The Long Road into Canaan

If we open up our scripture again to Exodus 23 and verses 29 through 30 And if you want to go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 7 Verse 23 And hold that place as we will also refer to that later in the message So Exodus 23 29 through 30 And Deuteronomy 7 Verse 23 Let's read again. I will not dry them out before you in one year Lest the land become desolate and wild beasts multiply against you Little by little will I dry them out?

From before you until you have increased and possessed the land And Deuteronomy 7 verse 23, but the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion Until they are destroyed Again if I may let's pray as we begin where we thank you for This great promise the Hebrews had that you would conquer all of their enemies You would overthrow them and utterly destroy them throw throwing them into great confusion Lord as we sang great is your faithfulness We can look back on our lives and see how faithful you've been to us and help us on the front side of your victory to trust you at every turn of the road and then we pray This morning we look at what?

The Hebrews dealt with on the front side tonight We're going to look at what happened as soon as the Lord took them through the Red Sea This is actually later on after the Lord is that he's brought them to Mount Sinai. He is Already overthrown the greatest military force on the face of the planet He's already given them the Ten Commandments and He begins to tell the Hebrew people there About their future and he tells them that he is going to drive out Canaanites But he says he's not going to do this in one year He says this is going to be a long Process and If I can be frank with you I had a big problem with this verse when I read it shortly after my salvation.

I got saved on March the 3rd 2003 The Lord changed me. I was very religious before that and as the Lord began to do a work in me I started reading the Bible and I was reading the Bible all the way through and this particular passage sort of got me Hung up and when I say I wrestled over this verse I didn't wrestle with it just for a day or for a week or for a month, but I would say for a period of months I Began to wrestle with this one also that similar passages like the one I read in Deuteronomy There's some also some other places and judges But as I began to sort of put words on this internal struggle that I was having You could say I could articulate the wrestling like this Lord, I really want victory And I really want spiritual success Lord.

I want my promised land Lord why can't I have it now? You know, it's one thing to to pray for the right things if you see something Spiritually that you would like to change in your life maybe more faith more patience It's one thing to begin praying for that But what if the Lord would answer you and to say yes, I'm going to give that to you But you're gonna have to go through a long process for which I give this to you That's a whole thing all together. It's it's entirely different and as I began to Pray through this restlessness that I had there was a series of spiritual.

What ifs I came to the surface Started looking through Scripture as I was reading it and I would begin to pray these things. Oh Lord, what if Cain? Had not killed his brother Lord. What if he just listened to you? What if he just saw that sin was crouching at his door like a roaring lion and it desired to own him to happen Lord how would our world have been better if he would have just obeyed?

More die as I prayed for what if Noah would have never gotten drunk in the tent What if his son ham would not have uncovered his neck in this and we see his son Canaan Became the enemy of God his people remain so Lord what if Abraham never went down to Egypt and lied about his wife being his sister? You know as a process or byproduct of that Know that the people that Egyptians and the other places he did that twice, but there was a pattern they would always Get sick practice. They took God's wife and God's man and his wife and So basically to sort of purchase them off and to get them out.

They would give them lots of money and servants And they on one of these trips gave Abraham Sarah and as I was learning all this I just prayed Lord What would have happened? Yes, those addictions would have never given Abraham Hagar Now we'll go through and I would say Lord what if the Hebrew people never would have married Those pagan women like you commanded them. What if they never would have? Disobeyed you see they were supposed to drive them out Instead gradually they married the intermarry They would take these wives who would bring them into pagan Worship and they began worshiping the gods of these pagans, right?

Astor off and Molech and Baal and Molech would even The Molech worship was basically child sacrifice And as I read these things I would just begin to weep and I would just say Lord why? Could they have not quickly entered the promised land, you know, it seems like all of these problems Were caused because they did not enter the promised land Quickly, of course God was allowing this restless system.

He's bringing a sinful train of thought to the surface You know the what-ifs could go on But as I began to sort of grow and mature in faith, I realized that this entire line questioning was a product of sin You know, I wanted the promised land and I wanted victory, but I wanted it on my terms I wanted a quick and easy sanctification And I would just like to challenge you as we start looking through this passage in this series of verses If you pray for faith, you really don't get the right to tell God how he goes about producing that thing Amen when God tells his people that he will drive out Canaanites and the Philistines He says he's going to do it over a long period of time and it will require Several things.

Well the first truth that we have tonight The promised land required out of verse 29 unwavering confidence So the first point tonight is unwavering confidence If You look at your text You go back and read that In verse 29 it says I will drive him out just stop there Like we did this morning if you take your pen and just underline in your Bible I will drive them out who was to drive out these enemies God God was the one who was going to do the work In your sanctification God is going to drive out your enemies.

He has to do it and he has to do it progressively on his own current And so As I begin to grow I realized that my long list list spiritual What ifs and my long frustrations were really rooted in a great sin and I'll have to confess it to you. I Assume that I was going to have to win these battles on my own It was Landmark for me when I realized I was lost Then I realized shortly that I tried to approach my Christianity as a same person the same way approached my Christianity as a lost person See I grew up very religious and I was always Kind of reinforced. I wasn't praying enough reading the Bible enough.

So after I got saved I thought that I would have to drive out these enemies Now the Lord would have me to fight but he has us to fight We'll unpack that some more but it's his battle. So the first step That I want us to see tonight as we look at the promised land requiring unwavering confidence Is this question? Did you know the God of your salvation? Is also the God of your sanctification?

Have you thought about that did you know that the God who was responsible for your conversion You're genuinely converted is the same God of your sanctification And he has got to orchestrate you growing in Christ sometimes we like to get ahead of God and we like to Try really hard personal responsibility is great but usually We can't we will just get ourselves into problems if we're not working and elite and following his lead The second point that I have for you tonight The promised land not only requires unwavering confidence, but it requires persistence the promised land Required persistence Go back to verse 29.

I Will drive him out from before you I will not drive him out before you in one year So God says he will drive them out, but he will not do it in just one year so the first Truth that I have for you here is that This is going to take hard work The Hebrews were going to have to be Ready to work and to fight a lot of little battles in your sanctification on your process heaven It will take lots of little battles. It will take a lot of hard work God requires his children to work hard victory over the Hebrew enemies require diligence This was daily.

This was weekly Monthly this was yearly and he was even decade after decade And they were not always faithful The second truth under this Promised land requires persistence not only was it gonna require hard work. It's gonna take many long hard battles many long hard battles Now the battle belonged to the Lord, but you know, he still wanted to teach his people how to fight The battle belonged to the Lord, but he still wanted to teach His people how to fight now. Why is that? if God was going to fight Pharaoh if he was going to Win the battle of Jericho, why did the people even need to learn how to fight?

God will never have a lazy He'll equip people And that's something that you can write down God will never have a lazy in ill-equipped people Now we we all have to put our own natural laziness and slothfulness on the altar But but this is one of those paradoxes, you know, David was a warrior And David could fight but if you read the writings of David, how many times did he say the battle belonged to the Lord? Do you read the Old Testament?

There are some warriors in the Old Testament, but how many of them would say the battle belongs to the Lord and this is a great paradox The more we learn to depend on God the more equipped he makes us for the work So there is a And equipping and a dependence on God that requires a great deal of learning We learn how to work hard and learn how to fight as believers.

We learn to fight his way So the promised land would require persistence would take hard work many hard battles and also perseverance We take great perseverance Brother Chris has challenged us to take notes to review our notes to read ahead to study ahead We've made efforts to give you the podcast and the sermons I've been doing some work around my house some painting and I've been listening and in John job chapter 12 But Chris is preaching about God persevering in his church and he's at this sanctifying discourse or at the Lord's Supper.

He he's Transition from a public ministry to a private ministry as he brother Chris has been teaching us and he talks to his disciples and he's saying that Things are gonna happen. I'm gonna be Sold out by Judas And I'm telling you these things ahead of time so you'll know after it happens We'll be able to believe in you and brother Chris used that point to illustrate the perseverance of the saints that the Lord is persevering in us And if the Hebrews were to take Canaan land, they would do it because God was going to Do this work and he was going to persevere in that work and our promised land sanctification requires perseverance well third main truth We saw that the promised land required unwavering confidence and persistence But also the promised land required protection God has to protect His people as they begin and enter into the work in Any ground that you take in your personal faith will have to be protected and you have to depend on God Keep that ground that you take it If you look at verse 29 be the second half Why does God say he will not give them the land at one?

Quick time he says less the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiplied against you You go back and I'll read the whole verse So you can hear the whole thing. I will not drive them out before you in one year less the land Become desolate and the wild beasts multiplied against you Now this is God's protective discernment he knew that if he wiped out all the enemies and The Hebrews went into the promised land it would be too much land for them And by the time their children grew to take the land and to spread out by that time It would be a wilderness land and God in his foresight knows What the Hebrews can and can't handle handle?

So I want you to see that God's deliverance required protection the Verse that I read this morning comes to mind The Lord is faithful. He will not give you more Then you can bear and we have to trust that God is giving us exactly what we need and nothing more Heard brother Chris say this we talked about it a lot earlier on We acknowledged and we realized that if the Lord were to bring lots of people To to this ministry at one time we may not be able to handle that need And I can see the metaphor of the church here in this passage that if there were a great movement of God We would have sort of the play catch up in terms of developing developing leaders So God gives us to increase as we need it and as we can handle it And also this reminds us that this is God's work So God's deliverance required protection in the work but also required multi-generational faithfulness Multi-generational faithfulness Hebrews going to have to teach their children They were gonna have to pass this on to their kids in order to fully take the promised land Do you know that they actually didn't do this very well Scripture tells us that first generation did not enter the promised land because They disbelieved God There was a council there was one from every tribe only Joshua and Caleb said they could take the land all ten Ten of the remaining tribes said they could not so they were sentenced to 40 years After all that generation died out except for Caleb and Joshua Joshua led the next group but scripture says that that generation did not tell their children that second generation Did not personally see or witness?

Pharaoh's death They did not witness the place and they did not tell Their children so the third generation Right the first full generation of promised land the grandchildren of the first generation They fell into pagan worship So we are going to see our sanctification grow. We're gonna see the church grow We're gonna have to tell our children we're gonna have to pass this on in fact the church depends on it So the promised land required unwavering competence The promised land required persistence promised land required protection fourth main truth the promised land required patience Verse 30 little by little I will drive them out for you until you have increased Possessed the land That meant they had to stick around and be engaged For a long time to see God do the work.

They couldn't check out they had to be patient with God Three things that I think that we can take from this three things I think we need to be patient with first I Think we need to be patient with our own sanctification If you see an area in your life and you've committed it to the Lord You have repented of sin and you are Seeking accountability you're reading books about this topic if you're trying Be patient the Lord is going to deliver this if you are genuinely converted If the Spirit has convicted you he will give you the power To make it through We've been singing the song.

He will hold me fast verse says when I Fear my strength will fail Christ will hold me fast When the tempter would prevail He will hold me fast Because the deliverance is not ours. We don't have to trust in our own ability So we can be patient God in the process of making us more like Jesus Little by little I will drive them out before you we need to be patient with ourselves now we also secondly We need to be patient with the growth of his church And we were talking in the halls recently and one of our teachers was talking about Finding joy and work You know when we teach classes sometimes we have good days and sometimes sometimes we don't we have bad days and This requires a great deal of patience For myself as included On those bad days I can tell you like Chris could tell you that many times when I've called him up and said you know That lesson wasn't the best struggling with this Thankful thing.

I'm very thankful that I have community believers and we're patient with God as he Grows the church see we're depending on God for the benefit of this place We have you have Brother Chris has modeled this we have been patient with the Lord As he has brought new families as he has led us to make improvements as he has led us To look at mission opportunities.

We've been patient we have to work along his timetable The third thing I think the promised land of our sanctification requires patience with those around us Promised land of our sanctification requires trust excuse me patience with those around us There is no place for impatience for God's people In a small church When we're having body life You know sometimes other people may not be where you are in terms of your faith Terms of your progress in terms of your sanctification and one thing I've noticed is Any group there will be times maybe someone rubs you the wrong way Or maybe someone is not where you are or maybe you're not where you are you know it perhaps this is causing Communication all the things that we struggle with in community be patient We are God's people we're God's family If you read Paul he urged them.

He said I I command you to agree And this process of agreeing with one another and having unity it takes time and it takes patience First thing that we must do pray We must depend on the spirit to give us the right attitude give us a heart of love So that we could be who he requires us to be And the last truth the promised land required confidence persistence protection patience The promised land requires us to trust our deliverer In this work of the church in this work of our own Christian life we have to trust our deliver For this I'd like to flip over to Deuteronomy our Deuteronomy passage Chapter 7 and verse 23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed The Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed We've been looking at the attributes of God on our Wednesday night class We've been studying that the Lord is faithful That he's immutable doesn't change been learning that he's sovereign We've been learning that he's merciful and kind and loving But if we are going to see victory all the way we must trust that our sanctification is The product of our deliverer and he is faithful to deliver us Because God is good God is faithful Now if a man made a promise that he did not follow through That man were not true to his word.

Would he boot would he be a good man? By definition he would not be So if the Lord truly is good if the Lord is truly faithful then he has to follow through on this promise So we these promise to be Successful in our sanctification. He will be faithful to complete it Secondly, not only is he faithful But he also is all-powerful He's omnipotent. That means he has the ability To help us.

So if a man says yes, I will do something for you But yet he does not have the power to do it and he does not do it Then he's not faithful God being faithful would never have made a promise if he did not have the ability to carry it out And finally the Lord is not only faithful and he's great But his don't his deliverance was his idea You know, it was God's idea to take the people out of Egypt in the first place It was his idea to give a promise to Abraham He told Abraham that his people would be Held Catholic for 400 years.

He told them he would deliver them and give them a promised land And so he's going to be faithful Brother Chris and I were at camp and we were counseling with someone And I looked at this person and I said God will be faithful to complete this work. He's begun in you Because he wants your deliverance more than you could possibly want your own deliverance When we realize that God wants us to get victory in areas of our life more than what we do It was his idea To send his son. It was his idea to lead his spirit into the world.

It was his idea That preachers would proclaim it And if you are born again and you heard that gospel message and you were quick you were You were convicted to the heart If you were pented and if you've been changed then it is God's idea to continue sanctification It's not a work of your own. It's not a work of your hands On on that day when you stand before the Lord as a believer Those crowns those good works that were prepared in advance for you will take them and you will lay them at the foot of the father Why will you do that?

Because they are his crowns We have no place to have any crown in heaven because any good deed we do We did it because he helped us through it He led us to it, but we must be faithful to do the work that he's called us to do the work in his way The last thing I'll share with you is words from a hymn It's been I've enjoyed using hymns illustration today This word Reminded me of him that we sing a lot by John Newton We sing it a lot. I asked the Lord that I might grow I Guess I'll end right where I began If I asked the Lord to give me victory in certain areas.

I had no right to tell him how I wanted that victory John Newton writes this hymn He says I asked the Lord that I might grow in faith love and every grace my more of his salvation No, and seek more earnestly his face goes on to say that the Lord taught him to pray this way and led him to pray this way In verse four he says he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart And let the angry powers of hell Assault my soul in every part last verse With his excuse me the fifth verse with his own hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe He crossed all the fair designs I schemed blasted my schemes and laid me low Lord why is this a trembling cry without pursued I warm to death Tis in this way the Lord replied I hands a prayer for grace and faith these inward trials I employ from self and pride is set be free and Brake thy schemes of earthly joy that thou might find on all And it's been so rich to my heart That it is right for us to pray for victory in our sanctification and God is just that he will answer that prayer and it is God himself who gives us that prayer And as we see him bring us through a long Slow methodical process of sanctification We've got to be thankful in it Trust that he will lead us there Let's pray Lord as you Circumcise the hearts of believers Lord as you take us through a