Christ Church

A Habitation of the Lord (Christ Church)
Christ Church on March 11, 2026
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Jared Longshore

Caleb’s Inheritance (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

In the current climate, a large swath of secularists would be nervous if they knew we were considering the conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua. The remainder would be fascinated as they attempted to understand the Christian way over against their own unbelieving assumptions. Their fascination would not be misplaced, nor their fear. Granted, many of them would speak of a Christian jihad, and we are up to nothing of that sort. But their true fear is the terror of the Lord—the sword of the Spirit—which is more deadly than any earthly blade.

What this means for us is that we should not let the secularists understand the times better than we do. If they understand Joshua is an apt book at this moment, how much more should we?

TEXT (JOSHUA 14:6-15)

Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, “Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God . . .”

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

At Gilgal, Caleb went before Joshua to remind him of what the LORD said to Moses about him in Kadesh-barnea (v. 6). Caleb was forty years old back then when he went with others to spy out the land of Canaan (v. 7). Caleb followed the LORD fully, but the other spies feared and made the hearts of the people melt (v. 8). As a result, Moses swore that the land where Caleb had walked (which was Hebron) would be his and his children’s inheritance forever (v. 9). Caleb noted that he was still alive at the age of eighty-five, and this according to God’s promises (v. 10). Moreover, he had the same strength for battle that he had when he was forty (v. 11). Caleb asked for Hebron, since the LORD had promised it to him, with confidence that if the LORD would be with him, then he would drive out what remained of the giant Anakims (v. 12). Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him Hebron, and Caleb possessed it as an inheritance because he wholly followed the LORD (vv. 13–14). Hebron used to be named Kirjath-arba, after Arba, the greatest of the giants; but the name of that land changed, and it had rest from war (v. 15).

OBEDIENCE TO THE HILT

Three times we are told that Caleb wholly followed the LORD (vv. 8, 9, 14). The testimony from the book of Numbers has the same phrase and adds that Caleb had another spirit with him—one that was not with the other spies (Numbers 14:24). Wholly following the LORD boils down to the old- fashioned spirit of faith and obedience in the face of obstacles. The lack of this spirit caused the spies to see the giants and fear. The presence of this spirit of obedience made Caleb look at the giants at Hebron and say, “They are bread for us” (Numbers 14:9).

HOW INHERITANCES WORK

The tribes of Israel received their various inheritances, but Caleb’s situation is unique because he was ready for his forty-five years earlier. You can imagine him asking the Lord back then, when he was ready to enter Canaan, “Can I skip out on the wilderness wandering?” But the answer was no. Caleb had to wait for his inheritance—and he had to wait while exercising that spirit of obedience the whole time.

An inheritance is the kind of thing that is out in front of you until it is not. But wholly following the Lord is not dependent upon receiving the inheritance. Receiving the inheritance is dependent upon wholly following the Lord. The man who waits around to trust and obey the Lord, insisting that he will do it right after he has received the promise, is like a man who says he will climb the mountain right after he enjoys the view from the summit.

ARBA TO HEBRON

The land that Caleb inherited used to be named after a great one among the giants, Arba. But the land was rightly renamed Hebron—a word meaning “association” or “league.” Abraham built an altar in Hebron some four hundred years earlier as God covenanted with him and his children (Genesis 13:18). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried in Hebron. Caleb took that land not as an act of selfishness to exalt his own name like Arba, or like those in the days of Babel who sought to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4). But Caleb drove giants from that land, for God had promised it to his fathers, and to him, and to his children. Hebron would be designated a city of refuge (Joshua 21:13) and a place for Levites (1 Chronicles 6:55). Hebron was a land of covenant promise for covenant people. This is a reminder to us—a reminder about why we are here.

Trust in the LORD, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed . . . For evildoers shall be cut off: But those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth (Psalm 37:3, 9).

How do we know we will inherit the earth? Because our Caleb has—and we in Him. Like Caleb of old, He wholly followed the LORD, wandered in the wilderness tempted by the serpent, walked through the River Jordan, conquered Canaan, and has turned this place of high rebellion into a land of priests and refugees.

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Life According to the Lamb (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

As we have seen in the book of Acts, the time between the resurrection of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was a time of overlap between the old and new covenants. Christ Himself was the sacrifice of the new covenant, which was better by far than the blood of bulls and goats. Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and our text today is designed in order that we would join with those heavenly voices saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Revelation 5:12).

SURVEY OF THE TEXT: HEBREWS 10:11-22

“Every priest in the Old Testament had to offer sacrifices continually (v. 11). Whatever those sacrifices did, they didn’t accomplish the job in a once for all fashion. Those priests stood daily and could never sit down and call it quits. But the man Jesus Christ, after offering but one sacrifice, did sit down (v. 12) to have all His enemies made His footstool (v. 13). By that one offering, He did not only cover sin but perfected His sanctified ones forever (v. 14). The Holy Ghost testifies to this perfection (v. 15) by writing God’s law on hearts in the new covenant (v. 16). In that new covenant, God has sworn an oath of amnesia, forgetting our sins (v. 17). No more sacrifice for sin can be offered to God because it would only be met with God saying, “And what is this for” (v. 18)? By the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, we have boldness to walk into God’s throne room (v. 19). The way into that throne room is through the living flesh of Christ (v. 20), our high priest over God’s house (v. 21). So we must draw near to God with hearts assured seeing we have our bodies and consciences washed clean (v. 22).

THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS

The book of Hebrews makes the point repeatedly that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins. However, we should not think that this means the Old Testament saints were not forgiven in real time. David says in Psalm 32:5, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, ‘I will confess my transgression unto the LORD.’ And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” While it was not the virtue of the Old Testament sacrifices themselves that accomplished this forgiveness, they did have a role to play. Israelites were instructed to bring sacrifices when they had sinned and Leviticus says in several places, “and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him” (Leviticus 5:10; 4:20; 26, 31; 6:7).

If these sacrifices were offered disingenuously, then God despised them, “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me” (Isaiah 1:12-13). But when they were offered genuinely from the heart, God did not despise them but covered their sin: “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

FORGIVENESS AND PERFECTION

However, even when those sacrifices were genuinely offered, the forgiven worshippers were not made perfect:

“For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Hebrews 10:1). If those sacrifices had made the worshippers perfect, “then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Hebrews 10:2).

The point is not that the Old Testament saints received a faux forgiveness. Their sins were like stains on the carpet. Those stains were covered and God really said, “All is well.” But they knew the stain was still there and the covered stain still weighed on their conscience. The marvel of the new covenant is that Christ’s bodily death has done what the blood of bulls and goats could not do, namely take sin away entirely and thereby make us perfect: “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). There is no more stain. Consequently, “there is no more offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).

PERFECTED FOREVER

The import of all of this is that you must live according to the Lamb who was slain. He says, “No more stain.” He says, “I have perfected you and your people.” And the Lamb is the One worthy of “power, and riches, and wisdom” (Revelation 5:12). You must agree with God that you and your people have been perfected through the once for all sacrifice of Christ. This is a potent truth, a bit too potent for some. “You can’t tell them that their sins have been taken away once for all,” comes the reply, “if you do that there is no telling what sin they will tamper with.” But, how can they who have had sins taken away still tamper with them?

Paul says in another place that you must “reckon yourselves to be dead to sin” (Romans 6:11). And by the same standard here, you must reckon yourselves perfected by the sacrifice of Christ. You can reason from the blood of the Lamb. But you may have no other starting point.

APPLICATIONS

This point has several applications. Your whole life must be lived in Jesus name and that includes your service, your good works. Having been perfected, we serve the Living God and there is no other way to serve Him: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14)?

The same goes for confessions. The corrupt heart of man wants to take his confession as the starting point, as the fundamental axiom from which he can get to the sacrifice of Christ. But the truth is the reverse. Having been perfected, we confess our imperfections.

And the same goes for forgiveness. Having been perfected, we forgive others and are forgiven. When you forgive another person, you are not accepting their apology as a blood sacrifice and thereby reckoning them clean. It is that kind of thinking that keeps people riddled with bitterness because that sacrifice simply isn’t enough. We forgive others because of the once for all sacrifice, the one that took our sins and theirs away.

This same logic appears in our worship. The worship that we now offer up to Almighty God is perfect because it is offered up in Jesus’ name. Having been perfected by His blood, we walk into the holiest place and we walk into that throne room of God in the only manner worthy of that blood, boldly.

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Ship and Tabernacle (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

Isaiah prophesied from around 740 to 687 B.C. during the reign of four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Ahaz was a wicked king who locked up the doors of the temple in Jerusalem, burned his sons in fire, cut the vessels of the temple to pieces, and made Judah a vassal state of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser by paying him for protection (2 Kings 16:8, 10). Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah, came to the throne at twenty-five years old and called for a recovery of the Passover festival in Jerusalem. That assembly of joy was so grand the like had not been seen since the days of David and Solomon (2 Chronicles 30:26). But the Assyrian threat was looming. They took Samaria in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. And by the fourteenth year of his rule, the Assyrian king Sennacherib had come against Judah and Jerusalem.

THE TEXT

“Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity”(Isaiah 33:20-24).

SURVEY OF THE TEXT

In the face of the Assyrian threat, Judah must look upon Zion, the city of their festivals. It will be a place of peace, a tabernacle that will not be folded up. Not a single tabernacle peg will be removed; and unlike the cords on the Assyrian war ships, not one of her cords will be snapped (v. 20). The tabernacle of Zion will remain because the LORD Himself will supply it with streams of water that no Assyrian oars will touch (v. 21). The LORD, Judah’s Savior-King, will not permit their ships to come upon His holy habitation (v. 22). Their cords will forsake them, not supporting their mast. Their sail will not be spread to catch the wind. And the result will be that the predator becomes prey The lame inhabitants of Zion will plunder them (v. 23). Those inhabitants will not say that they are weak because their sin is forgiven (v. 24).

A PLACE OF STREAMS AND FESTIVALS 

Jerusalem was a festival city, a place of bread, meat, and drink. And this meat and drink was the very thing Sennacherib threatened to cut off, “Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem? Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and by thirst’” (2 Chronicles 32:10-11)?

But these threats fall flat when God feeds His people with bread from heaven, when He satisfies their thirst with water from a Rock. Isaiah’s prophecy was not only that the LORD would give them rivers, but that the LORD would be unto them a place of rivers (v. 21). Sennacherib laid siege, but he could not get to the Rock from which the water flowed. The Gihon Spring has its source in the City of David. Water still flows out of the rock that is Zion.

STAKES AND CORDS

The stakes and cords of the tabernacle speak to its stability, contrasted with the faulty tacklings of the Assyrian ships. The same Hebrew word [hevel] lies behind the tabernacle’s “chord” in verse 20 and the ship’s “tacklings” in verse 23. Not one of the tabernacle’s hevel will fail but the Assyrians’ hevel will forsake them.

The tabernacle cords tied down the different parts of the tabernacle to the stakes. These cords are a reminder of feminine glory, which has a way of holding things together. It was the wise-hearted women who wove the cords of the tabernacle, “And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen” (Exodus 35:25).

The stakes of the tabernacle were of brass (Exodus 27:19). And those stakes, Isaiah prophesied, would be driven in as sturdily as Jael drove the stake through Sisera into the earth.

SAILS IN THE WIND

Zion’s tabernacle is contrasted with the Assyrian ship. What you want is wind in your sails but the Assyrians would have their sails in the wind. Their sail would not spread. This sail not only served the practical function of moving their ships. It was also a banner or a sign. The word for sail is nēs, which often means sign or banner. When Moses grew tired lifting up his arms at the battle against Amalek, he was assisted by Aaron and Hur. After the victory, Moses built an altar and called it Jehovah-nissi, “The Lord Is Our Banner” (Exodus 17:15). The pole that held up the snake in the wilderness was a nēs.

But while Moses’ raised hands and the raised snake did not fail, the banner-sail [nēs] of the Assyrians would. And so those who sought to spoil would be spoiled (Isaiah 33:1). The lame plunder the plunder.

THE INHABITANT SHALL NOT SAY

The payout of this deliverance is that even the beleaguered inhabitants of Zion will not say, “I am sick,” which includes “I am not wounded. I am not weak. I am not famished and I am not thirsty.” For those inhabitants have their sin forgiven by the King of Zion. He was bound with cords but broke their bonds apart. He was pierced with stakes only to become “a nail in a sure place” upon which all of God’s promises are secured (Isaiah 22:23). For “he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed”(Isaiah 53:5).

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The Two-Edged Sword (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

Charles Spurgeon once offered a humble recommendation for how to defend the Bible. He kept it quite simple, “Let it defend itself.” His statement gets to the heart of our problem. We want to hold up the Word of God, forgetting that it holds us up. We want to cut with the Sword of the Spirit rather than have it cut us. We treat the sword like it is an inanimate object in need of the living to wield it. But our text says the word is alive and we are the ones in need of animation. We’re the ones in need of entering into rest, being prodded to enter that rest by the two-edged sword.

SURVEY OF THE TEXT- HEBREWS 4:11-13

Given the example of the Israelites, many of whom after being delivered out of Egypt still died in the desert, new covenant saints must labor to enter that rest (v. 11). That rest is not just any rest, more about this particular rest in a moment. We can enter that rest because of the Word of God, which is quick and powerful, sharper than the sword that splits the heart (soul and spirit), body (joints and marrow), and mind (thoughts and intents) (v. 12). This Living Word doesn’t only carve up the individual, it exposes all of creation, every creature being laid open today by the same Word to whom they will one day give an account (v. 13).

INTO THAT REST

The rest here described is a very particular kind of rest. It is called that rest. And that rest was defined in the previous verse, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his”(v. 10). God’s rest was previously described as “the seventh day” when God rested from His work of creation (v. 4). But in verse 10 we hear of another, who entered into His rest like God did from His own. And then our text in verse 11 says that the saints should enter into that rest, namely the man’s rest from verse 10. So who is that man?

The context identifies that man as Jesus Christ, who “is passed into the heavens” (v.14). As God rested from His work of creation so Christ has rested from His work of redemption. And the saints must labor to enter that rest, the rest of Christ’s completed work. There is a future fulfillment of this rest when you arrive in heaven. But there is a present reality of this rest for all those who will have it.

THE WORD OF GOD IS QUICK

Verse 11 provides the directive but it doesn’t supply the fuel for completing the directive. You can hear the exhortation to enter into rest well enough and still be left troubled about how you’re actually going to enter in. Even if Christ is in you, your flesh is no help at all, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10). But verse 12 supplies the remedy. Enter into Christ’s rest “for the word of God is quick.”

The Word of God in this passage is not merely the prophets and the apostles but the Living Christ Himself. Quick in our text is often translated living. And the same sense comes through in both words. The Christ Word is always up to something. Creation itself was formed by that Word. The soul of man was formed by the same— “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1). New life comes by this same Word (1 Peter 1:23). The maintenance and maturity of that new life comes likewise (John 17:17).

In whatever the Christ Word is up to, He is effectual. God says through the prophet Isaiah that His Word is like rain or snow from heaven and it will prosper in the thing whereto He sent it (Isaiah 55:11). But that prospering is not as straight-forward as some make it out to be. His sword cuts to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, thoughts and intentions. It goes places we can’t go and accomplishes there things we can’t accomplish.

What it accomplishes is always good, but it can take us by surprise. God’s Word is a fire that melts cold hearts and a hammer that breaks hard hearts (Jeremiah 23:29). So this Christ Word enfleshed dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley and, at the same time, disemboweled King Jehoram due to his sin. This two-edged sword plagued Pharaoh, hanged Haman, and sent dogs to eat Jezebel (2 Kings 9:10). But it also humbled Nebuchadnezzar, turned Manasseh from his evil way, and spared Nineveh.

CREATION EXPOSED 

This living and effectual Word is the same Word to whom man will one day give an account. Verse 13 says that all things are already exposed before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. This is a reference to the judgment seat of Christ— “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ . . . So then ever one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:10, 12). But the only way to give a faithful account to the Word it to have that Word carve you up. The only way to go before Christ with a load of good works done in the body is to enter into His rest.

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