Joshua Part 13 - Wholehearted For the Lord

Mark Smithers continues this series on the book of Joshua, in chapter 14v1-15.

This sermon was preached on Sunday 14th December 2025.

Transcript

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But as we come to uh God's word, let me uh pray for our time. Uh thank you, uh Lord God, that you speak to us through your word. Uh help me not to fall short or to go beyond your word. And we ask, Holy Spirit, please use my words for your purposes today. Uh Lord Jesus, would we hear you today as the word is read and preached, and all for your glory. Amen. Well, as we begin this morning, let me ask you a question. Um What is the greatest commendation a man or woman may receive in their lifetime? I wonder what the world would say. It would probably say something like, uh, this man, this woman, well, they loved their family. Or maybe they'd say they gave much to their community. Maybe they served their country, they won a war medal. Maybe they contributed to the arts or to culture. Maybe they were dedicated to caring for others. Well, today in God's Word, we're going to read of the greatest commendation that any man or woman can actually receive in their lifetime. And that commendation is this: that so-and-so, they wholly followed the Lord their God. They wholly followed the Lord their God. God's word is going to teach us today that a true servant of God, after their conversion, they become a man, a woman, a boy or girl of faith. And that faith will enable them to wholly follow God throughout their life. Through looking closely at the life of one believer, we're going to discover what a faith-fueled life looks like. Now, arguably, faith is a word that we as Christians we use a lot. Perhaps it's a bit misunderstood. Maybe we over-spiritualise that word, or maybe we judge people by their faith. I wonder if you've ever thought I could never have the faith of someone like Abraham or John Piper or even Andrew Gray. Well, my prayer today is that as we look closely at a true man of faith, it would be helpful for all of us to see and encourage us in our faith as we walk with the Lord Jesus. If you're regular to Emmanuel, you know that we've been uh preaching through the book of Joshua. But if you are a visitor, just allow me one minute to give you a recap. We've learned that although this book is called Joshua, the hero of the book is the God of Israel, the God who is with his people, the God who is leading his people. God has rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, and they've been wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. But now they are in the promised land, they are in the land of Canaan, and God has been working through his faithful, obedient servant Joshua. And on every page in every true story in the book, we've seen the power and the might of God working in humanly impossible situations. We've seen mighty rivers stopped flowing, we've seen the sun standing still in the sky. We've seen huge, powerful armies destroyed and city walls falling down. And the repeated message, the heartbeat of the book, is that God is a faithful promise keeper. What God says, He does. And we've also learned that Joshua is a type of Christ. He's a foreshadow of the true and eternal leader and king of God's people, Jesus Christ. And we've also been reflecting that Canaan, the promised land, is also a representation of the true eternal promised land, land that Jesus called heaven, where all God's people are heading. And just like Joshua in the physical promised land, the Lord Jesus has gone on ahead, and he is leading his people safely home to heaven. So, in summary, so far, we've seen the fulfillment of that great promise to Joshua. Do you remember back in Joshua chapter 1, he said this to Joshua Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon have I given to you. And last week we read, didn't we, of the allotment of the promised land, as the different tribes and families of Israel they received their inheritance. So now we've come to chapter 14. So please turn with me to Joshua chapter 14, and that's on page 189 of the Church Bibles. Children, listen up as I read God's word. Joshua chapter 14, page 189. These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Eliazah, the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers, houses of the tribes of the people of Israel, gave them to inherit. Their inheritance was by lot, just as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine and a half tribes. For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and a half tribes beyond the Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them, for the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and their substance. The people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses, they allotted the land. Then the people of Judah came to Joshua it Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jephani, the Keneshite, said to him, You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh Barniah, concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barniah to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt. Yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children for ever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty five years, since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength now is as my strength was then for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said. Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephani, for an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephani, the Kenazite, to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord the God of Israel. Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath Arba. Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim, and the land had rest from war. Well, we thank God for his word today. There's an outline of the sermon in your orders of service to help you, and I'm not sure. It is behind me. So in our text that I've just read, we can see in verses one and two that the tribes of Israel had been given their land as their inheritance from God. We're not going to spend too much time on that little section. Apart from verse five, look down with me at verse five. We read this really encouraging phrase that we've heard so much in the book of Joshua. Did you note? The people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses. And if you know your Old Testament well, you'll know that sadly, for much of the time, this wasn't the case. So much of the Bible is concerned with this question. And God cares about obedience, doesn't he? And although God wants us to obey him in the big questions, the big decisions of life, he's also interested in the smaller details like here, in the very practical and the detailed allotting of the land. So the main bit I want to focus on in verses 5 to 10. And we're introduced to the main character. We're introduced to Caleb and he approaches Joshua. Now we haven't heard too much about this man, Caleb, in the book so far, but he tells us a little bit about himself in verse 7. It says that 45 years before our reading here, Caleb was one of God's people who was rescued from slavery in Egypt. He'd been with the people led by God under his servant Moses. Caleb had crossed through the Red Sea on dry land, and he stood at Kadesh Barnea on the edge of the promised land. He stood and saw Canaan, the land that we've read so much about, the land where God's people are finally now in our passage. And Caleb tells us that he was selected by Moses as one of the spies, whose job was to spy out the land. And in verse eight we learn that the majority of the spies who Caleb refers to as his brothers, they made the people fearful to the point where their hearts were melting. But Caleb was different. He was different to the others. At the end of verse 8, he says, Yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And that phrase is really important. And we read of it three times in this passage in verse 8, verse 9, and verse 14. And as I said at my introduction, we're going to try and unpack that phrase. And we're going to think about what it looks like to wholly follow God. And I think it'll be helpful actually if we turn back in our Bibles to Numbers chapter 13. And we're going to have a look at this whole incident that Caleb talks about. So turn with me back to Numbers 13. That's on page 121 of the Church Bibles. So flick back a few pages to Numbers 13, and I'm just going to read the beginning of that chapter, verses 1 to 3 of Numbers 13. The Lord said to Moses, saying, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. And then skip down to verse six. From the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephani, and down at verse eight we see Hoshia, the son of Nun, is also selected, and his name was changed to Joshua. So please come down with me to verses 17 to 20. I'm going to read a few verses there. Verse 17. Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and he said to them, Go up into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps of strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not, be of good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was a season of the first ripe grapes. And as we read on, after forty days the spies return, and the majority, it's important to note that not all of them, they give their report to God's people. In verses twenty-seven to verses thirty-three. And this is the key bit here, verses thirty-two and thirty-three. Look with me at that text. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak who come from the Nephilim, and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so he seemed to them. And as we read it earlier in chapter 14, that after hearing the report, God's people they begin to panic and they begin to grumble. The report that the spies give it makes them fearful. And Joshua says in verse 8 of sorry, Caleb says in Joshua 14 that the people's reaction was that their hearts were melting. But how does Caleb react? Well, Caleb argues and he stands up to the people. Look down with me at verse 30. Firstly, Caleb quiets the people, and he says to them, Let us go up and occupy the land. We can overcome the people. And if you move on a little bit to Numbers 14, verse 7, we see that Caleb and Joshua are pleading with the people. They say to them, Joshua 14, 7, The land is good. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into the land. And verse 9, do not fear the people, for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them. And then in verse 9, we get the key statement, the key point that Caleb argues. He says, The Lord is with us, do not fear them. So Caleb teaches us here that often when following God, we have to stand firm in the face of opposition. And that's my first point today. Faith stands firm in the face of challenge and opposition. Caleb is showing us that faith in God enables him to stand up to opposition. And for some of us here today, we know that feeling very well. Children, I know that some of you are at school and you've done what Caleb did. You've stood up for your faith. You won't join in being unkind with other children. You won't lie at school. And older ones among us, you won't get involved in online bullying or spreading hurt. You say you're a Christian, but you're often belittled or excluded. And I know adults amongst us, you've had to be in work and you've had to say, I won't do that. I won't lie to that customer. And sadly, in Christian ministry, leaders and elders face opposition from within the church. And like Caleb, with God's people here, opposition from folk claiming to be Christians. And we've seen that recently, sadly, in the Church of England, where faithful men have had to stand up in faith, stand up for truth. Well, Caleb stands firm. He stands firm in the face of opposition. And friends, if you have ever done that, you know that that can be a lonely experience. Maybe you're the only Christian in your class. Maybe you're the only Christian in your workplace. And so it's good to be together this morning, is it, as men and women, boys and girls of faith. It's good to gather as faithful people. Well, let's go on. Caleb's life teaches us also that it's not the strength or the size of our faith that is important, no. It's the object of faith that is so important. Let's think back to that story I've just read in Numbers. The majority of the spies, they went to Canaan, they saw big walls, they saw towers, castles, and giants, they saw scary warriors. And these big forces made the God of Israel seem small and powerless in comparison. Well, contrast that with Caleb. What did Caleb see? He saw the same walls, the same castles and giants, but he thought how small they are, compared to what he knew and remembered of the greatness of God, the size of his God. Caleb remembered that his God commands plagues of insects. He turns whole rivers into blood. He commands the sea to stop flowing, and then he commands it to wash away a whole army. That is the mighty God who is the object that Caleb's faith rested on. And I think this phrase is really helpful, isn't it? It's not great faith, but faith in a great God. Jesus says that faith can be the size of a mustard seed, yet that faith can move a mountain. And the object of Caleb's faith, our faith, is this almighty great God. And at the heart of his character is faithfulness. Remember the whole point of the book of Joshua. God is faithful. God keeps his promises. And as we just read, a wonderful promise which Caleb reminded the people here as he stood against them, as he opposed them, he said, that this almighty faithful God is with us. He is with his people. And all the people had left Egypt and they'd seen the cloud and the fire. They'd seen Almighty God dwelling with his people, leading his people. Now you might say perhaps we're being a bit harsh here on the spies on Israel. You know, they were just being realistic. They were scared. They were worried about the armies, the castles, the giants. Well, actually, no, as we read on, God's ensuing judgment on them 40 years in the wilderness said that they were actually declaring their unbelief. They didn't believe God's word or his promises. And for your notes, if you look at Hebrews chapter 4, explains that the people hardened their hearts towards God, something that sadly Israel did time and again. And often Israel's disbelief is often described as breaking faith with God. And that's my next point. Faith is believing and taking God at his word. You see, God had repeatedly told Israel in Genesis and throughout the Exodus that he'd promised them a land, the land of Canaan, to his people. And God had promised them repeatedly that he would drive out all the pagan people living there. But this generation did not believe. And here their corporate disbelief is contrasted with Caleb and with Joshua, their unwavering faith and belief in God keeping his promises, keeping his word. As Caleb stood up to all the people here, he was demonstrating his belief. And at the heart of Caleb's faith was believing God's word, believing his promises. One commentator, I'll let you guess who that was, says that the anchor of Caleb's faith is God's word. The anchor of Caleb's faith is God's word. I listened to a preacher preach this passage in preparation, and he said this we must hold together these two. True statements. God's faithfulness fulfills his promises. Caleb's faithfulness attached those promises to the realities of his life. Let me say that again. God's faithfulness fulfills his promises. Caleb's faithfulness attached those promises to the realities of his life. Caleb's faith was faith in action, and that's what secured his inheritance. And it's also what he's commended for in our passage in Joshua chapter 14. Over the next forty years, Caleb never stopped believing that God would be faithful to his promises, to his word. And that belief, that faith, enabled him to wholly follow God. Well, turn back with me to Joshua 14 as we pick through a few verses from that. There are a number of verses in our chapter this morning in Joshua 14 that speak of God's word and his promises. In verse 9, we read that the promise that God made through Moses about Caleb's land. In verse 10, he declares that God has kept him alive just as he said he would. And in verse 12, Caleb says, Give me the land that God spoke of on that day. And we learn, don't we, that Caleb kept all those promises, all of God's word in his heart for forty-five years. And that he knew that there were times when he had to act on those promises. And that's my next point. Faith trusts and acts on God's promises, on his faithfulness. Caleb knew that what he believed to be true meant that he had to act. When the spies told the people they couldn't conquer Canaan, he knew he had to stand up. He stepped forward, he spoke, he confronted the people. And sometimes as Christians, we're tempted, aren't we, not to act, perhaps to sit back, to adopt a let's wait and see what God does attitude, a kind of let go, let God attitude. And I'm being careful what I'm saying here. I believe that we should always pray and speak to God about different situations and the different options available, and 100% seek God's will. But I also believe that God's people are called to act, believing that God opens and closes doors while at the same time we push on that door. Let's think about our building project or our buying our church building. What would the spies' attitude say? Well, they would say we could never buy that. It's far too expensive. We could never raise the money for this. But let's consider how faith acts. It's like a continuum. We pray that God would move people's hearts to give. We ask God's people to give. We push some doors about grants. We speak to banks that lend money. Or we could apply these principles to planting a church. As I think back to St. Peter's planting Emmanuel 14 years ago, we were nine or ten people sitting in a front room in Brentwood thinking about planting a church. It was a massive ask, it was a big ask. But we were asking an even bigger God who's calling people to worship. Maybe we could apply these principles to sharing the gospel. That person so far away from God, they could never become a Christian. I knew a few folk who said that about me once. Faith trusts, it acts, it pushes doors. It says to an unbeliever, Come to church, come to a carol service tonight. It says, Do you want to read the Bible with me? Do you want to find out a bit about God? That's what faith does. Faith acts. And back to our story of Caleb again. Caleb's an older man, but did you read? In his faith, he's ready to act again. Look at verse 12. Caleb wants to claim his land. He asked Joshua to give him the land, the inheritance that God had promised him. And isn't it wonderful, verses 10 and 11, at eighty-five years old, his faith is giving him hope and zeal to act again to go to war. Look at verse 12. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out, just as the Lord said. That it may be, I I don't see that phrase as doubt. I see that more as words of humility. Christian faith is bound up with humility. It's confidence, but it's not pride or presumption or arrogance. No, faith submits to God's sovereign will. It's bound up in his providence. And as we think about Caleb's age, let's consider Caleb's life. Caleb's life was one of obedience. And we can say that the life of faith is a lifelong journey of obedience. A lifelong journey of obedience. A good word to summarize Caleb's life is the word perseverance. Eugene Patterson says, Perseverance is a long obedience in the same direction. And Caleb and Joshua exemplify this. Though they were faithful, they still remained with God's people in those forty years of wandering in the desert. Every day for those forty years they sought to live for God, while all around them, disobedient members of God's people, were punished and died. Gosh, that must have been hard. But what a great witness they must have been in those forty years. What a model and example Caleb and Joshua were then, and how they still are today to God's people as they go in and conquer the land. And I want to say today, the church is full of faithful men and women, boys and girls, whose faith encourages us, it strengthens ours. I look at some of the older men in our church still living by faith, still faithfully attending church, still praying, still sharing a word of scripture with me to encourage me. And I thank you, and I find that so encouraging. And Lord, I say I want to be like that man. I don't want to worship them and put them on a pedestal, but I respect them and they encourage me greatly to keep going. So can I encourage all of us today? Grab someone, stop being English and say, You really encourage me. I thank you for your faith, your perseverance, it encourages me. And brothers and sisters, sometimes we all feel like the Christian life of obedience is hard, don't we? We feel like it's a struggle. It doesn't feel like we're heading for glory or that Jesus will return. Well, friends, when we feel like that, we do well to remember Caleb and Joshua. They stuck at it for forty years. They stuck at their quiet times with God. They remembered his promises. They remembered God's faithfulness. They remembered the mighty deeds he'd performed in the past. They stuck at prayer. They said to God, give us what we need. They stuck at loving their neighbors, doing good. They stuck at going God's way while the rest of Israel was wandering. So the last aspect of faith we're going to think about, and arguably the most important, and that's the heart. Faith in God equals an undivided heart. Verse 14 is the key verse of our passage. It's God's verdict on his servant Caleb. He wholly followed the God of Israel. You see, Caleb had a relationship with his God. He knew him, his heart was devoted to God. And look at verse 8. The people's hearts were melting in fear and doubting God, but Caleb's heart was committed to following God. And did you note Caleb's words? I wholly followed the Lord my God. Caleb's faith was founded on his relationship with God. And I think sometimes we wrongly think that the Old Testament church had a different relationship with God, perhaps to the church now, that there's no there was no love or personal relationship between the people and God. But I don't think that's right. If we summarize God's great covenant from Genesis to Malachi, it's this I will be their God, and they will be my people. This covenant promise was in Caleb's heart. His heart was wholly devoted to his God. It was like a marriage. He was in a monogamous relationship with his God. We know, don't we, marriage is about commitment, it's about devotion, taking a vow to forsake all others. Caleb wouldn't dare to look at a false God. And it's right, isn't it, that we challenge ourselves today? Is our faith founded on a love for God? For your Saviour Jesus? Is there something competing for your love for that undivided devotion? Well, please pray about that today, that you would love God with all of your heart. And wouldn't we do well to remember the sad end of Solomon's life? God had repeatedly warned Israel's kings not to have foreign wives. Can you remember why? I'm sure you can. Because he said they will turn your heart from God. And that is what happened. Solomon's heart was divided. It was not like Caleb's. So as we close, an important caveat. Caleb's saving faith, just like our saving faith, is always a gift from God by grace. Despite all I've said about Caleb, he was a sinner. He let God down. His faith like ours was not something he earned. No, his faith was a gift from God. God by his Spirit gives us belief and the gift of faith at the beginning of our Christian life. Faith is the hands that grasp the finished work of Jesus at the cross. And throughout Caleb's life, like ours, God gives us what we need to remain faithful. He gave Caleb, He gave Joshua to be a mutual encouragement. He gives us the church. But most wonderfully, God gives us Himself in the Holy Spirit sent from the Lord Jesus to live in us, daily strengthening our faith. So we need to be careful, don't we, about our application? When we don't obey or act on our faith, our eternal salvation, our place in heaven, the true promised land, is secure because of Jesus' faith. Because Jesus lived a perfect, faithful life. Jesus' heart perfectly loved and served and was obedient to his Father. Our faith, brothers and sisters, rests on Jesus' obedience. Well, let's let's pray together. Oh Father God, we want to follow you with our whole heart. Would each of our hearts be undivided in our devotion to the Lord Jesus? Thank you for his perfect life. That our salvation rests on his perfect faith and his perfect obedience. Thank you that you give each of us what we need to remain faithful. Lord help us to be like Caleb and Joshua, to persevere, to obey and keep going, and to be an encouragement to others, to act on our faith in our works of service. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.