God's Hand in Joshua's Conquest - Joshua 11:16-23

Well good morning beloved. We're continuing this morning in the book of Joshua.

We find ourselves in Joshua chapter 11. I invite you to turn there if you were expecting a romantic message about Valentine's Day.

I apologize. We're dealing with military conquests this morning in God's good providence.

We're at a major transition point in the book and the verses we'll be looking at this morning are essentially the summary of the conquest of the land of Canaan that occurred throughout

Joshua's life. Really it spans not just the conquest thus far but really could be understood to be a summary of the entire book of Joshua reaching even to the end.

What remains in the book, the second half that we'll be dealing with in the future Lord willing, is the division of the land that God had promised, that God had instructed to occur and that's alluded to here in the end of chapter 11 that we'll be touching on but not fully fleshing out yet because we've got several chapters to do that in.

Three weeks ago Brian took us through the end of Joshua chapter 10 which covered

Joshua's conquest into the southern regions of Canaan and the kings and the cities there that he conquered and then two weeks ago

Brian brought us through Joshua's conquest into the northern regions of Canaan and the kings and the cities that Joshua conquered there.

The emphasis was on and continues this week to be on the obedience of Joshua, his faithfulness to the command of God given to Moses which

Joshua has now taken up as this role as the servant of the

Lord leading God's people. Joshua has been a faithful leader and God has been faithful to give

Joshua victory in this conquest. Just to give you a picture of where we are and what's coming up with Brian's message two weeks ago we concluded the portion of the book that specifically deals with recounting specific battles and conquests.

This section provides now a summary of that conquest and then

Lord willing next week we will cover all of Joshua chapter 12 which lists the kings that were conquered first by Moses and then by Joshua and then after that chapter 13 begins the second half of the book which focuses primarily on the division of the land how it's allotted among the people of Israel.

Our passage this morning serves to remind us of God's hand,

God's providence, God's powerful working throughout this conquest.

All that has happened in this conquest thus far has been the Lord's doing.

We cannot miss that. It is exceedingly clear this is the land that he promised to Abraham and has and as a promised inheritance for the descendants of Abraham.

The inhabitants of this land are those that have defiled themselves and defiled the land and God has promised to cut them off from it and Joshua is the man called and appointed by God to execute this purpose, this purpose of God in this period.

We must see as we work through this text that all of these historical events described for us here are not mere historical events like like things that we're not reading a textbook here.

We are reading God's word. They communicate typological truths that are meant to point us forward to Christ.

In fact all of history serves in this manner. All of history, all that happens in the cosmos, the things seen and unseen points to Christ.

Christ is preeminent in all of it. He is the central figure, the second

Adam, the one alone who redeems and the one alone who rules and that is what we must see this morning.

In our text we will see this pointing to Christ, this Joshua is a type of Christ and we will also see the reality of the coming judgment for the wicked and the promise, the promise of eternal rest for those who are in Christ.

All of this we will see comes from the hand of a good and gracious and sovereign

God. So follow along as I read the text. I'll be starting in verse 16 of Joshua chapter 11 and we will read down to the end of the chapter.

Let us hear the word of the Lord. 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 Halak to the ascent of Seir, 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. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all the others.

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. And at that time

Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel.

Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel.

They remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. And 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 rested from war. Father, help us now as we consider this text that you have laid before us.

Help us to see here your hand of sovereign direction working in and through all of these circumstances to bring about your pleasure.

Father, I pray that as we consider this text, Christ would be magnified, that we would look to him as our sovereign king, as our commander, and as our redeemer.

May he receive all the glory that he is worthy of. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

So here in this text I see four ideas that we need to to grapple with to truly understand the full extent of this section.

First we have to consider the successful conquest that we see recounted here in verses 16, 17, and 18.

And then revealed to us here is this divine hardening that God put on the nations in verses 19 and 20.

And then in 21 and 22 there's this very interesting aside here, not really an aside, this statement about the

Anakim, this dreaded foe in the land that God has particularly singled out for destruction.

And then lastly we'll see the blessed rest of God's people in verse 23. So in these first three verses, this successful conquest, we see emphasized again, as we have in the last couple chapters, the success that Joshua had because of God's hand with him.

In principle, Canaan is now subject to the Israelites. We will see even in this text, but more explicitly later in chapter 13, that the work is not yet done.

For there in chapter 13, God speaks to Joshua and says, there remains very much land yet to be possessed.

Caleb later, as we will see, will have yet further conquest to do, specifically in Hebron.

We will see that in Joshua 14 and 15, and it's mentioned again very clearly in Judges chapter 1.

And yet, of course, you know from the rest of the historical books of the Old Testament, the nation of Israel will continue to have to strive against their enemies, even here in the land, specifically the

Philistines and the other remaining peoples here. Those scriptures will at times emphasize the incompleteness of driving out the inhabitants of the land and Israel's failure to complete the task.

But here the emphasis is on Joshua's faithfulness and God's faithfulness to his promises.

Here we will see Joshua set up as an example, an example of a faithful commander.

The focus is on his faithfulness in devoting to destruction those kings and those cities and those peoples which have been covered thus far in the book.

And in that sense, not in a perfect or absolute sense, but in that sense of faithfulness to what he has been called to, the land is subject to Israel and the conquest has been a success.

Now to set that framing for us in that context, I want to go back the very beginning of Joshua.

Joshua chapter 1, the first few verses clearly set before us the boundaries and the task that is before Joshua.

Joshua chapter 1 starts like this. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the

Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, saying, Moses my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which

I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon,

I have given you. As I said to Moses, from the wilderness that is in Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river

Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which

I swore to their fathers to give them. You see the parallel there of that text, the opening of the book of Joshua, and the text that we have just read in Joshua 11.

There's a deliberate parallel here. This is book ending the conquest of Joshua.

Joshua was strong and of good courage, and God was faithful, faithful to all that he promised, to give his enemies over into his hands.

And then the text then here gives us those boundaries in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 11.

And then verse 18 is this helpful comment, very brief, but an important reminder.

Joshua made war a long time with those kings. This is calling back to what

God had said to Moses in Exodus 23. God said, I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

Little by little I will drive out, I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and you inherit the land.

This conquest has not been a quick and painless process. Really what we read here in Joshua is a summary.

These whole 11 chapters have been a summary of the the grueling travails of war.

Now it's difficult to put a precise timeline on this conquest, but most commentators say it's been at least five years at a minimum.

Many put it at seven years or closer to seven years at least that Joshua has been going into and doing war against these kings and cities and peoples.

And through this process it has been God that fought for them. Remember back in Joshua chapter 5, that fascinating scene when

Joshua met the commander of the Lord's armies, who I submit to you is

Christ himself, the pre -incarnate Christ. Joshua met him face to face. And the emphasis as we work through this whole book must be that one far greater than Joshua has been commanding this conquest.

The Lord and his armies have been victorious and Joshua stands as the faithful servant of God who has shown himself to be strong, who has shown himself to be of good courage, not because of his own metal but because of Christ.

Christ commissioned him for this work and has equipped him to be faithful to it.

May we be found faithful in like manner. Beloved, when you are tempted to be discouraged, when you are tempted to give in to sin or to waver from that which you have been called to be and do as a follower of Christ, remember

Joshua. It's not by his inherent strength, it's because of Christ that he has been able to do this work.

Remember that it is the Lord who goes before you in the dark and difficult seasons of your marriage, in the temptations of the teenage years of your life, young children.

Remember that Christ goes before you. Christ is the one that equips you and enables you to be faithful to what you have been called to.

The Lord of the hosts of heavenly armies is still on his throne and he is still faithful to his promises.

Though our war with our enemy is long, the battle belongs to the

Lord. Do not despair, beloved, but be of good courage.

Secondly, in this text we see this divine hardening. We're shown

God's hand even in the conflict that he brought upon Joshua and the children of Israel.

It's not a mere coincidence that these kings and these nations rallied together against Israel.

Only the Hivites, the inhabitants of Hebron, sought peace with Israel. All the rest were firm in their resolve against Joshua.

Why is this? The text finally makes it clear for us here in chapter 11.

This too was the Lord's doing. Let me read again verse 19 and 20.

There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon.

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. Do you see here? God has commanded his people to do something, and then

God brings conflict and hardship and difficulty into their lives in order to enable them to do what they were called to do.

Again we have to see the application here for us. When life is hard,

God is bringing that hardship to you in order that you can be faithful to the path that he has set you on.

His hand of providence is working even through your trials and suffering in life.

It's for your good and his glory. That in Christ we might be found faithful.

This hardening is something that only a sovereign God has the ability to do, and only a sovereign

God has the right to do. This should remind us of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus.

In Exodus chapter 7, God said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt, but Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

The mighty works of God were on display for Egypt and for the nations around.

Remember even earlier here in the book of Joshua, the nations of Canaan had heard of the great wonders that God had done in Egypt.

This was not only for the good, the deliverance of the children of Israel, it was also for the glory of God.

Paul comments on this for us in Romans chapter 9. What shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.

So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens.

Here in the book of Joshua that means no mercy for these people. They may not cry out to God for mercy.

God hardened them in their sin and in their opposition. Remember we've referenced before back in Genesis 15.

God told Abraham four generations earlier that his descendants would return to this land.

The taking of the land would not happen in Abraham's life for a specific reason. God said to Abraham, the iniquity of the

Amorites is not yet complete. We're going to come back to these peoples, the

Amorites specifically later in our text this morning, but this means that when their iniquity is complete,

God's intention for them is destruction. And he can do that because he is sovereign.

Absolutely sovereign. That means he alone has the authority to determine these things.

No one can question his authority because he has all authority and all power.

God's intention for them is destruction. In Joshua's time, God hardened their hearts that they might be utterly destroyed, that they might make no plea for grace, that they might be exterminated.

This is not unlike what Paul describes in Romans chapter one. That because of their wicked deeds,

God gave them up to uncleanness and vile passions of their hearts.

Let us be warned. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter three tells us, beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living

God. That's a warning for us. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Beloved, sin is so deceitful. It deceives people and it brings hardening.

We must not ever make light of sin in our lives. We must confess it.

And Hebrews here tells us we need the church to help us in this. To help us see our sin for what it is.

To expose our sin that we might not be hardened and deceived by it.

Again, the points made here in Joshua are not arbitrary, but they're given to us as deliberate theological instruction.

So often we see this in the Old Testament. It's the recounting of true history that happened in time and in place.

But it's intentional. It's instructive. There's theological truth here that is being revealed and expounded through history for us.

Here specifically the complete and total destruction of these nations is being emphasized because it too serves an important theological point.

Those who are outside of Christ will on the day of judgment receive no mercy.

Let the merciless destruction of these nations stand before you as a warning to all who scoff at the gospel of Jesus.

To all who think that their sin has no consequence in this life.

There is no salvation outside of Christ on the day of judgment when his angels come for the harvest.

Every soul will be separated either to the sheep or the goats. There is no middle ground.

The sinner is either justified by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and clothed in his perfect righteousness or is utterly lost and cut off in his sin and therefore subject to eternal damnation.

No mercy. No mercy. Thirdly in our text here we see this dreaded foe singled out.

The Anakim. In verses 21 and 22 the book takes a moment to call out and identify this specific foe.

This one of particular focus. The descendants of Anak.

Now there's a lot that could be said here about these. They're elsewhere referred to as the gibbereme.

These men of old. These men of renown. I want to walk this line carefully this morning, not delving too much into speculation because there's a lot of speculation that we could make here, but at the same time

I believe it is my duty not to gloss over these truths, the truths that scripture says and even implies.

We have to use a rational mind and the guiding of the

Holy Spirit to put together as best we can and understand what scripture says, what it implies, even when it's not explicitly stated.

Even if it might run contrary to some of our modern sensibilities. I want to back up and I'm going to read a section here from Numbers 13 because this is important context to understand what

God is saying here. Why single out this people, this Anakim.

If you remember in Numbers chapter 13, this is the section where Moses commissions these 12 spies to go into Canaan and spy out the land.

The Lord said to Moses, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which

I am giving to the children of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.

Now keep in mind, God doesn't need to know what is in the land. God already knows.

God wants the children of Israel to see these people and to see this land and there's a reason for it.

So Moses calls out these 12 men and among them is Joshua and Caleb.

Then in verse 17 of Numbers 13, it says, then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, go up this way into the south and go up to the mountains and see what the land is like, whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds.

And he tells them to bring back some of the fruit of the land. That's an interesting comment. So they went up, verse 21, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath.

They went up through the south and came to Hebron. So it's describing the borders of the land. They went throughout and there they see the descendants of Anak.

And they bring back this noteworthy cluster of grapes that they find.

It's so huge and magnificent. It takes two men to carry it on a pole as they return.

And it says, verse 26, they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.

They brought back word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told them and said, we went to the land where you sent us.

It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong.

The cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the

Amorites dwell in the mountains. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea along the banks of the

Jordan. Now this overview that these spies just delivered to the congregation of Israel apparently elicits a strong reaction in them because the very next verse says, then

Caleb quieted the people before Moses. Sorry, I think we're to assume here the people were in a panic at what they had just heard.

And Caleb says, let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. But the rebuttal then comes from these 10 spies who are overcome by their fear.

We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. The land though, the land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants.

Many commentators think this is an allusion to cannibalism that's going on there. It devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

There we saw the giants. The descendants of Anak came from the giants.

And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. And so we were in their sight.

Now, lest we think that these spies were exaggerating,

Moses affirms this himself in Deuteronomy 9. In Deuteronomy 9, he says, here,

O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the

Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, who can stand before the descendants of Anak?

Therefore, understand today that the Lord your God is he who goes over before you as a consuming fire.

He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly as the

Lord has said to you. This statement by Moses comes just a couple chapters after the book of Deuteronomy recounted

Moses's victory over a different but related group. Og and Sihon, they were alluded to in the psalm that we read this morning.

And we've seen them referenced multiple other places. They were Amorite kings. These, among these peoples, these

Amorites that God had said to Abraham, their iniquity is not yet full. They were

Amorite kings. Og specifically was referred to as one of the last of the remnants of the

Rephaim. And the text gives us specific dimensions of his bed being over 13 feet long.

And at the hand of Moses, these Amorite kings and their peoples too were devoted to destruction.

That phrase we've seen multiple times throughout the book of Joshua. And this victory is recalled multiple times throughout the

Old Testament. Even a millennia later in the book of Nehemiah, the people of Israel are still marveling at the victory that God gave

Moses over these Amorite kings, these terrible and fearsome warriors.

It's a miracle performed by the hand of a sovereign and powerful

God to show his might over the forces of darkness and evil.

The prophet Amos gives allusion to this in Amos chapter 2 when he says, yet God speaking here says, yet it was

I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars.

And he was as strong as the oaks. Deuteronomy 2 tells us that these

Rephaim were as tall as the Anakim. There another interesting connection is made.

In Deuteronomy 2, it connects these other two people groups to also who dwell in the land of Canaan also as giants.

Deuteronomy 2 verse 10 says, the Emim had dwelt there in past times, a people as great and numerous and tall as the

Anakim. They were also regarded as giants like the Anakim, but the

Moabites call them Emim. And then a few verses down later, another people group that was also regarded as a land of giants.

Giants formerly dwelt there, but the Ammonites call them the Zamzamim, a people as great and numerous and tall as the

Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them before them and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place.

There is this thread running throughout the Old Testament of these great and terrible and fearsome superhuman kings and rulers that represent the forces of darkness and evil.

We can trace this back one step further even to another important conflict three generations earlier in the days of Abraham recorded for us in Genesis 14.

There it's describing this war that was in the land between the king, this enigmatic and mysterious but fearsome king

Keterlomer and these other kings, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, are rebelling against Keterlomer in the days of Abraham and Lot in the land.

And it tells us that Keterlomer in Genesis 14 had fought against these giant peoples that we just read of, the

Rephaim, the Zuzim, and the Emim. This is the king that Abraham then had to go against Keterlomer.

Abraham had to go against him because Lot, his nephew, had been captured in this conquest by Keterlomer.

And it tells us that Abraham slew Keterlomer, this giant slayer of a king that was a tyrant that ruled over the land.

Abraham with merely more than 300 men was able to take down Keterlomer and rescue

Lot from the clutches of this giant slayer. I submit to you that Abraham's victory in Genesis 14 is meant to be there for us as a foretaste of Moses' victory in Deuteronomy 9 and then

Joshua's victory here in the book of Joshua over the Anakim. What does the text tell us here about Joshua's victory over the

Anakim? It says that he drove them out of the lands that he conquered but he did not utterly defeat them.

We see this in verse 22. None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel.

They only remained in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. Now if you've got a map in the back of your

Bible it could help. You'll see that this is what is today commonly referred to as the

Gaza Strip. There were five cities there that were Philistine cities and this alone is where these descendants of Anak, these giants, remain.

Now that probably catches your memory and reminds you of the most famous giant that we see in the

Bible. The conflict that goes on between the children of Israel and the

Philistines in 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel. There we find of course Goliath of Gath.

Goliath was a remnant of the Anakim that Israel was supposed to drive utterly out of the land of Canaan but did not in the days of Joshua and Caleb.

The Anakim retreated there to these Philistine cities. The terrifying enemy of God is then slain by David in the well known passage but that's not the end of it.

There are at least four other Anakim giants mentioned in 2nd Samuel 21 and 1st

Chronicles 20 that David and his men must defeat. These are the gibbering, these mighty men who are at least in a certain sense the enemies of God and representative of the supernatural forces of Satan's dominion that God alone gives the right and the power to overthrow.

So why take the time to recount all of this and to see this thread throughout the Old Testament?

There's more that could be said but one thing is clear. These men, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Caleb who we haven't talked much about today but will come up later and then

David. They are all figures in the Old Testament who have a role in overthrowing these supernatural instruments of evil and wickedness.

They engage faithfully in this battle against the forces of darkness.

They are all pointing forward to the greater conqueror. They all did imperfectly what

Christ alone has the power to do. Each of them failed in some way but by faith they were looking forward to the one who would not fail.

The one who would crush the head of the serpent, the promised seed of the woman.

All of this is pointing forward to Christ as the great conqueror, as the sovereign king, as the almighty ruler of heaven and earth whose purposes will stand.

Beloved, whatever opposition you face in life, whatever temptations you're dealing with, look to Christ, the greater

Joshua, the one who has victory. And this then brings us to the last verse here in Joshua chapter 11 that speaks of this blessed rest.

The final conclusion here. I take verse 23 as a summary wrap -up of not just this section but really a statement about the the peace and rest that would eventually come.

For we know that there was still war and strife in the land as we will see with Caleb and then into the period of the judges and even into the monarchy.

There's still strife and turmoil but it's looking forward to the peace of God.

The peace of God that we can have because of Christ. The imperfect victories of these mighty men of faith and the partial peace and rest that they attained are but a foretaste of something far greater.

Beloved, I hope you see in these conflicts that we read of in the Old Testament that there is a greater truth being conveyed.

Paul says in Ephesians 6, finally my brethren, be strong in the

Lord and in the power of his might. Does that not remind you of Joshua? Be strong in the

Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and bud but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

Beloved, we are against forces of evil that we cannot even see.

But like Joshua, when he walked by faith, trusting in the commander of the

Lord's armies, trusting in Christ himself, God gave him victory over these forces of evil.

God gave him victory in his conquest of the land and Joshua did it imperfectly to show that we needed

Christ. Christ who would do it perfectly. Christ who would equip us as saints to do battle against these forces of darkness, not by our own strength but by the word of the

Lord, by the armor of God. Paul again made reference to this in Colossians chapter 2.

In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

Beloved, our hope in the gospel is what enables us to do this battle because Christ is the victor.

Christ is the conqueror. He is the one who has died and risen and raised us with him that we might be his faithful servants, that we might be of good courage, that we might be strong.

Having disarmed principalities and powers he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Today in the book of Joshua we have seen God's hand of providence, his sovereign might, his absolute rule and authority in giving victory over physical enemies that were representative of a spiritual conflict that we are all in.

We must not leave a passage like this without seeing the spiritual implications for us.

We too are in the midst of a war and we cannot stand on our own. But the good news, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we don't have to because he is victorious.

He has overcome. He has made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in his death and in his burial and in his resurrection.

Christ has disarmed the powers and principalities. Beloved the greater

Joshua has come. Paul in first Corinthians 15 says, but now

Christ has risen from the dead. This has changed everything. Christ has risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

For he must reign, he must reign till he put his enemy under his feet.

And the last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Beloved there is a blessed rest that awaits the people of God because of what

Christ has done, because he has disarmed these powers, because he has been faithful and victorious.

He did what Moses could not do. He did what Joshua could not do. He did what

David could not do. He has been victorious. This is the blessed hope of the gospel beloved and this is our only hope.

There is no hope apart from Christ. So look to him. Look to him in your battles against sin and temptation.

Look to him for strength and look to him for the blessed rest that we will attain to by his sacrifice on that day when death is no more, when suffering is no more.

Like Joshua be strong and of good courage for Christ has the victory. Let us pray.

Our great God in heaven, our father, our ruler and king, our sovereign, we praise you this morning for your hand in providence that brings trials into our life that we might be found faithful in Christ.

We thank you for the sufferings that we have to endure because we know that you are with us in them, that the battle belongs to you.

Would you make us a church that is steadfast and strong, that is of good courage in dark days that lie ahead because we know that you are sovereign over every day.

And would we look to Christ. Would he receive glory and honor and praise for what he has done and what he is doing on his throne bringing all of these enemies under subjection.

Train our heart's father to long for that day, that blessed rest, that day of victory in Christ.