JOSHUA 11-13 YOUR PROMISED INHERITANCE IS VICTORY2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Joshua 11-13 Your Promised Inheritance Is Victory

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. As we look at the book of Joshua this morning, I've titled the message, Your Promised Inheritance is Victory.

Your promised inheritance is victory. As we see the children of Israel come into their promised inheritance, it is the land of Israel, the land that God had promised to Abraham way back in the day. He said, your descendants are going to come back here. I'm going to give them this land. I'm going to give them this territory. And it was going to be through victory. There was going to be battles fought, hard battles, tough battles, fierce battles. But with the promise of

With the guarantee that the outcome would be that they would inherit the land that God had provided for them. And as we look at these things, there's great parallels here, great illustrations for us to consider in our own personal lives and our own walk with God. You also have an inheritance from God.

promises that God has given to you. And those promises are very often attached to battles and fierce and ferocious things that we will work through and fight through and accomplish. And yet at the same time, it is with the guarantee of victory that God takes us through and brings us through those seasons of our life. You have an inheritance from God and that comes with the promise of victory in the battles of

that we face. And so the inheritance that we have, I kind of summarize it into that one word, victory. You could talk about different aspects and elements of our inheritance or of our victory, but this idea of victory we see very clearly portrayed here in Joshua chapter 11, 12, and 13. Now as Joshua led the people into the promised land, he had two major objectives. The first one was to conquer the land of Israel.

And then the second objective that God had given to him was then to divide the land between all the different tribes, the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.

And so here in these chapters, we see the finishing of the conquering and the beginning of the dividing. It's the completion of one aspect and the beginning of assigning to each tribe their portion in the land, their inheritance in the land of Israel.

Now, just a quick reminder of some of the geography here. This is a map of the land of Israel, and you have the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and all alongside the Mediterranean Sea is the primary portion of the land of Israel, with the Jordan of Israel,

the Jordan River being there kind of in the middle. And on the other side of the Jordan, you'll remember there was three tribes that camped out there and stayed there. That's where the people were when Moses died on the other side of the Jordan. But Joshua led them in, crossed over, and now they've been working their way through the land, conquering all of the different nations, the kingdoms that were there, and

And again, now we're in that transition where, okay, now the land has been conquered. The major battles have been won. Now the inheritance needs to be assigned to each of the tribes. And so through the process of the coming chapters, which we'll be reading this week, you'll see the boundaries set for each of the tribes. And God was saying, this land is for you, tribe of Manasseh. And this tribe is, or this land is for you, tribe of Simeon. And this land is for you, tribe of Judah. And

and designated to each one their portion, their inheritance in the promised land. Now again, as we look at these things, there's just such important pictures and powerful pictures for us of the promises that God gives to us and the assignments that he gives to us. It's interesting to consider that the name Joshua and the name Jesus are essentially the same.

that Joshua is the Hebrew form, Jesus is the Greek form. It's like Gerald and Geraldo, right? Same name, same person, but just pronounced a little bit differently, said a little bit differently in a different language. And so Joshua here is a picture of Jesus, even in his name, but picturing here the victories that God wants to give us through Jesus and

as we walk with him, as we follow him, and then he assigns us and gives us a portion to work in, a lot in life. The different portions of land were assigned by lots. They would cast lots, and the lot size was assigned to them, and in a similar way, we have that phrase, your lot in life, right?

Your lot in life is part of God's inheritance that he's given to you. It's an area, a territory that God's given for you to battle in, to find victory in, to take hold of for the name of Christ and for the glory of God. And the promise is, in the inheritance that you have received, in the portion that's been assigned to you, the promise from God to us is victory. There will be battles. There will be challenges. There will be challenges.

But there is that promise, that guaranteed outcome of victory. And so there's three things I'd like to walk us through as we look at these chapters and consider what the Lord has for us. Three things to help us experience the victory and understand the victory that God has for us. The first thing we find, it's here in chapter 11, verses 16 through 23 is where we'll work our way through. But point number one this morning is your biggest victories are

are already won. As we think about your inheritance, as we think about the promises, as we think about your victory, first things first, we need to understand the biggest battles have already been fought. The most important things have already been accomplished and

On your behalf, by Joshua, by Yeshua, by Jesus for you. Look again at verse 16 and 17. It says,

and 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. Here in chapter 11, we have really a summary of Joshua's battles in this closing portion from verse 16 on. It kind of summarizes the major battles that Joshua fought. And here in these two verses, kind of

Joshua summarizes the different kings that he fought, the different regions that he conquered. And if you're just looking at these two verses, it might seem like it was fast, you know, like he conquered this king and he conquered that king. He took this area, he took that area. But then verse 18 tells us that Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. Doing some math based on different portions here in the book of Joshua, it seems like this conquest took about seven years.

And so there was about seven years of battle that took place here in verse 16 and 17 as we look at the overview of Joshua's campaign there in the promised land. And we're at the end of that here. It's kind of wrapping it up, summarizing it.

There's more battles to come, but it's going to be a different kind of battle. Not all of Israel gathered together collectively under one leader, Joshua. Now the individual tribes are going to have their own personal battles, battles that take place within their own boundaries and within their own really initiative to take on those challenges and to take the land that God has given to them.

But generally speaking, overall, Joshua has conquered the land. All the different regions, all the major players that were the enemies of God in that region have been taken care of. They've been knocked out. The victory has been accomplished. Verse 19 and 20 tell us that every city...

was taken care of by Joshua and the Lord. Verse 19 says,

We talked about the Gibeonites a little bit on Wednesday. You can read about it in chapter 9. They were a little bit crafty. They sent a delegation, pretended to be far away, got them to agree to terms of peace, and then they found out they were actually inhabitants of the land. So a little bit of a stumble there in their agreement. But here it's pointing out that all the other major cities, all the other strongholds in the land...

were conquered by Joshua. They were taken care of. They were not, you know, dealt with in a way that would allow them to maintain their dominance or their presence in the land, but they were beaten. They were cast down by Joshua on behalf of the Lord. On Wednesday, as we talked about this, we talked about the enemies. How when enemies fear, when our enemy fears, he doesn't surrender and just run away and just give up and

wave the white flag, but when enemies are fearful, they fight back and fight ferociously. And so in chapter 10 and 11 of Joshua, you have the record of that. In chapter 10, you have the southern kings join together to fight against Joshua as the children of Israel are entering into the land, and they're trying to put a stop to it. And so they all join forces and figure if we can team up, we can overcome and we can be victorious against Israel.

And then the northern area, the northern kings, tried something similar. They teamed up. There was different alliances that took place, and they're trying their best to figure out some strategy where they can overthrow the victories that Israel is having. But as you read through those chapters, you find no matter what tactic the enemy used, no matter how many alliances they made or how many people they got to join with them, no matter what they could come up with,

They lost. They could not find victory no matter what they tried. And it reminds me of a very important promise that you and I can grasp hold of, memorize perhaps, and rely upon as we wrestle through different things in this life. It's Isaiah chapter 54, verse 17. The Lord says, "'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.'"

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. The Lord says, this is the heritage. This is your inheritance. This is what God has promised to you as a servant of the Lord. No weapon formed against you shall prosper.

We've talked about a couple times as we've started through the book of Joshua here that they were facing enemies that were superior in number. They had superior firepower. They had, you know, greater alliances. And it was a situation where they were in dire trouble if it weren't for the Lord. But God's promise is, it doesn't matter what weapons they have, what weapons they bring against you. No weapon formed against you shall prosper.

You're going to have victory. It was the promise to them that they would have victory. And Joshua, a representative of Christ, leads the people in and establishes victory for the people. And so there was no plot, no scheme, no conspiracy that the inhabitants of the land could come up with to defeat the plan that God had in giving the children of Israel the land of promise, the land of Israel. It's a promise that you and I can consider today.

And it really speaks to that ultimate victory that we have, that our biggest victory is already won. Our greatest needs have already been met because God has given this promise, this heritage to the servants of the Lord. The end result is going to be victory. And this is really important to remember and hold on to because there are so many times in our lives where the situation we are facing looks like certain defeat.

Maybe it feels like certain defeat. Maybe it feels like actual defeat, not just future defeat, right? But maybe it just feels like a complete wreck. And yet we see that God is able to turn even a complete wreck, to reform it into something beautiful, to reform it into something and to bring out of the ashes beauty, to bring something substantial and great into

I was thinking about the saints in the book of Revelation, and it talks about the saints in heaven having overcome, that they had victory, but it's not the typical victory like you and I might think or anticipate, right? Because they overcame by being put to death. And so on some level, you might look at that and say, that's a defeat to be put to death. But

They were martyred for their faith. But as they're in eternity, the real perspective is, no, that's not defeat. That's victory. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb. And no weapon formed against them prospered because they trusted in God. And now they are in eternity in victory by faith in the Lord.

As Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land, before he divides it out and gives them each their individual responsibility, he took care of the big victories. He took care of the big problems. He led them in victory against those established strongholds. And even it goes on to talk about the giants in the land. Look at verse 21 and 22.

And at that time, Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all 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. The Anakim were giants. They were extra large people, giants.

Goliath was a descendant of Anak. He was a giant in the land, right? That happens, he comes on the scene later on. But they were in this promised land. And it's one of the reasons why the original group being led out of Egypt refused to enter into the promised land. Because the spies went in, they came back and they said, oh no, no, there's Anakim in there. There's giants in the land. We're not equipped to face this challenge. We can't do this.

But as Joshua leads the children of Israel into the promised land, they conquer, they defeat the enemies, they cast down the strongholds, and even the giants in the land that seemed to tower over those of unbelief from the former generation, Joshua is able to come in and deal with them, strike them, and remove them from the land. And so it tells us in verse 23, so Joshua took the whole land and

Here in the promised land, Joshua has accomplished the victory, accomplished what God had set before him. Everything that the Lord had said, it was accomplished through Joshua. And they now have victory in the land. Now the work is not completely done, but the work is done.

But again, the major battles, the biggest victories, they've already been accomplished. And for us, it provides such a vivid picture of the battles that Christ has fought on our behalf. He has led us forth into victory. Before we ever had our own individual responsibility or opportunity, before we had, you know, some lot in life assigned to us, Christ led the way and

into the fulfillment of all that God wants to do in us. And so summarizing some of these pictures, right, summarizing some of these details that we can't get into and explore every aspect of it, but oftentimes we refer back to the promised land and the picture that it paints for us as the spirit-filled life. And if you want to spend some time meditating on that, considering what that means, you can camp out in Romans 8.

Where it describes for us really the life that is lived out by the Spirit and the impacting work of Christ on us and what that means for us. And I want to share just the beginning and ending of Romans chapter 8 with you for a moment to help capture some of those thoughts. To help us remember that the biggest victory has already been won. We start out in Romans chapter 8, verse 1 and 2. It says,

who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Here we see this great declaration of no condemnation. It's the conclusion of the argument of what Christ has done for us. The fact that we are justified, that we stand before God as if we had never sinned by believing in Jesus Christ.

There is therefore now no condemnation. And you can read Romans chapter 6, 7, and 8 and build up to that. Obviously, there's a thousand things that we're not getting into here. But here's the biggest victory that has already been accomplished. There is no condemnation for you as a believer in Jesus. Your greatest need.

was that you stood before God deserving to be condemned, deserving to be cast apart from him, that you and I, as we stand before God in our own selves, we have no basis for eternal life. We deserve to be condemned because of our sinful condition. But Jesus accomplished the greatest victory, the biggest need that we had, he dealt with head on at the cross.

making it available to all of us that we can have victory in him by faith in him and what he has done for us. And then there is no condemnation. We are free from the law of sin and death that we were once bound to. The greatest need that we had, the biggest victory that needed to be accomplished was accomplished for us by Christ on the cross. Well, then jumping to the end of Romans chapter 8, we have this great reminder from the Apostle Paul.

In verse 37, he says, We are conquerors, and Paul says not just that, more than conquerors,

We have victory, that promised guarantee in Christ. He's taken care of the biggest battles, the biggest victories that we needed. He already accomplished. We've already won those. One of those big needs was, well, the issue of condemnation. And he won that battle. Another way to look at that or another aspect of our biggest need, the biggest battle was the separation from God that sin brought. But in Christ, we are reconciled to God.

And so there is no separation, no matter what, death, life, angels, principalities, future things, past things, height, depth, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so there's no condemnation. There's no separation. We have right standing before God and guaranteed continuation with God. Our biggest battles are

have already been fought and they've already been won by Christ. Your biggest victories are already won. It's really important because no matter what we face in this life, we can always come back to this. Again, as we face battles, as we think about the saints in the book of Revelation,

If they lost that eternal perspective, if they lost the reality of the victory that they had, no condemnation, no separation from God, if they lost perspective on that, then they would be completely desperate and in despair in the midst of the things that they would face. For you and I, we need to keep our eyes fixed on the victory that has already been accomplished. Joshua here takes the land of Israel. He conquers the whole land.

He has the greatest victories already taken care of for the tribes so that now, as it's their turn to take steps of faith and to inherit the portions that were given to each one of them, the biggest battles have already been won. And so that brings us now to point number two, and we're going to jump to chapter 13 for that. Point number two is you have opportunity for more victories.

The big victories, they've already been accomplished. But part of your inheritance, I really was kind of fascinated in thinking about this. You know, sometimes as we think about inheritance from God, we just think about it from a certain perspective. And we need to factor in the reality that part of our inheritance, part of the blessing that we have from God is the opportunity for more victory. You know what comes with the opportunity for more victory though? I mean, I'm just kind of like glossing over

There we are again. Roman, you know where the breaker is over here? Can you? Yeah, thank you, man. So the thing that goes along with victory is battle or electricity, one or the other. You have the opportunity for more victory. That's your inheritance from God. That's your blessing. That also means, though, you have battles in store, and it's God's blessing to you to give you the opportunity to battle.

to give you the opportunity to take territory, to take steps of faith, to do hard things and face fierce enemies. In Joshua chapter 11 verse 23, just to tie back that one thought real quick, Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel.

So he did the big battle. He conquered the land as a whole. And then he's going to divide it up to each of the individual tribes. The major battles have been won. Now, Joshua, your task, the second part of his objective, now you've got to give it to all the different tribes in the land of Israel. And now each tribe, it's kind of like passing on the baton.

Each tribe is now responsible for finishing the job in their own territory, within their own land. Check out verse 1 of Joshua chapter 13. It says, The victory has been accomplished, and yet at the same time,

There's a lot of land that is yet to be possessed. This is part of the reality of the Christian life. The victory has been accomplished. Christ has been victorious on our behalf. At the same time, he grants to us part of our inheritance, part of our blessing, is the opportunity to then possess the land that he's given to us.

Jumping down to verse 7 of chapter 13, it says, now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh. All the major threats have been cast down, so now all the individual tribes are going to be given the opportunity. God is telling them, all right, go inherit the land that is given to you. Go take it, conquer it, accomplish the

the victory that I want to accomplish in your life. Now, it is the individual tribe's responsibility.

Verses 2 through 6 goes on to give a lot of details about the description of the geography and the boundaries and all of those things. But here's just a quick look at that. That's verses 2 through 6 right there. You can see that. And understand that God said, look, for you, here's what I want. This boundary. And it's very specific and very detailed. And for you, I want this boundary. And it's very specific and very detailed. In a similar way, for each of us, God says, I have for you a portion of

I have for you a plan for your life, a work in your life, an inheritance that includes not just the eternity that we look forward to, but the things in this life that he has established for our good, that he has given to us for our benefit. Again, a lot of times we look at the inheritance and we just think about it from a certain perspective.

You could think about the inheritance that they'd been given and think about it in the terms of, here you are, here's your plot of land. So now you get to own land and you get to be a landowner. You get to be a farmer now. You can grow crops and experience fruitfulness. And you could think about inheritance just in terms of being a farmer. Here you go, you have some land. Now you can build a home. You can build cities.

You can be established in the land. And you can think about the inheritance just as a builder, as an establishing of that stability that comes from cities and homes and walls. And you can think about inheritance just in those terms. There is the importance of farming and fruitfulness. There is the importance of foundation and being established.

But again, in this inheritance that God has given to them, built into this whole thing is opportunity to battle, opportunity to obey God, to trust God in difficult things and face fierce enemies and have victory and experience that for themselves. Remember the promise that God gave to them was everywhere the sole of your foot steps, I will give that land to you. I will give you that place. They were to go inhabit the land, to put their foot there,

on the portion that had been given to them in the land of Israel. Now, as we continue reading on from Joshua and into the book of Judges, we'll see that the tribes individually did not go forward and step foot in all the land that God had given to them. They didn't actually carry it out and execute it. They had the opportunity, but they didn't take the opportunity because it was difficult and there were challenges and they were fearful.

There's a lot of good reasons why they didn't, but they didn't set foot. They didn't take advantage of the opportunities that God had given to them. It's like if I give you an annual pass to Disneyland, but you never go. Like you had the opportunity to go. You could go anytime you want to. It's already paid for. You can get in. But if you don't go, well, you had the opportunity, but you didn't get to partake of it. Or if you go, but you only spend time in Tomorrowland. And then so you miss out on, you know,

I forget all the other lands. That's why I said Tomorrowland. But you miss out on New Orleans Square, right? Okay, it's been a while. I got to go back to Disneyland. I need an annual pass. So what am I thinking? You go to Star Wars Land. Oh my goodness. Yeah, totally brain dead. And if I only spend time in Star Wars Land, right? Like there's so much more that I could explore, that I have access to, that I have opportunity to uncover. But I just, you know, kind of camp out where I'm comfortable, camp out in my favorite thing.

As you think about the land being provided to the children of Israel, it would be so easy for them, and it's kind of what they did. They conquered enough to get comfortable. They got their land, they got their farms growing, they got their homes built, and then they stopped. They stopped growing. They stopped continuing the process of taking the opportunities that God had set before them. And the extent of their victory going forward, remember the major battles, the major victories, they were already won.

But there are many more victories that God could have, would have provided for them. The extent of the victory that they experienced in their lives would depend on how much they went to battle. And that is such an important thing for us to consider. The extent of victory in your life will depend on how much you go to battle. It's so easy for us to look at this and judge them.

And think, wow, you know, they never took the whole land that God gave to them. And God promised them victory. And they saw all these miracles. And they saw all these victories. We can easily stand in judgment against them. But I think like them, many times we organize our lives around what is convenient and what is easy and what is relaxing. And we're not signing up to go to battle. No.

Oftentimes, we're not dealing with and pressing forward in our spiritual lives. We're not dealing with the things that God wants to do in our workplaces, in our homes, in our community, within our church. We're just kind of camping out where we're comfortable. We took enough territory. We accomplished enough to be a little bit settled, and then we can kind of rest. Right?

And for certain, there is times of rest in between battles, right? For certain, that's appropriate. That's real. But we also need to be careful that we don't just rest. And then we like to rest so much that we never go back into the battle. We never go back into the steps of faith and the thing that God has for us. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way, we are blessed.

by personally taking responsibility and initiative in trusting God to do what he has called them to do. We're blessed personally when we take initiative and responsibility. Again, going back to the map here, this was the land that God had given to them.

And it would be easy to kind of go in, set up camp, set up your farm, and then, okay, Lord, you know, whenever you want to give us the rest of the territory that's been given to us, you know, just come knock on our door, and we'll try to answer when you come knock and, you know, to give us that opportunity. Now, what God was expecting them to do was to take initiative, come up with a plan. Okay, guys, this is the territory that God has given to us. And we need to now be active in taking that territory, in inhabiting that land, in taking

facing battles, fighting battles, and accomplishing the victory that God wants to give us. Again, signing up to go to battle, signing up to bring about the victories that God wants to bring. You have opportunity for more victories. Your opportunity for victories are not done. There's many more things that God would desire to do in your life. Think about the Apostle Paul's heart and attitude in Philippians chapter 3. He says, I haven't already attained. I'm not already perfected.

I'm not just camped in the land and settled and comfortable and just, that's it. I've accomplished enough spiritual things. I've accomplished enough victory. I've grown enough. I'm good. I just kind of need to coast now until eternity. Paul says, no, I've not attained. I'm not perfected, but I press on. I'm pushing forward. I'm not sitting back. I'm not just resting. I'm pressing on. I'm seeking to attain perfection.

to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. I haven't counted myself as apprehended. I'm not there yet. I haven't finished the work that God has set before me. I press toward the goal.

for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. There's this moving forward, taking initiative. I want to grow. I want to develop. I'm afraid of battles. I'm fearful of those things that I face. But I know I have the promise of victory. I know that God has given me territory. He set before me opportunity. And so I need to trust Him and keep on going to battle, keep on stepping out of my comfort zone, stepping forward,

in my relationship with God, again, in the things that he wants to do, in the different areas and aspects of my life. Now, as you go forward in the book of Joshua, you'll find everybody's inheritance is a little bit different. The division of the land is not just geographical lines, but there's different kinds of territory. Some have hills, some have trees, some have this kind of enemy, and some have different kinds of enemies.

Every tribe has their own individual challenges. In a similar way, for us individually, personally, we all have our portion from God. Our, again, the phrase we can perhaps consider is our lots in life. The children of Israel needed to rest in the boundaries that God had set, needed to understand. Now, there are some tribes who said, you know, we don't like these boundaries. We don't want to go find new land to inhabit. We don't want the land that God's given to us.

And sometimes we can approach life in that way, that I don't want this life. I don't want these spiritual gifts. I don't want these talents. I don't want these challenges. I don't want this disease. I don't want these things that have landed to me in this life. I want different battles. I want different territory. I want something different in my life. And we don't totally understand why we might feel that way. But at the same time, there is the boundaries that God has set. Joseph, I think, is a good example. He would not have chosen...

the same path for himself that God had chosen for him, to be sold into slavery and hated by his brothers and thrown into prison unjustly. It would not have been his choice. He wouldn't have chose to be a champion of endurance. But you know what Joseph was? He was a champion of endurance. He had victory as he continued to trust God through all that he experienced in life. He became a victor, a champion that sets the model and the standard for us.

He wouldn't have chosen the path of being a champion of forgiveness. If he would have had it his ways, he would have had a good relationship with his brothers. But that was outside of his control. As far as was his part, right? He was not his brother's enemies, but his brothers counted him as an enemy and treated him unjustly. And so he, later on, would become a champion, a victor of forgiveness in impossible and crazy attacks that his brothers brought against him.

You and I, we might experience similar things to Joseph and say, I want a different lot in life. I don't want these boundaries. I don't want these challenges. I don't want to be a champion of forgiveness. But these are the things that we face and these are the things that God has allowed and this is the path that we're on. There's more victory for you. And so you don't have to just be a victim of the situation and the things, but now you can come through those things trusting in God and letting God lead you, being obedient to God and taking steps of faith and

and come forth victorious from any situation that takes place in the course of your life. We need to let God set the boundaries, give us the direction, set the course of our pursuits. In Joshua chapter 14, we'll see the counterpart to Joshua, Caleb, the original spy along with Joshua who said, no, we don't have to run away from this. We can trust God. We can enter into the land. And Caleb comes to Joshua in chapter 14. Now he's really old. He's late 80s.

And he says, you know what I want, Joshua? I want the land that God told me he was going to give me. God set the boundaries for me a long time ago. And I'm old now, and there's giants in that land, but give me the giant battles. I'm old now, but I'm not going to try to change the boundaries. Try to get, you know, hey, you know, I'm a lot older now, and I've been fighting with you, Joshua, for a while. We conquered the land, seven years it took, you know, and

where's a nice like rest home in Israel that you can just kind of send me to and just kind of give me something comfortable and luxurious. And he said, give me the giant battles. I want the original land that God told me he was going to give me. I want those boundaries. I'm not going to run and try to fight against that. I'm not going to try to back out of that. I want those things that you promised me, Lord. And I'm going to trust you, even though I'm old, to fight those battles. You have opportunity there.

for more victories, even if you're in your late 80s. God told Joshua, you're old and advanced in years, and here's your next assignment. Divide the land now. For Joshua, it was a change of direction. Not so much for Caleb, but for Joshua,

Your conquering time is done. Now it's administrating. Now divide up the land and help the people discover what God has for them that they would be able to go forward. But Joshua's job was not done even though he was old and advanced in years. There was more victories for him to accomplish, not directly on the battlefield, but through the fulfilling of the assignment that God had given to him. Pastor David Guzik says, well,

Acknowledging Joshua's advanced years, God still tells him about a job that needs to be done. No matter how much we have done in our Christian lives, there still remains much to do. Like Paul said, I press on. I haven't arrived yet. I'm not done. I'm not finished. You have opportunity for more victories. Many times we organize our lives around what's convenient, what's easy, what's relaxing, but

Many times we're not signing up to go face new enemies and fight new battles, but we need to. We need to. God has more victories for you. We need to be taking steps of faith. We need to be engaged in acts of service and trusting God, being filled with the Holy Spirit. We need to endure hardship as good soldiers of the Lord Jesus, that we might come forth as champions and victors as God has promised to us. Your promised inheritance is victory.

Which means with, it's coupled with battles, challenges, difficulties, but the promise is the result. The promise is you will come through victorious as you trust the Lord and walk with him. And so that brings us to our third point, and we're going to go backwards a little bit here in Joshua. Joshua chapter 12 gives us point number three, your victories are won by faith. Your victories are won by faith.

Now, we're not going to work through all of the verses here of Joshua chapter 12, but kind of just get a sense here of these verses. And so Joshua chapter 12, verse 1 says this. Verses 1 through 6 here of Joshua chapter 12 is a summary of

of the victories accomplished by Moses. As you read through those verses, you find there's two victories provided by Moses. Verse 2 says, So you remember Moses couldn't lead the children of Israel across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

So his victories were limited to those two kingdoms on the east side of the Jordan River. But then the rest of the chapter goes on to record the summary of Joshua's victories. Verses 7 through 24 record all the different kings and kingdoms.

and list each one specifically to give us the record, to give us the count. Verse 7 says,

in the mountain country, in the lowlands, in the Jordan plain, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the south, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. As it goes forward from there, verses 9 through 24, lists each king individually. Jumping down to verse 24, it says this, the king of Terza won all the kings 31. So Joshua, as we see his record of victories,

defeats 31 kings in the promised land, defeats all these different peoples, the Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, the Jebusites, taking the territory that God had given to them. And I was really struck by this picture here in Joshua chapter 12 this week as I was reading through it. The picture that is painted for us here in Joshua chapter 12 is that your victories are won by faith and not by the laws.

Your victories are won by faith, not by religion. Your victories are won by faith. It reminded me of Paul's words in Galatians chapter 3. He says, Moses, who brought forth the law from God, is a picture, of course, of the law of God.

Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus, of course, a picture of Christ, it demonstrates here, it shows us the victory that is accomplished and the comparison. If you add up the victories of Moses and you add up the victories of Joshua, you got Moses to Joshua 31. And it really just paints this picture for us. Listen,

you want to get bound up in legalism, you want to get bound up in the law, you want to try to accomplish victory in your life by religion, you might get a couple victories. But if you will trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you will get an overwhelming amount of victories. The religious leaders in Jesus's day were extremely proud of their, you could put it in quotes, their righteousness. It wasn't real righteousness, it was self-righteousness. And they really represent a

great warning for us because it's a danger for us to get really settled into religion and ritual and to think that we're okay with God because of the rituals by which we conduct ourselves. And many times as believers, when we are facing challenges, when we're facing, let's say, sinful issues in our lives, there's a great temptation for us to try to face that battle and

Through legalism. Through, let's set a law, let's come up with some type of system, let's try to attack this and defeat this in our own strength. And we might be kind of falsely encouraged in that because there are times where, yeah, making a simple rule, making a simple decision like that might win us a couple battles here and there. We might get a couple victories, but we won't get the life of victory that faith brings.

We might get a couple quick wins, but it's not the fulfillment of crossing over the Jordan and experiencing the full extent of what God has for us. Paul puts it this way in Colossians chapter 2, talking about religion. He says, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Listen, if you're looking to have victory over the flesh, it's not going to be through self-imposed religion. You might get a win here or there.

But if you want to have real victory in your life over the flesh, you got to be led by Joshua, not by Moses. And not to speak ill of Moses. Of course, he was used by God in the appropriate way. But the pictures that it paints for us are very clear. And we can rely upon legalism. We can kind of tend towards religion in our lives in a way that really hinders the victories that God wants to bring. And we need to remember victories are won by faith. Faith is trusting God. Faith is obedience to God at his word.

And the victories that you need to have, again, in your home, in your workplace, in the church, in the community, victories that our nation needs, they're not going to be won by legalism. They're not going to be won by religion. They're not going to be won by our efforts. They're going to be won by faith in God, by trusting God, and by being obedient to God in His direction to us.

Victories are won by faith, not legalism, not self, not inaction. And so here in Joshua chapters 11 through 13, we see the promised inheritance that God has for us. Pictured for us through Joshua and the children of Israel, the victories they accomplished show us and remind us of the victories promised to us. Your promised inheritance, your guarantee as you trust God and walk with him

is victory. No matter what someone may bring against you, no matter what people may gather against you and scheme and plot and conspire against you, you can rest assured your biggest victories are already won. And that's why Jesus said, hey, don't worry about what man can do to you. The worst they can do to you is kill you. And we think that's pretty bad. But Jesus says, but that's not the worst. You need to fear God who has the capacity to

to control your eternity. Whether or not you're eternity with him or apart from him, God has that capacity. He's the one you need to fear. He's the one you need to pay attention to. And for that, he sent his only son to accomplish your greatest victory so that there is no condemnation, there is no separation for those who believe in Jesus Christ. You have that done, accomplished. But don't just rest there and settle in that.

God has set before you opportunity for many, many, many more victories, many more great things that God wants to do in your life and through your life. Continue to step out. Continue to be led by him. Continue to trust in him for those things that he wants to do. And never forget that those victories are accomplished by faith. It's always got to come back to our trust in God. It's not because we're so clever or so smart or so wise or so organized or so whatever.

Our victories are won by faith. Paul said, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you seeking to be made perfect, to finish the job by faith? Sometimes we, or by the flesh, but sometimes we try to do that, that we try to, okay, God, you gave me a good start there with the cross, and now I got it from here, and I'm going to work hard and make victories happen in my life. But it doesn't work that way. It always comes back to a reliance upon, a dependence on God.

our Lord and Savior Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word to us and your promises to us. Lord, we thank you for the guaranteed victories that you have given to us. Lord, we do believe these pictures that are painted here, these illustrations that you reveal through your word, show us, Lord, the life that you want to provide for us, the things that you want to accomplish.

And as we walk with you and are led by you, Lord, you have much more in store for us. Help us, Lord, to trust you, to not just settle in, but to step out, to take initiative and see the plans that you have set before us and to move forward, not to rush ahead and try to do it on our own, but Lord, to be seeking you. Lord, thinking about Paul writing to the Romans, he said, I'm working this way, I'm trying this way, I'm just trying to find a way within the will of God to come to you. Lord, give us that kind of heart.

Lord, that we would be exploring and testing and finding and seeking to stretch out and go beyond what has already been done, that we would press on in our spiritual lives, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our church, in our community. Lord, may we go forth trusting in you that we might experience the victory that you desire to give. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.