Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 21

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 21 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Announcements / opening prayer:

In essence all fallen men are Pharisees who at some level seek salvation in their own definition of good when true good is only found in the person of Christ.

All fallen men are to some extent Pharisees. They each have a knowledge of good and evil and by it they are judges who judge themselves, others, situations, and God. Society and culture label them as good or bad judges or even indifferent, but they are each judges none the less. The wise, noble, and strong of 1Co 1 are those who are so in man's knowledge and ways of good and evil.

Mat 7:1 "Do not judge lest you be judged."

From the only one who had unity with God, He strikes a blow at the heart of every man. He is not exhorting us to be forbearing or patient or wise in judging others in the area of good or evil. He flat out states that we are not to do it at all.

Man, independent from God, judges on the criteria of himself. But Christ is looking for a completely different way which is the conversion of the entire being, which He is going to provide by His blood. He is here demanding unity with God; far, far above the knowledge of good and evil.

The virtue of the Christian is entirely action and not judgment. The man who judges never acts in the way that action can be done in the life that is Christ (fruit).

Fallen man certainly does a lot of stuff. The Pharisee was very active but everything he did, which was a lot, was never more than judgment, condemnation, reproaches, and accusations against other men. Even the so-called good that man does is always based upon his faulty judgment upon it as being good and not evil.

The believer is to hear and act. He must understand that the word of God is to be understood and done. He must not be a hearer only.

Mat 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.

Mat 7:25 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.

Mat 7:26 "And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.

Mat 7:27 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."

Only in doing can there be submission to the will of God. In doing God's will man renounces every right and every justification of his own. His life is humbly put in the hands of the faithful Creator. The Pharisee in every man hears some truth and may even speak it, but he always fails to act upon it.

Man sets up his knowledge of good and evil against God. He desires them to be side by side, but this is impossible. If man can get God to agree that his good is actually good then man can be justified before God, but before Him shall no flesh be justified. In fact man's good is always looking for approval; from others, from God, and if no one is there to see, from the doer himself.

When the Bible calls for action it does not refer a man to his own powers:

Joh 15:5

apart from Me you can do nothing.

All that has been done apart from Him, which is a lot, is as if nothing was ever done.

Judging is not acting. The two are mutually exclusive. The man who judges envisages the law as a criterion which he applies to others, and he envisages himself as being responsible for thee execution of the law. He forgets that there is only one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy.

If a man employs his knowledge of the law in accusing or condemning his brother, then he accuses and condemns the law itself, for he distrusts its own ability to judge.

The law of Christ or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is alive and power and able to judge. When the believer uses it to judge another he robs it of its ability to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. He distrusts the law's essence and in so doing he condemns it.

Joh 12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day."

In making himself the lawgiver and the judge he invalidates the law of God. Hence there is a wide gulf between judging and action. Action fully does the will of God without judging.

The doer of the law, unlike the judge, submits to the law; the law never becomes a criterion for him to apply to his brother's own condition, but summons him personally to action.

The living word is active and has no need of assistance.

This does not mean that the believer sets at doing the will of God while hoping and praying that God judge a sinful brother. There is no appeal to God for judging. As God is patient and longsuffering so is the believer. As God desires reconciliation for all, so does the believer. Another believer's judgment or discipline never enters the mind of the disciple of Christ. His world is fully quenched with the will of God.

Man's knowledge of good and evil always seeks for public approval, even if the only approval is the man himself.

Human good always demands to be seen, again, even if it is just the man himself. But as we will see, the Christian doesn't look at his actions in this way at all.

Mat 23:5 "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men;"

The action of man without Christ has ever been a particular form of expression of his knowledge of good and evil, that is to say, his disunion with God, himself, and others.

When the Son of God united us with Himself, He also united us with one another in Him. This is the body of Christ. This is why the individual believer can act in goodness and produce true fruit and the body of believers can as well. All the action of men without Christ is hypocrisy or false action.

What fallen man says he does and what he actually does is a profound contradiction.

Mat 23:2 "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;

Mat 23:3 therefore all that they tell you [the Law], do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them."