Orders and Allegiance (Part B)

If you're going to preach the cross, you've got to include the resurrection. And if you preach the resurrection, how can you leave out His return? And so if you speak His return, what is the value of that return if He hasn't died for my sins and demonstrated Himself strength?

So those three go together. Crucified, risen, coming again. We would have a hallelujah to that. So faith, what we're getting out of this section preparedness, obedience, pain. There's the cross. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with a continuing study called Orders and Allegiance in Joshua Chapter 1. So Joshua does not call a council to find out what God has already told him. Neither does he delay. He wasn't a procrastinator. Now, some of us, we do get around to procrastinating, but the longer we delay, the more reluctant we become when God has sent us on an assignment unless we really like the assignment.

Go and eat all the ice cream you can. Yes, Lord, yes. And then you find out it's not your brand. Then you delay. And delay can be disobedience itself. Delay itself can be disobedience. You know, there are some illustrations in the scripture I won't get into. One with Joab, one of the rival generals delayed.

Joab went in and took care of business in his ruthless way. But procrastination, it evidences a lack of desire. Clean up your room.

Okay. This man, Joshua, we're going to find him several times getting up early and moving. Early in the sunrise, Joshua's up and he's moving. That's called zeal. He was a zealous servant. Jesus said, zeal for his father's health according to the prophecy had consumed him. Psalm 119, the song about the scripture, not the scripture about the song, the song about the scripture.

Psalm 119 verse 60, I made haste and did not delay to keep your commandments. We can get in that zone sometimes. It's a good place to be, but we have this fallen nature.

Each and every one of us, this fallen nature, we must engage and not ignore or excuse or finding. You ever get caught doing wrong and you want to blame someone else or you don't want to own it and say, I was wrong because it diffuses so much. A kind word turns back wrath. A lying word just excites it. I mean, a child says, I didn't do that. When you just saw them do that, I don't know about you, but as a dad, the belt, the belt was getting loose. I mean, this is lying to my face now. No, I'm not a cruel anything.

I give the belt to my wife, but it's a good idea though, isn't it? Here, I got to make a phone call, but anyway, it's ministry. Peter hesitated.

It's not resistance at times. At times, because of our flesh, we hesitate with God, but it's a valid thing and God tolerate valid in the sense that God will tolerate it to a degree. So when Peter gets the vision and God says, slay and eat Peter, Peter says, not so.

These things, these foul things have never touched my lips. Maybe Peter says, this is a test and I'm not failing it. I know the law, but then there was Ananias, one of my heroes of the New Testament and the book of Acts. I can't wait till we get to the book of Acts again.

Ananias was told to go and of course ministered to then Paul, Saul of Tarsus, soon to be the apostle Paul, but Ananias didn't want to go. He says, we've heard all sorts of good things about this bad guy and God has to lay it out for him a little bit more and it didn't take much. Ananias was off and running with his orders and so God, you know, that kind of hesitation was tolerated by God because it was legitimate.

It's honest and the flesh is not always ready to say, okay, you said it, I'm gone. Here was no hesitation on Elijah's part. True, true leaders in Christ, whether in the home or in ministry are neither tyrants or puppets or figureheads or anything like that. They do not behave as diatrophes, lording over the flock as though he's king and ruler or oppressive leadership like that. Nor are leaders to be like Aaron was that one day subservient to the demands of the people. One commentator who died long before I was born, he says this about pastors who cave in to the whims of the people. Now there's a difference between caving to the whims of the people and listening to the bleating of the sheep. Sometimes someone will say something and the Lord says, we'll say that's a need and you got to address that and fix it and whatever you're supposed to do and that's different. But then there are of course those times where he's caving. He's going against what he believes and knows to be right because he wants to keep the peace. And so this old commentator says, so apologetic, speaking of those pastors that cave, fawning and effeminate, they have forfeited the respect of real men.

That's pretty heavy duty. That was said back in the 19th, early 1950s, late 40s. Joshua did not ask, brief review. He did not hesitate. And when he did speak and act, it was with firmness and respect and obeying the Lord.

And so now he's off and running. We look again at verse 11. He says, pass through the camp and command the people saying, prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess. Now he's giving this, he's delegating, preparing the people to his commanders, to those under his authority, tribal leaders, his officers. It says, and command the people saying, prepare provisions for yourselves. So the leaders are going to move through the camps. And remember, over two million people. This is not a little campsite in the fall somewhere in the mountains.

This is a nation. Well, this command the people telling them to prepare provisions. Preparation is serious business. Of course, for an operation like this, and this is not going to be hurry up, hurry up, okay, wait. In three days, they're going to move and they're going to cross into that land.

That's God's word to them and it will be honored. There was much to do, of course, before crossing. The three B's of infantry combat, beans, bullets, and bandages.

You've got to have them. You can't win the war without it. You've got to have food and water, you've got to have ammunition, and you've got to patch up those who need patching.

Care for those who are injured. Even the Romans, the Roman legions, they had field medics. There are reliefs, you know, carvings into stone in this case, on a pillar, I forget the name of it, but anyway.

And there it is of a Roman campaign, the troops are moving in the horse cavalry and medics, tending to the wounded on it. Anyway, they understood it and they were very successful because of it of course, but this word in the Hebrew for provisions is food. Usually it means meat, but here it does not.

It means food of any type. Manna was still their essential diet. That was going to stop. The miraculous supply was going to be cut off once they crossed in to the promised land. And even with the manna, the people had responsibility.

There's no way of getting from it. They had to harvest it every morning, they had to prepare it, and then they had to keep from saving it, which is a little discipline. And those who tried in disobedience found out that it was not a good idea. But the value of preparation is probably best realized when you've suffered for not being prepared, unpreparedness. If you survive, there have been those who have not survived.

And you know, everything from just having the right spare tire versus the wrong one. I've got stories about that, but and you've all come here to hear my stories. So 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

And then Peter, the ever ready Peter. And always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and respect. And so here, what stands out to me, of course to sanctify the Lord in your heart. Well of course that comes with loving the Lord, but that be ready is the hard work.

Always be ready. So if we heed that injunction by Peter, we will not only be useful, but we will be fruitful. You reap what you sow. And if you sow righteousness, righteousness you shall reap. If you sow the word, a fruit of some sort, you shall reap. Now it may not be the fruit you desire, but it will be what God wants. It will be fruitful to God. If it's always fruitful to us, then men like Noah who preached and nobody came.

He saved his family, but would it have all of those people alive, would it not have been nice to have saved more? Well, 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6, if you, Paul writing to the pastor Timothy, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. Joshua continues, he says, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan. Now three, three days, not three, but three days is the number of the resurrection. After you've read your New Testaments, whenever you see three days in the scripture, you think of the resurrection.

Am I the only one? I don't think so. And of course, biblical typology, we follow, there was a pattern, there's an emphasis that emerges from the text when we're reading it. During these three days of preparations, the spies were sent out. They would meet Rahab, they would hide in the hills outside of Jericho, they would make their way back, but they went into the Promised Land to reconnoit it. Anyway, we come back to Joshua telling them three days to cross, and they will then cross. We'll come up to some little tricky parts of scripture that would suggest it was actually six days, but we'll clarify that when we get there. Once they get in the Promised Land, they're going to be delays before they actually fight at Jericho.

Well, not much of a fight, really. He says, you will cross over this Jordan. Not you shall attempt, but you will cross over. The language of faith that that is, there's no mention of boats or little bridges. The Jordan is a river. And though it's not the prettiest river you've ever seen, it's a river nonetheless.

In other words, it will drown you if you're not careful, and it can flow pretty hard. Imagine taking two million people and in one day, men, women, and children in carts and mobile phones and things like that with you, and try to cross the James River. I mean, this is going to be a big deal. And the people don't know how this is going to happen. Maybe some of them can remember when their parents or there's been some of them, many of these were alive now. They're tribal leaders and elders at this point, but maybe they remember out of Egypt and God parted the waters because that's going to happen again when they go to cross into the land. By faith, they knew that God would get them across, and Joshua knows he's been raised to do this very thing. What an encouragement for Joshua.

He had been in this land 40 years earlier, and he had missed out on having his home and family and his life there because of the majority of unbelievers. So much for the majority being correct and right and the ones to follow. As far as I can remember, I don't know that I've ever, I'm sure there have been, but I can't recall a time where I felt, well, if everybody's doing it, if the majority is doing it, then, although once I was opening ammunition and was started hissing and the majority of us ran, all of us ran, I didn't wait around to see, well, who's missing here? Who's the dumb one that stayed back?

One of them. We were all running for our lives. Anyhow, that's how I went bald, incidentally. I ran so fast, blew the hair right off my head, waiting for the boom.

Now, where was I? So now he has a chance to make up for those lost days. He's been raised for this. He understands it. He's never forgotten that he couldn't get in 40 years.

He's going to get in now. What an encouragement to take advantage of second chances. He says to go in and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving to you to possess. A very big deal. This is a campaign of judgment, incidentally.

It's a dual effect. You're going to, I'm going to use you to evict them and then you can have the spoils. Deuteronomy 9, verse 1, listen, 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 the heavens. He's talking about our flesh, is he not? I mean, of course he's talking about a literal, he's literally talking about the land and the inhabitants and the fortifications that they have, but the application, the New Testament application is my flesh has got fortified walls.

It is not going to wave a white flag ever. Numbers 33, Deuteronomy 7, give us more details, Leviticus 20, and you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you, for they commit all these things and therefore I abhor them. And the list is, an itemized list is provided there in Leviticus 20. God has not changed his opinion about those things. Leviticus 18, verse 24 and five, do not defile yourselves with any of these things for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you for the land is defiled. Therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it and the land vomits out its inhabitants.

Pretty strong language. You see why the New Testament picks it up a little bit, Peter and John. Anyway that is why the Jews are being used as instruments of judgments because the people in the land, the Canaanites and all the other brands of people have entered into this pagan idolatrous perverted behavior and God has said I've had enough and he's going to use the Jewish people to execute his judgment. He could have just shoved the whole promised land into the sea but what a waste of seaside property. So he brought them in. Again they would not battle for a while and three days they'll cross into the land but they will not engage the Jerichoites and in fact they had to conduct circumcision on the men then they had to heal. That probably took a while. It did.

I know that for sure from military somebody had that procedure and he was out for a while. Anyway the spiritual application of this going back to the three days, the resurrection because it is that meaningful to us. Romans 6 verse 6 knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with. That we should no longer be slaves to sin. Okay then how do I not be a slave to sin?

I've got to fight it because it's going to try to enslave me. Romans 6 verse 11 likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Colossians 3 1 this beautiful verse if then you were raised with Christ there's the resurrection personal and also divine seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God seek heaven. So a lesson emerges from all of this we are to cross over into God's promises only when we receive the risen Christ. There is the fuller mission out of Egypt out of the wilderness to understand the resurrection enough to accept it to be mindful of it. I mean I love that you know we have one of the posters that has the name of Jesus on it and big letters crucified that's my sin risen is divinity and sovereignty and ability to conquer my sin and returning. I don't think we should ever preach any one of those three at the exclusion of any one of those three. If you're going to preach the cross you've got to include the resurrection and if you preach the resurrection how can you leave out his return and so if you speak his return what is the value of that return if he isn't died for my sins and demonstrated himself strength so those three go together crucified risen coming again and we would have a hallelujah to that. So faith what we're getting out of this section preparedness obedience pain there's the cross and we'll cover that I don't remember I think chapter five but then there's also the action and these are blended together to create God's fighting force we I don't know how you have a fighting force in faith personally or otherwise without faith readiness obedience and pain and of course action yeah you know people who just I they don't go to church because you know some hurts their feelings or people are difficult that's running from the fight if every Christian behaved that way there'd be no more Christianity the body of Christ would be just turned into a giant vat of of heresy and false teachings because nothing would be there to safeguard it anyway these of course faith readiness obedience pain action they characterize our Lord's ministry and what we want why are we even engaging in the flesh well Christ likeness we want to be like Christ out of love more than anything not just because it's reasonable it's better but because we love him and we all want to obey him love creates a desire to obey and our lifelong task is the occupation or preoccupation with Christ likeness in opposition to Christ on likeness in our own hearts when Jesus said hey get the mode out of your the plank out of your eye before you go digging at that motor the other guy he's talking about examine yourself are you like the Christ now when he said that you could he didn't say it that way because the church and his glory had not yet been revealed to the people stole the takes away from none of the the righteousness and the wisdom of what he was saying but we now having the fuller picture it is even bigger when he says take the plank out of your eye before you mess with the moat in the other guy you say well to do that I'm gonna have to be like you Lord Jesus as best I can and that being more like Jesus today than I was yesterday is advancement it is victory it is conquest in a single word so coming to Christ of course we pass from death into life as illustrated by the baptism the water baptism the old you dies and out of that is resurrected this new believer talking about the application of the three days we cross over we progress triumphant experience because of a triumphant Savior now verse 12 he says and to the Reubenites the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh Joshua spoke saying remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you saying Yahweh your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land the reference here Reuben the Gadites and half of Manasseh's tribe goes back to Numbers chapter 33 Israel's conquest of the territory east of Jordan modern day the kingdom of Jordan but and part of it may spill into Saudi Arabia but back then when the Jews before they got into the Promised Land they conquered the Amorites and those of Bashan and these three tribes said you know what we like this land we want to keep we don't want we don't need to go any further this is it this is what we've been looking for we pick it up in Numbers 32 just parts of it verses one and two and verse five the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and later on he'll include Manasseh had a very great multitude of life livestock and when they saw the land of Jasir and the land of Gilead that indeed the region was a place for livestock the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation saying let this land be given to your servants as a possession do not take us over Jordan oh those words do not take us over Jordan well today you go to Israel and you're driving along the highway there it runs just west of the Jordan you can see the Jordan and you can see Jordan the kingdom of right across and up in the north it's very beautiful and you say that used to be Israel's territory it's not anymore Moses was not happy with this of course several levels he didn't like this but he consented on the condition that they joined the conquest and that they did and Moses we have Numbers 32 verse 28 so Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest to Joshua the son of Nun and to the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel in other words okay as long as they honor their promise which would be almost would be a long time before it happened what if Moses refused and said absolutely not God promised that land not this land well they probably would have had resentment for the rest of their tribal days passed on and would have been more problems than they created a problem with their request thanks for tuning in to cross-reference radio for this study in the book of Joshua cross-reference is the teaching ministry of pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel mechanicsville in Virginia if you're interested in more information about this ministry please visit our website cross-reference radio.com you'll find additional teachings from pastor Rick available there we also 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