a preacher in other times. Heavenly
Father, bless us as we open your book. Bless us that we'll understand
it not only in word, not understand it in the technicalities of it,
but Lord, may we find Christ in these scriptures. for we are
certain that he is there. And we pray this in the name
of the Lord Jesus, amen. All right, verse six. Be strong and courageous because
you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their
forefathers to give them. Now the work that Joshua was
going to do, and by the way, these words are spoken only to
Joshua. If you recall, we noted that
some of the words before were addressed to him in the plural. So while he may have been the
only one to hear those words from the Lord, they were to be
passed on to the rest of the Jews. But here, it remains in
the singular. And so he is addressing Joshua
and Joshua alone. And he tells him, he says, be
strong and courageous. Now the work was going to require
strength and courage. But God promises Joshua that
he will succeed. You'll notice it doesn't say
be strong and courageous because I'm sending you to lead these
people. It says you will lead these people
to inherit the land. Now, there was difficulty for
Joshua. He was going to be leading as
many as two million people, those that supposedly know how to figure
this stuff out, say there were probably about two million Jews
that left the land of Egypt and went across the wilderness to
possess the land. So the two million people across
the Jordan River and into battle from city to city, and they would
not find rest in the land of rest, until they had defeated
all the enemies. So this wasn't a short business
here. It wasn't a short deal. It's
going to take some time. Two million people. And these
people were prone to unbelief, complaining, and outright rebellion. Remember, all the way across
the wilderness, the Bible says that God endured their bad manners. That's the way King James puts
it. And it wasn't just because they
didn't say please and thank you. You know, we have in our idea
that the ancient Jews were this especially godly people. They weren't. They were just
like everyone else. They had advantages. As Paul
says, you know, what prophet is there to be a Jew? Much in
every way. They had the scriptures, they
had the prophets, they had the temple. They had all these things. But there's a difference between
an advantage and a blessing. Now, there are many who had the advantage
of being raised in a home where the true faith is preached, where
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached. The parents
believed it, they taught it to their children, they grew up
going to a church where the gospel was preached. That does not guarantee
that once they leave the nest, they will continue in that way. There is no program that God
has laid out in the scriptures that guarantees the salvation
of a particular individual. Now, I understand anybody that
believes will be saved. What I'm saying is, as we go
out and preach the gospel, We have no guarantee what the results
of that will be. And that's true as the church,
in its official capacity as a church, sends a gospel out. It's also
true when you're preaching the gospel to your children, to your
neighbors, whatever. And it was the same with these
Jews. They had the advantage. Only God's grace can turn an
advantage into a blessing. What actually happened is that
this advantage worked out to be a curse upon them because
they didn't believe. But this is the kind of people
that Joshua was leading. Yes, there is always, according
to the scriptures, there's always a remnant according to the election
of grace. But a remnant, you don't generally
think of the majority of a bolt of cloth being a remnant. It's the minority. And the others
are more or less being dragged along in the current. So he had
two million people, people prone to unbelief, complaining and
outright rebellion that he must lead. And nothing had changed
about the land of promise since 38 years before they sent spies
into the land. And 10 of those spies came back
with an evil report about their walled cities and the giants
in the land and said, we were like grasshoppers in their sight. Now, here's the thing. What those
10 spies said was right. There were walled cities and
there were giants. But you see, faith says, so what? God has promised. And whatever
natural obstacle may lie between us and the promise, God has promised,
therefore those obstacles will be removed one way or another. But see, they weren't operating
according to faith. However, nothing about the land
had changed. still full of walled cities and
giants. Nevertheless, God tells Joshua,
be strong and courageous. And then God gives him cause
for courage. He says, be strong and courageous. And I think by, you know, when
he says be strong, I mean, a person is what he is. And, you know,
I have so much strength and I cannot by an act of the will become
stronger. I think probably what he's saying
is exert your strength. You know, go confidently, boldly,
courageously across the Jordan and into the land of the promise
to take it. God tells him to be strong and courageous, then
gives him reason. for strength and courage by saying
that he will indeed lead God's people into the land. Now, there's little that would
instill more of a sense of confidence and courage as we face what looks
like a daunting task. Nothing would give us more courage
than a word from the Lord saying, you will succeed. will succeed."
Oh. He says in essence to Joshua,
you will succeed and here's the reason, because as he has said
before, I will drive them out before you. The psalmist said he is my front
guard and my rear guard and And so the Lord would be with
Joshua. Now, this word is ultimately
and finds its greatest fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. We
must never let ourselves think that the work which our Lord
did was an easy work to do. We may think that his divine
nature, possessed of his omnipotence, would not find anything difficult. But turn over here to Philippians
chapter 2. Remember the Lord Jesus, Jesus
is simply the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua. Our Joshua. When he came to do the work,
he came as the leader of God's people to lead them into the
spiritual promised land. But when he did that, though he did not cease being
God, so much so that he could say to the Pharisees of his day,
unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Now most translations insert
the word he. Unless you believe that I am
he, you will die in your sins. But the word he's not there.
Well, it's obvious what the Lord was referring to. Do you remember
when Moses was confronted by God in the
burning bush? And he said, what's your name? And he says, my name
is I am. That was our Lord Jesus, in what
they call a pre-incarnate appearance. And He says, unless you believe
that's who I am, unless you believe I am, you'll die in your sins.
So, He continued to be God, but if you look here at verse 6,
Philippians chapter 2, verse 6. Who being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing. Now, he didn't just make himself
look like nothing. I believe that if you were to
be real strict about the Greek translation, what it would say
there is he emptied himself. He laid aside all his divine
rights, privileges, and powers. when we think about the incarnation
of our God, it was remarkable that he would
come here among us at all. Isn't that true? That the Holy
One would come among the polluted and live with them and eat with
them. That's amazing in and of itself,
but look what he did in order to accomplish that. He comes
not in a blaze of glory. He doesn't come with angels following him all
around, declaring his glory. They came one time when He was
born, told some shepherds, and the shepherds saw a vision of
angels, you know, declaring the glory of God. But when they got
to Bethlehem and saw the Lord Jesus, there He was. And you
know what He looked like? He looked like a little baby, because
that's what He was. And unlike our Christmas pictures,
there wasn't a halo around Mary and Joseph and Jesus. There's
no halo there. It looked like a mother and a
father and their newborn baby. Our Lord did not look any different
from anyone else. Do you know how much He looked
like everybody else? Those that hated Him had to pay
Judas 30 pieces of silver to point Him out. They hated Him
because they'd heard what He said, but they didn't know what
He looked like. He didn't stand head and shoulders taller than
everybody. I read that they dug up people from their graves back
at that time. And I think I'm remembering the
right number here, but the average height of a Jewish man in Judea
at that time, 5'2". Now, when we think of our Savior,
what do we think of? We always think of a tall, powerful
man. I'm not a tall, powerful man,
but I'm 5'8". It would be difficult to me to
look at a fellow shorter than me and think, that's God in human
flesh, that's my Savior. He emptied himself. You say,
but he did all those miracles that only God can do. But he
said, in quoting Isaiah 61, I believe it is, the Spirit of the Lord
is on me to do these things. He didn't do them under his own
divine steam. When he died, did he say, okay,
I'm going to die now, but three days later, I'm going to raise
myself from the dead. What did he say? into your hands
I commit my spirit. He would not even raise himself
from the grave. He depended entirely upon the
Father, upon the Spirit to do these things. He came into this world to do
the work and think of the people he was leading, you and me. when we look at the 12 disciples
that he was leading. One of them was a devil. Of course,
he already knew that, Judas. But of the remaining 11, what
a bunch of wavering people they were. The night before the crucifixion,
Peter says, well, I'll never betray you. Why? I'll go to the
death for you. The Lord says, will you really,
Peter? Before the rooster says it's
morning, you're going to deny me three times. Oh, no, I won't
do that. No. Yes, he did. And don't just
get on Peter for that. When they arrested the Lord Jesus,
it says, and all his disciples forsook him and fled. That's the people God gave our
Lord Jesus to lead. This was not going to be an easy
job. He came into this world as a
human being. Though he were the Word of God,
he didn't know how to talk, had to learn to talk, had to learn
to walk, He studied the scriptures. He learned, it says he grew in
wisdom. Say, how can God grow in wisdom?
He emptied himself. And he lived his entire life,
his entire, shall I say, natural life. entirely as a human being. The Bible says, I believe it's
in Hebrews chapter 4, He was tried in every point just like
you and me, yet without sin. Now that's a big difference. We get tried and it doesn't take
much to tempt us into sin, does it? And even when we try to do
what's right, If we even manage to do what is right, there's
pride right at the door ready to ruin everything. Our Lord
faced every temptation that you and I face, endured every trouble
that you and I endure, and never once sinned. He didn't think
it. He didn't desire it. He didn't
do it. Paul says he knew no sin. That's no small thing. And then he faced the cross,
which simply as a human, when you think of human suffering,
being nailed to a cross and then just hang there? The Lord didn't
go to Calvary saying, you know, six hours. I can deal with anything
for six hours. No. He experienced that horrible,
horrible death entirely as a human being. There's more. He goes to the
cross, they nail him to the cross, and according to the prophecy
of Isaiah, Jehovah laid the iniquity of all his wandering sheep on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you imagine this. I'm not
going to speculate much on our Lord's psychological state in
all of this. We can't go beyond what the Scriptures
reveal. But I think there's some things
that are certainly plausible, and I don't think they're out
of hand to mention them. Imagine that you are without
sin, and then all at once, all the
sins of a multitude that no man can number are charged to you
in the presence of God. Now, our Lord knew that the sins
he bore he had never committed, but that didn't change the outcome
of being before the Lord God with sin upon him. He was cut
off from all the goodness of God. Imagine that some morning, an
angel appears at your door and says to you, up to this point,
you've left your house and gone about your day's activities in
the belief that God would be with you. Today, you are on your
own. God will not be with you. If you sin today, he will not
forgive your sin. If your enemies attack you, he
will not be there to help you. If trial falls upon you, You
and you alone must bear it. I don't think I'd walk out my
door. And that's a sinful man like
me who most often doesn't even keep in his mind that he is protected
on all sides by God. I just go through life doing
what I do. Sometimes I look back and I say, boy, it's amazing
I didn't get myself killed. I think about things I've done.
It's amazing that God saw me doing that and yet He forgave
me. He hid my sin from His sight
and everybody else. And I continue on as a minister
of the Gospel. But that stuff isn't in my mind
all the time. Our Lord walked throughout this earth in the
constant conscious assurance of His Father's presence and
favor. And on that day, it was taken from Him. This would be no easy job for
the Lord Jesus Christ. But he would succeed. Look over
at John chapter 27. John 12, I'm sorry. If you find John 27 in your Bible,
get another Bible. We used to have sword drills
for kids at a camp I was counselor at, and what we'd do is give
them a Bible verse, and the first one who could find it in their
Bible and stand up and read it, you know, they get a point. And
we were teenagers, so we liked to play games with them, and
we'd have them turn to Hezekiah 4-9 or something like that, you
know, and they'd be busy looking back. And there's no John 27.
But there is a John 12-27. The Lord says, Now my heart is
troubled. Why? He knew what was coming.
And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason
I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven.
I have glorified it and will glorify it again. Now, what is
the father saying to the son? Yes, you're going to horribly
difficult work. But I will glorify your name. He didn't say, I will glorify
your name if you're successful. He said, I will. So he was guaranteeing
the Lord Jesus would be successful. And you know, as our Lord Jesus
went about that work at the cross, he did so in faith. Now, it may
seem strange to talk about the Lord Jesus as a believer. But
the relationship between every human being and God is to be
one in which the human being believes God. And so he was a human being.
He believed God. And the book of Hebrews takes
some words from the book of Psalms and puts them in the mouth of
the Lord Jesus. It says, I put my trust in Him. And indeed, When He said, into
your hands I commit my spirit, that's an act of faith. But of
course, faith involves things that are not seen. So our Lord,
as He went to the cross, He couldn't see His victory. He couldn't
see, in the normal sense of that word, that He would be successful.
He went to that work believing God that he would be successful. Let's move along here. Verse
7 of Joshua 1, Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to
obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it
to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever
you go. Do not let this book of the law
depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night
so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful. Now with Joshua,
there was given to him an if, so to speak, concerning
his success. Now, of course, if Joshua's successful,
that means the whole nation of Israel will be successful. But
it depends on this, that Joshua fulfill or keep the law of God. Now, we know that no one other
than our Lord Jesus Christ has ever perfectly kept that law. And so we understand that even
as God spoke to Joshua, he was speaking in kind of a moderated
tone. But nonetheless, this burden was
laid upon Joshua. If he was to be successful, he
must keep the law. Now here's an important point
to notice. God did not say, you and all the Jews must keep the
law. He said to Joshua, you must keep
it. Why is that? Well, if there's
anything you could be assured of about the people of Israel,
they weren't going to keep the law. They hadn't up to that point
and they weren't about to start. Joshua must. Joshua would be
their representative as well as their leader. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, and according to Paul, he was made of a woman,
made under the law. Now, what does it mean to be
under the law? It means to have one's blessedness
determined by obedience to the law. Now, if you are under the
law, that means where your eternity will be or what your eternity
will be like is going to be determined by how well you kept the law. That's why Paul makes it clear
you can't be under law and under grace at the same time. It's
either going to be all you or all Christ. But when the Lord
Jesus Christ comes into the world, He comes as a human being born
under the law, not just any human being, a Jewish human being,
born under the law, under the obligation to keep it if He wants
to receive any blessing by it. And you know, the Lord's decrees
are unchangeable, and He said anyone that breaks it will die.
Well, we break it all the time. How are we going to not die? There is one who did keep it
in every aspect of it. They accused our Lord of abolishing
the law, but that's because they didn't understand the law. They
didn't understand its purpose. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. By law comes death, not life. They sought to obtain life
by the law. But our Lord came. And he fulfilled,
not abolished, the law. He did everything that God commanded. He did everything God commanded
in thought, word, and deed. Such that God himself spoke from
heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
had not been successful in that, if He had not obeyed the law
as God told Joshua to do here in Joshua 1, verse 7 and 8, He
says, don't let that book of the law depart from your mouth.
Meditate on it day and night. Keep it. And then you'll be successful.
If our Lord hadn't done that, He would not have been successful.
in his sacrificial work on the cross. You see, in order to be
our substitute, he himself had to be without sin. Now the priests of the old covenant,
when they were going to offer sacrifice, the first thing they
had to do was offer a sacrifice for themselves. Because they
had sin. And so that sacrifice would take
away, so to speak, their sin, and then they, without sin, could
offer the sacrifices of others and represent them before God.
But our Lord Jesus did not have to offer a sacrifice for Himself.
He was without sin, not the least bit of it. And when He began
His journey up to Mount Calvary, God himself could find no fault
in him, even though Pilate and all the Jewish leaders had. But then God laid sin on him. And the reason he was successful,
the reason he could say, it is finished, it is accomplished,
is this. Before he started that work,
he lived a life without sin. In today's hymn of the day, it's
a hymn I wrote years ago, but the first line, or first verse,
when I look in my wretched heart and there my nature see, this
is my hope, this is my joy, that Jesus lived for me. You see, I don't just need to
have my sins put away. I also must have a righteousness. I can't just be a zero. To be
pleasing to God, I've got to be positively righteous. Jesus
Christ, by His active obedience, His fulfillment of the law, He
made for me a robe of righteousness. Not a stitch of it was sewn by
me. It was all by Him. And at Calvary, He took that
off. And he put on himself the filthy
rag righteousness that I had made, full of sin, full of transgression. And he wore that robe in the
presence of God. And he was successful. He bore
all that God could do to a sinner in punishment of sin. And you
know what that means for those of us who are in Him? It means, as it was prophesied
of the New Covenant, I will forgive their sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more. At that
time, there shall be a search for the sin of Israel and for
the transgression of Judah. and it shall not be found. You think about that. They're
gonna look for your sin? They sure are. But if you're
in Christ, they'll never find it. Why? It's gone. In charge
to your account is the perfect, flawless righteousness of Jesus
Christ. All right, you are dismissed
until the morning service.