May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the book of Joshua and the first chapter, and we'll
read the second half of the fifth verse. The book of Joshua, chapter
1, and reading the second half of verse 5. As I was with Moses,
so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. This was a wonderful promise
from Almighty God to Joshua. Joshua needed such a promise. And the people of God today need
promises from Almighty God. to encourage us as we press on
through and into the unknown way. Joshua didn't know really
what was before him. He knew that there was that conquest
to be undertaken to cross over Jordan and come and conquer Jericho
and many other cities in that part of the country. Obviously the position before
him was very great. Moses had already encouraged
him just before he died. It's a wonderful thing to know
the Lord indeed was mindful of Joshua and was encouraging to
him, to speak to him. And it surely is a blessed time
when we read in the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, where Moses called
Joshua, and we're told, and Moses called unto Joshua and said unto
him, in the sight of all Israel, be strong and of a good courage,
for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord
hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt
cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is, that
doth go before thee. He will be with thee, he will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee, fear not, neither be dismayed. So there we have Moses speaking
those words to Joshua just a very short time before he died. And now in this book of Joshua,
we're told now after the death of Moses. And of course, Joshua
was following Moses, who he'd been with for very many years.
Remember, he was with Moses when they were back in Egypt. It was
only he and Caleb who were still alive from all those who were
over 20 years of age. So he was favored and he'd been
with Israel, when they came out of Egypt, he'd seen how God had
been with Moses, come across the Red Sea, come into the wilderness. He'd seen the Lord appear on
Mount Horeb or Sinai, a wonderful appearance. And then he'd seen
the miracles as they passed through the wilderness. And now they
were about to enter into across Jordan to go and to conquer Jericho
and Moses was no longer with them. The mantle which had been
on Moses was now upon Joshua. We can understand, can't we?
The fear he may have had and the encouragement he needed. Well, we should be thankful to
know that we still have a God today who encourages his people
in their journey through life. There may be many difficulties,
especially in the unknown way, which is before us. But indeed,
if God be for us, who can be against us? And that's what the
Apostle Paul said when he wrote to the Romans. If God be for
us, who can be against us? Well, we We do need to know,
don't we, in our little lives. Won't be obviously in quite the
same way that Joshua was used, but nevertheless, there will
be those occasions when we need to know that God is with us. We need to know positively that
God is with us. And so here we have the Lord
speaking to Joshua and telling him, telling him about Moses,
as I was with Moses. He was very aware of how God
had been with Moses in a most remarkable way. And now this
wonderful promise. So I will be with thee. What a relief that must have
been to Joshua. Here was the Lord speaking directly
to his servant Joshua. It wasn't second or third hand.
It was direct. from the Lord himself, so I will
be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. Well, and so he proved it. And so today, thankfully, the
people of God still prove the promises of God. And such words
are recorded to encourage the Church of God. You see, the Lord
knows all about us in our individual lives. I don't know about you. I only see what we might say
is the outside. The Lord looks at our heart.
He knows everything that you may be concerned about. And perhaps
this may be a word tonight which may be directed to you in some
perhaps particular way which only you and God know about. What a blessing it is that we
have tonight a God who hasn't changed. He is the same yesterday
and today and forever. He is a faithful God. And so what did Joshua witness? Joshua had witnessed the promises
of God being fulfilled. Again, in a remarkable way, that
must have therefore encouraged him, especially as these words
were spoken, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And they come out of Egypt, and
that was a wonderful deliverance. They came into the wilderness,
and they came across the great obstacle of the Red Sea. What was to happen now? In our
lives sometimes, We come across obstacles. What's going to happen
now? We're relying on the promise
of God. And now the way seems impossible. The things which are impossible
with men are possible with God. That should be an encouragement
to us. We are to look beyond what our natural mind can think
about and perhaps project. The Bible gives us a very simple
statement, it's this. Have faith in God. Do not rely on man. Have faith in God. Because God's promises come to
pass. People, men, women, may say things,
may give us encouraging words. But my friends, when God speaks,
we can rely upon it. We can believe it will come to
pass. We can trust in the Lord, trust
in the Lord at all times. You people pour out your hearts
under him. Yes, whatever situation we find
ourselves in, to trust in our God. And if the Lord indeed has
given us, like he gave Joshua, a promise, we can plead that
promise to God. As we journey on through our
life, and then difficulties come, and we can plead that promise
to God, We can come to Him and say, Thou hast said, and I'm
relying on that promise. You see, God will not back down. He will not change His view. He will not change His promise. He will not say, well, I made
a mistake. It's too difficult. It's too
hard. No. God brings it to pass. God brought it to pass. When
Israel crossed the Red Sea, there was a way made. wonderful deliverance. The waters passed, parted, something
which would have appeared to be impossible. You may remember
the Israelites were hemmed in, the Egyptians were behind them,
the mountains either side, the Red Sea in front of them. What
were they to do? Moses called on the name of the Lord and the
Lord told him what he must do. and they went across on dry land,
and more than that, more than that, the Lord then brought a
wonderful deliverance, because the Egyptians, trying to pursue
them, and they all got into the Red Sea on that dry land, the
waters then returned to their normal condition and drowned
every Egyptian soldier. It was an amazing deliverance,
wasn't it? And here the Lord is speaking
to Joshua and telling him, as I was with Moses, so I will be
with thee. Well, Joshua was to need this
as he journeyed on. As you know, he came to conquer
Jericho. Having come across the Jordan
and that again and by itself was another miracle. Another
time when there was necessity of the water to be parted so
that they could go across on dry land. And again, God didn't
fail Joshua. God was with Joshua. And God
made the way and they came safely across. And then those two spies
were sent to spy on the land and they went into Jericho and
found Rahab's house and went into the house and there they
were kept safe in quite an amazing way and they were able to find
out what the attitude was in Jericho and they're able to come
back and to tell Joshua to encourage him and that the people weren't
fearful. They expected to be attacked.
And so, of course, they were. But his life, the promises had
to be proved. Sometimes we may think that when
God gives us a promise that everything is going to be plain sailing.
There won't be any difficulties. There won't be anything to cause
a problem. But there was in the journey
of Israel as they pursued. You may remember they wonderfully
conquered Jericho. And then of course they thought
they would conquer Ai. But that didn't happen. That
didn't happen initially. No, it was a very, very sad position
that occurred. Israel turned their back upon
the enemy, upon Ai. But there was a reason. There was a reason. And eventually
God revealed that reason. One of the Israelites had disobeyed
the word of God and had coveted some of the the garments and
the gold and silver of one of the people of Jericho, and had
taken them and hidden them in his tent, totally against the
law and command of God. Joshua was perplexed. What should
he do? Had God left him? Had God left the Israelites?
No, God hadn't. But God was to demonstrate how
very clearly he was to be obeyed. And again, we should remember
that in our little lives. God is to be obeyed. We shouldn't
think we can make our own decisions and think, well, perhaps God's
got it wrong. And perhaps I should do this
and perhaps I can take that or assume this. No, God has a plan. And God has a right plan, and
that plan is to be obeyed and kept to. Well, as you may know,
eventually God did allow AI to be captured. Yes, but there was
a great lesson to be learned. And so Israel learned this lesson
and pursued. And God was with Joshua. And then that was just one other
example in the life of Joshua. And that was when the men of
Gibeon came. There were some men from Gibeon
came and pretended, pretended to say they'd come from a far, far
country. They'd been traveling a long
time, and they wanted Joshua to have mercy upon them. And
Joshua was deceived by their plan, their attitude. And he
agreed to allow them to live peaceably. And it was only three
days farther on that he learned they were close neighbors. and
they deceived him. Joshua had failed really, on
that occasion, and the Israelites, to seek God's direction. Again, it's very easy to be taken
in, taken in by a situation, and to follow what appears on
the surface to be genuine. It wasn't at all. They were deceivers. And they deceived Joshua. Well,
again, it was another lesson for Joshua and the Israelites.
And these things are recorded for our encouragement and our
direction. So today is we may bless God
if he's given us a promise. We're not to just think, well,
there won't be testing times. There will be testing times because
our faith will be tested. And that's not a bad thing because
we don't want to end up with doing and saying wrong things. We want to be found doing and
saying the will of Almighty God. So we have, in the Word of God,
these examples for us. And then another situation, just
to ponder. Moses, for the most part, all
those years, he walked alone. He walked alone. He did have
help sometimes, but for the most part, he walked alone. So don't
be really surprised if in your life and me and my life we find
that we have to walk alone. The Psalms tell us about a solitary
way, a solitary way. But the blessing is to realise
that although we may appear to be physically alone, if God is
with us, we're not alone. And we come back to that great
statement, if God be for us, who can be against us? But naturally
speaking, we will have to prove that we cannot rely upon people. We may perhaps want to sometimes.
And when we think, oh, well, this person or that person will
surely give me good advice and would direct me in a right way. Well, we are not to rely on people. We are to rely upon our God. We are to commit our way unto
the Lord. What a great blessing it is.
In reality, you know, we need God at the beginning of our Christian
journey. We need Him in the middle. We
need Him at the end. What does that mean? It really
means we need God to be with us at all times. and not to leave
us, and nor forsake us. We need to know, indeed, that
the Lord is our helper. And the apostle Paul wrote to
the Hebrews. He spoke about that, saying,
the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. Well, what a blessing if you
and I have proved. Joshua proved it. Moses had proved
it. The patriarchs proved it. God
was their helper. And if God's our helper, surely
we have nothing to fear if God is on our side. Yes, it's a very
wonderful truth. In the 118th Psalm, in the sixth
verse, David tells us, he said, the Lord is on my side. I would not fear what can man
do unto me. The Lord is on my side, God on
our side. What a blessing that is, isn't
it? What a wonderful thing it is. Again, we can read the account
in the Kings when in Elijah's day there was the enemy against
them. And there was his servant that
was very fearful about all the enemy. Elisha said, Lord open the young
man's eyes. And his eyes were opened and
he saw the host of heaven all around on the hills, there to
encourage and to fight for them. Yes, the battle is not ours,
it's the Lord's. And it's that way, so that our
God gets honour and glory to his great and holy name. So the
Lord will not allow his people to take the honour and glory. And sometimes perhaps we're tempted
so to do. But we have a great God who is
a jealous God. He's jealous for his glory. And
he will have the honour and glory. We are to always acknowledge
that and to realise and to be able to say, yes, the Lord was
on my side. It was the Lord that appeared.
It was the Lord that delivered me. It was the Lord that answered
prayer. What does that do? Surely it
exalts the name of our God. As I often say, our life on this
earth is not for our glory. Our life on this earth is for
the honor and glory of Almighty God. And so what a blessing it
is if such a word as this tonight finds an abiding place in our
hearts as I was with Moses. So I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake
thee. Perhaps moving on to New Testament
times. If I remember, there were those
two journeying on that Emmaus road. And they were sad. Why were they sad? Because things
hadn't worked out as they thought they would. Also, they couldn't
therefore understand. Well, sometimes that is so in
our lives. Things don't work out in the
way that we would anticipate. Perhaps we're perplexed about
them. We're perplexed. We can't understand
the reason. Well, God has a reason. And so
those two on the Emmaus Road were perplexed. They couldn't
understand it. But what was the great, wonderful
blessing? Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. And so perhaps, if we're perplexed
with the path, to realise that it's not the wrong way, no, God
is going to reveal to us the reason for it. And on that never to be forgotten
journey, Those two people were wonderfully blessed with the
presence of the Saviour. And what did He do? He opened
their understanding. He showed them from the Scriptures
the reason that all things had happened and what would occur. Yes, and there was a wonderful
result. And it's recorded, they said,
one to another, when the Lord had left them, did not our heart
burn within us? As he spoke to us, yes, when
the Lord does come and speaks a word to our heart, it lifts
us up. It's an amazing experience and
testimony of God's grace and mercy toward us because his word
burns within us. Yes, we're strengthened and we're
encouraged and we realize it's almighty God has come to us where
we are. and given us a right understanding. Well, it had a wonderful effect,
didn't it, on those two? They were now in Emmaus. What did they do? They immediately
returned to Jerusalem. They had some good news, good
news that Jesus had appeared to them. They thought he was
dead, and then they didn't know what had happened. because the
sepulcher was empty, but now Jesus had come to them in a personal
way and spoken to them and given them a right understanding. So
they now understood what had happened. Oh, and they rejoiced
in it. What a good thing that is for
us today. If the Lord is gracious to us
and speaks such words, not necessarily as I was with Moses, but we have
many examples, don't we, of God's presence with His people in the
Word of God. And the Lord may give us an example,
as I was with that person or this person, so I will be with
thee. And of course the end is this,
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. That's a blessing,
isn't it? That surely is the comfort to
us, the strength to us as you and I journey on in this life
to have and to be the beneficiaries of the Lord graciously coming
and coming to us. Now, let us not just forget those
two on that road to Emmaus. What were they talking about?
What were they speaking about? They were speaking about the
things of God. Those things which had happened
and what they were disappointed in. They were speaking about
the things of God and it was then that Jesus drew near. You know, we can't really expect,
can we? God to draw near for talking
about a football match or something like that. which is really totally
irrelevant. But what a good thing it is,
if we're speaking about the things of God, and perhaps speaking
one to another, that we can't understand something in the scripture. And of course there's many things
that are difficult to understand. And you young people, never be
embarrassed to admit that you don't understand
something. Never be embarrassed to admit
that you don't understand something. Always be ready and willing to
ask. Ask those who you might think
will be able to give you an answer. They may not. But if they're
gracious, they will seek to find an answer. They won't just turn
you away. They'll give you some good advice
and they'll try and find out the answer. But you see the picture
that we have. You can't expect, can we, God
to come and to be with us and to bless us if we're worldly
minded and speaking about all the things of this vain world. I know the Lord is gracious,
I know the Lord is merciful, the Lord can come even in those
situations. But we have this example, we
have this testimony of those two on Emmaus Road and the wonderful
blessing they had when the Lord Jesus came and drew near and
went with them and touched their heart. Well, that would be a
wonderful blessing. Joshua was blessed with this
promise as I was with Moses You may remember, in Moses' life,
he was concerned about God being with him and blessing him. Right in the early chapters in
Exodus, in the third chapter of Exodus, Moses said unto God,
the 11th verse, who am I? That I should go unto Pharaoh,
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel and of
Egypt. And the Lord said, certainly
I will be with thee. No doubt about it was that. He
didn't say, well, I'll just see how you're getting on, Moses,
and if you make a good fist of it, I'll give you a bit more
encouragement. No, he told him, certainly I
will be with thee. And this shall be a token unto
thee, that I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth
a people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? God very gloriously answered
him. This is what he said, I am, that I am. And he said, thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am, hath sent me
unto you. Moses needed a certainty from
Almighty God. Joshua needed a certainty from
Almighty God. In our lives sometimes, you and
I need a certainty in the things of God. And we need a certainty
to know that God is with us. And we need a certainty to know
that Lord has called us We need a certainty to know that He's
well with our soul. We need the evidence of it. What
do we really need? We need a visit from the Saviour. Those two on the Amass Road had
a visit from the Saviour, didn't they? Oh, what a blessing it
was to them. What a wonderful time it was. How encouraging it was. May we
know what it is by faith to come, seeking the Lord will visit our
souls and strengthen us and encourage us as we journey on through this
world. The Psalmist, you know, knew
the need of it. And he said in the 27th Psalm, the Lord is my
light. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Isn't it wonderful
that the Lord comes sometimes. Our path may seem very dark.
Yes, it may seem very difficult. And yet when the Lord shines
upon the path, the path that perhaps we couldn't really see.
We didn't quite know where we were going. We wondered if we were on the
right track. The Lord comes and shines His
light upon our path. We then know that
we're in the right way. And we know then that the Lord
is with us, the way opens up to us. We walk by faith, the way seemed
dark, We commended ourselves unto the Lord, and then His light
shone. And then we realized, yes, by
the grace of God, I am in the right way. The Lord is with me. The Lord hasn't forsaken me.
Now the word of God tells us that the days of darkness shall
be many. We tend to think, of course,
that The path is always going to be brilliantly lit when it's
not because we walk by faith and not by sight. The Lord causes
us to seek His face. Moses had to pray unto God on
many occasions. Joshua did on many occasions. And do you think we're going
to be exempt from that? Not at all. And you may say,
well, why not? Because it strengthens our faith
when God gives us grace to pray unto him about a certain situation. And he hears and answers our
prayer. What does that do? It strengthens
our faith. And we're able to believe and
we can say, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will
make mention of His righteousness, even of His only. Yes, that's
going in God's strength, not our strength. It's the work of
God being worked out. Because, as I've said, God's
work in our lives is for the honour and glory of Almighty
God. and taught rightly, taught truly,
you and I won't want to pat ourselves on the back and say, well, I
did this and I did that. We will want to glorify the name
of our God. We want to exalt Him because
of what He's done for His great love and mercy toward us. Oh,
to exalt His name. Again, the psalmist said, let
us exalt His name together, isn't it good? To be able to join together
and to rejoice in the evidence of the wonderful work and leading
and direction of Almighty God. And so, the Lord says, as I was
with Moses, so I will be with thee, yes? Not just one moment. It may be a time for one moment,
but it continues. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. Don't think that he won't fail
us. As we commit ourselves under him, we trust in him. Will he fail you? No. The Lord
will not fail us. He's a faithful God. May we be
encouraged by it, as we have all those wonderful examples. We have the example in the life
of David, don't we? On many occasions, David had
many battles to fight in his life. And often he was faced
with uncertainty. And what did he do? Did he count
the people and say, well, I've got a big army here? No, he saw
unto his God and he said this, Shall I pursue? Shall I pursue? Sometimes God said, pursue. Sometimes he said, no, do not
go. The Lord doesn't always answer
in one direction. Sometimes in our spiritual life
and our natural life, God says, no. We don't always like that,
do we? Especially if we've got a plan,
which we think is a good plan, and we expect God to answer it.
Well, God does answer it. But sometimes He says no. And we should be ready to hear
such an answer, and not think, well, that can't be from God,
because I haven't received the answer that I expected. You have
received the answer. But it's not what you expected.
And again, if we ponder such a position, what we'll find is,
if we had had the answer, you know what would have happened?
We'd have patted ourselves on the back. Oh yes, and we'd have
thought how great we were. And we'd have claimed the glory
ourselves. that God will have all the honor
and all the glory. So let us not therefore be disappointed,
but may we indeed be thankful that we have a God who is kind
and gracious. Remember, the Lord leads his
people in the right way. We read in the 107th Psalm, he
led them forth by the right way. that they should go to a city
of habitation. Moses was led forth by the right
way. Joshua was led forth by the right
way. God's people are led forth by
the right way. God doesn't make a mistake. Sometimes we make mistakes because
we make assumptions and we draw conclusions. The Lord never makes
a mistake. As for God, His way is perfect. What a mercy it is, therefore,
to be able to come and submit ourselves to our God. And the blessing is this, the
Lord's way will always bring us nearer to Himself. Perhaps it's in a path of correction,
that turn us away from a false way, but it will always bring
us nearer to the Saviour. And what a blessing that is.
If we went abroad to knowledge, perhaps we made mistakes. Perhaps
we haven't heeded the Word of God, and yet to fall back on
a promise like this, and to realize we do have a kind and gracious
God. Be strong, therefore, and of
a good courage. Fear not. That's what it goes
on really to say here, doesn't it? Be strong and of a good courage. It occurs also in Deuteronomy,
the same words. Be strong and of a good courage. That means there will be times
when we'll need God to strengthen us. Sometimes the temptations
are strong. The enemy of our souls is a great
adversary and he's very cunning in the way he operates. And we
should not therefore think that he's an easy person to fight
with. My friends, we need the Lord
to be on our side. We need indeed the Lord to be
with us. We need therefore to prove continually
this truth, this wonderful blessing. As I was with Moses, there's
the example. So I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee.