Introduction - The concept of the "already-not-yet"

When I was reading commentaries on this section I was fascinated to see how many were puzzled over over the definitive way in which this passage speaks of God's total victory over enemies. And what puzzles them is that chapter 23 will clearly state that there were still enemies in the land and there were still pockets of Canaan that had not yet been captured. In fact, unbelieving liberals sometimes like to say that it is an outright contradiction. They love to invent contradictions. But even unbelievers have a hard time believing that the same writer would make these kinds of statements four times in the book and each time (in the immediate context) also say that there were still enemies in the land. Even unbelievers have a hard time believing that a person would contradict himself so completely within the space of a few words - and do so four times in this book. For example, look at chapter 23:1, which makes much the same statement as is made here. It says,

Now it came to pass, a long time after the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age.

There it is. God gave Israel rest from all their enemies round about. Yet in verses 5 through the remainder of chapter 23 he also speaks of enemies that still need to be expelled (v. 5) because they still "remain among you" (v. 7), and in verse 12 he warns them not to intermarry with the Canaanites still in the land or they will be thorns in their side (v. 13), etc. So even unbelievers say, "Nah. There must be something else going on here because nobody would be that stupid to contradict themselves so thoroughly within just a few sentences."

So evangelicals have tended to land on two explanations. Some (like Calvin) emphasize that each and every promise of land and conquest of enemies was fulfilled when (and only when) Israel claimed the promises by faith and acted upon those promises. So it is talking about the promises they claimed that are fulfilled. For example, William MacDonald interprets verse 44 of our chapter this way: He says,

There were still enemies within the land; not all the Canaanites had been destroyed. But that was not God’s fault; He fulfilled His promise by defeating every foe against which the Israelites fought. If there were still undefeated foes and pockets of resistance, it was because Israel did not claim God’s promise.¹

Others are not totally satisfied with that answer, and they say that this paragraph focuses on the first stage of the kingdom that God had promised, yet anticipates that more will yet come. After all God promised to give the land little by little over a long period of time. So on this theory, they had claimed and possessed 100% of the boundaries God had promised during this first stage and no more enemies were willing to fight. And that certainly seems to have an element of truth. After all, they didn't need any of the soldiers from the east of Jordan anymore, so in the next chapter Joshua sends them back to their homes. There had been sufficient victory that those armies were no longer needed.

But there is a third (and I believe better) explanation that incorporates both of those two insights and adds something more. It appeals to the book of Hebrews and shows how Hebrews picks up this story of Joshua and highlights the frequent concept of the already-not-yet that is found throughout Scripture. It emphasizes three stages in God's plan. The initial stage was when God gave the right and empowerment to see every promise fulfilled. And God gave that the moment Joshua and Israel crossed the Jordon River. He at that moment gave them everything in the land and empowered them to possess everything - as they would claim it by faith. So legally (in other words, positionally) Canaan was theirs; they had been given the land.

The second stage is the experiential victory achieved in this chapter where every boundary promised was captured and all the enemies were subdued to a degree where the enemies could no longer successfully fight Israel and could no longer keep Israel out of its boundaries. In fact, so thorough was this stage of victory that Joshua was able to send most of the troops who had come from the east side of the Jordon back to their homes in chapter 22.

The third stage of the already-not-yet would be the end-stage of Israel's future progressive Christianization of the Canaan that they had captured until every square inch of Canaan was eventually brought under the lordship of God during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.

So they point to the legal or positional victory that God announced the moment they crossed the Jordan. Then there is the experiential victory the achieved in this chapter. Then there is the ultimate victory that is found under David and Solomon.

And they point out that this already-not-yet approach is used by God for several other things in Scripture. Take our personal sanctification, for example. There is the initial positional sanctification of a believer the moment he is converted and given the Holy Spirit and is given everything needed for his sanctification. So complete is that sanctification that these new believers can be called saints from the moment of conversion on. Postionally or legally they are saints. They have been set apart to God.

The next stage is the growth of experiential sanctification that can result in such a level of maturity that (despite pockets of indwelling sin that may remain), the person is said to be sanctified or mature or holy.

But the ultimate sanctification of all believers only happens at their glorification on the last day of history, when the last enemy, death, is conquered in our resurrection. So there is positional sanctification, experiential sanctification, and definitive or ultimate sanctification on the last day of history.

Now, using this same concept, Hebrews also applies these three stages to Christ's kingdom as a whole. When were all things put under Christ's feet positionally? Hebrews says that it was at His enthronement and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. His world-wide kingdom was established positionally in the first century.

But despite Hebrews 2:8 saying that God had already put all things in subjection under the feet of Jesus and had left nothing that was not put under him, the very next clause says, "But we do not yet see all things put under him." And it goes on to say that as the church in faith obediently advances the kingdom, that the kingdom will experientially put down all enemies and Christianize the world. But even then, there will still be death, and death is an enemy.

So Scripture goes on to say that the last enemy, death, will not be conquered until the Second Coming when Jesus will resurrect all saints, renew the cosmos, and bring in the ultimate stage of the kingdom. So there is an absolute sense in which Jesus defeated Satan and the world in His resurrection and was given everything in AD 30, there is the experiential advancing of the kingdom, and there is the definitive or ultimate stage of the kingdom. That's the already-and-not-yet.

And Hebrews uses that to point out that the church must walk in faith and do all in its power to experientially put more and more of this world under Christ's feet. And thus, all of its warnings. Let me read a sampling from Hebrews:

"Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away." (2:1)

"Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it." (4:1)

Heb. 4:6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God... 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

The point is that God put all things under Christ's feet in AD 30, the church will put that positional victory into practice as they obey the Great Commission, make disciples of all nations, and teach the nations to observe all things in the Bible. It is guaranteed that this will one day happen, but it is conditioned to happen as the whole church has faith and stops making peace-treaties with the pagans.

Thus, the book of Joshua is a wonderful picture of God's call to faith and it is a wonderful picture of the already-not-yet that the New Testament holds forth. Everything legally belongs to Christ, will progressively be taken by Christ's followers, and eventually, when every other enemy has been conquered at some point in the future, Jesus will conquer the last enemy, death through our resurrection. OK, I know that is a long introduction, but with that as a background, let's look at each phrase in this remarkable paragraph.

Don't settle for less than what God has given (v. 43a)

The first thing we see in this passage is that we should not settle for anything less that what God has given to us to conquer. Verse 43 says, "So the LORD gave to Israel all the land." He didn't just give some; He gave it all. And Israel should never have settled for anything less than seeing God's Word being lived out in every nook and cranny of Canaan. It's a huge vision. It's an impossible vision. That is, it is impossible apart from God's grace. But by the end of David's reign and into Solomon's reign there were no enemies left. And David's and Solomon's reign was a picture of the glories God still has in store for planet earth in our future.

But too many Christians are preoccupied with lesser things. One book that deals with raising our vision to a God-sized vision told a parable. It said,

A police officer arrived at the scene of an accident before the dust had even settled. He found that a wealthy young man had been thrown out of his Mercedes just before it plunged over a steep cliff and crashed onto the rocks far below in a ball of flames. The young man was standing along the roadside at the top of the cliff, weeping. He was bleeding profusely from the stump of his shoulder, all that was left of his arm.

“My Mercedes! My Mercedes!” the young man howled.

“You ought to be thankful you’re alive,” the amazed officer said.

“But it had twenty thousand dollars worth of options,” the man whimpered, staring down at the burning wreckage.

“There are things more important than that stupid car,” the police officer insisted, guiding the injured man away from the cliff. “We’ve got to get you to a hospital. Your arm has been torn off, and you could bleed to death!”

The young man looked down and noticed for the first time that his arm was missing. Horrified, he screamed, “My Rolex! My Rolex!”

Obviously that is a fictional story, but I think it captures how shallow the Christian vision in the West has become. We are not captured with the Greatness of the Great Commission. We have become captured with things of far lesser importance. God wants us to claim all for King Jesus.

The land cannot be taken apart from faith (v. 43b)

But the next phrase in our paragraph is the first hint that not one square inch of the land could be taken apart from faith. It says, "which He had sworn to give to their fathers..." Why does he bring up their fathers? Well, God had promised their fathers the same land that they had spent seven years possessing, yet their fathers did not receive one square inch of it. Why? Deuteronomy 9:4 says that it was because of their unbelief. Hebrews 3:19 says the same thing about their forefathers who wandered in the wilderness. It says, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

So God swore that they could have the land, but that promise was conditioned upon faith. It was conditioned upon Israel believing that this was possible. But since the forefathers lacked faith, God was not held to His promise. His promise was sure and certain. And it continues to remain sure and certain. The only question that slows down the "yet" part of the already-not-yet is the church's faith. Will we take His Word at face value and live it out by faith? Will we believe the Greatness of the Great Commission?

Most Christians are satisfied with saving a remnant minority out of the world, but the Great Commission calls for entire nations to be discipled. Other Christians have said that since we have Christianized a few nations in the past that there is nothing to hinder Christ's second coming from happening. But what does the Great Commission mandate? That all nations become disciples or Christian nations. All nations. That's a high calling. But the Great Commission goes beyond that. There has never been a time when Christian nations have observed all things that Jesus commanded. Has there been a totally Biblical civics in any nations? No. What about a totally Biblical economics? No. Not a chance. What about every discipline in the schools being grounded in the Bible? No. We've got a long ways to go. And we've got to have faith that the greatness of the Great Commission is possible. God will not honor lack of faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

But you know what? Any time the church has had faith to capture nations (like this generation under Joshua did), incredible things have happened. Within 300 years of Christ's ascension, the church captured more than 50% of the Roman Empire. That is phenomenal growth. And why did they achieve that growth? Because they had a faith to really believe the Great Commission was possible.

And even today we see country after country where the church is aggressively advancing God's cause. I've mentioned several countries in the past. Let me mention one more - Iran. Iran is a Muslim country that many Christians in the past have believed would be impossible to convert because of how impervious Islam is to the Gospel. Or so they think. The church in Iran has set their sights much higher, and despite martyrdom, imprisonment, economic sanctions, and other forms of persecution, the church has set its sights to Christianize that nation. And in the past two decades they have become the fastest growing church in the entire world. How successful have they been? In February of this year a senior Muslim cleric in Iran despaired that Christianity is taking over the country. He publicly said that 55,000 of Iran's 75,000 mosques have had to be closed because so many Muslims have become Christian. That's a 74% reduction in Muslim mosques. One on-the-ground-estimate is that 1 million Muslims in Iran have become Christian.² Here's the point - the impossible is possible when the church advances in faith.

But what has happened in the West? The exact opposite. And the church is going backwards because their pathetic eschatology kills their faith. Most in the West believe that things must inevitably get worse and worse. But anytime the church lacks faith, Hebrews says that the church will not advance. So the previously Christian western nations are now in a shambles. Iranian Christians have the faith of Joshua's generation. Western nations that have embraced pessimistic eschatologies have the lack of faith of the wilderness generation. We cannot break God's principle that the kingdom must advance by faith. And,by the way, this is why Postmillennial eschatology is not an unimportant doctrine. It is a foundation stone for faith.

Faith without works is a dead faith (v. 43c with James 1:17,20,26)

The next phrase indicates that our sovereign God works through the actions of free agents. It says, "and they took possession of it." James says that faith without action is dead faith (James 2:17,20,26). When Christians are determined to take possession of the universities, the film industry, science, agriculture, and every other aspect of society, God will bless their efforts.

And that's what God had done with this generation within seven years. It really is a stunning testimony to faith that so many Canaanite nations were subdued and Israel was able to occupy the land sufficiently that the Eastern tribes were able to go back to their side of the Jordon river in the next chapter. The tribes on the east side of the Jordan had already 100% conquered their land and had been helping out their brethren during these seven years. They were not passive. Let me quote from some commentaries on how divine sovereignty and human responsibility must be seen as going hand-in-hand.

A. W. Pink says, "They say that to press the sovereignty of God excludes human responsibility; whereas human responsibility is based upon divine sovereignty, and is the product of it."³ D. A. Carson says, "Any theology that attempts to diminish God’s sovereignty by appealing to human freedom is as profoundly un-Pauline as any theology that somehow diminishes human responsibility and accountability by appealing to some crude, divine fatalism."⁴ God made it abundantly clear that without the Israelite's actions of faith, the land would not be conquered - period. In the same way, the Great Commission will not be fulfilled by us watching God do all the work while we sit on the sidelines. Another commentary said,

Divine sovereignty is not a substitute for human responsibility. God’s sovereign Word is an encouragement to God’s servants to believe God and obey His commands. As Charles Spurgeon put it, Joshua “was not to use the promise as a couch upon which his indolence might luxuriate, but as a girdle wherewith to gird up his loins for future activity”⁵... In short, God’s promises are prods, not pillows.⁶

This is true even when it comes to prayer. John R. W. Stott says,

We learn, therefore, that God’s promises do not render prayer superfluous. On the contrary, it is only his promises which give us the warrant to pray and the confidence that he will hear and answer.⁷

Reformed people have been some of the most activist and faith-filled men and women of the past. So to summarize the previous points of verse 43, make sure your vision is as big as God's vision. Don't make it so small that even your flesh can accomplish it. Keep the God-sized vision. Don't settle for anything less than the full scope of what God has promised in the Great Commission.

Second, have faith in God's promises. Don't doubt them in the least.

Third, if you really believe God's promises, it will result in your attempting great things for God in the industry that you work in, and in the communities that you live in. Christians think that the goal of abolishing abortion is an impossible goal, so they settle for something less than what God's Word calls for - a 15 week ban. That does not demonstrate faith in God's Word. Nor does it demonstrate goals or actions that are consistent with such faith. Joshua is a call to expect great things from God and to attempt great things for God. And I would encourage you to join with the God-sized vision that Jarrod Ridge is seeking to stir up for abolishing abortion. That's a God-sized goal. It's a Biblical goal. It's a goal that requires faith. But it is the kind of goal that God loves to honor.

We need to settle in for the long haul (v. 43d)

The last phrase in verse 43 shows that God expects us to settle in for the long haul. It says "and dwelt in it." These weren't token victories. Yes, there was still a lot more that needed to be done, but Israel actually settled into the borders that God gave them and began to take the actions needed to maintain those borders and devote everything within those borders to His cause. Would it take several generations to bring everything within those borders that they occupied under the Lordship of God? Of course. But they settled in for the long haul and had long-term goals.

We too must stop our shortsighted goals, strategies, and tactics in politics, science, medicine, and other areas that are currently dominated by humanists. We must settle in with long-term goals of making everything we touch thoroughly Biblical. Nothing less is glorifying to God, and therefore nothing less will be blessed by God. Why has God blessed Ethiopia with such advances in recent years? Because they are taking each of these phrases seriously. But there is more:

A faith that God owns everything and therefore can give everything (v. 44a)

The first clause in verse 44 shows that they believed God owned Canaan and therefore had the right to give it. It says, "The LORD gave them..." Canaan didn't belong to Satan; it belonged to God, and only God had the right to give it. We must believe that this is our Father's world, and He can give it to those who have faith.

Do you have a faith that trusts God to give you your county? John Knox is well-known for his intense prayer, "Give me Scotland or I die." He had a faith that God would indeed convert Scotland - a faith that made Mary Queen of Scots tremble. And God did give Scotland to him. The life motto of William Carey was "Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God." It was no wonder that he accomplished so much in his lifetime. He knew that God owned all things and had the ability to give what we asked for. We give Satan way too much credit. This is not Satan's world; this is God's world, and we must claim it for God.

There is a time for rest (v. 44b)

The next phrase in verse 44 shows that God is willing to give us true rest from warfare after we have exercised true faith. It says, "The LORD gave them rest all around..." And this was not just theoretical. We've already seen that in the next chapter, all the soldiers from east of the Jordon were sent home to take dominion of their lands because by this time they had shown sufficient faithful diligence that no enemy was able to resist them anymore. Those that remained in the land were holed up and did not fight. Could they have had more success? Certainly. But God did indeed reward them with a degree of rest because of the degree of faith and diligence that they had.

Well, let’s apply this personally. Some people have fought their sinful habits for so long that they despair of ever gaining the victory. But it is possible to gain victory over anger, addictions, laziness, porn, and other besetting sins. We call this maturity. You can come to a place of maturity and rest. And when Christians don't have rest from those battles it is because they aren't battling the enemy with God's tools and in God's ways. Psychology will never give you the rest that Biblical counseling will. Using the world's tactics in politics will never give you the rest that Biblical strategies will. God will not give the church in America rest until the church in America begins to let God define what still needs to be fought. We must fight against socialism, evolutionism, the woke movement, secular psychology, compromised politics, statism, perversion in the film industry, and everything else that is contrary to His Word. We can't expect rest until the church diligently seizes what God calls us to seize.

God is a promise keeping God (v. 44c)

The next phrase indicates that our God is a promise-keeping God, and we should never doubt His promises. It says, "according to all that He had sworn to their fathers." And what had he sworn to their fathers? Had He sworn that the Canaanites would be dispossessed in one day? No. Exodus 23:30 says, "Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land." Even though it would be gradual, Israel would eventually possess the land. And in this chapter, that possession of the boundaries happened. God kept His promises. And He promised more. He promised that eventually everyone within those boundaries would serve Him and follow His laws.

Well, God promises us the same thing. Let me read some of the promises that we can bank our faith upon.

Rom. 16:20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Matt. 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

1Cor. 15:25-28 says,

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Colossians 1:18-20 says,

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Romans 11:25-26 says,

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

Is. 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

Dan. 2:35 “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Dan. 2:44 “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Dan. 7:27 Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’

Zech. 13:2 “ ¶ It shall be in that day,” says the LORD of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.

Zechariah 14:16-21 says, And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts … 20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts... In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

Jer. 31:34 “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Those are tremendous promises! Yet how many Christians really believe them? God will not honor a church that refuses to believe that His promises of total victory are possible in history. Matthew Henry said, "God never promises more than he is able to perform." And this is why we believe the Christianization of the entire world is possible. God has promised it. And if that makes no sense to you, then you have got to study Postmillennial eschatology. But you also need to study God’s remedies for your personal issues. Maybe you have other issues in your life that seem just as impossible. Well, claim God's promises. Corrie ten Boom said, "Let God's promises shine on your problems."

A conquering God who is sufficient for our inadequacies (v. 44d)

The last part of verse 44 shows that our conquering-God is sufficient for our inadequacies. It says, "And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand." If they had fought without the Lord, the Canaanites would have likely given them more trouble. But because God delivered them into Israel's hands, the Canaanites were not able to stand against them.

And God continues to be sufficient for all of our inadequacies. I love the way Paul worded it in 2 Corinthians. He said,

2Cor. 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

2Cor. 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

We may feel weak and inadequate to accomplish the huge task that God has given to the church, but as Jesus told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). We must begin to believe that our God is sufficient to turn America into a Christian nation.

A faithful God (v. 45a)

But this paragraph just piles encouragement upon encouragement. The first phrase in verse 45 says, "Not a word failed..." Though we may be unfaithful, God is not. He sticks to His word. Jerry Bridges said, "The promises of God are nothing more than God's covenant to be faithful to his people. It is his character that makes these promises valid." It's His faithful character that is the foundation for our faith and the foundation for our victories. A. W. Tozer said,

Why do I insist that all Christians should know for themselves the kind of God they love and serve? It is because all the promises of God rest completely upon His character.

Why do I insist that all Christians should search the Scriptures and learn as much as they can about this God who is dealing with them? It is because their faith will only spring up naturally and joyfully as they find that our God is trustworthy and fully able to perform every promise He has made.⁸

Christians look at the impossibilities that God calls them to and they are tempted to doubt. Why? Because their focus is on themselves and their inadequacies. But Scripture calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. He is faithful. He is dependable. And the more we see that, the more our doubts disappear. This whole paragraph is a remedy for discouragement and paralysis.

A God who looks to our good (v. 45b)

The next phrase indicates that our God is a God who looks out for our good. "Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel." Centuries later, King Solomon said something similar. He said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses." (1 Kings 8:56). When God gave commands and promises, they were all for the good of His people. God’s laws are for our good. When you are in the midst of brutal battles, it may not seem like a good thing, but God does indeed work all things together for our good - even the painful things. We can make the sacrifices of serving Him cheerfully, knowing that we can never outgive God. God is looking out for our good, and that frees us up to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. May we do so.

A God who fulfills His promises (v. 45c)

The final encouragement in this paragraph are the four words, "All came to pass." Our God is a God who fulfills His promises. Let's just apply this to your own personal battles. Alan Redpath once said,

“In the light of the Cross, is it not true that the enemy has no right to dwell in the land? Is it not true that Satan’s claim to your life was taken from him at Calvary? Is it not true that sin has no right to a foothold in the life of the child of God? Is it not true that Satan has no power in the presence of Omnipotence? Is it not true that by virtue of His blood and His resurrection, Jesus Christ is pledged to destroy the enemy utterly? Is it not true that in the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit there is strength for every temptation, grace for every trial, power to overcome every difficulty?”

When we put our faith in God's promises, we will see victory after victory. And what this final paragraph does is it shows us that the God who is for us is so great that we can without any reservation commit ourselves entirely to Him. In a moment we will be singing the hymn "All for Jesus," and making it our own personal testimony. But let me read the words to you first and see if this can be the response of your heart to all God has said to you in this sermon. The hymn says,

1 All for Jesus, all for Jesus! All my being’s ransomed pow’rs: All my thoughts and words and doings, All my days and all my hours.

2 Let my hands perform His bidding, Let my feet run in His ways; Let my eyes see Jesus only, Let my lips speak forth His praise.

3 Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit’s vision, Looking at the Crucified.

4 O what wonder! how amazing! Jesus, glorious King of kings, Deigns to call me His beloved, Lets me rest beneath His wings.⁹

May that be your testimony. Amen.