Joshua 17

HERE we find the same as to the half tribe of Manasseh; it is the lesson that we never do attain to full possession. I do not mean that there is lack of faithfulness, but still it is a fact. We have always something to attain to. It is impossible to suppose that you can reach perfection here; the actual possession is in measure. It is a never ceasing warfare; it is not-because a person has got firm on the ground that there is a point where there is nothing to conquer. You must be always attaining.
In another place it says God allowed the nations to continue in the land, lest the wild beasts should increase upon. them; and it is a wonderful thing how the world protects the people of God from evil and violence in that way. A wicked man will not defraud a Christian, because men in general would not stand it; so the fear of men in general secures you your rights.
But you never can say that you have done everything, that all is cleared away. So it is a great mischief to a saint when he 'thinks that he has made such a good stand, that there is nothing more left to do; as for instance, a man giving up the army, and thinking it so great a thing, that nothing more is needed. As a writer once said: " It is the most unfortunate thing-for most men to do a great action, because they then think they never need do another."
When Peter left the ship to walk on the water, the Lord might have said to him, Do not think you will never have to do this again-; for the fact was, the ship did tempt him again. There may be a trial before you-a renunciation that you have never had before. Or it may be some favor; as God said to Gideon, " Bring them down to the water;" a mercy often tries people more than a trial.
The enemies are people who encroach on your property, and at the same time infect you with their society.
Verse 13.--Here we get it again. Here is where the mistake is: " They put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them out." A person may say, I cannot drive them all out. But the question is, Do you set yourself to do so? When they put them under tribute, they ceased to drive them out. It is almost better for a man not to be a heavenly man at all, than to say he is, and not maintain it. He is like a bird with a wounded wing; he cannot walk, and he cannot fly; he is neither fit for land nor sky. Nothing can stand but the heavenly man. The Lord walked through this earth as a heavenly man; through here in human nature, and having perfect sympathy with human weakness apart ' from sin, He was ever " the Son of man who is in heaven." It was not that He adopted man's feelings and gave them a gilding; it was divine feelings exhibited in a man.
Believers - agree in saying they are new creatures; but that is not true; a butterfly is a new creature; but we are a new creation. It is not one creature altered into another creature of the same creation, but it is a new creation altogether, This is the argument of Cor.
It is not a question of what we shall be, but the apostle is showing, by the present state of things, that there are now different kinds of flesh, and that then there will be the heavenly man as well as the earthly one.
And I am now to carry out this new creation in the old one. If I say, the old creation is a barrier to my carrying out the new, then I am impugning my Creator. The eye is all right in itself; it is the will that works it that makes the mischief; so I carry about in my body, " the dying of the Lord Jesus," that I maybe getting rid of everything that hinders my being a true exponent of the life of Jesus upon earth. He is the head of the new creation. The Old Testament is the history of the old man under trial, and that is always failure: the New Testament is the second man, and that is always success. Everything- is brought out again in Christ that had failed in Adam: the first man was tried in every conceivable way; innocence, conscience, law-every way; and then Christ comes in.
Verses 16-18.-This gives us fresh conquests. You can get an accession-an. increase-to what you already possess. Thus, a person may get in advance beyond his brethren in heavenly things, because of his faithfulness. An interesting thought in connection with this, is the way in which the Lord gave Mary Magdalene Ephesian truth which He does not propound to the assembly. He gave the message to her; He considered her to be in a fit State to receive it,- and state is what is required. You will find that every servant of God is put through a state of things which will fit him to give out to others the trust that God reveals to him. God puts each where He will be able best to expound the truth He has given him. Paul in prison is in the fit place to declare heavenly truth; and John in Patmos is in the fit place to see what God-thought of the earth. If you were to transpose them, you would not have either in the fit place to carry out his ministry. John was an exile on earth, having nothing, and so the Lord shows him all the condition of things that will be on the earth. Paul was in prison for the mystery, and God shows him what heaven is and the glory of it. You see this continually in the Old Testament prophets. The Lord brings His servant into a state of things which will make him not a mere automaton, like a pump bringing up water, but where what He teaches in word may be learned practically.
Well you are " a great people; " the greatness is there; but if you are great, you must prove your greatness; you may have a double and a larger portion of the heavenly position, but you will have to fight for it.