Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along.
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
We're going to be in the Book of Joshua.
We're going to continue our study in the Book of Joshua.
Our main text this evening is going to be in Joshua chapter 15.
And if you guys are ready, we're going to do some traveling
through scripture.
All right.
If it is God's will.
And I got to be careful in promising you where we're going to
go, but I think that we'll at least go from Joshua 15 all the way
to Joshua 19.
So some of you are going to question whether or not we can cover
all that ground.
Well, I can speak pretty fast, and if you listen fast, we'll get
there.
No, I'm just kidding.
But we'll.
We'll.
What we're doing in Joshua is we're seeing in chapter 15 a culmination
of God's promises to his people.
You know, it's one thing when God makes his promises and he clearly
states his promises to his people in the Old Testament, to Moses
and to Joshua.
And then we even know that in the New Testament, God makes his
promises to his people, his children.
And so it's one thing when God makes the promise, it's another thing
when God fulfills his promise in our lives.
And that's what we're seeing here in Joshua chapter 15.
Really, from Joshua chapter 15 on, it's a.
It's an account of all the lands that are.
Are given as an inheritance to the people of these different tribes
of Israel.
But these promises were not just given to the people of Israel.
They were given all the way back to.
To Moses.
They were given back at the time of Joshua when he began to lead
his people.
And so we're.
We're going to turn back.
Keep your finger in Joshua chapter 15.
And I want you to turn back to Joshua chapter one, because that's
where it's all started in this study.
And if you remember in context, what was happening in Joshua
Chapter one was that Moses dies.
He passes off the scene, and now Israel has a new leader in Joshua.
And there's a lot of fear, possibly in the life of Joshua.
We know that through God reminding him not to have fear.
But in the midst of God, Giving Joshua the encouragement.
He gives Joshua some promises.
He gives Joshua promises.
He gives Joshua the promise of provision.
He gives Joshua the promise of his power.
And he gives ultimately Joshua the promise of his presence.
And it says in verse 1 of Joshua 1.
Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came
to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's
minister, saying, moses my servant is dead.
Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people
unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of
Israel.
So God speaks to Joshua and says this.
It's time for you to take leadership.
It's time for you to take the people across Jordan and get the
land that I have promised you.
But then we see in verse 3 says, Every place that the soul of
your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I
said unto Moses.
And so, essentially what he's saying is this.
The same promise that I gave to Moses is the same promise that
I'm giving to you.
And the promise is this, that you are going to inherit this land.
This land is yours.
And therefore I've already given you the victory.
The promise of victory is here, verse 4.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river,
the river Euphrates, and all the Hittites, all the land of the
Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the
sun shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the
days of thy life.
And so in Joshua, chapter 1, verse 5, God promises Joshua that,
hey, no one could stand against you when I'm with you.
He says, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.
What an amazing verse.
Verse 5 is specifically for the promise that God gives Joshua.
He says, joshua, just as I was with Moses, and it was evident to
everyone that God was with Moses, I will also be with you.
And what does he say?
He says, not only will I be with you, but he says, I will not
fail thee, nor forsake thee.
We even talked this morning about times in our life where we're
tempted to think that maybe God has forgotten about us.
Maybe God has pulled his hand off of us.
But the promise to Joshua is this.
Just as I've always been with you and your people, I will continue
to be with you.
And then he says in verse six, be strong and of a good courage.
For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance.
The land which I swear unto their fathers to give them.
So verse six is really this.
He says, joshua, you have a purpose.
So they there's a promise of his power, his presence, his provision.
But he says, joshua, there's a promise of your purpose, and your
purpose is this two, he says, divide for an inheritance the land
which I swear unto their fathers to give them.
So he says, joshua, I'm going to work through you to be a part
of this process in which these people will get the inheritance that
I promised them.
And then of course, we see those passages that we've mentioned
so many times is verse 7, 8, and 9 only be thou strong and very
courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the
law which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not from.
From it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper
whether so ever thou goest.
He says, hey, we.
We want you to be.
I want you to be as.
As God in your life.
I want you to stay on the right path.
We want you to be obedient.
We want you to be a focus.
And he says, Verse 8.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou
shalt meditate there in day and night, that thou mayest observe
to do according to all that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make that way prosperous, and and then thou
shall have good success.
So the success does not come from their own strength.
The success comes from following the word and the will of
God.
And then he reminds them, have I not commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage.
Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is
with thee withers whoever thou goes.
And so at the end of verse nine, he's reminded of the presence
of God.
And that's a powerful thing to know, that God is with us in the
midst of our battles.
And we've seen now through 14 chapters, the ups and downs of battle,
that God was there with them in the midst of their successes.
And that when they turned away from God, he, even though he allowed
them to fall into some.
Some situations of pain and suffering, he ultimately restores
them.
And really what we're seeing throughout the rest of the book of
Joshua is that God keeps his word by giving them these places
of their inheritance.
And so let's go to Joshua chapter 15 with those promises in
mind.
And last week we looked at Caleb's request.
Remember Caleb?
He was that one faithful one that we saw back in the book of Numbers.
That was one of the faithful spies.
He went and he had faith that God would keep his word and that
God would give them the victory.
But the other 10 spies outside of Caleb and Joshua did not have
faith and they were fearful and they did not go in.
And there was a, a, a curse against them that none of those people
could go into the promised land other than Joshua and Caleb.
And now Caleb is calling back to those promises.
And he asked Joshua to remember the, the promise that God
had given him.
And ultimately he does.
And we're going to see in Joshua 15 that coming to pass.
And so in Joshua, chapter 15, really, verses 1 through 12 tell
us the inheritance of the land of the tribe of Judah.
And the tribe of Judah is certainly significant because of
the fact that in many different reasons it's significant.
But the greatest reason I believe is that, you know, the Messiah,
Jesus Christ come comes from the line of Judah.
And so verses 1 through 12 are, are going to talk about all
the land that Judah will inherit.
Now, we're not going to go through all of that.
If you want to go back and read all the different delineating
lines of all the lands there, you can certainly do that in your
own time.
But we do know that Caleb was of the tribe of Judah.
And So in verse 13, we see that specific inheritance given to
Caleb.
And I think that it's important for us to note that, that
the, the promise that God had given Caleb all the way back in the
Book of Numbers, and the promise that was requested through
Caleb in Joshua 14 culminates in verse 13.
Here it says, and unto Caleb, the son of Jephuna, he gave a part
among the children of Judah according to the commandment of the
Lord to Joshua.
Even the city of Arba, the father of Anak, which city is Hebron.
And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak and, and Sheshai,
and him on, and Talmai, and the children of Anak.
Now, if you remember, what did Caleb do?
Caleb says, lord, give me an opportunity.
I'm an old man.
I'm 85 years old, but I'm still as energized as I was 40 some
years ago.
Give me the opportunity to go and possess these lands that you
have promised me.
And so Caleb wasn't looking for a handout.
He wanted to work for God.
He wanted to obtain the land that God had promised him.
So we see Here in Joshua 15 the culmination of that.
Caleb actually goes into that land that was promised to him.
And remember, that was the land that he spied on all the way
back in the book of numbers the land that he set eyes upon and
said, the Lord can give me this land.
He believed in faith, and God gave him the victory here in this
passage.
And so we see that he goes and he fights against the children of
Anak.
And that shows that he had faith that God would provide for
him.
But that faith led to action.
That faith led to him moving and taking that land.
So verse 15.
And he went up fence to the inhabitants of Debir.
And the name of Deer before was Kjath Sephra.
And Caleb said, he that smiteth Kjath Se and taketh it to
him, will I give Achash my daughter to wife.
And so he says, hey, he gives this incentive for someone to go
take out this land.
And he says, you know, I will give whoever wins this battle to
have the opportunity to marry my daughter.
And verse 17.
And oel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and he
gave him a cash, his daughter to wife.
And it came to pass as she came unto him, that she moved him,
asked him her father a field, and she lighted off her ass.
And Caleb sent unto her, what would us?
Thou who answered, give me a blessing, for thou has given me a
southland, give me also springs of water.
And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
And so essentially what we see in this passage of scripture is that
Caleb goes and then he fights for the kingdom of God.
And he fights and he gets that land.
And then we also see that even as Caleb daughter imitated her father's
boldness, we see that she asked for a blessing, and obviously
she's blessed in that.
So we see that Caleb's family is a family that desires to seek
the blessings of God, that desires to see the culmination of
God's promises in their life.
And so that's really the ending story for Caleb there.
And then we see verse 20 all the way through verse 62 to the end
of the chapter is essentially all of the lands that are all the
cities that are given to the tribe of Judah.
And that's an interesting read.
At some point in time, if you like geography specifically, you
know, ancient Middle Eastern geography, then you're able to look
through that.
And that's a.
That's a good time to maybe another time to study.
But verse 63, I think is important for us to note, and I find
this super interesting for future implications, is that there
is an incomplete occupation because there is one city that is
still inhabited by the Jebusites, and that that would not
be the people of Israel.
It says in verse 63, as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out.
But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem
unto this day.
Now, that doesn't mean until today.
That means until the time that this was written.
But what we see is that what we can understand through this is
that Jerusalem was a hard city to conquer because of the geography
there.
It's up on a hill.
And the fact that it's up on a hill made it easier for the people
to defend and harder for the people to attack and to conquer.
And so no matter how hard the struggle is for the people of Israel,
God eventually gives them that victory.
We know that later on that God allowed for the victory to come and
that the people of Israel do obtain the land of Jerusalem.
And ultimately that's where the temple is built.
That's ultimately where all of the stories that you know about early
on in the New Testament with Jesus there, we know that it revolves
all around Jerusalem.
And so ultimately, Jerusalem plays a huge part in the history
of the people of Israel.
And so that's impactful.
Then we get to chapter 16, and we see the inheritance of the tribe
of Joseph, and that's split into the inheritance of Ephraim and
the inheritance of Manasseh.
Joshua 16, 1, 4, tell us the borders of the sons of Joseph.
And you have Ephraim, which is the half tribe.
And I know a lot of this is historical.
And so we're going to trudge through a little bit of this to eventually
get to some more of the lessons.
And then we see verses 5 through 10 talking about the borders
of Ephraim.
And then we get to chapter 17.
That's the inheritance of Manasseh.
And.
And I know that many of you know the.
The dynamic of that Joseph, the tribe of Joseph was split into
two.
And so there's the tribe of Manasseh, and he was the firstborn
of Joseph.
And so there's that distribution of the land among the
remaining families of the tribe of Manasseh.
And then we see some more particular inheritances.
In verses 3 through 6, we see some individual inheritances for
specific people.
And then we get to 7 through 13.
That's the.
The western side, the western half of the tribe and their occupation.
And we get down to Joseph's lot being enlarged all the way through
the end of chapter 17.
And then we get to chapter 18, which we're going to spend a little
bit more time on.
But what I do want us to see is that in verse 14 and verse 14
of Joshua, chapter 17, we see some individuals that are not satisfied
with what's given to them.
So Caleb was satisfied with the land that was given to him, and
he actually went and worked for the land that was given to him.
But we see it in Joshua, chapter 17, verse 14.
And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, why hast
thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit?
See, and I am a great people for as much as the Lord hath blessed
me hitherto.
So there's a question here, and the question stems out of a heart
of.
Really, what we would say is it's not out of a heart of gratitude.
It's out of a heart of covetousness.
Meaning this.
We want more land.
Why have you given us only one lot of land?
We're a large group, and there's a lot of people here.
And so they complain about what had been given to them.
And they say it's not adequate enough.
And they.
They talk about how great they are.
They.
They say, we're great people.
We have a lot of people.
We have a lot of resources.
Why have you not given us the land that we think we deserve?
And.
And this is how sometimes we are when it comes to the blessings
of the Lord.
God gives us plenty of blessings.
But then we look at a situation and we say, lord, but why
didn't you give us more?
I think I deserve more.
Or why did you give those people more than what you've given
me?
And oftentimes we can get to a place in our life where we're dissatisfied.
And that dissatisfaction can lead us to a place of bitterness.
And that place of bitterness can lead us to a place that really
becomes a wedge between our relationship with God.
And so we see these people here in verse 14.
They complain.
The tribe of Joseph, the children of Joseph, they complain
to Joshua.
And Joshua's reply here is.
Is, I think, a wise reply as a leader, because he could have said
a lot of things.
But he says in verse 14, and Joshua answered them and said, if
thou be a great people.
So he basically calls them out for what they say.
He says, if you're such a great people.
And obviously he knows that they do have a lot of people, and
he knows what their potential is.
He says, if you are such a great people, then get the up to
the wood country and cut down for thyself there in the land of
the parasites which.
And of the giants.
If Mount Ephraim be too narrow for Thee.
So, meaning this, if you're not satisfied with what God has blessed
you, utilize all the land that's given to you.
And so what essentially we see here is this.
He says, there is land for you to fully occupy that the Lord has
given to you.
But you haven't taken the opportunity to go up to the mountain
country, go up to the area that's not convenient for you, and
take that territory.
You want to take something as a handout.
You want to have just something given to you without any
effort.
And he says Here in verse 15, you have an opportunity.
You have the land up in the parasites in Land of the Giants.
He says, if the.
The Mount Ephraim is too narrow for the or too small for thee,
go obtain what has already been promised to you.
And I look at these people here in Joshua chapter 17, and I
look at them in contrast to the people that we see In Joshua
chapter 14, Joshua, chapter 14 was Caleb.
Joshua chapter 14 was Caleb saying, lord, give me an opportunity.
Give me a chance.
I'll take everything that I possibly can.
I will go, and I will use all the resources that you give me.
And so these people in Joshua 17 are not like that.
These people in Joshua 17 want the easy way.
They want the.
The land that was just given to them.
And they did not want to take God's promises and move forward with
them.
And so the principle is really this.
The principle applies to us today in the fact that God has given
us so much and many of us aren't utilizing the blessings that
God has given us, an inheritance of the spiritual riches
that we read about in the New Testament.
And then we complain that God hasn't given us opportunities.
We complain that God hasn't blessed us, but we're not willing
to put to the test the work that God has called us to do.
And so essentially what we see is that ultimately God had given
them enough land, but they weren't willing to take that step.
They weren't willing to go in verse 16.
And the children of Joseph said, the hill is not enough for
us.
And all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have
chariots of iron, both they who are of best sheen and her towns,
and they who are the valley of Jezreel.
So they basically give an excuse.
They say, well, we can't go there, that.
That even.
That what you're promising us is not enough.
And therefore there's other people.
There's people there already.
And they have chariots of iron.
They have all these different weapons, and we can't fight against
them.
Verse 17.
And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim
and Manasseh, saying, thou art a great people and has great power.
Thou shalt not have one lot only.
But the mountain shall be thine, for it is a wood, and thou
shalt cut it down.
And the outgoings of it shall be thine, for thou shalt drive out
the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and though they
be strong.
So Joshua tells them this.
Push forward.
He says, hey, you need to follow God.
You need to trust in the promises of God.
You need to go get that land that God has blessed you with.
And I think that for us, the spiritual lesson is that many of
us are sitting with a sense of discontentment in our life, but we're
not tapping into all the resources that God has blessed us
with.
We're not studying the word of God.
We're not going and appealing to God with prayer.
We're not getting ourselves involved with what God has allowed
us to get involved with, with elements of church.
And then we look and then we see what other people have, and we
say, well, I want what they have, but I'm not willing to follow
all the things that God has given me to do within my life.
And so Joshua, chapter 17 is a great reminder of those folks who
are looking at a situation and seeing it from the negative perspective
instead of seeing what God has allowed them to take for the inheritance
themselves.
And so there's this appeal to Joshua, and they, they.
And actually, believe it or not, Joshua is a descendant of Joseph.
And so it's basically Joshua's own people saying, joshua, can't
you give us a little bit more of a blessing?
Can't you help us out just a little bit?
And Joshua basically says, no, God has given you everything you
need now you need to live in that.
And God has given us everything that we need in our life.
I think a lot of times people will say this, and I've even said
this to some degree.
Well, if God just gives me a little bit more blessing in this
area, then I'll go and work for him.
If God can just.
I'm not ready.
And I always use those excuses sometimes in my own life about I'm
not really equipped to do that, or I'm not skilled enough to
do that.
But what we see as Christians is that God has given us everything
that we possibly need for the battle that's ahead of us.
And so what we see as a believer is this, there's no excuse,
there's no excuse to push forward.
There's no excuse to step out that God gives us opportunities and
faith to do these things.
And so as the descendants of Joseph lacked the willingness to
go serve the Lord and go act on that, so do many people do the
same.
And so Joshua gives them the encouragement and the challenge to
basically take the step and to act in faith.
Now we get to chapter 18 and we see more inheritance to the remaining
tribes.
And so Joshua, chapter 18, verses 1 through 3, we see Joshua
exhorting the remaining tribes to possess their land.
So there's actually some tribes that still have the promise
of God given to them.
So, so the, the, the land has been given to them, but they have
not obtained the land.
They haven't taken steps of faith to go live in that land.
And so verse one of chapter 18, it says, the whole congregation
of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and
set up the tabernacle of the congregation there.
And the land was subdued before them.
And there remained among the children of Israel, seven tribes.
So seven of the 12 tribes which had not yet received their
inheritance.
And so Joshua now is going to challenge them to go out and to obtain
the land that God had promised them.
So Joshua said unto the children of Israel, how long are
you slack to go possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers
have given you?
And so we asked them a question.
And sometimes a good question is enough to spur people on to action.
It's thought provoking, it's challenging, and that's what Joshua
does.
And as a good leader, Joshua was exhorting the rest of these tribes
to start to move.
He.
He basically is challenging them on their apathy.
We went to, as brother Jeff mentioned, we went to a men's meeting.
And the speaker at that meeting, at the conference, he challenged
us in the area of whether or not we are passive men, you know,
and, and the reality is, is that when we have patience and passiveness,
there's.
There's really two different things.
And sometimes patience and passiveness can align and we can
kind of look at them as the same thing.
Well, I'm just a very patient person, so I just never act on anything.
Well, no, patience is resting in faith.
Until God says, go, passiveness is waiting and waiting
and never moving out of fear and anxiety.
And that's what we see these people doing.
They're waiting.
He says here, how long are ye slack to go possess the land?
He's basically asking them this question, when are you going
to Move.
God's given you the land.
He's given you the promises.
He's fulfilled his promise.
But you're sitting back for whatever reason, maybe out of fear,
maybe out of.
Of hesitancy, to leave where you're at now and take that step
of faith.
And so the question would be, why would they not want to possess
the land?
Well, it's the same reason why many people today that are Christians
are not tapping into the spiritual riches that God has given
us.
Why did Joshua need to challenge them?
Why were they so comfortable?
Why didn't they want to go out and take the land?
Well, most scholars believe that is probably because these people
who had not lived in permanent dwellings for more than a generation,
they were afraid of something new.
They were afraid of taking a step.
They were afraid of moving out of what they already knew to something
that was even better.
And sometimes, as Christians, we compromise by saying, you know
what?
This is what I know.
I don't want to take a step that's going to stretch me.
I don't know about you guys, but I am a creature of habits.
I used to tell myself when I was a kid, I would get so upset with
people that had traditions and had to eat the same breakfast every
day and had the same routines.
I always promised, I'm not going to be that guy.
I'm going to just be so spontaneous when I'm an adult, I'm
going to just be that kind of guy.
And I wanted to be.
And for a long time, I was, like, trying to lie to myself and
tell myself that that's who I was.
And eventually one day, I think it was a conversation or someone
was preaching, and they're like, you know, are you a creature?
Habit?
I'm like, oh, no, definitely not.
And Alicia looked at me and she's like, yes, you are.
And, you know, I'm like, really?
I am.
I said, I'm very spontaneous.
I don't need to have a thing.
And.
And it took my wife to really clarify to me and.
And wake myself up to the fact that I am a creature of habit.
I don't like change.
I don't like to move out of my comfort zones.
Okay?
I like to do the same things.
I like to have things the way that I like them to be.
And I think that's many times as Christians, we get so comfortable
with what we know, we get so comfortable with what we think is
secure, that when God tells us to move and to obtain the land, so
to speak, to take the step of faith, to serve or to sacrifice or
to get to a place in our life where we're stretching ourselves.
And sometimes stretching hurts.
But what we see here is that these individuals were not willing
to take that step and leave what they already knew.
They thought that that was secure.
They thought that that was something that gave them some type
of sufficiency where they were temporarily.
And these are people that had not had permanent dwellings.
They were used to this type of lifestyle, moving around and not
knowing specifically what was going to be their future home.
And they were in this place of comfort.
But then Joshua says, why are you neglecting this?
Why are you overlooking this?
And so whatever the reason was, the bottom line, the thing that
it all boils down to is that there was a negative element to their
lack of movement.
It wasn't patience.
You know, sometimes that's what I say.
Sometimes I. I will veil my passiveness and my apathy with, well,
I'm just being really patient in my life.
I'm just, you know, I need to.
I just really need to see God clearly speaking to me.
And the truth is, is that God's knocking down the door.
He's ringing my phone, he's emailing me, he's texting.
Not really literally, but you get every which way.
God is telling me that I need to do something, but I'm putting
it off.
And that's sometimes what we see when it comes to our life of
inactive thoughts.
And in, you know, what we would say here in this case is people
that are just living in apathy.
How long are you slack to go possess the land which the Lord your
God, Lord God, your fathers have given you?
He says, give out from among you three men from each tribe.
And so he says, pick these men out.
And Joshua gives them instructions.
So with.
With Joshua's exhortation, with Joshua's challenge comes instruction.
I think that's always how God works.
When God gives us a challenge, he always gives us instructions.
And that's how leadership should be.
Leadership should never be, hey, go do this without any clarity
or without any instruction.
And so Joshua says, you guys need to move.
And one of the things that I think will cause a lot of destruction,
even within our homes, within our churches, within our country,
is.
Is, yes, act of sin.
But we know that there's sins of commission, and we know that there's
sins of omission, right?
Sins of omission would be sins that we are committing by not doing
something.
And so we could argue that the people of Israel, at least these
seven tribes that had not gone to possess the land that God had
given them.
It wasn't the action of them going and doing things that was causing
sin to be in their life.
I mean, they weren't actively going and sinning and.
And acting like the Canaanite pagans.
No, but the sin that they were committing was that they were staying
still.
They weren't moving when God had called them to move.
And so Joshua's challenge is, how long are you slack to go possess
the land?
Is the same question that we could ask today.
What's holding us back from doing what God has called us to do?
What's holding us back from tapping into the spiritual blessings
that are promised to us in scripture?
How many of us walk with confidence?
How many of us walk a newness of life?
How many of us are sharing our faith with people?
Well, it's because of this.
The way.
You know what I always use as an excuse that you guys.
You guys maybe don't know me enough, but maybe you do know me
enough.
Every time you talk to me, I'm like, I'm busy.
I got a lot going on, okay?
Busyness is the.
Is the destructive element in my life, because I can look at all
my busyness, and I can be so busy that I'm not doing what I need
to be doing for Jesus Christ.
Well, I gotta go do this, and I gotta do this, and I gotta do this,
and I gotta handle that.
And then at the end of the day, I've got nothing accomplished
for the kingdom of God.
But I've got all my itinerary set up.
I've got all of my day aligned, and I've got all my plans
taken care of.
But then God's called me to do something else, and I go, well, you
know what?
I've got a lot on my plate today.
I don't know if I can do that.
Pastor Spicer.
Some of you guys remember Pastor Spicer here at the.
At the church.
I remember a few things, actually more than a few things about
his ministry to me just in the time frame that I had here with him.
But one of the things that I do remember and I will never forget,
he preached a message on God's interruptions.
And that one to this day sticks out to me because I'm the
type of person that I've got an agenda.
I was talking to the discipleship class tonight, and I
was telling them I love curriculums.
I love finishing books.
I love making sure all the blanks are filled.
I love making sure all my.
My lesson plans are aligned and perfect and Everyone listens
and everyone applies it.
But at the end of the day, sometimes God interrupts us to what
we have planned, to something bigger and better, something that
needs to be an interruption in our life.
And so God interrupts our plans and institutes his will for
our life.
And sometimes we've got to pause and we've got to listen and
say, okay, Lord, you're stopping me.
Okay, I need to understand that, or, Lord, you're pushing me
forward on this.
And so I say that to emphasize that challenge that Joshua gives
to these people.
He says, go, it's time to move.
And if I could give one message to the church today, it's
this.
It's time to move.
If there's.
There's no better time than now to get busy about the kingdom
of God, the gospel message needs to be preached.
The church is an institution, not, as we said this morning, from
the world, but from God that is told to be the pillar and ground
of truth.
Who's going to fight for the truth in this world?
Who's going to preach the gospel?
Well, it's that church over there, that big church across town.
No, the responsibility is our responsibility.
And so Joshua says, take it upon yourself, just because of the
other tribes, the other tribes have inherited their land.
Don't be looking at those tribes.
You seven tribes need to get busy.
And so that's exactly the challenge here.
So then we're going to look at verse four.
He says, give out from among you three men of each tribe.
So here's the instruction that comes with the exhortation.
Give out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send
them.
And they shall rise and go through the land and describe it
according to the inheritance of them, and they shall come again
unto me.
And so Joshua is basically instructing them to have a survey,
to go out and to assess all the land and to bring back more information.
Maybe it's just the fact that they need to see what they've been
promised.
They need to be reminded of the inheritance.
And that's what he says here in verses four through eight.
So he says, give out from among you these three men, verse
five.
And they shall divide it into seven parts.
Judah shall abide in their coast on the south.
The house of Joseph shall abide in their coast on the north.
And ye shall therefore describe the land into seven parts,
and bring the description hither to me, that I may cast lots
for you here before the Lord our God.
But the Levites have no part among you, for the priesthood of
the Lord is Their inheritance.
We mentioned that before.
We know that the Levites don't have any physical land, or their
inheritance is the Lord, which is the best inheritance to have in
general.
And Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received
their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses,
the servant of the Lord gave them.
And then he concludes with this in verse eight.
And the men arose and went away.
So they, they obey, they listened.
And Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying,
go and walk through the land and describe it and come again to
me that I may here cast lots for you before the Lord in Shiloh.
And so essentially what we see here is that they're.
They're.
They go out into the survey party.
Verses 9 and 10 tell us that they went, they passed through the
land, they obeyed.
They described the cities into the.
The seven parts as Joshua described.
And they came again to Joshua there, Shiloh.
And then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord.
And so essentially he's.
He's praying to the Lord, he's asking Lord for wisdom.
And there Joshua divided the land under the children of Israel
according to their divisions.
And so we see from verses 11 all the way down to verse 28, the
inheritance, the tribe of Benjamin, which the tribe of Benjamin
is very significant.
Obviously, some of you might know.
Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, and then Saul, Paul from
the tribe of Benjamin.
Then we go to chapter 19, that's the inheritance of Simeon.
And then inside of that chapter, chapter 19, verse 10 is
the inheritance of Zebulun.
And then we see in verse 17, the inheritance of Issachar, the
inheritance of Asher, the inheritance of Naphtali, in verse
40, the inheritance of Dan.
And then ultimately we see the end of the chapter 19 with Joshua's
inheritance.
And, and that's what I really want to end with tonight, is that
all of this.
So, so all of the inheritance to the people comes, and then Joshua
receives his inheritance.
And I think that shows like a true leader.
I think a true leader obviously puts his needs, his blessings
behind and lets the other people receive the blessings.
And that's the picture that we see here, verse 49.
And, and this will be kind of the conclusion for this evening.
Joshua is coming to the end of his life.
We know that we're going to hear more about the end of his life
here in a few chapters.
But essentially this is Joshua's inheritance.
And verses 49 through 51, it says, and when they had made an end,
dividing the land for inheritance by their coast.
And the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua, the
son of none among them, according to the word of the Lord,
they gave him the city which he asked even Tim Nath Sarah in Mount
Ephraim.
And he built the city and dwelt therein.
These are the inheritance of Eliezer the priest and Joshua the
son of none.
And the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of
Israel, divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before
the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
So they made the end of the dividing of the country.
So that is a lot of history.
But essentially we see all of the land that God had promised divided
and bestowed upon the people of Israel.
And then they've inherited the land.
They dwell in the lands.
And ultimately now we see that even Joshua gets his city that God
had promised him.
And now he lives there for the rest of his days.
Next week we will come back and we will look at Joshua chapter
20, which is a really interesting chapter about how there
were cities of refuge in this new land for them.
And then there's going to be cities of the tribes of Levi, and
then we're going to see some of the aspects of the Levites and
then some more tribe divisions.
And then ultimately we're going to get to the very end in Joshua
chapter 23 and 24, where Joshua addresses the people of Israel.
I know that some of these passages in the book of Joshua can
become very tedious.
It wasn't tedious for the people that were inheriting the land.
Okay, that was exciting for them.
They would read these things and it would be like, these are all
the things that we get to have.
This is the land that we get to have.
And it would jump off the page for them.
But for us, it's a little bit difficult because we're not there,
we're not seeing the land.
But what I do want you to see, really Joshua, chapter 15 through
Joshua, chapter 19, is this.
God keeps his promises.
It's not always in our timing.
It's not always in our way.
It's not even, as we see in this case, easy.
But what we know is that God will keep his word.
If he makes a promise, he keeps his promise.
And Joshua was challenged at the very beginning in Joshua, chapter
one, to stay faithful to the things of God because the promise
of God would be fulfilled.
And just as we saw the promise of God and his promise of power and
his promise of provision and his promise of protection and his
promise of his presence, we see that kept all the way through
the book of Joshua, and not just through the book of Joshua,
but throughout all of scripture, that God, when he says
that he will do something, he will keep his word.
And so that's really the culmination of the division of the
land.
And so for us, we don't have a physical land that God promises us.
I mean, I wish that God would tell me, hey, Pastor Josh, you.
You've got 100 acres over here that if you just are faithful for
10 more years, you'll get and it'll be all yours.
Okay, that's not.
That's not necessarily in the cards for us as.
As believers.
It might be, but it might not be.
And that's not necessarily what we see in scripture.
But what we do know is that our inheritance, similar to the Levites,
is not physical land.
It's not even necessarily materialism.
It's not something that we can tangibly grasp, but it is an inheritance
that we find in Jesus Christ.
And I would encourage you to think about the riches and the inheritance
that we find in Jesus Christ and to know that, as the Bible says
in Romans chapter 8, that we can cry abba, father, we have an
inheritance.
We're joint heirs with Christ.
So our inheritance is the blessings and the richness of having
a relationship with God and being a child of God.
And I would encourage you at some point in time, if you have not,
do a study in the book of Ephesians about the spiritual riches
that we all have in Christ.
That is a wonderful study because there's a lot of times in
our life that we might be thinking, you know, what.
What do I even have as a Christian other than the fact that
I can't do all the things that the world does, and I got to go to
church and I got to read my Bible.
But you know, what are the blessings in that?
Well, folks, in and of itself, we know that all those things are
blessings, but there's deeper riches that we have in Christ Jesus.
And I hope that we can all understand those and rest in those
and be celebrating those inheritances as a child of God.
And so read through Ephesians, read through Philippians, read through
the New Testament and see all those things that are promised to
the children of God and then rest in those promises, just like
the people of Israel rested in those areas and saw that land as
a promise of God and saw that as the fulfillment of the promise
of God.
But then the problem is, is that many of us know what happens
in the next chapter, or, excuse me, the Next book you have
Joshua, then what?
Then Judges.
And we would hope that all the people that got to inherit these
lands would understand that it was God who gave us these lands.
But we know very shortly after that there was this cycle that would
continue to happen.
People would get used to the blessings.
They would turn to the world, they would turn to pagan idolatry,
and then God would have to discipline them, and that discipline
brought them back to repentance, and that cycle would
go over and over again.
So what we would see is that the blessings of God are, are not
necessarily naturally passed down to the next generation.
So, you know, and I'll take the, the rest of the hour to talk
about this.
There, there.
There are many blessings that I have received in my life from the
Lord, but if I don't pass that on to the next generation, they're
not going to understand that and not be able to trust in those
promises, because I haven't passed that along to them.
And so just as, as you remember early on in the book of
Josh, the, the memorial stones says, you set up this memorial as
we cross the Jordan river so that people can look back, so that
the children can look back, so that the grandchildren can look back
and see the promises of God.
I believe that we should.
Not literally, maybe literally, but we should set up some
elements in our life that are memorials to what God has done for
us in our life so that the next generation can see that the
power of God is real, that, that, that we don't move and just
drift into a sense of apathy.
And, and really, it's, it's upon us as the adults to pass that
on to the next generation.
We, we look at the generations that come up and we say, you know,
for me, I remember thinking, I'll never be out of touch.
I can't understand why my parents don't get what I'm about,
You know, like, I'll never be out of touch.
And then I don't know when it happened.
It was like this weird time in which I realized that I'm out of
touch.
Okay?
I don't understand anything these kids are doing these days.
I don't understand what teenagers are saying.
I, I don't know.
I recently, I heard this person on this video, and they were
talking, and I thought they were talking a different language.
It was like English, but the words didn't make sense.
And I'm like, what are they saying?
And, and I realized that I could look at that and I could say,
the next generation is hopeless.
They're Lost.
They're.
It's over.
Like, just give up on them.
Or we can say, hey, they're speaking possibly a different language
than us, but the same truths can be passed down to the next generation.
And so, so the point that I'm trying to make is that just as Joshua,
and even we're going to talk about this in Joshua chapter 24,
he says, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord,
and that's something that we should do.
But at the same time, it's so easy for us to drift ourselves in
apathy and then blame the next generation for all their bad mistakes
when.
When we didn't contribute to passing along that truth to the next
generation.
And so though we're not responsible for the decisions that
are made.
Okay, so for example, like if I preach a message to you on Sunday
morning, and then everyone just goes out and sins, it's not
on me.
What's on me is what I present to the.
The congregation, okay?
Now if I preach false doctrine and everyone goes out and obeys that
false, false doctrine, and they're sinning, they're responsible.
And then I'm responsible for what I teach.
So, so we're not responsible for the sins of the next generation.
All we're responsible for is what we present to the next generation.
And if we're faithful to that, we've done our part.
And so what we need to do is we need to pass on what the blessings
are.
So for Joshua, it was, hey, kids, grandkids, great grandkids.
I don't know how many generations came behind him that
he knew, but he could say, look, this is my inheritance.
This land was promised by God all the way back at the very beginning.
And this, this land that you're walking on, this creek that
you're getting water from, that was a promise of God that we
get to partake in.
That you get to partake in.
So, so for us, when we're talking to the next generation, what's
our inheritance?
What's our land?
What are we showing to other people are the blessings of God in
our life?
You know, we.
We try to let our kids know that what we have is all a blessing
from God.
We don't deserve what we have.
You know, we get to do things that are beyond what we ever could
expect.
And I think that we need to remind the next generation that nothing
is promised.
We see that with our nation, right?
We have a lot of freedoms in our country, but not all these freedoms
are guaranteed.
And if we're not careful.
We understand the principle that our freedoms can be taken away.
And there's a lot of things in our Christian walk that can be taken
away, whether it be our health, whether it be our, you know,
our four walls.
You know, those things can be taken away.
But one thing that cannot be taken away that we need to pass on
to the next generation is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Nothing can take that away from us.
And so that inheritance cannot be stolen away.
And so that's what we want to preach to the next generation.
Not just, hey, look at this awesome building that we have.
Or look at, you know, how many.
You know, how much money came in in 2024.
No one's going to ever care about that in 20, 30, 50 years.
But what is going to matter is that longevity, the eternality of
salvation, that salvation is something that we can pass on to
the next generation.
And, you know, if the Lord tarries long enough, believe it or
not, this building will.
Will be in ruins, okay?
Just like every other building throughout all of history.
It will happen, okay?
Every vehicle that we thought was the most beautiful vehicle will
eventually rust away and go.
The one thing that will not be taken away is our.
Our truth in Jesus Christ.
And so that's what we pass on as our inheritance.
And so I hope that that's something that we can be challenged
with here this evening.
Well, I'll go ahead and close with a word of prayer, and then after
that, I'll have a few announcements, and then we'll go
ahead and fellowship after the service.
Lord, I just thank you for this time.
Thank you for the opportunity tonight to study your word, Lord,
we're thankful for the promises that were fulfilled in your
word in accordance to the land that has been given to the people
of Israel, Lord, and also to us today, the spiritual riches that
you have blessed us with.
Lord, we know all the way back in Joshua chapter one that you gave
those blessings to Joshua and those people, and they had to trust
in that.
Lord, may we rest in the promises that you've given us and
trust in those blessings, Lord.
Help us to pass that on to the next generation.
Help us to never get used to the inheritance that you've blessed
us with, Lord.
Help us to rest in that.
Help us to share it.
Help us to dwell in that promised land of salvation.
Lord, thank you for taking us out of Egypt.
Thank you for taking us out of that bondage of sin and moving us
to the promised land of newness, of life.
And so we just thank you for your love and your grace.
Keep us safe as we go our separate ways this evening.
Help us never to get like the people that we saw here tonight that
were bitter about the inheritance that had been given to
them or jealous about other inheritances that were given to other
people.
Lord, help us to be so in love and so infatuated with what you've
blessed us with, that we live and dwell in that and grow in that
every day.
And so we just pray that you keep us safe as we go our separate
ways this evening.
We ask all those things in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at Middletown Baptist.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.