The Lord, Land and Men (Part C)

Preaching the gospel on the clock is not advised, unless you can do it without taking it away from your employer. Get their phone number. And that's a good way of filtering out who's serious and who's not. If they really want to hear about Christ, I'm not going to stop work to tell them.

I go on to work, we can talk about this later, or we can do it at lunch. Verse 15, unless you're the owner of the company, of course. In the name of Hebron formerly was Kurjath Arba. Arba was the greatest man amongst the Anakim.

Then the land had rest from war. 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. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Joshua, chapter seven. Joshua chapter 14 is the text Pastor Rick will be teaching from today. And the message is called The Lord, Land and Men. What we have to walk away from, I think, is that God sets boundaries and that's what we have to work. And if you plow and work your field, that's what you're accountable for. God is not going to say, well, how come you didn't, you know, help your neighbor do his field better?

You know, I mean, well, if he's in trouble, of course, it's different. But to learn to be satisfied and to live within our boundaries, the flesh hates that. The flesh does not like boundaries.

For instance, I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I never shop at Walmart and I never shop, well, I do sometimes, but let's, for an example, but I'm not there at three o'clock in the morning and they're open 24 hours. But somehow I delight to know that I can go there at three o'clock in the morning.

There's not a boundary there. And if I want to, and so I don't know, do you feel, I sleep better at night knowing they're open. Well, but, well, if you, you know, you've got a child gets sick and you're out of bed or something, you're very happy. There's some 24 hour places to go to. In the old days, you had to wake somebody up. Well, you still might when you go to, if you've ever been there late, it is kind of spooky. It's kind of like, boy, this is like a back alley somewhere. There's nobody here. I get mugged.

That'd be terrible, mugged and sporting goods. But anyway, uh, verse six, then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. Now that's their capital where the shame was rolled away. So it's not a little word. I know I don't mean to stop half verse. Well, I do, but I try not to Gilgal always meant something to them and it should always mean something to us.

Maybe you have an event in your life where it sort of rolled away the shame and maybe it wasn't shameful to others, but to you, it was just something that I wish this was gone. And that's what Gilgal was to Joshua. We finally got into promised land. We no longer are people who are promised these great things and cannot touch them. Well, now they've got them. So verse six, then the children of Judah came to Joshua and Gilgal and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenzanite said to him, you know the word which Yahweh said to Moses, the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.

Everything stops. Caleb's on the scene. We just were finished with Balaam and on the other side, here's Caleb. This striking feature from the scriptures and the rest of this chapter focuses on him. Now he's from the tribe of Judah and we'll get to their allotment in chapter 15 next opportunity. Some suppose that these Kenazites joined the tribe of Judah and were not born into Israel and they were sort of a fruit from conviction.

They believed the God of the Jews and wanted to join up with them while in Egypt, much as Rahab did after they got out of Egypt into the promised land. I don't know that there's enough evidence for that because that's a name that you can attach to others. But that's one, maybe your study bibles has that and if you leave it by my office I can make corrections for you anytime. Anyway, Caleb is the center of attention, not the Kenazites anyway. But here he says and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, you know the word. He says to Joshua, Joshua you were there.

And it's not a challenge, it's just the way Caleb is built, how he operates. It's you know the word which Yahweh said to Moses, the man of God. There's just love hearing it come from a man like Caleb. Caleb has such respect of course for Moses concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. Verse 7, I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of Yahweh sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land and I brought back word to him. And here there's another just a profound statement. As it was in my heart, I didn't lie to Moses, I told him what I felt. God promised us this land, it was flowing with milk and honey, I saw it with my own eyes, that's the report I gave. God wanted us to go in and take it, I sided with God and that's what he's getting at. So he says I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. That's the kind of man he was, upright, he was a man of integrity, called it like he saw it. It's the kind of guy you would want as an umpire or not.

He keeps calling me out. I forgot we have a baseball deficient congregation that's been coming to my attention. We're working on it, one heart at a time. It might take nine innings, but alright anyway, verse 8, nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed Yahweh my God. He's not boasting, he's just giving, he's going back, this is what happened and every bit of it's true. In fact, by this time it's scripture. He's quoting what's in the book of Numbers. He says nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people. So he says I told what was in my heart and they told what was in their heart and that's life.

You've got to choose what you're going to believe. The heart of a man like Caleb or the heart of a man like Balaam or the heart of the men like the other ten spies who overstepped, they weren't asked to say what their estimate, their military estimate. Moses should have said, I would have loved if Moses said well and who made you a general to be able to tell if our forces can take it or not?

All they did was spread panic. Moses did not ask them to do that, he asked him to say if the land was everything God said it was, God wanted to bring out 12 witnesses to his word and he only got two according to faith. So Caleb saw the jealousy of Miriam, Moses' sister and God strike her with leprosy for a week.

He saw the mole by women that Balak dispatched on the people of God, he saw the doubt of the spies and yet in all of that there's no indication of any interest on his part in lining up with any of those. When someone mumbled and grumbled against Moses as they seemed to do several times a day for 40 years, Caleb wasn't with them. Caleb did not care what wrong people thought about anything no matter how many of them. That is a sermon right there, he didn't care what wrong people thought about anything no matter how many there were. What an invincible character and too often we get so upset about what wrong people think. Instead of saying, no you're wrong, I disagree, not what I believe, next. So let's move on because I'm not even bothering with that. It takes courage to be that way.

I know that I have courage with some things and I don't have so much courage with other things and I know that everybody's like that. Verse 7, not one of the spies incidentally that came out of the land disagreed with the value of the land. Have you ever met somebody that will give, you know, acknowledgements to the Bible? Yeah, I agree, I agree, but they won't convert, they won't take the step like those spies. The land was flowing with milk and honey just like God said.

Because it always comes down to do you believe what God said or do you believe the devil which is everything else. As indeed God said that famous line to Eve which she fell for and then Adam too. They did not disagree with what God said about the cities. They agreed with all of that.

They were large, they were fortified, the people were numerous, there were giants in the land. The point at which they differed was their trust of God. They agreed that with all those things but they didn't have that awareness of God's presence and his character like Joshua and Caleb had. That caused them to form wrong conclusions. They looked at themselves as grasshoppers and they looked at those who were in the land that they were to put out as giants and they concluded they could not trust what God said because of what they saw.

It still goes on to this day. Caleb and Joshua looked at God rather than the circumstances and said to God the giants are grasshoppers. It's the other way around. Numbers chapter 14 verse 9. Here's Caleb and Joshua's point. Do not rebel against Yahweh nor fear the people of the land for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them and Yahweh is with us. Do not fear them.

But the mob did not want to listen. So again compared to God the giants were grasshoppers. They weren't giants to God. It's like you meet somebody who's an intellectual, thinks they're very intelligent. Pretty dumb to God.

I mean comparatively. God's not impressed. So Isaiah chapter 40 verse 22 the great prophet rings in on this. He says it is he who sits above the circle of the earth which of course means the Jews knew the earth wasn't flat. The Bible calls it out and he continues and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He's giving poetic language to God. He says when God measured the oceans he said make it about a span. Put about that big.

That much ocean in. And here he says the people of the earth they're not giants to God. They're like grasshoppers. That's what Isaiah says. And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers Isaiah 40 verse 22. So the majority they measured the giants against their own strength.

Caleb and Joshua measured the giants against God's strength and that gave them the courage. Verse 9 so Moses swore that day saying surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children forever because you have wholly followed Yahweh my God. And now behold Yahweh has kept me alive as he said these 45 years. Ever since Yahweh spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness and now here I am this day 85 years old.

I'm not going to get into all of the age things because there's other things here to say that we want to get to but you can do the math. He tells you he's 85 he was 40 when he went in the land you know so you get you start there's seven years of battle you have to factor that in that's how we're getting I said I wouldn't do the numbers and I'm doing some of them. So 45 years of waiting biding his time.

45 years this reminds you of Jacob waiting for Rachel you know working and then having to work it off after he receives her. It is certainly admirable behavior and now verse 11 because we got more Caleb. As Caleb is saying this he's not saying is the camera rolling? Are you getting this down? He's oblivious to anything but what he is saying and somebody there because it is an official court Joshua overseeing is writing this down. And so verse 11 and yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me just as my strength was then so is my strength for war both for going out and coming in.

Anybody want to try me? He doesn't say that but he could have said it because nobody would have said I'll take a gander that would have been the last thing he said with teeth in his mouth. Indefatigable that's who Caleb is he just does not wear out.

Got a little drum there. He's energized. Okay let's just not go backwards no more humor numbers chapter 13 verse 30 then Caleb quieted the people before Moses said let us go up at once and take possession for we will be able to overcome it. That's why so many we name our kids Caleb the little doggy. That's what it means as parents of dog lovers obviously but that's you know just a cute part of the story. It's a beautiful a beautiful character. So when brother Caleb utters these now immortal words the thought never entered his mind that they would be preserved and pursued and practiced these words and yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me just as my strength was then so is my strength for war both for going out and for coming in.

I'm an old man to some but not to me. You got to love that guy and then he goes and takes the land but this one gets better verse 12 now therefore give me this mountain right there's another another way says this is what I told him what was in my heart give me this mountain. Why not take a little valley a little flat land somewhere something easy on your knees getting a little sore going up and down. He wants to take the place with a giant saw he says now therefore give me this mountain of which Yahweh spoke in that day for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there and that the cities were great and fortified it may be it may be that Yahweh will be with me and I shall be able to drive them out as Yahweh said. This is not the if it may be this is not the maybe of doubt and unbelief it's the maybe of humility it is the maybe of I'm not God but I know what God has said I'm going to go forward in that strength but at no point am I getting ahead of him that's what Caleb is saying and again as I mentioned you can you can write these words down on the wall and memorize them but it's so hard to get to be a man like Caleb but if we can get a piece of it we become very effective very much so which would you rather you know 10% Balaam 20% Saul you know just start putting that stuff in you and 0% Caleb I'd like I'd take a large dose of this if you know supplement form be a good name for a vitamin get your vitamins Caleb the Caleb vitamin I'm practicing you know I speak several languages I speak I speak British, Irish, Australian, Brooklyn I speak a few of them but anyway this again this great man of God he fully estimates the fight ahead of him the territory he's asking for he's not you know buying a sight unseen he knows what's ahead of him the fortified cities what does that mean to him it means long warfare he's going to have to beat them by a siege not an assault and yet he's willing to take that on who wants that this man does he wants to go up in the hills or go where the Giants are with the forts it doesn't matter as tedious as it may be this is the this is what God gave me this I'm going to take it I can get this as a young man as a younger man stepping into ministries like yeah I know I'm gonna meet this with this I'm gonna see that I'm gonna have these problems but now having gone through them you want to go through again hmm how much time do I have when do you need a decision by I mean I would well I mean what else I've built for this I don't know anything else now I've been doing pastoring more than now than anything else except breathing and this is what I know Caleb he's an old man now he knows what this is going to be going to be involved there and he still goes at it right on right straight at it no matter he is determined to have it it may be that Yahweh will be with me and I shall be able to drive them out as Yahweh said it is such a tender statement from such a hardened man not hardened in his heart just a manly man and so he does take it he drives out the Giants and then he changes the name of the city name is nature and identity he says I'm taking this city Hebron the alliance with who God no one else today the it's a it's a an Arab a Jordanian Arab there are no Philistines there are no Palestinians those names have been concocted to make you think that Israel doesn't own the land that they booted out these poor Philistines these are Jordanian Arabs they've come from Jordan they were put in that land the Kingdom of Jordan has planted them there they could have gotten out when the Jews were coming they opted to stay many of them wanted to stay with the Jews as time went on and not go back under Arab authority and many of them are content under Israel rule until you get the jive time Turkey news media involved and all these other brainiacs anyway Hebron is in that Arab territory in Israel I again refused to call them Palestinians political it's politically incorrect in heaven to lie anyway verse 13 and Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance what a scene is old Joshua he was you know he's a hundred years old again Joshua's he was 56 when he comes out of Egypt and he's old now and after seven years of war and 40 years trekking through the desert and he blesses Caleb and Caleb receives the blessing what artists can catch that Hebron Abraham built an altar and spent a lot of time living in Hebron Genesis 13 from Hebron he rescued Lot that was his his home he lived there and he goes out from Hebron to to save Lot and there's quite a work saving Lot instead of private Ryan they should make a movie saving Lot I'd pay a lot to see that Abram that was Abraham's name God changes it to Abraham you know and father exalted father to father of countless you know multitudes in Genesis 17 that happened in Hebron there Abraham was visited by Yahweh and Isaac's birth was announced to him when he lived there Sarah died and is buried in Hebron the cave of McPhela the first thing that Abraham owned in the promised land was a grave I want happiness in my life I don't want to go let's go see a happy movie in this you know horror flick but anyway the cave of McPhela I mean it's a it was a powerful moment it broken heart Abraham there he buys that's what he first owned in the promised land Abraham Isaac Rebecca Leah and Jacob buried in Hebron and you can look that up in Genesis 49 and in Genesis 49 Caleb of course drives out the Giants changes the name of it to Hebron from the name of the giant king and also it becomes a city of refuge priestly city a Levitical city Samson carried the gates crazy Samson I'm looking forward to partly looking forward to Samson but it's a tragedy of course so that's why but I mean pulling up go out and try to pull up your fence just go grab hold of your you know your four six by just yank it out and then carry it down the street with you what a magnificent feat but anyway Samson carried the gates of Gaza to a hill in Hebron and walking around you know blowing bubbles got to have imagination I guess you're waiting for me to get it David crowned king of Judah in Hebron so the significance of this place Absalom's headquarters in his rebellion against David Hebron is sending a message of course you were crowned here day I mean what kind of sicko was Absalom well when you look into when we look into Greek mythology you find a lot of father-son hatred going on there what kind of what kind of people were these that's kind of a foreign thing to most of us but not all of us King Uzziah used Hebron to store his army supplies second chronicles 26 and again finally today it is an Arab city oh we've got to get finished here I'm just talking we're all law was going on like it's a new year verse 14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the kids and I to this day because he wholly followed Yahweh God of Israel numbers 14 24 but my servant Caleb because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully I will bring into the land where he went and his descendants shall inherited and with him just amazing but listen to this if you're a Christian and you're embarrassed by that in a workplace of the neighborhood wherever you find yourself because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully that's who you are don't be ashamed of that I have a different spirit in you yours is from hell mine is not learn how to do that with some sign language necessary but don't be ashamed of it that's what I believe you don't believe that fine I don't believe and I don't agree with wrong people I don't care what they were to say unless I can use it to help them if you say wrong things and you let me correct them then I will otherwise let's get back to work we're on the clock verse I should add preaching the gospel on the clock is not advised unless you can do it without taking away from your employer get their phone number meet there and that's a good way of filtering out who's serious and who's not they really want to hear about Christ I'm not going to stop work to tell them I go on and work we could talk about this later or we could do it at lunch verse 15 unless you're the owner of the company of course and the name of Hebron formerly was Kurjath Arba Arba was the greatest man amongst the Anakim then the land had rest from war large-scale war there will still be battles but look at that he changed the name I'm not naming this place after that giant dude it's Hebron I love Caleb 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 crossreferenceradio.com you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there we also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast by doing so you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music or your favorite podcast app you can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com we're glad we were able to spend time with you today tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua right here on Cross Reference Radio.