Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 7 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 6 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.  

 

Announcementsopening prayer:

 

 

HEB 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it [passive: drift by us].

 

HEB 2:2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience [failing to hear] received a just recompense,

 

HEB 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect [attitude of indifference] so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

 

HEB 2:4 God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

 

Satan is a very real adversary whose main goal is to put distance between the believer and God's plan for his life. The flesh is his helper or agent within that he desires to enlarge in a believer's life.

 

1PE 5:8-9

Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

 

Satan is called the "tempter." He has power to present to the appetites or passions their objects in vivid and captivating forms, so as to induce man to seek these objects against the law of God which is to be written in the heart. He also has the power to act upon the false desire of the will for independence, the desire "to be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gods knowing good and evil is practically judging and determining for ourselves rather than on God's standard.

 

It is a power which can be resisted, because it is under the control and overruling power of God and since the surpassing power of God is in every believer, the power of Satan over the flesh to go after that which is outside of God's plan in delighted independence can be resisted.

 

1CO 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

 

The power of temptation can be so resisted only by yielding to the grace of God, and by a struggle (sometimes an "agony") in reliance on its strength.

 

ROM 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

 

ROM 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin [sin nature] resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

 

The more there is sin against the plan of God the more entrenched is the habit of sin and even more sin is to come. This is not a gain but a great loss.

 

The believer must always be weary of this and not self-justify his actions with such excuses as "this is how I am" or "this is my weakness" or "I'm only human" or "everyone else seems to live this way." Momentum has a sensitive switch.

 

The fallen nature or sin nature creates in the spirit of man a positive tendency to evil, which sympathizes with, and aids the temptation of the evil one. This is a fact recognized by experience and the doctrine of Scripture. It is inscrutably mysterious, but unmistakably declared. Since the fall, this evil tendency is born in man in capacity, prior to all actual sins, since he is born in Adam. It is brought out actively by sins committed, which sins lead to greater capability for sin against God's laws, both divine establishment law and the law of Christ.

 

Paul calls "a law," according to his universal use of the word, the external power "of sin" over man, bringing the inner man into captivity (ROM 7:14-24).

 

ROM 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.

 

ROM 7:22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

 

ROM 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

 

Its power is broken by the atonement and the gift of the Spirit, but yet not completely cast out; it still "lusts against the Spirit" and desires control of the spirit of the believer. (GAL 5:17).

 

Just like the remnants of Canaanites that continue to live in the land after Joshua's campaign, the sin nature exists in the believer in a severely weakened state. It is obviously still a struggle to fight, but as an unbeliever there was no fight, only submission, but as a believer you have the surpassing greatness of the power to fight it and to overcome it.

 

It is to this spiritual power of evil, the tendency to falsehood, cruelty, pride, and unbelief, independently of any benefits to be derived from them, that Satan is said to appeal in tempting us. If his temptations be yielded to without repentance or change of mind, it becomes the reprobate mind which is always held captive by the flesh, which mind delights in evil for its own sake.

 

It makes men children of the devil and the foolish believer greatly influenced by the devil. If this power is to be resisted and the plan of God loved and desired, it is only by the grace of God, meaning, through His gifts of the word, faith, trust in His promises, the Holy Spirit, and His plan.

 

The argument of the writer of Hebrews shows us that we dare not neglect or be indifferent towards the plan of God for our lives.

 

HEB 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

 

HEB 2:4 God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

 

Verses 3-4 show the superiority of the gospel to the Mosaic Law. First, it was spoken by the Lord Himself, second it was carried along by His apostles, and third, it was authenticated by signs, wonders, powers, and gifts. The last part refers to miracles, amazement of teaching, divine power, and stunning spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit and all done by those who were eye witnesses of our Lord's power and message. In other words, how could it be any more authenticated?

 

The message from the Lord Himself, and in our study, the predestination of the believer adopted as a son, is amazingly powerful, stunningly wonderful, fully revealed by the Spirit, and full of power and truth.