Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 24 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 24 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

We turn to the decisions of the believer in dealing with the world, others, circumstances, himself, and with God. The word of God calls this intensive judging. There is no contradiction here with the command to judge not.  

 

There is a judging that springs from the believer in union with God. It is a discerning of the proper action according to the will of God.

 

So then, it is proper to entitle this work in the soul as judgment, but it is not of the same fabric at all of the judgment of man.

 

1CO 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

 

1CO 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.

 

"appraises" - avnakri,nw [anakrino] = to distinguish or to separate out so as to investigate (krino - judge) by looking throughout (ana - intensive) objects or particulars.

 

The spiritual man investigates, distinguishes, and discerns quite intensively and thoroughly in, and only in, the realm of God’s will.

 

The natural man judges in order to condemn or praise while the spiritual man thoroughly investigates so that he may find the will of God in the situation.

 

This investigation of the will of God is totally voluntary. The believer has to decide that he is going to do so, and he will if he has decided that his Lord and his brothers and sisters are more important than himself.

 

As witnesses of God our will cannot be coerced by outside forces. There is no witness tampering with God. All of our faculties are involved in the process of discerning or investigating. We do not go into a trance or an unconscious state while God works through us. If this were true then there would really be no point to listening to the word of God. Why learn and discern what God is going to directly give at the moment it's needed? It is true that God does work through us but not in coercing our free will. God works through us and with us.

 

Intelligence, discernment, attentive observation of the given facts, all these now come into lively operation, and all will be embraced and pervaded by prayer.

 

Direct inspirations must in no way be heeded or expected, for this could all too easily lead to a man abandoning himself to self-deception. He is to learn the word of God under the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit, meaning that he concentrates and trusts God the Holy Spirit to teach him the truth of the scriptures, and then he is to do the word of God, but in each situation he intelligently discerns with attentive observation of the give facts and with prayer. The fruit of the Spirit is not loss of control but sober, self-control.

 

This does not condone the arrogant idea that a believer can master every situation. He discerns what he can and acts upon the will of God.

 

We are to discern the will of God from the word of God but we could never confidently say that we know exactly what to do in every situation. The Bible doesn't say that we will and experience bears this fact. Our arrogance is too easily inflamed. Sometimes we will just have to admit that we don't know what to do and I would imagine that God knows when we need such humbling situations the most.

 

2CO 4:8

we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;

 

Only God can know all the facts. He humbly submits to God's will while actively discerning with God's word, and he knows that His faithful God will guide him into the truth.

 

1CO 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.

 

And:

1JO 2:20-21

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

 

From these two verses we have two powerful sources from which we can act according to the will of God, 1) appraisal or the ability to thoroughly discern God's will for a given situation, and 2) knowledge of the truth.

 

This judgment to discern the will of God and knowledge from God only comes from unity with Him, not from disunion.

 

Only in Christ can we be spiritual and only in Christ can we be anointed, which pertains to the great influence of the Spirit over the believer, which anointing occurred at salvation and the effects of which are always available to him. The natural man has no such ability. He is darkened in his thinking and can only know the good and evil of fallen man.

 

And so we fully judge in the realm of God's will, as Christ did. Christ's judgment was not to condemn, as man does, but to save (reconciliation):

 

JOH 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

 

JOH 3:18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

 

JOH 3:19 "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil."

 

In the same way, the Christian judges all things, not to condemn, but to do the will of God in reconciliation, love, help, lifting up the fallen, showing the way to the straying, exhorting, comforting, etc., and in cases, separation.