Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 110. Psalm 110. Last Wednesday night, we saw
that Joshua represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses represents
the Law. And because Moses, because the
Law, could not lead God's people into rest. Couldn't lead them
into the rest of the promised land. God the Father commissioned
God the Son to do it because Moses could not. We saw why,
he could not lead them in. So God the Father commissioned
his Son to do it. He said, you're gonna have to
do for my people what the law could not do. I want to look at one verse of
scripture here in Psalm 110 because the first phrase is going to
be the title of this message. Psalm 110 verse 1 says, The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. That is what Joshua chapter 1
is all about. That's what the whole book of
Joshua is all about. It's about an eternal conqueror. who is going to sit on an eternal
throne. He is going to have an eternal
reign. Over in Luke chapter 1, turn
over there with me, look at it with me. Luke chapter 1, this
is where the angel came to Mary and told her that the Holy Ghost
would come to her and she would conceive a son. And Luke chapter 1 verse 30 The angel said unto her, Fear
not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. 31 And, behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. 32 He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest. 33 And the Lord God shall give
unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there shall
be no end. He is going to take it all. He's going to conquer everything.
He's going to reign and there's going to be no end to it. Absolutely
no end to it. God, the father said. The Lord
said unto my Lord, God the Father said to God the Son, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. It's forever and ever. Now, tonight,
I want us to listen in on the commission that God the Father
gave to His Son in the task of delivering His people into rest,
okay? This commission He gave Him. Go with me back over to Joshua.
We're going to hear what the Lord said to our Lord. Joshua 1 verse 1 says, Now after
the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass
that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister,
saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise,
go over this Jordan." Here's what I'm sending you to do. This
is your mission. This is what you must accomplish.
I'm sending you to cross Jordan. I'm sending you to go over Jordan. The name Jordan means to descend. It means to go down. It represents
death. It represents what we fear. We
fear death. Man, the flesh fears death. We
fear going into death with our sin on us, don't we? So it represents
death and he said, I commission you to cross over and conquer
death. You know, that's why Christ came.
When sin entered the world, death came by sin. Isn't that right?
Death passed upon all men. And God, the father sent his
son to conquer death. That's why he came. He came to
conquer death. Verse two says, Moses, my servant
is dead. Now therefore arise, go over
this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land, which I
do give them even to the children of Israel. He said, when you
do this, I want you to take them all with you. I want you to go
cross Jordan. And when you cross it, I want
you to take every single one of them with you. Cross it with
them. Verse 3 says, every place that
the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto
you as I said unto Moses. He said, every place that the
sole of your foot treads on, I have given that place to you. I've given it to you. God the
Father said to Joshua, I have given it all to you. Every bit
of it. Everything goes to you. Any inheritance
that my people are going to receive, they're going to receive it from
you. The only way they're going to
receive it is through you. I'm going to give it all to you. And then he said, you are going
to give it to them. Look at verse six. He said, Be
strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou
divide for an inheritance the land. You're going to give it
to them. You're going to divide it. this land that I swear unto
their fathers to give it to them." I'm going to give it to you and
you're going to give it to them. God the Father chose Christ. Here's the important thing to
know about our inheritance. God chose Christ. You know, we have nothing to
glory in. We can't even say, well, at least I'm one of the
elect. God chose Christ. He chose Christ. He was well
pleased with Christ, wasn't he? That's the one I'm well pleased
with. My only beloved son. He committed all judgment to
Christ. Everything. All things have been
given to Christ. Now let me show you what our
Lord Jesus Christ said to his father in return. The Lord said
unto my Lord. Let me show you what my Lord
said in return to the Lord. Go with me to John 17. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to his father. He said, John 17 verse 22, he
said, the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them that they
may be one, even as we are one. That is amazing. That's amazing. The glory that you gave me. He's
owed it. He earned it. Right? All the glory goes to my son.
God the Father said everything goes to him. He said the glory
you gave to me, I've given it to them. I've in turn given it
to them. Look with me at Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 32 says, He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him, with him, through him also freely give us all things? I'm going to give it to you,
you're going to give it to them. Now go with me back to Joshua
1. Verse three says, every place
that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given
unto you, as I said unto Moses, 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. Every bit of that
is going to you. It's all going to you. Now, if
you are looking to Christ, not everybody looks to Christ.
I don't assume every person I preach to is looking to Christ. I'll tell you a good way, if
you want to know, am I looking to Christ? I'll tell you a good
way you can answer that question is when we go stand before God's
judgment throne, and we're going to, we're about to, when we stand
before that throne, if He asks the question, why should I let
you enter in? If our answer is, because I did
what you told me to do, we're not looking to Christ. We're
not looking to Christ. If our answer is, because I was
baptized on this certain day, we're not looking to Christ.
If our answer is anything other than, why should I let you in
the blood of Jesus Christ, Christ died and covered my sin
in His blood. And that's the only thing I can
say to you right now. That's the only thing I have.
That's my only hope, nothing else. I only hope in the fact
that you sent Christ to cross Jordan and cover my sin in His
blood. If that is you, if you, I mean
truly from the heart, in reality, if you are hoping in Christ,
if you are truly looking to him and trusting in him, if every
other option has been exhausted, If He has revealed to you, Christ
is all I have. He's all I have. And my soul
is hanging on His blood. Hanging on what He did. If that's
you, you're going to love this. If that's you, you're going to
absolutely love this. If Christ is your hope, I'm just
hoping that he accomplished what I need. If he's your hope, look
at this, God the Father said to Joshua, our captain, our deliverer,
verse 5, he said, there shall not any man be able to stand
before thee all the days of thy life. You will be the eternal conqueror. You will have the eternal reign
all the days of your life. No man is going to be able to
stand before you. No man. You talk about comfort. There is something that every
boy will understand when I say it. At some point, every boy around
first or second grade, usually on the playground, has said this. Girls can't enter into this.
Every boy knows what I'm talking about. At some point this is
said, oh yeah, well my dad can beat up your
dad. Isn't that right? Does it not give us so much comfort
knowing that there is literally not a being in existence that
can stand before Joshua? What if there was? What if there
was a being that could possibly rival him? What if there was
a being that could possibly take his throne? How much fear would
that strike in us? There is not a being in heaven,
earth, or anywhere that can stand before Joshua. Isn't that wonderful? Wonderful. Go back one page if
your Bible is like mine. Deuteronomy 32, verse 31, it says, this is Moses
speaking, he said, for their rock is not as our rock." You
see that lowercase r and that uppercase r? Their rock is not
like our rock. Not at all. Not only must everything
bow, everything will. Everything will. He shall not
fail and the reason is because nothing can stand before Him.
Nothing. Nothing. Back in Joshua 1 verse
5 says, There shall not any man be able to stand before thee
all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. Now hold your place right there
and turn with me to Psalm 22. Psalm 22, God's Deliverer cried. Our Deliverer cried in Psalm
22 verse 1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When God the Father said to God
the Son, I will not forsake you. He was right there at that moment
commissioning him to be forsaken. He was commissioning him to be
forsaken of God for three days. Hold your place right here in
Psalms. We're going to flip back and forth. Go to Joshua 1 again
and look at verse 11. He said, Pass through the host
and command the people saying, Prepare you victuals for within
three days you shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess
the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.
Three days. This transaction is going to
take three days. God the Father told our Lord
it's going to take three days of physical and spiritual separation
from God. For you to go over Jordan and
bring my people to the other side. And Christ accepted it
willingly. He knew, he understood, he said
for this cause came I into the world. Isn't that what he said? He set his face like a flint
and he knew exactly what he was heading into. Now look with me
at Psalm 16. Psalm 16, this is our Lord speaking
about being forsaken in this river of death. This is what
he had to say about crossing this Jordan river of death. Verse
9, he said, therefore my heart is glad. Isn't that something? And my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life, in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there
are pleasures forevermore. Christ died in faith. You know Hebrews said these all
died in faith. All God's people died in faith.
The reason is because Christ died in faith. He died believing
my father is not going to leave me here. He went to the cross
for the joy set before him. He said, therefore my heart is
glad. He's not going to leave me here.
He trusted God and God didn't. He didn't leave him there. Now
go back to Joshua 1 verse 6 says, Be strong and of
a good courage. For unto this people shalt thou
divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their
fathers to give it them. He said it's going to this people,
this particular people. That's who you're gonna do it
for, a particular people. Verse seven, only be thou strong
and 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." The word thou is in that verse
four times. He said, be thou strong. Very courageous. That thou mayest
observe to do according to all the law. You observe all the
law. At the end he said, that thou
mayest prosper. You're the one that's going to
prosper. Whithersoever thou goest." The Apostle Paul said, when I'm
weak, I'm strong. When I'm weak, I'm strong. The reason is because when I'm
weak, the only strength I have is his strength. There is a point
for every believer and it's often where he acknowledges, I'm weak. I'm weak. And at that moment,
the only strength I have is his strength, that's all I have.
It does not get any stronger than his strength. If that's
all I have, I have the strongest strength there is. And when God's
commandments are in front of one of his children, his demands,
God's people are nothing but weak. Nothing but weak. All we've ever done is fail and
fall and lose. So God said to Joshua, you're
going to have to prosper for them. You're going to have to
go down and prosper. All they've done is lost. And
you're going to have to prosper for them. Verse seven, be thou
strong and 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. 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. Have
not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou
goest. This law is what exposes our
sin and condemns us for it and keeps us out of God's promised
land. But this law is not the problem. God the Father did not send Christ
to destroy the law. He said, I didn't come to destroy
it, I came to fulfill it. And that's exactly what He did.
He observed everything that was written in this law. Everything. He did not turn from it to the
right hand or to the left. Never. Not one word departed
out of His mouth. Not one word. He was in continual
meditation on it day and night, continual meditation. He fulfilled
perfection and he did it for his people. That's what we have
done in God's eyes. That's what we have done in God's
eyes. Verse 10, Joshua then gathered all of them up and in verse 10,
Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying, passed
through the host and command the people saying, prepare you
victuals for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan
to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth
you to possess it. He said, you're all going with
me. Everybody get ready. After three days, you're all
going in with me. And then he reminded three tribes
that were given land on this side of Jordan. It's all about
crossing Jordan. And I was gonna take you over
there into numbers, but I'm not gonna do it. He gave three tribes
land on this side of Jordan. And Joshua is reminding those
three tribes of what Moses commanded them. Look at verse 12. It says,
and to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half
of the tribe of Manasseh spake Joshua saying, Remember the word
which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying,
the Lord your God hath given you rest and hath given you this
land. Your wives, your little ones,
and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave
you on this side, Jordan, but you shall pass before your brethren
armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help them until the
Lord hath given your brethren rest. as he hath given you. And they also have possessed
the land which the Lord your God giveth them. Then you shall
return unto the land of your possession and enjoy it, which
Moses the Lord's servant gave you on this side Jordan toward
the sun rising." When they got to Jordan, the tribe of Reuben
and the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Manasseh, half of the
tribe of Manasseh, they were all tribes that had a lot of
cattle. And there they were standing
on this side of Jordan, and they asked Moses, they said, this
land right here is good for cattle. Can we have this land? And God
gave it to them. And he didn't rebuke them for
asking for it. He gave them that land. He said, yes, you can have
this land. But, he said, when the time comes to cross Jordan,
you are going to leave your wives and your children and your cattle
right here. And you are going to go before
them and you're going to go into battle with them until they have
possessed their land. Just like I'm giving you rest
right here, they're going to have rest too. And after they
have their rest and have their possession, then you can come
back to your land. All right? Verse 16 says, And they answered
Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us, we will do, and
whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. According as we hearkened
unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee. Only
the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses. Whosoever
he be that doth rebel against thy commandment and will not
hearken, unto thy words and all that thou commandest him, he
shall be put to death, only be strong and of good courage. Now, every bit of that happened
to show us this. I think this is just wonderful. You know, we read the scriptures
to see Christ, isn't that right? We read the scriptures, we read
the stories to see Christ and what he's done. Aren't we looking
for Christ in this? The name Reuben means, okay,
three tribes, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the tribe of
Manasseh. The name Reuben means behold
a son. That's what it means, behold
a son. Isaiah wrote, behold your God. He wrote, behold my servant. He wrote, unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given. Behold a son. The name Gad means
to invade, to attack, and his name also means a prophet. A prophet who invaded. Behold
a son, behold a prophet. That prophet. The name Manasseh
means to cause to forget, to be forgotten, to remit, that
means make the payment, to remove. He said you are going to pass
before your brethren, you're going in front, before your brethren
armed in valor. That's Christ. These three tribes
are Christ. And Christ willingly said, everything
that you command of me, I'm going to do it. Every single thing
you command of me, I'm going to do it. He left His place of
rest. He already had His rest. He left
His place of rest. He left everything that He had
there. And He crossed Jordan. And He
got the victory. And then he entered back into
his rest. Isn't that what our Lord did? Wonderful. That's just wonderful.
This Joshua is a conquering deliverer. Now, I had this thought and I
want to close with this thought and this question. As we go through
this book, whether it's the book of Joshua or any book in the
scripture, as we go through this, we're going to see that this
river of Jordan has already been crossed. Okay? This was written to show us what
our conqueror has already done. Isn't that right? This river
of death is already accomplished. Those three days are over. Isn't
that right? It's already over. It's already
been accomplished. This was all written to notify
us of what's already done. Isn't that right? I hope this
gives you as much comfort as it gave me. If you are in Christ. You have already faced death. If you are in Christ, you have
already faced death. It is appointed unto man once
to cross this river. And we just read that when Joshua
crossed it, all the people crossed it with him. Isn't that right? Isn't that our hope? Don't we
cling to the fact that we died with him? We were buried with
him, isn't that our hope? In Christ you have already faced
death. So let me ask this question,
how was it? It's already happened. How was it? Now, I'm being serious,
because as I get closer to the end of my life, you know, somebody
came to the preacher and said, I don't believe I have dying
grace. I'm afraid to die. And he said, well, are you dying?
And she said, no. And he said, well, you don't need dying grace.
But I can tell you, I don't have it right now. And when that time comes, it's a scary thing. But according
to this right here, this question needs to be asked. How was it? It's already over. Was it as scary as you thought
it would be? It's already over. A couple of
weeks ago, I went to the dentist. He had to put a shot in my gum.
I asked him, is this going to be Fast and painful or slow and
painful? He started laughing. He said,
I'm going to give you some numbing gel. So he put it on there and
waited a minute. And I kept thinking, I don't
think this is numb enough. But I was going to try to be
tough. And I'm going to take it. And I got ready. And I could
see he had that thing up. And I thought, any minute now,
he's going to. And I said, is it over? He said, yeah, I'm already
done. Well, that was great. You've
already faced death. You've already faced death. Was
it as horrible as you thought it would be? In Christ, it is over. In Christ, it has already been
conquered. In Christ, there's no more staying. There's no staying. It's already
over. You know what God's people say
to that? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't that right? Thanks be to
God. Thanks be to God for Joshua.
That's so kind, isn't it? He took the sting away. He's
taken the fear away. It's over. It's over. He said,
you live and believe in me, you're never going to die. When that
time comes, it's not death. It's life, wonderful life. Other
side of Jordan. I hope the Lord will let us keep
going through this. Let's all stand together.