Somebody Has to Die

May 25, 2014 (Memorial Day; 2011 revised)

Somebody Has to Die

John 12:20-36                            NOT EDITED

SIS—There are several levels of freedom and at each level somebody has to die.

As we come to this memorial day 2014, I want us to be keenly aware that we are at this very moment engaged in a great war:  we call it a “War on Terror.”  We will be entering the 14^th years come September, but this war hardly raises an eyebrow—unless you are one of the thousands of military families who are paying the price, or have paid the ultimate price.

I recently read a quote from Elie Wiesel, the Nazi Concentration Camp survivor, who went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize and spearhead the building of the Holocaust Museum in Washington.  I think it applies as well to fallen soldiers as it does Holocaust Survivors.  Wiesel said, (and I may not be quoting it exactly) “When we forget those who died, they die twice.  There was little we could do about the first death, but we can do much to avoid the second.”

May no fallen soldier ever have to die twice.  We must remember.

On patriotic days such as this, I think a lot about freedom.  I am mindful of just what it takes to become and to continue as a free nation, or as a free person.  I also turn my attention to the ultimate expression of freedom:  my freedom from the penalty of sin which is eternal death in hell.  So, as I was praying to ask God for a message on freedom this statement invaded my consciousness and captivated my soul:  freedom means:  “somebody has to die.” 

There are three levels, or expressions of freedom, and to achieve each level of freedom requires that somebody has to die.  To gain political freedom, a soldiers have to die.  To gain spiritual freedom, a Savior had to die.  To experience personal freedom, my self has to die – then, I am truly free.  Let’s read what Jesus said about the matter of gaining true freedom:

20 Now some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 So they came to Philip,  who was from Bethsaida  in Galilee,  and requested of him, “Sir,  we want to see Jesus.”22 Philip went and told Andrew;  then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man  to be glorified.

24 “I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat  falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.

This passage must be understood in the light of the passage that has gone before:  the Triumphal Entry.  The disciples had just witnessed one of the most glorious events in their three years of walking with Jesus.  Jesus was heralded and celebrated as the Coming King, the Messiah in the line of David.

Then we have verse 20 that begins:  “Now some Greeks.”  The scene turns from Jesus in the celebrated city of the Jews to a brief, but abruptly ended, reference to “Greeks.”  What is the Holy Spirit telling us through John?

This passage is first of all a condemnation of the Jews.  They were willing to embrace Jesus as long as He led the charge against the Roman tyrants, but they wanted no part of His message of death and sacrifice.  Ultimately, the Jews would lead the charge in crying out for the crucifixion of the very one they were celebrated just a week before.

Secondly, this passage completely shatters the idea that Christ came to give us political victory over our enemies:  in this case the Jews believed Jesus would crush the Roman tyranny that pressed the yoke of servitude upon their necks.  Instead, Jesus obliterates the idea of such political conquest by turning abruptly to the message about “dying.” 

Too many people wanted an “easy believism” that would fulfill their immediate gratifications.  But Jesus had a different mission.

The key concept we must gain from this text is this:  in order for us to be free—politically, spiritually, and personally—someone has to die.  The price of freedom is blood.  To secure any freedom, somebody has to die.

The Bible speaks a great deal about freedom, both directly and indirectly.  It speaks of freedom both in terms of political freedom and spiritual freedom.

Lev 23:13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke  and enabled you to live in freedom.

Isa 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent Me to heal  the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners;

Gal 5:1  Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm  then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Jesus said in His own words, (Jn. 8:32)  If you continue in My word,  y you really are My disciples. 32 You will know the truth,  and the truth will set you free.”Conclusion:  Freedom is an important aspect of what it means to be “created in God’s image.”  Freedom is first and foremost a spiritual matter.  Our Founding Fathers—writing within the context of Christianity—stated:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.Redemption brings about freedom.  Those whom Christ sets free in the spiritual realm are “truly free.”  The Bible speaks of freedom as a core component of redemption.  It is possible, of course, to make freedom simpy a matter of a birthright by having been born in America.  But, freedom must include more than patriotic matters.  Freedom at its core is a spiritual matter.

There are three levels of freedom—political, spiritual, and personal—and each level or expression of freedom requires that somebody has to die.

Jesus refers to that “somebody” as a grain of wheat.  It dies a single grain in the ground but produces a harvest of many.  Just like the death of a soldier produces freedom for many, or the death of the Savior produced freedom for many.  One dies, many benefit.  That’s the Law of the Dying Wheat Kernel.

1.  Political freedom requires that a SOLDIER die. (vv 12-15)

12 The  next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took palm branches  and went out to meet Him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna!  He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One  s—the King of Israel!”  14 Jesus found a young donkey  and sat on it, just as it is written: 15 Fear no more,  Daughter Zion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.

The Jewish people were looking for a king who would be a conquering Soldier, not a dying Savior.  They long for freedom from political oppression.  They wanted a Soldier. They were right in one thing:  the realized that to be politically free they needed a soldier.  To be politically free a soldier has to die.

Remember I am using the word soldier today to represent all the members of our armed forces.  Since our great country was founded some two plus centuries ago, over a million men and women (mostly men) have died to secure and to keep our nation’s freedom.

All over the world there are cemeteries, like Flanders Field in Europe or Arlington National Cemetery in Washington that have row upon row upon row of crosses and headstones of soldiers killed in battle.  These are men (and some women) who left homes here in America boarding planes and ships, but returned in a box.  When we see these row upon row upon row of white crosses or simple headstones, it should remind us that to have political freedom, a soldier has to die.  Let us not take our liberty to lightly. 

I do not think it idolatrous for us to take a moment to thank God for the soldiers who secured our freedom with their service, or with their very lives.  As we read in the passage above, and I’ll repeat it here.  God said to Pharoah through Moses:

Ex 8   1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him: This is what Yahweh says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

The people of Israel were politically in bondage to the Pharoah of Egypt.  Consequently, they could not worship God in the way God desires to be worshipped.

True worship—in its God-ordained full expression—requires freedom.  This is not to say that those who are not “politically” free cannot worship God.  One of the largest bodies in the world is the Chinese, unregistered and illegal, church of China.  Even under immense threat and persecution millions of believers gather daily to worship God.

But, God wants all people to be free to worship Him openly and enthusiastically without the threat of death or persecution.  Political freedom is important to God.  He shows that over and over again throughout His Word.

But, political freedom is not the essential state of freedom.  Someone can be politically free and still remain in harsh bondage to sin.  There is the matter of “spiritual freedom.”

2.  Spiritual freedom requires that a Savior must die.  (vv 24-26)

My little brother is an example of someone who was politically free but spiritually in bondage.  He was born in America and lived his entire 40 years in political freedom.  But, he was not free.  Sin, in the shape of a bottle, had captured his soul.  Soon, his body and mind were also POW’s to the Demon Brew.  He remained free politically, but spiritually he spent over three decades—three decades—in spiritual bondage.  Only the last 8 months of his life was he truly free – spiritually free.  But, the years as a POW had staked a claim on my brothers health.  Then, at last, he was truly free as he passed into Glory Land.

There’s more to freedom than a soldier’s death can provide.  True freedom—freedom from sin and eternal death—requires that a Savior must die.

From the very beginning God shows us that in order for man to be “free” (that is, spiritually free, or absolutely free) blood must be shed.  Let me take you all the way back to the Book of Genesis, to the Garden of Eden:

Gen 3   20The LORD God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

Recall that after Adam and Eve sinned their eyes were open (they became aware of their shameful nature) and they clipped off some fig leaves to cover they nakedness – an illustration of man trying to solve his sin problem on his own, in the way man thinks best.

But, that would not do.  God fashioned a covering from the skin of animals.  The implication is that God killed the animals to provide the skins.  Man’s attempt at absolution did not require anything or anyone to die, but that was insufficient in God’s eyes.

Move forward a little bit to the story of Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel.  Abel’s gift (sacrifice) was acceptable because it resulted in the life of one of the animals in his flock.

Then come to the story of the exodus from Egypt when the last plague—the one that secured the freedom of Israel—was the death of the first-born.  Again, freedom—true spiritual freedom, absolute freedom—requires the shedding of blood.  In the case prior to the exodus, it was the blood of animals.  Exodus required the blood of a first-born son.

Now, let us come to Jesus.  Here in our text Jesus abruptly turns from a discussion of the great celebration when He entered Jerusalem to this conversation:

24 “I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat  falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.

Spiritual freedom requires that somebody die, and that Somebody had to be an absolutely perfect being—it had to be God, Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity.  Only this perfect sacrifice would atone for man’s sin.

True freedom is freedom from the penalty of sin which is eternal death—that is eternal separation from God in hell.  Sin is such a serious matter—a cosmic problem that only the Creator, Himself can remedy—that it required the death of Jesus Christ.  Only a dying Savior can bring life to many.  Jesus is that “kernel of wheat that had to die for the fruit of salvation to become available for the many.”

Now, many people object to the fact that spiritual freedom requires the shedding of blood – of hundreds of thousands of animals in the Old Testament to the blood of the perfect, sinless Son of God.

The objection focuses on the love of God.  Why would a loving God have such a cruel, even barbaric, requirement for forgiveness of sin?  This line of thinking becomes problematic by reducing God’s attributes to only, or even primarily, love.  God is love, but God is more than love.

God is also holy.  He is absolutely holy.  Therefore, no sin, even a seemingly minute sin can exist in God’s Presence.  God is a consuming fire and the nature of fire is to destroy that which is “not fire.”  God’s consuming fire of holiness must, but His nature, destroy any sin however minute.

God is also just.  God has declared by fiat and by His nature that “the wages of sin is death.”  Any and all sin must fall under the penalty of death according to God’s justice.  God cannot change this fact because it is part of Who He is, as well as what He has declared.  So, any and all sin fall under this penalty, and the penalty must always be paid.

A story I read one day may help us better understand why the only true Savior must be a dying Savior, and must be absolutely spotless.  Therefore, the only true way to pay the penalty of all sin for all time would be for a Holy God, Himself, to cover that penalty.  Here is the story that I think helps us understand that.

There was once a tribe where the chief was a wise and powerful man. He was respected for his physical strength as well as his tough and fair laws which everyone respected and obeyed. However, one day, it was discovered that someone was sneaking into the tents and stealing. The chief ordered that this person be found and that the punishment for this crime would be 40 lashes with the whip. "No one is exempt!" he declared. "This punishment must be served." The tribe agreed that it was a fair punishment. However, the chief was devastated when he discovered that it was his frail old mother who was the thief. "Surely in her old age, she will never survive 40 lashes," he thought, "but I cannot change the punishment, for it is fair and just and has already been announced." At the thought of losing his mother whom he loved, he was heart-broken. When the time came for the punishment to be administered, the chief gave the order to begin and at once, his mother cried out, "Save me my son!"  Immediately, the chief ran and embraced his mother, shielding her entire body from the whips. As the whips came down upon his back again and again and the pain filled him, he quietly whispered to his mother that he loved her.  The Chief, himself, bore the penalty He Himself had declared must be paid.

So, as we stand here today in the shadow cast by the memories of those brave men and women who died on battlefields to bring us political freedom, and, as we stand here today in the shadow of the Old Rugged Cross upon which Jesus Christ, God’s Only Son, died to make available spiritual freedom,  we still have not exhausted what it means to be “free, truly free.”

In order to be politically free, a soldier has to die.  In order to be spiritually free the Savior had to die.  But, in order to be

3.  Personally free, the Self has to die.

Jesus did not die to set all men free.  Let me say again, Jesus did not die in order to set all men free.  There is a sense in which God “limited” the substitutionary gift of salvation to only the “elect,” or those who would “personally” accept what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

Only when a person “crucifies” his or her SELF, will they be personally free.

Look at our text again in verses 24-26:

I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat  falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.  k 25 The one who loves his life will lose it,  and the one who hates  his life  in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me. Where I am, there My servant  also will be.  If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor  him.

Here is the great lesson Jesus had been trying to teach His disciples for over three years—and would continue to try to teach them right up to His death on the cross—in order to be “personally free” (that is absolutely spiritually free from any sway sin can have in your life now and for eternity), somebody has to die – that somebody is SELF.

A soldier dies to make political freedom available.  A Savior died to make spiritual freedom available; but the Self must die to make personal freedom a reality.

You will never be free until you “personally” crucify your Self by embracing fully, and eagerly Jesus Christ as the Lord of Life.  Paul said,

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live.  Yet it is not I who lives but Christ who lives within me.  The life I now live I live by faith in the One who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  (Galatians 2:20)

This is what Jesus tried to teach the disciples in Luke 9:23:

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come with  Me, he must deny himself,  take up his cross daily,  and follow Me. 

There’s no victory without a battle.  There’s no empty tomb without an occupied cross.  The call to follow Jesus is a call to “come and die.”

Freedom is more than simply being loosed from the chains of political tyranny.  Many people around the world do not have that kind of freedom.  Freedom requires more than Jesus Christ dying on the cross.  Jesus died on the cross and still every minute of every day men, women and children pass into eternity as slaves to sin and confined to hell forever.

True freedom is personal freedom.  This comes when our self dies by accepting the free gift provided in the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. 

There are people even here in this room that will die and spend eternity in hell even though a Savior has died to make salvation free and available.  But, you cannot get into heaven until the Self dies.  That is a decision you must make, and you must make that decision before you take your last breath.

I am so thankful today for the soldiers (service men and women of all the forces) who have paid the absolute sacrifice to make America the most free nation in the history of the world.

I am thankful for the Savior, Jesus Christ, who paid the ultimate penalty for my sin, and the sins of many, when like a grain of wheat He planted His life blood on a hill called Calvary.

I am thankful that my SELF, is being crucified with Christ as I embrace Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior every moment of every day.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop” (John 12:24).

We are all blessed recipients of that single grain of wheat, Jesus Christ, who died to give His life a ransom for many.  May we all embrace the freedom that Jesus Christ has provided.  Let us die to self, and live for Him.

<<end>>

Promise Geography

May 18, 2014

Joshua:  Turning Obedience Into Blessing

Joshua 15:  Promise Geography                           NOT EDITED

SIS—The promises of God result in real blessings in this world, as well as in eternity.

If you have been paying attention over the last few months as we have been studying Joshua you will have noticed three important themes, or Bible doctrines, that God has woven in and out of nearly every chapter—the sovereignty of God, the promises of God, and the power of obedience.  These three dynamic doctrines serve as the pillars that hold up the entire structure of the Bible.  These three dynamic doctrines interact to create what we call in general, salvation.  The interaction looks something like this:  God’s sovereignty guarantees God’s promises based upon man’s obedience.  When we know what God has promised and we trust that God is indeed able and willing to fulfill those promises, God turns the promises into reality based upon our obedience.

Now, the way the Book of Joshua expresses the interaction of sovereignty, promise and obedience is through what one scholar refers to as “Promise Geography.”  Chapters 14 through 19 contain many hard-to-pronounce names of places many of us cannot even locate on a map.  This could obscure a very important lesson.  Though we may not be able to locate the geographical lands God promised and delivered to Israel, those place were indeed real places.  We would say they were “real estate.”

God’s promises are important because it is the primary means through which God relates to His people.  The Bible in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11 gives a synopsis of the importance of the entire O.T.  The basic lesson we are to receive from the O.T., according to Hebrews, is that “faith in God is the foundation for our relationship with Yahweh.”  The Bible says it like this:  “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).  And, of course, if we fail to please God we fail to appropriate His blessings in our lives.

Faith means “to obey God in anticipation of God fulfilling His promises.”  There are two great heresies that have splintered off from this great truth.  One, the prosperity gospel which teaches that  “the singular reason we obey God is to get more!  Second, the heresy that teaches, “we should never think of God’s promises but obey out of a blind sense of duty.”  Neither of these two extremes is correct and should be shunned as sheer heresy. 

We should not let these heresies rob us of a great truth in the Bible.  God does reward faithfulness.  He is a “rewarder.”  The Bible says,

^{Heb 11   6} Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.

My point in this message is to show the connection between “obedience and real estate based upon the promises of God,” or “Promise Geography.

Joshua  and the entire Bible teaches us “that obedience brings blessing.”  There was a man who got lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry, about that time he saw a little shack in the distance.  He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small jug of water and a note. The note read: "pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need". Now the man had a choice to make, if he trusted the note and poured the water in and it worked he would have all the water he needed. If it didn’t work he would still be thirsty and he might die. Or he could choose to drink the water in the jug and get immediate satisfaction, but it might not be enough and he still might die. After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire jug into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out he drank all he wanted, took a shower, and filled all the containers he could find. Because he was willing to give up momentary satisfaction, he got all the water he needed. Now the note also said: after you have finished, please refill the jug for the next traveller.” The man refilled the jug and added to the note: “ Please prime the pump, believe me it works”!

We have the same choice to make, do we hold on to what we have because we don’t believe there are better things in store for us, and settle for immediate satisfaction? Or do we trust God and give up all that we have to get what God has promised us? I think the choice is obvious. God’s promises are many and exacting.  Let’s read a verse in Joshua 15 to give us a sense of “Promise Geography.”

READ JOSHUA 15:1

Here’s three aspects of Promise Geography that will encourage us to appropriate God’s promises through obedience.

1.  The Details of God’s Promises (1-12)

Several times we have read portions of Joshua that had exacting detail including very obscure place with difficult to pronounce names.  For most of us I might as well been reading from Harry Potter with characters like Voldermort or Albus Dumbledore.  Why all the exacting detail in Joshua?  You could draw a map of the territories given to each tribe simply from the information given.  Let me give you an example of the exacting detail that begins in chapter 15 and continues for the next four chapters:

² Their southern border began at the tip of the Dead Sea on the south bay  ³ and went south of the Ascent of Akrabbim,  proceeded to Zin, ascended to the south of Kadesh-barnea, passed Hezron, ascended to Addar, and turned to Karka. ⁴ It proceeded to Azmon and to the Brook of Egypt and  so the border ended at the Mediterranean Sea. This is your  southern border.

The rest of this chapter (and continuing through chapter 19) follows this same, exacting description of the geographical boundaries of Israel’s blessing.  This same exacting detail applies to all Twelve Tribes of Israel until you have a geographical map of the Nation of Israel.  [SHOW MAP].

I’ll ask the question again:  why all the exacting detail in this chapter and the ones following?  There is a saying in business in regard to “grand proposals” that sound so good when someone is promoting them but often stumble when the proposal is implemented.  Business strategists often quip:  “The Devil is in the details!”  So often this proves true in business.  Yet, in regard to God’s promises the opposite plays out.  Far from the details being “devilish,” the details of the fulfillment of God’s promises engender encouragement, hope, and boldness in the lives of His children.  One scholar, from whom I borrowed the idea of “Promise Geography,” stated the matter like this:

“Joshua 15 is simply one of the buds on the tree of God’s promise in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15.  The land long ago had been promised to Abraham . . . here we see part of the concrete fulfillment.  The reader must remember that both this chapter and the following ones describe in detail God’s fulfillment of His promise. . . That means that every town name and border point pulsates with excitement!”

The detailed nature of these chapters serves to strengthen our trust in God and to enflame our enthusiasm for God’s work.  Each time we move forward in obedience God fulfills more of His promise, and the more we experience the blessed promises of God the more we want to be obedient.  So, rather than the “devil being in the details,” a follower of God sees “delight in the details.”  The detailed, exacting nature of the Bible, especially in regard to the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promises prods us to greater obedience that leads to even greater blessing.  Hope is in the details of God’s promises.  The details breed trust; trust breeds hope; and hope breeds excitement.

Two little girls were talking on the schoolyard.  One little girl said she had ten pennies.  The other little girl looked at her friends hand and counted only five pennies.  The second little girl said, “You only have five pennies.”  With a smile from ear to ear the first little girl explained, “No, I have ten pennies.  I have five here in my hand and my father said he’d give me five more tonight.  So, I have ten!”  When the source of a promise is trustworthy, the promise is as sure as if it had already happened.  When we see over and over and over again in the Word of God how God fulfilled every promise in exacting detail it builds our trust in Him and our excitement about where God will lead us tomorrow.

Let’s look more closely at the EFFECTS of God’s Promises on the faith of God’s followers.

2.  The EFFECTS of God’s Promises (13-19)

God’s promises breed a vigorous and infectious faith.  Last week in chapter 12 we were reintroduced to Caleb, the Mad Dog of Obedience and hero of Numbers 13.  We are now going to look at God’s fulfillment of His promise to Caleb in more detail and see how Caleb’s faith had a great influence on the faith of others.

¹⁶and Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Achsah as a wife to the one who strikes down and captures Kiriath-sepher.” ¹⁷ So Othniel  son of Caleb’s brother, Kenaz, captured it, and Caleb gave his daughter Achsah to him as a wife.  ¹⁸ When she arrived, she persuaded Othniel to ask her father for a field. As she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you want?” ¹⁹ She replied, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me the springs of water also.” So he gave her the upper and lower springs.

As you recall from last week, Caleb did not want a conquered portion of the land as his inheritance but wanted the giant-filled hill country.  Caleb had the faith of a conqueror.  Consequently, Caleb wanted to pass on that “conqueror gene” to his sons and grandsons.  So, Caleb offered to give his daughter to the one who would conquer Kiriath-sepher.  That man turned out to be, Othniel, the son of Caleb’s brother.  This created a “cousin marriage,” assuring that Caleb’s conquering faith would continue through his bloodline.  Cousin marriage was common in the ancient Middle East, and is still somewhat common today.  Only about half the states in the U.S. prohibit the marriage of first cousins.

After the death of Joshua, Israel would be ruled by a series of judges for about 350 years, until the time of the kings beginning with Saul.  The very first judge chosen to rule over Israel was none other than, Othniel, the son-in-law of Caleb.  Othniel oversaw a period of peace for Israel that lasted 40 years (Jdgs. 3). 

Not only was Othniel infected with the enthusiastic, even brash faith of Caleb, but Caleb’s daughter also had the “give-me-a-mountain gene” of her father.  It was not enough just to receive a field in the Negev, Achsah wanted the water rights also!

Enthusiastic faith is vigorous and infectious.  The more we spend time around people who love God and follow him with “mad dog obedience,” the more we want to cast caution to the wind and do great things for God.  The EFFECTS of seeing God’s promises fulfilled in the lives of others is that it breeds enthusiastic, risk-taking faith in others.  One scholar reminds us of the EFFECTS of fulfilled promises:  “See how the God who promises a secure inheritance enables a clan to obtain it when they are willing to risk obedience to his promise” (Davis).

What would happen if we at First Baptist Church became a clan so hyped up on the promises of God that we would risk anything and everything to see those promises come true?  A promise is just an idea until it becomes a possession.

Years ago railroads were pushing across the frontiers of North America.  Great peril befell the brave men who worked their way through Native American lands.  Many times the railroad would go to war with the Indians.  At other times, they would seek to establish treaties to progress through Native American lands.  The Canadian Pacific Railroad struck one such treaty with Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfoot Indians.  In return for the right of passage through Blackfoot land from Medicine Hat to Calgary, the railroad gave Crowfoot a lifetime railroad pass.  Crowfoot put the pass in a leather pouch and wore it around his neck for the rest of his life.  No record exists showing that Crowfoot ever used that pass to go anywhere on the railroad. 

It is not enough to know the promises of God—we must act enthusiastically and vigorously on those promises or, as I said, “they are merely ideas and not possessions.”  But, promises acted upon vigorously and enthusiastically have great EFFECTS.  Vigorous faith in God’s promises breeds even greater acts of faith, both in ourself and in others.

Promises not claimed by vigorous faith have no effects or results.  They are just ideas.  But, when acted upon, promises become possessions.  Vigorous faith acting upon the promises of God turns theology into geography!

3.  The REALISM of God’s Promises (20-63)

I was heard someone say, and it has been over 40 years ago now, that “most Christians are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good!”  That statement has stuck with me over the years.  I have a great problem with “theology” that does not result in transformed lives.  Some people call this, “dead orthodoxy.”  I liken this kind of “dead theology” to a person on a set of railroad tracks.  These tracks are leading in the right direction, that is, the person is on the right tracks.  But, if that person’s theology doesn’t get moving, sooner or later a train is going to come and that person’s theology becomes a “dead theology!”

God never intended for His promises to remain “ideas,” no matter how lofty those ideas may be.  If I don’t understand anything else in Joshua (especially chapters 14-19), I understand this:  “God intends for us to turn His promises into ‘real’ estate!”

Nothing is more secure than “real estate.”  Most of the really rich—if not all—have substantial holdings in real estate because real estate is a substantial investment.  As someone has said, “They aren’t making any more real estate.”  Here’s why I say over and over again that “Christianity is not a religion in the sense we usually think about religion.”  Christianity is a movement—a movement to expand real estate.  Christianity is not so much about what we “think, or believe” as it is about what we “do” (James 2:18).

I’m sure most of you have heard of “multiple listings” in regard to real estate.  This a list of all (or most) of the properties available for sale in a given locale.  Well, verses 20 through 60 are a “multiple listing” properties no longer in escrow but now one hundred percent in ownership by the People of God. 

Verse 32—29 cities; verse 36—14 cities; verse 41—16 cities; verse 43 9 cities; verse 51—11 cities; verse 57—10 cities; verse 59—6 cities; verse 60—2 cities; verse 62—6 cities.

According to my calculator that is 103 cities mentioned.  That’s a lot of real estate, and it doesn’t even include some associate towns and villages (44-47).  That’s the REALISM of Promise Geography.  God’s promises result in tangible, real assets.  In other words, “Christianity is not primarily interested in getting us into heaven, but getting us INTO THE WORLD!”  Heaven will come soon enough but there is some real work to do here in the real world that will result in real blessings!

Once again I must turn to a great scholar who has become somewhat of a friend through my study of Joshua.  He puts the matter like this:  “The God of the Bible tends to be concrete, his gifts tangible and visible. The inheritance He bequeaths is not an idea but boundaries, not thoughts but towns: in a word, real estate.”

God has always been this way.  For centuries He interacted with Israel in concrete, tangible ways.  The awful fact of sin was played out in daily sacrifices over centuries showing that “the wages of sin is death.”  The Altar in the Temple was encrusted with the dried blood of a thousand sacrifices.  Flies danced upon the blood that would puddle around slaughtered sacrifices.  Sin could be smelled in the urine and droppings of sheep, cattle and oxen waiting to be sacrificed. The whole of Israel’s worship system was established by God as a “visual, tangible, sensual” object lesson of the awfulness of sin.  And, it was not enough. 

So, what did God do to finally communicate the “reality of sin” and the “reality of salvation?”  God put on flesh.  God stepped out of the idea in man’s head and stepped into the reality of man’s world.  God became a “real man.”  God walked on real earth.  He slept with His head on real stones.  He ate real food.  And, He died a real death on a real cross.  He rose again from a real tomb to show that salvation was . . . REAL!  Christianity is NOT an idea—it is a reality!  Christianity is not a philosophy—it is a reality!  Christianity does not retreat into spirituality, but marches enthusiastically and vigorously into reality! 

I can’t help it, but someone else said it so well I simply must repeat it:  “We must realize that even enjoying the grand act of the kingdom of God will not mean floating as a beeping soul in some sort of spiritual ether but walking around with a resurrection body in new heavens and a new earth.”

One of the most comforting truths to me is that there will be an “earthiness to heaven.”  Therefore, we would be wise to rediscover in the here and now the earthiness of God.  This is the invigorating spirit behind our present vision in church we call, “Taking It To The Streets.”  The power of Christianity is not measured by what happens in church on Sunday, near as much as it is measured about what happens in the marketplace Monday through Saturday!  The proof of Christian faith is not cherished doctrine but changed lives!

True Christianity, according to Joshua especially, can be measured geographically, as well as theologically.  I think of how the Lord set up the model prayer:

^{Mat. 6    9} “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I think too often we gloss over that phrase, “on earth.”  According to The ten volume set titled, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the word translated, “earth” in the original Greek means,  “land, in the geographical sense.” True, Biblical Christianity is as much geographical as it is theological, and maybe moreso.  The whole idea of the Great Commission is to “go into all the world.”  That is not an idea, that is an action.  It is not enough to simply make a statement, we must make a difference by trusting God’s promises enough to act upon them with vigorous obedience.

I remember reading about a man that learned what it means to trust the promises of God.  He was travelling down a narrow path not paying much attention to where he was going.  Suddenly, he slipped over the edge of a cliff.  As he fell, he grabbed for a branch that was jutting out from the cliff. The branch held his weight but there he was stuck on the side of a cliff with a long fall awaiting him when his grip gave out.  He did what most people do when confronted with an insurmountable challenge.  He cried out for help:  “Anybody up there?”  A voice called back, “Yes, I’m here.”  A bit surprised the man cried out again, “Who’s up there.”  The voice called back, “It me, the Lord.”  In desperation the man, who had not been very spiritual up to now, cried out, “Lord, please help me!”  The voice called back, “Do you trust me?”  The man replied, “I trust you completely, Lord.”  The voice shouted, “Let go of the branch, I promise I will catch you.”  The man skeptically asked, “What did you say?”  The voice shouted again, “Let go of the branch.  I promise I will catch you.”  After a long pause, the man said despairingly, “Is anybody else up there?”

Promise Geography teaches us that the promises of God result in real blessings in this world, as well as in eternity.   We must simply trust God enough to act upon the promises he has given us.  Promise Geography as we see here in Joshua 15 demonstrates that real faith makes a real difference in the real world and leads to real blessings both now and forever.

We need to hook our wagon to God’s Book of Promises and begin living in a way that makes a real difference in the real world and brings us a life of real blessings.

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