Sweet hour of prayer, may I thy
consolation share, till from Mount Pisgah's lofty height I
view my home and take my flight. Moses got to do that. We're all
going to get to do that. Turn with me, if you would, back
to Deuteronomy 34. Deuteronomy 34, I started looking
at the book of Joshua this week. I got interested in it and just
started reading through the book, reading all the stories and they
are wonderful. I would strongly encourage you,
just read through the book of Joshua and you'll be convinced
you don't want to go to war with Joshua, not at all. But I was looking at this, Joshua
chapter 1 verse 1 begins by saying, now after the death of Moses,
that's how it starts out. The book starts with the death
of Moses. And it goes on to say at the
end of verse 1 that Joshua, the son of Nun, was Moses' minister. He was Moses' servant. And God in his will and in his
purpose and in his good pleasure, he chose to raise up this servant to take over the work of delivering
his people. It moved from Moses to this servant,
Joshua. He's going to deliver his people
into the promised land. And the reason is because Moses
couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it. Now,
spiritually, what does all of that show us? Don't turn to these. Let me read to read it to you.
Romans 8 says what the law could not do. In that it was weak through
the flesh. God sending his own son. Isaiah 42, he said, behold my
servant. Isn't that what he said? God
sending his own son and when he came, he said, behold my servant. Galatians 4 says, made of a woman,
made under the law, subject to the law, a servant of the law
to redeem them that were under the law. John wrote, the law
was given by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And that's who Joshua represents,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The name Joshua means Savior. Jehovah saves it's the exact
same name in the Hebrew that Jesus is in the Greek exact same
name and over in we've been going through Hebrews also and in Hebrews
for the next place we come to. It calls this Joshua Jesus because
it's the same name. Same name, you know, just like
Edward in English is Eduardo in Spanish. John in English is
Juan in Spanish. Same exact name, Joshua and Jesus. Tonight, I have what I would
consider to be an intro to Joshua. And I titled this message a view
of what the law could not do. A view of what it could not do.
I want us to begin by seeing why God would not allow Moses
to deliver his people into that promised land. After all that,
after 40 years, he would not allow Moses to step into the
promised land with them. And then, after that, I want
us to get a good look at that view. I want us to go up on top
of Mount Pisgah. And I want us to take a good
look at what God has promised to us through Joshua. Okay? Deuteronomy 34, verse 4,
it says, And the Lord said unto Moses, This is the land which I swear
unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give
it unto thy seed. And then he said to Moses, I
have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not
go over thither. He brought him up there and he
said, there it is, I'm gonna let you see it. This is the land
I promised. This is the land my people are
going to dwell in. I'm going to give it to them.
But you can't go in. You're not going to deliver them
in. Now, why was Moses not allowed to deliver the people in? Go
with me over to Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3 verse 1 says, Now Moses kept
the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he
led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he
looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he
said, draw not nigh hither, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he
said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. And that's what will happen when
a sinner sees God Almighty. He'll hide his face. Verse seven,
the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people,
which are in Egypt. I have heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to
bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large
unto a land flowing with milk and honey. unto the place of
the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, Now, therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is coming to me. And I've also seen
the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come
now, therefore, and I will send you unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest
bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." God
said, Moses, you are going to deliver the people out of Egypt. out of bondage, out of idolatry,
and Moses did. He did, after 430 years of bondage. And to put that into perspective, Our country became a country
July the 4th, 1776. That was only 241 years ago. Half the time they were in bondage. That's a long time, isn't it?
That's a long time. After 430 years of bondage, God,
through Moses, brought them out. Now turn with me over to chapter
14, Exodus chapter 14. Exodus 14 verse 13 says, and
Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For
the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again
no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you
and you shall hold your peace. Verse 26 says, And the Lord said
unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters
may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon
their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his
hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when
the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against
it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the
sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and
the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the
sea after them, there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked
upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were
a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. Thus
the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel
saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians,
and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His
servant Moses. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful? God said, you take that rod and
you smite that river and can you see that river becoming a
wall on each side? And there they immediately went
on dry land. And after 430 years of being
oppressed in that bondage, all those Egyptians went in and that
water went. And that was it. That was it. God did exactly
what He said He would do. And they turned around and they
saw Him on the shore. There they were. That was it. Free. They're
free. The next chapter, chapter 15,
look with me at verse 23. And when they came to Marah,
they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.
Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people
murmured against Moses saying, what shall we drink? It didn't
take long, did it? The next chapter there, he just,
here they go. And they're murmuring against
Moses, murmuring and complaining. Chapter 16 verse 2, and the whole
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron in the wilderness. Isn't that something? God brought
them out after 430 years of hard bondage under taskmasters whipping
them, make bricks, make more bricks, we're taking away all
your straw and your slime, make more bricks. Murmuring and complaining. Verse
11, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings
of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, Now
you want to see grace? Speak unto them. He said, I've
heard all their murmuring and all their complaining. This is
what you tell them. At even, you shall eat flesh. And in the morning you shall
be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord
your God. And it came to pass that at even
the quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning
the dew lay round about the host, and when the dew that was gone
up that when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the
face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small
as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, for they knew not
what it was. And Moses said unto them, this
is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." Look at verse
31. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it
was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like
wafers made with honey." Quails at night, God said, I
hear all your complaining. Every night the land's just going
to be covered in quails. They're just going to be running
everywhere. You're going to have quails at night and honey wafers every
morning when you wake up. Chapter 17, verse 1, and all
the congregation of Israel, of the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the
commandment of the Lord and pitched in Rephidim and there was no
water for the people to drink, wherefore the people did chide
with Moses. and said, Give us water that
we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why
chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt? Why do
you keep tempting the Lord? Why do you keep tempting the
Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people
murmured against Moses. Or as it was told to me one time
by a five-year-old, they just kept whining and complaining.
They just kept on whining and they just would not stop whining
and complaining. She said, so do you know what
Moses did? You know what Moses did? He struck
the rock. He struck the rock. Verse five,
right here. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel
and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand
and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock. in Horeb, and thou shalt smite
the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people
may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel." And they drank, and they drank, and
they were so satisfied. What was that a picture of? That was a picture of the law
smiting Joshua. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior,
that rock was Christ who was smitten for His people. And out
of Him flowed living blood and living water, and through Him,
through that affliction right there, everyone and everything
is satisfied. God Almighty, through that, is
satisfied. All of His people, all of His
sheep, are satisfied. In Him all live." They all live. And that rock right there, in
goodness and in kindness, it followed those murmuring Israelites
wherever they went. Everywhere they went, that rock
was there. Now turn with me over to Numbers chapter 20. Numbers chapter 20, verse 1 says,
Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation,
into the desert of Zin, in the first month, and the people abode
in Kadesh. And Miriam, that's Moses' sister,
Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water
for the congregation, and they gathered themselves together
against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses
and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren
died before the Lord? And why have you brought up the
congregation of the Lord into the wilderness, that we and our
cattle should die there? Verse seven, And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, And gather thou the assembly
together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the
rock before their eyes. And I want to point this out.
He said, speak ye unto the rock. And it shall give forth his water
and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So
thou shalt give the congregation and their beast drink. And Moses
took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered
the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them,
here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand
and with his rod, he smote the rock twice. And the water came
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, Because you believed me not to sanctify me in the
eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring
this congregation into the land which I have given them. The
first time God told Moses, who represents the law, he told him
to strike the rock for the sin of the people. Strike the rock.
The second time, God told Moses to speak to the rock. Just ask,
you'll receive. Just ask, you will receive. The rock has already been smitten. Grace and mercy have already
been promised. Just go to the rock. Just speak
to the rock. All you have to do is beg the
rock. That's it. But Moses didn't do that. He
struck it twice. God said to do that is to sin
against my justice and my righteousness. The law cannot strike the innocent. The law cannot strike the innocent. Christ was smitten once. One time. His people were smitten
in him once. Only once. Never to be smitten
again. So God allowed Moses to do that
to show us that the law All that the law can do for us is damn
us. That's all it can do is smite
and strike. That's all the law can do. The
law cannot forgive us and it cannot set us free. It just can't.
In order to be redeemed, we need a Savior. In order to make it all the way
into the promised land, we need a deliverer. That's what we need.
And that can only be Joshua. It can only be the Lord Jesus
Christ. So God said to Moses, you have
pointed my people to this promised land all this time, all these
years. You've pointed them to it, but
you're not going to be able to carry them in. You're not going
to be able to carry them in. You're going to die and you're
going to be removed from them. And they're going to make it
into the promised land solely on the deeds and the merit of
Joshua. Solely on that, without the deeds
of the law. But he said, before you die,
before you are dead to them and they are dead to you. He said,
I'm going to take you to the top of Mount Pisgah. And I'm
going to let you witness what you've been pointing to all this
time. You're going to witness it. Now go with me back to Deuteronomy
34. While you're turning there, listen
to this verse of scripture. This is Romans 3.21. It says,
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law and the
prophets witnessed the righteousness of God and that's what's about
to take place right here. Deuteronomy 34 verse 1 says,
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of
Nebo to the top of Pisgah that is over against Jericho. And
the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan. And all Naphtali,
and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of
Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the
valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This
is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused
thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither."
God caused him to see some things. Now if you look at all those
locations on a map, I spent a little bit of time in the back of our
Bible with the maps. I was going to have you turn
to them, but I thought everybody doesn't have the same map, so
we're not going to do it. Map number 2, map number 4, map number
6, map number 12, they helped me a lot. You ought to look at
them. You'll see where Mount Nebo is.
It's a lot of land. God took him up and he showed
him, he just named all of the tribes. 12 tribes of Israel,
they were each given land. And he showed him Gilead all
the way up to Dan. He showed him Naphtali, Ephraim. He showed him Judah all the way
to the Mediterranean Sea. He saw every bit of it. And it's
a lot of land. But God did not take him up there
just before Moses died, just the culmination before his death.
God did not take him up there just to show him a bunch of land.
That's not why God took him up there. He caused him to see some
things. He allowed him to see the inheritance
of God's people. He showed the law, the law was
given, but the law was able to witness the inheritance of God's
people. He brought him up to a lofty
height. And he said, I want to show you
what you've been pointing to all this time. You've been pointing
to it all this time and I'm going to show it to you. He said, look
right over there. You see that? He said, all of
that is Gilead. He said, there's a bomb there. There's a great physician there
who has a medicine. And that medicine is going to
soothe the souls of all the people you've been leading, all the
people who have been following you. He said, this land right over
here, this is Naphtali. He said, I'm going to preach
a sermon on the mount right there. You see that mount? I have a message I'm going to
bring on that mount right there. The title of my message is The
Bread of Heaven. Whoever eats of that bread is
never going to hunger ever again. That's what this manna is, Moses.
He said right over here, this is Jericho. There's going to
be a blind man sitting by the highway side begging. His name is Bartimaeus. I'm going
to walk right past him. I'm going to open his eyes. I'm
going to give him sight. I'm going to reveal the truth
to him. He said, that right over there,
that is Manasseh. As far as you can see, that's
Manasseh. He said, I have an appointment
with a woman at a well right over there. I'm going to tell
her all things. He said, this right here is Judah. Every bit of that is Judah. He
said, there's a little town right there in Judah called Bethlehem. I'm going to be born in that
town. I'm going to be born of a virgin, the seed of woman. And he said, right near that
town, do you see that garden right there? That garden is called
Gethsemane. In that garden, I'm going to
take all of the sin of the people you have been leading and I'm
going to press it into my body. Right next to that garden, do
you see that mountain? That's called Calvary. I'm going
to give my life on that mountain. I'm going to pay for all of this
murmuring and complaining you've been listening to all this time. I'm going to put it away. Two
miles from that mountain is another mountain called Olives. Right
there I'm going to ascend back up to my Father and I'm going
to sit down on my throne and it's going to be finished. It's
going to be finished. He said, I'm going to do everything
that you have been pointing to all this time. That smitten rock
is happening right there. I'm going to fulfill everything
you've been pointing to all this time. Verse 1 says, Moses went
up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo to the top
of Pisgah that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed
him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the
land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto
the utmost sea, and the south and the plain of the valley of
Jericho, the city of palm trees unto Zoar. And the Lord said
unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have
caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over
thither. Now Moses the man, Moses was
a real man. He was a real man, right? He
was one of the children of Israel that was being led all along.
Isn't that right? Wasn't he one of God's children?
Verse 5 says, So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the
land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. As soon as
he stood on that lofty height and viewed his home, he took
his flight. That robe of flesh he dropped
and he rose with the Lord. Poor Moses didn't get to stay
in the earth and go into the promised land and see those big
grapes. At that moment, he went to be with God. Verse 6 says,
And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab. Who buried
him? God did. God caused the law to rest in
peace. Do we hear the spiritual significance
of that? God caused that law to rest,
to rest in peace. He buried him in a valley in
the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth
of his sepulcher unto this day. Nobody's ever going to find that
law and dig it back up. Never, never going to accuse
again. And Moses was 120 years old when
he died. His eye was not dim, nor his
natural forces abated. The strength of the law was never
diminished. Never, never diminished. He never
lost one ounce of strength. God just caused him to rest.
He just put it to rest. Verse 8, And the children of
Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, so
the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua
the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had
laid his hands upon him. Moses acknowledged him. He is
the one. I anoint him. And the children
of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded
Moses. And there arose not a prophet
since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,
in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do
in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to his servants, to all his
land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror
which Moses showed in the sight of Israel. 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, thou and all this people, unto the land which I
do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place
that the sole of your foot shall tread upon That have I given
unto you as I said unto Moses. It's all going to you. Everywhere
you go, you're going to conquer every bit of it. You take the
people, cross Jordan with it. You bring them into the land
that I have promised. And as you read through this
book, if God will let us go through it, all through this book, Joshua
goes to war. He said the Hivites and the Jebusites
and all those people, they were already there. And Joshua, when
he goes to war, and he starts taking the land, and he wins
every battle. Joshua earns what God rightfully
gave to his people. And at the end of the book, We're
going to see that after Joshua took it all, he divided it out. He divided every bit of it out,
tribe by tribe. He divided out all the land to
God's people and because of Joshua. All because of Joshua. Every
one of them received the inheritance God promised them. Every one
of them. All because of Joshua. Thank
God for Joshua. That's what all God's people
say. Thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, let's all stand
together.