Joshua 11-13, Your Promised Inheritance Is Victory
1. Your Biggest Victories Are Already Won (Joshua 11)
2. You Have Opportunity For More Victories (Joshua 13)
3. Your Victories Are Won By Faith (Joshua 12)
Joshua 11-13, Your Promised Inheritance Is Victory
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as we look at the book of Joshua this morning, I've titled the message, You're promised inheritance is victory. Your promised inheritance is victory. As we see the Children of Israel come into their promised inheritance. It is the land of Israel, the land that God had promised to Abraham way back in the day. He said, your descendants are going to come back here. I'm going to give them this land, I'm going to give them this territory and it was going to be through victory. There is going to be battles fought hard battles, tough battles, fierce battles, but with the promise of victory with the guarantee that the outcome would be that they would inherit the land that God had provided for them. And as we look at these things, there's great parallels here. Great illustrations for us to consider in our own personal lives and our own walk with God. You also have an inheritance from God, promises that God has given to you. And those promises are very often attached to battles and fierce and ferocious things that we will work through and fight through and accomplish. And yet at the same time, it is with the guarantee of victory that God takes us through and brings us through those seasons of our life. You have an inheritance from God and that comes with the promise of victory in the battles that we face. And so the inheritance that we have, I kind of summarise it into that one word. Victory. You could talk about different aspects and elements of our, of our inheritance or of our victory. But This idea of victory, we see very clearly portrayed here in Joshua chapter 1112 and 13. Now as Joshua led the people into the promised land, he had two major objectives. The first one was to conquer the land of Israel And then the second objective that God had given to him was then to divide the land between all the different tribes, the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. And so here in these chapters, we see the finishing of the conquering and the beginning of the dividing, its the completion of one aspect and the beginning of assigning to each tribe, their portion in the land, their inheritance in the land of Israel. Now, just a quick reminder of some of the geography here. This is a map of the land of Israel and you have the Mediterranean sea on the west and all alongside the Mediterranean sea is the primary portion of the land of Israel, with the Jordan of the Jordan river being, they're kind of in the middle and on the other side of the Jordan, you'll remember there was three tribes that camped out there and stayed there. That's where the people were when moses died on the other side of the Jordan, but Joshua led them in, crossed over and now they've been working their way through the land conquering all of the different nations, the kingdoms that were there and again, now we're in that transition where okay, now the land has been conquered. The major battles have been won. Now the inheritance needs to be assigned to each of the tribes. And so through the process of the coming chapters which will be reading this week, you'll see the boundaries set for each of the tribes and God was saying this land is for you tribe of Manasseh and this tribe, this land is for you, tribe of Simeon and this land is for you tribe of Judah and designated to each one, their portion their inheritance in the promised land. Now again, as we look at these things, there's just such important pictures and powerful pictures for us of the promises that God gives to us and the assignments that he gives to us. It's interesting to consider that the name Joshua and the name jesus are essentially the same. That Joshua is the hebrew form. Jesus is the greek form. It's like Gerald and Geraldo right? Same name, same person but just pronounced a little bit differently. Said a little bit differently in a different language. And so Joshua here is a picture of jesus even in his name, but picturing here the victories that God wants to give us through jesus as we walk with him as we follow him and then he assigns us and gives us a portion to work in a lot in life. The different portions of land were assigned by lot. They would cast lots and the lot size was, you know assigned to them. And in a similar way we have that phrase, you know, your lot in life, right? Your lot in life is part of God's inheritance that he's given to you. It's a, it's an area area territory that God's given for you to battle in to find victory in to take hold of for the name of christ and for the glory of God and the promises in the inheritance that you have received and the portion that's been assigned to you, the promise from God to us is victory. There will be battles, there will be challenges, But there is that promise that guaranteed outcome of victory. And so there's three things I'd like to walk us through as we look at these chapters and consider what the Lord has for us. Three things to help us experience the victory and understand the victory that God has for us. The first thing we find here in chapter 11 versus 16 through 23 is where we'll work our way through. But point number one this morning is your biggest victories are already won. As we think about your inheritance. As we think about the promises, as we think about your victory. First things first, we need to understand the biggest battles have already been fought. The most important things have already been accomplished on your behalf by Joshua, by Yeshua, by jesus for you look again at 16 and 17 says thus Joshua took all this land, the mountain country, all the south, all the land of Goshen, the lowland and the Jordan plain, the mountains of Israel and its lowlands from Mount Black and the ascent of Sear even as far as baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon, he captured all their kings and struck them down and killed them Here in Chapter 11, we have really a summary of Joshua's battles In this closing portion from from verse 16 on uh kind of summarizes the major battles that Joshua fought and here in these two versus kind of summarizes the different kings that he fought, the different regions that he conquered. And if you're just looking at these two verses, it might seem like it was fast, you know, like he conquered this king and he conquered that king, he took this area, he took that area. But then verse 18 tells us that Joshua made a war made war a long time with all those kings Doing some math based on different portions here in the book of Joshua, it seems like this conquest took about seven years and so there was about seven years of battle that took place here in verse 16 and 17, as we look at the overview of Joshua's campaign there in the promised land and we're at the end of that here, it's kind of wrapping it up, summarizing it, there's more battles to come, but it's going to be a different kind of battle, not all of Israel gathered together collectively under one leader Joshua. Now the individual tribes are going to have their own personal battles, battles that take place within their own boundaries and within their own really initiative to take on those challenges and to take the land that God has given to them. But generally speaking overall, Joshua has conquered the land. All the different regions, all the major players that were the enemies of God in that region have been taken care of, they've been knocked out. The victory has been accomplished 19 and 20. Tell us that every city was taken care of by Joshua and the Lord verse 19 says there was not a city that made peace with the Children of Israel except the habits of the inhabitants of Gibby. In all the others, they took in battle for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them and that they might receive no mercy but that he might destroy them. As the Lord had commanded moses, We talked about the Gibian nights a little bit on Wednesday. You can read about it in Chapter nine, they were a little bit crafty. They sent a delegation pretended to be far away, got them to agree to terms of peace and then they found out they were actually inhabitants of the land. So a little bit of a stumble there in their agreement. But here it's pointing out that all the other major cities, all the other strongholds in the land were conquered by Joshua. They were taken care of, they were not dealt with in a way that would allow them to maintain their dominance or their presence in the land. But they were beaten, they were cast down by Joshua on behalf of the Lord on Wednesday. As we talked about this, we talked about the enemies, how when enemies fear, when our enemy fears he doesn't surrender and just run away and just give up wave the white flag. But when enemies are fearful, they fight back and fight ferociously. And so in chapter 10 and 11 of Joshua, you have the record of that in chapter 10, you have the southern kings joined together to fight against Joshua's. The Children of Israel are entering into the land and they're trying to put a stop to it. And so they all join forces and figure if we can team up, we can overcome and we can be victorious against Israel. And then the northern area, the northern kings tried something similar, they teamed up, there was different alliances that took place and they're trying their best to figure out some strategy where they can overthrow the victories that Israel is having. But as you read through those chapters, you find no matter what tactic the enemy used, no matter how many alliances they made or how many people they got to join with them, no matter what they could come up with, they lost, they could not find victory, no matter what they tried. And it reminds me of a very important promise that you and I can grasp hold of memorize perhaps and rely upon as we wrestle through different things in this life. It's Isaiah chapter 54 verse 17 The Lord says, no weapon formed against you shall prosper and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. The Lord says, this is the heritage. This is your inheritance. This is what God has promised to you as a servant of the Lord. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. We've talked about a couple times as we've started through the book of Joshua here that they were facing enemies that were superior in number. They had superior firepower. They had greater alliances and it was a situation where they were in dire trouble. If it weren't for the Lord. But God's promises doesn't matter what weapons they have, what weapons they bring against you. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. You're going to have victory. It was the promise to them that they would have victory and Joshua. A representative of christ leads the people in and establishes victory for the people. And so there was no plots, no scheme, no conspiracy that the inhabitants of the land could come up with to defeat. The plan that God had in giving the Children of Israel the Land of Promise, the land of Israel, it's a promise that you and I can consider today and it really speaks to that ultimate victory that we have that our biggest victory is already one of our greatest needs have already been met because God has given this promise, this heritage to the servants of the Lord. The end result is going to be victory and this is really important to remember and hold onto because there's so many times in our lives where the situation we are facing looks like certain defeat, maybe it feels like certain defeat, maybe it feels like actual defeat, not just future defeat right, but maybe it just feels like a complete wreck and yet we see that God is able to turn even a complete wreck to reform it into something beautiful, to reform it into something and to bring out of the ashes beauty to bring something substantial and great. I was thinking about the Saints in the Book of Revelation and it talks about the Saints in heaven having overcome that they had victory, but it's not the typical victory like you and I might think or anticipate right, because they overcame by being put to death and so on some level you might look at that and say that's a defeat to be put to death. They were martyred for their faith. But as they're in eternity, the real perspective is, you know, that's not defeat, that's victory that they overcame by the blood of the land and no weapon formed against them prospered because they trusted in God and now they are in eternity in victory by faith in the Lord. As Joshua led the Children of Israel into the promised land before he divides it out and gives them each their individual responsibility. He took care of the big victories. He took care of the big problems. He led them in victory against those established strongholds. And even it goes on to talk about the giants in the land. Look at verse 21 and 22 and at that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakin from the mountains from Hebron, Hebron from de beer, from an IB, from all the mountains of Judah and from all the mountains of Israel, Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. None of the Anakin were left in the land of the Children of Israel. They remained only in Gaza in Gas and in Ashdod. The Anna kim were giants. They were extra large people. uh Goliath was a descendant of Anna. He was a giant in the land, right? That happens, He comes on the scene later on. But they were in this promised land and it's one of the reasons why the original group being led out of Egypt refused to enter into the promised land because the spies went in. They came back and they said, oh no, no there's Anakin in there. There's giants in the land were not equipped to face this challenge. We can't do this. But as Joshua leads the Children of Israel into the promised land they conquered, they defeat the enemies, they cast down the strongholds and even the giants in the land that seemed to tower over those of unbelief from the former generation, Joshua is able to come in and deal with them, strike them and remove them from the land. And so it tells us in verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to moses and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land wrested from war here in the promised land, Joshua has accomplished the victory, accomplished what God had set before him, everything that the Lord had said, it was accomplished through Joshua and they now have victory in the land. Now the work is not completely done. But again, the major battles, the biggest victories, they've already been accomplished. And for us it provides such a vivid picture of the battles that christ has fought on our behalf. He has led us forth into victory before we ever had our own individual responsibility or opportunity before. We had, you know, some lot in life assigned to us christ lead the way into the fulfillment of all that God wants to do in us. And so summarizing some of these pictures, right, summarizing some of these details that we can't get into and explore every aspect of it. But oftentimes we refer back to the promised land and the picture that it paints for us as the spirit filled life. And if you want to spend some time meditating on that, considering what that means, you can camp out in Romans chapter eight where it describes for us really the life that is lived out by the spirit and the impacting work of christ on us and what that means for us. And I want to share just the beginning and ending of romans chapter eight with you for a moment to help capture some of those thoughts to help us remember that the biggest victory has already been one. We start out in romans chapter eight Verse one and 2 says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ, jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in christ, jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Here we see this great declaration of no condemnation. It's the conclusion of the argument of what christ has done for us. The fact that we are justified. That we stand before God as if we had never sinned by believing in jesus christ. There is therefore now no condemnation and you can read romans chapter 67 and eight and build up to that obviously there's 1000 things that we're not getting into here. But here's the the biggest victory that has already been accomplished. There is no condemnation for you as a believer in jesus. Your greatest need was that you stood before God deserving to be condemned, deserving to be cast apart from him that you and I as we stand before God in our own selves, we have no basis for eternal life. We deserve to be condemned because of our sinful condition. But Jesus accomplished the greatest victory that the biggest need that we had, he dealt with head on at the cross, making it available to all of us, that we can have victory in him, my faith in him and what he has done for us. And then there is no condemnation. We are free from the law of sin and death that we were once bound to. The greatest need that we had. The biggest victory that needed to be accomplished was accomplished for us by christ on the cross. Well then jumping to the end of Romans Chapter three, we have this great reminder from the Apostle paul And verse 37, he says. And all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in christ jesus, our Lord, we are conquerors and paul says not just that more than conquerors, we have victory that promised guarantee in christ he's taken care of the biggest battles, the biggest victories that we needed. He already accomplished. We've already won those one of those big needs was Well the issue of condemnation and he won that battle. Another way to look at that or another aspect of our biggest need. The biggest battle is the separation from God that sin brought. But in christ we are reconciled to God. And so there is no separation, no matter what death life, angels, Principalities, future things pass things height, depth, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in christ, jesus, our Lord. And so there is no condemnation, there's no separation. We have right standing before God and guaranteed continuation with God. Our biggest battles have already been fought and they've already been won by christ. Your your biggest victories are already one. It's really important because no matter what we face in this life, we can always come back to this again as we face battles as we think about the saints in the Book of Revelation. If they lost that eternal perspective. If they lost the reality of the victory that they had no condemnation, no separation from God. If they lost perspective on that, then they would be completely desperate and in despair in the midst of the things that they would face for you and I we need to keep our eyes fixed on the victory that has already been accomplished, Joshua here takes the land of Israel, he conquers the whole land, he has the greatest victories already taken care of for the tribes. So that now as it's their turn to take steps of faith and to inherit the portions that were given to each one of them, the biggest battles have already been one. And so that brings us now to point number two and we're going to jump to chapter 13 for that Point # two is you have opportunity for more victories. The big victories, they've already been accomplished, but part of your inheritance, I really was kind of fascinated in thinking about this. You know, sometimes as we think about inheritance from God, we just think about it from a certain perspective and we need to factor in the reality that part of our inheritance, part of the blessing that we have from God is the opportunity for more victory. You know? It comes with the opportunity for more victory though. I mean, I'm just kind of like glossing over there, we are again, roman, you know, where the breakers over here, can you? Yeah, thank you, man. So the thing that goes along with victory is battle or electricity. One of the other. Yeah, uh You have the opportunity for more victory. That's your inheritance from God. That's your blessing. That also means though you have battles in store and it's God's blessing to you to give you the opportunity to battle, to give you the opportunity to take territory, to take steps of faith to do hard things and face fierce enemies in Joshua, chapter 11 verse 23 just tied back to that 11 thought real quick Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to moses and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel. So he did the big battle, He conquered the land as a whole and then he's going to divide it up to each of the individual tribes. The major battles have been one. Now Joshua, your task, the second part of his objective. Now you've got to give it to all the different tribes in the land of Israel. And now each tribe, it's kind of like passing on the baton. Each tribe is now responsible for finishing the job in their own territory within their own land. Check out Verse one of Joshua, chapter 13 says now Joshua was old advanced in years and the Lord said to him, you are old advanced in years and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. The victory has been accomplished and yet at the same time there's a lot of land that is yet to be possessed. This is part of the reality of the christian life. The victory has been accomplished, christ has been victorious on our behalf. At the same time he grants to us part of our inheritance. Part of our blessing is the opportunity to then possess the land that he's given to us jumping down to verse seven of chapter 13, it says now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh. All the major threats have been cast down. So now all the individual tribes are going to be given the opportunity. God is telling them all right, go inherit the land that is given to you. Go, take it, conquer it, accomplish the victory that I want to accomplish in your life. Now it is the individual tribes responsibility versus two through six goes on to give a lot of details about the description of the geography and the boundaries and all of those things. But here's just a quick look at that. That's versus two through six right there. You can see that and understand that God said, look for you. Here's what I want this boundary and it's very specific and very detailed and for you, I want this boundary and it's very specific and very detailed in a similar way for each of us. God says, I have for you a portion I have for you a plan for your life at work in your life and inheritance that includes not just the eternity that we look forward to, but the things in this life that he has established for our good that he has given to us for our benefit. Again, a lot of times we look at the inheritance and we just think about it from a certain perspective, you can think about the inheritance that they've been given and think about it. In the terms of Here you are, here's your plot of land. So now you get to own land and you get to be a landowner. You get to be a farmer. Now you can grow crops and experience fruitfulness and you can think about inheritance just in terms of being a farmer. Here you go. You have some land now, you can build a home, you can build cities, you can be established in the land and you can think about the inheritance just in like as a as a builder, as a and establishing of that stability that comes from cities and homes and walls and and you can think about inheritance just in those terms there is the importance of farming and fruitfulness. There is the importance of foundation and being established. But again in this inheritance that God has given to them. Built into this whole thing is opportunity to battle, opportunity to obey God to trust God and difficult things and face fierce enemies and have victory and experience that for themselves. Member the promise that God gave to them was everywhere. The sole of your foot steps, I will give that land to you. I will give you that place. They were to go inhabit the land to put their foot on the portion that had been given to them in the land of Israel. Now, as we continue reading on from Joshua and into the Book of judges will see that the tribes individually did not go forward and step foot in all the land that God has given to them. They didn't actually carry it out and executed. They, they had the opportunity but they didn't take the opportunity because it was difficult and there were challenges and they were fearful. There's a lot of good reasons why they didn't, but they didn't set foot. They didn't take advantage of the opportunities that God had given to them. It's like if I give you an annual pass to Disneyland, but you never go like you had the opportunity to go. You could go any time you want to, it's already paid for it, you can get in. But if you don't go well, you had the opportunity, but you didn't get a partake of it or if you go, but you only spend time in Tomorrowland. And then so you miss out on, you know, I forget all the other lands. That's why I said Tomorrowland, but you miss out on New Orleans Square, right, that's okay. It's been a while I got to go back to Disneyland, I need an annual pass. So what am I thinking? You got a Star Wars land? Oh my goodness. Yeah, totally brain dead. And if I only spend time in Star Wars then right, like there's so much more that I could explore that I have access to that I have opportunity to uncover. But I just, you know, kind of camp out where I'm comfortable camp out of my favorite thing. As you think about the land being provided to the Children of Israel, it would be so easy for them and it's kind of what they did. They conquered enough to get comfortable, they got their land, they got their farms growing, they got their homes built and then they stopped, they stopped growing, they stopped continuing the process of taking the opportunities that God had set before them and the extent of their victory going forward. Remember the major battles, the major victories, they were already won. But there are many more victories that God could have would have provided for them. The extent of the victory that they experienced in their lives, would depend on how much they went to battle. And that is such an important thing for us to consider the extent of victory in your life will depend on how much you go to battle. It's so easy for us to look at this and judge them and think, wow, you know, they never took the whole land that God gave to them and God promised them victory and they saw these miracles and they saw these victories. We, we can easily stand in judgment against them. But I think like them many times we organize our lives around what is convenient and what is easy and what is relaxing and we're not signing up to go to battle. Oftentimes we're not dealing with and pressing forward in our spiritual lives. We're not dealing with the things that God wants to do in our workplaces, in our homes, in our community, within our church, were just kind of camping out where we're comfortable. We took enough territory. We've accomplished enough to be a little bit settled and then we can kind of rest for certain. There is times of rest in between battles, right? For certain, that's appropriate. That's real. But we also need to be careful that we don't just rest and then we like to rest so much that we never go back into the battle. We never go back into the steps of faith. And the thing that God has for us, Pastor David, Music puts it this way, we are blessed by personally taking responsibility and initiative in trusting God to do what he has called them to do. We're blessed personally when we take initiative and responsibility. Again, going back to the map here, this was the land that God had given to them and it would be easy to kind of go in, set up camp, set up your farm and then, okay, Lord, you know, whenever you want to give us the rest of the territory that's been given to us, you know, just come knock on our door and we'll try to answer when you come knock and you know, to give us that opportunity, know what God was expecting them to do was to take initiative. Come over the plant. Okay guys, this is the territory that God has given to us and we need to now be active in taking that territory and inhabiting that land, facing battles, fighting battles and accomplishing the victory that God wants to give us again, signing up to go to battle, signing up to bring about the victories that God wants to bring. You have opportunity for more victories, Your opportunity for victories are not done. There's many more things that God would desire to do In your life. Think about the apostle, Paul's heart and attitude in Philippians chapter three he says, I haven't already attained. I'm not already perfected. I'm not just camped in the land and settled and comfortable and just that's it. I've accomplished enough spiritual things. I've accomplished enough victory, I've grown enough. I'm good. I just kind of need to coast now until eternity Paul says, no, I'm not attained, I'm not perfected, but I press on, I'm pushing forward. I'm not sitting back. I'm not just resting. I'm I'm pressing on, I'm seeking to attain to lay hold of that, for which christ jesus says laid hold of me. I haven't counted myself as apprehended, I'm not there yet. I haven't finished the work that God has set before me. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God. In christ jesus. There's there's this moving forward, taking initiative. I want to grow, I want to develop, I'm afraid of battles. I'm fearful of those things that I face, but but I know I have the promise of victory. I know that God has given me territory, he said before me opportunity. And so I need to trust him and keep on going to battle. Keep on stepping out of my comfort zone, stepping forward in my relationship with God. Again, in the things that he wants to do in the different areas and aspects of my life. Now, as you go forward in the book of Joshua, you'll find everybody's inheritance is a little bit different. The division of the land is not just geographical lines, but there's different kinds of territory, Some have hills, some have trees, some have this kind of enemy and some have different kinds of enemies. Every tribe has their own individual challenges in a similar way for us individually personally, we we all have our portion from God, our again, the phrase we can perhaps consider is our lots in life. The Children of Israel needed to rest in the boundaries that God had set, I needed to understand there's some tribes who said, you know, we don't like these boundaries, We don't want to go find new land to inhabit. We don't want the land that God has given to us. And sometimes we can approach life in that way that I don't want this life. I don't want these spiritual gifts. I don't want these talents, I don't want these challenges, I don't want this disease, I don't want, you know, these things that have landed to me in this life, I want different battles. I want different territory, I want something different in my life and we don't totally understand why we might feel that way. But at the same time, there is the boundaries that God has set. Joseph, I think is a good example. He would not have chosen the same path for himself that God had chosen for him to be sold into slavery and hated by his brothers and thrown into prison unjustly that it would not have been his choice. He wouldn't have chose to be a champion of endurance. But you know what joseph was, he was a champion of endurance. He had victory as he continued to trust God through all that he experienced in life. He became a victor, A champion that sets the model and the standard for us, he wouldn't have chosen the path of being a champion of forgiveness. If he would have had it his ways, he would have had a good relationship with his brothers. But that was outside of his control. Uh, as far as was his part, right? He he was not his brother's enemies, but his brother's counted him as an enemy and treated him unjustly. And so he later on would become a champion, a victor of forgiveness and impossible and crazy attacks that his brothers brought against him. You and I, we might experience similar things that joseph and say, I want a different law in life. I don't want these boundaries. I don't want these challenges. I don't want to be a champion of forgiveness. But these are the things that we face and these are the things that God has allowed. And this is the path that we're on. There's more victory for you. And so you don't have to just be a victim of the situation and the things. But now you can come through those things, trusting in God and letting God lead you being obedient to God and taking steps of faith and come forth victorious from any situation that takes place in the course of your life. We need to let God set the boundaries, give us the direction set the course of our pursuits. and Joshua chapter 14 We'll see the counterpart to Joshua Caleb. The original spy along with Joshua who said, no, we don't have to run away from this, We can trust God, we can enter into the land And Caleb comes to Joshua in Chapter 14 now, he's really old. He's late 80's and he says, you know what I want, Joshua, I want the land that God told me. He was going to give me God set the boundaries for me a long time ago and I'm old now and there's giants in that land. But give me the giant battles. I'm old now, but I'm not going to try to change the boundaries, trying to get you know, hey, you know, I'm a lot older now and been fighting with you Joshua for a while, we conquered the land seven years it took you know like where's a nice like rest home in Israel that you can just kind of send me to and just kind of give me something comfortable and luxurious. And he said, give me the giant battles. I want the original land that God told me he was going to give me, I want those boundaries. I'm not gonna run, try to fight against that. I'm not going to try to back out of that. I want those things that you promised me Lord and I'm going to trust you, even though I'm old to fight those battles, you have opportunity for more victories. Even if you're in your late 80s. God told Joshua you're old and advanced in years and here's your next assignment, divide the land now for Joshua was a change of direction. Not so much for Caleb, but for Joshua, you're conquering time is done now. It's administrating now, divide up the land and help the people discover what God has for them, that they would be able to go forward. But Joshua's job was not done even though he was old and advanced in years. There was more victories for him to accomplish, not directly on the battlefield, but through the fulfilling of the assignment that God had given to him. Pastor David Music says, well, acknowledging Joshua's advanced years, God still tells him about a job that needs to be done. No matter how much we have done in our christian lives, There still remains much to do. Like paul said, I press on, I haven't arrived yet. I'm not done. I'm not finished. You have opportunity for more victories. Many times. We organize our lives around what's convenient. What's easy, What's relaxing many times? We're not signing up to go face new enemies and fight new battles. But we need to, we need to, God has more victories for you. We need to be taking steps of faith. We need to be engaged in acts of service and trusting God being filled with the holy spirit, we need to endure hardship as good soldiers of the Lord, jesus that we might come forth as champions in victor's as God has promised to us, you're promised inheritance is victory, which means with its coupled with battles, challenges difficulties, but the promise is the result. The promises you will come through victorious as you trust the Lord and walk with him. And so that brings us to our third point and we're going to go backwards a little bit here in Joshua, Joshua chapter 12 gives us point number three, your victories are won by faith. Your victories are won by faith. Now we're not going to work through all of the verses here of Joshua, chapter 12, but kind of just get a sense here of these verses. And so Joshua chapter 12, verse one says this. These are the kings of the land whom the Children of Israel defeated and whose land they possessed on the other side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun from the river Arnon to mount Hermon and all the eastern Jordan plane versus one through six. Here of Joshua, chapter 12 is a summary of the victories accomplished by moses. As you read through those verses, you find there's two victories provided by moses Verse two says 1 King with Simon, King of the Emirates And then verse four, the other king was og king of Bashan. For six. These moses, the servant of the Lord and the Children of Israel had conquered. So, you remember, moses couldn't lead the Children of Israel across the Jordan river into the promised land. So his victories were limited to those two kingdoms on the east side of the Jordan river. But then the rest of the chapter goes on to record the summary of Joshua's victories vs seven through 24 record all the different kings and kingdoms and list each one specifically to give us the record to give us the count verse seven says. And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the Children of Israel conquered on this side of the Jordan on the west, from baal Gad, in the valley of Lebanon, as far as Mount Halak, the ascent of Seer, which Joshua had given to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their divisions and the mountain country and the lowlands and the Jordan plain in the slopes in the wilderness and in the south, the hit heights, the M writes, the Canaanites, the parasites, the hip fights and the job sites as it goes forward from there versus nine through 24 list each king individually jumping down to verse 24 it says this, the King of Tours a one all the kings, 31. So Joshua, as we see his record of victories, Defeats 31 Kings in the promised land, defeats all these different peoples. The Canaanites parasite invites the job sites taking the territory that God had given to them And I was really struck by this picture here in Joshua. Chapter 12. This week, as I was reading through it, The picture that is painted for us here in Joshua chapter 12 is that your victories are won by faith and not by the law. Your victories are won by faith, not by religion. Your victories are won by Faith. It reminded me of Paul's words in Galatians, Chapter three he says before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to christ that we might be justified by faith moses who brought forth the law from God is a picture of course of the law of God, Joshua, Yeshua jesus, of course, a picture of christ. It demonstrates here. It shows us the victory that is accomplished. And the comparison If you add up the victories of moses and you add up the victories of Joshua, you got moses to Joshua 31 and it really just paints this picture for us. Listen, you want to get bound up in legalism, you want to get bound up in the law. You want to try to accomplish victory in your life by religion, you might get a couple of victories. But if you will trust the Lord jesus christ, you will get an overwhelming amount of victories. The religious leaders in jesus date, we're extremely proud of their, you could put it in quotes, their righteousness, it wasn't real righteousness, it was self righteousness. And and they really represent a great warning for us because it's a danger for us to get really settled into religion and ritual and to think that we're okay with God because of the rituals by which we conduct ourselves. And many times as believers when we are facing challenges, when we're facing, let's say sinful issues in our lives, there's a great temptation for us to try to face that battle through legalism through. Let's set a law, Let's come up with some type of system. Let's try to attack this and defeat this in our own strength. And we might be kind of falsely encouraged in that because there are times where yeah, I'm making a simple rule, making a simple decision like that. Might win us a couple battles here and there, we might get a couple of victories, but we won't get the life of victory that faith brings. We might get a couple quick wins, but it's not the fulfillment of crossing over the Jordan and experiencing the full extent of what God has for us, Paul puts it this way in Colossians chapter two talking about religion, he says these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Listen, if you're looking to have victory over the flesh, it's not going to be through self imposed religion, you might get a win here or there. But if you want to have real victory in your life over the flesh. You got to be led by Joshua, not by moses, not to speak ill of moses, of course he was used by God in the appropriate way. But the pictures that it paints for us are very clear and we can rely upon legalism. We can tend towards religion in our lives in a way that really hinders the victories that God wants to bring and we need to remember, victories are won by faith. Faith is trusting God. Faith is obedience to God at his word. And the victories that you need to have again in your home, in your workplace, in the church, in the community, victories that our nation needs. They're not going to be one by legalism. They're not going to be one by religion. They're not going to be won by our efforts. They're going to be one by faith in God, by trusting God and by being obedient to God in his direction. To us, victories are won by faith, not legalism, not self, not in action. And so here And Joshua, chapters 11 through 13, we see the promised inheritance that God has for us pictured for us through Joshua and the Children of Israel. The victories they accomplished. Show us and remind us the victories promised to us, your promised inheritance, your guarantee as you trust God and walk with him, is victory no matter what someone may bring against you, no matter what people may gather against you and scheme and plot and conspire against you. You can rest assured your biggest victories are already won and that's why jesus said, hey, don't worry about what man can do to you. The worst they can do to you is kill you. And we think that's pretty bad, but jesus, but that's not the worst. You need to fear God who has the capacity to control your eternity, whether or not your eternity with him or apart from him, God has that capacity. He's the one you need to fear. He's the one you need to pay attention to and for that he sent his only son to accomplish your greatest victory so that there is no condemnation. There is no separation for those who believe in jesus christ, you have that done accomplished, but don't just rest there and settle in that God has set before you opportunity for many, many, many more victories, many more great things that God wants to do in your life and through your life continue to step out, continue to be led by him, continue to trust in him for those things that he wants to do and never forget that those victories are accomplished by faith, it's always got to come back to our trust in God. It's not because we're so clever or so smart or so wise or so organized or so, whatever our victories are won by faith, paul said, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit, are you seeking to be made perfect to finish the job by faith? Sometimes we bite the flesh. Sometimes we try to do that that we try to. Okay God, you gave me a good start there with the cross and now I got it from here and I'm going to work hard and make victories happen in my life. But it doesn't work that way. It always comes back to a reliance upon a dependence on our Lord and Savior, jesus. Let's pray Lord, we thank you for your word to us and your promises to us what we thank you for the guaranteed victories that you have given to us. Lord. We do you believe these pictures that are painted here. These illustrations that you reveal through your word. Show us or the life that you want to provide for us, the things that you want to accomplish. And as we walk with you and are led by you Lord, you have much more in store for us. Help us learn to trust you to not just settle in but to step out to take initiative and see the plans that you have set before us and to move forward. Not to rush ahead and try to do it on our own, but wanted to be to be seeking you. Lord thinking about paul writing to the romans, he said, I'm working this way. I'm trying this way. I'm just trying to find a way within the will of God to come to. You would give us that kind of heart or that we would be exploring and testing and finding and seeking to stretch out, go beyond what has already been done, but that we would press on and our spiritual lives in our homes and our workplaces, in our church and our community. May we go forth trusting in you that we might experience the victory that you desire to give? We pray this in jesus name. Amen.