God made his covenant. And Abraham was there to watch in his vision as the Lord made that covenant and solemnly walked through the pieces of the covenant victims in order to sign, settle, and seal the divine promise that God would give Abram and his seed an inheritance in the land of Canaan. Said God to Abraham in Genesis fifteen, as he made the covenant, now Abram, I shall not be giving you this land yet. Your posterity shall go down to a foreign country. We now know it was Egypt. They shall be slaves in that foreign country for four hundred years. After that, I will bring them out, and then I shall bring them in to the land of Canaan. I'm not doing it now, Abram, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So Abram knew two things, didn't he? One day in the dim and distant future, his posterity would come into their inheritance. Their coming into that inheritance would coincide with the solemn judgments of God upon the sins of the Canaanites. You know, this is now nineteen eighty eight. We've got a vested interest in all this, haven't we, you and I? Ah. When we read that God promised to Abraham and made a covenant to Abraham and to his seed that they should be heirs of this great inheritance, we can't help remembering what the New Testament tells us Christians, can we? For instance, in the epistle to the Galatians in chapter three, Paul tells us this wonderful thing, that we too, like Abraham, have been justified by faith. Now, there were some people in that part of the world that had begun to teach the believers that faith was not quite enough for justification. In addition to faith in the Lord Jesus, if you would be justified and remain justified, you had to be circumcised after the manner of the law of Moses. And Paul wrote this great epistle to the Galatians to show to those early believers how ruinously false that false teaching was. You cannot add one work as a condition for justification, but what you have ruined the whole of the gospel. So Paul reminds them, how was Abraham justified? He was justified by faith, long before the law was given. But in order to prove to us that our justification is by faith, Paul in his chapter three to the Galatians proves that certain other things are by faith as well. And what a delightful cavalcade of blessings they are, aren't they? They are the blessings of Abraham to come upon the Gentiles, says Paul. And not content with that, he talks about the promises made to Abraham, and therefore us, they are for us Gentiles as well. We begin to feel wealthy. And not content with that, and he says, you know, that covenant too, that glorious covenant that God made with Abraham, that's yours as well. And it is yours as well on the very same principle as justification itself is. Shout hallelujah, my brothers, because I'm about to tell you and remind you of the extent of the inheritance. Don't look so glum. Goodness me, yours is an inheritance that none could measure, be ye the mightiest archangel of God. And surely you're interested in the question, upon what terms do I inherit it? And Paul is writing in his third chapter to the Galatians to tell us on what terms we inherited. He says now, adopting the frame of a learned lawyer, you'll see, says, you know, when a covenant, a will, or an agreement has been signed and settled, uh, you can't alter it, can you now? No. You see, and he says, if you look at the covenant where God promised Abraham this inheritance, it was made to Abraham and to his seed. That's all. And you can't go adding in names once the thing is signed, sealed, and settled, can you? I mean to say, when your Aunt Sophia dies, we hope she doesn't do that just yet, but when eventually she dies, we'll say at a hundred and two, and the lawyer invites you to come to his offices to hear things of interest to you, and he sits there with his half specks, and he reads the will, you'll see, and uh, your Aunt Sophia has left all the following things, her townhouse, her country house, her ocean-going rock, some consolidated shares, some preference shares, and not a little bit in the bank, her antique furniture, and so forth. And she's left them to Mary, George, and William. And when the lawyer is finished, you say half a minute, uh, uh, uh, uh, Mr. Lawyer, um, uh, you've forgotten something. He says, I think not. Yes, you say you have. What is that? Well, my name. My name isn't there. Uh, and who are you? Well, I'm Josephine. Oh, glad to know you, Josephine. Uh, uh, but your name isn't in the will. You say it must have been because I know my Aunt Sophia, and she would have put me in the will. Well, he says it's not here. You say, well, you add it then, my boy, you add it on, because I'm sure it's meant to be on. What do you suppose the lawyer would say? Well, my dear, I can't afford to do that. I should be in jail. Once a will has been drawn up, signed, sealed, and settled, you can't add any names to it as beneficiaries under the will. And to Abraham was a covenant made for this great inheritance, and, and, you say his seed and Joe Smith. No, I'm sorry. No, to Abraham and his seed was the covenant given. What hope for us then, that we ever should be heirs of that great inheritance. Paul tells us the secret, doesn't he, at the end of that chapter three, He says, you see, if you have been baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ. It obliterates all other distinctions. For all who are in Christ have put on Christ. And if you are Christ's, therefore, and totally covered, so to speak, by Christ, then are you Abram's seed and heirs according to the promise. Oh, clap your hands, all you trees of the wood, and sing for joy. If you are Christ's, then are you Abram's seed? And therefore heirs, according to the great covenant of Genesis fifteen. Perhaps you find that, as some of my friends do, a little difficult. You'll say, but really, that's all very worthy, but that original covenant referred to the land of Palestine, my good Mr. Preacher, and will have you know that really we are not interested in the land of Palestine, you'll see. We belong to the church, and because we belong to the church, our portion is a heavenly portion, you'll see. And wouldn't it be just a little bit carnal, perhaps a bit worldly minded, if we, whose portion is with the Lord in glory, in the heavenlies in Christ, were to be troubling ourselves with a few acres in the Middle East. Ours, you say, is a heavenly portion. Well, I'm glad to hear it, and so is mine as well, you see. I suppose I belong to the greedy. I don't know. I, I, I want heaven. I want the other as well, you see. As for it being a little bit worldly to be interested in Abram's inheritance in the Middle East, let me put one question to you. That great inheritance was promised to Abraham and his seed, and that seed is Christ. Tell me, is Christ interested in the inheritance? Or shall we find Christ one day saying, but look, I'm not interested in that down on that earth. Whereabouts is it? Oh, I, I have all heaven. I'm not interested in that bit of land in the Middle East. Well, of course not. Shall not the blessed Lord Jesus reign from shore to shore? Not one square centimeter on the whole expanse of the planet, but what one day he will claim it as his. And when he comes into his great inheritance, my brother, my sister, by his superb and illimitable grace, I too shall inherit with him. And don't you be so sure it'll just be a few acres in the Middle East either. You'll see, for Paul deals with this theme again, doesn't he, in the Epistle to the Romans in chapter, uh, uh three it is, four, sorry, chapter four of the Epistle to the Romans. And there Paul again arguing that justification is by faith, argues to prove that, that the bigger thing is by faith as well. Not only justification by faith then, but the inheritance by faith. So we've got two things and not just one. And then he says in Romans chapter four verse thirteen: for not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect, but it is of faith. And perhaps you say, we've caught you out now, Mr. Preacher, trying to play the lawyer there minutes ago, but you obviously show you're unqualified. For now you are saying that the original covenant that said that Abraham and his seed would inherit certain square miles in the Middle East, in the land of Palestine, now you're saying it's nothing less than the inheritance of the world. Well, yes, I'm saying that because Paul says it. You'll say, well, that contradicts your other principle you, you said a minute ago, that when a covenant is signed, sealed, and settled, you can't add anything to it. Now you're saying that somehow it has got added to, and what was originally the land of Palestine has somehow increased to the whole world. How come, Mr. Lawyer, how come? Well, first of all, I didn't write it, so the fault isn't mine. But you see, I was a bad lawyer, wasn't I? When s- I said you can't add anything to it. You can't add any other conditions, not once it's signed, sealed, and settled. And you can't add any other names once it's signed, sealed, and settled. But you can, if you want to, extend the benefits, can't you? Of course, if you want to add conditions and whatnot and names, then you'll have to write the codicil, but that will cost you a lot from the lawyers. I advise you not to do that, you'll see, you'll see. But the original will, no extra conditions, no extra names, but you can, if you like, when you come to interpret it, say, well, the garden shed meant the garden as well. You can extend the benefits. And unashamedly, God does it. Here's in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter four. the promise to Abram and his seed that he shall be heir of the world. Nothing less than that is the inheritance to be offered. And given us, not by law, but by grace, through faith. And for this cause it is of fa- uh, uh, uh, uh, says Paul, for this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the same. And I, for one, am grateful for the assurance, you'll see, for the more it begins to dawn on my little mind, the vast dimensions of my inheritance in Christ. When he comes into his inheritance and the Father gives him the uttermost parts of the world for his possession, then thank God I, the once-time spiritual bankrupt, shall inherit it with him, heir of God, joint heir with Christ. And on top of it, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, so that when this little world and the galaxy it's in disappear, however many new galaxies there will be in the new world, and however many heights of heaven there shall be to be explored, when Christ inherits it, we shall inherit it with him. And as my little mind begins to perceive it, then, you see, if it weren't for this assurance, I would get nervous. I would say, well, if it were only a little thing, perhaps I could be sure of it, but that enormous inheritance, can I really be sure? And I hear the answer of Paul, to this end, it is by faith that the promise may be sure to all the seed. It seems to me, therefore, that as we begin the book of Joshua, we must keep this and other scriptures in our minds from the New Testament very firmly. First half of the book of Joshua deals with the question, how did Joshua get the Israelites into their inheritance. How did he break the back of all opposition so that they could go in? By what wonderful miracles of strategy and divine intervention were Israel empowered to enter their inheritance? And the second half of the book will deal with their individual possessing of their possession. It may help us, therefore, at this moment, if we take once more the, uh, the promise that God made to Abraham, Genesis fifteen, when Abraham was justified by faith and then under covenant given the land as an inheritance that one day his posterity would possess. Now God told them the program, not at once, first of all, Abram's posterity must go down to Egypt and there be persecuted, and after four hundred years come out. They would come out, of course, as we now know, through Moses and the glorious Passover lamb and the redemption by blood. They would be brought out of slavery by Moses then. Moses too would lead them through the wilderness. Moses would lead them to the very borders of their inheritance. But there was something even Moses could not do. Moses could not bring them into their inheritance. You see the drama of it, don't you? And if there had been only Moses, then Israel never would have got into the land, and the great promise of God would have remained unfulfilled. Oh, my brethren and sisters, I bring you a gospel message now resounding from the pages of the Old Testament. What Moses could not do, that Joshua did. Ah. Yes, and I can see it on your faces. You've lost me now, haven't you? You've been running across as hard as you can go to the New Testament to find another verse that matches it. Yes, of course, I knew I was speaking to the experts, of course. And you say, yes, yes, my boy, we know that, of course, Romans chapter eight. for what the law couldn't do. Moses could not do, in that it was we through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Oh, praise God for this lovely book that talks to us about the captain of our salvation. What the law of Moses could not do, that our blessed Joshua has done. If you would see the full, uh, import of it, let me once more take you aside for a little lesson in history, you'll see, and the way the New Testament quotes the Old Testament. And first of all, I take you to a slightly different case that you will find presently it will serve us as a good analogy and example. Abraham was promised a son, wasn't he? Genesis fifteen, the promise given as earlier. Then in chapter sixteen, Abraham got it into his head that he ought, he and Sarah together, to help God along, who was, uh, dragging his heels a little bit. So Abram and Sarah set themselves to help God along, and they imported Hagar, the slave girl, and by her Abram begat Ishmael. Hagar, while she was still with child, fled from Sarah, but the angel of the Lord sent her back into Abram's home, did he not? And mighty uncomfortable the ensuing years were, because Ishmael proved, as the angel said he would be, to be a wild ass of a chap. And so the scenes in Abram's tent, along with Sarah and Ishmael and Hagar, were very unpleasant some Monday mornings over their marmalade and toast. And, uh, there he had to stay. Yes. Until in chapter twenty one, we read in the first paragraph that the promised seed at last was born. First paragraph, I say, chapter twenty one tells us that Isaac was born, and the second paragraph tells us, at that point, God, who sent Ishmael and Hagar back into Abram's tent, now gave command, and Hagar and Ishmael were turned out. Genesis twenty one. With the coming of Isaac, the promised seed, Ishmael turned out, and in chapter twenty two, the promised seed was sacrificed, wasn't he? And in chapter twenty four, God began that new movement out of the Gentiles, taking a bride from the Gentiles for Abram's son Isaac. That much we know as mere a- as sheer history in the book of Genesis. When Paul comes to comment on it in the epistle to the Galatians, he says as this, you know, if we are justified by the law, by by faith and not by the law, and if our inheritance is by faith and not by the law, what serves the law then? Says Paul, it was added until the promised seed should come. And now Paul is not merely thinking of the Genesis story. Abraham to Isaac, with Ishmael in between. Now Abraham starts again, uh, Paul starts again at Abraham, and he stretches the history until the coming, not of Isaac, but of the seed, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord, and observes how God put Israel under the law from Sinai onward until the promised seed should come. So the promised seed in the first level was Isaac, says Paul, but yes, by natural deduction, of course, and implication, the promised seed was Christ, for Christ was Isaac's seed, and he was Abraham's seed as much as Isaac was. On that same pattern, let me tell you how Israel came to their inheritance. God promised it to Abram. Then came Moses. And Moses got them as far as the border of the inheritance, could get them no further until Joshua brought them in. Ah, but you say Joshua, yes, Joshua. Good man, Joshua, wasn't he? But, but doesn't Hebrews three and four tell us, Hebrews four chapter 8, that Joshua didn't really give them rest, did he? Even when he died, there were still enemies, uh, remaining. And not only that, Canaan, for all that it was the land of rest for Israel, was only a prototype of a bigger rest. And by the Psalms, says the writer to the Hebrews, God is already talking of another bigger rest for Israel. What God calls my rest. And it still remains, says the writer, because Joshua's rest in the little land of Canaan wasn't the final, wasn't the ultimate. At best, it was only a prototype. The rest is the great rest of God. You're saying, how do we get into that? By the law of Moses? Well, no, sir. We'll start with Abraham again. And the rest was promised. Moses couldn't bring them in, nor indeed did Joshua bring them into the final rest, did he? There came another Joshua, Jesus, his blessed name, and he brings us into rest. Oh, what marvelous things are in God's great gospel. This great captain of our salvation, he offers us rest. We who have believed do enter into rest, both here now and eternally. That, my brothers and sisters, is what I conceived the first half of the book of Joshua to be about. And just to sum up our meditations, let me briefly remind you now, from the passages we read, that when Joshua rode up to take Israel into the land, he had before him, as is evident from the history, three great objectives. All of them, of course, had been commanded by Moses, but as I repeat, Moses could command it, Moses couldn't achieve it. What Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. First objective. Why? Listen to God talking to Joshua. Says God to Joshua, Joshua, Moses, my servant, is dead. Then so what? Give up? Abandon the whole scheme? Why, certainly not. Moses, my servant, is dead. Rise up and take this people into their inheritance. Some, some responsibility, surely. For as chapter five of the book of Joshua reminds you, that Moses had had an, had a, a, a, an attempt to get Israel into their inheritance, had he not? You'll read of it in the book of Numbers, chapter fourteen. Moses brought them up at the bottom, at the south end of the land of Palestine, and tried to get them in. And they sent spies in, you know, and spied out the land. Ten of the twelve spies came back, and they said, oh Moses, how could you have misled us like that? I mean to say, Moses, they said, you know, if we had known the inheritance was going to be like that, Moses, well, we wouldn't have bothered to leave Egypt, Moses. This is terrible, Moses. We don't want to go in. And they talked to making themselves another captain and returning to Egypt. Curious, wasn't it? Do you think anybody will ever arrive at the doorstep of heaven, put his nose across the door and look in, and decide that, after all, he doesn't want to go in? You don't? You think anybody that saw heaven would like to go in? Anybody that heard the conversation of in heaven would be delighted, yes? Um, I see. Uh, what if God in heaven started to talk, uh, you know, like Ezekiel talks? What would you say? I didn't come to heaven to hear this. I mean, even on earth, I didn't think much of Ezekiel. I mean to say, dry dust all stuff. God isn't going to talk to us about that in heaven, is he? Would you want to go in still? We have to be realist, don't we? And Israel, getting to the inheritance, point blank refused to go in. And so Moses had to lead them back, and instead of going up through the south, they had to go round, and they went down into the valley, and they had to cross over and come up the east side of Jordan. So that when Moses died, they were in a far more difficult position than ever. For when they came up through the south, there was no river to cross. Now there was Jordan, and Jordan at flood tide. Sure, there were fords, but you can't bring a whole army of thousands of troops across fords. And to step into that river when it was at the flood, when you couldn't see where the banks were, was to invite chaos, stampede, and disaster. What Moses couldn't do, ah, that Joshua did. All hear the triumph of it, as we shall consider another night, what a miracle of God's grace it was. When Israel was forbidden to arise and keeping their distance watch the ark of the Lord, upon which sat the transcendent Lord Creator, and with open eyes and open mouth they watched the very Lord of heaven and earth. Go down into the waters of Jordan and make a way for them through its waters into their inheritance. How lovely are the words three times over repeated, that the ark stood on the depths of Jordan until all Israel were passed clean over Jordan, and Joshua got them in, every one of them. Oh, thank God with all your heart, my brother, my sister, for this blessed Lord, Lord of heaven and earth, who went down into the dark waters of death to make you a passageway into your great inheritance, and he stood there until your passage through was made possible and guaranteed. The blood of Christ shall not lose its power till all the ransomed saints of God are saved to sin no more. This I shall find, for such is his mind. He'll not be in glory and leave me behind. And tonight you sit already in spirit beyond death itself, don't you? Raised with Christ, seated with Christ in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Objective number one, get them into their inheritance. Objective number two. You will notice what objective number two was if you listen carefully to the history. When Israel under Joshua had destroyed both Jericho and Ai, they didn't thereupon attempt to destroy any other cities. Leaving all the other cities, they made a beeline through the hills and brought the whole people to Mount Gerizim on the one side and Mount Ebal on the other. What for? Why? Because Moses had commanded them that when they got into the land, they should take the people to Ebal and to Mount Gerizim, stand them there. They were to build an altar of unhewn stone. They were to plaster the stones. They were to write out the law on the plaster. And then assembling the people, the Levites were to pronounce the blessing of God on the people in general. Then they were to recite the blessings of the law, and at each blessing the people would say, Amen. And then they were to cite the curses of the law, and after each curse the people were to say, Amen. Objective number two, establishing the law in the land of Canaan, I, uh, Canaan, so long under the grip of the most perverse sinfulness and filthiness that you could imagine. Wasn't just to get Israel into the land, therefore, second objective, to install and enforce the law of Moses within the land. Moses, my servant, is dead, says God. That doesn't mean that you forgot his law. Moses commanded they should establish the law thus in the land of Canaan. Moses couldn't do it. And here comes our text again, doesn't it? Oh, you see, we're not justified, uh, by the law, we're justified by faith. We don't get into our inheritance by keeping the law, we get there through faith. But once you're in your inheritance, brother, what is the scheme? That we forget the law and its demands and live like the old Canaanites did and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness? God forbid. Once into our inheritance by faith, then listen to it. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in them who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Second big objective. The first to get them into their inheritance. The second to get the law established within Canaan. And what Moses couldn't do, that Joshua did. And the third big objective, to destroy all the kings, the principalities, the powers, the mights, and the dominions that ruled Canaan and would oppose Israel's settling into the land. Moses had told them they were to do that. He was good at telling people what to do. After all, it wasn't in Moses' world. I expect you to have noticed it. He told them that they were to do that too. They were to destroy all these principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. And then he went home to heaven without doing it himself. Dear, dear. But what Moses couldn't do and didn't do, that, of course, uh, Joshua did. There was the case, you know, of the Gibeonites who got converted and joined Israel, and then the southern confederacy of kings came against them to attack not Israel, but the Gibeonites. And when that happened, God himself threw down stones from heaven to destroy the enemy and fought for the Gibeonites. And Joshua fought to them, and as the enemy were running away, and Joshua thought they were going to escape, Joshua stood there and lifting his eyes to heaven, he said, Sun, stand still, sun, and you, moon, you stand still. And the sun hasted not to go down, and the moon stayed still in her place until the very last enemy was destroyed. Then came the great northern confederacy of kings. Moses had commanded they should be exterminated. This time God had no grounds for showing mercy. He hardened their hearts, and foolish people, they now for the first time, the Canaanites, armed themselves, banded together, and came and fought against Israel and Joshua. Their end was destruction. Way up in those parts of Israel where Armageddon one day shall be. They point us on not merely to Calvary, but to the day yet to come. When the beast and his armies shall arise and fight against the very lamb, and the lamb shall overcome, And God will grant his people rest, says two Thessalonians, chapter one. Oh, what a lovely Savior. You know I ought to be stern, surely, and and bracing myself for the great contest of entering into my inheritance, but I can't resist the temptation now and again to sit back and positively revel in the great glories of God's salvation. I'm sure you will allow me so to do, and perhaps join me in these coming days in the story of our great God and Savior, the captain of our salvation. For he has given us rest, and he will one day give us final rest. And we sing to him in our hearts at this very moment, joy that comes when he is near, the rest he gives, so free from fear, the hope in him so bright and clear is more than tongue can tell.