If you would turn with me to
Joshua chapter 21. I had intended to move on to
Joshua 22 tonight, but as I begin to read those last three verses
of chapter 21, I felt that our time tonight would be well spent
considering those three verses in further detail. So look again
with me to verse 43. Joshua 21 verse 43. And the Lord gave unto Israel
all the land which he sware. That word means solemnly promised
with an oath. He gave 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 swore faithfully promised
unto their fathers. And there stood not a man of
all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any
good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel,
all came to pass. Not long ago, someone said to
me, why do you always have to qualify God as being sovereign? They went on to say, when I was
younger, the name and the title God alone declared His sovereignty
and power. And I said, it should. It should. But today, sadly, it doesn't. And that's why we add that word
sovereign. We put that adjective sovereign
before the name of God to distinguish the God of the Bible from the
puny, weak, pitiful God that the religion of the world today
proclaims. And I want to say again, I don't
find pleasure in talking bad about religion. But I have had
people that I love, that have gone out to meet God in eternity,
believing a lot. Believing that God was willing
and trying to save everyone and couldn't unless they accepted
Him, they gave Him their heart. And pretty soon what happens
is sinners begin trusting in their will and in their decision
instead of the Lord's accomplish salvation. The God of the Bible is different
from the God of modern day religion. And it doesn't take much talking
with someone of today's religion to find that out. The God of
Scripture has never tried or wanted to do anything. The Scripture
says He thinks and it comes to pass. He purposes and it stands. That's the God with whom we have
to do, and that's my God. We call God's grace sovereign
grace because the grace of God we here proclaim today is anything
but sovereign. Men declare that God's grace
is determined by man's will and man's choice and man's decision,
not God's. And religion doesn't like us
to add that word sovereign. Just like the so-called Christian
radio station that wouldn't allow our radio broadcast because in
the intro, we mentioned sovereign grace. He said, you did so twice. Well, shame, shame. Is there
any other kind of grace? Is there any other kind of grace?
Is there any other kind of God? Men and women, I might add, also
preach God as being dependent on the sinner, allowing him to
save them and to be gracious to them. That's why folks say
things like, I found Jesus, and I accepted Jesus, and I let go
and let God, and I gave Jesus my heart, and I made Jesus Lord. That, my friends, is deadly poison. Those who drink it shall die.
We don't make ourselves to differ. God makes us to differ. 1 Corinthians
4, 7, read it in your Bible. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do you have that you didn't receive? And if you
received it, why do you glory in it? Well, we don't. God's
people don't. We know who made the difference.
I recently heard a self-proclaimed preacher say, God has no hands
but your hands. It's by your hands that he blesses
the world. God has no feet but your feet,
and it's with your feet with which God walks to do good. God has no eyes but your eyes,
and it's with them, your eyes, that God sees and has compassion
on the world. You can't make this up. If those
things are so, then we have no God. We just have an idol, a
figment of lost men and women's imagination. And He's nothing
more than the idol that David defines in Psalm 115. Hold your
place here and turn there with me. I want you to see this. I
know you're familiar with the passage, but I want you to see
it in light of this. Psalm 115. We'll come back to
Joshua 21. In verse one of Psalm 115, I'll
give you a moment to get there. David, knowing who God is and
knowing who we are, says this in verse one, not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. Why? For your
mercy and for your truth's sake, Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? David said, but our God is in
the heavens. And he is. And he hath none whatsoever
he hath pleased. And he has. And he still does. Then in verse four, David immediately
begins to describe the little G God of men's imaginations. That's a good name for him, little
G. He said, their idols are silver
and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes they have, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. And then David makes this distinction
and comes to this conclusion in verse eight. He says, they
that make them, speaking of these idols, are like unto them. And so is everyone that trusteth
in them. Now, do you know what that means?
It means that the God of man's imagination is dead. No God at
all. He's dead. And they that trust
him are just like him. They have no life in them. But
David said, not our God. He makes a distinction. That's
what we do when we call God sovereign, when we preach God as sovereign,
not our God. David said, He's in the heavens
and He does whatsoever He's pleased to do. He's sovereign, He's almighty. And He does as He wills, how
He wills, to whom He wills. That's what a sovereign does.
In verse 16, David says, the heaven, even the heavens are
the Lord's. Verse 17, the dead praise not
the Lord, neither any that go down into silence, but we, speaking
of the chosen children of God, will bless the Lord from this
time forth and forevermore. And then he says, praise the
Lord. You know what I say? Praise the Lord. And that's another
word that we add today to the title of believer, our child
of God, and that's the word chosen. Well, why are you always talking
about the chosen? Why are you always talking about
the elect? Well, we clarify the children
of God as chosen children of God, and here's why. We must
distinguish and qualify who saves, who God saves, and who God chooses. God's people believe because
God chose them and gave them life. And they are the chosen
children of God. The whole world doesn't believe
and trust in Christ. So the whole world cannot be
saved, only those who believe and trust in Christ are saved.
Isn't that what the Lord said in the very verse that men try
to prove that the Lord loved the whole world? For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That! Whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Those
that don't believe in him, the scripture says, are condemned
already. They love darkness rather than light. That's the condemnation.
The Lord Jesus said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you.
And I've ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit
and that your fruit should remain. John 15, 16. And we will not
bear any fruit, any fruit of repentance or any fruit of the
Spirit, unless God ordains us to do so. And it's because God
chose us and God gave us life and he enabled us to believe.
When Paul talks in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 about the grace of
God, he said you're saved by grace through faith. He said
in that order for a reason. Grace comes before faith. Life's
got to come before believing comes. Because a dead man or
woman can't believe. God's got to give us life first. When did Lazarus come forth?
Did God give him life after he came forth? Well, no. The dead
man can't come forth. God gave him life and he came
forth. God said, God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man said, Lazarus, come forth. And the scripture
says, he that was dead was dead. He no longer dead, came forth. Oh, friends, it's a sovereign
God that has mercy on whom He'll have mercy and compassion on
whom He'll have compassion. And it's an almighty God who
hardens whom He wills. The God of the Bible is not popular
today. That's okay with Him. The God of the Bible is not politically
correct. But He's God. And He does what
He wills in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
are You doing, God? Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He in heaven and in earth and in the seas and in all deep
places. God does what He wills in hell. I woke up this morning to a message
on my phone which informed me of a dear brother in Christ I
mentioned earlier struggling health-wise to keep his foot
from being amputated. And he'd tell you if he was here,
I know him, and he would tell you if he was here that God is
the first cause of his health problems. I was recently told
about a precious sister in the Lord who's been told that she
has terminal cancer. And she will unequivocally tell
you that God sent her that trial for her good and His glory. And I know this, a disease is
only terminal when God says it is. Our dear friend and brother Paul
Hibbs says for the most part of this year, has been in the
hospital or in a rehabilitation center, and a little while back,
barely able to speak, he looked at me and uttered and said, it's
all of the Lord. And it is. Every bit of it. It's of the Lord. And we distinguish
our great God as sovereign. Why? Because He is. We dare not allow Him to be misrepresented. And we ourselves know these things
only because the Lord Himself has been pleased to reveal to
us and every enlightened sinner that very thing. If you're here
tonight and you know the God of the Bible, it's the same with
you. God revealed it to you. And God revealed to you that
Christ in you is the hope of glory. There's no hope of glory,
no hope of heaven, apart from that. Christ in you. Jesus Christ in him crucified.
It's the only sacrifice that God will accept. There's no other
hope for the hopeless. We have joy, peace, and faith
only because the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing. Romans 15, 13. Paul said, but when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. That's the only difference you
believe, the only reason you believe, and it's the only reason
I believe. God separated us from our mother's
womb, actually before the foundation of the world. And He gave us
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And He said, they're mine, I'm
giving them to you. And Christ said, yes, Lord, yes,
Father, I will pay their sin debt. And He did. He's the one that makes us to
differ. We didn't make ourselves to differ. You can say you made
Jesus Lord, and I'm telling you, you did not. He was Lord long
before you ever believed on Him. Our Lord Jesus said, all things
are delivered to me and my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son
is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and to
whom the Son will reveal Him. The book of Revelation is not
a book about the end times. It's not a book about Armageddon.
It's not a book about a thousand year reign or anything or any
other type of exaggerated subject for that matter. The book of
Revelation is what it says it is. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. That's what this whole book is.
It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. And the book of Revelation reveals
to us that Christ is Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and
the end. He's the first and the last.
Which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. We didn't coin the word Sovereign.
We didn't coin the word Almighty. God did. Christ is He that liveth and
was dead, and behold, is alive forevermore, and has the keys
of hell and death. And it's Christ who the four
beasts cried, holy, holy, holy. And I'm only holy, Sharon, because
He's holy. And it's Christ of whom they
declare, give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sitteth
on the throne. And it's Christ whom the four
and 20 elders fall down before and worship, Him that liveth
forever and ever, and can crown their crowns, and they throw
their crowns before His throne. It's the Lord Jesus Christ to
whom they worship and say, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created. It's the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of His people in the world, who is found worthy
to take the book and open it. It's the Lamb of God. It's the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, who hath prevailed
to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Do you see
who's in control here? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. who
is in the midst of the throne, and the four beasts in the midst
of the other, stands as a lamb as it had been slain. And all
of heaven sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, tongue,
and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God. Now listen. He's made us, His
people, unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the
four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders
fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever."
It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what this whole book is
about. And sadly, in and of ourselves, by nature, we are like those
men's idols that we read about a moment ago. Nothing more. To say that we are is that we're
lying to ourselves, we're deceiving ourselves. We have mouths, but
we can't speak. We can't tell God that we're
sorry. We can't repent of our evil, because we love darkness
rather than light. God must give us life in order
for us to speak. We have eyes, but we can't see.
We can't see until God gives us life and spiritual life to
see our sin and to see Christ as our Savior. We have noses
that cannot smell. We can't smell the sweet fragrance
of the lily of the valley and the rose of Sharon. Can't do
it. We have hands, but they handle
not and cannot work and provide the perfect righteousness that
God requires in order for us to be saved. We have feet, but
they're swift to shed blood. And they run to destruction in
the way of peace we've not known. And we have throats, but they
can't utter a word to ask for mercy or grace and life. God
must intervene and give us life before we can ever ask for it.
But if God gives us life, we can do all things through Christ
which strengthen us. Our text here in Joshua 21 tells
us very plainly the means and cause of life in the first four
words. Turn back there with me if you
haven't already. Joshua 21, verse 43. Those first four words, my, it
says so much. And the Lord gave. For God so loved that he gave. The Lord gave barren Sarah, and
barren Rebecca, and barren Rachel, and barren Manoah's anonymous
wife. He gave Hannah a child. They were barren, couldn't have
children. God gave them children. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom,
1 Kings 5.12. The wisest man in all the world
other than Christ himself had that wisdom because God gave
it to him. The Lord gave Israel a Savior.
And if you and I are ever to be saved, the Lord has to give
us one, and He did. And Christ is who He is. Job
said, the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Abraham's servant, he told Rebekah
and her family, he said, the Lord has blessed my master greatly. And he has become great. And
he, the Lord, hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver,
and gold, and men's servants, and maidservants, and camels,
and asses. The Lord gave it to him. Abraham's
servant went on to say, and Sarah, my master's wife, who was barren,
God gave her a son and gave him a son through her. And she bare
a son to my master when she was old, when everybody said, give
up on having a child. You're 90 years old, you can't
have no child. God said, Sarah's gonna have
a child. God gave it to Abraham, and Abraham
gave it to Isaac. It's God who gives understanding
to the heart. It's God who gives His counsel,
Psalm 16, 7. It's God who gives repentance,
Ecclesiastes 3, 10. It's God who gives life in abundance. It's God who gives riches and
wealth. It's God who gives knowledge,
Jeremiah 11, 18. It's God who causes the rain
to fall on the just and the unjust. It's God who causes the sun to
shine on both. It's God who gives assurance,
Acts 17, 31. It's God who gives the Spirit,
2 Corinthians 5, 5. It's God who gives eternal life,
1 John 5, 11. It's God who gives grace and
faith. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. And most importantly,
dear friends, it's God who gave Himself. Ephesians 5, 2. So, the first thing that we see
in this brief little outline, just penned right out for us
here in these verses, is that it's God who gives it all. All
of it. Secondly, who did God give it
to? Look at verse 43. And the Lord
gave unto Israel all the land. God gave it to Israel. God gave
it to His people. He didn't give it to the whole
world. He gave it to His people in the world. The Lord said it's
the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The Father
It's His good pleasure to give it to His children. God didn't
give it to the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the
Habites, the Jebusites. He actually took it from them
and gave it to His people, Israel. Paul said, who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Are you going to take
any glory in that? No, you weren't even born yet.
You haven't done any good or evil that the purpose of God
according to election might stand. Not of me and you, but of Him
that calleth, to Him that showeth grace, to Him that shed His own
blood to make us holy and acceptable to God. My, my, if a sinner is ever to
receive anything, it will be from the Lord. Thirdly, we see
that God gives it to whom he promised. Verse 43 again, and
the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give
unto their fathers. God made a covenant with Abraham
some 400 plus years before. Genesis 12, seven, and the Lord
appeared unto Abram. Before he ever changed his name
to Abraham, God appeared unto him and said, unto thy seed will
I give this land. In Genesis 13, 5, For all the
land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed
forever. That's what God said. It's God's
to give. And He gives it to whomsoever
He will. Genesis 15, 8, In the same day the Lord made a covenant
with Abraham. He swore by an oath. That's what
a covenant is. saying unto thy seed have I given
this land from the river of Egypt into the great river, the river
Euphrates. Will we ever learn it's God who
gives because he promised to give it? He's not a man that
he should lie, son, a man that he should change his mind and
repent. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering. Why do we waver? It's God who
promised, and He is faithful that promised, Hebrews 10, 23.
Fourthly, those to whom He gave it, that being His people, He
swore, He promised, He made an oath to give it to their seed,
and they most certainly received it. It's effectual. It's always effectual. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. You will not come that you might
have life. He makes you willing. And the
Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto
their fathers. And look at this, and they possessed
it, and they dwelt therein. In Christ we possess the inheritance
of our eternal dwelling place, and we dwell therein. Why, where
else would we go? Our Joshua has the words to eternal
life. We must stay in the ark that's
pitched with blood. We must stay in the house with
the scarlet cord. We must stay in the city of refuge
with our great high priest. I love to think about that. I
love to say it. And those that do so, fifthly,
find that the Lord will give them rest. Look at verse 44.
And the Lord gave them rest round about. Everywhere they went,
they had rest. I know we come to services on
Wednesday and Sunday because we need rest. We need a little
refuge from this world. But we've got to rest wherever
we go because of who it is that goes with us. I wish we could
learn that. And the Lord gave them rest round
about. according to all that he swear
promised unto their fathers. Rest, how many times have we
talked about it? Rest, the word means being settled. It means quiet. It means calm. It means grounded. Oh, sometimes I don't act like a
man that's very calm and quieted and grounded. That's to my shame,
not his. Oh, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in
love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and the length and the depth and the height of His love and
His mercy and His grace. And that's what brings the believers
rest. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's
what gives us rest. Now in the hymn that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could think or ask
according to the power that worketh in us. Don't you find peace and
rest in that? Then sixthly, the Lord gives
us deliverance from all our enemies. Look at the last part of verse
44. And there stood not a man of
all their enemies before them, The Lord delivered all, all their
enemies into their hand. When can we rest? When we come
to the same place Israel did, when our work's finished. No
more enemies to fight. No more battles. No more wandering
in the wilderness. All our enemies have been delivered
into our hands. There stood not a man before
them. For Christ must reign till he hath put all enemies under
his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death." You know, it's instilled in all
of us by nature to fear death. And people say, well, it's fear
in the unknown. No, it's not. A believer knows
what lies ahead, don't we? It's not unknown to us. It's
a promotion. It's a departure. Death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O 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 giveth
us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfilled the
law. He satisfied God's holy justice. He put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And that is how we rest. Let's rest. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, not your work, the work of the Lord, for as much as you
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Our labor,
our work's not in vain because it's already been finished. It's
already been accomplished. Jesus paid it all. He's finished
the work that God gave him to do, John 17, four. And this is
how we can rest. This is how we can be steadfast.
This is how we can be unmovable, always abounding in God's work
because the work is done. So what do we do? We rest. Now in
closing, look at verse 45 with me and rejoice some more. You
know, I always thought about that verse where Paul told the
church of Philippi, he said to rejoice in the Lord always. And
then he said, and again, I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord
and then rejoice some more. And then rejoice some more. And
then just keep on rejoicing. Why? Because the work's done.
This promise is to every chosen child of God, verse 45. There
fell not out of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto
the house of Israel. All came to pass. All of it. Everything God's promise
has come to pass. He promised good for you if you're
His. Who did these things come to
pass for? For all the promises of God in Him, in Christ, are
yea, yes, and in Him, Christ, amen, so be it, unto the glory
of God by us. Every believer says the same
thing. Is God faithfully promised? Yes. Is God faithfully promised? Amen. In Christ. Amen. The Lord will give grace
and glory. No good thing will be withheld
from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84, 11. No good thing. You know, that's the same as
saying God will withhold no good thing to them who are in Christ.
Because there's no other way that we can walk uprightly. Being
in Him. And you know, I know this, and
you know this, and I wish we could grab hold of it and take
off with it. As long as we look within, we'll
never have it. Never. But if we look to Him,
we gotta look to Him. Can't look within. There's no
hope there. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. We look to Him. My, my. As we saw this past Sunday,
every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from
who? The Father of lights. With whom is no variableness. You know what that variableness
is? No changing. No decline. No up and down. That's us, up and down. No shadow of turning, not in
Him. Of His own will beget He us with
the word of truth. All the good things that God
has promised will come to pass. How marvelous is the unchanging
grace and faithfulness of God. Like Israel, we've wandered through
this wilderness of the world, but He's been with us all the
way. You know, I can look back on my life, as wretched as I
was and as wretched as I acted and carried on and lived, He
was with me all the way. I see that now. We enter into
spiritual kingdom because He promised that we would. The law
represented by Moses could not lead us across Jordan, but our
Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, could and He did. What a picture
the book of Joshua is of the Lord's deliverance and fulfillment
of His promises to all Abraham's seed. And may we always remember
the salvations of the Lord by His divine giving. He gives us
everything we need, and our salvation comes by the giving of His Son,
because His Son is the one thing, singular, needful. He supplies
all our need. And because He is our need, all
our needs, plural, are provided. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and what? All these other things
will be added unto you. My, my. Rahab, along with the
Gibeonites, had said, I know that the Lord hath given you
the land. And he had. Now we find that
the Lord had done just that. The whole of the land of Canaan
had now been given by divine law unto Abraham's descendants,
and they were peacefully settled in their inheritance. What about us? They fell not out of any good
thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel. All
of it came to pass. Such will be the triumphant testimony
of the whole church collectively and of every believer individually. In due season, all that God has
promised believers, spiritual Israel, will come to pass concerning
our present comfort and future happiness and joy. And we can
go out and meet God with confidence, knowing that our Savior, our
advocate, stands to plead our cause. All be accomplished exactly
and perfectly as God willed it and ordained it before time ever
was. And is that not the best news
you've ever heard? Beloved, we have a God that's
worthy for us to put our trust in. We can rest in full assurance
that He is faithful that promised. So may God be pleased to enable
us to do just that for His glory and our good and for Christ's
sake.