Joshua chapter 23. Joshua chapter 23. I'm going to read
several verses in 23 and then several verses in 24. Joshua chapter 23, verse one through three, first
off. And it came to pass a long time
after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their
enemies round about that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel
for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers,
and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age. And you
have seen all that the Lord your God has done unto all those nations
because of you. For the Lord your God is he that
hath fought for you. Verse 11. In the same chapter,
Joshua 23, 11. He's exhorting them, because
he's going to go, as we'll see here. Take good heed, therefore,
unto yourselves, that you love the Lord your God. Verse 14. And behold, this day
I, Joshua, am going the way of all the earth. And you know in
all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath
failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake
concerning you. All are come to pass unto you
and not one thing hath failed thereof. Chapter 24 and the first
part of verse 14. 24 and the first part of verse 14.
Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and
in truth. And the last part of verse 15,
but as for me and my house, that's who we're responsible for, we
will serve the Lord. Verse 29, And it came to pass, after these,
those things, these things, that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant
of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old. Now how influential,
how, how, I say influential, how did the Lord use him? I pray
that the Lord would use myself. I pray that the Lord would use
Bruce. As these many years, we've been talking to you and teaching
you and preaching you over 35 years. And then if the Lord allows
this group to go on, I pray this would be Sovereign Grace Church
in Jackson, verse 31. And Israel served the Lord. Joshua's gone. All the days of
Joshua and all the days of the elders that over lived Joshua,
and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done
for Israel. I've told you this, and I just
thought about it, you know, I've been thinking about it. You who
have children, if all's they ever hear is Sunday morning and
Wednesday, and you don't do any teaching at home, you've failed
them. Because they need to see what
you believe What we preach here, they need to see it in action.
And I remember saying this and there was a lady sitting over
there and had a daughter or a son and she just shook her head.
She's just, and I could read her lips. Well, I guess I'm failing.
I guess so. But what caught my attention
We know Joshua had served by the sovereign grace and enablings
the Lord in his generation. And that's all Bruce and I can
do. That's all. I can't hope something for the future. I can't,
you know, wish that this would happen. I can, and I prayed that
way, that Lord would be gracious and continue. But I'm responsible
for this generation right here, right now. What I'm responsible,
behind this pulpit, to tell the truth on God, to tell the truth
on us. So Joshua did that by God's sovereign
grace and God's holy, the sovereign enablings. He was faithful in
his generation. But I noticed the tranquility
shown in his dying days, though he was a sinner and he knew that
just like us, yet he and we also have a savior advocacy or a friend
of sinners to stand between us and a blameless God. And we are
defiled from birth. So that's what I noticed that
I noticed this here in Joshua. You know, it's just like it's
he knows it's coming. He he's he's Scott Richardson
said we ought to rehearse our death frequently. You know and
behold the day this day I am going the way of all the earth.
You see just it's just it's a statement. He just stays as it seems so
calm. And I pray that we would be giving
dying grace and dying faith as Joshua had been given here. Now
his faith is an Old Testament saint, but turn to first Peter
chapter one. The Old Testament believers had
the same faith, or I should say the same object of faith, as
we do today. It's no different. It can't be
any different. Paul says there's one faith,
one baptism, one Lord. So it doesn't change just over
different generations. But look with me at 1 Peter chapter
1 and verses 8 through 12. 1 Peter 1. We're talking about the period
of Christ, whom not having seen you love. He's writing to the,
to the saints scattered about Pontius, Galatia, capital C,
Asia, Bithynia. He's talking to those saints,
but whom not having seen Christ you love in whom. Though now
you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls." They didn't see Christ, and neither
did the Old Testament believers see Christ. They looked forward
to the cross. Then you had that 33 years that they were the only
people who saw Christ. We look back to the cross. That's
our faith. Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets,
the Old Testament, have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
or preached of the grace that should come to you searching
what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify. They had the Spirit the same
as we did. Now it wasn't as manifested as
it was on Pentecost but it says here which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. And then, of course, in John,
we've looked at this many times. John chapter 5 and verse 46. John chapter 5 and verse 46. Christ says, for had you believed
Moses, you would have believed me. For Moses wrote of me." Christ,
one author, one puritan, somebody said, he's the scarlet thread.
His leg, you know, was put over the wall for the harlot. He's
that scarlet thread, the crimson thread, the red thread is Christ
throughout the whole scriptures. Throughout the whole scriptures.
So when I read this account of Joshua, I ask to myself, what
gave this old saint such confidence and grace as to soothe the conscience
and wipe away tears and fears brought forth by the shadow of
death? Well, stay in Joshua and let
me read you something here, which we all know this to be
true. The evidence of faith, now faith
is the substance of things not hoped for. Let me read that again. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders,
the Old Testament elders, obtained a good Report verse 6 and you
don't have to look at this Hebrews 11, but without faith it is impossible
to please God For he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently Seek him
And then in verse 13, it says, these all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
they embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. That's why Joshua could have
such confidence because he had been given grace and he had been
given faith to see Christ as his all and all. Well, speaking
of Abraham, Christ says about Abraham, he saw my day and he
rejoiced. Well, I'd say every believer
throughout all time when they see Christ, when they see Christ's
day, they rejoiced. That's found in John chapter
8. But I've got seven things that I think Joshua knew, and
I think we will know, and it has to do with Christ. Has to
do with Christ. The first thing is, by Christ's
death, he appeased divine justice. Joshua saw, it was a far off,
but he saw the same Redeemer as we do. and he saw that Redeemer
appeasing divine justice. Now Jonah is a type of Christ
in this instance. Remember when Jonah was in the
boat and the seas were getting wild they were getting just crazy the storms and everything
and they took Jonah when they figured out what was going on
and they threw him into the sea. What happened when they threw
him into the sea? The storm was It was quelled, you know, Jonah
was cast into the violent seas to quell the storm. So Christ
was cast into the furnace of divine anger and he quenched
the judgment and wrath against us. It's got to be that way. God must be satisfied without,
because the scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there
is no remission, which that means pardon. There is no pardon for
sin, our sin. That's Hebrews 9.22. That's the
first thing Joshua saw that gave him peace and says, today, I'm
going to go the way of all the earth. The second thing that
Jonah saw is he saw Christ giving such calmness to the heart He
has silenced all accusations. Christ has silenced all accusations
against the law, the word of God, and our conscience. Galatians
chapter three. Galatians chapter three. And verse 13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. That's
the second thing that Joshua saw that gave him peace and gave
him comfort. And we know sin and the law and
our condemned conscience is a hard thing to quiet. Matter of fact,
most of the time that's when we struggle with things, it's
our conscience or it's our things, it's the flesh, it just keeps
aggravating us. We know it's a hard thing to
put away. Galatians 3 13 says he put it away and I will say
this only perfection can satisfy Perfection only perfection can
satisfy perfection. So well, I Still sin. Yes, you will. Yes you do Every
believer still has that sin the old nature the fleshly nature
within and you're gonna struggle with it, but don't Don't look
at that. Satan will get your eyes off
of Christ like that. Look at Christ and say, do I
believe that He appeased divine justice for me? Has He satisfied
all accusations against me? Satan can't accuse you anymore.
He's the accuser of the brethren. And we'll see later on that Christ,
He took Satan out of the picture. So the matter of sin is important,
but believing Christ, trusting him now. Do you believe Christ?
Do you believe this? This is the only thing that'll
give your heart peace. It's the only thing that Joshua could give him peace. Thirdly, Christ can only remove
guilt. This also has to be dealt with
in order for his people to understand and experience peace. Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 26. the middle part of the verse,
but now once in the end of the world hath he, Christ, appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And another passage
in Ephesians 1 verse 7 says the same thing. Fourthly, Christ
Jesus, he must bring in righteousness and he must make us the righteousness
of God in Christ. Second Corinthians 521, that's
what that is saying. It may be saying more than I
know about, and I'm sure that's true, but Christ must bring in
righteousness and he must make us the righteousness of God in
Christ, thereby being just and justifier. And as I like to say
it, he gave us the absence through his death, the absence of the
negative, our sin, but he gave us the presence of the positive.
We've got to have, if sin is removed, we have to have his
positive righteousness to stand before God. Fifthly, Christ,
by this one act of humility and sacrifice, and so establishing
peace with God on our behalf, he conquered Satan. He conquered
Satan. Again, Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself, Christ, likewise
took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power of death, that is the devil. All these things would
bring peace. It's like, well, I don't know
if God's been set. Yeah, in Christ he has. Well,
Satan's acute. He's taken Satan. Well, I need,
he gave it. It's like a big circle. This
gospel is harmonious unto itself. Everywhere you look, the answer
would start here, and you go that way if you're here, and
you go, it's always the answer is Christ. I think somebody preached
that here recently. The answer is Christ. And it
is true. Well, this Satan, Satan is a
foe ourselves. We ourselves could never defeat,
but remember out of Luke chapter 11, there was a strong man armed,
keeps his palace, but a stronger, that's Luke 11, 21, a stronger
than Satan came and disarmed him. That's what's gotta happen.
He conquered Satan. Sixthly, Christ opens heaven's
gates. He opened heaven's gate for us.
Seeing he is glory, he has the keys, says Revelations, to open
and to shut. Paradise lost by sin, heaven
gained by the cross of our kinsman redeemer. I love, nothing to
me is so obvious about he opened heaven's gate is when you got
those three men hanging on the cross, And one thief, our Lord
in the center, that one cleansed thief said, Lord, remember me
when you come into thy kingdom. And what did he say? Today, you
will be with me. You will be brought together
with me. I will rise, you will rise. I will open glory, eternal glory
for you. Well, how is that possible? Well,
Matthew 9, 19, 6 says, for with him are all things possible.
This guy was a thief. He was a vagabond. He was, you
know, he was insurrection. He can't be, surely he can't
go to glory. We have written testimony of
the word of God. So what more excuses do we have? Look to Christ. Lastly, by Christ, with Christ,
and through Christ, he has obtained victory over sin and death for
his people, the church, his loving bride. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians
15 verse 52 through 57 in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet
excuse me shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption
and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on
immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written
death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is thy sting oh
grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the
strength of sin is the law but thanks be to god which gives
us the victory through our lord jesus christ if this is believed these truths
about this person, if it's believed, what peace and comfort and encouragement
will we have, but why, don't wait till the last hour. Don't
wait till the last, trust him now. Trust him now. I've said many times before,
God has all of his, if I can put it this way, all of his eggs
in one basket, one basket. Christ, Christ alone. So I close
and I say this, now, if Christ has appeased justice, silenced
the law in our conscience, taken away the guilt of sin, is made
righteousness to us, conquered Satan, opened heaven, overcome
death, and obtained our victory, what do we have to fear? What
do we have to fear? Remember, Christ's life and death
is our assurance of heaven itself. We look to no other. We trust
in no other. We seek to be hid under the shadow
of his wings. He is truly the best friend that
any sinner ever had. So I ask that The Lord give us
grace to see to it that we live up to our blessed privilege and
trust Christ, worship Him, all to Him we owe. He has done it
all. Sin had left a crimson stain,
but He washed it all. Like Bruce said so amply this
morning, not by your efforts, not by my efforts, not by our
decision, not looking to the man, Christ Jesus. He's done
it all. And we can say, as Joshua, I'm
going the way of all the earth, but it's like last Sunday, I
know my Redeemer lives. That's Job. It's supposed to
be the oldest book in the Bible. How did he know anything about
a Redeemer and about resurrection? We've seen that. We've seen that
Moses wrote a hymn. The whole book is about him. May we be found in him. Bruce,
would you close us please?