Let's turn in our Bibles to Joshua
chapter 10. Joshua. Joshua 10. I've entitled this message, Fear
Not, Be Dismayed. That was what the Lord told Joshua,
verse 25 of this chapter. Verse 25, Joshua said, unto them,
fear not, or be dismayed. Be strong and of good courage.
Thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye
fight. Now, I stopped last time in verse
27, and I want to pick up, and I want to I want to look at verses
28 through the end of the chapter, 43. And in these verses, we're
going to see the scriptural proof of what was promised of the Lord
through the mouth of Joshua. And we need to hear often this
exhortation from the Lord. Fear not. Fear not. You know, there's a part of every
one of us because as Brother Scott once said, man was created
to never die. And there's something that's
fearful about that. We've never been to the other
side. We see things in these scriptures and by faith we believe
them. We believe them. But there's that element unknown. Humanly speaking, it's because
of the frailty of our flesh. Our new man knows. We know. But obviously the Lord knows
that we need to hear His promise. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Almighty God
has raised up His precious, beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what he said, sit
on my right hand. This is Psalm 110, one. Sit on
my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstools. Are his enemies not our enemies?
Death, hell, grave, Satan, this world, that's our enemies. That's our enemies. Be of good
courage. Now I want to, I want to just
read, I'm gonna read verses 28 to 43. I want us to hear, I want
us to hear it, I want to hear the scriptures, and I want us
to see what the Lord, the Spirit of God, moved the writer to pen. And that day, verse 28, Joshua
took Makeda and smote it with the edge of the sword, King thereof,
he utterly destroyed them and all the souls that were therein. He let none remain. And he did
to the king of Makeda as he did unto the king of Jericho. And
Joshua passed from Makeda and all Israel with him unto Libna
and fought against Libna. And the Lord delivered it also,
and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel. And he smote
it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein,
he let none remain in it, but did unto the king thereof, as
he did unto the king of Jericho. And Joshua passed from Libna,
and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against
it, and fought against it. And the Lord delivered Lachish
into the hand of Israel, and took it on the second day and
smote it with the edge of the sword and all the souls that
were therein, according to all that he had done to Libna. Then
Horem, king of Gezer, came up to help Lachish, and Joshua smote
him and his people until he had left him none remaining. And from Lachish, Joshua passed
from Eglon and all Israel with him, and they encamped against
it and fought against it, took it on that day and smote it with
the edge of the sword and all the souls that were therein,
he utterly destroyed that day according to all that he had
done to Lachish. Joshua went up from Eglon and
all Israel with him unto Hebron and they fought against it. They
took it, smote it with the edge of the sword and the king thereof
and all the cities thereof and all the souls that were therein,
he left. none remaining according to all
that he had done to Eglon, but destroyed it utterly and all
the souls that were therein. Joshua returned and all Israel
with him to Debor and fought against it. And he took it and
the king thereof and all the cities thereof, and they smote
them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed all the
souls that were therein. He left none remaining as he
had done to Hebron. He did to Debor and to the king
thereof and as he had done to Libna and her kings. So Joshua
smote all the country of the hills and of the south, the vale,
the springs, and all their kings. And he left none remaining, but
utterly destroyed all that breathed as the Lord God of Israel commanded.
And Joshua smote them from Kadesh, Barnea, even unto Gaza, and all
the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. And all these kings and
their land did Joshua take at one time because the Lord God
of Israel fought for Israel. And Joshua returned in all Israel
with him to the camp to Gilgal. Now, as we considered these last
verses, I read those verses the other day trying to make preparation
for this message this morning. And I looked at that And as I
read that, I thought to myself, I said, well, that whole thing
right there is just the account. It's the account of the cities
and almost every one of them was saying basically the same
thing. Here's what they were saying.
I got two points. Number one, our God is a consuming
fire. And He will in no wise clear
the guilty. Did you notice how many people
were left in those cities? Where Joshua and the people of
Israel. Did you notice how many of them
they left in the cities? None. That's exactly right. None. All perished. They were utterly destroyed. All the souls therein, the scripture
says, perished, and listen to this, none remained. Do you think that God Almighty
is going to deal with sin? He is going to deal with it. Now, let me ask you, will the
Lord not destroy all that are guilty. Is God gonna destroy
all that are guilty? The answer is yes. Everybody,
everybody that is guilty, God Almighty is going to deal with
them. Here's a good thing. There's
good news in that. He's gonna deal with some in
his son. He gonna deal some in his son.
He gonna deal others in themselves. But he gonna deal with everybody.
Everybody. The Apostle Paul said, I was
crucified with Christ. Do you think the Lord dealt with
Paul's sin? He sure did. Christ Jesus bore
it. And God dealt with it. Because
he's a just God. He's going to deal with sin in
absolute justice and judgment. Will God not cast Satan and all
that are found without Christ into the lake of fire? Is He
going to do that? He sure is. Is He not going to deal with
these vile bodies right here of flesh, corruption, and then
change them into a body that's incorruptible, like unto His
glorious body. Is God going to deal with this
cursed earth, burn it up, and make a new heaven
and a new earth? A place wherein dwells righteousness
alone. Is He going to do that? He sure
is. He's gonna deal with all sin. Believer, do not lose sight
of the fact that our God is going to deal with all of our enemies. His arm alone is going to destroy
them. Let us ever remember, be ready
to say, Isaiah, 45, 24, in the Lord have our righteousness
and strength, even to him shall men come and all that are incensed
against him, all that oppose his government and his rule,
all that stand in opposition to what God has to say. I'm telling
you right now, scripture says they're gonna be ashamed. You
hear the word of the Lord. You hear what God has to say.
And I can tell you this, it will fly in the face of your flesh. And you'll think of all kinds
of reasons to oppose it. All of the opposition you come
up with, unless the Lord puts it away in the person of His
precious Son and pays the guilt of opposing Him, We'll answer before him, I'm
telling you. Let God be true and let every man be a liar. You can have people say, I don't
think that's fair that God chose a people. I think everybody,
I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what you think. There's only
one that matters. And he's the one before whom
we're gonna stand. I'm telling you right now. God Almighty is
a consuming fire. And here's my second point. Everything,
and we were all born in Adam, just like everybody else, not
an ounce of difference in any of us, but everything that was
against God's people, every enemy that was against God's people,
causing all of us fall in Adam's fall, Everything that was against
us. Christ Jesus suffering alone
by himself. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath by himself. He suffered all that his people
had done in rebellion against him. He suffered. At Calvary, the Holy Spirit of
God moved David to pen these words in Psalm 22.1. My God,
my God. Why? Why? I'm not gonna quote this anymore.
Turn there. I want you to see something. Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Verses 1 to 3. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in
the night season, and am Not silent. Thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel. Now let me just share this with
you. Why would God Almighty forsake
anyone? Even the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was made sin, He was without sin. He was not a sinner. He
was without sin. Without sin. And He, miraculously,
marvelously, divinely, was made sin. And when He was made sin,
2 Corinthians 5.21, when He was made sin for His people, He hath
made Him to be sin for us. That's what Paul said. When He
was made sin, God Almighty forsook Him. You talk about God forsaking
God? Yeah. Why? Why? Verse 3 says why? Because you're holy. You're holy. You're holy. And you will in
no wise clear the guilty. He made himself to be sin, and
God forsook him. But I can tell you this, and
here's the good news, here's the good news. Everything that
was against God's people, sin, Satan, flesh, Christ bore all
of it, and was forsaken of God because of it. But he put it
away. He finished the work. Needy sinner, hear with the ear
of faith the words of our precious Savior, our Redeemer, in the
very depths of his sorrow. Before he went to the cross,
he was at Gethsemane. sweating as it were, great drops
of blood, grieving, even then suffering for his people, praying
for his people. My God, my God, what other passage
of scripture sets forth more clearly the grief of what he
bore willingly and submissively as he hung upon the cross, No
other scripture describes more perfectly his agony than Psalm 22.1. He bore in one sacrifice for
sin that which would have been spewed
out upon his people had he not died for them in eternity. Eternity wouldn't have put it
away. And he hath, by one sacrifice for sin, put away the guilt of his elect,
and God was satisfied. God forsook him. God forsook
him. As the God-man mediator, as we
considered last time, human flesh united with the glory of his
divine nature, he, by experience, He experienced the immeasurable
depth of God's wrath, where he himself cried, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He knew, he knew the shame, he
suffered and knew the shame of bearing sin in his own body and
having the Father forsake him. because he was made sin. He put
away. He put it away. And now, believer,
you who have been made by the grace of God to cast yourself
upon the mercy of God and have no confidence in your flesh,
none. Let me tell you something. Everything
that we ever thought we did, Paul summed it up, I just, I
think, beautifully. I just thank God for this. He
said it was dung. That's what it was. Well, I did
so, and that was dung. Well, I walked down there, that's
dung. Well, I got in the baptismal, that was dung. Don't put any
trust, don't put any trust in what you could do, because I'm
telling you, And Paul set forth all these things that sounded
honorable. When you put trust in yourself,
Paul says they're nothing but refuge. The Lord Jesus Christ,
if God's given you a heart, to bow to Him, a heart to come to
Him, say, Lord, save me or I'm going to perish. Lord, save me.
For you, fear not. Be not dismayed. Be not broken
by confusion. Don't be broken by confusion.
Be strong and of good courage. For thus shall the Lord do to
all your enemies against whom you fight. He was forsaken, bearing
our sins that we might never be forsaken. Buddy, that's good
news. That's good news. bore all of
the forsaking that God would ever justly render unto us. He bore all of the forsaken that
God justly would have rendered to us had He not forsook Christ
in our stead. Frail children of dust, everlastingly
loved of God because He has willingly answered every demand for justice
and righteousness before the law for you who believe. Death to you has no sting. Grave to you has no victory. You will leave this earth, but
you'll never perish. May the Lord bless these words
to our hearts. Thank you.