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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 16
God’s Law demands complete and total obedience, yet we tend to believe that being mostly obedient to God will be enough. Joshua 16 teaches us that anything short of total obedience brings nothing but the anger and wrath of God in our lives. Joshua 16 points us to the hope of the Gospel because God sent His one and only Son into this world to save us from our lives of partial obedience.
Transcript
Well we’ve come to Joshua 16 for those who are uh just visiting with us for the first time uh this evening we have been marching through uh Joshua uh during this time that that we are kind of in the wilderness waiting for our our building to be completed and and we’re doing this because uh just as I believe the Lord Was preparing his people to be the kind of people that he wanted them to be uh to possess as their inheritance the promised land because what he was teaching them during this time of Conquest the kind of people he wanted them to be because it was incredibly missional he was calling them not just to to get this land to enjoy for themselves for all time uh he was calling them to be a light to the Nations and as a light to the Nations he was teaching them what it meant to uh to obey him to trust him to listen to him and so we’ve been learning a lot of these lessons as we’ve been walking through together uh the Book of Joshua uh but this evening we we continue with in this section which with these seemingly mundane detailed descriptions of the allotment that to the promised land that’s being given to the to the 12 tribes and uh admittedly this can be a painful time in the in the Book of Joshua uh but I promised not to shy away from it and so we’re not going to shy away from it uh you know especially if we’re aware of what uh what was told to us in Luke 24 after the resurrected Jesus appeared uh to the disciples on the road to Emmas in verse 27 27 it says and beginning with Moses and all the prophets Jesus taught to them in all of the scriptures the things concerning himself and so we know that even in the mundane uh of the allotments to uh to the people of Joseph uh this is about Jesus and this is proclaiming the gospel and pointing us to the gospel uh and so I’m excited to to be opening this uh this passage this uh this chapter together uh for us as we see how this is pointing us to its fulfillment and Jesus Christ the son of God how does it reveal the Deep need that we have for a savior how Jesus is our only hope in this world so where is it where is it in Joshua 16 where is Jesus where’s the good news and how does it have anything whatsoever to do with us especially as we’re just trying to to live our our daily lives right it can be hard to find you know I was talking with someone recently who doesn’t go to church here but they’re actually involved in the building uh of our of our new our new church that they’re working over there on the building and I was just over and we were visiting and he wanted me to know that you know he goes I’ve read the Bible all the way through right because that’s a badge of honor um he he’s done it uh but he said uh but he said you know some of those passages were kind of boring because they were kind of hard to get through right uh where they just listed a bunch of names and a bunch of places and uh you know that wasn’t a whole lot of fun and I could certainly sympathize with him just as I’m sure all of you can as we’ve been uh reading through uh Joshua in these last couple chapters um especially if they’re just words and just some narrative concerning a bunch of people a long time ago go what connection does it have to us uh but if it’s more than that if even the most mundane is pointing us to the Fulfillment of our deepest longing then Joshua 16 is a passage that’s actually full of life it’s a passage is full of life and hope and so how do we find that life and hope in Joshua 16 well to do that I think we’re got to skip down to to the very end of it to verse 10 and this is what we’re told in verse 10 however they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived and gazir so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do for labor that’s where the hope of the Gospel is you got it okay we got we got to do a little work to get there maybe uh but you know the the last few chapters have been full of of these kind of uh descriptions uh the accounts vary in their details but uh overall they’re the same and we’re going to hear this in in the next coming chapters as well God’s people received their inheritance their allotment uh of the land today it happens to be the people of Joshua and uh the first group uh of people uh Ephraim and Ephraim was one of the sons of Joseph who was born to him uh when after uh Joseph became ruler a ruler in Egypt second only to Pharaoh if you remember the story of Joseph and the name Ephraim means for God has made me fruitful in the land of my Affliction and so Ephraim was a was blessed a blessing from God for Joseph A Blessing of a son in the midst of all that he had experienced a reminder of God’s goodness to him even in that difficult and painful time where he was separated from his father and from his brothers and now Ephraim has become a people many many many generations later but what is so significant about verse 10 the significant thing about verse 10 is that the people of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites they did not drive out the Canaanites but rather the Canaanites were made to do forced labor sounds really hopeful doesn’t it lots of Life there uh but the truth is this isn’t anything new if you’ve ever studied history you know that the to the conquerors go the the Victor right uh and so uh if you’ve studied history you know that conquering Nations often force uh the the native inhabitants who have been conquered that they forc them into slavery right but to understand why this is such a big deal we have to go back to Deuteronomy chapter 7 in Deuteronomy chapter 7 beginning in the first verse this is the law that God gave and Moses delivered to the people these are the words of God his command when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you the Hittites the girgashites the amorites the Canaanites the perizzites the hivites and the jebusites Seven Nations who are more numerous and mightier than you and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them then you must devote them to complete destruction you shall not make a covenant with them and show no mercy to them now that whole thing we dealt with in the beginning of Joshua if you’re troubled by it I’m just going to have to tell you to go back online and you can listen to some of the earlier chapters as we talked about the purpose uh that God had and how this wasn’t a universal truth of of Christianity or of what God has done all throughout history this was a special moment for a special purpose that God called uh this the the inhabitants of the land uh the promised land to complete destruction so I encourage you to go back and listen to that but why did he call them to do this well he says it a little bit later in Deuteronomy 7 because they will be attempt ation to you to serve other gods that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t take care of them did the did the people of uh that was God’s command it was as clear as that God had told them Moses had declared it Joshua had renewed that that was the command to God’s people did the people of Ephraim obey the command no at least not according to what Joshua 16 is telling us uh but didn’t they at least somewhat obey God right they did somewhat they did partially uh in all their territory it was only in gazir that they failed that’s the only place we’re told that they failed to drive them out uh only it was in there that they forced the Canaanites into that hard labor so in that sense they were mostly obedient right they mostly did the right thing they mostly listened to the Lord and followed what he was calling them to do uh that that has to count for something
right well when it comes to God’s law the answer is no it doesn’t the truth is under God’s law partial obedience is Disobedience under God’s law partial obedience is Disobedience and in Deuteronomy 7:4 the disobedience and God’s called to commit the inhabitants of the land to destruction this is what he said it would result in then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly you know we hear in the in the book of of Judges it recounts what happens after this uh and so we get a picture uh in judges of uh of what’s going on and in Chapter 2 of Judges verses 1-5 this is is what we’re told now the angel of the Lord went up from gilgal to bokim and said I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers I said I will never break my Covenant with you and you shall make no Covenant with the inhabitants of this land you shall break down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice what is this that you have done so now I say I will not drive them out before you but they shall be become thorns in your sides and their God shall be a snare to you as soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel the people lifted up their voices and wept and they called the name of that place bokim and they sacrificed there to the Lord so the people when they were faced with the word of God they recognized right what they had done they faced the wrath of God they recognized their failure failure there was weeping and lamentation that’s why the place is called bokee it means to weep so the first way that Joshua 16 points us to the good news of the Gospel is this way it teaches us that a that partial obedience is actually Disobedience to God partial obedience is Disobedience to God uh there’s no such thing really as partial obedience there’s only obedience or Disobedience there’s no in between the Wrath and the anger of God is against all Disobedience why does this lesson point us to good news right because the truth is most of us I think live our lives as if partial obedience to God is enough
we mostly follow God’s laws we mess up from time to time but on uh on that Heavenly Ledger of righteousness The Obedience We Believe anyway far outweighs our Disobedience right and as long as we can keep it a little bit heavier on The Obedience side than the Disobedience then then we’re doing pretty good with God that’s the way we live our lives for the most part that God’s happy with us I’m happy all’s good but our way of thinking the way we practically think and the way that we live that way that’s not biblical at all that’s not living according to God’s word partial obedience is only Disobedience you know Paul argued this the same point uh to the Galatians in Galatians chapter 5 uh he was speaking to those uh Christ followers who had uh been influenced by the judaizers and had subjected themselves to the circumcision uh even though they were uh Gentiles and Paul had preached a gospel that was the free gift of God’s grace that required nothing more of them uh but they subjected themselves to the circumcision as a way of trying to make themselves right with God of trying to get that ledger more heavily weighed in their favor and so in Galatians 5: 2-3 uh this is what Paul wrote he says look I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you I testify again to every man who accepts circum circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law to keep the whole law because partial obedience is no obedience at all Paul was just was making reference to the lesson that we’re learning in Joshua 16 I if if you’re relying on some kind of Ledger where your obedience will outweigh your disobedience in the end then you’re lost then you’re lost that’s the reality of God’s law it demands perfect and complete obedience otherwise we’re disobedient and under the anger and wrath of God the gospel cannot and it will not ever become come good news to you and to me to our souls if we can’t accept that we are disobedient that we don’t perfectly obey God all the time and God’s anger is against
us that our partial obedience is really just Disobedience to God so that’s the bad news but it’s understanding the bad news that makes for the good news of the Gospel that it arises Like a Phoenix out of the ashes so how else does Joshua 16 point us to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ uh we need to consider for a moment why why did Ephraim failed to conquer completely the Canaanites why
you know most of the in their defense by the way most of the tribes of Israel follow suit uh they have the same issue uh but the the reasons vary a little bit uh what was it that led Ephraim to compromise on God’s command to them when it came to these Canaanites you know we can’t know 100% uh for sure but I do believe verse 10 gives us some some context Clues as to what the reasons were first of all in in verse uh verse 10 tells us they did not drive out the Canaanites there’s a clue there they did not drive out the Canaanites other tribes we’ll read about will tell us they could not drive out the Canaanites or jebusites or amorites or whatever it you want to put in there they could not do it but for the people of Ephraim it doesn’t appear that this was a question of ability it wasn’t a question of whether they could or they couldn’t whether they had the ability to do it it appears more a question of Desire or willingness they did
not because they didn’t want to or they felt there was a better reason not to why why wouldn’t they want to follow through on God’s command especially when God had told them what would happen if if they didn’t the reason is they saw what they believed could be a better way they saw what they believed could be a better way isn’t that what causes all of us to compromise on the law of God we see what we believe will be a better way we think it will and so we
compromise see because the truth is if they possessed the strength of forc in order to force the Canaanites into to forc labor into basic slavery or surf them or or however you want to kind of Define that if they had that kind of force to make them then they also had the force to do what God had told them to do they had the ability what made them willing to compromise compromise on God’s command was it a desire to be merciful I don’t think you can say forcing a people into slavery was a desire to be merciful no forc forced servitude is not a merciful option it’s it’s a brutal option in some ways you could say just destroy a people altogether is far more merciful than to subject them to that kind of Life what forced labor offered to the people of Ephraim was Free
Labor free labor and Free Labor equaled the financial and economic Prosperity or at least the potential for it also offered Comfort right to have slaves to do the work for you that’s a much better life you know we can live a little bit more of a life of leisure if they obeyed God compl completely then they they would have been on them and maybe they didn’t have the numbers maybe they feared that they didn’t have exactly the right amount of people in order to pull off a life that they’d be able to sustain and they’d be able to protect and they thought that the only way to really be able to do this is to have Force
slaver slave labor offered a better way to comfort and a better way to financial economic prosperity for them one that was too good for them to pass up one that they desired too much plus it was just one small Act of Disobedience right just one not to be outweighed by all the obedience they’ve shown already they’ve been part of the Conquering of the promised land they’ve been obedient and obedient and obedient their their Ledger is full of obedience this one thing it’ll be okay okay this this this will this will be
enough isn’t that what all of us do in our own lives we compromise the word of God for our own Comfort maybe it’s for our own financial prosperity in some way or another because we think that if we do it our way that we’ll get there we’ll get the things that we really want but if we do it God’s way uh then then we’re going to suffer it’s going to be hard there won’t be the blessing at the end of it there’ll just be a hardship that’s what our hearts are are betraying us and trying to to tell us you know one of the big ones is just I mean just I can throw out a million but let for lack of the time to do it uh one of the big ones is a 10% tithe right we believe that the Lord has called his people to make that 10% first fruits offering to the Lord but when it comes to deci in about how you’re going to give back to the Lord right are you going to live into that command or do we find ourselves thinking if I really do that if I really do that I’m not going to be able to to pay my bills and God doesn’t want me to do that and so we compromise right we compromise we give to the Lord what we think we can and we still maintain our so that we can maintain our our comfort level of the our lifestyle and our what we believe will be financial prosperity but let’s turn it around as well it’s not just the that let’s turn it around what if we give not out of a heart of joy and out of a Heart of Thanksgiving to the Lord because the lord loves a cheerful Giver as Paul proclaimed right in 2 Corinthians but what would we give out of a sense of self-righteous Duty
and in the process we just think that it makes us better than everyone else around us and it’s going to give us our our duty fulfillment is just going to give us more favor with God than everybody else either way shows how self centered our own Hearts really are when we Face the Commandment of God that it accuses
us either in whether we do it or not or at least how we feel about it and how we think about it and our thoughts and our the intentions of our
hearts only partial obedience is Disobedience to God you know this is something that that that phrase Chuck has said quite a bit and I think I know why now because I was uh I was reading a little bit about this and I came across a man named Ebenezer urkin uh and Ebenezer urkin was a Scottish uh uh Christian and Pastor uh in the late 17th century early 18th century and uh uh he later was part of the Reformed Presbyterian church and those who know Chuck know he’s a presbyterian um and so but but I read a quote that that he said about this which I thought captured it in a uh in a real powerful way he said so often we give God a partial obedience we do not dare to disobey but we do not care to obey fully so we compromise we do some of what we should thus removing the the stigma of Disobedience but we refrain from the most difficult or objectionable or uncomfortable part and thus try to get the best of both worlds that’s what we do that’s what we do in practicality we all compromise the Commandment of God for our own selfish interests and desires and Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God every one of us we’re all
compromisers because our hearts love com Comfort our hearts love prosperity and what our hearts love our Wills will choose and our minds will just justify it and we justify it by saying it’s just a little Disobedience it’s just a little friends this is what makes the gospel such incredibly good news this is why Joshua 16 is crying out to us for Jesus and our need for Jesus this is why Jesus is the Fulfillment of all of the scriptures and the realization of the deepest desires of the of the human heart he’s what we’re longing for because the law of God his righteous commands is as Martin Luther described it a ring of fire around us a ring of fire that there’s no way out it is burning with the anger of the Lord because we compromise it because we can’t fully obey it and we’re like as Martin Luther said caterpillars there’s no way out we can’t save ourselves we lack the ability to save ourselves we cannot obey all of God’s laws we all fall short of the glory of God our only hope is that someone from above will come to rescue us and that someone is Jesus Christ that’s the hope of the Gospel who came into this world to subject himself to the same law that we are subjected to and yet he was obedient always even to death itself and as 1 Peter 2:24 proclaims Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree meaning that Jesus in his perfect obedience willingly took on our Disobedience and died the death that we deserve so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by the wounds by his wounds Peter proclaimed you have been healed or as Paul proclaimed in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 for our sakes God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that him we might become the very righteousness of God God’s anger and wrath for our disobedience is
death Gerard for in his book where God meets man wrote this only the God who comes down to earth can really help us only the one who dies the death that we must die and yet is not conquered by it can actually save us anything else however Pious or however Orthodox it sounds is useless and vain friends this is the good news that Joshua 16 is pointing to us this is the gospel message for us the Fulfillment of the law in Jesus Christ the son of God our savior in him and through his resurrection we have been reborn into new and unending life we had been pulled by his grace alone from The Ring of
Fire it’s the message that we needed yesterday it’s the message we need today it’s the message we need tomorrow and every day thereafter
our righteousness is in Christ alone forever more amen
