Our gospel lesson text this morning, comes from Joshua chapter 14 and 15. Invite you to turn there. It's on page 161 if you're using the Bible that are in your seats. I'll give you a moment to find that. I'll start with Joshua chapter 14, verse 5, and we'll read through 15-2, and we'll jump a couple other places in on formula when we do that. Joshua chapter 14, beginning in verse 5, this is God's word, eternal way true. So the Israelites divided the land just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, son of Jifuna, the Kennesite, said to him, you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land, and I brought him back a report according to my convictions. But my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance, and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord, my God, wholeheartedly. Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, 85 years old. I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now, give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Antichites were there, and their cities were large and fortified, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said. Then Joshua blessed Caleb's son of Jafuna and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron had belonged to Caleb's son of Jafuna the Kennesite ever since, because he followed the Lord the God of Israel wholeheartedly. Hebron used to be called Curiath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Antichites. Then the land had rest from war, 1st 1 of chapter 15. The allotment for the tribe of Judah, cland by cland, extended down to the territory of Edom to the desert of Zinn in the extreme south. Their southern boundary started from the bay at the southern end of the Salt Sea. Now, skip down to verse 5. The eastern boundary is the Salt Sea's far as the mouth of the Jordan. The northern boundary started from the bay at the sea at the mouth of the Jordan. Now, skip down to verse 12. The western boundary is the coastline of the great sea. These are the boundaries around the people of Judah by their clands. In accordance with the Lord's command to him, Joshua gave to Caleb son of Jafuna a portion in Judah. Curiath Arba, that is Hebron, Arba was the forefather of Antich. From Hebron, Caleb drove out the three Antichites. Shishai, Ahamon, and Talmy, descendants of Antich. From there he marched against the people living in Debeer, formerly called Curiath Sefer. Here ends our reading. The Word of the Lord. Thanks indeed, let's pray. Our God and Father, we are grateful that You have given us this Your Word. And we ask that by Your Spirit, You would grant to us understanding of it. We pray that You would Jesus preach to us by this Your Word, that Your Spirit would be working greatly, that Your Word would be living and active among us, piercing our hearts, renewing our minds, and bringing about in us repentance in areas where we have been wrong or disobedient. We pray, Lord, that You would enable us to see You in Your gospel more clearly, that we might live our lives according to it, that You might be glorified by the words we speak, the deeds we do, the thoughts we have, and the attitude in us towards You and others. We pray Jesus in Your name. Amen. It's Christmas times around the corner. I was kind of getting nauseated Wednesday and Thursday, not because of food, but because of all the advertising I was seeing on TV as I watched my football games, and being told over and over again, the guys are laughing, the women are not laughing. I felt like I was being told what I should do. You know, and you know how that feels when someone's telling you what you should do, and I was being told of all these things I needed, that I didn't know I needed, and if I were responsible, I'd need to get up at 3 a.m. and be at Macy's, or at 10 o'clock at Walmart and stick around till 12 for the electronics, right? All these things that I need, but not really. You remember when you were a kid, and kids, this is your experience now, perhaps, you just find something that you really, really want, and what do you tell your parents? Oh, but I really need this. We really need it. Well, God's people actually had something they really needed, but they didn't take hold of it for a long time, really until David comes along. And we see this coming out in this passage with its account of Caleb, who was a Judah height, he was of the tribe of Judah, the leader selected of the tribe of Judah when the 12 spies were sent out by Moses into the promised land to give a report. Caleb was that one that Judah height, who went out, and he and Joshua come back and report to the people that the produce is awesome, and the land is fantastic. And the cities and all that we see is wonderful. Let's take this land that God has promised to us. But the problem was, is that the 10 other spies, besides Joshua and Caleb, come back in the 10 others, say to the people, oh, yeah, the produce is big, but the people are huge. The antichites are larger than us. Their weapons are more advanced, and their fortified cities from which they will be fighting us, have walls that go up to the heavens. Surely God has brought us out of Egypt to extinguish us in Canaan. And the people followed the advice of the 10 spies. And so God sentences them to 40 years of wandering in the desert. And you see it here in Deuteronomy in chapter 1 that Larry read for us, that this sentence of wandering in the desert for 40 years was until all the adults, 20 and over, who had agreed with the 10 spies, had died. When they had all died out, those who were under 20, inherit the land by grace. They hadn't done anything to get it. They were just promise receivers, and that's the gospel. We can see that, that we inherit the eternal life by the promise, not by our own works, or great smarts. We inherit it by virtue of the fact that we were too young to be held accountable for that decision not to go in and take the promised land in the first place. But there's something that God's people need, and something they suffer without through their history. They need a good king. Now, you've been told, no doubt, if you've been in a believing church in the United States, that a king was not God's will for his people in Old Testament times. And I tell you profoundly and completely that that is absolutely wrong. We see in Genesis 49 that it was God's will that the tribe of Judah be that king, provide that king for his people. The scepter will not depart from Judah. Jacob says when he blesses his son Judah at the end of his life. We also see in Deuteronomy 17, before the people went into the promised land, that God in his law, through Moses, told them about what their king was supposed to be like. And that was Deuteronomy 17. God prescribes for them a king. A king who would be one of them, but specifically of the tribe of Judah, which David is. Eventually, they get this king from the tribe of Judah, and there's great blessing for the people. But when the people don't have that king, when they live in the period of judges, and the book of judges, right over and over again, remember the recurring phrase if you're familiar with the book of judges. And in those days, there was no king in Israel. And that phrase is always repeated after the people are in great oppression to some foreign power. And that's God telling his people the reason that you find yourself oppressed year after year. And even when you release yourself of this oppression, you get oppressed again. And we see these seven cycles in the book of Judah. The reason you're being oppressed is because there is no king in Israel. I told you to have a king, Deuteronomy 17. I prescribed a king through the tribe of Judah, through the words of Jacob, your father whom I renamed Israel. And you're oppressed because you have no one to lead you. No king. And so that's what we have here. When you see these lists of God's people, Judah always comes first. And that's why we kind of plopped around in the boundary things. In this distribution of the land, Judah comes first and they get a whole chapter. Plus they get a bonus in chapter 14 before that because Caleb is a Judah height. And then you look at the rest of the inheritance, all it gets squeezed into like three chapters. But Judah gets its own. Judah comes first. Judah is prominent. Now we make a big deal about this at the time of Christmas because Jesus is a son of David. Jesus is a Judah height. God's people need a king. Now this is not perhaps the gift that we as Americans think we need. We think we need other things. And we think of a king. We as a country said, no, thank you. England, we don't need a king. We are king rejectors. But God says you and I need a king. And that's what we look at this morning. So first of all, if you'd like to fill up lengths in an outline, you're free to do that. Welcome to do that. We can just listen here. But as we head down, what God is teaching us from this passage this morning, we look at Roman number one. And we simply say, this is about a king, a king. Chapter 15 gives the inheritance to Judah first. First order of business, we take care, put in front our king. It's told to us that we need it. Need a king in Genesis 49, which Larry read, Deuteronomy 17, which Larry read, Revelation 5.5, which is on the left side of your bulletin there. The leader part there, you see, the first all at the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. This is Jesus. He arrives in heaven upon his ascension after being crucified and being with his disciples 40 days. He rises to heaven. He arrives there and this is what they say of him. The root of David is Judah height. He is triumphed. He is able to take the scroll and it's seven seals. And then the next part there, he came, this is first one, he came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And he is there and having the next section purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. So that's what we're talking about with Caleb and with the prominence and first and extensive mentioning of Judah here as the land is distributed. This is the message for us. So what does that mean for us today in the 21st century? People who are Christians and not sitting in Canaan, waiting for land distribution. What it means for us is this, unlike the Israelites whom it took 400 years of being oppressed through the book of Judges to get a king. God says to you, get your king now. And to fill out your blank there, look to look to Jesus to lead you, look to Jesus to lead you in the specifics of your life. The way you act, the way you speak, the way your attitude is, is not to be decided by you. You have a king and unless you want to live in the oppression of your own sin, look to Jesus, your king to free you from that oppression, to live in blessing instead of the oppression that your sinfulness and your attitudes and your actions and your beliefs in your words would lead to. So look to Jesus to lead you in the specifics of your life. Here's what we mean, be. The king, Jesus, has commandments to direct authoritatively your life. So you as a Christian, God is saying to you, you have a king. And again, we'll rejoice over this, alter Christmas but listen to it when you hear it. All this talk of a king, a new king born today, a king is an authoritative person. And God knows that we all have this sin nature in us and that we need a king so that we live our lives in such a way that he is free to bless us as he wants to bless us. So the king is commandments to authoritatively direct your life. And so we have through the book of Joshua references to obeying the law of Moses. It's abundance throughout the book. And commandments in the 10 commandments are abundant or in the New Testament are abundant as well. The New Testament is full of all these commands that Jesus gives to us and that his disciples give to us. And these commandments are there not to save you. We all know that we're saved through our faith in Jesus. But these are commandments given to you that you might live a life that's blessed. That you might live according to your frame. That you might live in the way you were created to live in your body, your soul, your mind, and your heart. And when you live according to the way that God created you to live, there's joy even if you're being persecuted for your faith. Paul and Silas are singing in jail because they know they're living according to the way God has directed them to live. You know they're in jail because they've been faithful to God's commands to them. And that's great joy. And so a king, if you think about a country, a king has law. And he rules his citizens by his law. Now this law could be a terrible, oppressive thing and evil, but it's not that with Jesus. Jesus has law that perfectly fits our frame. It perfectly fits how we're created. And as we live by this law as citizens of this kingdom, as citizens of heaven, we're blessed, living among each other, living in the world. And so see we say as king, as king, his say is authoritative. He says understand that you need a king, understand that your king has a law, and understand it's not an option for you if you want to avoid oppression, avoid the negative consequences of your sin, and in contrast, live in blessing. Now when we talk about looking to Jesus to lead you in the specifics of your life, we're not saying this. We're not saying that in the Bible you will find things that say go to Walmart at 2 a.m., that's when the line will be the shortest. We're not talking about specifics in that way. God doesn't have things that are that specific in Scripture. Here's what God has in Scripture that will lead you in the specifics of your life. He has his moral law, his principles that reveal his character. And as we come to know Scripture more and more, we come to understand his character more and more. And so in whatever specific situation we're in, we can say what principles do I know from Scripture apply to this the best. God gives a specific direction and he summarizes that Jesus does, as does the law of Moses itself, insane all the law and the prophets can be summarized in these two things. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is our authoritative king speaking to us and he says to us, if the action you're thinking about doing is not loving your neighbor. Treating your neighbor the way you would want to be treated, stop it. But if it is, if you're treating your neighbor like you would like to be treated, walk forward. And experience is blessing. We're always asking the question in whatever specific situation we're in, what does my king say to me and what my king says to me is love him and love my neighbor. Therefore how can I apply those two things the best in my situation, in my specific situation here? And so even with the Walmart at 2 a.m. question, if I have to work at 6 a.m. the next morning probably God is saying no. Get a good night's sleep so that you can serve your neighbor and your co-workers and your customers well the next day, Friday, as you're working at 6 a.m. Trust me, I'll work out some deal for you or maybe I won't but you'll work it'll work out okay. But we're always asking that question, how will this affect my loving my neighbor and my loving God? Is this thing that I might do a violation of God's commandments or not? Is it a following of His commandments? So as King his say is authoritative, number two, number two, why the Christian, why you should look to Jesus more than for your life and for specifics in your life more than just looking at him as an object of your worship when you come here on Sunday morning. Why Jesus is more to you than just the name that gets mentioned the most on a Sunday morning. Why you're looking to Jesus every hour of every day through your week. Number two, because it's God's design, it's God's design for Jesus to be their king. I've kind of said this already, but we want to we want to underline this. This is the why it's God's design. God has designed you to have a king. God has designed you to be led by this son of David, this Judah who will do to our army 17, know the law. You know how the king was required to make his own copy of the law and to read it all the days of his life so that he wouldn't turn to the right or to the left so he could lead his people and teach his people in righteousness. This is what Jesus does for us. He's designed God has designed us to follow Jesus as our king giving us his law through the scriptures. Now number three, we also do this because we need Jesus example. We need Jesus example of living in a way that is devoted and committed to the agenda of God that is an example of being bold, courageous and faithful. We see this in chapter 14, if you look back there in your Bible, chapter 14 verses 7 through 9. I think of Clint Eastwood when I read this passage here. Caleb says, I was 40 years old when this happened and it's been 45 years since I'm still going to take him. It doesn't matter, Grant Serrino, I don't want Jesse Wells, I'm still bad, I'm going to clean house. I'm still scared Clint Eastwood, I would not want to see him on the street in any one of his personas Western or dirty Harry or Grant Serrino. I don't want to mess with him and that's Caleb. Caleb is this example for us of being courageous, of being bold, of being faithful, of believing God's promises and going forward based on that. We see this as well with chapter 15, 13 through 15. You know what the anachites were? They were the big guys, they were the giants and they were the ones that made the other 10 spies say, let's not go into the land. And Caleb says specifically, remember, you promised this land to me, God promised it to me through Moses and Joshua, you heard that promise. Now give it to me, I'm going to take these guys. And we have the report here and his descendants live in that area to this day. He did take those guys. He's our example of a Judahite who's bold, who's courageous, who's faithful, who's unafraid because he believes the promises of God and indeed this is what Jesus is for us. Jesus is that Judahite, this one from the tribe of Judah who is not afraid, who depends on the promises of God. God promised in Psalm 2 to give Jesus a people from every tribe, tongue and nation. And Jesus believes his father. And even though he doesn't want to go to the cross, he goes. And we read in Colossians 2, 13 through 15. Look there in your bolts and on the left hand side, the declaration of the gospel. This is good news. Look at the second half of this. Here's what Jesus says. He disarms the powers and authorities and he makes a public spectacle. He embarrasses them in the heavenly realms. He embarrasses them in the universe. He takes them down. He just ends death for his people. Triumphant over them by the cross. Jesus is our greater Caleb. He doesn't care how scary Satan is. He doesn't care how scary death is. He says, bring me to it. I will conquer. This is why we need Jesus. We don't have the power. We don't have the boldness. We don't have the ability to overcome death. We don't have the ability to pass through judgment because we're sinful. But Jesus, like Caleb, is faithful. And he walks through in faithfulness all the way to the cross, knowing that as it goes to Jerusalem, as he told his disciples over and over, he would be betrayed. He would be mocked. He would be spit upon. He would be rejected by the people who should receive him and that he would be put on a Roman cross in his underwear to be displayed in embarrassment. Jesus is faithful even so. So he's our great example. Just as Caleb gets the promised land, when all his contemporaries, Bar Joshua, are left to perish in the wilderness, Jesus earns for us the promised land of heaven and the new heavens and the new earth. So promised land blessings are experienced by Caleb's family. Read here in this passage. And the good news is this. As a Christian, we are Jesus family. Through faith in him, we've become children of God. Hebrews called Jesus our brother. And we are blessed just as Caleb's relatives all are all blessed because he was faithful because he was bold because he was courageous. We are blessed because Jesus was bold because he was faithful because he was courageous. Through Jesus, we experience God's blessing. So there's an A and a B here. You're four point there to fill in there following the example of King Jesus brings you experience brings you to experience God's intended blessing for you. So just as Caleb's family experienced it by virtue of his faith, we experience it by virtue of Jesus and his work and faithfulness to God. Two ways we experience blessing because Jesus is our King. One, all the things we typically think of with the gospel. We get just like Caleb's descendants to get get an inheritance in the promised land and inheritance in the promised land. We read of that in scripture that our salvation is a receiving of an inheritance. And this inheritance for us is today in our lives. We've been over this as we've gone through Joshua. Today in our lives are inheritance is the church. We inherit this promised land, this place where we can be where we can say, I believe in Jesus and nobody makes fun of us. This is the promised land today. When we die, that promised land is heaven. Our body stays here but our soul goes to be at home with the Lord. That's our promised land. Jesus has won for us. He's overcome death. But then when Jesus comes back, that promised land is the new heavens and the new earth. So the promised land for us that Jesus earns for us is church heaven when we die and when Jesus comes back, the new heavens and the new earth. But there's another way we experience God's blessings and it's this. We experience daily blessings that are the consequences of following His commandments. We've been over this a number of times as we've looked through Joshua again to repeat. This is not following God's commandments in order to be saved. Now we're saved through our faith in Jesus. We're saved through believing the promise. We get the inheritance of eternal life through believing the promise of eternal life given to us in Jesus. But what we speak up here when we speak of following God's commandments is this, God knows our frame and He knows that when we live out of accord with His commandments that it messes us up. And so it's a blessing to follow our King Jesus to follow His law because this is how we were created to live. And as we live according to His will, which is printed for us in the words of Scripture, we are blessed. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we are grateful that you love us and that you have not left us to perish in the wilderness. But that you have given us a great conqueror like Caleb who takes the most fearful things that we can think of Satan and death and attack them head on and one and made a public spectacle of them. We follow Him. Thank you for granting to us an inheritance through Him being the author and perfector of our faith, our captain, our tribal head, so to speak. And thank you that as we follow Him, our King Jesus in His commands that you enable us to experience all the blessing that you want to bless us with, cause us to be wise to follow Father your Son in all things that we might experience the blessing you intend for us. We pray Jesus in your name. Amen.