Victorious Christian Living

Old Testament Reading – Lamentations 3:22-41
New Testament Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

 Victorious Christian Living
“The Fruit of Victory”
Joshua 11:1-12:24 

Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor

   While every city, stronghold, and village had not been totally defeated or destroyed, the Israelites had achieved a great victory over the Canaanites. 

• “So, Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.” (Joshua 11:23)
• Each tribe was to apply the lessons learned in the united war to remove the Canaanites from their allotted areas and to fully possess the land.

   Joshua’s amazing victories over the Canaanites surface the age-old theological question regarding God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.

• While Joshua and the Israelites had to fight the Canaanites with all of their military might, the Bible says it was God who gave the Canaanites into his hands.
  • Theologians call this a paradox; a situation that seems self-contradictory, but the truth is, it is a parallel truth that needs to be accepted.
• This great truth is illustrated in Joshua 11:15:
  • “As the Lord had commanded Moses His servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did.” – That’s the sovereignty of God side.
  • “He (Joshua) left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.” – That’s the human responsibility side.
• For seven years, Joshua worked hard to obey what the Lord had told him to do. But it was actually God doing His work through Joshua.
• God called us to study His Word and discipline ourselves to become devoted disciples of Christ. However, as the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:13, “It is God who is at work in us, both to will and to do His good pleasure.”

   For the believer, Cannan is not a picture of heaven but rather a description of a Christians new life in Christ.

• What the Promised Land was to the Israelites, Jesus is to the Christian, for while the Israelites had to capture and conquer the land, and rid it of God’s enemies, so much we, as Christians, capture and conquer that life which God has redeemed through the death and resurrection of His Son.
• The Victorious Christian Life is not a life free from the daily struggles, troubles, trials, and temptations, and neither is it a life of sinless perfection.
• The Victorious Christian life is a life that requires our moment-by-moment surrender unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ; a consistent obedience to the truths and principles of God’s Word, and a constant pursuit of holiness.

1. The Rest Jesus Christ Achieved– Hebrews 1:3b – “When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

• Having finished the work the Father had sent Him to do, purging the guilt and shame of our sins, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, a position of honor and glory, far above all creation.
• Theologians refer to this as the Lord’s Majestic Rest.

• • Not the rest of exhaustion – for Jesus did not spare Himself physically in His mission to achieve our eternal salvation.
  • Not the rest of depression – the writer of Hebrews said, “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
  • But the rest of satisfaction – Jesus willingly left His throne in glory, stripped Himself of His royalty, and freely offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
  • Hebrews 10:12-14 – “After He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God, and now He is waiting till God makes all of His enemies His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

• The fruit of victory for Christ is rest, and if we are in Christ according to Ephesians 2:4-6, positionally, we are already seated with Him in the heavenly places.

2. The Rest that Christians Received – Hebrews 4:9-11 – “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent (or strive) to enter that rest.”

• While God’s work to achieve our salvation is forever finished, God’s work of salvation through us will never be finished, until our work on earth is finished, and God calls us home, which is why the writer of Hebrews said we are to “strive” to enter that rest.

   J.C. Ryles once said, “There are two marks of a true Christian – his inner peace, and his inner warfare.”

• Jesus told those who were following Him every day: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
• The Rest of Forgiveness:
  • No longer are we trying to justify, rationalize, or minimize our sins, for we know our sins are forever forgiven, for once they are under the blood of Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Father remembers them no more. We can rest our souls with the Lord Jesus, who cried out “It is finished.”  
  • Therefore, we can rejoice with the Apostle Paul in knowing, “There is no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 8:1
  • Though we are still sinners by nature and by choice, because of our expressed faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, our eternal destiny in heaven is settled.
• The Rest of Victory:
  • Just as Joshua had to fight the various battles with the Canaanite Kings for seven years, so must we continue to wage war against the wiles or wicked schemes of the devil, against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
  • However, once we are at rest with the assurance of our eternal salvation, and we fully understand that we were saved by God’s grace alone, through our faith alone, and in Christ alone, then from that position of victory, and with the whole armor of God, we can, like Joshua, fight from victory unto victory, till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed.

   How do we manifest that rest? By our observance of the Lord’s Day. Our respect for the Sabbath reflects our freedom from our bondage to sin. But, by referring to it as the Lord’s Day, we are also resting in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in giving His life as a ransom for our sins.