Let's turn to Joshua chapter
1. Joshua chapter 1. It's been a while since we've
looked at the question series. We've been going through looking
at questions that God asked to sinners directly. And the next
question we come to tonight is God's question to Joshua. We
find it in Joshua 1 verse 9. And the Lord said this in verse
9, He says, Hath not I commanded thee? Have not I commanded thee? Now, the children of Israel are
at the border of Canaan. But God wouldn't allow Moses
to take them into Canaan. Moses is dead. And so Joshua
is the one God raised up to take the children of Israel into the
land of Canaan. Now what we're going to see here
in this is there's a beautiful picture here. And what we're
going to see here is supported the truth that we believe and
rejoice in that it's not by law, not by our doing, not by our
keeping the law, but by the Lord Jesus Christ that his people
are saved and that we're delivered into that promised inheritance
that God has promised. This is what we're going to see
pictured here. Now the first thing we see, let's
go back up to verse 1, and the first thing we see is that Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's
the end of the law. Now let's read verses 1 and 2.
He says, now after the death of Moses, after the death of
Moses, who was the servant of the Lord. It came to pass that
the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister."
Joshua served under Moses. And he said, the Lord said, 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." Now in this text we see Moses,
when we look at Moses we see the law. And we look at Joshua,
we see Jesus the Lord. Joshua, that name means Jesus. They're interchangeable. It means
Savior. That's what his name means. We
know from John 1, 17, it says the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, the Son of Nun here,
Joshua is the Son of Nun, and I've showed you many times that
the names mean something. You look the names up. Well,
Nun means posterity. That means generation. And Jesus
Christ, our Joshua, is the son of that chosen generation that
God shall save. He's the firstborn son of that
chosen generation. That's who Christ is. And Joshua
here was Moses' minister. That means he served under Moses. Christ came and served under
the law. But you notice here, Moses, my servant, is dead now. And now he calls Joshua to lead
them. Now, Moses was the servant of
God to teach the children of Israel some sure and certain
things and bring them to a certain point. That was Moses' office. That's what God gave him to do.
Well, the law is the servant of God. The law is given to teach
each of his children something very sure and certain and bring
us to a certain point. Look over at Galatians 3 and
verse 23. Before faith came, we were kept
under the law. Now that literally applies to
the Jews, but it applies to us too because before faith came,
before God gave us faith, before Christ who is the faithful one
came, you and I, most everyone thinks that you come to God by
the law. And we were under the curse. We were under the curse
of the law. We were shut up unto the faith
which should afterwards be revealed. Christ the faithful. Wherefore,
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. You see, the law was the servant
of God. And then Romans 3, you're familiar
with this, Romans 3. You might want to hold your place
in Galatians. We're going to kind of go back and forth between
Galatians and Romans. Romans 3.19, Now we know, what things whoever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Now here's
how the law's a servant, like Moses was a servant. Here's how
the law's a servant. The law teaches, when God makes
you hear the law, he teaches you that every mouth may be stopped. He shuts our mouth with the law,
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So, now,
in our text, Moses is now dead, and God's going to deliver the
children of Israel into the land by Joshua. He said to Joshua,
now, my servant's dead, now, therefore, you arise and you
take them into this land, I promise. It's through Joshua alone. Moses
had nothing to do with it. Joshua alone's going to take
them in there, and he's going to... God's going to rule his
children through Joshua. And Moses had nothing to say,
nothing to do about it. Well, by Christ's death and His
resurrection, not only is the believer dead to the law because
we died in Christ, but the law is dead to the believer. Look
at Romans 7. That's exactly what Paul was
teaching there in Romans chapter 7. He was showing that. He gave that illustration of
a woman being married to a husband. And he said she's married to
that husband as long as that husband lives. But if the husband's
dead, she's free to be married to another. That law was our
husband. Our first husband. And now look
at what he says here in Romans 7 verse 4. He says, Wherefore,
my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. So we're dead to the law because
we died when Christ died. That is, all God's elect died
in Christ when Christ died. And so we became dead to the
law. That you should be married to another, even to him who's
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. Now look at verse 6. He says, And now we're delivered
from the law, that being dead wherein we were held. Our old
body of sin is dead, and the law that held us is dead to us. Now, understand what that means.
He says here now that we should serve in newness of spirit, not
in the oldness of the letter. You can't go to the letter of
the law and learn the things that you're going to learn from
the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter who are teaching us directly
from Christ and they're teaching us the spirit of what true obedience
is. There's things that we saw in
Ephesians you're not going to learn by going to the letter
of the law. and look at it. It doesn't have
mercy in it. It doesn't have that at all.
And the newness of spirit we serve in is full of love and
mercy. And the letter of the law didn't
have that in it. Now, were they led of Joshua now or are they
led of Moses now? Which one's leading them now?
Joshua or Moses? Joshua is. Well, are we led by
the spirit of Christ or are we led by the letter of the law? The Scripture says if you're
led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. If you're led
of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now how foolish would
it be for the children of Israel to go back and look for Moses'
grave and try to dig up the body of Moses and say, we want you
to lead us and be our rule. That'd be foolish, wouldn't it?
Well, that's how foolish it is for a believer that's been brought
to Christ, to rest in Christ, to trust Christ, to then be taught
to go back to Mount Sinai, back to the letter of the law, to
be led of the law. There's nothing wrong with the
law. It's holy, it's just, and it's good. And we can learn from
the law, but we need to be taught through the Spirit of Christ
teaching us in our hearts because We're not under the law. The
law has nothing else to say to us. Christ gave it everything
it demanded. He gave it perfect righteousness.
And he did it from a holy heart. And he fulfilled it in precept
and penalty so it has nothing to say to the believer. We're
righteous in Christ. Righteous in Christ. So, listen
to this. Now, after that you've known
God, or rather, are known of God, how turn ye again to the
weak and beggarly elements where unto you desire again to be in
bondage? That's what was happening at
Galatia. That's what many folks do in our day. In fact, here's
where you're going to find out whether or not we're in agreement
or not. 99.9% of the time when folks have a
disagreement is right here in this day and time. There's folks,
Christ said, if it were possible they'd deceive the very elect.
That's not free will works religion. That's obvious to us. It's folks
who are preaching divine election. They're preaching the sovereignty
of God. They're preaching particular
redemption. They're preaching irresistible grace and perseverance
of the saints. But they take a man from from
Calvary back to Mount Sinai. They take him from Christ back
to the law and say now but you got to sanctify yourself by your
deeds to the law. And you get so holy and so holy
and so holy that you're just much better than everybody. And
that's just not what the Scriptures teach us, brethren. That's not
true sanctification. Christ is made unto us sanctification.
And the more light you have shining in that condemned room, the more
you see how condemned that room is. And the more that Christ
the light shines in our heart, the more we see How truly condemned
this body of death is and we don't trust it. We see we grow
down. That's growing up with God. We
grow to trust Christ more and ourselves less. That's true growth
in grace. But we're holy from the beginning
when he sanctifies us. Now, so this is what we're seeing
here. He said over in Galatians 3 there,
he finished that out. I'll just read this to you. He
said, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ
that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is
come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster. For you're all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's true of every believer.
Alright, that's the first thing we see now. The first part of
this commandment that the Lord gave to Joshua. The picture of
Christ is, now you arise and you take the people. Moses is
dead, the law is dead, the law said you're delivering my people.
And that was the charge given to Christ in eternity. He's the
deliverer. He's the one that's bringing
his people into that land of promise. Now secondly, it's by
Christ, it's not by the law that God promises to give each of
his people an inheritance. Now look at verse 3. Everything
that God's elect Israel are going to receive from God was first
given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua 3, 3. He says, Every place that the sole
of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you. The Lord said this to Joshua.
Every place you're going to go, I've given this to you. He's
a picture of Christ and he says, as I said unto Moses, he says,
from the wilderness and this Lebanon even 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. He's speaking directly to Joshua. It's by God's covenant promise
to Christ that the inheritance belongs to Christ. It's by Christ's
purchase redemption, that purchase price He paid with His blood,
that the inheritance belongs to Christ. And it's by the fact
that Christ arose from the dead and laid claim on that inheritance,
that that inheritance belongs to Christ. It's His. His. And, now here's the good news
for you and me. Christ shall divide that inheritance
with everybody that He delivers. He's gonna divide that inheritance
with each of His people that He brings to salvation, to glory
with Him. Look at this now. It's because
God was in Christ and defeated all our enemies. Look here, verse
5. There shall not any man be able to stand before Thee all
the days of Thy life. As I was with Moses, so I'll
be with Thee. I will not fail Thee, nor forsake
Thee. The Christ knew he'd have to
be forsaken on the cross, but he was bearing our sins when
he did that. But he was fulfilling the will
of God. He was making an end of transgression. He was bringing
in everlasting righteousness. He was redeeming his people from
the curse. And so he knew that the Lord
would not leave him. The Lord would justify him. That's what he said in Isaiah
50 and verse 7. He said, the Lord God will help
me. Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I
set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed."
Now you think about that. When the Lord went to the cross,
when He says that He trusted the Lord, we know the Son of
God raised Himself from the dead, and we know God the Father raised
Him, but what we see here is how much Christ trusted, as the
servant of God, how much he trusted the Father to fulfill the Father's
side of the covenant. It teaches us the faithfulness
of God our Father. He raised Christ. Christ arose. It shows the faithfulness of
Him. And it showed how perfectly Christ trusted the Father. I
don't know how to say this exactly, but I do know this. Our faith
is imperfect. Our faith is not perfect. It's
very weak at best. And even Christ is even the faith
of our faith. Even while he was going to that
cross to justify his people from all sin, Christ was at the same
time trusting the Father and perfect fidelity to the Father.
So he's our righteousness and he's the faith of our faith.
And we're going to receive this inheritance from Christ because
God promised Christ he'd divide it. Look at verse 6. Be strong
and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide
for an inheritance the land. Do you see the picture there?
He gave it to Joshua and he told Joshua, now you're going to divide
it to the people. That's what God did with His
Son, the Lord Jesus. The inheritance is His, and He
divides it with His people. And here's why it's certain.
Because God did this in covenant with Christ, and He promised
this to Abraham. Look at verse 6. At the end,
He said, "...which I swear unto their fathers to give them."
Now, the New Testament text I want to show you is Romans 8. Romans
8, and look at verse 16. The Spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we're the children of God. Now look at
verse 17. And if we're children, then we're
heirs. Heirs of God. Isn't that something? An heir of God. Now look at this.
And joint heirs with Christ. Joint heirs with Christ. That
means the inheritance belongs to Him and He's dividing it with
those that He's made righteous before God. If so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together with
him." Our inheritance, brethren, it's more than me and you can
imagine because our inheritance is God himself. It's Christ our
Lord that is our inheritance. To dwell with him forever and
to have him to dwell with us forever, I don't even know. It just goes beyond me to think
about it, but that's going to be our inheritance. The Lord's
portion, his inheritance is his people and our inheritance is
him. Nobody cares about gold. If anything, you pay the streets
with that worthless stuff. We're going to have Christ. Christ. That's the inheritance. All right,
now here's the third thing. All of this is because Christ
fulfilled the law of God and all the prophets and made it
honorable, made the whole word of God honorable. Everything
God showed, foreshadowed in the law of Moses and everything that
the prophets wrote of Christ, Christ fulfilled it all. Look
here now, verse 7. He tells Joshua, picture Christ,
just picture God speaking to Christ here. Be thou strong,
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. And this book of the law shall
not depart out of thy 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. And
that's exactly what Christ did. That's what he came to do, and
that's what he did. The Lord said through Isaiah,
he's well pleased with his righteousness, he'll magnify the law, and he
will make it honorable. That's speaking of Christ. He
will magnify it. He will make it honorable. Paul
told the Galatians, when the fullness of time was come, God
sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. There he
is, the servant, just like Joshua was the servant of Moses, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And so Christ said this,
I delight to do thy will, O God, thy law is within my heart. He's
the only one that could say that. Adam could have said, Adam could
say that when he was first created, but Adam failed. God gave him
reign to do what he would and he failed. But now Christ, he's
the only other man, the God-man who could make that statement
and say I truly delight to do your will because you and I come
forth sinners and we can't say that. We come forth speaking
lies from our mother's womb and we can't say that. Even now as
Lord saved us in our inner man we want to obey God but there's
an old man of flesh with us that's always constantly want to do
everything opposite to God. That's so of me and it's so of
you. Listen to this, now the righteousness of God without
the law, without us touching the law, the righteousness of
God is manifested and it's witnessed by the law and the prophets.
If you'll read back up in Deuteronomy 34, you'll find this, Moses,
he's a picture of the law and Moses is a prophet. He was both. He's the law and he was the prophet. And before this took place, you
know what Moses did? He laid his hands on Joshua.
And that's a picture of the law and the prophets bearing witness
of Christ. That Christ is the one who's
going to lead his people into the promised land. And that's
who Christ is. And it says here, even the righteousness
of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. The faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. And it's given to all, it's unto
all and upon all them that believe. It just comes down to this. Listen
to this simple verse in Romans 5. I quote it to you all the
time, but I want us to get it because it just simplifies the
gospel. Romans 5, 19. By one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. By one man's obedience, many
shall be made righteous. And that lets you know that it's
not my obedience to the law, it's not your obedience to the
law, it's Christ's obedience. It's Christ's obedience. His
people have broken the law. Not only the precept though,
we have broken the law and we owe justice. We owe death, eternal
death. And Galatians 3.13 says Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse
for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And he did that that the promise
that God made to Abraham might be given to all his people. And
that is that we might receive the Spirit through faith. He would give us the Spirit and
give us faith and then through faith he would show us what Christ
has done for us. This was the promise that we
might receive the adoption of children. And so Christ said,
Don't think I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I didn't
come to destroy it. I came to fulfill it. To fulfill
it. I heard a man preaching on that
text one time and he said, see there? Christ didn't do away
with the law. That means we're still under
the law. That's not what he was saying. If that cup right there
is filled to the point that you can't put another drop in it,
it's fulfilled. And that's what Christ came to
do, fill it full to where you can't add anything to it. And
that's what He did. And so, now this is what we've
seen in this picture so far. Number one, we saw Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Moses
is dead, Joshua is leading them in. We're dead to the law, and
the law is dead to us. Christ is our righteousness and
He's leading us by His Spirit. Number two, Christ is the one
who's going to divide our inheritance to us. It was given to Him. He's going to give it to His
people. And number three, it's because Christ magnified and
made God's law honorable. He's our righteousness. That's
why this is going to come to pass. Now here's the last thing.
Now, Joshua is a sinner like me and you. And God's speaking
to him just like He's speaking to us tonight, I hope. So what
about that? What about that? Well, in that
we see this. Who was it that was talking to
Joshua? Who was it that was teaching
Joshua all this? It's the Son of God. God the
Father gave the whole thing into His hand to bring His people
to Himself that He might glorify the Father and glorify the Son
in this whole work. And Christ here, speaking to
Joshua, He's the one that makes the word effectual in Joshua's
heart. And so now, Let's look at it this way. Christ speaking
to you and me, making this word effectual in our heart, teaching
us. Here's the first thing. We can't do anything of ourselves.
We can't teach ourselves. We can't give ourselves life.
We have to be taught spiritually of Him. Now, here's the first
thing. He's going to teach us and reveal
to us that He's the righteousness of God. And by that, He's going
to command faith in us. Here's what He's going to teach
us from Romans 10. I want you to look at this, Romans
10, especially our young people. Romans 10. Here's what He's going to command
us, right here. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law. that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. That means you got to perfectly
fulfill over 600 laws in spirit, in thought, word, and deed from
a pure heart, and if you don't, you got to die under the curse
of it. Now, that's how a man will live if he can do that.
Christ's the only one that ever did it. He's the only one that
ever did it. But now look here, verse 6, but the righteousness
which is of faith speaks on this wise, verse 9, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. I love that. We think by nature
you work unto righteousness. You work to obtain righteousness.
No, you believe unto righteousness. and with the mouth confessions
made unto salvation. Now back in our text, back up
there in Joshua 1-2, this is what he commanded Joshua, right
here, verse 2. Now then, my servant Moses is
dead, now arise and come over unto the land I give thee. And
that's exactly what Christ commands us in our hearts. The law is
fulfilled, you come over to the land that I'm going to give you.
What's our inheritance? You come to me, Christ said,
the land I'm going to give you. It wasn't written for Abraham's
sake alone that the righteousness of Christ was imputed to him,
but to us also to whom the righteousness of Christ shall be imputed if
we believe on Christ. He says, as he commanded this
in your heart, you come over to me. Come over to me. Alright? And he commands faith by making
this promise in our hearts. Look at verse 5. There shall
not any man be able to stand before Thee all the days of Thy
life. As I was with Moses, so I'll
be with Thee. I'll not fail Thee nor forsake
Thee." Has Christ commanded that promise in your heart? He says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's at the right hand of God making
intercession for us. Who's going to lay anything to
your charge? There won't be a man able to stand before you. We
just sang that song. They may kill the body, but the
truth of God about it still. Nothing's going to separate us
from the love of Christ. That's what He teaches us in our heart.
And then Christ commands faith for His child to obey and follow
Him by commanding a hunger in our hearts to obey Christ, believe
in Him, and look in and follow in Him by looking into every
word in this book right here. Look at verse 8. This is what
Christ commands in our heart. This book of the law. That means
everything from the first page to the last page. It's God's
Word. He says, this book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth. He didn't say it'd be a good
idea now if you didn't let it depart out of your mouth. He
said it won't. It shall not depart out of your
mouth. He says, 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. Don't
you want to obey God? Don't you? In Christ we've obeyed
Him perfectly. And by His grace working in our
hearts, He continually causes us to seek Him in His Word, to
seek Him in His Gospel, to follow Him, and He keeps strengthening
our faith by commanding us. This Word's not going to depart
out of your mouth. What's that mouth connected to?
He said, what's coming out of the mouth is coming from the
heart. It's because He's given us a new heart, and He says,
now, it's not going to depart from you. The Gospel. Alright,
then to make His Word effectual in us personally, Christ speaks
into our heart personally. And this is what He says to us,
verse 9. Have not I commanded thee? Have not I commanded thee? Have not I, your God, your Lord
and your Savior, have not I commanded? Have not I spoke effectually
and invincibly in your heart and made promises to you that
nobody but your Savior could make to you? Have not I commanded
thee, my everlastingly loved child? This is our confidence. This is our hope. This is where
faith that, you know, you know Ephesians 2 and it says, it says
he's, faith is the gift of God. It's not of works, let's didn't
mention both. It's a gift of God. Well, how does he give faith? He commands you personally. in
your heart. He commands faith. And when He
commands it, you got it. When He puts the Word in your
heart and says, this Word shall not depart out of your heart,
you got a new heart. And when He says, follow Me, you follow
Him. It's because He commanded Me. And here's His
promise. This is the sum and substance
of the whole promise that He makes to us right here. Verse
9. Be strong and of a good courage Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed. That's a tall order if we left
to ourselves, isn't it? Well, He don't leave us to ourselves.
Here's the reason He says all of these things. Because the
Lord thy God, the Lord thy God is with thee. He's with you. Whithersoever thou goest, If
you're down at Todd's Road Grace Church, and you're sitting under
his gospel worshiping down here, or if your job brings you up
here to New Jersey, and you're sitting here with folks you don't
know all that well, worshiping with them, he said, I'm with
you wherever you go. That's our confidence. That's
what he's commanded us. That's why he says, now you go
forth and follow me. I've commanded you. Amen.