Will you turn again to the book of
Joshua, and remembering the chapter which has been
read to us, chapter 1.
Just add to it two verses from chapter
5, verse 13.
It came to pass when Joshua was by
Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, there stood a man over
against him with his sword drawn in his
hand.
And Joshua went unto him, and said unto
him, Art thou for us, or for our
adversaries?
And he said, Nay, but as prince of
the host of the Lord, am I now
come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the
earth, and did wash it, and said unto
him, What saith my Lord unto his servant?
Prince of Jehovah's host said unto Joshua, Put
off thy shoe from off thy feet, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
And Joshua did so.
So today we are led to a fresh
contemplation of the matter of the Holy Spirit,
the people of God, and their inheritance.
The New Testament, especially from and with the
Gospel of John onward, is the counterpart of
the book of Joshua.
When you come to the end of the
four Gospels, you find yourself at that same
place as you have just before the book
of Joshua opens.
That is, one nation has come to the
border of the land of promise, which border
is in this case symbolically the Jordan.
And that nation had been turned back, and
lost everything to unbelief.
That is how it was before this book
of Joshua opened.
That is exactly how it was at the
end of the Gospels.
The nation to whom all the promises were
offered for fulfillment came to that border land,
and to unbelief was turned back.
Lost everything, and for the last two thousand
years have been dying in the wilderness, experiencing
a living death in the wilderness.
But a new nation springs into being.
It is that with which we have to
do when we open this book of Joshua.
And it is that with which we have
to do when we pass from John into
Acts.
A new nation risen out of the death
of the old, and now going in and
on to possess.
The ark of the covenant went its lonely
way through the Jordan.
You remember that the Lord commanded that as
the ark was to move ahead into the
river, the flood, a space of two thousand
cubits was to be observed between it and
the people.
It was taking a lonely way, a way
which it alone could take.
We all know that that ark represents the
Lord Jesus himself, and its passage through the
Jordan typifies his passage through the cross.
I am alone, he said, yet not alone
for the Father is with me.
There is a space.
He took a lonely way through the cross.
Really no one else can go that way
as fully as he went it.
Thank God it is not necessary.
He first met all the overflowing of Jordan,
God's judgment, God's wrath, God's separation.
A lonely way, why hast thou forsaken me,
he cried to heaven.
The ark went that way for us that
we might not be overwhelmed of Jordan and
have a dry passage to lead the way
through for us.
I don't think, dear friends, yet we really
make enough of what he has borne for
us and of how little we have to
bear because of it.
If we know something of the cross, if
we know something of the fellowship of his
suffering, we know nothing of the judgment of
God.
None of it has to do with judgment,
not one bit.
The ark went its lonely way to lead
them through, so he by the cross has
opened a way, a way into the inheritance.
At that point, Joshua comes into view in
full stature as representing or indicating the instrument
of God for spiritual fullness.
Few minutes on Joshua would be instructive in
that light.
See, Joshua does stand for the mighty
life and energy of the Holy Spirit.
When the captain of Jehovah's hosts, the Holy
Spirit in figure there, joined himself with Joshua
and joined Joshua with himself, all that issued
and proceeded was by the energy of the
Holy Spirit.
It is all the Holy Spirit in charge
and in action.
Joshua then speaks of the Holy Spirit uniting
himself with a vessel for the purposes of
the inheritance.
You remember when Joshua first came into view
in Exodus chapter 17 in relation to Amalek?
Amalek, the type of the flesh, coming out
to thwart, to prevent, to straddle the path
of Israel that they should not come into
the inheritance.
The flesh always does that.
Satan has a ready ally in the flesh.
And he by the energy of the flesh
would always keep the Lord's people out of
the inheritance.
Joshua comes in then against Amalek.
You see, well in advance, even when he
first comes into view, he signifies that which
is of the spirit against the flesh.
The warring of the spirit against the flesh.
The flesh warreth against the spirit and the
spirit against the flesh, the apostles.
Joshua is there as the energy of the
spirit to deal with this obstructing and hindering
and thwarting flesh with the inheritance always in
view.
That is important to remember that and keep
it in its place.
Why must we walk in the spirit?
Why must the flesh be dealt with?
Not just for its own sake, but because
the great, great inheritance in Christ is in
view.
In Exodus chapter 34, he is referred to
on the next occasion.
He is spoken of here as a young
man departing not from the tent of meeting.
I think that's a very beautiful touch in
this whole story and whole spiritual background and
in the case of Joshua himself.
A young man who departed not from the
tent of meeting.
And of course you know that that was
not the tabernacle because the tabernacle was not
in existence at that time.
What was this tent?
Well, you have to go back to the
beginning when Moses went up into the mount
to receive the law and the pattern.
He came down and Israel had broken the
loose and made them a calf and were
worshipping it and saying, These be thy God
who brought thee out of Egypt.
Joshua was there.
But when Moses came down and heard and
saw, came into the camp, what he did
was to take a tent, tent of meeting,
right outside of the camp.
And there from the door of the tent
outside the camp he cried, Who is on
the Lord's side?
Let him come over unto me.
That was the tent in which Joshua, the
young man, abode and from which he did
not depart.
It's all full of significance, isn't it?
First of all, that tent out there did
suggest or imply absolute separation from every tent
of Satan's touch.
Satan had captured the gold of the sanctuary
and had it made into a calf for
his own worship.
Satan had turned the heart of the people
from the Lord to himself and corrupted everything.
If the inheritance is going to be entered
upon and appropriated, all that has got to
be put aside.
That touch and that taint and that corrupting
influence of evil runs amongst the people of
God.
It has got to be destroyed, removed.
And everything of God has got to be
taken out of its species.
Joshua, therefore, abiding and not departing from the
tent, says so clearly, this man, this man
of the Spirit, this man who is to
bring into the inheritance by the energy of
the Spirit a man who abides beyond the
taint and the touch of the powers of
evil.
He's not in that world.
He is out of that realm altogether.
He abides in the tent of me.
I like to think that there was one
man who was not a priest and he
was not Moses, just a man of the
people who was allowed to dwell in the
house of the Lord.
But then it says Joshua was a young
man, Exodus 33, 11.
A young man who departed not from the
tent of me.
Speaking of freshness, freshness with everything before,
vision, purpose, a future.
Freshness of youth, a life of energy in
the Spirit.
No touch of time, age or old age
here.
It's a very blessed thing, dear friends.
Oh, that we were all characterized by this
youth.
No, here's where a part of our watchfulness
and prayerfulness must be observed.
It's always such a great joy to meet
with young Christians who are just reaching out
for everything of the Lord.
Not satisfied with being just saved, not just
taken up with the activities of the newly
saved, but who are really after all what
the Lord means for them.
It's good to meet them like that because,
you know, some of the Lord's people who
know it all and heard it all for
years, and you can hardly say a thing
even about the book of Joshua if they
haven't heard and do not know all about
it.
Oh, well, you've gone over that ground again
and again.
And they're so stale, and everything is so
stale.
It's like the bread that has been locked
up for years.
Absolutely dry, and so you can't say anything
to them.
There's no freshness.
But then you come to this group of
young Christians, and there's life, there's freshness, and
you can give and give like that.
Now that is not a matter of years.
It's not a matter of years.
That's a matter of spirit.
Matter of spirit.
And it ought to be like that.
If we're going to come into the inheritance,
you know, we've always got to have an
appetite for it.
We're going to come into the inheritance, there
must always be this vigor of spirit, this
energy, this recount, this consciousness, that as yet
however much we know, we know nothing.
We see so much before.
The land of far distances that our eyes
have seen.
And with all that we know, we really
are only touching the fringes.
It ought to be like that to the
end.
Spirit of youth, and youth energy.
Automata.
Oh, do lay that to heart.
Sometimes it's very difficult, you know, to give
a message amongst people who know it all,
have heard it all before.
There's a sense of heaviness and hard going,
simply because there is not this drawing out
of a spiritual energy to know, to know.
To apprehend is a young man who departed
not from the tent of meeting.
Now when you come to this fifth chapter
of the book of Joshua, to those two
verses that we read just now, those three
verses, you come to what is the very
heart and essence of the book of the
Acts.
With the end of John, the land comes
into view.
Or with John, the land comes into view.
With Acts, the spirit takes over.
He takes over this whole matter of the
inheritance, and of leading the people of God
into possession.
But he takes over to bring them into
possession along the line of conflict.
Yes, he takes over in relation to the
inheritance, but note how immediately it becomes a
matter of conflict.
If that man standing with the sword drawn
in his hand, declaring himself to be the
captain of the host of the Lord, is
in figure, if not in reality, the Holy
Spirit, as we believe he is.
He has a sword drawn in his hand.
He has not come with an olive leaf.
He's come with a sword, and it's drawn.
There's going to be not one width of
this inheritance possessed without conflict.
Better make up your mind today.
It's going to be like that.
There is going to be a width tending
from all quarters.
As soon as the matter of any spiritual
increase comes into view, then strangely, sometimes mysteriously,
a state of conflict arises.
It gets into the atmosphere, and it comes
even from Christian people.
Be satisfied with what is called the simple
evangel, and simple evangelism, and so on, and
you meet no conflict.
Everybody applauds and accepts and is on your
side.
But, set your heart upon the whole purpose
of God, and you find yourself at once
in a realm of terrible conflict.
Satan is not going to allow this church
to reach its determined destiny if he can
prevent it.
Every step is going to challenge.
Notice, every place that the sole of your
feet shall rest upon.
Ah, what if I have given thee that?
There'll be a battle over.
There'll be a battle over your possessing what
I have given you.
Where even though God has predestined, predetermined, it's
settled in the foreknowledge and forecounsels of God,
it does not mean that we're going to
come into it willy-nilly.
With all the divine sovereignty, with all the
divine power, and with all the divine wisdom
associated with the purpose, strangely enough, there's a
battle over every inch of it.
Like that?
In John, then, Jesus said, When the Spirit
of truth was come, he will guide you
into all the truth.
That's Joshua 5, 13-15.
The Spirit has come to guide them into
the all-truth.
That is in Jesus.
That is Joshua.
When he came on the day of Pentecost,
fulfilling the promise and words and explanation of
the Lord Jesus, he came to guide the
Church right into its inheritance.
Oh, I cannot be too emphatic about this,
because of these inadequate, if not wrong, ideas
about the Holy Spirit and Pentecost and so
on.
Let us understand, dear friends, that the Holy
Spirit came for no less and no other
purpose than to take the Church right on
into all its inheritance in Christ.
And if our ideas of the Holy Spirit
are not so poised and directed, we are
in some way arresting, if not subverting, the
very work of the Holy Spirit, the purpose
of his coming, came in type, in gesture,
in reality, in act.
For that one purpose, the Church has got
to be brought into that inheritance for which
it has been eternally predestined by God.
And this is going to be a conflict
which will not end until the Lamb has
overcome in finality.
Well, in the book of Acts, the Holy
Spirit does take over in the matter of
the inheritance, and he takes over for the
conflict of the inheritance.
And it is not very far into that
book just before you find the conflict is
on.
From Jerusalem, from Jewish leaders, there they are,
they killed Stephen.
From the world, the pagan rulers, there it
is, the conflict is on.
But the mighty Spirit is with the Church
in the conflict.
He has linked himself up with that instrument
for the great purpose of God.
And there is a sense, a very real
sense, if you look through the incident, and
how it looked like, the tragedy, look through,
there is a sense in which it can
be said concerning this union of the Holy
Spirit with a vessel here on this earth
that no man has been able to stand
before it all the days of his life.
The same thing is true.
There has been a withstanding from men and
from David, awful withstanding, but the Church has
gone on.
Testimony has never ceased in the earth.
And even when sometimes it seems to be
driven underground, it comes up again.
Well, Acts sees then the Holy Spirit coming,
uniting himself with the instrument, the vessel, and
the conflict arising.
You pass over to the letters of the
Hebrews, you find yourself in this battle, this
battle, for here in this letter to the
Hebrews it's all about the inheritance, as you
know, spiritually.
The Spirit is here urging the Church, urging
the believers to go on, to go on,
not to go back, not to stand still,
but to go on.
And there it is said, Joshua did not
bring them into the rest.
It was typed, it was figured, that that
final fullness of Christ never was entered into
under Joshua but Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit, they are going to
bring the Church into the final fullness.
When you come to the book of the
Revelation, this whole issue of the inheritance seems
to change a bit, resolve itself into a
matter of overcomers now.
Here, whatever date you put the book of
the Revelation, make it the whole dispensation or
the end of the dispensation.
The situation that you find is that the
Church as a whole has not gone on.
It has not gone on.
A very large proportion of the Church has
either declined, fallen back or away, or have
stood still in this matter.
Perhaps conflict has been too fierce, the cost
too great, the world too attractive, seem too
subtle.
But there it is.
As you find at the end of the
book of Joshua, the enemy was not finally
cast out.
You have the tragedy of the book of
Judges.
So in the last book of the Bible,
the book of the Revelation, the enemy has
not been fully and finally worsted and cast
out.
He still has territory amidst the people of
God.
So there arises the whole question of the
overcomer.
The overcomer, company or body, is that which
will go on, will satisfy the Lord, the
whole matter of His food.
We see where we are.
All this surely indicates our position.
For we are in the dispensation of the
counterpart of the book of Joshua, in the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit, whose one inclusive
object and purpose is to bring God's people
into fullness.
All who will be led into that fullness,
all who will go on, not a select
company, not a select company, but all who
will, Paul's great word, as to his own
praying and thriving was, that we might present
every man complete in Christ.
Every man.
God thought for us all.
Do not say that may apply to some
good, large people who have capacity of a
different makeup from what I know.
Every man complete in Christ.
That's God's purpose.
The Holy Spirit can do it with every
man.
If he gets his way, if he gets
his ground, we have to see perhaps later
today what that is.
But here, this morning, dear friends, though you
may have heard it many times and be
familiar with this truth, it's something the Lord
has said must be mentioned here again, must
be spoken of here again.
We must once more come back to what
is here.
Now, you see, because of such a tremendous
withstanding, such a tremendous withstanding, all round, of
any kind of real coming to God's end,
progress toward that, withstanding of every kind.
Because of that, you have this threefold reiteration
to Joshua.
Be strong and of a good courage.
Be strong.
That's our side.
It is just, that's our side.
It is just that very connection that Paul
uses those words.
He is bringing into view fully the forces,
the cosmic forces which are set against the
Church and its inheritance, the principalities and powers.
He says, be strong in the Lord.
Be strong.
There must be no weakening.
There must be no letting go.
The disparagements will be many.
The heartbreaks will be many.
Perhaps the disappointments will be many.
Situations will sometimes seem to be impossible.
The prospects are hopeless ones.
But you and I have got to heed
this word because so much hangs upon us.
So much hangs upon us.
For ourselves.
The inheritance in fullness hangs upon this.
Be strong.
No weakening, no letting go, no letting down.
But it may be, you see, that those
who will be strong may be a strength
to others.
And therefore others are a responsibility upon us
to be strong.
It's not only for ourselves but it is
vocational to be strong.
And then I am with thee.
I will be with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Don't take that out of its context.
You can't be sure of that if you
cut it from its context.
The context is the whithersoever thou goest must
be in relation to God's full purpose.
He cannot be with you on any other
ground.
You cannot count on that promise.
Otherwise it will not prove true unless you're
right on the line of his full purpose.
Then he is with us whithersoever he goes.
Commit himself.
I will be with thee.
I am with thee.
But do you notice that that is said
twice over in this first chapter in a
two-fold connection.
Firstly, it is in connection with leading this
people over.
The responsibility of spiritual leadership.
Spiritual leadership.
I emphasize and underline that word spiritual.
Don't think of leadership as official.
Leadership is not official.
You are not made a leader.
You are not appointed a leader.
You are not given a badge with leader
on it.
Or a uniform.
Or a dress.
You are a leader or you are not.
It's a matter of your spiritual quality.
And spiritual leadership means that you are exercising
an influence on others to bring them on,
to lead them on into God's full intention
for his people.
That is the effect of your life.
Others are because of you being drawn on,
helped on, led on.
If you have accepted that responsibility and are
seeking to fulfill it for others' lives, then
this word I am with thee is yours.
But then you notice in the second case
this word of the law shall not depart
out of thy mouth.
Give heed unto it.
Then I am with thee.
Your whole life must be based upon and
governed by the word of God.
You must not be above the word of
God, superior to it.
You must not be apart from it.
You must be able to substantiate your position
by the word of God.
Now, does the word of God say this
or that?
Dear friends, the whole question of your inheritance
and of your influence depends upon whether you
adhere to that word.
Sometimes it will not be understanding the word,
but the word is there.
It's safe.
Don't argue.
Don't be superior in judgment.
It is safe.
All that there is a good deal more,
or a little more, of this government of
the word of God.
That is why we have got to read
it.
We have got to consider it.
We have got to give heed to it.
Observe this word, is what it says here,
to observe it, to observe it, to do
it.
Are you reading your Bible in order to
find out exactly what it does say?
If the word of God says, children, obey
your parents, it says that.
Don't argue.
If the word of God says, husbands, love
your wives, it just says that.
Don't say, oh, but, oh, but, oh, but.
No, it says that.
If the word of God says, wives, be
in subjection to your own husbands, it says
that.
And no one can take superior ground to
that.
You see what I mean?
I'm picking things out in order to emphasize
this point.
To observe, to do.
You'll be blessed if you do that.
If you don't, you won't come into the
inheritance, and you will have no fear of
real spiritual ministry.
Oh, big question.
Found out of this, but the main thing,
and I am with you.
I'm with you.
When it's like this, we cannot take that
promise with any assurance.
I am with thee, unless it is true
that we are seeing that this word of
the Lord does not depart from us, that
we observe it to do it.
Presence of the Lord and our entering into
our possessions in Christ is governed, are both
governed by this thing.
Oh, read your Bible to see what it
really does say.
Not what your interpretation is, but what it
says.
I know that there's a great deal fuller
meaning in all the Scripture than ever we
have seen, and we shall get more and
more light on it.
But first of all, first of all, what
does it say?
What does it say?
And I am in line with that.
Big things hang.
Big things.
Be strong, with good courage.
I am with thee.
I will not leave thee.
As I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee.
This word shall not depart from thee.
Observe it.
And I think that's quite enough for us
to face for the moment.
We are thinking in these days about the
advent of the Holy Spirit.
That is what is occupying us just now.
This is why the Holy Spirit came.
And this is the ground on which the
Spirit is with us.
And this is the purpose which the Holy
Spirit has taken up in his coming.
He has taken over.
And in all the conflict, and in all
the suffering, he is sufficient to see us
through.