might please God to bless us
this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Joshua chapter 21 and we'll read the last three verses 43,
44 and 45. The book of Joshua chapter 21
and reading verses 43, 44 and 45. And the Lord gave unto Israel
all the land which he sware to give unto their
fathers, and they possessed it and dwelt therein. And the Lord
gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their
fathers. And there stood not a man of
all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand. Their fails not ought of any
good thing which the Lord has spoken unto the house of Israel
all came to pass. It is a wonderful statement to
be able to read in the Word of God these last few words in this
chapter all came to pass. Now not only was that true with
regard to those things which had occurred but since then many
things have occurred and those things which have been prophesied
we can be thankful today they have indeed come to pass. Now I read together that 15th
chapter in Genesis which spoke of course about Abraham and God
spoke to Abraham and God gave promises to Abraham and one of
the promises that we read in that chapter was that his seed,
and remember that time Isaac wasn't born, his seed would come
and inhabit that country which he was standing on at that time,
which was in the land of Canaan. And they were going to travel
around and travel many years, but that would come to pass. And perhaps we need to appreciate
that it wasn't just a few years. From that time in that chapter,
when God spoke to Abraham until this time, there were about 800
years. So 800 years is a very significant
amount of time. And we should remember that perhaps
in our lives today, when we expect promises, perhaps that God has
spoken to us to come to pass very quickly and very rapidly.
Well, it was 800 years before it came to pass, but it did come
to pass. And of course, it came to pass
in a very remarkable way, a very different way to no doubt what
Abraham would have ever thought about. First of all, we know
that in Abraham's case, he had to be blessed with a son. And
that, of course, was naturally an impossibility. He was an old
man. His wife was an old lady. And it was an impossibility.
But it came to pass, as God said. And so Isaac was born. And then Isaac was provided with
a wife. And she had then those sons,
Esau and Jacob. And we might think, well, was
the promise going to be fulfilled? He'd been told, of course, they
were going to go down to Egypt for 400 years. That didn't seem
very possible. There they were, reasonably comfortable.
Jacob had his sons. He was, you know, he went away
and then came back and was blessed with those 12 sons and the daughter
Dinah. And then Joseph, was taken, his
brothers sold him into Egypt. Again, you might think, well,
how is that relevant? What's that going to be? Well,
it was all part of God's plan for his people. And I'm just
going through this to encourage us today, in our path, to realise
that things occur which we didn't expect, but they may all be part
of God's plan. to think that Joseph should be
sold as a slave into Egypt and then to be put in a prison for
something he wasn't guilty of and then to have to suffer in
that prison all because it was God's purpose. And so he was
on hand when Pharaoh had those dreams. and because he had interpreted
the dream of the butler and the baker and the butler then remembered
suddenly two years later how that Joseph had interpreted his
dream he told Pharaoh and Joseph was called for and Joseph interpreted
his dream And it was to alert Pharaoh to what would happen.
There would be seven years of wonderful blessing and then seven
years of terrible famine. And Joseph was raised up to be
a governor of Egypt under the hands of, under Pharaoh. Now then, God's plan was being
worked out. So through that, Jacob's brethren
were brought down into Egypt. And there was the beginning.
Then at that time they spent in Egypt, which we read about,
400 years. They were going to be afflicted
in Egypt. Of course, at the beginning they
weren't afflicted, but they would be. And so they were afflicted
for all those years, 400 years. God's purposes were still being
worked out. And eventually, Eventually, the
time came they should be delivered from Egypt, God's time, so that
his purposes, so that his promises would come to pass. So after those 400 years, you
will remember, I'm sure, Moses was appointed by God to bring
those children of Israel out of Egypt. And don't forget that
again, Moses was an amazing character. He'd been saved from death because
all the babies, when he was born, the king had commanded they should
be killed. He'd been placed in that basket
and put amongst the reeds and Pharaoh's daughter had come and
seen him and had decided to have him brought up as her son. Forty years in the palaces of
Pharaoh. Now Moses thought, well now's
the time. The children of Israel will realize
that I'm the one who is to deliver them. But they did not understand
it. The result was that he had to flee into the backside of
the desert because he slain the Egyptian who was attacking an
Israel, a Hebrew. And there he spent another 40
years. God's purposes were being worked
out so that it would come to pass. It's good to realize these
things in our lives today, because so often we need to be reminded
of the words of God when he said this, your time is always, but
my time is not yet. And so it was not the time for
Israel to be brought out of Egypt, but there was a time appointed
time. And after another 40 years, then
when Moses had learnt hard things, remember previously he'd been
blessed to learn many wonderful things in Egypt and now he'd
learnt hard things and now he was to be with the children of
Israel for another 40 years. But nonetheless he was the person
ordained by God to deliver those children from that hard time,
that bondage in Egypt. And you may remember the the
wonderful plagues that were brought upon Pharaoh, and eventually
the Passover was instituted, that lamb was slain, and signifying
the need to be under the blood. Only those who were under that
blood, which was on the doorposts and the lintels, were delivered. Otherwise, all those families
suffered the loss of their eldest child. But because of that, and
it was very significant, Israel came out of Egypt. And they were
in the wilderness then. And they were there for a year.
And God told them then to go up and possess this land of Canaan.
But it wasn't to be. They disobeyed God. They listened
to an evil report of ten spies He didn't believe what Joshua
and Caleb said, the good spies, and therefore they were told
that the spies had spent 40 days looking at this land, and Israel
now would have spent 40 years travelling in the wilderness.
But again, God's purposes were being worked out. And we must
realise the truth of these words that fails not ought of any good
thing which the Lord has spoken unto the house of Israel all
came to pass and eventually Moses was told he couldn't enter into
the promised land because he disobeyed the Lord God in speaking
to the in striking the rock rather than speaking to it to bring
water out of it Quite a simple sin, we might think, but God
marked it with disobedience. We should remember in our lives
to be obedient to the Word of God, not to be disobedient. Eventually,
it came into Canaan. They destroyed Jericho. And then Joshua was their leader. And then, as you read in Joshua's
book, all those cities which were gradually destroyed so that
Israel then came to inhabit the land of Canaan. And after those
800 years, God's promise was fulfilled. And it was fulfilled
so that we can read these words today, all came to pass. Well, that's just a very brief
history of what occurred in those days. And we may think, well,
that's all very nice. How is that relevant to us today?
Well, it's relevant really in a number of ways. First of all,
it is relevant to us in our individual lives. Because there are those
things which God may have spoken to us, we may be waiting for
the fulfilment of them, and they may not have come to pass yet,
but we can be sure that they will come to pass. because what
God speaks does come to pass there is no doubt about it and
it's wonderful for us to be able to read from Genesis that history
that Moses wrote right from the very beginning and to know that
those things spoken especially in that third chapter when Adam
and Eve partook of that fruit that they were forbidden to and
disobeyed God that God told them and that there would be one.
The seed of a woman would bruise, would crush Satan's head. And that seed of the woman, that
prophecy was the Lord Jesus Christ. So, just think now. The Lord
Jesus Christ prophesied. Very soon after, the world was
created because of Adam and Eve's sin. And, after many years, many
years, approximately 4,000 years had elapsed before that prophecy
came to pass. And it came to pass. And as you
read the Old Testament, there are many prophecies in the Old
Testament which speak very precisely about the Lord Jesus Christ,
about his birth, being a virgin birth, where he would be born,
in Bethlehem how he would be born and how he would live his
life and how he would die it's all set forth very clearly in
the Old Testament and so after all those years the prophecies
were fulfilled and all came to pass now how confirming that
should be to Christians today, to realise that the Word of God,
the Bible that we have, is not a book of fables. It's not a
book of fairy tales. It is the Word of God. And it
does tell us very clearly about the truth of God. And how encouraging
for us today to see the fulfilment of prophecy, the fulfilment of
God's Word. Nothing was lacking. All came
to pass. You might suddenly think, well,
perhaps some of it came to pass. No. The Bible tells us all came
to pass. And it did. Now, as it all came
to pass, surely we can be encouraged to believe that in our lives
today, there are those things which are being fulfilled in
our lives. And we should also look forward
to the fulfillment of prophecy which tells us that there will
be, that time and everything on this earth will perish and
be burnt up. That this world will not live
forever. And how easy it is for us to find ourselves living in
it with a style and a consideration that effectively tells people
that we believe the world will carry on forever. Well, it will
not carry on forever. And we should realise that God's
word is true. And therefore it tells us that
the end of the world will come. We've seen the fulfilment of
so many things. We've seen the fulfilment of
the Lord Jesus Christ's life and death and resurrection and
ascension. And as we've seen these things
fulfilled, to believe therefore that those things which are still
prophesied will come to pass. Now let us just ponder for a
moment the situation with regard to the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because how important it was. And let us just look back again
to Egypt. Let's look back to the Passover.
What did it signify? It signified in that Passover,
the lamb. The lamb was taken. the lamb
was killed, the lamb's blood was shed. What does it signify? It signifies the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is described as the Lamb of God. These things were not
just made up. These things were all ordained
as very significant for us to believe the truth of God's Word. It had to be a lamb which was
to all intents and purposes without any fault, a perfect lamb. And that sets before us the perfect
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no sin in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life. And the figure in that Passover
was the Lord Jesus Christ, the figure as of that land. And we need to remember that
not only was the Passover a very significant occasion, but also
looking back throughout the history of the world, there have been
many occasions when animals have been slain and the blood shed
signifying the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You only have
to think of way back in the days of when Cain was slain because
of his acceptable sacrifice. We think of Abraham told to slay
his son Isaac and then being stopped by God in the very act
and then of Ram taken up as a substitute and offered up in his stead.
We see the wonderful picture of this sacrifice for sin throughout
the Old Testament and of course when Israel were in the wilderness
then Moses went up to Mount Moriah and God gave him the wonderful
testimony and the picture of what had to be carried out and
there was then instituted the daily sacrifice every day lambs
were slain morning and evening to offer up for a sacrifice for
sin and of course individuals also brought their sacrifices
throughout that time and indeed right up until the time of the
Lord Jesus there were these sacrifices which were offered. But after
his death there was no need for these sacrifices. Why was there
no need? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was the perfect sacrifice now all these things pointed to Christ
and in due time all those pictures were fulfilled in the life and
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and we can read these words that
fell not out of any good thing which the Lord has spoken unto
the house of Israel all came to pass. And then as we come
to this time of the year, when we remember the birth of the
Lord Jesus Christ, when it was a wonderful occasion, when the
promise was fulfilled, and again fulfilled in accordance with
the Word of God, but fulfilled in a very different way to what
the Jews anticipated. They thought he would come as
an earthly king, but they were mistaken. He did come as a king,
but he came in very humble circumstances. And again, as we direct that
to our own lives, we sometimes think that things will occur
in a certain pattern. We may anticipate certain situations
developing certain scenes arriving. Indeed we may have had a little
idea, a little plan in our own mind about what was going to
occur. But how necessary to examine
our ideas and to examine our plans and to be able to discern
whether they are being worked out, whether they are fulfilling
God's plan, God's purpose, because God has a purpose for each one
of us in this world if we are his children. There's a divine
purpose for each one of us and we are to live our lives as unto
the Lord. Now Moses had to prove that in
his life Jacob had to prove it in his life. Joseph had to prove
it in his life. David had to prove it in his
life. Solomon had to prove it in his
life. How many examples there are in the Word of God where
people assumed things would work out in a very different way. But God's purposes were being
worked out, and God's purposes were being worked out in that
right way, in accordance with the Word of God, and what way
was that? What way was it? If I was to
ask you today, well, what was the way that God ordained for
these people? And what is the way that is ordained
for you and me? What is the way? I'll tell you
what it is. It's the way that is for God's
honour and for God's glory. That's the purpose. And as you
read back, through the Word of God, you will find that in all
those lives I've just briefly referred to, it brought forth
honour and glory to God. And so today, if we look into
our lives, are our lives bringing honour and glory to God. It's a big question, isn't it? It's a big question. Do our lives bring honour and
glory to God? We need to look at ourselves
very carefully, because it's so easy to walk in a reverse
way. That brings discredit on the
name of the Lord God. And we bring this credit on the
name of the Lord God when we walk in an opposite direction
to the Lord God, to His way, the way the Word of God directs
us in. It is important for us today
to be able to see, look into our hearts and to observe there
whether we do have a right desire a right motive, and that is to
honour and to glorify our God. Well, we know those servants
of God in the Old Testament did, didn't they? Their concern was
to serve the Lord. Look at the New Testament. What
happened there? You think of those disciples.
The Lord Jesus was on the earth and he called them One by one. Individually. What did he call
them to do? Two words. Follow me. Follow me. What did they do? Did they stop? They said, well
no, I'm not going to. They followed the Lord. And the Lord, you know, made
them. Some of them were fishermen.
And what did he say to them? I'll make you fishers of men. To save their souls. Used to save the souls of men
and women in this world. What were their lives? Their
lives were then for the honour and glory of God. They left their
nets. Yes, they left their jobs. Remember,
Matthew was a publican, tax collector. Yes, he left that position. Luke
was a physician. He left that position. And they
followed the Lord to bring honour and glory to God. Wonderful example, isn't it?
And what do we observe? In their lives, all came to pass. What God had said came to pass.
Paul the Apostle, an eminent man of God. He wasn't so eminent
at one time. He was against the Lord. He did
all that he could to destroy the Gospel, to destroy the truth
of God, spent all his energy in that. But the time came when
God spoke to him, when God shone into his heart and then he was
a changed man and he was winning then. He fell down. All his pride evaporated. All
his self-esteem disappeared. He realised he was before God. What did he say? Lord, what will
thou have me to do? My friends, what a blessing that
was, and what a blessing that would be for every one of us
here this morning. We came very simply like that,
realising that God's purpose is for us. of being worked out,
and be sure of this, God's purposes will be worked out. We may rebel,
we may object, we may say, I'm not going to walk that way, I'm
not going to obey God, I'm not going to have this man to reign
over me, I'm going to live my life, I'm going to do my will. think of it poor little puny
man arguing with almighty God how sad and yet how true by nature
that's what we're like we seem to fail to observe the great
truth of God's word all came to pass. God's purposes
will come to pass in your life and my life. So it would be a good thing if
we were given that grace not to rebel and not to walk in the
opposite direction. Well, we can thank God we have
the example of those who were willing to give up their life
We have many examples since the Word of God of those who've given
their life, we think of missionaries who've gone out into the difficult
lands. Think of Hudson Taylor, think
of Carey and other such people who are willing to forsake all
the comforts of their home all the things that they were surrounded
with, and to go and to serve the Lord. You might say, well,
what were they doing? Well, they were obeying the Lord,
and they were following his example. The example of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He didn't have great estates, did he? He didn't have
great possessions. And he sets before us a wonderful
example. My friends, today we are called,
these people are called to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All came to pass. Yes, Israel's
rebellion, Paul's rebellion, it didn't stop
God's work coming to pass. And if you and I are walking
contrary to God, there won't be that peace. There won't be
that peace, you know. There's only one place of peace. I'll tell you where that is.
Peace by His cross, as Jesus made. It's only as you and I
view what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, And as you and I have
the evidence that Lord Jesus Christ has come and died for
us, do we have any true peace? There's no real peace. People
struggle for peace. People struggle for happiness.
I read the other day an account of a, I think she's a film star
or whatever, and she'd been to these parties, and she was trying
to analyse the people at the parties, and she made this statement. She said, well, many people are
trying to look as though they're enjoying it. Trying to look as
though they're enjoying it. How true that is. How many people
today Try to give an effect. Try to make out they're enjoying
something. Trying to believe they have peace,
in actual fact, is not true. It's not true. There's only one
place of enjoyment. True enjoyment. The Lord does
bless us with many things that we can enjoy. But there's only
one true place of enjoyment. Do you know where that is? Do
you know where it is? Well I'll answer it in the line
of a hymn. To know my Jesus crucified by
far excels all things beside. Now you will bless God if in
your life it comes to pass you're brought to this place A place that God favours his
people with. It means that the things of life,
our life, become dim and the things of God and the things
of Christ become bright and they shine forth. Now then, all came
to pass. There will be in our lives the
day when The end of our lives will come. We shan't live forever
naturally in our body. Our souls will live forever.
Our bodies won't. Our bodies will perish, dust
to dust, ashes to ashes, earth to earth as we know. All of us,
my friends, will be in that state. And then where will our soul
be? All came to pass in our lives which have come to that place,
when we must stand before our Maker, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as the judge of all the earth. All will come to pass. It's not avoiding it. The Word
of God tells us the truth of these things. We've traced out
something of the fulfilment of God's Word. the fulfillment,
the truth of God's word. And how you and I need to know
in our hearts, the Lord has saved us, the Lord has delivered us,
the Lord has blessed us, and that he's gone to prepare a place
for us in glory. Yes, a place in heaven, a place
where we shall be eternally happy. eternally peaceful, all came to pass. What a wonderful
prospect it is for us today. And as we come this time of the
year and we think of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, may
we really rejoice in it. If there was no Saviour, no hope
for us, no salvation, Bless God today that Lord Jesus did come. And he came and he was and he
is the light of the world to shine into our dark hearts. What
a wonderful blessing. If this has come to pass in our
lives, that light has shone. All came to pass. And therefore,
may we have that good hope of eternal life. It is a good hope. And what's the foundation of
it? The foundation is not what you and I have done. The foundation
is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. That's why it's a foundation. And that's why it's a good foundation.
And that's why it's a firm foundation. And that's why the Lord Jesus
is referred to as the rock. And it is a rock which is unmovable. All came to pass. as it comes
to pass in our lives, that we are standing upon that rock,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That light has shone, that glorious
light which will never go out. If that light has shone to reveal
to us the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, that light will
never go out. It is an eternal light in our
souls. Oh, what a blessed gospel it
is to think of it. And we today, my friends, are
privileged to have the Word of God which describes to us in
all the fullness the great and glorious plan of salvation from
Genesis to Revelation. And it has come to pass and it
will come to pass. Everything will be fulfilled
without any doubt. Let us not doubt then the Word
of God. Let us rejoice in that finished
work of Christ My friends, there is our confidence, not in what
we've done, it's in what Christ has done as he gave his life,
his life, that holy life, that precious life, for an atonement
as he shed his blood, the precious blood of Christ, how valuable
it is, how necessary it was that it was shed and all came to pass
with regard to the prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ No doubt
the devil thought when Christ died upon the cross, he gained
the victory, but he rose again. It came to pass, he rose from
the dead, a conqueror over sin, death, hell and the grave. And
we are more than conquerors through him, not in and of ourselves. All came to pass. Well, may we
indeed bless God today for such a truth as this. and meditate
upon what has come to pass, as we can read it in the Word of
God, and to meditate, perhaps, in our lives, what has come to
pass. And then those things, perhaps,
which we are waiting for, to wait on. that they will come
to pass as God fulfilled his promises to ancient Israel so
he has fulfilled his promises down through the ages to the
church of God and he still fulfills his promises today so let us
all be found hoping in God not in ourselves hoping in God and
to come and be able to say with the hymn writer my hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness and if that
is so we can believe that all things will be working together
and that all will come to pass. Amen.