WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.679 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:21.200 Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, today we are looking at a part of your Word that you know, 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:28.879 a lot of Canadians don't like, and a lot of Canadian Christians feel very uncomfortable with, 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:36.879 and in fact often don't like it. But Father, it is your Word, and we know that you are the God of love, 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:43.920 the God of truth and goodness and of beauty and of justice and of mercy and of grace. And we ask that 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:50.400 you would gently but powerfully pour out the Holy Spirit in each of our hearts, bringing the gospel 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:57.439 and your Word to bear in our hearts, that we might be formed by the gospel and by your Word. And we ask 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:02.319 that in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:20.560 The story that we're going to be looking at today, which Owen read the first part of, is at least 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:25.359 within Christian circles, if you've been brought up in the Christian church, is a very, very familiar 00:02:25.359 --> 00:02:29.840 story. And it's, I think, even maybe a little bit familiar to those who are outside of the Christian 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:36.800 faith. And it's the story of Joshua walking around the walls of Jericho, and the walls come tumbling 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:44.719 down. Christians of a certain age range, or their parents, would know the Veggie Tales version of this 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:52.640 story. I think Larry the Cucumber leads a group of vegetables around the walls seven times before the 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:58.560 walls come tumbling down. It's also, I don't know how well known it is anymore, but there was a very 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:05.520 well known African-American spiritual based on this song, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:10.640 I'm not going to sing the whole song, by the way. So it's a sort of a familiar type of story. 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:14.879 But it's one of those stories that you might even be in a conversation with one of your friends, and 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:19.520 they ask you something, oh, there's this really cool story, you know, there was this Veggie Tales thing about it. 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:26.080 And you start to read the story, and then at a certain voice you go, oh, I don't remember this 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:33.680 being in the Veggie Tales story. And then you come to verse 21, and you go, and you look like a deer 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:39.120 caught in the headlights. And you then wish that you hadn't shared the story with the friend who was 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:44.159 outside the Christian faith, because it took a turn that I'm pretty sure, I didn't check this, 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:49.920 maybe Veggie Tales has it, but I would be surprised if they do. And all of a sudden you go, I don't know 00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:55.680 if I should have read this story to my friend. So we're going to walk towards this, even this verse 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:02.560 with the shock that makes the story seem very different than we remember. And we're not going 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:08.400 to change the topic. It's a verse that is very upsetting to Canadians, as I said in my opening 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:14.240 prayer, a lot of Canadians, and is upsetting to a lot of Canadian Christians. But like a lot of things 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:20.399 in the Bible, the longer I've been a Christian, it's often when you go to those things which are most 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:27.199 problematic for Canadians, that you get the most profound and beautiful truths and wisdom that you 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:34.879 need to know. I mean, I'll be honest, you know, I'm sure, anyway, I mean, you know, today I think Jesus 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:41.759 rose from the dead. I think he is the savior of the world. I think he says this is all from God, 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:46.399 I believe it's all from God, and it is only something that's going to be for our good if we 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:51.759 look at it and take it to heart. So what is that shocking thing? Well, let's read the story together. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:05:01.599 It's Joshua chapter 6. Joshua chapter 6. And I'm going to read part of the chapter, and I'm going 00:05:01.599 --> 00:05:06.959 to just tell part of the chapter. And that's not because I'm trying to skip anything. One of the 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:12.240 important things for you to bring a Bible of your own with you is because part of my job is to help 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:17.680 you read the Bible for yourself. And so you just have a look. And if I skip something, you should, 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:21.439 you know, George, you should have talked about that. Like, why were you not talking about it? Just ask me over coffee. 00:05:22.159 --> 00:05:28.759 But here's how it goes. And it begins, Joshua chapter 6, verse 1. And it begins like this. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:36.159 Now Joshua was shut up inside. Sorry, now Jericho. Sorry, that's a bad start, eh? Jericho was shut up 00:05:36.159 --> 00:05:42.819 inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:51.319 Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hands with its king and mighty men of valor. And just sort of 00:05:51.319 --> 00:05:59.159 pause here for a second. Two weeks ago, we were looking at the story of Joshua and the people of 00:05:59.159 --> 00:06:07.079 Israel, how they got across the Jordan River. And part of the thing that that story did is to 00:06:07.079 --> 00:06:14.740 emphasize the miracle. It mentioned that it was the spring floods. And this little detail at the 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:20.500 beginning of the chapter is once again emphasizing how it seems as if God is asking Joshua to do 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:26.900 something completely and utterly impossible. Because the people of Israel had been in slavery 00:06:26.899 --> 00:06:34.599 in Egypt for centuries. They had been then a nomadic people. And here they come against a very, 00:06:34.739 --> 00:06:40.579 very well-established fortress. Archaeologists have found that there was a spring within the wall. So 00:06:40.579 --> 00:06:47.359 it's a very well-designed fortress that has lasted a long time. It has a water supply within it. 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:52.319 They're obviously prepared. And the people of Israel would have had no ability to figure out how to deal 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:58.599 with a siege at all at this point in time. So it's emphasizing the impossibility of the task ahead 00:06:58.599 --> 00:07:05.740 of them. And therefore, God has to do something. And then what the next verses, 3 to 15, talk about, 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:11.439 it's a sort of a very simple pattern. The Lord says to Joshua, this is what you got to do. And then 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:17.800 Joshua says to the people, this is what you got to do. And then you see them doing what they had to do. 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:24.840 And what they had to do was simply, they couldn't say a single word. So they'd go there early in the 00:07:24.840 --> 00:07:31.540 morning. I guess the people were probably far back, but the armed warriors would walk around 00:07:31.540 --> 00:07:37.860 the city of Jericho once. And as they're walking around, all completely silent, the Ark of the 00:07:37.860 --> 00:07:42.660 Covenant, the Ark of the Lord was leading their way, and trumpets were being played. And they did that 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:49.960 for six days. And on the seventh day, they did that exact same thing the seven times. And the 00:07:49.960 --> 00:07:54.880 instruction was that it was only after that seventh time that they were to give a shout to the Lord, 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:01.580 and then the Lord was going to do something. So that's what happened in verses 3 to 15. So turn 00:08:01.580 --> 00:08:08.500 with me to verse 16, and we see how the story continues. And the story continues like this, 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:17.079 verse 16. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:23.459 shout for the Lord has given you the city, and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to 00:08:23.459 --> 00:08:29.160 the Lord for destruction. Now just pause. That would have been the first, I don't remember that being in 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:33.379 the VeggieTales moment, but it's going to get a bit worse actually. But that would have been the first 00:08:33.379 --> 00:08:38.939 one. I don't remember this being in the VeggieTales. Now just a little bit about how this book is written. 00:08:40.139 --> 00:08:47.220 So it's actually written in a very intricate way, and actually in a very modern way. So just imagine 00:08:47.220 --> 00:08:53.419 that if you were doing this like as a Netflix film or something, they've already got the command that 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:58.139 they're at a shout, it's really been what I'm going to shout, a shout of praise to the Lord, like 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:02.679 the Lord is King, the Lord is glorious, the Lord is great, whatever that would have been, 00:09:02.679 --> 00:09:09.659 but it would have been some shout of acclamation of praise. And so if you see then in verse 16, 00:09:09.899 --> 00:09:16.099 it begins halfway through, it says shout, and now what you're doing is in Netflix, there'd be a bit 00:09:16.099 --> 00:09:21.739 of a fade, and then maybe if they're doing it really well, there'd be a change of the color, 00:09:22.259 --> 00:09:29.039 and you do a bit of a reminiscence of something about happened just a little bit beforehand, 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:35.740 and because it wouldn't make any sense for him to yell shout, and then he goes and speaks for a while 00:09:35.740 --> 00:09:42.099 because they would have all shouted, right? So it's, and what the device is, is so it moves back in time, 00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:48.039 and it's also moving back in time to show that what's going to happen in verses 16 and a half 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:55.740 to the end of 21 is really important. So it's designed to draw out this, the importance of this 00:09:55.740 --> 00:10:00.759 bit, okay? Sorry, that's a bit of a nerdish thing, but just so you understand, I think, why would he say 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:06.480 that, and no, no, just imagine that he takes a step back in time, and then he rush, he's going to run, 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:11.419 then he's going to rush forward in time in verse 20. We're right back to the present. So here's what, 00:10:11.419 --> 00:10:17.559 here's what he says again, first, last part of verse 16, shout, for the Lord has given you the city, 00:10:18.299 --> 00:10:22.959 and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. I'm going to 00:10:22.959 --> 00:10:28.419 talk about that in a moment. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:36.039 shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you keep yourselves from the things 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:43.399 devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:49.939 the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. Just pause. I'm not going to say 00:10:49.939 --> 00:10:55.679 anything about this in this sermon. It's actually an important thing for next week's sermon, the story 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:04.099 of Achan, and I'll talk about that next week. Verse 19, but all silver and gold and every vessel of 00:11:04.100 --> 00:11:11.080 bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, they shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted, 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:17.120 now we're in the present time again for the story, the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. 00:11:17.659 --> 00:11:25.060 As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, the wall fell down 00:11:25.060 --> 00:11:30.820 flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 00:11:30.820 --> 00:11:43.840 And now the verse, verse 21, then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, 00:11:44.660 --> 00:11:52.520 young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys with the edge of the sword. 00:11:52.519 --> 00:12:01.980 Now I'm pretty sure that's not in Veggie Tales. And it's, that's the moment devoted to destruction 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:06.799 makes you pause. That's the moment you say to yourself, I should not have read this story to my 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:12.620 friends, because we're very uncomfortable with this, and we're uncomfortable about it for 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:21.460 potentially a whole reason, a whole pile of, of very, very good reasons. Now, uh, so here, so 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:26.639 those of you who've been tracking with my sermons, and I don't expect you, you know, they, they say that 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:31.519 people remember 10% of what they hear, so I don't expect you to remember anything I said a couple of 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:37.320 weeks ago. I can barely remember what I said a couple of weeks ago. But, uh, you know, here, here's the thing. 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:44.360 What I said is, the book of Joshua has been a bit of, like, a, a, a battle, a battleground, where, when 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:50.900 people want to make indictments, or accusations, or lay charges against the Christian God, and why they 00:12:50.900 --> 00:12:56.960 shouldn't be a Christian, and why Christianity is bad for you, often they go to the book of Joshua. 00:12:57.580 --> 00:13:03.000 And there's a whole pile of things in Joshua that if they were making charges against God, because God's 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:09.299 on trial, and they expect that when these charges are presented in court, God will be found guilty of 00:13:09.299 --> 00:13:16.360 being a very, very bad God. Either he doesn't exist because he's so bad, or if he does exist, he's so bad, 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:20.820 we shouldn't worship him, we should turn our back on him, and run away from him. And there's a long list 00:13:20.820 --> 00:13:26.879 of charges, and people write books on the subject. So what I decided to do, because I want people to, 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:32.720 I want you to be able to read the Bible for yourself. I want you to get, like, this text has a profound 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:40.540 teaching about the, I'll explain the point in a moment, the infinite particularity of God's grace 00:13:40.540 --> 00:13:46.420 and mercy, and it has a profound teaching on how the Lord has provided means of grace for his people. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:53.879 And if you get scandalized by this part, you're not going to hear that part. But what I can't do is, 00:13:54.240 --> 00:14:00.000 I can't do every week everything, and this might be a bit unsatisfying to you, but, like, you know, 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.000 the first week I dealt with one of the things against the book, and the next week I dealt with 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:09.460 another couple, and I'm just going to deal with them in narrative form. So part of the scandal of 00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:16.519 this text, I'm going to deal with next week and the week after, just because it continues in the 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:21.820 next two weeks in different forms. And what I suggest is, if you have these, just write down, 00:14:22.059 --> 00:14:26.379 boy, George, you better deal with this, you better deal with it, that's good. And if I don't deal with 00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:30.720 it in the next week or two, come and speak to me or say, George, you never dealt with it, and I'll 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:34.960 deal with it. I'm not trying to run away from anything. I've just decided to follow the narrative 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:40.360 and pick just maybe one thing every week out of the different charges against it. So write it down. 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:46.820 And here, if you could put up the first point, I actually have three points today, or three subject 00:14:46.820 --> 00:14:52.100 headings for the sermon. And that is this, the scandal of the Lord's judgment. 00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:56.480 The scandal of the Lord's judgment. 00:14:58.220 --> 00:15:02.399 Now, here's how the, here's, you know, we live by stories. 00:15:03.740 --> 00:15:10.440 We live by a series of stories. Part of what is problematic is often the different stories we live 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:15.639 by. We have different scripts and narratives that we live by. And some of the times those narratives 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:21.720 are contradictory. But one of the stories Canadians live by is this. Here's how, what life is about. 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:28.519 You live your life day by day. You try to be a good person. And you try to grab joy whenever you can, 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:32.440 and you try to grab pleasure whenever you can, and you try to have the best time you can have, 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:39.879 not in a really selfish, narcissistic way, but you grab life if you can. You get the best you can out 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:44.100 of life, and you live that day by day, and then you die, and you go to a better place. Or then you die, 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:47.899 and nothing else happens. And that's the story that Canadians live by. 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:53.600 And if I was to say that, it wouldn't matter if it was that Tim Hortons up there with a lot of street 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:59.860 people, or as I've said before, because I'm closer to hip replacement than hip, wherever the hippest 00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:03.620 coffee place is, you could say that to people, and they would just nod their head. Like, it's just a 00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:11.860 commonplace story that Canadians live by. And the problem is that this text says that you're living 00:16:11.860 --> 00:16:17.159 in a fantasy, and I don't mean a fantasy novel, which are sort of really good, if you find a good 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:24.220 fantasy novel. That's just a make-believe story that's not true. That the real story is that you 00:16:24.220 --> 00:16:29.800 live day by day, and different things happen, and you do different things, and then you die, 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:36.500 and you meet the triune God face-to-face. That's the real story. That's the true story. 00:16:36.500 --> 00:16:43.779 You die. And when you die, you meet the triune God face-to-face, and that meeting is inevitable 00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:50.080 and unavoidable. Now, some of you might say, well, I like my story better, George, and that's just your 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:56.440 word for it, that my story is fantasy and your story is better. I would just say there's four very 00:16:56.440 --> 00:17:03.259 brief things to show why the Canadian story is both untrue and unsatisfactory, and contradicts 00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:08.920 other stories that you desperately want to be true. Four very brief reasons why the Canadian story 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:14.819 is not true, and contradicts other things that you desire to be true, other stories that you tell 00:17:14.819 --> 00:17:19.980 yourself. The first one is that the Canadian story, practically speaking, ignores death. 00:17:21.859 --> 00:17:29.099 Because the average Canadian does not believe they're going to die. Death is an option that I will 00:17:29.099 --> 00:17:40.480 never choose. Because who would choose it? And I catch this because, you know, I hang out at coffee 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:46.599 shops, and one of the ways I bear witness to Jesus is I'm just honest about what I've just done, or what 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:51.159 I'm about to do. Like, this is a very easy way for you to bear witness to Jesus. Like, on Monday 00:17:51.159 --> 00:17:54.679 morning, if somebody said, what do you do on the weekend? Why didn't you say, well, you know, 00:17:54.680 --> 00:18:00.039 you know, my best friend and I, we went for a run Saturday morning, and then on Sunday morning, 00:18:00.120 --> 00:18:04.640 we went, I went to church, and then on Sunday afternoon, I had some people over for a meal. Like, 00:18:04.700 --> 00:18:10.960 why skip the church bit? So, I don't do that many funerals, but over the years, I might have gone to 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:16.160 one of my favorite coffee places to get a coffee, either before or after I've done a funeral. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:21.580 And they'll say to me, oh, what have you been doing today? Or what are you about to do? And I'll say, 00:18:21.579 --> 00:18:30.099 I just took a funeral. I led a funeral. And without fail, they go like this, and say, 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:38.859 that must be so hard. Without fail. Thousand percent. Like, they take a step back in shock, 00:18:38.939 --> 00:18:46.720 and they say, that must be so hard. That reveals that death is just an option, not inevitable. 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:52.380 And it also means they don't really believe they're going to go to a better place when they die. 00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:56.600 And the idea of non-existence is terrifying, not a comfort. 00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:04.740 The second thing about the Canadian story not actually being true is because one of the things 00:19:04.740 --> 00:19:10.380 that the Canadian story wants is that the Canadian story wants there not just to be apparent meaning, 00:19:10.380 --> 00:19:17.240 meaning, not just baubles, cheap, fake jewelry of meaning. They want real jewelry of meaning. 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:24.900 And the fact in the Canadian story that it ends with death destroys meaning. You can't really have 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:30.000 meaning in life, not just apparent meaning, not just, I'm going to decide that this is meaningful. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:34.920 I'm just going to decide that this makes me happy. People want more than that. They want actual, 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:42.580 real meaning. They want to touch real meaning, connect to it, and be at one with it, and at home with it. 00:19:42.580 --> 00:19:47.840 That's what we want. But if it's, in fact, you just go through life choosing the things you choose, 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:52.580 trying to be a good person, then you die, that actually means there is no meaning. And how do we 00:19:52.580 --> 00:19:57.480 know that? If the Lord has not blessed you with children, every parent with children, or if you have 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:02.860 nephews and nieces, or great nephews and great nieces, you have probably seen this played out. 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:07.759 You go to visit somebody at their house. The four-year-old makes a very, very, very nice tower 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:12.079 of bricks. The two-year-old waits till it's really nice and high and knocks it over. 00:20:13.459 --> 00:20:17.579 That's what two-year-olds do. And by the way, it could be the six-year-old with the tower, 00:20:17.699 --> 00:20:22.000 and then the four-year-old. It's what the younger sibling does. And what does the four-year-old do? 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:29.259 Ah! That two-year-old has just destroyed that beautiful castle that I've just made. 00:20:29.259 --> 00:20:36.299 You know, why did I bother doing it if they just break it all the time? What's the worth of doing 00:20:36.299 --> 00:20:42.079 anything if Sally or John just... No meaning if everything crumbles at the end. 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:48.259 We know that at the bones. We just don't want to think about it. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:55.059 You see, the third thing is the Canadian story. We really do desire meaning and goodness and 00:20:55.059 --> 00:21:01.079 something connected to transcendence. We want to connect with something that isn't just sort of 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:06.679 fleetingly that we just, you know, me and my buddies or me and my wife decide, yes, this will be 00:21:06.679 --> 00:21:10.960 meaningful to us, like no matter what it is. And we just say that's going to be a next week a different 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:16.519 thing. And that's not real meaning. We want something. We want to touch the real. We want to touch 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:21.299 something which is transcendent. We want to touch something that is eternal, something that is 00:21:21.299 --> 00:21:28.039 bigger than us and is good and beautiful. And we want to touch that in some way and have that 00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:34.519 somehow connected to us. And that's what we want to do. And if we want something which is really good 00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:41.119 and truly good and not just my opinion and not just my culture and not just right now and not just 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:47.099 because Instagram influencers or TikTok influencers have convinced me that this is good. If we want 00:21:47.099 --> 00:21:59.019 something like that that is outside of us, then that will judge us. It can't be real and transcendent 00:21:59.019 --> 00:22:07.799 without also judging us. But then you might say, well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, George. 00:22:08.980 --> 00:22:12.539 We're going to talk a little bit about why it should, but it has to come against us. It has to be 00:22:12.539 --> 00:22:18.700 something that we are not and therefore can stand in a sense, which I'll explain in a moment, 00:22:18.779 --> 00:22:25.720 and some type of judgment against us. And then this leads us to the final reason now why we're 00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:29.599 starting to see, you see, when the Bible here is talking about God's judgment, it's just fitting 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:34.259 with what we want, that we will meet before. This story, in a sense, gives us a foretaste of what 00:22:34.259 --> 00:22:40.500 will happen to all human beings. Because you see that the Canaanites, in some ways, this is a bit of a 00:22:40.500 --> 00:22:45.660 preview for the next couple of weeks. In some ways, the story of the book of Joshua isn't a story about 00:22:45.660 --> 00:22:51.420 the people of Israel entering the promised land. That's the secondary truth. The primary truth 00:22:51.420 --> 00:23:01.539 is God's judging the Canaanite people. The Canaanite people had a horrific culture. 00:23:01.539 --> 00:23:11.519 Child sacrifice, child sacrifice, bestiality, sex trafficking. The parent might give their daughter to the 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:16.599 priest or the temple, and the decision would be made either to kill that baby or to wait a few years, 00:23:16.779 --> 00:23:24.099 and then she could be put out for part of ritual sex. It was a horrendous culture that God is judging. 00:23:24.099 --> 00:23:33.099 And so, this story, you're going to see it especially next week and other weeks, but even in this story, 00:23:33.159 --> 00:23:37.939 which I'm going to show you more in a moment, the average Canadian, when they think about good and evil, 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:45.179 and we live in a very judgmental moment in our culture right now, where we want the bad people to be judged. 00:23:45.259 --> 00:23:50.500 But that's how we say, we want the bad people to be judged. And the implication is, I am the good person, 00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:55.759 and there's those other bad people. There's those bad people who, you know, who vote for Trump, 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:01.039 or the bad people who like Carney, or like whatever it is. There's the bad people out there, 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:06.740 the woke, there's the anti-woke, whatever it is. And that's how we tend to think. But if you really 00:24:06.740 --> 00:24:13.680 think, but the fact of the matter is, the Bible reveals that the line between good and evil isn't 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:20.700 a line between people. It isn't a line between tribes. It isn't a line between political parties. 00:24:21.019 --> 00:24:27.160 It isn't a line between nations. It's not a line between us and Russia, or anything like that. 00:24:27.220 --> 00:24:30.279 The line between good and evil goes down the center of me. 00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:39.160 And if it goes down the center of me, then I am going to be judged when I meet the true and living God. 00:24:39.160 --> 00:24:47.860 You see, if you're going to have real good, with real meaning, and then have real life, 00:24:47.940 --> 00:24:51.220 you need to have a real God. And that real God will judge you. 00:24:53.100 --> 00:24:57.040 Now, people might push back and say, I think you're, and that's why, by the way, I said that what 00:24:57.040 --> 00:25:01.680 is at the heart of this story's shock, apart from a little bit about the killing, which I'm going to 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:05.460 talk about next week and the week after. Okay, I'm not going to get into that right now. 00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:11.480 But behind that shock is another different heart question, which is, as I put as the first thing, 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:18.940 the scandal of the Lord's judgment. But some of you might say, George, you know, whenever I hear 00:25:18.940 --> 00:25:25.259 people like you talk about stuff like this, I think there's a little bit of a sniff, a little bit of a 00:25:25.259 --> 00:25:31.980 whiff that you think that you're better than me. Even if you talk about this line between good and evil 00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:37.700 within you, I always think people who say stuff like that and about God's judgment, they actually 00:25:37.700 --> 00:25:43.480 don't think that it's right down the center. They really think this little end of my pinky on my left 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:49.900 hand is the evil part and the rest of me is good. That's how people like you talk when you say that. 00:25:49.940 --> 00:25:55.180 You don't really mean it. And sometimes, by the way, when people sense that, it's because that's actually 00:25:55.180 --> 00:26:04.320 what people think. Christians can be horrifically self-righteous, horrifically self-righteous. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:09.480 And I'm not going to deny it. I'm sure there's been many times in my life I've been horrifically 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:15.799 self-righteous. One of the things which is a real theme in my prayer, and it's a theme in my prayer 00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:22.420 because how bad I am, not because of how good I am, is that I will stop noticing specks in other 00:26:22.420 --> 00:26:28.860 people's eyes and notice the log in my own eye more. And I don't pray that because I think I'm so good, 00:26:29.019 --> 00:26:33.320 just so you know. And I'm not telling you that to show you that I'm really good. Like, that's the 00:26:33.320 --> 00:26:39.420 whole devil thing, and you do that to do that. Anyway, just shut up, devil. There's my issue. 00:26:40.560 --> 00:26:48.740 But I guess all I would say to that is, yes, that is a problem, but this story is going to point to 00:26:48.740 --> 00:26:53.799 something different. You see, what we're sensing when we feel uncomfortable with this story 00:26:53.799 --> 00:27:01.480 is, the fact is, you need goodness to be real and true if you're going to have some meaning in your 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:07.200 life that you can connect to real goodness, you can connect to real justice. But we have a sense that 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:09.519 if there was just goodness and justice, 00:27:10.019 --> 00:27:16.740 then we're somehow in trouble, and it's not enough. They can be necessary, but they're not 00:27:16.740 --> 00:27:21.819 sufficient. For those of you who know that philosophical distinction, we need something more 00:27:21.819 --> 00:27:29.000 if God is going to actually be good and beautiful. And this story shows that more. It shows how good 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:36.839 and beautiful the triune God is. And it comes in the very next four verses. Turn with me to verses 22 to 25. 00:27:38.099 --> 00:27:39.500 And it goes like this, 00:27:39.500 --> 00:27:44.799 But to the two men who had spied out the land, and that's in Joshua chapter 2, 00:27:45.619 --> 00:27:46.799 Joshua said, 00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:52.920 Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you 00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:59.619 swore to her. So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and 00:27:59.619 --> 00:28:05.680 mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:11.799 the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire and everything in it, only the silver and gold 00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:17.620 and the vessels of bronze and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab 00:28:17.620 --> 00:28:24.620 the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has 00:28:24.620 --> 00:28:31.039 lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers from Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And it's not 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:38.920 because she did that, but because what that indicated about her. But here's the point of the story. 00:28:40.579 --> 00:28:45.220 In Joshua chapter 2, I said it's very interesting that before you get into all of the other 00:28:45.220 --> 00:28:50.899 accusations that people are going to make about the God of Israel, you have actually a choice of two 00:28:50.899 --> 00:28:57.139 ways of approaching the story right in the second chapter. And in the second chapter, Rahab 00:28:57.139 --> 00:29:01.019 actually comes across these, the world's most completely incompetence, 00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:07.740 spies, inept, incompetent, hopeless spies. And she's going to have to rescue them. And she says, 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:14.420 I and everybody in this whole complete region have heard about these multiple miracles, about the 00:29:14.420 --> 00:29:21.119 crossing of the Red Sea, about the miracles in defeating Og and Bashan. We've heard of all these 00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:26.799 things. Everybody's heart, everybody has a sense of your presence and is terrified. And her response to 00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:32.019 hearing about this miracle is she finds out that the miracle is true. And she casts herself on God's 00:29:32.019 --> 00:29:38.940 mercy. She throws herself on the Lord's mercy. She said, these miracles show that the Lord really does 00:29:38.940 --> 00:29:45.619 exist. All the gods, the gods that we sacrifice our daughters and our sons to, and that lead us to do 00:29:45.619 --> 00:29:51.759 horrific things. These aren't, can't be the real God. The real Lord has revealed himself. And I want to 00:29:51.759 --> 00:30:01.099 cast myself on him for his mercy. And the Lord takes her. Now we have this on steroids, because it's not 00:30:01.099 --> 00:30:06.539 just people hearing story. Nothing in the book of Joshua is going to make sense if you scrub out the 00:30:06.539 --> 00:30:12.799 miracles. You scrub out the miracles, nothing makes sense. It's filled with things which are 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:17.900 contradictory. But you keep the miracles right at the heart of the text. And this story about the 00:30:17.900 --> 00:30:22.300 falling of the wall of Jericho. It's written in a historical narrative, not make-believe language, 00:30:22.580 --> 00:30:28.420 not once upon a time language. It's not metaphor. It has a metaphor, but it's a metaphor from a truth 00:30:28.420 --> 00:30:33.640 and other types of big truths from something which actually happened. And now they've seen, 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:39.060 and even they've seen with their own eyes or heard with their own eyes, and even a miracle, 00:30:39.820 --> 00:30:46.240 that the triple miracle of how the people of Israel got across the Jordan. God puts up a block that 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:51.420 stops the river from flowing past this point. That's the first miracle. The second miracle is it doesn't 00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:57.220 just rise up like it would with a normal dam, but it rises up way downstream. And the third miracle is 00:30:57.220 --> 00:31:02.460 that the ground is completely dry, and they're able to cross over. And they all see that, and they all 00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:13.920 know that. And that is why the city is walled up, and they're all protected. Rahab, I mean, it doesn't tell you. 00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:23.539 It might have been that only Rahab could have gotten three people in the day before the Jordan stops. 00:31:23.980 --> 00:31:31.720 But after that, her house is bursting at the seams. You see, repentance is always an option. 00:31:32.160 --> 00:31:37.400 Like, why is it that the king responds to such a remarkable miracle and says, 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:45.540 whoa, I am going to fight that Lord. I'm going to try to shut him out of my life. I'm going to show him 00:31:45.540 --> 00:31:53.259 who's boss. Why that response? Like, how is that reasonable? So here's the point. You could put up 00:31:53.259 --> 00:32:00.820 the second point. The second point is the Rahab story shows the infinite particularity of the Lord's 00:32:00.819 --> 00:32:08.500 mercy and grace. The infinite particularity of the Lord's mercy and grace. 00:32:10.379 --> 00:32:17.399 Why did they lock up? Why did they not just say, why did the king not say, whoa, whoa? 00:32:18.619 --> 00:32:27.079 The gods that I sacrificed my daughters to, so they will either be raped or murdered, 00:32:27.079 --> 00:32:38.980 they can't be real. This proves that the Lord is real. Maybe he'll take me. Maybe he'll be merciful. 00:32:42.139 --> 00:32:46.519 Now, you might say you can't prove that this is true, and that's completely correct. I can't prove 00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:54.220 that it's true. But what I can say is this, that in the context of profound wisdom and beauty, 00:32:54.220 --> 00:33:03.900 the most beautiful story is the real story that our individual stories can be part of. 00:33:04.600 --> 00:33:11.980 And that most beautiful story is that God, the Son of God, the one who could name every single star by 00:33:11.980 --> 00:33:21.180 name and name every comet by name and could tell you how many hairs you have on your head and knows you in 00:33:21.180 --> 00:33:27.900 the very depths of your being, that God, the Son of God, out of love for you and desire that you would 00:33:27.900 --> 00:33:35.700 not suffer judgment, set aside as glory and splendor and divine prerogatives and remaining fully God, 00:33:36.220 --> 00:33:45.440 enter into our human story as a zygote in the womb of Mary, a 16-year-old girl living in the outskirts, 00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:55.580 the ne'er-do-well or the not-very-well-off part of the promised land. And he lived a fully human life 00:33:55.580 --> 00:34:00.140 and suffered trials and temptations. He would have had to have buried his father. Who knows how many of 00:34:00.140 --> 00:34:06.880 his children died shortly after childbirth that he had to help his mother as she cried and as they were 00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:13.920 buried. And he suffered trials and temptations that we suffer only without sin. And he came completely and 00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:20.360 utterly to die upon a cross. And he died upon the cross. And because he was man and because he was 00:34:20.360 --> 00:34:28.039 God, his death is that infinite particularity. It is that one moment that all the strands and the 00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:34.340 promises of the stories of the Old Testament to be holy, to have that God will have mercy on his people. 00:34:34.780 --> 00:34:40.840 And Rahab and Joshua wouldn't understand exactly how it is that God could, in love and justice, 00:34:40.840 --> 00:34:46.360 still show infinite mercy. They won't know how that is. All they could do is hope that the one 00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:52.140 who could make the Jordan River stop is also a God of mercy and that he would sort it out. 00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:58.220 And it is in the infinite particularity of Jesus that the revelation is made as to how that has 00:34:58.220 --> 00:35:03.880 happened. So that when he dies on the cross, in a sense, you know, devoted to destruction, 00:35:03.880 --> 00:35:11.160 a Christian, a Christian should hear this. Jesus left God, the Son of God, left heaven's glories, 00:35:11.500 --> 00:35:19.099 naming every star, keeping as God, taking on into himself as our human nature. And he himself 00:35:19.099 --> 00:35:25.000 devoted himself to be destroyed. The Holy Spirit, God the Father, the three persons of the Trinity 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:30.900 working together out of love for you and me. And he came to set himself aside to be destroyed. 00:35:30.900 --> 00:35:37.900 And his destruction was not for anything that he had done. He takes into himself the destruction that 00:35:37.900 --> 00:35:47.039 I deserve, that I might have the love and grace and mercy and beauty and love and holiness and union 00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:52.139 with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that I do not deserve, that I can receive that as a gift 00:35:52.139 --> 00:35:59.720 because he took my place. And that is the most beautiful story that's ever been told. And it's true. 00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:06.599 There is remarkable evidence for the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. Remarkable evidence. 00:36:07.339 --> 00:36:12.779 And given that every single person will die, why would you not want to know what that evidence is? 00:36:12.859 --> 00:36:19.739 And if the evidence is, in fact, strong, why wouldn't you want to actually know the one who has defeated 00:36:19.739 --> 00:36:27.259 death? And that would cause death. Why wouldn't you want to give yourself to him and to know his infinite 00:36:27.260 --> 00:36:37.460 mercy and grace? Why would you or anybody see the evidence and become like the walled city of Jericho 00:36:37.460 --> 00:36:46.320 locked up to shut it out? Like, why? Why did I do it for such a long time? I don't know the answer to that. 00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:55.900 There's a mystery to rebellion against God that cannot be understood. All I can tell you is I am so glad that by the 00:36:55.900 --> 00:37:00.860 power of the Holy Spirit I came to that point in time where I cast myself upon the mercy of Jesus 00:37:00.860 --> 00:37:08.360 and asked him to become my Savior, my Lord. And that is just a mystery of grace for which I am very thankful. 00:37:08.360 --> 00:37:11.340 And I hope you know that mystery of grace too. 00:37:15.980 --> 00:37:19.920 There's another bit just after about the, which I'm not going to get because I want to say a couple of 00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:23.840 things about the means of grace, which is my third point. If you could put up the third point, which is 00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:29.360 that the Lord's provision of the means of grace. The Lord's provision of the means of grace. So I mean, 00:37:29.440 --> 00:37:35.079 the big thing from this story is to come to Jesus. That's the big, the big thing, to give yourself to 00:37:35.079 --> 00:37:45.340 Christ alone. But the, you can ask me over coffee time about the last two verses for it. But what is 00:37:45.340 --> 00:37:50.579 the means of grace, the Lord's provision of the means of grace? So here's what it is. It's not the 00:37:50.579 --> 00:37:55.279 Lord's provision of magic. It's not the Lord's provision of technique. It's the Lord's provision 00:37:55.279 --> 00:38:02.119 of the means of grace. So if, I mean, we have lots of people who are fentanyl or opioid addicts who are in 00:38:02.119 --> 00:38:06.319 this neighborhood. And if we were just to stand outside, and I was to give people fentanyl, 00:38:07.139 --> 00:38:12.619 the second they have the fentanyl, they'd have the effect of fentanyl immediately in their bodies. 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:19.719 It just instantly affects them. There's a, like a physical, biological connection between the 00:38:19.719 --> 00:38:25.799 substance and what happens to bodies. But it's not like that with the means of grace. And this story 00:38:25.800 --> 00:38:31.700 illustrates it. So just so you know, the Israeli military does not decide that it's going to 00:38:31.700 --> 00:38:38.039 encircle Gaza seven times, blowing trumpets on the seventh day to defeat them. I know that's a 00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:43.680 complicated thing, but whatever. Russians don't do it with Ukraine. Ukraine can't do it against Moscow. 00:38:43.820 --> 00:38:49.900 Like it's not, it doesn't work. Circling around a place seven times doing this doesn't accomplish 00:38:49.900 --> 00:38:55.420 anything other than people thinking you're really weird. And using it as an opportunity probably to 00:38:55.420 --> 00:39:01.220 kill you if you're in a war. Like it doesn't work. It makes no sense. Okay, but so what's a means of 00:39:01.220 --> 00:39:09.099 grace? A means of grace is when God asks you to do something. And you do it. And he gives grace. 00:39:10.440 --> 00:39:16.039 That's what a means of grace is. So I'll just give you three very brief examples. So one of them is 00:39:16.039 --> 00:39:23.259 that God asks that we take communion. And communion isn't just the power of me to think about God and 00:39:23.259 --> 00:39:30.380 have holy thoughts. Boy, if it's just that, I mean, to my, some of my friends who think that's all 00:39:30.380 --> 00:39:37.500 communion is, I just, I mean, I suck at that. I'm not very good at it. You know, but the Lord has 00:39:37.500 --> 00:39:42.179 asked that we receive the Lord's communion, that we remember what he's done. We have to remember. 00:39:42.179 --> 00:39:48.739 But when we take him in, in the context of worship, that the Lord feeds us spiritually. That's why the 00:39:48.739 --> 00:39:54.639 liturgy says that we feed on him spiritually in our hearts. And he actually feeds us. 00:39:56.199 --> 00:40:00.099 And it's not just if you just go out and throw out wafers to everybody who wanders by, 00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:03.699 they're going to get something. No, that's, you see, the means of grace is that when you obey what 00:40:03.699 --> 00:40:12.519 Christ has done, he does something in your life. He feeds you spiritually. A second example would be 00:40:12.519 --> 00:40:18.079 Bible reading. Literacy is a great thing. We should be very unconcerned about literacy rates falling in 00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:23.359 our country. Literacy is a really, really good thing. Ultimately, literacy is a gift of the biblical 00:40:23.359 --> 00:40:30.919 faith because the Bible upholds reading and reading and using your mind and thinking. But just merely 00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:36.400 reading, I mean, it can't change you and give you new ideas. But the Bible, the God says, if you read 00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:43.539 my word and pray, I will do something in your life. I will do something spiritually. That's a means of 00:40:43.539 --> 00:40:49.639 grace. And the third one is, is you could just give money away. And maybe you give money away and you 00:40:49.639 --> 00:40:54.800 might feel good about it afterwards or, you know, something like that. I mean, the financial people 00:40:54.800 --> 00:40:58.420 would say, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you could give a little bit of money to charity. You get a little bit 00:40:58.420 --> 00:41:02.619 of a break. But if you actually invested in these stocks of money, you'll actually get more money. 00:41:03.820 --> 00:41:08.159 So, like, it's not necessarily a very good financial strategy or anything like that. 00:41:08.300 --> 00:41:12.300 But what the Bible says is that, you know, you want to go spiritually. One of the ways you go 00:41:12.300 --> 00:41:17.820 spiritually is by giving of money to the church and to the care of the poor and the furtherance of the 00:41:17.820 --> 00:41:25.440 gospel. You do that and God spiritually, something changes spiritually in you. These are all means of 00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:34.220 grace. Means of grace are doing what the Lord asks you to do and doing it trusting that he's not doing 00:41:34.220 --> 00:41:39.900 it to hurt you. He's not doing it to belittle you. He wants to give you grace. 00:41:39.900 --> 00:41:49.240 He takes no delight in the death of a sinner. He wants every sinner to come to know the Savior. 00:41:49.900 --> 00:41:55.740 He wants every person who comes to know the Savior to grow in godliness. And he wants both each 00:41:55.740 --> 00:42:03.500 individual Christian and each church to walk in the beauty of holiness. And for that, be Christ 00:42:03.500 --> 00:42:07.559 blessed and the means of grace. I invite you to stand. 00:42:12.460 --> 00:42:13.780 Let's bow our heads in prayer. 00:42:23.960 --> 00:42:28.760 Father, we give you thanks and praise that from heaven Jesus came and sought us, that we might be 00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:35.800 his holy bride, that we who are loveless might loved and lovely be. We give you thanks and praise that 00:42:35.800 --> 00:42:42.640 he crossed that infinite divide from us to you, that we might be yours. And we ask, Father, that the 00:42:42.640 --> 00:42:49.820 beautiful story, the truth of the gospel, might more and more be deeply true in our lives and shape how we 00:42:49.820 --> 00:42:55.160 understand ourselves and the world around us. And we thank and praise you, Father, whether it's baptism 00:42:55.159 --> 00:43:01.819 or the Lord's Supper or Bible reading or financial generosity towards the church and the gospel or 00:43:01.819 --> 00:43:08.299 other different means of grace, assembling together in small groups, the means of grace of teaching to 00:43:08.299 --> 00:43:13.019 all those means of grace, Father. We ask, Father, that you help us to embrace them and to practice them 00:43:13.019 --> 00:43:19.440 and use the discipline, knowing, Father, that as we trust you and as obey you and as we do your word, 00:43:19.539 --> 00:43:24.279 that you will bless us, that you will draw us close to yourself, that you will make us more right with you, 00:43:24.280 --> 00:43:30.200 that we might live a life that is good and true and beautiful for ourselves, for the good of this city 00:43:30.200 --> 00:43:35.700 and for your glory. So, Father, may you move deeply within us and we ask this in the name of Jesus, 00:43:35.880 --> 00:43:39.880 your Son and our Saviour and all God's people said, Amen. 00:43:54.280 --> 00:43:56.280 Amen. 00:43:56.280 --> 00:43:56.280