Joshua chapter 21. I think we
can turn it down a little bit. Joshua chapter 21. Our Father, thank you for this
opportunity to gather this morning. Thank you for the blessings of
the past week. Thank you that you have given us an understanding.
We know him who is the truth. And we recognize we know him
only because you have made him known to us. Now bless us as
we look into this portion of scripture. In the name of Christ,
we pray it. Amen. Now, in Joshua 21, we have
the account of the Levites going to Shiloh and making a request of Joshua and
the other leaders, saying in verse two, the Lord commanded
through Moses that you give us towns to live in with pasture
lands for our livestock. So as the Lord commanded, the
Israelites gave the Levites the following towns and pasture lands
out of their own inheritance. Now, as we've noted before, there
were 12 sons of Jacob, and from them the 12 tribes of Jacob were
formed. But when they were given the
land, that is when they went in to possess the land, and they
divided up the land according to the tribes, there was no allotment
for the tribe of Levi. The tribe of Levi was to be the
tribe of the priests. All the high priests and the
priests functioning, you know, doing the sacrificing and all
that were to come from the tribe of Levi. And even those who served,
simply served, in the temple. That is, they did the upkeep of the temple or tabernacle
at the time that this was done, but just the general work that
needed done to take care of the ministry there. So they had no
tribal allotment. There were still 12 tribal allotments,
but that is because Joseph, the son of Jacob, born by Jacob's
favored wife, Rachel, Jacob was considered the firstborn, even
though he was not the first one born. Reuben was. Reuben was
the first son born to Jacob. But he gave up his right to be
the firstborn through an offense against his father. And then
Joseph, of course, went to Egypt, was sold into slavery into Egypt,
but rose to be essentially prime minister, second only to Pharaoh. And when the land was divided,
since Joseph was considered the firstborn, and the firstborn
is supposed to get a double portion, instead of making a tribe of
Joseph, they made a tribe from Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and
Ephraim. So you had 12 tribal allotments,
but Those 12 tribal allotments only represented 11 of the sons
of Jacob. The Levites didn't have a tribal
allotment, but they were to be given cities and pasture lands
around those cities, dispersed all through the promised land, so that they could minister to
all the various tribes. And that's what this is about,
it had been commanded. And so the Levites came and said,
the Lord commanded this, so now give us these cities to live
in. We look at this and figuring the lesson was, a lesson
in what the ministry is, a lesson in how it's carried out. and
then also how ministers of the Lord are to be taken care of
because of their work they do for the people of God. Now we
notice several things about a man who has been called. We say the
ministry. The truth is all of God's people
have been called to the ministry. All of them are given gifts to
do something for the benefit of the church. They may not even
be aware what that gift is. I recall when we were told we
should try to figure out, this was when I was a teenager, and
of course they wanted all of us to somehow or another get
in full-time service for the Lord, is what they would call
it. And so they'd say, see these gifts that are listed here? Find
out which one the Lord has given you. Well, that's not really
what we're supposed to do. And the reason is, some of these
gifts, the person who has them isn't even aware they have them.
What we are commanded to do is at all times, in every way that
we are able, we are to love and care for all our brothers and
sisters in Christ. And a person's gifts And these
are miraculous gifts. I'm not talking about, you know,
just because somebody's talented to do something. These are spiritual
gifts. But as we love one another, live
in love with one another, a person's gifts, God will automatically
work miraculous things through them, and they may not even be
aware. And then, you know, we... for the most part, are not likely
to know the fruit of our labors in Christ until we are with Him. And I think that's pretty good,
because if we could see them now, it would inflate us with
pride. But the gifts of God are things that God works through
His people It's miraculous, it's not done in the strength of the
flesh. So I say that all of us are in the ministry of some sort. But for some it's a little more
obvious. You take a fellow that's a pastor like I am. Well, I'm
up here every week. And now me being up here does
not confirm that I am gifted to be up here. The only confirmation
we have in this life that indeed the Lord gifted me to be what the Apostle Paul refers
to, a pastor and teacher, is that when I speak, the sheep
of God are blessed. When I preach, the elect of God
are called. When I teach, they are instructed. And it's not because of any particular
talent I may have in the way I speak, in my oratorical abilities. It's not going to be the power
of my intellect or anything like that. If something good comes
out of what I do up here, it will be God working in and through
me. And all of it will be miraculous. Now, it doesn't look miraculous by
the world's standards. You know, there were some gifts
given to the church early on. They're often referred to as
the sign gifts. They were things that were outwardly,
visibly miraculous. The ability to heal. There was
even some being raised from the dead. And in particular, the
apostles had multiple gifts, and God did that to confirm the
truth of their message. So these things happened. They
would preach, and here's these skeptics. And well, how do we
know that you're the one telling the truth of God? Well, God enabled
them to do miracles. And the people say, okay, we're
listening. We're listening. Now, we don't
need those confirmations anymore. Why? We've got this. Those that
had the power to do miracles wrote down, they wrote it down,
their message. And their message is to be our
message. To my knowledge, I have never
worked Well, I know that I've never worked a miracle such as,
you know, those sign gifts. I've never spoken in tongues,
I never healed anybody, I never raised anybody from the dead.
I can make no claim to spiritual authority by any power that I
am able to control. Well, that leaves you in a position.
I was thinking about this the other day. There is laid upon every minister of the gospel
a responsibility to preach the gospel. Paul says, woe be unto
me if I do not preach the gospel. He didn't say, woe unto me if
I don't preach. He said, woe to me if I don't
preach the gospel. If I go out and preach something
else. You know, a preacher can go out and preach something that's
true, but it's not the gospel. He can set forth some wisdom
about the things of this life, but it's not the gospel. I fear that that's predominantly
what goes on in most churches. Information that is true, but
it's not the gospel. Information that might be valuable,
but it's not the gospel. God's ministers confine themselves
to the gospel, and why is that? Why do I feel constrained, if
that's the proper word to use, that every time we meet, somehow
or another, the gospel's going to be declared? Why? Because only God's people can
preach the gospel. That's why he said to the apostles,
go into all the world and preach the gospel. Why? Nobody else
can. And I can tell you, as someone
who's been called to preach the gospel, I see things in the world
that I wish I could fix. You know, it could be tempting
to set aside this preaching of the gospel or somehow to curb
it in order to address some of the social issues of the day.
Not only to address them in speaking, but maybe, you know, practically
put my hands to it. God's people want to help. God's
people want to have a positive effect. But I've illustrated it this
way. Imagine that there was a, well, we really don't even have
to imagine. If you go back to 2014 when they had that flood come through.
Now, there was a lot of physical labor to be done. There were
some specialized things that had to be done. I remember a
crew came up, I think they were from Florida, actually. But they
had the equipment and the chemicals that they could treat affected
houses against mold. Now, not everybody really knows
how to do that. You know, they came and did it.
All this was going on. Now, imagine if all the doctors
at our clinic over here Said, oh, we've got to go out there.
We've got to help them put up sandbags. And we've got to go
over there and help people fix their houses. And they left their
station in the clinic and went out and started helping people.
What would the people say? Well, Doc, what are you doing
here? Well, you know, you need all this junk hauled out of your
house. And they said, we can do that. But you're one of the
only ones in town that can do medical work. So get back there
to the clinic and take care of the medical work that none of
the rest of us know how to do. Now that's how the church ought
to view the ministry and what it does, particularly as it speaks
to the world. It's the gospel we've been called
to declare, and one reason we must confine ourselves to that
is the church is the only one that can do that. When there's a disaster, You
know, and I'm saying God's, it's not like God's people can't go
out and help with disasters, but what I'm saying is that no
matter, well there's stuff going on in the world all the time.
There's poor people all the time. There's dispossessed people all
the time. And I'm glad that there are people
that take up the work of helping those that need that kind of
help. But the church, should focus
its efforts on preaching the gospel to every creature, to
every human that'll sit still long enough to listen to it.
Why? Church is the only one that can
do it. And now some are especially gifted to do that, and we went
through some of the characteristics that such a person would have,
didn't get through all of them, And so we'll just, we'll quickly
go through those few and then finish out some of the lessons
of this chapter 21. A pastor, a preacher, whether
he's an itinerant kind of preacher or a pastor such as me that has
a ministry dedicated to one area, Such a man cannot gear his message
to particular issues except as they arise within the body of
believers under his watch. Now, you know I like watching
YouTube videos and some of those short videos you can find on
Facebook. And there are people that just,
and I'm talking about, when I say people, I'm talking about online
ministers. People who, ministers who have
quite a presence online. And they find out the issues
of the day. They dig through until they find
out, oh, over here in this area, this is going wrong, and in this
area, this is going wrong. And so they have this ministry
of addressing issues that come up all over the place. Why should I bother if it's not
here? You know, I'll preach the whole
counsel of God, at least as much of it as I know, And that actually,
in a sense, will address these issues without making an issue
of them within the church. Also, there are issues that come
up in other churches. And you know, if one of our sister
churches has a particular problem, and all churches have problems,
I hear about it, that doesn't mean I need to get in the pulpit
and start addressing that issue. It's not going on here. Leave
it alone. A preacher called by God is a
debtor to all men to preach the gospel and he is ready to do
so in season and out of season. Now that's the way it's mentioned
in the King James and when it says in season and out of season
what it means is when it's easy to do it and when it's difficult
to do it. When people are ready to listen
and when they're not ready to listen. But I've also pointed
out, too, when Paul says, in season or out of season, doesn't
matter what season it is, you're either in or out of it. So it
means preach the gospel all the time, under any circumstances
which may arise. He is the servant of God and
not a man pleaser. And this is one of the most important
characteristics, I believe, You know, whenever this church looks
for a pastor after me, make sure that you find someone who counts
himself a servant of God and cannot be moved by the smiles
or frowns of anybody that may show up in church. Men-pleasers are those, and generally
speaking, they will find the most prominent ones in the congregation,
or the ones that can do them the most good, and they'll arrange
their ministry to be pleasing to that particular person, so
that that particular person stays. It often falls, this is a very
sad thing, but such an attitude often directs the attention of
the pastor towards those that are rich, those that have Plenty
of money. Oh man, I dare not offend that
person, you know. I'm going to have to take the
edge off this message. They might get mad and quit,
and the treasury will take a big hit. One of the interesting things
is, I've known of this kind of thing
happening in other churches. That is that someone who was
quite wealthy in the church, and everybody thought that they
were the main financial support of the church. They did get offended,
and they left, and the treasury hardly noticed. Why is that? God glorifies himself in supporting
his work from the pockets of those who do not have much. Now, I'm not saying that he has
not used some wealthy people whose hearts he has sanctified
to love him, and from love they give generously, even from the
great amounts that they might have, and that's all well and
good. But it just seems, it certainly seems that in those occasions
that I've been aware of, when somebody that's, everybody knows
they're very wealthy, And they do get offended and they leave.
It's discovered they really weren't supporting the church very much
because the treasury didn't take a big hit. They left, their money
left, and the balance sheet Stayed as it was. And I realize in some
cases, when such people leave, the others notice and they say,
we're gonna have to give a little more to make up and maybe that's
why it, you know, the balance sheet stays the same. But these
fellas who are so fabulously wealthy like that, you would
think that their giving would be such that the poor in the
church wouldn't be able to make up for the loss of it. One of
the things interesting to note among the people of God, is there,
generally speaking, these are generalities, but generally speaking,
there's greater generosity among those who do not have. In 1 Corinthians,
or 2 Corinthians, when Paul was talking about collecting a gift
to take to Jerusalem because the Jews, Jewish believers, were
having a real hard time. They were being persecuted and
there had been a famine in the land and all that. And the church
in Macedonia was very poor. So as Paul was going around,
he didn't mention that a gift was being collected from all
the Gentile churches. He didn't say a word to them.
Why? He didn't want to burden them because he thought they
don't have anything to give. Well, somehow they got the message.
They found out there was a need. And it says, they begged us for
the opportunity to participate. and collecting this gift, and
he said, and they gave far above what they were able, and it was
these very poor Macedonians that filled up the bag, the bag of
money to take down there to Jerusalem. And you know, that's an example
of the miraculous power at work in the people of God. From people
who have nothing, Nothing to spare comes great generosity. Preacher feels neither compunction
nor need to address issues that might arise in other churches
or other brethren outside the realm to which he has been assigned. Now, as you well know, I use
as a study guide Brother Tim Jane's commentary on the book
of Joshua. And that comes right out of his
commentary, that last little bit I told you. And I know Tim
well, and that's exactly how he has conducted the ministry
there at the church in Cherokee. There have been issues that arose
in our sister churches, theological issues, personality issues, And the interesting thing is the only reason it arose in many
of those churches is because the pastor heard about something
going on over here and got in his pulpit and talked about it. That goes back to if it ain't
happening here, don't bring it up. And I was talking to Brother
Tim one time about an issue among the churches. And I asked him
what he's doing about it. He says, I'm keeping my mouth
shut. He said, the church here doesn't even know it's happening.
Then why should they? What are they going to do about
it? And for the preacher called of
God, his allegiance is to the one who separated him from his
mother's womb and called him by his grace to preach the gospel. That is the only allegiance he
is to have. I was looking at a video and a guy was critiquing
this God Bless America Bible. I don't know if you've heard
it or not, but it's just one of the things that's going on
because with many Americans, there's such a connection between
the United States of America and Christianity. And they're promoting this, and there
are a lot of preachers that get behind it, a lot of people buying
it and all this. And what they're showing is that
a good deal of their allegiance is to the United States of America.
They've even got the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution,
that's there in the back, where they usually have Bible maps.
You know, the Constitution of the Declaration of Independence,
right there in a Bible. And I mentioned this, you know,
we call it the Holy Bible, and Paul called it the Holy Scriptures,
and if there's any way we can show the holiness or the separateness
of it, we don't bind up anything with our Bibles. It doesn't have
to do with the Scriptures themselves. But it's a divided allegiance.
And many Americans have this divided allegiance to the United
States and then supposedly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I
am thankful for the United States. For all its problems, there's
not a better place in the world to live. I'm glad I grew up here. And as far as I know, I'll spend
the rest of my days here. But it's not my, My country doesn't get my approval
no matter what it does. I'm not that kind of patriot. I cannot say if our government decides something
that's completely contrary to God, well, yeah, but this is
the United States of America and I have to go along. No, I
don't. The apostles were confronted
over things they were doing and they were commanded by the civil
authorities to quit doing it. And they said, well, you consider
this and answer the question for us. Should we obey you or
obey God? Now what is said of preachers
applies to everyone, but most importantly to them. Their allegiance
must be single. And it must be to the one who
called them. Well, I thought I'd get farther
in this lesson, but I didn't. And the time has come to end.
An announcement, though. Next week, I'll be out of town.
So there will be no Bible class at 945. We'll just be the regular
service here at 1030. But I'll see you in two weeks.
You are dismissed.