OUT OF BONDAGE INTO ABUNDANCE Part 7: Possessing the Land (No. 1083 1/28/15 - - NLC) I. INTRODUCTION A. The land of Canaan was promised to Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession 1. Gen. 15:7: He also said to him [Abram], I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it. 2. Gen. 17:7-8: 7 I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. B. Israel was to dispossess the seven nations of Canaan 1. Deut. 7:1: When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you 2. Deut. 9:1: Hear, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. 3. Possess and dispossess are both translations of the same Hebrew word yarash (occurs 231 times in KJV) which literally means to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place). C. This two-fold process of driving out and taking possession was little by little 1. Ex. 23:23-33: 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them 2016-01-26_bondage-to-abundance_part07_pastor-wayne-pratt.doc 147
out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the LORD your God, and His blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. 27 I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. 31 I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. 32 Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33 Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you. 2. God would drive out the enemies a little at a time to allow the Israelites time to increase in number, grow, and become fruitful so that they could take possession of the land (v.30): a) (AMP) Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and are numerous enough to take possession of the land. b) (MSG) Little by little I'll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own. c) (NAS) I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. II. INHERITANCE FOR NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS A. Israel possessed the physical land of Canaan as their inheritance New Testament believers inherit eternal life and the kingdom of God 148 2016-01-26_bondage-to-abundance_part07_pastor-wayne-pratt.doc
1. Mat. 19:29: And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 2. James 2:5: Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? 3. Col. 1:12-13: 12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. 4. Col. 3:23-24: 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 5. 1 Cor. 6:9-11: 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 6. 1 Cor. 15:50: I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 7. 1 Pet. 1:3-4: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you. 8. Rev. 21:7: He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 2016-01-26_bondage-to-abundance_part07_pastor-wayne-pratt.doc 149
B. As with the Israelites, this is a little by little process that requires faith AND PATIENCE! 1. Heb. 6:12: We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. 2. 2 Pet. 1:3-11: 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 4 Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to ADD to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. a) Note the similarities to the Israelites possessing Canaan: Little by little, the Christian keeps adding, growing, and increasing so that he/she becomes fruitful and possesses the eternal kingdom! b) This process requires effort on our part! C. Just as weeds and wild beasts would overrun the land of Canaan if it remained unoccupied, Jesus warned that when evil, sin and darkness are driven out of our lives, our house (heart, soul, mind) must then be occupied 1. Mat. 12:43-45: 43 When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it 150 2016-01-26_bondage-to-abundance_part07_pastor-wayne-pratt.doc
arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. 2. We must allow God s presence, His love, and His word to fill our house and dwell richly in our hearts and minds a) Eph. 2:22: And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. b) Eph. 3:16-19: 16 I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. c) 1 John 4:12-13: 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. d) Rom. 5:5: And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. e) Col. 3:16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. III. CONCLUSION A. At the beginning of this study, we saw that God s purpose for Israel was to take them out of the bondage of Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land of Canaan (Deut. 6:23): But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that He promised on oath to our forefathers. B. Step by step, little by little, God took them through the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai; after 40 years in the wilderness, He brought them 2016-01-26_bondage-to-abundance_part07_pastor-wayne-pratt.doc 151
in to Canaan to begin driving out seven enemy nations; finally, they were settled into their land, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession! C. What an amazing picture for the Christian who has been delivered from the bondage of sin through the precious blood of the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ; he has passed through the waters of the Red Sea by water baptism; and he has become a tabernacle or temple for the Lord through the baptism in the Holy Spirit; after passing through many trials, tribulations, and battles (Acts 14:22), and having overcome every enemy by the grace and power of God, he will ultimately be ushered into his heavenly inheritance the eternal kingdom of God! How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? Hebrews 2:3 152 2016-01-26_bondage-to-abundance_part07_pastor-wayne-pratt.doc