Gooding, David: 3 - Movement Two: Establishing the Law

Let us begin our study in the book of Joshua, and read at some length, so we may be able to understand the very serious lessons that are now taught us in the second movement of this book. And we begin in chapter six, verses sixteen to nineteen. Joshua six, verse sixteen. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And the city shall be devoted, even it and all that therein is, to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, in any wise, keep yourselves from the devoted thing, lest when you have devoted it, ye take of the devoted thing. So should you make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are holy unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. Verse twenty six: And Joshua charged them with an oath at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. Chapter seven, verse one. But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted thing, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the devoted thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. Verse nineteen: Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession unto him. Tell me now what hast thou done? Hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Of a truth I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonish mantle and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekel shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent and the silver under it. And they took from the midst, took them from the midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel, and they laid them down before the Lord. Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them up unto the valley of Achor. Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day, and the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Arcor, the Valley of Trouble, unto this day. Chapter eight and verse fifteen: And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them. And they pursued after Joshua and were drawn away from the city. There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that went not out after Israel, and they left the city open and pursued after Israel. The Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand and entered into the city and took it, and they hasted and set the city on fire. Verse twenty four: And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned unto the city Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword. And all that fell 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 he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Verse twenty nine. and the king of Ai, he hanged on a tree until the eventide. And at the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took his carcass down from the tree and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones unto this day. 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 the 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. The Lord give us good understanding of this solemn part of his holy word. Throughout the first three movements of the book of Joshua, there are two things that the historian will not allow us to forget. The first of them is that as Joshua led the armies of the Lord over Jordan and into Canaan, two things were happening simultaneously. Certainly, Israel were being led into that inheritance that had long since been promised to them by God through Abraham. But simultaneously with their being led into the inheritance, the judgments of God were to fall on the Canaanite cities, even as God had warned in that very same promise given to Abraham. Therefore, this morning, we shall have an interest in asking ourselves, how and on what condition would Israel now into the land across Jordan inherit their inheritance? And secondly, how and on what condition would Gentiles, sinners of the Gentiles, like Rahab the harlot, prove the truth of God's promise that in Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed? Bless. The second consideration that the historian will not allow us to forget is that in each of the three movements that Joshua was commissioned to lead, there was a very well-defined objective. Yesterday we saw how that the first objective given to Joshua was rise up and lead this people across Jordan. An objective that Moses himself had commanded but was not able to perform or achieve. But an objective that what Moses could not do, that Joshua did. And the first movement comes to its resounding climax, as the Holy Spirit records time and yet again, the ark stayed in the bed of Jordan until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Praise God for objective number one achieved. Moses had commanded that when Israel got into the Promised Land, they should betake themselves to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. There they should build an altar. There they must erect stones. There they must write out the law of God upon those stones in the sight and reading of all the people. There they were to assemble the tribes, half of them on Mount Gerizim, half of them on Mount Ebal. Assembling the tribes, they were to read in their ears the blessings that would come to them if they kept the law of Moses. And all the people were to answer with one thundering voice, Amen, amen. Then they were to read the curses that would accrue to Israel if they were to break the law of Moses. Once more, as each disobedience had attached to it its appropriate curse, and the people heard the fearful words of the curse of the law of Moses, all the people were to answer with one united, thundering voice, Amen. So be it. As their voice comes reverberating to us down the centuries, echoing around the hills of Pennsylvania, I imagine your knees begin to wobble a little, or a certain faint feeling appear in the pit of the stomach. Just wait a minute now. If objective number two is the establishment of the law of God in Canaan, just wait a minute, and let's try and get it clear. Is Joshua saying that the inheritance of Israel, long promised to them by, by God through Abraham, depends on their keeping of the law? And although we are not Israelites, but more like those sinners of the Gentiles, and Rahab in particular. We too have a vested interest, haven't we? In discovering whether Joshua is or is not teaching that the coming of the blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles is dependent upon those aforesaid Gentiles keeping the law of Moses. What is the truth of the matter? Perhaps, however, I ought to spend the odd minute and a half convincing you that you have a vested interest in the topic. Of course, I readily recognize that none of you have been Rahabs, but then you are sinners of the Gentiles, aren't you? And there is, as Galatians chapter three reminds us, that early promise in the book of Genesis, that in Abram and in his seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And I'm not forgetting, of course, my brothers and my sisters, that you being now saved sinners of the Gentiles and belonging to the church, have an heavenly inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that it fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. And yet it seems to me that you have or should have a vested interest in this ancient historical problem. That bit of territory in the Middle East, covenanted by God to Abraham and to his seed, have you no vested interest in it? For, uh, Galatians chapter three, if I have read the argument aright, runs something like this. Here is Paul arguing with argument closely marshaled after argument that justification, of course, is by faith. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But not content to argue that justification is by faith, or rather not being content simply to argue it on the ground of Genesis fifteen verse 6, and Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. In chapter three of this epistle, Paul br- uh, brings, adduces certain other arguments. Consider, my brethren, says he, not only the initial thing of justification by faith, but consider all those other blessings that were promised to Abraham. What about, for instance, uh, the inheritance? And what about the covenant? And what about all the promises that were made to Abraham? On what terms were they made? That great inheritance promised to Abraham in chapter fifteen. Oh, I do admire the man's practicality. Oh, dear old Abraham, I'm having a word with him when I get home to heaven to know what it was like on the occasion and how he felt, like the modern reporters ask everybody, how did you feel when this was said to you? I'm going to ask Abram. That day when God came to him and said, Abram, you're going to have a son, and Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. And God said, and now Abram, you see the land north, south, and west. I'm going to give it to you and your seed for an inheritance. And with that alacrity of a genius, he turned around and said, thank you very much, but incidentally, how do I know that I shall inherit it? And God made a covenant that day with Abram in the old-fashioned method of making a covenant, didn't he? He didn't get out his parchment and sign with black nor red ink, nor have it witnessed by a solicitor. The ancient way of making a covenant was to take covenant animals, slaughter them, lay the pieces in two rows, and the people who were party to the covenant had to walk between the two rows of the pieces of the victims. If both parties had something to fulfill in order for the covenant to come into operation, then both parties walked between the covenant pieces. If only one party had something to fulfill, then only one party walked through the covenant piece. It's a device, of course, we have our counterparts nowadays. In our country, at least, I don't know how you do it in yours. If you decide to have a little thing of a holiday ranch, you'll see, up in the mountains, you go along to the builder and you say, I would like a little holiday ranch. If it could have six bedrooms, it would be convenient, four bathrooms and an outside swimming pool. Plus, I should like a few acres to stretch my, uh, elbows in, and a garage or two, and a gazebo. Now, uh, would you build me, uh, such a holiday ranch? And the builder says, yes, of course I would. And, uh, what would you charge? And he says, two and a half million dollars. Very good. You get your architect to specify all the materials and the details. He tells you what the price of it's going to be, and you come to your agreement. I don't know how you do it, but in our country we would sign various kinds of contracts. And when the contract was drawn up, the builder would sign the contract because he has conditions to fulfill. And then you would sign the contract because you have a condition to fulfill. He builds the house, you pay the money, and if either of you break the terms of the contract, the contract becomes null and void. Yes? That's what we call a two-party covenant. There are other kinds of covenant, of course. There's a covenant that you might call a one-party covenant. In Britain, we call it a will. One of these days you get a, a, a long-looking envelope in the post of the door, and when you open it, its solicitors grab them and make peace, and they inform you that your unheard of Auntie Matilda has died in the far west, up in the mountains of America, and she's left you a mountain ranch with the aforesaid description. Plus a lot of shares and preferential stock and a few ocean-going yachts and possessions in the Bahamas. And you say to the learned solicitor, and what have I got to do to come into this inheritance, my good man? I pay you, I pay you ten dollars to make sure. No, he says, you don't have to pay me anything. You'll see how, let me read the will again, and he puts on his glasses and reads it very learnedly. No, there's no condition attached. No, it's all yours if you want it. You say, how can I be sure of that? Well, he says, you'll see this is a will. It's duly witnessed and signed. You say, I wasn't there. That doesn't make any difference. I didn't promise to fulfill any condition. That doesn't make any difference either. Your Aunt Matilda, in the sheer grace of her heart, has left you her estate. She had a will made, it's signed, sealed, and settled. If you want the inheritance, you can take it free, gratis, and for nothing. You say, really? Don't I even have to look after her pet poodle? And if I fail to look after her pet poodle, should I lose the inheritance? And the solicitor looks again, he says, there's nothing here about keeping pet poodles. I'm sure your, your Aunt Matilda would like you to do that, and if the gratitude of your heart you decide so to do, well, that's marvelous. There's no legal condition upon you. Of course, says the solicitor, if you don't want it, you can reject it. You don't have to take it, my man. But if you want it, it's a free gift. So says Paul in the course of his argument, my brothers, my sisters, justification is by faith, Paul now s- points out that the inheritance also is by grace through faith. For the covenant that God made with Abram and his seed, that he should be not merely heir of Palestine, but according to Romans four thirteen, that he should be heir of the world. How and when was it made, and according to what kind of a covenant? There is no doubt about it. When the covenant victims were drawn and quartered and laid in two rows, and the parties came s- to walk through the pieces solemnly to bind themselves to keep that covenant. Abram did not walk through the pieces. He was in fact fast asleep anyway. But on that solemn day there appeared the furnace and the bright light of it, and a lamp that walks between the pieces, as God Almighty solemnly made a one-party covenant of his sovereign grace, pledging utterly on the grounds of faith and grace to give the inheritance to Abraham. So not only justification, says Paul, but the inheritance is by grace through faith. And not only to the Jews either, but that the blessings of Abraham might come upon the nations. The gospel foreseeing how it should be done, preached the gospel before to Abraham, saying, in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And finally, Paul comes to his masterly conclusion by arguing the legal side of the case again, doesn't he? The covenant, he said, was made with Abram and his seed. He saith not to seeds as of many, but seed, which is Christ. And here I must trouble you with another legal observation. If, uh, your brother George accompanied you to the solicitor to read the will of your Aunt Matilda. And when the solicitor read it, she left the house to you, the garage to you, the cars to you, the launch to you, the Bahamas to you, and all her preferential stocks and shares to you, and you said, thank you very much. Then George piped up, and where do I come in? And says the solicitor, who might you be? Well, I'm George. Oh, yes, George. Well, what do you want to know? Well, my Aunt Matilda would have left me something, I'm absolutely sure of that. Uh, what, where do I get? I mean, read out now what's coming to me. The solicitor puts his glasses on again and reads, of course, uh, uh, George? What? Sorry. There's no George here. Oh, you say there must be. Well, there isn't, he says. Well, you say, you must correct that, Mr. Solicitor. Put my name in. Oh, but you can't do that kind of thing, says the solicitor. Once a covenant is signed, sealed, and settled, that's the end of it. And the covenant was made to Abram and to his seed. You mustn't add any other name to the covenant deed. And you weren't Abram's seed by any chance, were you? Your nose is the wrong shape. So, however, will you inherit what was promised to Abraham and his seed, you sinners of the Gentiles? Now hear the wonderful mystery. How the gospel, how God could preach the gospel aforetime to the very Gentiles, that in Abraham and his seed all the nations of the earth should be. As many of you as have been down in Jordan and come up the other side, as many as you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And you're in Christ. And if you are Christ's, then are you Abram's seed? Because you're in him who is Abram's seed, and you are heirs according to the promise. Oh, praise God for his magnificent and indescribable grace. On what terms then do you inherit it? Have I not convinced you that you have, or at least you ought to have, a vested interest in these chapters in Joshua? To us, with the judgments of God raining down upon Jericho and Ai. On what terms may sinners of the Gentiles like Rahab be saved alive and with Israel enter into the inheritance? On what terms shall Israel hold it? As we listen to the blessings and then the curses of Moses' law pronounced on Ebal and Gerizim. Will that mean that we could forfeit the inheritance? Some believers have seriously thought so, haven't they? They have said that justification is by faith, eternal life is by faith, all thereafter is conditional, and if believers do not behave themselves, they will not inherit with Christ. Some have taught that during his millennial reign, true believers will be cast out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. For, they say, the kingdom is conditional. What is the truth of the matter? And so we come back to our book of Joshua. These are long passages, and I shall be able to do no more than stimulate your thinking about them. Have patience with me. When the judgments of God fell upon the city of Jericho, they proved to be extraordinarily severe. More severe than on any other city in the whole of Canaan. For whereas in all those other cities, the people were executed, Israel was allowed to take to herself the spoil of her enemies. But in the case of Jericho, a ban, a curse was pronounced upon the city of such severity that the whole city had to be devoted to the Lord. Men, women, and children were executed, and even the material riches and wealth of the city, the gold, the silver, the brass, the copper, and the valuable clothing. These things too were devoted to the Lord and put into the treasury. The ban was of such severity that Israel were warned in the very moment when they were going through the walls into the city to execute the judgments of God. That if Israel themselves dared touch anything and take it to themselves, Israel also would fall under this ban, this curse. The judgment is so severe that we must try, perhaps this morning, to come to terms with this judgment. This, then, was its first severity. Let's understand it as clearly as we can. Everything to be devoted to the Lord, not in our modern English sense, but in the old Latin sense of the word devovio, devoted. That is every person, everything had to be set aside for the Lord. Meaning thereby, set aside to the judgments of the Lord, and therefore to be executed by the officially appointed agents of the Lord. As the operation was about to begin, Joshua was in his tent the evening before, when looking up, he saw a figure approaching with his strong sword in his hand. Going forward to the figure, he said, are you for us or are you against us? And the exalted figure replied, neither, Joshua. As captain of the Lord's host am I come. Pray, who was that figure? Was he surely who one day stood in Nazareth and said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor? And got as far as the quotation when it talked of the acceptable year of the book, and then closed the book. For the very, very next phrase was, as we know, the day of vengeance of our God. But here was a point in history when the pre-incarnate Son of God came, captain of the hosts that would execute the judgment of God, the double-edged sword being drawn and in his hand. Terrible judgments though they were, we may come to trust him who taught us God is love, as he takes to himself the divinely given charge to execute the judgments of God. Devoted then, set aside to the judgments of God. Severe in this, as I say, that if any Israelite so far forgot himself or allowed himself to be overcome with covetousness and took anything that was under the curse, he himself became cursed and under the sentence of being devoted to God. Third, so thirdly, when Jericho was destroyed, Joshua pronounced a curse upon Jericho if anybody should rebuild it. How should we come to terms with this very severe judgment? Well, not by trying to diminish its severity, nor the holiness of the God who ordained it. But perhaps it will help us to notice where this kind of judgment is mentioned in the New Testament, and in what connection. The Hebrew word for devoting people in this sense to the judgment of God, the noun is cherem. The Greek translation of that word is in the noun form anathema, your minds will move quickly to the New Testament, won't they? It occurs, of course, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, if anybody love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. But the most prominent place of its occurrence in the New Testament is, of course, that epistle to the Galatians from which I have been reading to you. And it may profit us to turn now to that epistle and notice first those two occasions and the context in which this terrible judgment is pronounced. Here is Paul, Galatians chapter one verse six: I marvel that you are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel, which is not another. Only there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preach unto you any gospel other than that which you received, let him be anathema. Here then is the place in the New Testament which preeminently above all others pronounces the exact same kind of judgment as fell upon the city of Jericho. And having observed that, let's spend another three or four minutes going through our Galatians, for we know our Galatians well, don't we? And ask ourselves the simple question, are there any other parallels between the epistle to the Galatians and this particular movement, chapters five to eight of Joshua? There are, aren't there? Though what their significance is may keep us engaged thinking for a long, long time. Let me list just a few of them. When Achan was eventually discovered and his sin brought to light, and he was out there in the middle before the tribes of Israel, Joshua addressed him. Achan, he said, why have you troubled us? Did not God warn us straightly that if any one of us, going against his judgment and his curse on Jericho, tried to salvage anything that God himself had cursed in that city, he himself would come under the ban, and he would trouble Israel by trying to salvage something from under the curse of Jericho. Achan, he said, why have you troubled us to bring a curse upon us? And there they stoned him with stones till he died. They are solemn words, are they not, that stand in the early verses of Galatians chapter one? I marvel, says Paul, that you are so soon moved away from the gospel. How can it be, unless it should be, that there are those who trouble Trouble you. you. And in chapter five he says, or is it six? I would that they be cut off who trouble you. And already we can begin to see the connection, can't we? What were they doing to trouble the believers in those Galatian cities? Well, precisely this, that whereas Paul had preached that the inheritance was utterly by faith, these were coming along and trying to salvage something out of a system that God had now cursed. They were teaching the believers that in order to inherit and to keep hold of your inheritance, you must be circumcised and keep the law. But how can it be? For as Paul himself put it in chapter three, all those who are under the law are under a curse. All right for you, my brother, if you can stand on Mount Gerizim and honestly say to God, God, I take your blessings on the ground. Amen. I take your blessing on the ground that I've kept all your law. Well, carry on, my brother. But those of us who know we haven't kept it, freely admit that we deserve its curse. Be we sinners of the Gentiles like Rahab, be we sophisticated Pharisees like the Apostle Paul, circumcised the eighth day and is touching the righteousness of the law, blameless, yet when he woke up, discovered he was an incorrigible sinner. And under God's curse, not merely the harlotry of Rahab, but the religiousness of Saul. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and fallen under the curse of the law. To try and salvage a religious right like circumcision, and to bring it into Christianity, and make justification and the inheritance depend on circumcision and the keeping of the law of Moses is to do what and to trouble Israel. It wasn't only that he troubled Israel, was it? Joshua said to the man, my dear good man, why ever did you do it? Well, he said, I, I, I, I, I, I saw this wedge of gold, you see, and I saw this silver and that beautiful Babylonish garment, and I was being ever such a good Israelite when I found I coveted. And I tried to stop coveting, and I couldn't stop coveting. And sin revived. Yes, says Joshua, and I tell you what, you better die too. Well, it would make your legs shake, wouldn't it? If our inheritance depended on keeping the law. Paul tried it. If Romans seven is his own confession. I was alive, he said, but then the commandment came, thou shalt not covet, and it slew me. The person who thinks that he can deserve the inheritance by keeping the law must have some preposterous and unrealistic idea of his own holiness and abilities. When Jericho was destroyed, in the name of God, Joshua uttered a curse on anybody who should rebuild it. Let me tell you a story. Greenwood Hills is not the only place where they hold Christian conferences. They held one in Antioch at one stage. And And present. present at the conference, amongst other worthy believers, was the Apostle Paul, plus the Apostle Peter. And as they, for the first day, sat at table, naturally there were with them a lot of Gentile believers, for Antioch was a church in which, uh, the Gentiles predominated, of course. And being Gentiles, and they never had been circumcised, all they'd done is to repent and trust the Savior. Aha. They had been received into church fellowship as being genuine believers, you'll see, that the promise of Abraham might come on these Gentiles as well. And Peter, God bless him, had been content to eat his maple syrup and things and pancakes and sausages, along with the others of them. And all was going well until certain brethren came down from James. And they said, Peter, you're not eating with Gentiles, are you, Peter? Well, he said, I was. Um, but Peter, how could you do it? I mean, they're not under- they're not circumcised, Peter. They're not keeping the law. Oh, said Peter. Ah, well, they said, you won't eat till dinner time, will you? Because if you do, we should go back and tell James. Come dinner time, Peter found he he he didn't feel like eating, he said. And excused himself and said he thought he'd better go without dinner and go to his bedroom. No, you don't, says Paul, and stood in the doorway in front of everybody. No, you don't, Peter. What are you doing and what are you saying, Peter? Tell me, Peter, these sinners of the Gentiles here, do they have to be circumcised before you're prepared to eat with them? Do they have to be circumcised before you're prepared to believe that God has saved them? Will you rise up now, you who have preached so clearly before, that we believe, we Jewish Christians believe, that it is by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, even as those Gentiles. Will you rise up after having said that and refuse to eat with Gentile believers, saved and justified by the grace of God, their hearts purified by faith? Will you rise up and refuse to accept them as genuine believers, unless they get circumcised by the law of Moses. Come, come, Peter, he says, for if I build again the Jericho that I once destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. It mustn't be done, may it, brethren? So how then? On what ground did Israel inherit? As far as Joshua is concerned, let me take you back to the paragraph that we did not read, but those early paragraphs that come in chapter five. Five verse two tells us that when Israel got over Jordan, the Lord commanded Joshua, and Joshua commanded the people to make sharp knives and circumcise themselves. Oh, you say, Mr. Preacher, you've given your case away now. They had to be circumcised to enter the land and get their inheritance. It says so, look. No, it doesn't, does it? You'll be better lawyers than that. When did they circumcise themselves? Before they got into Canaan or after they got into Canaan? You say, what difference does it make? Oh, it makes a world of difference. You will remember a similar argument that Paul adduces in Romans chapter four, won't you? He says, the promise given to Abram and to his seed, that he should be heir of the world. Pray tell me, when was it given to Abram? Was it given to him after he was circumcised or before he was circumcised? Oh, there's no doubt about that in Genesis, is there? It is Genesis fifteen. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness while he was still uncircumcised. And God promised him the inheritance and gave him the covenant that he should inherit all in Genesis fifteen before he was circumcised. Yes, says Paul, and when he had been justified and when he had been given the covenant, and only after that was he given the sign and seal of circumcision, a sign and seal of the righteousness which he had while he was still uncircumcised. And says Paul, you know that's exceedingly important because it was not merely, uh, Abram that God had in view and his physical descendants. The inheritance was pledged to the Gentile as well. How and on what terms? Why says he that in order that the promise and the covenant should be sure to all the seed? Therefore it was of grace. See God standing by his original principle when at last the promise is fulfilled and Israel enter on their inheritance. When were they circumcised? Before they got into Canaan? No, indeed they weren't, for the historians says- spend several verses pointing out that the whole generation that survived the wilderness had not been circumcised. Israel came into their inheritance as uncircumcised as any old sinner of the Gentile, and crossed the Red Sea, the the Jordan, and came up the other side still uncircumcised. And it was only after they were in the inheritance that they were asked to be circumcised. The legal precedent is exceedingly important. On what ground did they inherit? We may allow ourselves, of course, to interpret the thing now, having dealt with its history at a higher level, may we not? For if circumcision, if it's an external right, proclaimed a man's promise to keep God's law, which Israel notably failed to do, circumcision as a type symbolized something far, far deeper. It symbolized, as Paul says in Philippians chapter three, that we have no confidence in the flesh. On those terms, we inherit. Oh, but it symbolizes something deeper still, doesn't it? Says Colossians, he has made you fit and capable and qualified for your inheritance of the saints in the light. However did he do it? Do you get it under the condition of the law? You'll say, no, my man. Oh. Well, does that mean that you can have the inheritance and it doesn't matter whether you keep the law or not? You say, no, Mr. Preacher. The righteousness of the law has got to be fulfilled, and they who stand in Canaan and enjoy its fruits must say amen to the law. They do not demote the law, they establish the law. They hear its curses, and they say amen to it. How can they do that? See that corpse hanging on that tree down there by the city of Ai? What a sinner he was. The law said he must die, and the angel with the out- the the man with the outstretched sword led Israel to execute the sentence. See Achan, stoned with stones, according to the law. How can you possibly stand and say amen to the curses of God's law? Oh, now let me tell you a wonderful story. I read it from the epistle to the Galatians. That we might be delivered from the curse of the law, yet the law's curse and the law's standard be upheld. Hear it again. He was made a curse for us. Have you ever found your heart breaking on that fearful judgment that fell on Jericho? And you don't know what to say to your unconverted friend about the severity of the judgment of God, or turn him to where that same person, who there as the pre-incarnate Christ wielded the sword of judgment, turn him to Calvary, where for our sakes, harlots and all, he was made a curse for us, and they hanged him on a tree. He saved us not by keeping the law, he saved us by bearing the curse that we had, uh, uh, uh, uh, merited by the breaking of the law, that the blessing of God might come on the gentiles. And now you're free from the curse. Does that mean that you don't have to keep the law? You say, no, Mr. Preacher. Well, how do you propose about go about keeping it then? You say, well, you see, it's like this, uh, uh, Moses commanded it, of course, and we've done it here on Mount Ebal and Greetz in establishing the law, you see, but actually, you see, hear the story. Moses commanded it, but he couldn't give us the power to keep it. But there came a Joshua, thank God for him, and what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sin and as an offering for sin, not excuse sin, but condemn sin, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh. Ah, not after the spirit. What do you mean by walking after the spirit? And wherein is your secret? I think you'll take me back to Jordan, wouldn't you? You say to those old stones, and you say, you know, do you know how we came across here? Well, the ark went down there and came out the other side. And once we were down there, and we came out the other side. Colossians says, would you remember how you were made fit as to be partakers of the inheritance? You were buried with Christ in baptism, in which you were raised through faith in the power of God, having been circumcised with the circumcision of Christ. So that the roots of your very nature, the roots of your personality that were once rooted in a nature that has come under God's curse have been cut, and the real you has been transferred into ground of a different sort. You are in the Spirit, and the Spirit in you. I like those old stories in chapter five, Don't you give me two minutes? Go without a cup of tea. That will show how much you love the Lord and his word. But I love those stories at the beginning of Joshua there, don't you? They circumcised, they kept the Passover to remember the grounds of redemption. The manna ceased, and that day they ate the old corn, and they ate the new corn, parched years of corn. For after Passover comes first fruit, and they take the first fruit, and they parch it and eat it. Oh, lovely thing, this is how they inherit it. Circumcised with the circumcision of Christ, you say, that glorious. Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, eating the very first fruits, Christ risen and ascended. So you walk in the power of the Spirit. Then you will agree with God's judgments, won't you? And I must leave you with this. When Israel came into that land, hitherto filled by worldliness and sinfulness of a shocking degree, how did God save them from that present evil world with all its iniquity? There were two battles. The conquest of Jericho, the conquest of Ai. At the historical and physical level, they are twins, aren't they? Two sides of one coin as far as military strategy goes. In Jericho, it was a question of getting in through the walls and there destroying the enemy. In Ai, it was a question of drawing the enemy out of the walls and there grasping them in a pincer movement and so destroying them. There was two sides to the story, and if ever the law was to be established on Mount Ebal and Gerizim, both Jericho and Ai must be destroyed. When Jericho came to be destroyed, how was it done? The ark of the Lord of the whole earth, led by the captain of the host, not Joshua, but his greater, marched round the city. Israel did nothing for the moment, but look and watch as the ark, in the presence of God, came to judge that wicked city. But the ark had been down under the waters of Jerry- of Jordan and now risen. What must its resurrection mean to Jericho? What must it mean that the Lord of glory who went down to Calvary in death is risen and ascended? Says the Holy Spirit, it means this, it is evidence of the judgment of this world, for now has the prince of this world been judged. The trump has blared and the ark now risen went around the city. On the last day, at the seventh occasion, Joshua said, shout. The very walls fell down, and Jericho's inhabitants were destroyed. How would we be delivered from the world and all its evil? Ask, uh, the Epistle to the Galatians. That's what it's about, isn't it, anyway? By circumcision? By legalism? Certainly not. Well, then how? We'll borrow a word from Joshua's address to Achan, give God the glory. Ha. Have you found the secret of overcoming the world and being delivered from all its iniquity? You'll give the God the glory too, wouldn't you? God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the means by which the world has been crucified to me. As Jericho finished, I have agreed with the judgment of God upon the world. But there's another side to the story. Achan sinned and came under that same curse himself, and Israel, being tainted with it, were defeated at Ai. They had to agree with the judgment of God upon Achan. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the means by which the world is crucified to me, and I who deserve the similar curse, I am crucified to it. Oh, wonderful Lord. As the armies came to execute the wrath of God upon Jericho, the great captain with his sword outstretched led the way. But as Israel came to be delivered from that terrible sin at Ai, how did he do it? Well, on the first time Israel came up to Ai, they were defeated and they ran away. Says Joshua, the way to victory at Ai will be to recapitulate, to reenact, to rehearse the defeat. And he took the troops up to Ai, and he said, when the enemy come out, you run away as though you were defeated. I think I would have preferred to be in the ambush, the all victorious ambush, round the other side of the city, wouldn't you? I'd like that role. You'd get a VC for that. You wouldn't get a VC for running away, would you, and only yourself been defeated and remembering all those past mistakes and goings on. No, please, Joshua, put me in the other lot. Says Joshua, wouldn't you prefer to be where I am? Oh, what brigade will you be with? You'll be with the people that give the about us. No, says Joshua, I shall lead the defeated. Oh, what grace is it, my brothers, that the pre-incarnate Christ, with his javelin in his hand, led that band of defeated, sinful Israelites now repentant, and got them to reenact the defeat. Oh yes, my long defeat, and he took my side, and in his apparent weakness joined my defeat, even so far as the curse of Calvary's cross. And Satan thought he'd won forever. Ah, but it was another story. Joshua didn't withdraw the javelin until the enemy found, to his surprise, that what looked like defeat was the divine strategy of final victory. By weakness, like defeat, he won the maiden crown, trodden his foes beneath his feet, by feet trodden down. Oh, let's praise him in our hearts. Let's praise the divine grace that had mercy on us Gentiles and has brought us the promise of Abraham to the Gentiles, that in Abraham and his seed shall all the, uh, uh, the nations of the world be blessed.