We're turning, please, in the Word of God today to the portion of Scripture that we read together from the book of Joshua. One of the most interesting studies you can undertake is the study of individuals in Scripture. And as the theme of this weekend has to do with soul winning, that's really what we're thinking about. individual. When you read in the Bible some of these biographies of men and women who shone brightly for God, we're inclined to put them on a pedestal and think, these folk must be giants. But they weren't. They were just sinners saved by grace. Just the same as we are. The Lord took control of their lives and made them what they were. And so it is to this very day, friends. We're nothing special. We're just ordinary people. But God has called us as believers to a life of overcoming and a life of ceaseless praise. I want to look with you just for a short while at one very interesting and remarkable Bible character who was a tremendous champion for the Lord. That's what God expects and requires of us. Caleb is the man we're thinking of today. He came out of Egypt out of bondage. by the blood, just like us. It was the blood that brought deliverance to Caleb. Forty years on, he's still there. But he's now in the land of promise. God was faithful to what He promised He would do. You're given a good insight into Caleb's life and the kind of individual that he was. It's worth taking note. First of all, let me say a word about the character of Caleb. Look there at verse 8 and 9 of the chapter that we read. He says, Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, Oh, there's nothing worse than discouragement from God's own people. When you're trying to do something for the Lord, sometimes your main opposition comes from the people of God. And that's sad. But then he makes this statement. It wasn't boastful or big-headedness. It was fact. He said, But I wholly followed the Lord my God. Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God." This wasn't just Caleb's grasp of what he was, but Moses also was the leader of the people. That's what made the difference, you see. That's why he could claim the promise. because he wholly followed the Lord. Something very personal in this. He says in the verse, I wholly followed. Something very practical. He followed. In order to follow, beloved, you've got to go forward. Follow me, says Jesus. Don't think of the outcome. Just follow Me. That's what Caleb did. He just followed the Lord. Words in capitals as you see, it's Jehovah. There's something very pure about this too for Caleb. He's the Lord. My God. That phrase is used six times in the Old Testament. It's a hunting term. It means to close the gap between the hunter and his prey. Caleb was keeping the distance between himself and the Lord his God at a minimum. He was never too far away from God. Oh, men and women, that's where we need to be. That's where we need to be. Do you remember that day at the cross? Some of the disciples, well, we know they all fled, but one or two gathered. I know that Peter was there somewhere in the periphery of the crowd. But John was also there. And the Lord spoke to John on the cross. And to Mary. But if John had been where Peter was, he wouldn't have heard Christ. But because he was close to Jesus, he was able to hear what the Lord was saying. And in order for us to hear what the Lord's telling us, friends, we need to be near Him. The gap needs to be close. Sadly, today, It's very often not. It's total commitment. That's what it is. Julius Caesar landed in England. Men left their ships, made their way up, but stood on the top of the cliffs of Dover. And as they looked out to where they had just disembarked at their vessels, at their ships, they saw the ships were all burning. Caesar was wanting to let them know there's no going back. There's no going back. There's just a going forward. That's why there's no armour for the back in Ephesians 6, the Christian armour. Nothing further back, because the Christian is not supposed to turn and run, but to face the enemy and to move forward. Some of us need to burn the bridges. We need to shine for Jesus. I was smiling at a wee story I read about three wee girls. They were talking. One said, My daddy is a doctor. He practices medicine. Another wee girl said, My daddy is a lawyer. He practices law. Another little girl said, My daddy's a Christian. He doesn't practice anymore. And in that humorous thing, you can see there's a reality as well. You are what you live and what you claim to be. If you're a Christian, you practice what you preach. I know it's not always easy, but it's always right. Sometimes, that's us. We don't practice anymore. But man, if you wholly follow the Lord, you'll practice. A French soldier, years ago, was dying on the battlefield. And the surgeon was trying to save his life and he had to cut very deep into the soldier. And the soldier said to him, Doctor, if you go much deeper, you'll come to the Emperor." What do you mean? You see, He had the Emperor on His heart. He loved His Emperor. So, if you cut any deeper, you'll come to the Emperor. Could that be said of me, or you, or the Savior today? That in our heart, to the exclusion of anything else, Christ is prevalent. That's how you can be a soul winner, you know, beloved. That's how you can win the loss for Christ. When you wholly follow. When your life is surrendered and given over to Him. But is it? A minister, if I were to mention his name, You will all know him, I'm sure. He confessed once publicly that he hadn't prayed for three months outside of prayers in the pulpit, prayers in the prayer meeting, or when called upon to pray. But he hadn't really sought God for three months. None of us can claim to be extra-spiritual. But let me say this to you folks. It would be for me total hypocrisy for to travel across the province this morning to come to this church if I hadn't first of all spent time with God. And I did that before I came here. I read His Word and I sought a space. That's the way we need to live, you know. Not all do. The character of Caleb. That's the sort of man that you're looking at here. And then there's comfort for Caleb. Joshua 14 and verse 12. We're still in the passage that we were reading. That's His comfort here. He had the promises of God. Back in the book of Numbers, chapter 14, verse 23, Surely they should not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither should any of them that provoke Me see it, God says. But My servant Caleb because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully." You see, you don't only have Caleb's testimony and Moses' testimony, here's the testimony of God Himself. Caleb wholly followed Me. Therefore, I will bring him into the land, and his seed shall possess it. In the book of Deuteronomy, and we're just thinking there of one verse, In chapter 1 of Deuteronomy, I want to get the verse. It's a relatively new Bible and pages stick a wee bit. But in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 36 you have it again. God says, Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it. And to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath only followed the Lord. The comfort that Caleb had that he would get everything that God said he would get, is because God said it. And for 45 years, This man believed God. He looked beyond the wilderness to a mountain. He looked to Hebron. He looked to the land of milk and honey. He looked to the grapes of Eshcol by faith. He believed. He had the Word. You know, friends, listen, isn't it a blessed thing for you and me to have the Word? Like a man said to the old Nicholson, all you have is writing on paper, meaning the Bible. And Nicholson said, that's right, but it's God's writing on the paper. He had the promise. He had the Word. But he also, you see, had the walk. As verse 14 reminds us of chapter 14 in Joshua, he followed the Lord. This man walked. He worked by faith. He walked by faith. He won by faith. Age was no barrier. This is an important thing, you know. And nobody's more conscious of getting on than I am. I know that every time I go anywhere. I know that after I preach, when I go to the door to shake hands with people, I generally sit down in a chair to do it. ever since that situation with breaking my leg in three places of a problem standing too long. But anyway, we're conscious of this. A lady said to me and my wife one day, she said, you know, growing old is not for wimps. I said, oh yeah, right there. Mr. Pacey wrote a book one time, maybe some of you have read it, Grow Old With Me. And he loved that. He loved that. He thought it was tremendous. One of the ministers said to me, Brother, when I read that book I was depressed because I'm getting old. But we shouldn't have that despondency of spirit. Age is no barrier. Caleb was 85 years old. When he claimed the promise, a promise he had pleaded for all those years. And is able to go and say, give me this mountain. God promised it to me. Verses 10 and 11, you'll read that. Of the chapter 14 here. And then he makes this remarkable statement, verse 11, As yet I am as strong as day, as I was in the day that Moses sent me." Many of us could say that. Not physically maybe, but spiritually we should be. One of my elders in Dunedin, I was talking to an old fellow one day at a place called Magasha. And this old man, very sprightly old man, but he was talking to my elder and he said, a wee bit tired this evening The other said, why? He said, well, he said, I had to dig a couple of graves in the church graveyard. And I did two gardens and cut a hedge. A wee bit tired. He was 93 years old. Now, there's a man that didn't know much about cardiac trouble, did he? You can be as strong spiritually as that wee man was physically. Your age, you shouldn't get to the stage where we say, well, I'm old, I'm done, I'm going to do nothing. You've got to keep going, folks. The proof of this is here with this man. I'm thankful to God for the older folk in our churches, for sometimes I wonder where we'd be without them. He didn't go for a life of luxury and of ease. He went to a mountain. And look what verse 12 reminds us, that the Anakins were there. Giants. Nobody wants that tough work. But he had this comfort. He had the Word of God. Now watch chapter 15 and verse 14. Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Shishai, Ahimon, and Palmy. He met the giants and their family and he fought them when he took this mountain. He encountered them. Folks, he didn't run from the giants as you would be prone to do by nature. Not at all. He fought them. And he beat them. This brought a challenge, of course, to this man. In the book of Numbers again, chapter 13, I think it is. Numbers 13. I'm reading verse 33. Yes, verse 33. There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come off the giants. And we were on our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. A grasshopper is something you would just trample without thought. But this grasshopper fought the giants. And he beat them. And because the grasshoppers by and large, outside of Joshua and Caleb, were afraid, this was a great challenge to Caleb. What would he do? The majority were against him. Well, let me just quote another verse in the book of Numbers. And it's chapter 14 again this time. In verse 9, Rebel not ye against the Lord. You see, this is what this was. This fear. This unwillingness to fight. It was rebellion. Imagine, the people of God beloved In rebellion. Neither fear ye the people of the land. Listen to this. For they are bread for us. When did you ever fear bread? Their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casteth out fear. They would lose their fear as they faced the giant. Take God at His Word. Take up the challenge. That's what Caleb did. Don't let anything make you fail God. Not grasshoppers, not giants, not grumblers. Well, there's plenty of them about today. Remember when Nehemiah was building the wall? The people of Judah, imagine the tribe from which Christ came, they complained. They said, we're not able to build this wall. There's much rubbish. They complained. But Jeremiah, like Caleb, stood fast and the wall was built in 52 days without a JCB or a digger or any such thing. Yet, they built the wall. Because one man took up the challenge and said, don't listen to what Judah's grumblers are saying. We'll build this wall. The Sanballat, the Horonite, and Gashmu, and the Ammonite, and all the rest, and then let's stop us. Not when God's in this thing. Beloved, if God be for us as we sang earlier, who can be against us? There's the conquest by Caleb. And this brings us to the finish. Joshua 14 again. Verses 13 and 14. Joshua blessed him. You know the Old Testament, Joshua is the name for Jesus. You see, there's a blessing when you serve the Lord. even in the area of willing the lost, of contending for the faith, of striving to save sinners. Joshua blessed him. Think of yourself here and think of this. Jesus blessed him. Jesus blessed her. What a wonderful thing to know the blessing of God. Gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, unto this day. And the reason is underlined. The word Hebron carries the meaning of fellowship. What a thought! As you serve the Lord and work for Him and live for Him, you have fellowship with Him. If we walk in the light, it says, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And that's in the present tense in the Greek. It means continually cleansing. There's victory for us if we show the keel of spirit. I read of a minister who finished his sermon with these words. I thought, well, that's appropriate. He was talking about the battle and the work. And he said, folks, we must refuse to give up, back up, shut up, be held up until we have stood up, lined up, read up, prayed up, confessed up, stored up, spoke up, looked up, and filled up in everything the Lord wants to give us children. We mentioned Nehemiah there. The Bible tells us of those in his day that they worked together. but they stood together. You know the strength of this we fellowship here and the strength of our free church? What has always been their strength? Being together. Not to rend the seamless garment of Christ. The old Puritan said he wasn't out to rend the garment, he was out to mend it. stand together with all our differences, and we have many. I often use, and I close, the illustration of Brother Cranston, and you all know him. And I know him. He's a very close friend and has been for 40 years. Since the day when I preached at his youth fellowship in Tandric East, and he was in charge of it, went to his house for supper afterwards, and left his house with about ten tins of coloured custard, different colours of birds custard, it was lovely. But anyway, people are amazed, you know, they look at him, they look at me, and the people that know us know that I would be very quick to react, maybe say too much sometimes, and he would be very calm. I told Doreen yesterday when we were having lunch, I said, you know, whenever Reggie dies off, it's not going to be a heart attack. He's so laid back, he's horizontal. But it's a wonderful way to be. We're totally different men. But when it comes to the work, when it comes to fellowship, they're none closer. I have no problem working with him or him with me. We get on very well. Always have done. Why? Like James and John, you remember. Peter and John. Always together. Peter was brash, quick tempered, very fiery, excitable. John wasn't. And yet, in the Lord's work, they were as one. That's the way it should be, folks. I have many disagreements, theologically, with some of my ministerial colleagues. Some of them have odd views on the second coming of Christ. I just keep praying that they'll soon come to see the truth as I see it. They haven't done it yet, many of them. We disagree on the doctrine of baptism, and we sometimes fight about that, you know, just good naturedly. Friends, when it comes to God's work, we stand together. We have no disagreements when it comes to the service of the Lord. And that's the way it should be. May God help us to be like Caleb. Holy. Totally. Follow the Lord. Commit to Him in all things. The Bible says, Wait upon the Lord. He will give thee the desires of thine heart.