THROUGH THE BIBLE - Joshua 1..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We are going to be addressing Joshua chapter 12, and I want to speak to you about the typological pattern, the typological pattern of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has a pattern and that is a typological pattern.

I'm going to be speaking about all of those things. And here what we have in Joshua chapter 12 is basically a summary. My dear brother, my dear sister, a summary of all the kings that Joshua and Moses have defeated, that the Lord has defeated through Moses and through Joshua, through Moses on the east side of the Jordan and with Joshua on the west side of the Jordan. The Lord is the one who has defeated all of these kings and we're going to hear the word king many times in chapter 12. And this is going to speak about something very important.

First of all, the unity of the land. It does not matter who was the intermediary between God and Israel, either Moses or Joshua. The land on the east and on the west is united and is the Lord the one who has given this land to the people of Israel. But more importantly than that, what we are going to see here, my dear brother and sister, is the establishment of the kingdom of God. the establishment of the kingdom of God.

And how is that kingdom going to be established in what we're going to be reading here in 24 verses? Through or by defeating the kings of the land and taking possession of their land. defeating all of the kings of the West and of the East, and by taking possession of the land. All of these kings are going to be taken and removed, and the land is going to be taken for possession for the people of Israel. And the question that comes is, if there's no kings anymore, or if there are no kings anymore in the land, who is the new king?

And that new king is the king of the people of Israel. Who are now the people of the land? That are the people of God. Here we see the physical establishment of the kingdom of God. You remember in 1st Samuel chapter 8, when the people of Israel asked for a king, the Lord says, Give them what they want because they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting me.

I am their king. Remember? This is the establishment of the kingdom of the Lord. So let us read together these 24 verses and then speak about the typological pattern of the kingdom of the Lord established here by defeating the reigning ruling kings, and by taking possession of the land. This is Joshua chapter 12, verse 1.

It says, Now these are the kings of the land whom the people of Israel defeated and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon with all the Arab Eastward. Sihon, king of the Amorites, he lived at Heshbon and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon. And from the middle of the valley, as far as from the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Amorites, that is, half of Gilead, and the Arabah, to the sea of Hinerath, eastward, and in the direction of Beth Jeshimoth, to the sea of the Arabah, the salt sea, southward, to the foot of the slopes of Pisgah. and Og, king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at the Ashtaroth and at Edrei, and ruled over Mount Hermon and Seleka, and all Bashan, to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maccathites, and over half of Gilead to the boundary of Sihon, king of Heshbon. Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the people of Israel defeated them.

And Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave their land for a possession to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the people of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gat, In the valley of Lebanon, to Mount Halak, the rises towards Seir, and Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their allotments. In the hill country, in the lowland, in the Adaba, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negev, the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The king of Jericho, one, the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one. The king of Jerusalem, one.

The king of Hebron, one. The king of Jarmuth, one. The king of Lachish, one. The king of Eglon, one. The king of Gezer, one.

The king of Debir, one. The king of Geder, one. The king of Horma, one. The king of Arad, one. The king of Libna, one.

The king of Adulam, one. The king of Makeda, one. The king of Bethel, one. The king of Tapua, one. The king of Hether, one.

The king of Aphek, one. The king of Lassaron, one. The king of Madan, one. The king of Hazor, one. The king of Shemron-Meron, one.

The king of Aqsaf, one. The king of Tanak, one. The king of Megiddo, one. The king of Kadesh, one. The king of Jokneam in Carmel, one.

The king of Dor in Nafad Dor, one. The king of Goim in Galilee, one. The king of Tirzah, one. In all 31 kings, amen, this is the word of the Lord, all of these kings defeated on the west and on the east side through Moses and through Joshua, all of these kings defeated and their land has been taken possession by the Lord through Moses and given to the people of Israel and through this The Lord has now established His kingdom. He has been the king of Israel, but now this kingdom has a land, and this land has a people, and this people has a king, and that is the Lord God of Israel.

And as I said to you, what we see here in Joshua chapter 12 is the typological pattern of the kingdom of God. And my dear brother, my dear sister, when I say typological, I don't want to use a complicated word just to sound smart from the pulpit. Type or typological is a biblical word. And basically what it means is that there are certain things in the Old Testament that are a shadow of the things that are going to come in the New Testament. that there are certain things that speak of those things prophetically that are going to come in the New Testament.

A type is the word that the Apostle Paul uses in Romans chapter 5 verse 14, when he says that Adam in the Old Testament is a type of Christ who is to come. Now, types are very important, my dear brother and sister, because through types we see the unity of the Scriptures and through types we see the fulfillment of the promises of the Lord. With the fulfillment of a type, we see something that is People call it the antitype of the fulfillment that speaks to your heart of a greater reality that was prophesied in the Old Testament. For instance, you take Colossians 2, verse 16, in which the apostle is given an admonition to the people at Colossae and he says, Do not let anyone pass judgment on food or drink or the festivals or new moons of Sabbaths, all of those things are Old Testament things, right? And he says, because those are shadows of the things to come and Jesus Christ is the substance.

That is that there are things in the Old Testament that are foreshadowing things that are going to be fulfilled in the New Testament, and that is what a type is. But the important thing about types is, my dear brother and sister, that their fulfillment is always greater. more majestic, more glorious. Adam, and then you have Christ. You have festivals, and the Sabbath, and you have new moons, and you have foods, and drinks, and the Levitical coat, and then you have the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now here I'm telling you, my dear brother and sister, that we have a typological pattern of the kingdom of God. That is, that when we see Joshua chapter 12 on the book of Joshua and the establishment of the kingdom of the Lord in the land, this is a time that speaks of the fulfillment of the kingdom of God as He's given to us in the New Covenant. And that is glorious, my dear brother and sister. Now, there are two things that I mentioned to you that we see here in Joshua chapter 12 that are going to help us to see the fulfillment of the kingdom of the Lord. That is that the kingdom of the Lord is established first by or through defeating the ruling or reigning king.

That's what we read, right? All of these kings have been defeated. And once the king, the reigning king, the ruling king is defeated, then the kingdom is given as an inheritance to the people of the Lord. That happened with the people of Israel. And my dear brethren, in the fulfillment of this type, it happens for the people of God.

Now the question is, Who is this reigning, ruling king under the reality of the new covenant that God defeats? Brethren, who is this ruling, reigning king that God defeats so that the kingdom will be given to the people of God? So we will think that Ephesians chapter 2 says that he is the prince of the power of the earth and that he is the king in a sense. But my dear brother, I'm going to show you that there is a deeper enemy that is reigning, currently reigning, and because of him or it, better, Satan is the prince of the power of the earth. Romans chapter 5 verse 12, it says that it was through the sin of Adam or the disobedience of Adam that sin entered into the world and through sin, death.

Death is spread to all people because all people sin. This is very important, my dear brother and sister, because Satan did not take kinship of the world just because he came and took it from God, but rather it was the disobedience of Adam that made sin enter into the world and death spread to all people and Satan became the prince of the power of the earth. And it's actually death. the one that reigns in the present world. If you come very quickly with me to Romans chapter 5, I will show you from there how the king, the ruler, the reigning king of this world is defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Romans chapter 5, if you come there very quickly, please, with me to Romans chapter 5, where you can see that verse, the sin entering into the world and then death and death spread to all people and all people sin. Death is that which is reigning. And because death is reigning, then Satan is the prince of the power of the earth. And that is to be seen, because the wages of sin is death. Now Romans chapter 5 verse 17 is the only one that we're going to be paying attention to.

You can read to the whole chapter if you want, in your own time. But it says in verse 17, for if... You know this context, right? Adam and Christ being compared there. Verse 17, for if because of one man's trespass, Death reigned through that one man.

Death reigned in the reigning or ruling as a king. Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Now, my dear brethren, what is the enemy that is defeated, the king that is defeated by Jesus Christ? It is death. It is sin and death is the wages of that sin.

Satan is the prince of the power of the air because sin has entered into the world and that has spread to all people. I want you to pay attention to how the apostle speaks of the king, or those who reign, that replace death as a king. Pay attention, because he does not say that it is God the one that is now reigning, but he says something very interesting there in verse 17. It says, "...death reigned through the one man, that is, Adam."

Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and a free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one main Jesus Christ. That is that the kingdom of the Lord now in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Joshua, who is a commander, the one who comes and takes possession of the land. Now, those who are in him are not only subjects to the king, but they are, I have made in kings. and priests, and to the Lord, it says Revelation chapter 1. Kings in the king, sons in the sons.

We are heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the one that is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's the commander of this kingdom. And then the Apostle will say in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if you will come with me and we will finish there, of the establishment of this kingdom. Well, will this kingdom then be given to the people of God? Well, will this kingdom be given then those who by grace through faith have been united to Christ?

Well, that kingdom has been already given to them, but there is going to be a point in which there will be the consummation of the kingdom. Why? Because the ruler of this world that is death and Satan, It's already present in us, we are going to die and death is still present in this world. But there's going to be a point in time in which the consummation of the kingdom of God will come, that death will be no more. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, speaking of Adam and Christ.

In verse 22, we're just going to read the verses that are related to what I'm trying to say to you here. Verse 22, it says, "...for us in Adam, Taking the argument of Romans chapter 5, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order. Christ, the first fruit, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Then comes the end. when He, that is Christ, delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign as He is, for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Then it continues there in verse 50, I tell you this, brothers, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound at the dead, and the dead will be raised imperishable. And we shall be changed, for this perishable body must be put on imperishable, and this mortal body must be put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, then the mortal puts on immortality.

Then shall come to pass this saying that is written, O death, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The consummation of the kingdom of God. That is it.

pattern of the establishment of the kingdom of the Lord by defeating the king, the current reigning ruling king, and by giving the kingdom as an inheritance to those who are the people of the Lord. And in Christ, my dear brother and sister, we are recipients of the kingdom of the Lord by grace through faith and in Him we become heirs. and rulers, and we become sons, and we're united to Him to spend eternity with our Lord. And that is only accomplished through the power of the gospel.