that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And then would you turn with me to the 13th chapter. Reading verses 1 to 6, Joshua 13, verse 1. When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the Lord said to him, you're very old. There's still large areas of land to be taken over. This is the land that remains. All the regions of the Philistines and Jeshurites, from the Shihor River on the east of Egypt to the territory of Eklon on the north, all of Canada's Canaanites, the territory of the five Philistine rulers in Geza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Geth, and Ekron, that of the Abites. From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, from Arba, the Sidonians, as far as Akphek, the region of the Amorites, the area of the Gebelites, and all Lebanon to the east, and from Beogad, below Mount Hermon, to Lebohama. As for all the inhabitants of the mountain regions from Lebanon to Mizrafat and Ma'am, that is, all the Sidonians, I myself will drive them out before the Israelites. Be sure to allocate this land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have instructed you." And then one other passage from the 14th chapter, reading verses 6 through 14. Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Japhon of the Kennesite said to him, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God at Kadesh Barnea, about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land, and I brought him back a report according to my convictions. But my brothers who went with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance. and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, 85 years old. I'm still as strong as the day Moses sent me out. I'm just as vigorous to go out in battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourselves heard that the Amalekites were there, and their cities were large and fortified. With the Lord helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said." Then Joshua blessed Caleb, the son of Jephonah, and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb, the son of Jephonah the Kennesite, ever since, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly. May God, the Holy Spirit, Apply his word to each of our hearts. There are thousands of missing heirs in the United States today. There are millions of dollars in the vaults of banks which were left as a legacy to those who never claimed them. And there are probably many people who are living in poverty because they have not claimed that which was rightly theirs. The same may be true for many of us as the people of God. There may be times when we forget the victory that we have in Christ. There may be times where we become so absorbed in ourselves and our problems that we forget the power of God. There may be situations in which even though we profess our faith in Christ, we lose the joy and the peace of his presence. And besides this, we face the pressures of the world and the sins of our own hearts. It's very easy for us to become discouraged and disheartened. And God knows this. That's why he calls his people together to worship each Lord's Day. This is why he's given us his word and spirit This is why he provides the fellowship of God's people. As we come into God's worship, to worship him, we hear his word. We lift our voices in praise. As we bow our heads before him, we are reminded of all that God is and all that God has done for us. As God's people, we are rich. We have tremendous benefits through Christ's redemption. We have the forgiveness of sins through Christ's death. We have eternal life, both for now and for eternity through his word. We have the blessings of fellowship with God's people. We have so much for which to be thankful. And the question we need to ask is, are we claiming all the benefits of Christ's redemption? Are we, as God's people, claiming all that is ours? This, I believe, is the thrust of the book of Joshua, to remind us of the possessions of God's people. It was written to reveal God's salvation, to show his complete provision for his people whom he saved, and to call his people to possess what he had already given them. God had not only promised to deliver his people from Egypt, but to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey, merely bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt was not the full provision of God. He also told them that he would bring them to a land that they would possess. It was that they might possess the promised land that God sent the ten plagues, divided the Red Sea, destroyed Pharaoh's army and opened the way before them. After the giving of the law in Mount Sinai, the children of Israel could have gone in and taken the land, but they continually murmured and rebelled against God. And so they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. At all that time, they could have been enjoying the blessings and benefits of God's redemption and provision in the promised land. Now, 40 years have passed. An entire generation has died. As we turn to the first chapter of the book of Joshua, Joshua is now the leader of God's people. He's the one that God has chosen to save his people to lead them to inherit their inheritance. Joshua is a type of Christ. His name Joshua means Savior. Joshua was the Old Testament Jesus who would save his people and bring them into their inheritance. Also, as the leader of God's people, Joshua stands for the whole people of God. God addresses the people through Joshua. And what God says to him He says to all the people. And God says in verse two, Moses, my servant is dead. Now, then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land which I am about to give to them. God had already promised this land to Abraham and to his seed. He promised it to Joseph, who made the children of Israel promise him that they would take up his bones when they conquered the land. God had already promised this land to Moses and the people who came out of Egypt. Yet they fail to possess it. Now, a new generation of God's people have come and God spoke to them in verse six, be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. How would the people respond this time? Would they respond in fear and discouragement as they had 40 years before? How could they be strong and courageous this time? God not only asks them to be strong and courageous, but he tells them two things that bring courage and strength to God's people. First, he tells Joshua in verse 5, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. In verse 9, he tells Joshua, be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. We see that God brings strength and courage to his people with the assurance of his presence. When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, remember, Moses hesitated. But God said, certainly I will be with you. And this promise of God's presence was fully realized in the birth of God's son, whose name, Emmanuel, means God with us and who promises people, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. If we are fearful or discouraged, is it because we're really not trusting that God is with us? Suppose for a moment that I go for a ride and I have a doctor with me in the car. As we turn the corner, we come across a terrible accident. Here are people very seriously hurt. And I drive right on by. You say, wait a minute, wait a minute. You had a doctor in the car. Why didn't you stop? I sometimes wonder. If people might say to us, as God's people, wait a minute, wait a minute. You say you're a Christian. You say you're trusting God. Why is it you get so easily upset? Why do you go ahead and act on things as if God isn't there? No wonder we get discouraged. God's word here in the book of Joshua tells us that our sovereign God has promised to be with us. He assures us of his presence. He will give us strength and courage. Secondly, God told Joshua in verses 7 and 8, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law Moses my servant gave you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law be part for your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then You will be prosperous and successful. We see that in the second place that God brings strength and courage to his people as they meditate upon his word and obey it. An illustration of this is seen in what God's people did there at the entrance to the promised land. In verse 11, Joshua tells them three days from now, you will cross the Jordan here to go and take possession of the land. The Lord your God is giving you for your own. And what was their answer to Joshua in verses 16 to 18? They said, whatever you have commanded us, we will do. And wherever you send us, we will go. May the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. And then they go on to say to Joshua, only be strong and courageous. What was the difference between these people and the people 40 years before? Now they heard God's word. And they obeyed it. And in their obedience to God, they found strength and courage. In three days, they did cross the Jordan. They saw Jericho fall before them. They won many battles. They had actually come into the land that God was giving them. It might make a nice story if we could read that they settled down happily and lived happily there ever after. We might have hoped that they inherited all of their inheritance and that God richly blessed them. This was God's command. This was God's provision. But instead, we turn over to Joshua, the 13th chapter, the first verse, and we read when Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the Lord said to him, you are very old and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over or possessed. Back in the first chapter, verse four, Joshua or God has sent the boundaries of their provision. from Egypt to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. That would include the present day countries of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. And when we compare that with the land that they actually possessed, there was a tremendous difference. What was the problem? The problem was in disobeying the word of God. God had told them to drive out the enemy completely. But the tribe of Judah did not drive out the Jebusites. The tribe of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites. The tribe of Manasseh did put the Canaanites to hard labor, but did not drive them out completely. Is it possible that they lost sight of their objectives? Is it possible that they were content to settle down in part of the land without taking all of the land? Is it possible that they were so happy to find grape vines and other crops on the land that they no longer wanted to get out to fight the enemy and take more territory. The whole land was theirs, but they failed to possess it. In a similar way, is it possible for us to lose sight of our objectives? Are we content with things just the way they are? Are we merely devoting our concerns to peripheral issues and trivial questions? Are we content to be a nice, friendly group with activities and programs consistent with our reformed faith, but not too concerned about evil in our society or reaching the loss for Christ? In Jesus' parable, the prodigal son, the elder brother never left home for the far country. Jesus tells us that he stayed at home and worked on the farm, and we may be tempted to think that he was a loving and obedient son. He had great opportunities there in his father's house. But what does he say to his father? He said, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and you never and I never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. What's he saying? He's saying that even though he lived in the father's house, he never felt really at home. He's saying, I've been a member of the church for many years, but I've never really been excited about going to worship. I've heard others talk about the joy of being saved, but I just I don't think I ever felt that joy. I've heard praising God for what he's done in their lives, but I've never paid too much attention. I've heard others sharing the gospel with non-Christians, but I never really felt responsible to do that. And the father answers tenderly, my son, You were always with me. Everything I have is yours. The father was there. The resources of the father's house were there. But the elder son had not claimed them. And this was the reason he did not experience the joy and the blessing that the prodigal experienced when he returned home. As we come to worship God, are we praising God for his grace and calling us to be his people? Are we coming, confessing our sins? Are we exercising the gifts that Christ has given us as part of the body? Are we growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ? Are we living the kind of a life that is consistent with our new nature in Christ? Are we truly claiming the promises of God and possessing the possessions that God has for his people? Possessing the land of Canaan involved overcoming kings and strongholds, which were deeply entrenched. It was a continuous warfare, such as Paul describes in Ephesians 6, where he tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, and to take our stand against the powers of evil and the pressures of evil men. In Philippians 3.12, Paul wrote, not that I had already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, But I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. To help you in understanding that verse, imagine for a minute the three of you are climbing down the face of a mountain. Suddenly, one of you falls to the ledge below. And as you try to help him, he's out of reach. You can't reach him. How are you going to help him? What can you do? Well, after thinking about it a while, one of you gets a rope. Ties it around himself, ties the other end around a strong tree or rock, and then he holds your ankles as he lets you down over the cliff so that you can reach down to this man below. You couldn't reach him unless the other person held on to you. He held you that you might reach the person who was in need. And how tragic it would be if the man holding you did not reach down to grab the person who was in need. This is a picture that God's word gives of the Christian life. As his people, Christ has already laid hold of us. We are his body. We are held by Christ, but we're held for a purpose that we may take hold of those opportunities for growth and service and witness to which he calls us. We have a life to live and a work to do. As Christ has given himself for the church, so he has provided the power and direction and resources and abilities that we need. What we have to do is to lay hold of them, to claim the victory that Christ has already accomplished. Starting with chapter 14, almost every chapter of Joshua refers to the word lot or allotment. Assignments of the land was by lot. It was not by arbitrary decision. Rather, God gave to each tribe that piece of difficult territory, that steep mountain, that walled city that he knew in his wisdom would be best for them. We see an example of this and what we're called to do in the life of Caleb. You remember how Caleb was chosen along with Joshua as one of the 12 spies. to go out to spy out the land of Kadesh Barnea some 45 years before. When the spies came back through the land of Canaan, they came back with a report that it was a rich land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But the 10 spies said, we are not able to go up. The people are too strong for us. There are giants there. We were as grasshoppers in our sight, and so were we in their sight. In contrast, In Numbers 1330, we read that Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land, for certainly we can do it. Here's the difference. The majority measured the enemy and the giants against their own strength. Caleb measured the giants against God. The majority trembled. Caleb trusted. The majority had great giants and a little God. Caleb had a great God and little giants. Who was the head of the church? Who is sovereign over all of God's people? Is it not our Lord Jesus Christ who has already won the victory? Didn't he assure us that even the very gates of hell could not prevail against his church? And that doesn't mean that the church will never have any problems. or that all of its members were immune to doubts or fears, Caleb recognized that there were giants in the land. He didn't think it would be easy, but he trusted in the word and the presence of God. He said, we are able. Turn forward the clock of history some 1,500 years and focus on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. For 14 days, it was battered and beaten by a storm. Even the seamen had given up. They'd thrown everything overboard. But one passenger was still calm. Above the storm, he said, Keep up your courage, men. Why? For this very night, an angel of God stood before me, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. God has granted safety to you and to all who are sailing with you. Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God. Here's a real test. Paul believed God. Caleb believed God. They recognized that God was sovereign and they have strength and courage to meet any situation. Do you really believe God? Is your strength and your courage in him? Going back again to the book of Joshua to chapter 14, we see that each tribe is to take its possession and then Caleb steps forward. He was no longer the young man who had been one of the 12 spies. He was now 85 years old, but he spoke to Joshua. Now, then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years. I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle as I was then. Now, then, give me this mountain. The Lord promised me that day. Caleb not only saw God in control, he saw God in control of him, and this assurance sustained him through all the years of wandering when his contemporaries died in the wilderness. And it led him to claim God's promise when at last he came to the promised land. Bringing this to Joshua's attention, Caleb said, now give me this mountain that the Lord promised me in that day. The mountain that Caleb requested was not a high mountain like Mount Sinai or Mount Hermon. In the NIV, it is translated hill country. But it was over 3,000 feet high. It was a natural fortress with the city of Hebron on the top. It was a powerful stronghold of the enemy. It was the place where the spies had seen the giants and where three families of giants still lived. This was also the place where Abraham had pitched his tent when he separated from Lot. This is the place where God has spoken to Abraham face to face. This is the place that God gave to Abraham the promise that this land would belong to him. And Caleb believed God. And he said, give me this mountain. And Joshua gave Hebron to Caleb for his inheritance. It's true. The giants were still there, but this was Caleb's possession. He had God's word on it and he drove out the giants. And as we read in Judges, the first chapter, he killed them and captured the city and possessed it. It is in your dependence on the presence of our sovereign God and your obedience to his word that you as God's people can be strong and courageous. You can have confidence not only that God will supply your needs, but you can also have confidence that He will enable you as individuals, as families, and a congregation to possess the possessions that He has provided for you, that your life might truly glorify God and enjoy Him. Let's bow our heads in prayer. O God, our Heavenly Father, How we thank You for the many blessings that You have provided for us. How we thank You that You sent Your Son, Your only begotten Son, that He might come to live and to die for us on the cross, that He might rise from the dead into glory, that we might have the hope of life and have eternal life through Him. How we thank You for the many precious promises in Your Word. How great they are, how wonderful they are. And yet, Father, we ask that you would forgive us for not taking them at their value. So frequently we go on in our own way, Father, and we neglect the promises that you've given, the strength that you offer, the wonderful things that you have in store for us. And so we pray that you will enable us truly to grow in grace, enable us to have that trust in you that will know assuredly that you are with us. that you are sustaining us, that you are keeping us in every activity of life, that you are with us. And we pray that you will continue to to lead us in such ways that we will be faithful to you, that we will not only hear your word, but that we will obey it, that we will live in the power of God and the power of your spirit, and that we might go forward to serve you. We pray, Father, for this congregation of your people. We pray for their pastor. We pray for the elders and the others who serve here. We ask that you will give them the assurance of your strength and of your blessing. Enable them to know that even as they place their confidence in you, that you are faithful, and that we can trust you, and we can know that we believe God, even as Paul did. Go with us now, we pray, that you will guide us and keep us throughout this coming week. Lead us in all that we do, that we may have a good testimony for Jesus Christ, our Savior. For we pray in his precious name, amen. Let us praise God again, singing Psalm 44, Selection B. I'll read the first two stanzas. It's somewhat a commentary on the part of Joshua that we read this morning. Oh, God, we have heard and our fathers have told what wonders you did in the days of old, where nations were crushed and cast out by your hand. You planted our fathers to dwell in the land. They gained not the land by the edge of their sword. Their own arm to them could no safety afford. But your right hand, your arm, the light of your face, you show them your favor, your wonderful grace. Let's think of these words as we sing Psalm 44, Selection D. Let us stand as we sing. Fa, fa, fa, fa. Oh God, we have failed, and our fathers have failed. What wonders you did in the great days of old. When nations were crushed and cast up by your hand, You wanted our fathers to dwell in the land. It ain't not the land by the edge of the zoo, Their own unto them could no safety afford. But you arrived and shone on the light of your face. You showed them your favor, your wonder,