Joshua - God is faithful to fulfill His promises

Well, welcome to Faith Bible Church. This is a recording, and for some that are here to be a part of this, but some, excuse me, or many are at home, but have the opportunity to fellowship, to worship with us, if not in spirit, at a later time.

So we're grateful that we can be here. I'm glad that you're here as well. Thank you to Victor, who's, he's behind the scenes kind of guy, but he's, in many respects, but he's got a lot of burden on his back to make all this happen, and really grateful for everything that Victor does.

He's, the service doesn't end here, or this time doesn't end here. He goes home, and then he starts splicing and putting this thing together to put it online, so quite a commitment.

And, blessed to see Barb is feeling better and still improving. Praise God for her healing, and thank you.

Glad, so glad that she's able to be here. We are grateful also for Pastor John and his family.

This is a real blessing. Many of, some of you know, they go from one service, he's preaching one place, and then they get in the car and try not to break too many speed limits and get here, and to be here for us.

So, we're grateful for you guys, and every one of you. Okay, it's a family affair,

I know it is. So, anyway, so in that vein, as God is allowing

Pastor John to help us in this time after Pastor Stan's retirement, and in a time of transition and seeking the

Lord, I'd like to announce there's gonna be a congregational meeting on September 20th.

It's gonna follow our morning gathering, our morning recording time.

So, if you could mark your calendars, September 20th. It's for Faith Bible members, but it's also open to regular attenders as well.

So, it's posted on the back bulletin board. So, if you're able to make it, we'd like to see you.

And if I could transition, in these times of turmoil and unrest all around us, spiritually, physically, it seems like every corner we go to, we're being confronted with the sin of the world and the challenges that are around us.

But it's important, then, to remember the promises of God. He never fails, He is constant,

He is always on the throne, and we're just doing our little dust bunnies, spinning around, and God's standing there in the middle, like a rock, and we need to look up and see that.

Proverbs 18 .10 says, "'The name of the Lord is a strong tower. "'The righteous run into it and are safe.'"

Nehemiah 8 .10, "'Do not grieve, "'for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'"

Isaiah 41 .10, "'So do not fear, for I am with you. "'Do not be dismayed, for I am your

God. "'I will strengthen you and help you. "'I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.'"

And Isaiah 26 .3 and 4, "'Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace, "'because they trust in you.

"'Trust in the Lord forever, "'for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock.'"

Praise God for that. So let's, we're gonna open in prayer. So if you bow your heads and join with me.

Our dear, heavenly, gracious Father, thank you that you are the rock, that you are the center of our faith, of our every being,

Lord. May we just migrate towards you. May we look to you in all things, that you might guide us, that you are a shepherd, that you will care for your flock.

And you promised to do that, Lord, and may we hold on to that. God, we pray that this morning that we might honor you, that we might bring you glory in all that we do as we lift our voices in song.

And as we hear Pastor John, as he shares the word with us, Father, may that truth pierce us in a way that would change us, in a way that we can see that you are the

Lord overall, that we, there's a thread of, there's a seamless story between the

Old Testament and the New Testament, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Just as there is an old man and a new man,

Lord, we thank you that we have Christ that can bring us to that place. So, Lord, bless our time this morning.

May we just, may you be pleased with all that we do. Allow us to set aside those things that worry us, that encumber us, that we can focus squarely on you,

Lord. God, bless this morning's time together, we pray in Christ's name, amen. So, our first song this morning is

Perfect Wisdom of Our God, and some of it's out of my range, so I'm relying on you again to fill in the gaps.

And so, if you would stand with me, that would honor the Lord. ["Perfect

Wisdom of Our God"] ♪ Perfect wisdom of our

God ♪ ♪ Revealed in all things created by his hand ♪ ♪

And held together of the sea ♪ ♪

The secrets of the stars are his ♪ ♪ He guides the planets on their way ♪ ♪

And turns the earth through another ♪ ♪

Matchless wisdom of his ways ♪ ♪ That mark the path of righteous paths ♪ ♪

His word the lamp unto our feet ♪ ♪ His spirit teaching and guiding me ♪ ♪

And all the mystery of God should suffer for the law ♪ ♪

So that the full might shame abide ♪ ♪ And all the glory might go to him ♪ ♪

O grant me wisdom from above ♪ ♪ And teach me humbly to oversee ♪ ♪

The sun and rain of your sovereignty ♪ ♪ Which in the sorrow the tapestry of grace ♪ ♪

So through the trials I choose to stay ♪ ♪ Your perfect will in your perfect place ♪ ♪

Within the tapestry of grace ♪ ♪ So through the trials

I choose to stay ♪ ♪ Your perfect will in your perfect place ♪

Our next song is Grace Alone. Grace is

God's riches at Christ's expense. And we thank

God for his grace, because without his grace, we wouldn't make it through a day. We need it every moment, every day.

So, Grace Alone. ♪

Every promise we can make ♪ ♪

Every promise we will make is only by his grace ♪ ♪

Every mountain we've hoisted up ♪ ♪

Our partners to face the

Lord ♪ ♪ Every soul we long to meet ♪ ♪

Is only by his grace that we stay ♪ ♪

Every tear we wipe away ♪ ♪

Grace alone makes God's supply last in all ♪

Please be seated, Pastor John. Oh, yes, Brother Han.

Come on in. Good morning.

Good morning. The reading this morning is from the book of Joshua, chapter one, verses one through 11.

Joshua one, one through 11. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the

Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this

Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which

I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have

I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this

Lebanon unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the

Hittites and unto the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast.

There shall not be, pardon me, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses.

So I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which

I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which

Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

This book of the law shall not depart out of my mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the

Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, pass through the host, and command the people, saying, prepare you vittles, for within three days you shall pass over this

Jordan to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth to you to possess it.

May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. It's just great to be together, and let's join our hearts in praying for our country and our state during this very, very challenging time in our nation's history.

Join me in prayer, please. Father God, we humble our hearts before thee, for thou art a great and mighty

God. You deserve all of our praise, all of our worship, all of our adoration this morning, and that's what we do.

You tell us to love you with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength, to love our neighbor as ourself,

God. We confess, Father God, as Christians, even us here personally, that at times we do not put you first in our lives,

God. At times, Father, we love other things more than you, and there is not a true

Christian in our country, Father, that would not just be on their knees seeking your face and confessing the sin of this country.

The laws that are being passed, the blasphemy that goes on in this country,

I can't imagine, Father God, how you feel. God, our country needs your grace at this time, and God, we as Christians, we plead for that.

We think of the children that we have. We think of family members that we have.

We think of what's going on in Portland, in Kenosha, in our own state.

We think of this virus that has decimated the economy, people's lives,

God, that clearly is, in many ways, no different than any other virus,

God, and yet it has gripped this country in so many different ways.

We have an election coming up, Father God, and we just humbly now,

God, pray for your will to be done in the election that's coming up in November, God. God, we pray that you would prompt and put on Christians' hearts to seek your face daily.

God, that as the people of God in this country seek the face of Almighty God, that you might be pleased,

God. You might be pleased. You might be, as Moses said, God, think about the testimony of your people.

As churches are closed, Father God, and we know of many churches, God, where hundreds, if not thousands and thousands of people are worshiping you and singing and hugging and not a single case of infection in those churches,

God. We just think about what's going on in marriages, God, what's going on in school children.

We think about, Father, these single -parent homes where there's a child that has to go to school and has to try to learn on a computer screen,

God. So God, we appeal to you from the bottom of our heart that first and foremost, the people that truly belong to you in this country would be urged by the

Holy Spirit to pray for our nation daily, to join others,

Father, that are calling for days of fasting and prayer, God, coming up at our capitol,

September 25th, a march, it's called a prayer march, to pray for the government of this state.

God, first and foremost, Christians need to be on their knees, God, crying to you that you might intercede and intervene,

God. We pray for missionaries around the world that are serving that we support as a church for their safety,

God, and for your guidance in their lives. We pray for men and women in uniform, God, that you would protect them wherever they might be serving in the interest of the

United States. We pray you would give the leaders of this country wisdom, Father God, and discernment in the decisions that they make.

God, thank you. Thank you so much for Harold and Victor, God, that made almost a decision of faith that we would be able to come back together to videotape these messages,

God, and for whoever wants to come that they would come and to have this many of us here today. What a joy, what a blessing,

God. Pray you'll protect and continue to protect us in this church, God. Thank you for what you did in Victor and Barb's life,

God, and their family's life, God. Thank you so much for your grace,

God. Grace alone we're so thankful for in Jesus' name. Amen? Amen. Well, we're gonna continue worshiping in song.

The next song is the gospel song, and this is a really contemplative song that encapsulates the good news, the gospel message, and a lot of words, a few words with a lot of message packed into it.

So meditate on the words as you're singing it, and if you stand with me, please. Next, we'll be singing

Fairest Lord Jesus, precious song about our precious Savior.

♪ Jesus, ruler is fair ♪ ♪

Was his ruler, who made the world whole ♪ ♪

From sinless son,

John, who perished in sin ♪ Please be seated.

Made of the book of Joshua. I had a real conundrum this week, because in our church,

I'm going through the gospel of John, and I'm going through the gospel of John, and the message this morning in our church is so appropriate to what's going on in the world right now, because Jesus, John chapter five is kind of a turning point in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

If you remember, in John chapter three, he meets a man named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who comes to him at night, and then he's walking through the wilderness, and he stops in Samaria in John chapter four, and he witnesses to the

Samaritan woman by the well, right? That's a big event, and then right after that, a royal official from the court of Herod, the vassal king of Israel at that time under the

Roman Empire, has a sick son, and he implores

Jesus to come heal his son, and Jesus says, go home, your son is healed, and then in John chapter five, all of a sudden, all the

Jews are mad at him. He heals that lame man that had not walked in 38 years, he heals him, says get up, take up your pallet and walk, right?

And then in response to the Jews getting mad about him healing on the

Sabbath, and telling this man of all things to carry his pallet, you don't do anything on the

Sabbath, right, except worship, they're all mad at him, and he says, well, I just got a word for you.

My father is working right now, and so am I. And the

Greek there is my father is always working, and I'm always working, and he equated himself with God.

And then Harold says in his introduction, talking about the promises of God, and if you look at your notes, in the sovereignty of God, and in the timing of God, we're in the book of Joshua, and the whole message of Joshua, every chapter, every verse, is that God is faithful to fulfill his promises, and I just about jumped out of my skin when

Harold started our service with the word promise. So I want you to go with me to Joshua chapter 21.

Now, we're doing an airplane view of the

Bible. We're going through the Old Testament at about 10 ,000 to 15 ,000 feet, okay?

We're a little lower than the airliner, but we're not on the ground, because we're not gonna go through this verse by verse.

We're going through this as an overview, and really, I'm gonna highlight certain verses, but we're gonna do the entire book of Joshua this morning.

Amen? Amen. And you say, I bet. So we've done the first five books of the

Bible. We've done the Pentateuch, the law, the books of Moses. Joshua begins a section of the

Old Testament called the historical books. Now, if you want an outline of the

Old Testament that you will never forget, put your finger and hands up like this.

Five books of the law are your thumb. 12 books of history is your index finger.

Your middle finger, five books of wisdom. Your next finger, five major prophets, and your pinky, the way to one, 12 minor prophets.

That's the outline of the Old Testament. Books of the law, 12 books of history, five books of wisdom, five major prophets, and then 12 minor prophets, 39.

How about that? And Victor and Barb might remember that from Sunday school when they were growing up, because that's an old, old trick, okay?

So we've started the index finger. 12 books, historical books. Joshua is the first one.

Now, these 12 books, all 12 of them, are important for a variety of reasons, one of which, listen, one of which is how

God deals with a people that he has set aside for himself.

Remember, the Israelites were not the only people in the world. Do you understand that? There's Canaanites, there's

Hittites, there's Moabites, there's Ammonites, there's Joshuaites, there's all kinds of people, okay?

I have some jokes about it, but I decided to not tell you. With all the Hittites and the

Ittites and the Natites and the Ganites. But the Israelites is a group of people, of all the people in the world, that God has set apart for himself.

God set Israel apart for himself. And the books of history, all 12 of them, from Joshua all the way through Esther, they show us how

God deals with this special group of people that he has set aside for himself.

And I go back to something that I've said over the past couple of Sundays that's so important to remember is that God set apart

Israel for himself in basically in much the same way that he sets aside

Christians for himself. So we are like the

Israelites in that sense. They are believers under the old covenant. Christians are believers under what?

The new covenant. So when 2 3rds of the Bible is devoted to this group of people and what goes on with them, we ought to have a basic understanding of what's going on with them because Paul says in 1

Corinthians 10, look at them and don't do what they did. And let me just tell you, study church history sometime.

We are doing exactly what they did. It may look different because we have a car and we have a house and we have the internet, but we're going, the church at large is going exactly the way that Israel went.

All you have to do is understand a basic history of the Old Testament and you see it going on around you right now in church.

What's going on with worship, what's going on with music, what's going on with the things of this world, all of that kind of stuff, exactly the same thing, okay?

So if we can get a picture and have a sense of how God dealt with Israel, believers can learn these deep and immensely practical lessons for living the

Christian life, how to handle the world that we live in. If we can begin to picture and to understand the what's and the why's and so on of how

God dealt with Israel, there's very practical lessons to learn about living the

Christian life today. Remember last week I gave you a maxim when we looked at the book of Deuteronomy.

I said the only thing that we learn from history is we don't learn from history, right?

The common one is history repeats itself. But if you know anything at all about history, the only thing we learn from history is we don't learn from history.

Just look at the national debt, okay?

And then in Deuteronomy I took that and I said, does, if you remember, does our past present an argument for how things will be in our future?

And the answer we saw in Deuteronomy is what? Absolutely, right? Does our past present an argument for why we might expect

God's blessings on our future or does our past argue for something less hopeful?

So now in Joshua and then in Judges and then through the rest of the books of history, we are gonna see in vivid technicolor how

Israel's past affected their future. In Joshua, you see how their decisions, their choices, their priorities, their compromises, when

God says, go a mile, they got a little tired.

After that half mile and they didn't complete the mile and that affected them.

And this all flows into how we live our lives today. Their priorities, their compromises absolutely positively affected their future.

And our prayer should be, seriously, by God's grace, that we would truly learn from this history and not let history repeat itself.

And prove that we can learn from history, amen? I'm serious, that's our charge.

I mean, this church, Faith Bible Church has a history, okay? And it's affecting this church today in various ways.

I pray that we will truly learn from this history which is really a negative example, okay?

From Israel, let's pray. Father, we need the Holy Spirit.

You know how weak we are. You know how busy we are. You know how scared we are.

You know how confused we are, God, with what's going on in this world. This one says this, this one says this, this says this, this says this.

This many people are dying, then the CDC comes out and that many people are dying. God, we know that we can trust you.

We know that we can trust you. And we're asking that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes of understanding to your word this morning, we pray in Jesus' name, amen?

So one of the reasons that the 12 books of history are so important is because they give us a record of God's dealing with a group of people called the

Israelites that he sets aside for his special purposes. And chisel this down, take out a piece of stone and chisel this down on a stone tablet so you don't forget it.

In the same way that God set apart Israel as a special people for himself with special purposes,

God has done the same with Christians. We have been set apart because of the gospel of Jesus Christ under the new covenant as a special people for his own special purposes, okay?

Now, the book of Joshua. Joshua is essentially a record of God keeping his promises to Israel over the course of 20 years or so, okay?

Promises that he made to them back in Genesis, that he made in Exodus and on through the books of the law.

And just like the book of Exodus is not about Moses or a guy named Charlton Heston, if you ever saw that movie,

The Ten Commandments, my kids, it was so funny when we rented that movie or my mom gave it to us, right?

My mom gave it and we put it in. And within like three minutes, they'd wanted nothing to do with this movie because here's

Charlton Heston. I thought, what, isn't this about God, dad? I mean, can you imagine what was that eight years ago?

They were upset. Don't, we don't wanna see this movie, dad. Okay. I don't know if it's a generation thing or what.

So Joshua is not about Joshua. Joshua is about God, just like Job.

Job is called Job, but read Job sometime. What it's about is God, all right? The author was most likely

Joshua with some additions by a high priest by the name of Eliezer and his son,

Phinehas. The time covered is about 20 years. If you flip your notes over,

I gave you a timeline on the back that you can look at. Around 1405 to 1380

BC. And the most common word in the book gives you how to unpack what the book says.

And that is the word conquest. The word conquest is found in the book of Joshua over 40 times or a little less, depending on the translation.

Now, what is the message of the book of Joshua? How can you remember the book of Joshua?

Look at Joshua 21 and look with me at verse 43. So the

Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers.

And they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around according to all that he had sworn to their fathers.

And not a man of all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

And you might wanna underline verse 45. Not a word failed.

What does that mean? Not a word failed. That's what it means.

Of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel, all came to pass.

Man, you can stop right there, John. Right? Go ahead and dismiss us, sing the closing hymn.

That's good enough for me in the days in which we live. So a good way to sum up the message of Joshua, and I put it in your notes, it's so appropriate for the days in which we live.

God is faithful to fulfill his promises. God is faithful to fulfill his promises in all things and in all times, even in the days of the extreme turmoil that we're living in today.

I saw a news story this morning, a picture of East Portland, and the news commentator put up a picture of the streets of Baghdad during the invasion of Baghdad, and you could not tell the difference between the two scenes in our own country.

So an entire book dedicated to chronicling and documenting a record of God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises.

And the approach that I wanna take, it's a two -part sermon, or two -part message.

If you look at your outline, I wanna answer the question, how? The very simple way to look at the book of Joshua.

How does the book of Joshua demonstrate that God is faithful to fulfill all of his promises?

As it says in verse 45, all came to pass. Number one, by God enabling

Israel to conquer the land. So how does the book of Joshua demonstrate and document and record

God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises? Well, the first half of the book, the first 12 chapters, does this by recording the history and the steps that Israel took and that God had them take to go in and conquer the promised land.

And I wanna give you a quick snapshot of the first half of this book. In the first five chapters, the spies are sent into the land and they are sent in to the city of Jericho.

Israel is camped out on the east side of the Jordan River. Their look up, the city of Jericho was up on a hill.

I would have some slides for you, but it's just too complicated right now. We're trying to start school online next week.

Too much going on to make sure that the slides are correct and everything else. But they're looking across and here's this fortified city of Jericho.

They go in, in these first five chapters, we learn about Rahab the prostitute, right?

They hid, she hid the spies. She heard about the God of Israel. We read all about Israel crossing the

Jordan River and how God divides the Jordan River just like he did the Red Sea and they cross across on dry land.

We read about Israel consecrating themselves to the Lord. They begin practicing circumcision again.

They just basically go back to what they should have been doing all along. And then the

Israelites prepare themselves for the first military move against Jericho because Jericho was the key strategic city when it come to conquering

Canaan. If you're going to go into Canaan and you're going to conquer Canaan from the east or from the south, you gotta take

Jericho, okay? It was unconquerable at that time. So in obedience to God, in this very strange way in chapter six,

God tells them to mark Jericho for destruction by circling it once a day, right?

Marching around it once a day. And you can imagine the soldiers, right? Up on the wall.

I mean, I have some diagrams of the wall. It's an amazing thing how big it was, okay?

You could drive chariots like two or three abreast across. That's how thick it was at the top, okay?

And I have a picture of a man and maybe I'll show it to you next week, I'll see. But anyway, so I can see the soldiers looking down at these little ants because that's how tall the thing was.

And here they go marching around once a day for six days. And then on the seventh day, what happens? Seven times, right?

And then they blow these trumpets. And these are like, what are they doing? They're doing six, what's going on?

And you know, can you imagine them drinking water and having their morning coffee? What are these wacky Israelites up to today?

And they blow their trumpets and the walls come tumbling down. And there's a whole sermon that I did on that chapter years ago where I did the research and when they began to excavate the walls of Jericho.

Now, when you think of a wall falling down, what do you think of? Falling down.

No, those walls collapsed on themselves. The archeologists were absolutely dumbfounded when they began to excavate those walls, they had crumbled straight down on themselves.

And the Israelites poured in and they wiped out the city, right? This military thrust goes on in chapter seven and eight.

There's a setback. The city of A is finally taken. Chapters nine through 10 talk about the next military command where the

Israelites go in to the southern part of the promised land. They begin to take those cities.

And finally, let's go to chapter 11. Because closing out the first half of the book,

Israel goes from the southern city, so they take Jericho, they do the southern cities. Now they head north and we go to chapter 11 because Israel is gonna turn their attention to the northern cities of Canaan.

Chapter 11, verse 18. Take a look. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all the others they took in battle.

For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts. Does that sound familiar?

Remember the book of Exodus when God hardened Pharaoh's heart? It was of the

Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them and that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them as the

Lord had commanded Moses. And then verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the

Lord had said to Moses and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes and then the land rested from war.

Now that is a snapshot of what happens in the first 12 chapters. Now go with me to chapter three.

How can we see God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises demonstrated in God enabling?

Remember, the taking of Jericho was a miracle. Are you getting that? They did not conquer it militarily.

They conquered it because God tore the walls down. That's the only way they could get in. It's just an amazing whole, just so amazing.

But how can we see God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises demonstrated in him enabling

Israel to conquer the land? Well, one way, one aspect can be seen in the character, the nature, the logistics of the conquest.

And the first one is that the conquest was enabled by God. Look at Joshua 3 .5.

Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourselves, that's set yourselves apart.

That's a whole has to do with their relationship with God. For tomorrow, the

Lord will do wonders among you. Get right with God. For tomorrow, he the

Lord will do wonders among you. Now this verse and countless others in Joshua declare that absolutely the sole reason the only way that Israel was able to conquer the land was because God enabled them to do it.

He promised them the land. He gave them specific instructions to obey in terms of how to conquer it.

March around the city once, then go chill. March around it the next day, go chill some more.

March around it the next, I mean, everything is very specific how they're to do it, okay? And when they obeyed him and did it the way he said to do it, they were successful.

But when they didn't do it the way he said to do it, they failed, okay?

They lost. In Joshua, there are examples of the blessing of obedience to God.

And then there is the other side of the coin, the disobedience. The book is absolutely about the

Lord doing the wonders. And this is so, you know, we can go march to the Capitol all we want, do you understand?

We can write the governor, we can sign recall petitions, we can do all of these things, and we should vote as citizens, right?

But you understand, our trust has to not be in that.

Our trust has to be where? And then if it doesn't turn out the way we think, guess what?

God's still working. Do you understand that? I mean, we were horrified in certain elections in the past 20 years in this country, were we not?

Go to chapter 10. Look at this. Chapter 10, verse 42.

All these kings and their land, Joshua took at one time because the

Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. It doesn't say that Joshua won because he was a skilled military commander.

No, the only reason Joshua was able to conquer the land is because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.

So the character of Israel's conquest of Canaan was enabled by God. It was completely executed by God.

Secondly, in terms of the character of the conquest, the nature of the conquest, understand this has a lot to do with what's going on today.

Understand it was not a campaign for political control. Go to chapter six.

Another aspect of the conquest of Canaan, that it was not a military campaign for political controller purposes like most wars fought today.

It was a campaign to utterly destroy the people living in the land.

Now, I can go to a ton of verses, but I'm just gonna look at this chapter six, verse 20.

And by the way, I encourage you, this is the kind of message that I strongly encourage you. If it's possible for you to read the book of Joshua this week after hearing this message, do it.

It's not, it doesn't take that long because then you can overlay your own reading with the sermon and kind of connect some of the dots, okay, on your own.

So if you have time in your devotions, I strongly encourage you, read the book of Joshua. But look at verse 20 in chapter six.

And they utterly, Israelites, destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

I mean, that's pretty heavy. Actually, I'm sorry, verse 20.

So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat, and that's what the archeologists found, then the people went up into the city, every man straight before them, and they took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

Verse 24, but they burned the city, and all that was in it with fire, only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the

Lord. And I remember one time talking with some people about, we're reading the

Old Testament for the first time, and they said, are you kidding me? God told him to kill men, women, children, ox, animals, everything?

Yeah? What kind of God would do that? Don't you think that's kind of a reasonable question?

Come on, be honest. Well, I can tell you, it's a reasonable question, but God is

God, and the reason is because he knew what those people and their lifestyle would do to his people, and that is exactly what happened.

The leaven of the Canaanites leavened the people of God, just like the leaven of the world is leavening

Christians today. When God was done with Jericho, there was nothing left.

Incredible death and destruction, the conquest of Canaan was not a campaign for political control, it was a campaign to complete and fulfill the promises of God, so that Israel could go in and possess the inheritance promised them by God.

It was a campaign to execute God's judgment on sin.

You understand, without the shedding of blood, there's what? No remission of sin, right?

God's love is so broad that Christ died even while we were yet sinners. Christ died,

I mean, come on. I can go off on a rabbit trail. God wanted to protect his children from the leaven of the

Canaanites, and he also was reinforcing the whole lesson about the penalty of sin is death.

Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is what? Death. So Israel conquered

Canaan, but that conquest was enabled by God, and our challenge today is to not let the 3 ,000 years that separates us from the events of Joshua to diminish their relevance for us today.

Israel's conquest of Canaan foreshadows what God is doing today, as he calls his people together, as people respond to the gospel, and they come under his rule.

Joshua's name in the Hebrew has the same meaning of Jesus's name in the

Greek. Jehovah is salvation. Jesus in the Greek means Jehovah is salvation.

Joshua in the Hebrew means Jehovah is salvation. Joshua is a type of Christ. He is our great captain who has conquered not a passing earthly kingdom, right, but sin and death and all that goes with that.

That's our conqueror who came on a lowly donkey foal, right?

So Christ calls us to follow him, just like Joshua called Israel to follow him, and Christians like the

Israelites following Joshua are meant to enter to the victory and the inheritance that Christ has won for us.

This is why Paul says in Galatians 2 .20, I'm crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, and the life that I now live,

I live how? By faith in the Son of God. This all fits together, Genesis to Revelation, all of it.

Okay, back to our question. How does the book of Joshua demonstrate and document

God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises? Second, not only by enabling

Israel to conquer the land, by enabling Israel to possess the land.

That's chapters 13 to 22. The book of Joshua demonstrates

God's faithfulness in fulfilling and keeping his promises, first of all, by enabling Israel to conquer the land, and secondly, by enabling

Israel to possess the land. Now, most of the first half of the book is devoted to describing

Israel conquering the land. The second half of the book describes the process of dividing up the land by the 12 tribes.

So, quick overview of the second half of the book. Go to chapter 13. In chapter 13, the people recall that Moses had already allotted the land to the east of the

Jordan to the two and a half tribes, Manasseh, Reuben.

It records that no part of Canaan was assigned, there's a whole discussion I can get into,

Manasseh, the half tribes of Israel, but I just don't have time to develop it.

But look at chapter 13, verse 33. But to the tribe of Levi, so they go through all the tribes, everybody gets a portion of the land, two tribes get a little slice of Moab to the east of the

Jordan River, but to the tribe of Levi, Moses has given no inheritance, the

Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he had said to them.

Now, just look at that verse for a moment. So, Levi didn't get any part of the land.

Why? What was their inheritance?

A piece of real estate? God. How about that?

You know, believers are what? Modern day Levites, because we're priests.

You know that? What about that house we work on and spend all that time mowing the lawn?

What's our inheritance? God himself. I mean, it's just amazing.

So, later in the book, you learn that certain towns scattered throughout Canaan were given to the Levites to live so that their ministry, so that the teaching of the law could be spread around the land, would be readily available.

If you lived in northern part of the kingdom, you didn't have to come down to Jerusalem. There were cities there where the Levites would live, towns, basically chapters 13 through 22 lay out the areas of the land that were allotted to the 12 tribes of Israel, and then you get to chapter 19, if you'll turn there.

When you get to chapter 19, verse 51, the very end of chapter 19, so they made an end to dividing the country, and it's over, okay?

Chapter 20 designates the cities of refuge where someone who killed someone unintentionally could flee.

So, if you killed somebody and it was an accident, you know, under the law, you would have to die, right?

Well, it was an accident, so you run to one of the cities of refuge, and then there's a time period where they could investigate that.

That's a whole nother sermon on the cities of refuge. Chapter 21 lists the towns reserved for the

Levites. Chapters 22 to 24, like Moses said goodbye at the end of Deuteronomy, chapter 22, 23, and 24 is

Joshua's bye -bye to Israel. So, the second half of Joshua records the history of the people dividing up the land that they've conquered, right?

And this comes back to our question of how. How can we see God's faithfulness to fulfill

His promises in the second half of Joshua as they move in, they've conquered the land because of God, now they're possessing the land, what do we learn?

Well, one, go to chapter 14, because we learn about God fulfilling

His promises by how God leads them to divide up the land between the 12 tribes.

The people divide the land by tribes, not the way they want to, not based on the population of a tribe or the value of the land in a particular area, but the way

God tells them to divide up the land. Look at chapter 14, verse five. As the

Lord had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land.

You see, we see God's faithfulness to fulfill His promises worked out verse after verse as Israel divides up the land in obedience to God.

And a second way that God enables Israel to possess the land is by teaching

His children the importance of reverencing and obeying Him. Now, the first half of Joshua is about Israel conquering

Canaan. The second half is about going in and possessing the land and dividing it up by tribe.

But all of this activity, the walls of Jericho falling down, the military campaigns, those are all the numerator of the book, right?

If you do fractions, you got numerators and what? Denominators, right? So the numerators are all that activity, but the denominator for that equation, the cord that ties it all together is this vow of Israel to fear and to reverence and to obey

God. And you might think about the main lesson of God fulfilling

His promises and keeping His promises, right? There's another lesson that's kind of parallel to that in this book.

God's children, Israel in the Old Testament, Christians in the New Testament, God's children need to recognize the critical importance of reverencing

Him and obeying Him. Go to Joshua 1. Joshua 1, what

Dave read for us earlier. Joshua 1, verse 7.

In a very real sense, obedience is the only logical and appropriate response to the

God who keeps His promises. Isn't that right? I mean, you would think about it.

When God saves us from our sin, can you remember back when you were first a Christian? I remember being so excited about obeying

God. And then all of a sudden, I found at times that obedience is a bit of a burden.

Can anybody relate to that? No, don't raise your hand. I'll raise it. Yeah, it's just me.

Okay. Look at verse 7. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to some of the law, according to what you feel like.

No, according to all the law, which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.

And as you go through the book of Joshua, if you wanna follow my challenge to read it this week, this is the critical theme that you see played out.

Obedience. I mean, when they're getting ready to cross the Jordan, Joshua says, this is what we gotta do.

What do you think Israel does? They argue with him. I mean, I don't wanna do it this way.

Can anybody relate to that? It's gonna be so hard. I'll never forget when I first started tithing.

Does anybody remember back? You know, I went to church and I saw people putting money in the plate, and I spent, you know,

I didn't make any money. I was a church janitor. I hardly, yeah, that was another one of my jobs.

My kids are like, dad, that's the first time I heard of that. You were a bicycle mechanic, a moped mechanic, a motorcycle mechanic?

That's an inside joke. Anyway, I remember when

I first started tithing. Man, it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life, writing that first check to the church for 10 % of my gross, yeah.

And then I found out the Old Testament teaches, you ready for this? You're gonna love me for this one. You know what the

Old Testament actually teaches? 23 and a half percent. Well, 23 and a third. Count up the offerings sometimes.

That's what the Israelites were. There wasn't just the tithe. There was a temple offering. There was all kinds of, and it adds up to 23 and a third.

Yep, okay, rewrite your check. Go ahead. I digress.

In chapter five, they're crossing the Jordan, but before moving in to Jericho, Israel begins practicing circumcision again.

They begin observing the Passover again. And you remember he had given those ordinances to them 40 years early during the

Exodus, but as they worked through the wilderness, those things dropped by the wayside.

Sound familiar? How many of us started out reading our Bible every morning, and then we got busy?

How many of us started reading through the Bible every year, then we got busy? Sound familiar?

When we first came to church, we couldn't wait to come to church and sing, and we never thought about anything else, and now we come to church, and we're worried about what's on our smartphone, who's texting us.

I mean, these are the things that happened to us, and it happened to Israel. Learn from it.

And here's the bottom line. Obedience is the only logical act or response to the

God who keeps his promises. God promises to save someone simply by faith in Christ, and then that person makes a profession of faith, and thus basically does nothing with that faith.

Right? They say, oh, I'll become a Christian, and then they turn around, and they do nothing with it.

And Israel, they make vows. God miraculously takes them into the land.

They conquer the land. They possess the land. And even though they see all these incredible works of God, they continue to sin.

They continue. You're gonna see it in the book when you read it. They sin by commission. They directly disobey

God. In fact, for example, God commanded Israel to totally eliminate the inhabitants of Jericho and their possessions in order to protect them from their paganism and sin, and yet when you read chapter seven, if you read it this week, there's

Achan who disobeys. You know what he does? He's going around, and he sees this really neat gold and silver stuff that God sent to destroy.

You know what he does? Kind of hides it and keeps it. Chapter nine.

You have sins of omission, right? There's sins of commission. Commission, direct disobedience.

Omission, hey, I didn't know I shouldn't do this, or I forgot. Chapter nine, verse 14.

The men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask the counsel of the

Lord. So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

This was a sin of omission. They just didn't realize that they should have asked the Lord first, right?

They should have, before they made this peace treaty with the Gibeonites, they should have asked the Lord, right? They didn't.

When the truth of the Gibeonites was later discovered because they deceived them, the Israelite people were unhappy with their leaders, but it was too late.

They admitted praying to the Lord, and that sin led to significant problems down the Lord, and we can just go on and on throughout the book of Joshua.

Sins of commission, direct disobedience. Sins of omission, oh, I should have asked the Lord, I forgot. Okay, let's close.

23, chapter 23. In order to really understand

Joshua, in order to really understand your own life, you must understand the concept of sin.

See, the Bible tells us that God created man in his own image, right? In the image of God, man,

God, man created, God created man. But man rebelled against that authority.

Just think about the last time you did something you knew was wrong. The guilt or prick in your conscience.

According to the Bible, that is not some Freudian super ego acting up, but rather, it is a testimony of a

God -given conscience concerning the sin that David says, the psalmist says, we fundamentally commit against God, even if the sin is perpetrated against somebody else.

You see, it's sin that explains the many problems in our lives and the many problems that we can cause for others.

And it's sin that is at the root of all that is happening in the world today.

Adam and Eve's sin caused the fall of the human race. Man's universal sin, man's universal sin brought up God's judgment by means of the flood.

God looked out on the earth and every thought and intention of a man's heart, of every man's heart was evil, including, by the way,

Noah. And then it says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of God.

A's sin cost him his life and it cost Israel victory in battle.

It's sin that provides the backdrop of God's dramatic judgments in the book of Joshua with men, women, and children being struck down.

Why did God have to kill these people? Because of their sin. They were pagan. They were idolatrous.

Was Rahab killed? She was saved by grace.

She's in the hall of faith. All of Jericho had a chance to do what Rahab did.

Do you understand? Because Rahab told the spies, we've heard about your God and I fear him.

So did they all have to die? No. I mean, that's a whole study in itself that's fantastic.

It's this sin for which we desperately and eternally need forgiveness and deliverance. It is this sin that Jesus Christ, though fully human like us, entirely avoided so that he might die as the perfect sinless sacrifice like the spotless lamb of Exodus, the

Passover lamb, right? To provide the forgiveness and salvation that you and I and the whole world needs.

See, the message of Joshua, the truth that God is faithful to fulfill his promises is really a plea from God to Christians and non -Christians to examine themselves, to pray that God would give us the humility and eyes to see the truth about ourselves, to pray that he would help us see and confess our sins of commission and omission.

Look at chapter 23, verse six. Therefore be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left and lest you go among these nation, these who remain among you.

You should not make mention of the names of their God nor cause anyone to swear by them. You should not serve them or bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the

Lord your God as you have done to this day. Can I ask you a question?

Did Israel do this? Can you imagine seeing the walls of Jericho fall down?

Can you imagine crossing the Jordan River and then having

God tell you this and then not doing it? This book serves as an everlasting reminder of the children of God that he fulfills his promises.

It's also an everlasting reminder of the dangers of sin, the critical need to incline our heart to the

Lord God, to meditate on his word as it says, do not let this book of the law, what?

Depart from your mouth, but meditate, ruminate in it day and night that you will be careful to do all that is written in it.

Then your way will be made, what? Prosperous and successful, amen? Amen?

Let's pray. Please just take a few minutes look at those verses or a note you made.

I saw a couple of you writing and just use this time to pray and ask the

Lord that his word might penetrate your heart and then

Harold will come and lead us in a closing song. You know our hearts,

God. You know that we are weak vessels and we need to be reminded.

We so need to be reminded that the life we live, we live by faith in the son of God, that we cannot do it even with everything that Israel had, they could not do it.

And that's all Father God pointing us to the sufficiency of Christ.

What a wonderful thought. I can do all things through Christ and only through him, by him and for him.

So thank you for this day. Thank you for this time in your word. Thank you that you are a

God that makes and fulfills your promises. In Jesus name, amen?

Brother Harold. If you'd stand with me, we're gonna close our service this morning.

Grace greater than our sin. ♪ Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing ♪

Wonderful singing, it's wonderful being together. I'll leave you with the closing verse, Psalm 27, 14. Wait on the

Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the