And as you turn there, we'll be thinking about tonight, we'll be considering what Canaanite land are you still holding on to in your heart? We'll see more about what I mean by that as the sermon goes on. But what Canaanite land are you holding on to in your heart? Let's look at what God says to us in Joshua chapter 13. We'll read verses 1 through 7. Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess. This is the land that yet remains. All the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Gesherites. From Shihur, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite. There are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. and those of the Avim in the south, all the lands of the Canaanites and the Murrah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, and the land of the Gebelites, and all Lebanon toward the sunrise from Baal Gad to Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath. all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misperoth Mayim, even all the Sidonians, I myself will drive them out before the people of Israel. Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance as I have commanded you. Now therefore, divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Let's pray and let's ask for God's blessing on our time this evening. Almighty Heavenly Father, as we come to this portion of scripture and we see this moment in Israel's history, when you begin to divide the land among the tribes, the land that is now possessed by them, we see, Lord, that the work is not yet fully accomplished. We see this wonderful promise in your word, Lord, that you will see the fulfillment of that work, that you will see it to its completion. We praise you for Christ and that in Christ you have brought that work to a completion. And Lord, I ask that you would bless our time this evening, that you would be with us by your spirit, that you would guide our thoughts, guide our examination of what you have for us in this portion of scripture. In all these things we pray in Christ's name, amen. In our slow walk through this book of Joshua, I know I've made much during our time of the anticipation of Israel, how they have longed for the land, they've longed for a place to call home, they've longed for a place to worship God, they've longed for rest. As we saw last time in chapter 12, we saw that in that list of kings, in those two lists of kings, we saw how the first part of the narrative of Joshua is now over. It's now come to an end. The kings of the land have been defeated. Now Israel will begin to inhabit the land. Israel will begin to enjoy the spoils of this conquest. Now Israel will begin to enjoy their rest. And so what we have in these verses that are before us this evening is really the beginning half, beginning of the second half of the book of Joshua. The corner has been turned. The people are now told, dwell in the land. The dream has now been realized for the Israelites. That which Israel has been anticipating for during their wilderness wandering, ever since they left Egypt, they've been longing for this promised land, they now truly have it. They now truly have their rest. But right away, The first thing we're told in the beginning of this second half of the book is something problematic. This new realized reality of their rest, of them being able to live in the land, has one serious issue. There is still land that needs to be possessed, to be conquered, to be taken. There's still work to be done. That work will not stand in the way of Israel enjoying the rest that they were promised. Because in these verses we see the Lord promises to cleanse the land of the remaining enemies. Did you notice that? The Lord promises to cleanse the land of the remaining enemies. In this introduction of the second half of the book, notice the first thing that we're told. We're told it twice. We're told it once by the narrator, then once by the Lord. In verse 1, now Joshua was old and advanced in years. Nowhere in this text, nowhere in scripture are we told exactly how old Joshua is. We can deduce, we could kind of, you know, maybe do some Bible math a little bit. And we can see that when he was a young man, he was called by Moses to be one of the spies to enter into the land. And from that, many commentators tend to sort of err on the side that he's about 70 or 80 years old. That's a rough idea of what we mean by Joshua is now old and advanced in years. And up to this point, Joshua has faithfully discharged his duty. He's led the people of Israel into battle. He has led them into the promised land. Joshua has been God's faithful chosen representative in the nation of Israel. He has been leading God's holy chosen people into the promised holy land. And God has promised to dwell with them through the tabernacle and then later in the temple, of course. But what we have seen so far in this half, what God has called Joshua to do, he has faithfully executed it. Remember all the way back to chapter one, what God told to Joshua. He said, God came to Joshua and he said to him, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place the sole of your foot will tread upon, God said to him, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. God told Joshua, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous. That's what God told Joshua when he commissioned him, when he told him, it is now your time to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. land, and this is everything that we have seen Joshua execute faithfully for the first 12 chapters of Joshua. But now, now, the turn of the narrative. Now Joshua needs to fulfill the second half of his calling, which continues from what we just read, be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them, to inherit the land. And so on the occasion of Joshua's old age, it's not something, some detail that we need to just move on. Okay, God's telling Joshua he's old, we get it. No, actually it's significant that God is pointing out, Joshua, you are old and advanced in years. The Lord comes to Joshua telling him that now you are old and advanced in years and there remains yet very much land to possess. And God then outlines all the land that is still left to be possessed. That's what we see in verses two through six. The list of the various lands of the people that still needed to be kicked out of the land. Land that still needs to be cleansed of God's enemies. As we look at the progression of Israel's history, The groups that are listed here in these, in verses two to six, these are the same groups of people that will cause so much trouble in the book of Judges, the next book, who will distract Israel, who will enter in and their culture will mingle with Israel's culture and they will distract Israel from the true worship of God. These will be the same groups of peoples that the kings will fight against later in Israel's history. Just think of the battles, for example, of King David, that he will fight against the Philistines when David is continuing this campaign to cleanse the land. Most famously, we have David and his battle against Goliath. But the fact that there is still land left to be possessed, to be claimed, isn't something that should alarm Israel at this moment in time. Notice what God says in verse six. I myself, I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel. Notice who will be doing the driving. Notice who will be the one to cleanse the land, the Lord. The Lord promises to drive out all of his enemies from the land. Just think back to chapter five. This is what we see consistent throughout the book of Joshua. Chapter 5, we saw when the commander of the Lord's army came to Joshua and appeared before Joshua. Remember that the commander of the Lord's army isn't Joshua. Joshua is the commander of Israel's army. The commander of the Lord's army comes And what was his posture? How was he standing before Joshua? We were told, behold, a man was standing before him. and with his drawn sword in his hand. He was ready for war. He signaled that the Lord was with Joshua and that the Lord was going to go forth into battle with Joshua and the Lord was gonna fight for Israel. So as they go forth into battle, as they go forth into the land, God promised to go with them, to lead them. God was going to cleanse the land before them. That's what God was promising all throughout the book of Joshua. And so we see this promise almost reaffirmed in many ways to Joshua once more. Now that he is old and advanced in years, he's coming to the end of his life. He says, I myself, I will commit myself, the Lord says, to drive out, to drive them out from before the people of Israel. This is a promise that God makes that is rooted in grace. Notice the structure of what's going on here. Notice that there's no do X, Y, and Z, and then I'll go forth and I'll cleanse the land. God does not place the promise before telling Joshua what he needs to do in order for God to commit himself to be the one to then go and cleanse the land. In response to this, God tells Joshua in verse six, only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance as I've commanded you. Now, therefore, divide this land. It's promise, and then God tells him what to do. It's grace, and then Joshua lives out in light of that grace. And all of this, God is essentially saying, Joshua, you are getting old and advanced in years. You have fulfilled your calling. You've been faithful to your calling. You have led Israel into the land. None have stood in your way, just as I had promised to you. None have stood in your way. There's still work to be done, God says. There's still work to be done. There's still land to be possessed. But despite this, despite the fact there is still land to be possessed, give the people the land. That's what God is saying. Give them their rest, their inheritance. And so what we see, what we will see throughout the rest of the book of Joshua, he does exactly that. Joshua divides, he allots the land to the remaining tribes of Israel to, as we're told at the end, to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh. Because if you remember, the two and a half tribes on the other side of the Jordan, they were already given their land. And so Israel, here we see, enters into an already but not yet fully realized rest. They truly have the land. They truly have the land. It is theirs. God has given it to them. But there's still remaining pagan people in the land. These remaining enemies of God. God promises to wipe them out. God will send judges. God will send kings. God will send prophets throughout Israel's history. That is God committing himself to the cleansing of the land, all in one way or another. These three different groups, these judges, kings, prophets, they come with the purpose of cleansing God's people in one way or another. God would go so far even to send his only son. cleanse his people, to give to his people rest, and to cleanse them from their remaining unrighteousness. After all, isn't it only when Christ comes that our hearts are truly cleansed from sin? Only in Christ do we find the true salvation from the wrath of God that our hearts deserve because of our sin. at a couple different points throughout our study in the book of Joshua. I've used the comparison and I think it's fitting between the land here in Joshua and the land of our hearts. Our hearts were conquered just as much as the land was conquered. We saw this heavily last time as we looked at how Christ, in his office as our King, he subdued our hearts. It was one of the things we looked at, how he subdued our hearts. When Christ came, the true Joshua, he came to lead us, to lead his people, to lead us into rest. And praise God that he did. This rest, however, is like what the Israelites are experiencing here. The rest that we have in Christ is an already not yet fully realized rest. We are free from our sin just as Israel truly possesses the land. We are free from our sin. We are free from the guilt that was placed on our heads. Christ has truly washed us of that. But we need to stop and ask the question, if I'm truly free from my sin, why do I still struggle with sin, battle with sin, wrestle with sin? This is a tension that scripture persistently points to and presents to us, especially in other places. Joshua, in my opinion, presents it to us in the reality of the land that is still yet to be conquered. He's talking about this deeper spiritual reality that's going on in all of our hearts, even their hearts in that day. Paul handles this topic head on. Just consider what Paul says about this in Romans. Famously, he says in Romans 7, we see Paul wrestle so deeply in Romans 7, starting in verse 15 when he says this, for I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want to do is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. You feel the tension that Paul is drawing out about the sin that still is in him. This is what theologians have come to call the indwelling sin of believers. Paul goes on in Romans 7 to continue to say, so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God and my inner being. But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but my flesh I serve the law of sin. Many see here the tension that Paul is presenting. Many go on to see this to be a contradiction. How can God give people rest, but they don't have the whole land? How can God say that we are free from sin? That Christ died for our sins, yet we go on sinning. Does that mean I'm not truly a Christian? You see the tension that both Joshua and Paul are presenting here. I'm sure that this is something we've all felt. This is something we've all wrestled with. I remember someone explaining to me the reality of indwelling sin. I don't remember where I heard it from. That that sin at one point ruled over our hearts. It was the landlord, he described, over our hearts. But now, because we are in Christ, sin is merely a tenant. And it is a tenant that is waiting to be evicted when Christ returns. What we see at the cross What we see in the work of Christ is the removal of our guilty standing before God. The guilt of our sins is washed away. Truly and ultimately, it has been washed away. We are washed with the blood of Christ. We truly are Christians. That is true. That is the already realized reality of our condition. The land has been won. Our hearts have been won. We are truly saved. Just as Israel in the book of Joshua truly possesses the land. Even though. Even though there still is land to possess. There still is land to be taken. The same is true for us. We truly have been saved. We truly have been washed with the blood of Christ, even though we still wrestle with sin. Even though we can say, as Paul says in Romans 7, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord so that I myself serve the law of God with my mind and with my flesh I serve the law of sin. That is exactly what makes this promise that God gives in this passage in Joshua chapter 13 so sweet when he says, I myself will drive out from the people, will drive out from before the people of Israel. What we see in scripture, that God not only promises to save us from our sins, but he also promises to continually purify us, to continually sanctify us. As we continue to battle with indwelling sin, God promises to continually cleanse us. God has promised to put an end to sin. But that promise promise which is true won't be fully realized until Christ comes again or we are called home into glory. When we reach that state of glorification, when we are face to face with God, until then God calls us to a particular task. He has given us that promise. He has given us that grace. But just like he tells Joshua, go and divide the land, allot the land, he also calls us to something. He calls us to kill sin. calls us to kill sin. This process of both being sanctified by God while also personally growing in our sanctification, submitting ourselves to the will of the Spirit and His working in our lives. This is a lifelong process. There will not be a day in which we will not be fighting sin, from the youngest of Christians to the oldest, and more advanced in years, to use our text's language. This is something that we must and that we will battle all our life long. But here's the beautiful thing. The beautiful thing is we didn't fight this battle in vain. We don't fight this battle not wondering what the outcome will be. We know what the outcome of the war is. We know that on the cross, Christ won the war against sin. On the cross, he did this for us. And so it must be asked, as we opened up with this evening, What Canaanite land are you still holding on to in your heart? Or perhaps it's better to ask at this point, what indwelling sin are you holding on to in your heart? What sin is God exposing to you in your life that you need to bring before the cross, bringing it to the cross in repentance before God, bringing it to the cross, confessing your sins before Christ and putting it to death? all of this, this is our calling to kill sin. We are called in our killing of sin to also put on the spirit of Just think about what Paul says in Galatians. In Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, he says, But I say, walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. This is how we kill sin. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And then Paul outlines, he goes on to outline in chapter 5 what we are to put to death, what we are to take off of ourselves, what we are to bring to the cross. and repent of. He continues to say, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, Paul says, that those who do such things will not inherit. Notice that language. inherits the kingdom of God. But we aren't just called to remove sin. We aren't called to just kill sin, to just simply only bring it to the cross and confess it in repentance. We're also called to put something on. We're called to live in a certain way. We're called to put on the spirit, Paul goes on to say in Galatians 5. He says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. That is what we are to take off, and we are to put on the spirit. We are to let the spirit dwell in us richly, to bear the fruit of the spirit. Keep in mind that this is the same spirit that was given to Christ. We've talked about this in our Sunday school. The same spirit that gave strength to Christ during his time of temptation in the wilderness has been given to you in your times of temptation. I like the way Stephen Lawson puts it when he says it this way. We can only resist temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus in his temptation and wilderness experience, and Jesus was sinless. He didn't even have a sin nature, and yet he was anointed by the Spirit and filled by the Spirit and led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And Jesus overcame the temptations of the devil by the power of the Spirit to wield the sword of the Spirit, which is a sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God. So it speaks to us. If Jesus had to be filled with the Spirit in order to resist The advances of the devil and temptation, Lawson continues, how much more do you and me need the Spirit? So it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the flesh. That isn't all that scripture tells us that we need to do. We need to do also more than just put on the spirit. It also tells us that we need to fix our eyes on Christ. Colossians 3, 1-4 says that if you have been raised with Christ, Just as our baptism points to that we've been raised to Christ, Paul says, then seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on the things of the earth, for you have died. You have died with Christ. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in He goes on to say in verse 16, we are to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God. As we fight to kill sin, we must always keep in view Paul is saying here. the resurrected victorious Christ. So we fight to kill sin. We know who won the battle against sin, and he is reigning victorious now as we speak. Christ didn't just die on the cross and then three days later say, well, I hope that worked. I guess we'll find out as time goes on. No, Christ left the tomb vindicated, and he knew, knowing, He didn't just win the battle, but he won the war. He won the war against sin. And so as we fight in this war against sin today, we can step forward knowing that Christ has paved the way. Because we are united to him, we are also counted victorious. And when the day comes, and it is coming, brothers and sisters, when he returns, Our rest from this battle, from this war, will be fully realized. We will, and he will, fulfill his promise to drive out all of his and our enemies. Through the victorious Christ's return, all God's enemies will be destroyed. And the war that was won on the cross will be over. And we will find in him, and only in him, our rest. And so until that day comes, what indwelling sin do you have in your heart that needs to be killed? Remember that you are called to cast off the flesh. Cast off what is sinful in you. Casting it off and putting on the spirit. Casting it off and fixing our eyes on Christ. Knowing with full confidence that God will be faithful to his promise, that he will one day come and bring a complete end to sin. It's what we find here in this passage in Joshua. God has committed himself to cleansing us and to continue to give us the strength through his Spirit to kill sin. Let's pray. Mighty Heavenly Father, as we long for, as we await for Christ's return, Lord, we praise you that you have promised in your word to continue to give us the strength to kill sin. You have called us in response to put on the spirit, to fix our eyes on Christ. There are other texts we could go to in scripture that show us in light of Christ what we are to do. Lord, would you give us the strength through your spirit to live faithfully before you. All these things we pray in Christ's name, amen. Let's sing in anticipation of that coming day. Let's stand and sing hymn three.