Joshua: Entering the Land: Its basis, bounty, breath, blessings

Now the theme of the time before us is entering into the land, probably the most doctrinal of the portions. The people of God entering into the land of Canaan, so we're going to be reading in chapter number three. Now I should mention, just because it's pretty obvious, there is some repetitiveness in some of the ministry, meaning we're looking at same events with different significance, different emphasis, in different places, but nevertheless, hopefully to profit, and also we're not looking necessarily chronologically.

For example, we spoke at the last meeting of the fall of Jericho, now we're going backwards to the crossing of the Jordan into the land prior to Jericho, so you'll understand we're not looking at events chronologically in these meetings. Looking more at themes that we're tracing together. So Joshua chapter three, verse number one, Joshua arose early in the morning and removed from Shittim and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they passed over.

It came to pass after three days, the officers went through the host, they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priest of Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits by measure. Come not near unto it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way heretofore.

Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Joshua spake unto the priest saying, take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the Lord. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day, while I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, they may know that as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. Now down to chapter verse number 10, for the sake of time, Joshua said, hereby you shall know the living God is among you, that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Gergesite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. Verse number 13, it came to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan.

The waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, stand upon a heap. And it came to pass, when the people were moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water that Jordan overflowed all his banks at the time of harvest. The waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Seretum, and those that came down toward the sea and the plain, even the salt sea, fell and were cut off, and the people passed over right against Jordan.

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 the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Chapter 4, verse number 11, it came to pass when all the people were clean passed over that the ark of the Lord passed over the priests in the presence of all of the people. Verse 14, on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life.

Verse 18, it came to pass when the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up onto dry land. The waters of Jordan returned unto their place and flowed over all the banks as they did before. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

Chapter 5, we have the, well let's read verse number 1, it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until we were passed over, that their hearts melted. Neither was there any spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel. And at that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel.

The second time Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill on the foreskin. This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise all the people that came up out of Egypt that were males, even all the men of war. They died in the wilderness, by the way, after they came up out of Egypt.

Now all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness, by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. Verse number 10, And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn the selfsame day.

And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land, neither had the children of Israel manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit, the produce of the land of Canaan that year. Maybe chapter 11 and verse number 22, There were none of the Anakins left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza and Gath and Ashdod there remained. Now David is going to take care of that in his day, because you recall that the Philistine champion came from Gath.

So Joshua took the whole land according to all the Lord sent unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war. Chapter 13, verse number 1, Now Joshua was old, while stricken in years, and the Lord sent unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. And maybe just to conclude at chapter 23, and verse number 13, This is Joshua at the end of his life warning the children of Israel, Know for a certainty, verse 13, that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations before you, but there shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, thorns in your eyes, until you perish from all this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.

Now just for the sake of clarification, that is not a negation of his promise. That was a warning that if they became like the nations around them and did not continue to serve the Lord, this would be what would happen. The Lord would not drive out those nations, but rather they would become thorns in their flesh to them.

So God will bless the reading of his word. Entering the land, enjoying the land, all of that is before us. Now just as a, because time is going to be very limited with a vast subject to cover, the basis for the land, the bounty of the land that we'll look at together, we'll notice something of the breadth of the land and the blessings of the land.

Now those are just the outlines in case we cannot get to everything. We dare not intrude on lunch. I will encounter your wrath and anger if I take away from lunch time.

So just keep this in mind. I want to speak to you then about the entering of the land. Three things were required, crossing Jordan, the circumcision, and keeping Passover.

Three things that were required that we'll look at and consider. First of all, as far as the basis for the land, upon what did they deserve the land? What was the basis for enjoying the land that God had given them? Well, it did not rest on their merit. It rested upon the judgment of God upon Canaanite nations.

God did not bring Israel into the land because they were good and because they deserved it. They were his sword to judge nations that he gave 400 years to repent. You recall back in the days of Abraham, God promised Abraham that his seed would inherit the land, but there would be a period of time, a space of time, because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

God was giving them space to repent. They failed to repent. And then God brought in the nation of Israel to act as his sword of judgment upon wicked idolatrous nations.

Their practices were abominable, including child sacrifice in worship to their gods. Every form of sexual immorality, every form of iniquity that could be practiced, was practiced by these Canaanite nations, and God bore with it for 400 long years, and finally the iniquity of the Amorites was full, and God brought in the nation of Israel in sovereign judgment upon these wicked nations. So Israel came into the good of the land on the basis of the evil of the nations, not on the basis of their merit or their worth.

First of all, how did they pass over? I want you to think first of all of the firm foundation, the firm footing of the priests. We read several times, the feet of the priests stood firm in the midst of Jordan, firm until everyone was passed over. No weakness or potential for failure.

Their feet stood firm in the midst of Jordan. There is never a possibility of the work of Christ failing. Now we're looking here, in the passing over of Jordan is a picture of the believer identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.

We'll look at that in more detail in a moment. But just to suggest to you this great truth, the priest's feet in the midst of Jordan carrying the ark, a picture of Christ in the midst of Calvary. There was never a possibility Christ would fail.

To those who would claim that Christ could have sinned but could not sin, you have a tremendous difficulty to face, a tremendous obstacle to face. How could God have righteously forgiven the sins of Old Testament saints on credit if there was ever the possibility of Christ failing? God would have acted contrary to his character and rescinded his forgiveness. God could forgive the sins of Old Testament believers on credit because the work of Christ was absolutely assured.

Nothing could possibly fail that Christ was given to do. Completely finished, perfectly finished, finished without any question of its possibility. The people of God then were told, the ark is going before you.

It's going to stand in the midst of Jordan on firm ground. Keep your eye on the ark. Focus on the ark.

Do I need to say the need of focusing on Christ? First of all, I see here priestly men who are capable of upholding the ark for the people of God to see and to follow. Do I need to apply that? God expects priestly men in a local assembly to be able to uphold Christ for the people of God to follow, to enter into their inheritance. Their eye was on the ark, not on the waters, not even on the priests.

Their eye was on the ark. So there needs to be in a local assembly men who can uphold, hold up Christ for the people of God to see, to appreciate, and have their eye upon him. I am a firm believer in the need of assembly teaching, but assembly teaching really is merely an extension of all that Christ is.

Everything we do in an assembly, we do because of Christ. Whether you want to think of the priesthood of all believers, the multiplicity of gifts, the plurality of leadership, the place of sisters, everything we do in an assembly is not an isolated doctrine that somehow we have pulled out of scripture and teach. Everything in an assembly that we do is really an extension of all that Christ is and Christ has done.

The moment you tamper with one aspect of assembly practice that is scripturally based, you begin to detract from the person of Christ in some way. You cannot compromise truth without compromising the person of Christ. Hold Christ up, maintain Christ before the eyes of the people of God, enable them to see him in all that we do.

The focus should be upon the people, or should be upon the person of Christ. The ark, it is mentioned 27 times in chapters 1 through 6. It has a central place in these chapters as far as the crossing of Jordan, as far as the coming into the inheritance. A people whose eye were on the ark, whose minds were occupied with the ark, whose hearts were taken up with the ark.

The ark, in fact, I've listed here, the different titles that are given is called the ark of the Lord, the ark of the testimony, the ark of the covenant, the ark of the Lord your God, the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. You could place next to all of those different titles a different word, but you'll see that the ark was prominent. The focus of the people of God was on the ark.

When you see the ark, get your eye upon the ark, it's going to be there in the river for you. It's going to enable you to pass over to enjoy your inheritance. So the people had their eye upon the ark and the fullness of the work.

It says the people clean passed over. That meant that everyone passed over Jordan because of the ark. Every believer here in this room stands on resurrection ground because of Christ, not because of our own efforts.

Now baptism signifies, it's not baptism that brings you into this, baptism signifies what occurred at conversion. That you died, you were buried, and you were raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. That occurred at conversion's moment.

We signify it, we give testimony to it in our baptism. So while everyone may not be baptized, everyone, every believer who has placed faith in Christ has enjoyed, has experienced death, burial, resurrection with Christ, has come into a new land in Canaan, has come to enjoy their inheritance. Maybe I should mention, because I know many of our hymns and many of our thoughts suggest that Canaan is a picture of heaven.

Well some do take that view, but I would take it that since there are battles to be fought, enemies to be faced, failure to be encountered, I would take it you could hardly link those things with heaven. They are rather linked with Christian experience as we seek to enjoy our inheritance. But here were people, and they passed over, everyone passed over, as a result of the ark in the midst of Canaan, Christ, his burial, death, burial, and resurrection.

We have been brought into entirely new ground. We have been brought into entirely new life. Redemption is many things.

We've been redeemed, according to Galatians chapter 1, from this present evil age. We've been redeemed, according to Titus chapter 2, from our iniquities that once marked us. We've been redeemed, according to Colossians chapter 1, from the bondage, the enslavement to sin.

But 1 Peter chapter 1 tells me I've been redeemed from an empty, vain life, a useless life. I once walked as a useless person as far as God is concerned. Nothing in my life for God.

Nothing in my life to honor God. Nothing that would ever stand for eternity. Nothing that would ever mark me.

Nothing at all. I was redeemed from that emptiness. Now I've been brought into new ground altogether, onto redemption ground, freed from the bondage of sin, freed from the curse of the law, freed from the present evil world, freed from all the iniquities and things that held me, but also freed from an empty life, a life that now can be lived for God, a life that can enjoy the inheritance.

You may say, what's my inheritance? Well, I could point you to 1 Peter chapter 1, that we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that won't fade away, but that doesn't still answer what is my inheritance. What is your inheritance? Well, I'm reminded that we are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. So let me take it a step backward.

What did Christ inherit? I think I read somewhere like in Psalm number 2, ask of me, I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. So everything that Christ has come into belongs to us. He's going to share it with us.

He's going to rule over this world. His kingdom for a thousand years, but really his kingdom is an everlasting, everlasting, unending eternal kingdom. You and I are going to share that with him.

He's going to just give it to us, share it with us, willingly, fully. So our inheritance is beyond our imagination, beyond our scope of understanding. All of that will be yours and mine someday.

We will share fully with Christ in glory in a coming day. Don't think of heaven as some far off distant place, you know, where angels are walking or sitting on clouds, strumming harps, and we're going to just, you know, very active. We are going to be ruling over this earth with him, administering for him in a coming day and for all eternity.

So here are people brought into a new land, a new ground upon which to stand, ground they had never tread before. When you were saved, you were brought into new ground altogether, a ground where you could please God, a ground where you could enjoy God, a ground where you could have relationship with God, a ground where you could enjoy all that God had for you. And Christ is the one who secured it for us.

Keep your eye on the ark. God magnified Joshua that day when they crossed over Jordan. God magnified his son at Calvary and in resurrection.

You recall John chapter 17, the Lord Jesus Christ praying, Father, magnify thy son, even glorify thy son, that he might glorify thee. How did God glorify his son? He glorified him at Calvary and in resurrection. And how does the Lord Jesus continue to glorify him? The way he glorified him while he was on earth, manifesting his name on the people that God gave him.

So the Lord Jesus manifests God's name and glorifies God, and God glorified his son in his work at Calvary and in his resurrection. Apart from Calvary, now this may sound like a very strong statement, but apart from Calvary, we will not have a full revelation of all that God is. The cross, as nothing else, fully, fully reveals the heart of God.

How would we know the depths of God's love? How would we know the depth of God's justice? How would we know the depth of God's hatred of sin if we did not look at a Savior upon a cross that God so hated sin and so loved each one of us that even his own son would suffer the full consequence of sin so that we could be redeemed? Calvary reveals God's heart as nothing else could ever reveal. We see God's goodness, his kindness, his mercy, his justice, all of that is displayed throughout the remainder of Scripture, but Calvary is the ultimate revelation of all that God is to us. So he magnified Joshua that day before the eyes of all the people.

As far as the future is concerned, the moment the feet of those priests stepped into Jordan, Israel's future was secure. Your future and my future is secure because one stepped into Jordan. Because the Son of God stepped into death.

Your future is absolutely secure. Doesn't depend on you. Doesn't depend on holding on.

Doesn't depend on doing your part. When the Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary, he put sin away by the sacrifice of himself. Sin has been taken out of the way, off the table, no longer a bargaining, no longer an obstacle, no longer a barrier.

God is absolutely satisfied with his Son. So the moment those feet stepped into Jordan and the waters fled, their passage over was secure, the land was theirs, the inheritance was theirs, it was all theirs. Here, the miracle of their passage.

Notice the timing of the passage. It was when Jordan overflowed its banks. It would be the most difficult time to cross.

Here's Jordan overflowing its banks. The winter snow likely had come down and all was there. And here they are and it's at its widest, its most difficult passage.

They still fled. The timing of the passage. Notice as well the time they came over.

They crossed over on the 10th day of the first month, just in time to start keeping the lamb for the Passover. As far as if you're looking at the story of Egypt to Canaan, which we're here at the end of it, of the story of Egypt to Canaan, Israel kept Passover three times, I should say three recorded Passovers during that time. There was the Passover in Egypt.

They left Egypt. A year later they kept Passover before they made their way into the wilderness. Now they're keeping Passover before they enter the land.

They may have kept others, but three recorded Passovers. Passover to leave Egypt. Passover to make your way through the wilderness.

Passover to enter into the land. If you're going to leave the world behind, you better feed on Christ. Christianity is not a matter of saying no to everything.

It's a matter of saying yes to Christ. It's enjoying Christ day by day. You will not be able to leave the world behind with all that it has to offer.

It's an alluring world. It's an amusing world, entertaining world, an enticing world, an ensnaring world. You will not be able to leave it behind if you do not enjoy Christ as your Passover.

As far as making your way through the wilderness, with all the trials, all the difficulties, all the problems, feed on Christ, our Passover. And as far as entering into the land to enjoy the land, to enjoy the inheritance, it's feeding on Christ. You say, well, you're saying it's the beginning and through, and it's all about, you get it.

Yeah, you got it. It's all about feeding on Christ. It's all about enjoying all that he is in his person and in his work.

That's what we're going to strengthen them to enter the land. They needed to feed upon Christ. So they crossed the Jordan, they fed upon Christ, and they were going to know something of circumcision.

But you notice that there was a generation, a whole generation, that had not gone over the Red Sea. They had to go through Jordan. Let me just mention this for the sake of young people for their study.

Christ and his work are so great, it takes two rivers, the Red Sea and the Jordan, to give you a picture of his work. It takes two kings, David and Solomon, to give you a picture of Christ as king. It takes two leaders, Moses and Joshua, one to leave, one to enter.

It takes two priests, Aaron and Melchizedek. It takes two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, to tell you something of grace and truth that mark the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes two stones, one smitten, one spoken to, to tell you of the blessings of God.

One never satisfies. I need two scapegoats, I need two doves. Christ is so great in his person, in his work, that God has to bring several things together to give us a full picture of all that Christ is in his person and in his work.

So they crossed the Red Sea, they crossed Jordan, and came into their inheritance in the Promised Land. Let me say something about the—I know I'm hurrying, you'll forgive me, lots of things not being mentioned here. The bounty of the land.

We're reminded that there was a generation that did not get into the land because of unbelief. Now, in one sense, we're all in the land. Another sense, there's a great danger of not enjoying the land.

Not enjoying the land. They turned us out because of murmuring, because of unbelief, failure. But I want to speak to you more, rather than about the government of God, about the grace of God.

They were going to a land of milk and honey. Do you ever notice, is it Exodus 15 that tells us about the manna? Or is it 16? Exodus 16, the coming of the manna. And do you ever notice what it says when the manna first came? I know it changed later on because of their discontent with the manna.

But when it first came, it was like wafers of honey. They were going to a land of milk and honey. This is what God says, I'm going to give you a foretaste of the land of milk and honey, with manna that tastes like honey.

Could I suggest, as you enjoy this book, you get a foretaste. A foretaste of what's to come. Here is a book of, here's the manna.

I know you can apply the manna to the word of God, to the incarnate word, to the living word, but I'm just applying it now to the word of God for just a moment. God has given us his word as a foretaste of all that is to come. Israel enjoyed manna.

Now later on, you remember they go through the book of Numbers, they wanted something along with the manna, then they wanted something instead of the manna, no longer tasted like oil. It didn't taste like honey anymore. It just became kind of bland, and enjoy this book as it is a foretaste of all that is to come.

Faithfulness of God, the failure of a generation, the fruitfulness of the land. Manna sustained them in the wilderness. Deuteronomy says that God gave them manna from heaven, that man might learn not to live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

I would take it that what God was saying is, I don't want the people worried about, occupied with, concerned with, occupied all their time with finding food, making food. I want them to just, that's a minor part of their lives, the physical. I want them to major on the spiritual.

I want them to learn that really, what's really important in life is their spiritual relationship with me, so that God was teaching them lessons through the wilderness. Then they came into the land, and possibly, I could be wrong here, possibly for one day, they ate manna, a lamb for the Passover, and the old corn of the land, or the produce of the land, the food they had never done anything to produce themselves. So the manna they gathered, and it ended the day after they entered the land, Christ in his incarnation.

They enjoyed the Passover lamb, Christ in his death, burial, resurrection. They enjoyed the food, the produce of the land, all that they came into. They enjoyed all of that the same day.

God wanted them to enjoy the food of the land they had never plowed, or sowed, or done anything with. It was freely given to them. God was providing for them in the land what he had already overseen and taken care of.

When you come into the inheritance God has given, when you begin to enjoy what God has provided, it's nothing you've done, nothing you have produced. I know it takes work to work at your Bible. It takes time and effort to reap from the Word of God all that can be found there, but still God has provided it for us.

All the blessings are all there. I once tried to tabulate all the things that happen the moment you get saved. Sit down sometime with a pencil and paper, that's old-fashioned.

Sit down with your iPad or with your computer and tabulate all that happened the moment you got saved. You say, I got saved, really? Is that all? You were redeemed. Your sins were remitted.

You were reconciled. You were regenerated. You became a child of God, born into the family of God, a son of God, an heir, a co-heir with Christ, indwelt by the Spirit of God, placed into the body of Christ.

You go on and on. I once wrote at least 20 or 25 things that occurred the moment you were saved. You did none of those things.

All happened to you. Part of all that came to you as a result of redemption, of salvation, lavished upon us all of these tremendous blessings. It's no wonder that Paul prays in Ephesians chapter when the eyes of your understanding might be opened.

The eyes of your heart might be enlightened to understand all that God has for you, all that God has brought you into. Here were a people coming into tremendous blessing and bounty, all that God had for them in the land to which they were coming. They ate the old corn of the land.

God wanted them to become a holy people. Going back to 1 Peter chapter 1 where I mentioned one of the great radical changes that redemption should bring. God says, be holy for I am holy.

Now that is not something for people who are in assembly fellowship. It's for people who are redeemed. There has risen amongst us a very, very sinister way of thinking that somehow when you get saved, that's one level of living better.

When you get baptized, you've got to ratchet up a notch and maybe live a little better. And when you come into assembly fellowship, you've really got to start watching yourself. That's foreign to the word of God.

God has only one standard for every believer, be holy for I am holy. If you're linked with a holy father, a holy God, God requires holiness of each one of us. God brought them into a land to enjoy the fruit of that land, to make them a holy people.

And God intends us to become a holy people, a people set apart for himself. Let me just mention something about the breadth of the land. There were still giants, but all the land was theirs.

The land was a blessing. The land was given to them by God, and the land was theirs to enjoy and to appreciate. There remaineth much land to be possessed.

You and I will never exhaust all there is in Christ. Remember when the Lord Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes? The people had as much as they wanted. Of course, the expression of the disciples earlier was, there wouldn't even be enough to give everyone a little bit.

If we had 200 penny worth of bread, went out and bought it, it wouldn't be enough to give everybody even a little bit of that. They had as much as they wanted. But there were 12 handbaskets left over.

You never can exhaust the manna. It's always more. Each disciple left with a handbasket to enjoy for himself.

But you never can exhaust Christ. You remember that scene, don't you, by the Sea of Galilee? When the Lord Jesus had bread and fish ready for the disciples, and he fed them. I sometimes allow my imagination to run a bit wild, but it says he served them.

Can you see the Lord Jesus going to Peter, Thomas, would you like a little more fish? Can I give you some more bread? Are you sure you've had enough? I think that's a little picture of eternity. He will make it his personal responsibility to make sure that you are absolutely filled to the gills, as satisfied as you could be with all he can give you, with all he can tell you of himself. You'll have as much of Christ as you'd like to have.

And I think, again, I don't have scripture for this, so please don't hold me to it too hard. I think we'll start out in heaven where we left off on earth. I think we're shaping our vessel, we're framing our vessel here on earth for our capacity to enjoy Christ in heaven.

So that's why I would go in for it now, to enjoy as much of Christ as you can now, so you'll be able to enjoy him even to a greater extent. Everyone will be absolutely satisfied in heaven, don't misunderstand me, but I think we'll pick up there where we left off here. And here's the Lord Jesus Christ, here's the people of God going into the land, much land to be possessed, and still enjoying all they can of it, Christ inexhaustible in this person.

The manna, absolutely able to satisfy their need in the wilderness, Christ able to satisfy us here in the land, Christ inexhaustible in this person. Much land yet to be possessed. We tend, sadly, to become those who are very, very much compromisers or complacent.

It is especially a danger at this end of life. I'm speaking to some people here my age, maybe not as old, but close to it, maybe some even older. Complacency happens as you get older.

I've done enough, I've studied enough, I've read enough, I know enough. There remains yet much land, much land. Never become complacent, never compromise.

Well, my time is busy, I'm very... No, never compromise. Never compromise with what you know of Christ. Never become complacent.

Never just be satisfied with where you are. Sadly, we are often unsatisfied with our material possessions and very satisfied with our spiritual wealth. We're the other way around.

We become satisfied with our material things and unsatisfied with our attainment in spiritual things. Here are people... Because there's going to be a warning at the end of chapter number 23 that Joshua is going to give them. Very stern warning that they were going to compromise.

The book of Joshua and Judges, they failed to drive the enemy out. They made peace with the enemy. They dwelt amongst the enemy or they just subjected the enemy to become slaves and servants to them.

They didn't carry out all the God wanted them to carry out. They settled down and were just content to live lives that were half obedient to what God wanted them to do. A right position never guarantees a right condition.

And a wrong condition eventually will begin to challenge even the position you hold. Because they did not live the way they were supposed to live, they lost the land. Now, we cannot lose the inheritance.

We cannot lose all that God has done for us in Christ. But we can lose the enjoyment of it. We can lose the good of it.

We can lose the value of it. We can live like the Canaanites all around us. So here was a people and the land was a good land.

It was a good land. But the problem with a good land is that these people still had evil hearts. Without going into all the details of all the covenants, it's interesting that the Noahic covenants gave a habitation for people to live.

The Abrahamic covenant assured a homeland for the nation of Israel. The covenant with David assured an heir for the nation. But all of those covenants, as wonderful as they were, as unilateral as they were, and as guaranteed as they were, never dealt with the basic problem in the human being.

You know which one did? The new covenant. A new heart. A new heart.

That's what's needed. That's what God gave us in redemption, was a new heart. A new heart that longs to please Him, that wants to enjoy all that God has for us in salvation.

Here were people, their identification, their appreciation, that when Christ died at Calvary, when He rose again, I died with Him. I was buried. I rose again to walk in newness of life.

I professed that at my baptism. I want to live it out in my day-to-day life. I want to enjoy the land into which God has brought me in Christ.

I want to have the opportunity now in this new land to enjoy everything that is mine as a believer, and to live a life that is going to bring pleasure to God. So may God bless His Word. I know we have very, very superficially dealt with a number of very, very important topics, but you'll understand the constraints of time.

And if nothing else, to have stirred your own interest to look over these chapters, look at them in light of both Ephesians and Colossians 1 and 2, and appreciate these wonderful truths.