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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/aj-higgins/joshua-god-prepares-his-servant/
Just to begin back in the book of Exodus, if we will, if you can, Exodus chapter 17. We're looking at some lessons to be learned from the life of Joshua and from the book of Joshua. We'll be looking at the education of a man that God would use.
Preparation of a man to be used by God today, this morning. So Exodus chapter 17 and we'll just break in at verse number 9, Moses said unto Joshua, God choose you out men and go out and fight with Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses said unto him. Verse number 18, rather verse number 13, and Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Then Deuteronomy chapter 34, the very last mention of Joshua before coming into the book of Joshua. Joshua 34 and verse number 9, Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom. Moses had laid his hands upon him and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and he did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Now come to the book of Joshua, if you will, and chapter number 1. Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass 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 in the land which I will do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place 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, even unto the great river and 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 any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.
As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Be strong and of 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, thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from the right hand or to the left, thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, thou shalt meditate therein day and night. 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 not I commanded thee? Be strong and of 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 and to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.
The Reubenites, the Gadites, the half-tribe of Manassas, spake Joshua, saying, Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.
Your wives, your little ones, your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side, Jordan, but ye shall pass over with your brethren, before your brethren, armed, all the mighty men of Valor, and help them, until the Lord hath given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the Lord your God giveth them.
Then shall you return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side, Jordan, toward the sun rising. And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us, we will do.
Whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go, according as we hearkened unto Moses in all things. So will we hearken unto thee. Only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whithersoever he be, that doth not that doth rebel against the commandment, but I'll hearken unto thy words, and all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death.
Only be strong and of good courage. Now there's lots we could read chapter 2, just for the sake of time. Recall the spies went to the city of Jericho, sheltered in the house of Rahab, left behind the golden thread.
And verse number 23, So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them. They said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land, even all the inhabitants of the country, do faint because of us.
Finally chapter 5, just for one final section, and verse number 13. This is prior to the battle of Jericho. Came to pass, verse 13, when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man over against him, with sword drawn in his hand.
And Joshua went unto him, saying, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the Lord's host unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet. The place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. And we know the God-wild blessing to the public reading of his word.
Now there's not time to give a big background of the book of Joshua. Just mention this, that the book of Genesis, of course, is the book about the way down. Begins in the Garden of Eden, ends in a coffin in Egypt.
So Genesis is about the way down. Exodus, of course, by his very name, is the book about the way out, the way out of Egypt, and the way of redemption. Leviticus is the book about the way in to the presence of God.
Book of Numbers is the way through the desert scene. The book of Deuteronomy, the way over Jordan, and crossing over into the land. And then of course, come to the book of Joshua, the next book, and it's all about the way in, to possess what God had promised them, and what God had provided for them.
We come then to Joshua chapter 1, and we begin to see something of how God prepared a man for his service. Now whether you are the Apostle Paul, which, sorry to say you're not, or you happen to be just a lad with five loaves and two fishes, God always prepares each of his servants for whatever work he has for you to do.
However minor you may think it is, however major you may think it is, whatever it is, God will prepare you. Whether a Sunday school teacher, a personal worker, an elder in the assembly, an evangelist, a teacher, whatever it may be, God has lessons, has classes in his school, through which you must matriculate, and you cannot possibly avoid them.
So we'll see some of the lessons that Joshua had to learn, some of the classes he had to attend, and how God prepared his servants for his work. In fact, we read together there in Exodus chapter 17, the very first mention of Joshua in the Word of God.
All told, there are 26 mentions of Joshua before you get to the book of Joshua. Joshua's experience is seen in the book of Exodus, and Numbers, and so on. But here we come then to a young man in Exodus chapter 17, and his first lesson is a conflict with Amalek.
Now most of the older believers here would know, so it's not any big surprise or great teaching. Amalek in the Word of God is always a picture of the flesh. So the first thing he has to learn before he is going to be of any use for God is the intransigence and the rebellion of the flesh.
And I want to tell you, you never stop learning that lesson. You just discover deeper, more sinister, more awful aspects of your flesh as life goes on. In fact, one of the best indications of a person being a Christian, being saved, is they realize the awfulness of their flesh.
Just how contrary to God it is. So the first place we find him is battling Amalek, battling the flesh. The last place we see him prior to entering into the book of Joshua, we see a young, we see a man who has matriculated 40 years in the wilderness with Moses.
He has learned lessons, and we read about a man who is full of the spirit of wisdom. He had learned God in the wilderness experience, and now he's coming into his place of usefulness for God here as we see him in Joshua chapter 21.
40 years of preparation for his life's work. Now that doesn't mean you're going to be 40 years learning whatever God wants you to learn. Actually, life itself in all of its totality is a school room. But God was preparing his servant for the work he had for him to do in his life.
So let me just mention a few things about this man and some of the things he learned, along with his battling with the flesh. He learned, first of all, to work with an older man. Very commendable. He was an understudy.
He was a servant to Moses. He learned to work with an older man. Now, I was once young and now I'm old, so I can tell you from experience. When you're young, you think you know everything, and the rest of your life you spend learning that you really didn't know anything.
But he was willing to learn from an older man. 40 years he spent being mentored by Moses, waiting for his usefulness to be really totally evident to everyone else. Periods of waiting. Could I just mention to you the discipline of delay?
God disciplines his servants by the discipline of delay. In fact, wherever you find a man who was useful for God in the Word of God, he learned the discipline of delay. David, anointed, at 17 years of age, he doesn't come to the throne until he's 30 years of age.
Moses, 40 years in the wilderness, learning the discipline of delay. Paul, in the wilderness, years spent there, years spent prior to coming, being brought by Barnabas to Antioch. The discipline of delay.
Hard on the flesh. Hard on exercise at times. But in that period of time, God is honing his servant for future usefulness. So we learn, first of all, then the discipline of delay. But then not only did he accompany with Moses, but there was a crisis at Kadesh Barnea.
Now you all know the story. The twelve spies, we sing of it. In Sunday school, ten were bad, two were good. Caleb had to learn how to stand alone against the crowd. It even meant standing against fellow believers.
That doesn't mean we become stubborn and ornery and contrary, but he had to learn to stand with God against public opinion, against the crowd. Very difficult. You will have times of testing in your life.
Now they don't come, unfortunately, marked as, this is a critical test in your life. Please pay attention. They may seem like very minor incidental things, but there will be tests you will have in life that God is going to put you through, because your future usefulness will depend upon how you react for God.
There were many tests in the life of Joseph. Many tests. But would you think that waking up one morning, seeing the sad expression on the faces of two of your fellow prisoners, would be the crisis that is going to eventually catapult you into the throne room?
Because he was sensitive to the sorrows that marked two prisoners, and he asked them about their dreams, God is going to use that for his future usefulness. Now if I had been Joseph, and I had asked them, why are you sad today?
And they told me, because of the dreams we had, I would have said, boys, would you mind if we don't go there? Dreams brought me into a lot of problems. I'd like to avoid dreams for now. No. He was sensitive to their need, he served them, he was humble, he was faithful, and really his whole future depended upon what he was going to do with the sad expression on the face of two fellow prisoners.
Go through the Word of God, and think of the the minor tests that people, what about Philemon? Just in the course of everyday life, of his business life, he's called upon to to show kindness and forgive a runaway slave.
Philemon, do you realize the whole reason you were born? Your whole usefulness in life. You are one of the few individuals being that is being given the privilege of mirroring, of representing something of the heart of a father in forgiving sinners.
How are you going to respond? I mean, there are many, many, many types and pictures in the Word of God of our Savior, aren't there? Beginning way back in the book of Genesis. How many examples, how many types of the father and his love for sinners can you find in the Word of God?
Philemon is one. The prodigal father of Luke 15 is one, and you can search for one or two others, but there are not too many. So Philemon's very reason for existing, he was going to face in the normal, average, business day in his own home.
So tests come at home, in the business world, in the assembly, in society, and you go through the Word of God and see individuals who face tremendous tests. Just one other. If you had interviewed Rebecca before ever she got to the well, and Rebecca, do you know that today is the most important day in your life?
She would say, I'm just going out to water the sheep, just going out to draw water for the sheep. And Rebecca, do you realize that how you treat a stranger is going to be the determining factor of whether or not you come into the genealogy of Christ and all the blessings of the Covenant?
So just an average day doing her normal work, caring for her father's sheep, showing kindness to a stranger, a test that was going to determine her future, bringing her into the very line of the Messiah.
So the testing that you will hear then for this man, Joshua, there was this test of standing alone for God at Kadesh Barnea. His whole usefulness for God depended how he would react. He was willing to rely upon God for the giants.
Yes, there were giants. He recognized the difficulties, recognized the obstacles in his service, recognized that service would not be easy for God. Do not mistake God's call for a smooth ride forward.
If God calls you to a sphere of service, it is very likely going to involve tremendous difficulties. Because you are in the mind of God does not mean things always go smoothly. Jeremiah is not my subject for the weekends.
I don't know of anyone who had a more difficult sphere of service than Jeremiah. Forty years of service for God. How many converts? He had two that I know of. Barak and Ebed-Melech. Forty years of preaching for God.
Two converts. The pit, the stockade, the prison, the reproach. Not much success. And he didn't even have a wife to come home to at night to unburden his heart. He wasn't allowed to marry. So that blessing does not always mean that God is with you, and lack of blessing does not always mean that God is not with you.
One of Jeremiah's greatest privileges, he didn't know, didn't realize. It awaited a future day when men said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe he's Jeremiah. You understand what I'm saying? That Jeremiah was allowed before ever Christ came to be a picture of the Lord Jesus as a man of sorrows, as a man who knew reproach, shame, dishonor from the hand of his own nation.
So that Jeremiah little understood God's purposes for his life and God's plan for his life. He knew he was sent as a prophet. He knew he was called to be faithful. But little did he know that God was framing and shaping and forming him into a pre, into a picture of the Lord Jesus in his life.
So, lessons to be learned. The ability to rely upon God for all the difficulties will come. And again, he did not realize that he was being educated for the greatest work of his life in those years of honing by God.
But I'm going to mention one other thing. Along with accompanying with Moses and the crisis at Kadesh, the consuming of manna. There are three men who fed on manna for 40 years, right? Three men we know who fed on manna for 40 years.
There was Moses, there was Caleb, and there was Joshua. Now there probably were other men, younger men, who did not die in all the plagues and so forth. But here are three men that we know, passed through the wilderness scene for 40 long years and fed on manna for those 40 years.
What does it say about Moses? His vision. His eye was not dim. A man who still had clear spiritual vision because he fed on manna for 40 years. What does it say about Caleb? His vigor. I am as strong this day as I was.
So, Moses, because the manna gave him clear vision. Caleb, it gave him vigor in service for God. What about Joshua here? Courage. Valor. He was strong and courageous because he fed on manna. So could I just take a moment, especially because of young believers who are here, and talk to you for a few minutes about feeding on the Word of God.
I spend some time listening to Voices for Christ and Gospel Hall audio. Very nice. Great to hear the ministry of men of a past generation. Men that have contributed so heavily and so profitably to the work of God and to the ministry of God.
But you cannot live on second-hand food. You'll have to learn to reap from the Word of God for yourself. Doesn't mean you're going to get something every time you read, but it does mean if you keep at it, consistently reading the Word of God for yourself, you will profit from it and you will learn from it.
It says with a perfect servant, Isaiah chapter 50, his ear was opened morning by morning to hear as the instructed, as the learned one. So first of all, it was very personal. It was his own ear. He opened my ear morning by morning.
So it needs to be personal between you and the Lord. It needs to be something that is done on a consistent basis, morning by morning. It needs to be your practice. Let me just tell you, you will never find time to read the Word of God.
Life is too busy. Very busy. You'll have to make time, set it aside. Maybe less time on the computer, less time on some other things that may be very legitimate, but have to be given second place. Time spent with the Word of God.
So it needs to be personal. It needs to be a priority, morning by morning. Not something you leave for, maybe I'll have time tonight to read when I'm done everything else. You'll be too tired. Something else will happen.
You need to make time and it needs to be something that is done on a consistent basis, morning by morning. Not just hit and miss. The necessity of being in the Word of God. What does John say to the young men?
They're strong. The Word of God abides in you, right? What does Peter say in 1st Peter chapter 2? As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Lord that you may grow thereby. In fact, 1st Peter chapter 2 in that verse can be actually a summary of the book of Joshua.
Because in the original language, desire the sincere milk of the Lord that you may grow thereby unto salvation. Meaning enjoying everything you have in Christ, in your salvation. That's what Joshua was all about.
Entering the land, enjoying the land, enjoying the inheritance. So we're reminded of that here. The consuming of manna for 40 long years. He enjoyed it. He fed on it. And with Moses, it gave him a clear eye.
With Calum, it gave him strength for all he was going to do. And for this man, Joshua, it gave him courage to enter the land. Absolute confidence in God for all he was going to face in the days ahead.
So his experience with God in the past. But then his encouragement from God in the present time. God encouraged this servant in what he was going to do. Now, we don't have time. Three times over in the book of Deuteronomy, Joshua was told to be strong and of good courage.
Three times in chapter 1, which we did read together, God tells Joshua, be strong and of good courage. One time at the end of the chapter, it's that two and a half tribes that say to him, be strong and of good courage.
Seven times over, God came to this man, Joshua, either personally or through others, and told him to be strong and of good courage. This man had a task to do that exceeds what Israel is doing now with Hamas and Hezbollah, okay?
He had to rid the land of Canaan, of seven different nations. And those who know military strategy say he did it in an incredibly wise way, very strategic, very effective way. But nevertheless, he had a tremendous task to fulfill for God.
God gives him every encouragement he can at the very beginning. But he tells him to be strong three times in this chapter. Number one, be strong to fulfill your responsibility. If God has given you a responsibility to fulfill in the local assembly, it may be giving out the hymn books.
It may be straightening up the chairs when everyone's done. It may be teaching a Sunday school class. Maybe opening the Bible study. It may be preaching the gospel. If God has given you a responsibility to carry out in the local assembly, God would say be strong.
Because you need to be faithful to carry out whatever God has given you to do in terms of a responsibility. But then in verse number eight, be faithful with the Word of God. Be faithful with the Word of God.
You'll need to be strong and of good courage to be faithful with God's Word. Now it's easy when you're preaching to the choir, when you're preaching to people who are all in agreement with what you're saying, but to be able to stand and speak for God when it's not so congenial, when the audience is not so in your favor.
Here he is being told to be strong and of good courage to fulfill not just his responsibility, but to fulfill the Word of God. And then in verse nine, the third time, to be fearless in his service. To be strong and of good courage, to be fearless in his service.
So here's a man given encouragement by God. Along with that, could I tell you something that to me has been a tremendous help? I don't want to become too technical. Wherever you find the idea of be strong, come to the New Testament.
For example, Paul says to Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. I can do all, I am strengthened for all things through Christ who pours his strength into me. Wherever you find the idea of being strong, it's always in what's called the passive voice, never in the active.
What that means is I don't strengthen myself. It's not like pull up your bootstraps, and you know, just screw your courage up and do what you have to do. It's always allow yourself to be strengthened.
So who does the strengthening? Where does the strength come from? If I don't manufacture the strength myself, where does the strength come from? It's always passive. It's always God strengthening me. It's always the word of God strengthening me.
I can find no strength in myself. I can find no resources within myself. Joshua, if you're going to be victorious, if you're going to conquer the land, if you're going to be able to carry out God's will, if you're going to be able to bring the people of God into God's purposes for them, you're going to have to be strengthened by God.
You won't find it in yourself. So could I again emphasize for you for just a moment the importance of the word of God in your life, the importance of the word of God to strengthen you for whatever God calls you to do.
The less you think I'm just preaching to preachers and elders, every mother here who's raising a family will have to know the word of God to be strong, to be able to raise her family for God. If you are a mother here, and you're raising your family, that is God's work for your life at this point in time.
There is no higher calling, no greater responsibility, no more illustrious career you could have than to raise a family for God. And you will need the word of God to strengthen you, to enable you to carry out that responsibility for Him.
Very practical. God does not just deal with, the word of God doesn't just deal with those who are in the limelight. It deals with everyone who has a responsibility and a stewardship from God to accomplish in life.
So whether you are just a student in school, a mother in the home, a man in his business, or in a more prominent role and responsibility, the word of God is what will strengthen you. God through His word will strengthen you for what He has called you to do.
But then not only is there the God's enablement and His encouragement, but there's God's assured presence. Notice that God says, I will be with you. Now that expression, I will not leave you nor forsake you, I will be with you, five times in your Bible.
Right? Your mind goes of course to Genesis 28, the first time it's mentioned to Jacob. I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you till I have done that which I have said. So first time to Joshua, first time to Jacob in Genesis chapter 28, and you follow all the way through.
The last time, the fifth time, Hebrews chapter 12, He has promised, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore we may say, the Lord is my helper. Five times over, whether here to Jacob at the outset, whether to Joshua, whether to the people in Deuteronomy 31, whether to Hezekiah, whoever it may be, God reminds him of this great promise.
I am with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you till I have done that which I have spoken to thee of, a God whose presence is assured along life's highway. So whatever God has called you to do, if he has called you to do it, and you do it, you have the assurance of his presence with you.
Assisting, helping, guiding, directing, blessing, whatever it may be, we are reminded here of the need to be strong, to be assured of his presence. A number of years ago, we were faced with weapons of mass destruction.
Today we're faced with mass distractions. Weapons of mass distraction all around us, right? This little thing I carry on my belt is the most distracting thing in the world, okay? You know, the tyranny of the text message, okay?
You've got to answer it because it comes, and it might be something, you know, and we're controlled by it, and you know, you've got mail, and and we're distracted constantly, and our minds are drawn. Here's a man focused on the Word of God, focused on the will of God, seeking to do the work of God, and he's encouraged that God is with you, and that God will be with you, will not forsake you.
Moses was gone. In fact, how the chapter begins, Moses my servant is dead. I think that Joshua knew that. There may be a moral principle here, but whatever it may be, he's reminded that Moses is dead.
Joshua, as great a man as he was, was not Moses. The world has never seen a leader equal to Moses. Joshua was not Moses, but Moses' God was Joshua's God. One of these signs of old age is you begin to reminisce about all the great men of the past, men that we learned from, men that were examples to us, men that helped us, men that were strengths to us, men that mentored us.
They are gone, but their God is not gone. In just a few years, an older generation will all pass off the scene. Responsibility will fall upon your shoulders. You may feel that I can't fill their shoes.
God is not asking you to fill their shoes. Fill your own shoes. Make sure you fill your own shoes, walking the path God has laid out for you. But always remember that while men pass, God does not. God is the same.
Resources are the same, and Joshua's learning that God was just as available to him as he was to Moses, and God can be all to him as he was to Moses as well. One of the great things that would encourage Joshua here in Chapter 1 is God's promise of success.
God speaks as though it's all a done deal. The land is yours, the land I'm giving you, and you'll prosper and have good success. God has promised every one of us the inheritance. God has given all of us the inheritance already.
We're going to see one of the great things is enjoying it, entering in, appreciating it, but he's promised them success. There's no thought of failure with God. We just passed the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Just so you know how old I am, I was born 24 days after D-Day, okay? So I don't remember it. What few people know is, Dwight Eisenhower, who was the commander of the Allied forces, gave a stirring speech to all the soldiers that were going to invade the Normandy beach.
He gave it to them the night before, promising them success, promising them valor and all that would go with it, and the freedom they were going to bring to the new world under the feet of the Nazi machine.
What no one knew was he had in his pocket a letter that became infamously known as the failure letter. It was a letter he had written in case the invasion did not succeed, where he took full responsibility for all the lives lost, for the failure of the invasion, for the debacle, for the tragedy, put it in his pocket.
Because the invasion was a success, he actually forgot he had the letter there. One of his aides found it a few days later going through his clothes, and you can see it in his museum in Kansas, known as the failure letter.
He was anticipating the possibility of failure. God never anticipates failure. Everything has been secured because of Christ. There's no failure with God, failure with us, but everything is absolutely secure because of Christ.
The land is yours, just go in and enjoy it. The inheritance is yours, just go in and claim it. So we see that here in God's promise that they will be invincible and that they will enjoy success. God does say to Joshua personally to meditate on the Word of God, and you'll prosper and have good success.
Now that's significant because this is the first person to whom God says to meditate on the Word of God. First time that the pen of Moses, or rather wasn't Moses here, the pen of Joshua would record these words, to meditate on the Word of God.
Meditation. I often joke that I have a book in my library that laments the fact that we no longer know how to meditate. That life is so busy, technology is so oppressive, and life is so distracting that we don't know how to meditate.
And the book is copyrighted, 1900. Okay, so they didn't know how to meditate back then. Don't let all these old people tell you we knew how to do it. We didn't, okay? Every age has its distractions. Every age thinks its technology is carrying us all away.
But nevertheless, someone has said if you know how to worry, you know how to meditate, right? When you worry about something, it's always all that's on your mind. You can't get it out of your mind. Wake up in the morning, that's what you're thinking about.
Go to bed at night, that's what you're thinking about. When you have a free moment during the day and your mind is inoculated, that's what you think about. That's what it means to meditate. To go to bed with the Word of God in your mind.
To wake up with the Word of... to actually be thinking about the Word of God. Reading the Word of God and just... There's something deeper here. There's something greater here. Let me just try to appreciate it.
Not just read it so that I've read and done my two chapters for the day, whatever it may be. But what can I learn? What can I learn of God from this portion? We can learn of how God works, what God's ways from this portion.
So meditating on the Word of God and the promise success. Because you see, several times over we read about the future, the generations to come. That what Joshua was doing was going to have an influence on the nation for ages to come.
Now I'm not trying to dramatize anything or exaggerate anything, but most of us here who are my age or in my general age, we have been influenced by men that have gone before. Tremendous... and men who have written books have influenced generations to come.
Every one of us has an influence on a coming generation. We may think it very minor. We may think it very minimal, and it's true. Most men are forgotten by the time they're gone, by the coming... by new generations as they come on.
But the value of their lives, tremendous weight, tremendous influence, tremendous significance. Joshua, what you're doing, what you are doing is going to have influence and benefit and blessing for years to come, generations to come.
We are in the good of assembly teaching, assembly truth. Not just because of the generation before us, but generations that go back sometimes four and five generations. What they established, what they built into local testimony, what they established for God.
We're living in the good of it. We're carrying it on. So your life has tremendous value. Your testimony has tremendous value, tremendous weight. Remember that you're living your life not just for yourself, but for generations to come.
That's what Joshua was being impressed with. His empowerment by God. How did God give further encouragement to Joshua? Well, first of all, there were the report of the two spies. Can you imagine the encouragement would be to Joshua when these two spies came back and said, the land is ours.
The land is ours. The fear of God is upon all the inhabitants of the land. It's as good as ours. That just as an aside for young Christians, you will be taunted by skeptics and unbelievers with, what about the heathen who have never heard the gospel?
How can God send them to hell? Do you think it was an accident that two spies came to the only house in Jericho where there was a person who actually believed that God was the God of Israel and God was going to be victorious?
It's just a coincidence. It was a sovereign God directing his servants to the only woman in the city who actually believed the report. Okay, that's Isaiah 53 and 1, who hath believed our report, who is the armor of the Lord.
We believe, I believe the report, and God sent his servants right there to the very house where there was a soul who was looking for God. Wherever there's a soul that's anxious, that's responded to the report, whether it's the beauty of nature, the complexity of nature, whatever it may be, and they're searching for the true God, just leave it alone with God.
He'll take care of it. He'll send someone. He'll get the message to them somehow. He's sovereign in his ways. But nevertheless, they come to the house, and they bring back the report that the city is ours.
The inhabitants of the land do not because of us. They heard the report. I think it's interesting, and it's so typical of God's ways. They heard the report of coming out of Egypt. They heard the report of the crossing over of the journey to the world, the crossing over of Jordan, and nothing about the failures.
Nothing about the failure. Forty years of failure. The inhabitants didn't hear about that. The inhabitants didn't hear about how God had to judge his people because of their sin and failure. All they heard about was the success.
That's Hebrews chapter 11, isn't it? By faith, the children of Israel left Egypt. By faith, they crossed over the Jordan, and the walls of Jericho fell. All you hear about is the success. Maybe there's someone here, and you're bogged down by mistakes and by failure.
One of the most important things to recognize is this. When you come to the New Testament, God never brings up the failure of an Old Testament saint. Never mentioned. Would you have used Jonah as a picture of Christ?
Would you have used Jonah in his disobedience as a picture of Christ? Yet the Lord Jesus does. Jonah fleeing from God three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, and the Lord Jesus Christ says, that's a picture of my death, burial, and resurrection.
I would have never thought Jonah was a picture of Christ. In disobedience, that's the grace of God. That's the wonderful mercy and grace that he takes a man's failure and turns it to good in his purposes.
So God never dwells on the failure of his people. Maybe you do. Maybe your mind can't get over the ruminating over a step you made that was wrong, or a choice you made that was wrong, or a time you failed God miserably.
Well, join the crowd. Not one of us here is exempt from that. But the choice is dwelling on it, or recognizing that God has forgiven it. I don't know if, I think he made it out here, probably a younger generation would not know the man.
Mr. Clay Fite. He was from Philadelphia, from our area. I knew him very well, a great friend and a great help to me. He said to me one time, there was a brother in a certain assembly, and he came to him one day and said, Mr. Fite, I have confessed this sin to the Lord a hundred times, and I just can't get past it.
He said, my friend, God did not hear you the last 99 times. Get the picture? Confess your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive. No need to keep confessing it. No need to keep dwelling on it. Learn from the past.
Redeem its value. Don't dwell on the past and allow it to paralyze you. So here's a man, and we find him, we find as well, he receives confidence from the people of God, but he has another lesson to learn.
He must bow at the feet of the captain of the Lord's hosts. What does he have to learn? The battle is not yours, it's mine. I used to wonder about the enigmatic reply of the captain of the Lord. Are you for or against us?
No. No. It's not a matter of I'm for or against you. It's not your battle, it's mine. It's not that I'm for you, you're for me. So what he has to learn is this great lesson. The battle belongs to the Lord.
I'm just a servant. I don't know if you notice how often my servant Moses, my servant Moses, my... Joshua, Moses was just a servant. A great man, the greatest of my servants, but just a servant. The greatest of men are only serving me.
The battle is mine. It's all about my battle. It's all about my resources. It's all about my strength. I'm the one that's in charge here. I'm the one. Now I don't know if you noticed, I mentioned earlier that Joshua was not Moses.
But Joshua is going to have the same experience Moses had. Take your shoes from off your feet. The ground you're standing on is holy ground. Moses had that at the beginning of his service, didn't he? Moses had to learn that at the burning bush.
Joshua has to learn it now as he confronts the captain of the Lord's hosts here. So whether you're thinking about Moses, whether you're thinking about the Apostle John bowing at the feet of the risen Lord in Revelation chapter 1, whether you're thinking about others as well who spent time at the feet of the Lord Jesus, have to learn the battle does not depend on me.
One of the lessons that is difficult to learn whether in oversight or in other spheres of responsibility is really the assembly is not mine. Yes, responsibility is mine. But the assembly is not mine. The assembly is the Lord's.
It's His. And I'm only here for a short time as a steward to seek the care for what belongs to the Lord, to honor Him and see that He is honored in the local assembly. The work is not mine. I know we take it personally, and we should.
We should take our stewardship very seriously, recognize that God has put that on our shoulders as a responsibility, but always recognize the work is His. The battle is His. And so Joshua has to learn at the feet of the captain of the Lord's hosts that it all is his responsibility.
Now, we didn't read it. But let me just take a few moments to talk about the conquest of Jericho if I can. Of course, this is probably the most well-known portion of the book of Joshua and hardly needs a lot of exploration.
Think of the miracles that were marked, that marked Joshua. There were waters that stood up, there were walls that fell down, there was a sun that stood still. There's three great miracles in the book.
Waters that stood up, walls that fell down, and a sun that stood still. He comes to Jericho, and he's going to learn that God is at work. Someone has well said that that ribbon that Rahab placed in her window had three lessons linked with it.
Three things. Number one, someone was here. Number two, someone has left. Number three, someone is coming back for me. Tomorrow morning when we sit around emblems, a loaf of bread and a cup, tells three lessons.
Someone was here. The bread. Someone has gone away. The wine. Someone is coming back. The promise. And without spiritualizing too much, I read that on the seventh day when the children of Israel finished their seventh circuit around the city, they shouted and they blew the trumpets.
So here's a woman in the city. She hears a shout. She hears the trump. They've come. The people of God are waiting for a shout. Waiting for a trump. He's come. Spiritualizing too much? Maybe, but I think it's lovely.
The walls of Jericho fell. It's one of the great apologetic arguments for the accuracy of scripture. Normally, if an invading army attacks a city, walls fall inward. Collapse. Battering rams push the walls in.
Archaeologists found that the walls fell out. Just as the word of God says. The children of Israel used the walls actually as ladders into the city. So you can trust this book. Just a small minor detail to mention.
And we find here, now we didn't read it, I'll just mention it. The tragic failure that was found at Ai, and God having to teach the people a lesson that holiness should mark the company of God. He had to learn what do you do when failure occurs?
Get on your face before God. Deal with the problem. Then go forward. Go forward. God never intends leaders to stand still. Well, when I say not stand still, understand what I'm saying. Elsewhere it does say stand still and see the salvation of God, but you'll know what I mean.
He doesn't want us just marking time and becoming inactive. He wants us to be active, to be useful for him. If you ever go to Westminster Abbey, look at the memorial to David Livingston, one word is on it.
Forward. Forward. Comes from a time when he was being transported down a river. Tragically, tragically, the river became clogged with bodies of dead slaves that they couldn't navigate. And his servants came to him and said, What do you want us to do?
Where do you want us to go? I don't care where you go as long as it's forward. God wants his people going forward. Having men of vision. Men of valor. Men of virtue. Men of vigor. May God bless his word.
Shall we pray?