So the book of Numbers this morning,
and would you turn with me to chapter 27, and I'd like to begin
reading with verse 15. Numbers chapter 27 and verse
15. You remember earlier on in this
book, in this chapter I should say, in this chapter we noticed
that there was some young ladies that recognized the fact that
they probably would not be inheriting in the land. And they brought
that to Moses and Moses brought it to God and God came back and
said, this is what I want to be done. Well, it's interesting.
We're going to meet those young ladies again in the last chapter
of this book, but until we get there, but now we have in this
passage of scripture, Moses spake unto the Lord saying, now Moses
has just been told you're not going into the promised land.
You rebelled against me. I asked you the first time to
strike the rock, and you did. I asked you the second time to
speak to the rock, and you didn't. You struck it twice. Now God
was merciful and still gave them water out of that rock, but we
recognize the fact that Moses could not lead the children of
Israel into the Promised Land as a type and a shadow because
he represented the law. And you and I do not want the
law representing us before God. It is only a condemnation. It is only fearful, and we find
the grace of God is what brings us to Christ. It is the goodness
of God that brings us to Christ. So Moses is told, you're not
going to be taking the man, and now we find Moses comes up and
says, Lord, please, please, please. appoint someone to take these
people into the land so that they will not be like a group
of sheep without a shepherd. It tells us there in verse 15,
And Moses spake unto the LORD, saying, Let the LORD, the God
of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,
which may go out before them, and which may go in before them,
and which may lead them out, and which may lead them in, that
the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no
shepherd. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Take thee Joshua. The Son of Nun, a man in whom
is the Spirit, and lay hands upon him, and set him before
Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation, and give
him a charge in their sight. Thou shalt put some of the honor
upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may
be obedient. And he shall stand before Eliezer
the priest, who shall ask counsel for him before the judgment of
the Urim before the Lord. At his word shall they go out,
and at his word shall they come in, both he and all the children
of Israel, with him even all the congregation. And Moses did
as the Lord commanded him. And he took Joshua, and set him
before Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation.
And he laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the
Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." We find that Joshua,
in our studies, is no stranger to us. We find that he has been
mentioned a number of times throughout the Old Testament as we've been
reading. And if you would turn with me to the book of Exodus
chapter 17, let's turn over there as we find that we remember this
great work of Joshua. He's been called of God a number
of times to do what might be extraordinary. And here in the
book of Numbers chapter 17, the scriptures share with us this
very important passage of scripture. It says here, Oh, the congregation
of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord.
And they complained about having no water. That's essentially
what we have. Well, after the Lord gave them
water from the rock, it tells us there in verse nine, and Moses,
verse eight, and then came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim. We've just had this wonderful
blessing, water from the rock, and we are attacked from the
outside by these from Amalek. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose
us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said unto him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron and Hur went
up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses
held up his hand, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down
his hand, Amalek prevailed. What an issue, what a picture
we have here, how impossible it is for us to continuously
keep our hands up in the air. The fight is the Lord's, it's
not our fight. And we find that as he got tired
and dropped his hands, oh my goodness, the battle went in
favor of the Amalekites. Well, God gave a solution. He gave him two men to hold his
arms up. Isn't it wonderful that God provides
us with encouragement and here we find that as Moses' hands
were heavy and he took a stone and put under him and sat there
on and Aaron and her stayed up his hands and one on one side
and the other on the other side and the hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. Now look at verse 13. Joshua,
this one that has just been appointed to lead the children of Israel
into the land that God had promised them. This Joshua, whose name
means salvation is of Jehovah. This Joshua, who we find the
Lord Jesus Christ has the same name in Greek that he had in
the Hebrew. This Joshua disconfited Amalek and his people with the
edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed the Amalekites
just as God said for him to do. We have again that Joshua is
brought to our attention in the book of Exodus chapter 24. Would
you turn there with me? In Exodus chapter 24, we have
this word of encouragement that we find that Joshua is called
the minister of Moses. Joshua is mentioned here in Exodus
chapter 24 in verse 13, and Moses rose up and he is ministered
Joshua, and Moses went up into the mount of God. He is a minister
Now, we're going to find out that when we get to the New Testament,
the Lord Jesus shares with us that He think not that I am come
to destroy the law or the prophets, I am come not to destroy, but
to fulfill. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
great work of grace on our behalf, did not come to destroy it, but
He came to fulfill it, which means that that law has been
placed upon Him. He took it, and He fulfilled
it completely, and it's not chargeable against God's people. The law
will not raise its angry head up against God's people. There
is nothing that God's people are going to do that will eradicate
this great pleasure that God has put upon us, and that is
His grace. So Joshua became a minister of
the Lord, and you know, it was Joshua that noticed on that mount
when Moses was up there. Joshua is partway up there. It
was Joshua that noticed the problem with the children of Israel first
when they started dancing around the golden calf. You know, as
we think about Joshua, we find that there was someone that knew
the problem long before the law was ever given. There's someone,
and we know Him as the Son of God, before the foundation of
the world. He was set up in the covenant
of grace to take care of the problem that hadn't even been
issued yet. Adam hadn't been born. The directions hadn't been
given to Adam. But we find that the Lord is
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He's the One. that
knew the problem before there was a problem. And so we find
the laws upon the mount and Joshua is the minister of Moses, and
he's the one that heard the problem down there among the children
of Israel. And we find the rest of the fact
that took off, Joshua was the one that moved in great issue
down there and came into the camp. It tells us there in Exodus
chapter 32, would you notice there, Exodus chapter 32 and
verse 17, The word says, And when Joshua heard the noise of
the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There's a noise
of war in the camp. It hadn't got to Moses attention.
You know, there was a problem before there was a law. There was a problem in Eden before
God ever gave the law to Moses. And so we have a problem, and
we have someone who is acquainted with the problem. You know, when
we think about the law, someone was mentioning to me the other
day about that good Samaritan. There's two people there that
wouldn't even go over and be friendly to that man that was
beat up and left for half dead. They should have been friendly
with him. You know, when we get to the law, they couldn't be.
They could not touch, they could not be around this kind of folk.
The Levite and the priest could not be in that situation, which
shares this with a great deal about the law. The law's not
going to help us. We need the God-man. We need the Savior. We need Jehovah. that Jireh,
the one that would fulfill all our needs, we find him as pictured
in the Samaritan, coming and taking care. That man contributed
not one thing, but his illness. There was nothing that he contributed. The Good Samaritan took care
of all the issue. Well, we find out as we follow
through with the life of Joshua. He's a wonderful picture of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all that he had to do. He
is one of those. In Numbers chapter eight, would
you turn there with me? Or excuse me, Numbers chapter
13. In Numbers chapter 13, he's brought up again, and in this
instance, it tells us here in Numbers chapter, he is one of
the members that's gonna go in to spy out the land. God has
purposed that there will be 12 men set aside, one representing
every tribe, And it's sort of what we heard there this morning
in the book of Jude. These men were ordained to go
into that land and spy it out. And it tells us here in the book
of Numbers chapter 13 and verse 8, that the tribe of Ephraim,
Oshea, the son of Nun. And in the same chapter, verse
16, these are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out
the land. And Moses called Oshea the son
of Nun, Joshua. As we follow this out, in chapter
14 of this book, there's something about Joshua and Caleb that the
other ten didn't have. In Numbers chapter 14, we follow
this out just a little bit. In verse 6, it says, And Joshua
the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were
of them that searched out the land, rent their clothes. And
they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying,
the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding
good land. If the Lord delight in us, then
he will bring us into the land. You know, we find that as the
Lord even sends us today to spy out the land. You know, we're
doing that everywhere we're going. We're called on to spy out the
land. And here we find the example that God gives us concerning
those who know something about God. They cannot lie about God. Now those ten people came back
and they told great lies about God. What did they say? God cannot
do what He promised. This land has been promised to
Israel, but He can't deliver it to us. And they came back
and lied about God. Now, Joshua and Caleb may not
have understood at the time HOW God was going to deliver the
land, but they understood that God WOULD deliver the land, and
that is 99.9% of the battle. That God is able to do what He
said He would do, and that is, He would deliver this land. When
we are asked to do similar things as this, we may not know how
God is going to perform this, but it does not give us any inclination
to say, I don't believe God can. Turn with me to the book of Matthew,
if you could. If you would, Matthew chapter 19. In Matthew chapter
19, we have this passage of scripture that shares with us that sometimes
we just do not know. Most of the time. Maybe all the
time. We just don't know how God's
going to do His business. You know, as I talk to this young
man, Stephen, I don't know whether he does have an interest. I like
it when people have an interest in the gospel. But I don't know
the outcome. I've been visiting with a young
preacher for three years now. I don't know the outcome. I have
no idea. He's told me twice that, Norm,
if what you say is right, I am lost and I'm a false prophet.
And I shared that with a preacher friend of mine. He says, when
he says, God said that, then he'll understand it. But right
now, it's just you and a discussion about the Bible. But to step
that line, if you're right, Norm, I'm lost and I'm a false prophet.
Well, here in the book of Matthew chapter 19, we read these words
beginning with verse 23. Chapter 19 of the book, Then
said Jesus unto the disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a
rich man can hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. You know,
I believe this is more about self-riches, self-righteousness,
self, self, instead of having some money. But it says, how
hardly. And again, I say unto you, it
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Have you
ever read that book that tells you how a camel can go through
that door or that gate in the walls of Jerusalem? You take
a whole bundle off and he gets down on his knees and he can
crawl through. You know what? The rest of the scripture is
just denied when you put that picture because the scriptures
go on to say, with man it is impossible. it is as easier for
the camel to go through the eye of a needle, and that this needle,
it's the sewing needle, that's the needle he's talking about,
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his
disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who
then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, With man this is impossible." You know, I can feel with Joshua
and Caleb coming back out of looking at and spying over that
land. They came back and said, you know, I don't know how this
is going to happen, but God has promised that it's going to happen.
And that's the report that they brought back. They brought back
a good report, a good report about God, their God. Now, those
others came back with a report about their God. He can't do
it. But Joshua and Caleb came back with a report about their
God and said, He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above
all that we ask or think. When it comes to salvation, I
don't know how God can do this, but we find in the Scriptures,
with God, all things are possible. He is able to save where it looks
like they're unsavable. I can just imagine the feelings
of the church at Jerusalem when they had that rascal Saul of
Tarsus going around says there's no way in this world that man
will ever be saved. He's just too bad Well, you know
what Saul of Tarsus later said that about himself. I am the
chiefest of sinners And I've come to the conclusion that everyone
that knows Christ is going to say that about themselves. They
will never elevate themselves. We will all be the chiefest of
sinners. That's what Job said about himself. That's what Isaiah said about
himself. That's what Peter said about himself. And that's what
Paul said about himself. So, Jesus beheld him. Every spy and trip were sent
out to come back with some report with men. This is impossible
But with God all things are possible. You remember what Mary said when
she's told she's going to have a baby Mary the mother of Jesus
How can this be? And then she finally said, be
it unto me according to thy word. She came back with a good report
because she knew something about the God of good reports. So as
we follow those spies out, we find that 10 of them came back
with a report about their God. He is not able. He can't do it.
We're just stuck here. And we find that two came back.
Well, we find, if you'll turn back with me to the book of Numbers,
Book of Numbers, Chapter 14. We find the reason for this.
Why could they? We heard this morning about those
who came out of Egypt. Most of them died in the wilderness,
and the word is used there in unbelief. They had no concept
about God. Well, you can't dig it out. You can't study enough to come
to the conclusion about it. We may say the things that the
Bible says, but we'll not be convinced about it until we're
born again, and then we cannot be unconvinced about it. It is
part of us. So Numbers chapter 14, would
you join me there in the book of Numbers chapter 14 again?
And there in verse 24, We have God speaking about this, and
He said, ìBut My servant Caleb,î now Heís the other counterpart,
ìbecause he had another spirit with him.î You know, weíre born
with a dead and trespasses and then sins spirit, and thatís
what those ten tribes representatives came back with. Thatís what they
represented. A people that are dead and trespasses in sin cannot
see the blessings of Almighty God in His great salvation. People
may discuss grace. You know, I've shared this before. After the Lord saved me, I drove
by a church, and the name of it was Grace Memorial Baptist
Church. And I said, I've got to find
out what these people believe, because I'm not accepted in where
I've been. They fired me. So I called them
up, and I said, Would you tell me what it means? Your name has
Grace Memorial Baptist Church. And they said, Well, of course
I can tell you. We had a dear lady in our church by the name
of Grace, and she left us a lot of money, so that's why we named
it Grace Memorial Baptist Church. I said, Thank you very much.
At least they were honest about it. And you know, that's generally
what grace means to most people, is nothing. It means nothing. It means that I'm going to contribute
something to grace. Well, once the Lord saves you,
and you know what sovereign grace is, it was grace given to us
by Almighty God, there is no going back. You cannot go back. You cannot go back to the swill.
You have to always, and it may be uncomfortable, and it may
be unpleasant, and it may have people tell you that you're not
right, and there's no way in this world that I could believe
that. You know what? That's true. There's no way in
this world. But when God comes, He can convince us beyond a shadow
of a doubt. Here in the book of Numbers chapter
14 and verse 24, But my servant, because he had another spirit
with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into
the land whereinto he went, and his seed shall possess it. Here
is one of those that came out of Egypt, went through 40 years
of wilderness wanderings, He has a compatriot a friend
by the name of Joshua if you'll look with me in chapter 14 and
there in verse 30 It says in doubtless ye shall not come into
the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell therein save
Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun The rest
of you that are under this age or over this age are going to
pass away in the wilderness You know, the first thing they did
is got religious and When God passed judgment on them, the
first thing they did was got religious and said, we're going
to go in. Hallelujah. We see the light.
We're going to go in. And Joshua and Caleb and Moses
says, don't go in because the Lord is not with you. They went
in and were greatly defeated and came back with their tails
between their legs and they wandered in the wilderness for 38 years
until that generation passed away. all of the events that
took place during that time. Now, turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 29. You know, it used to bother
me. Why? Why? What is this that they
can't see? What is it about that that they
can't hear? What is this about that? And
even in the Old Testament, we find in the book of John a number
of places why people can't come. They're not drawn. They're not
brought, they're not led, they're not drawn by the Spirit of God.
Well, here in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 29, we find these words. These are the words, verse 1
of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with
the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant
that He made with them in Horeb. And Moses called unto all Israel,
and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before
your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his
servants, and unto all his land, and great temptations, which
thine eyes have seen, the signs, and thou hast seen those great
miracles. Verse four. Yet The Lord hath
not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear
unto this day. What's the problem? The Lord
has not given you a heart. Now thank God for those two,
that the heart was given to them. They had a different spirit about
them. They had a spirit of grace. They had a spirit that God is
able to do what he said he will do. They had a belief that God
is high and lifted up, that he's holy, he's righteous in all his
works, and he is the only one that can take a sinner and change
them, save them. Works cannot do that. Joshua
and Caleb, for they wholly followed the Lord. How in the world can
someone be said that they wholly, completely, without reservation,
followed the Lord? You know, I love reading the
Old Testament. As you know, most of my ministry
has been in the Old Testament. But I love reading in the book
of Hebrews chapter 11 about those guys over in the Old Testament.
Do you know what? When we get to the 11th chapter
of the book of Hebrews, we don't find any of their wrinkles. We
don't find any of their pimples. We don't find any of their sin.
We don't find that they were like you and I are. We find under
the blood of Christ, under the mercy seat, they were perfect
in the eyes of God. They had faith. We read over
there that Abraham's wife laughed about hearing she was gonna have
a baby. Over in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews chapter
11, by faith she believed it. The blood of Christ, what it
does for us. It takes away all of that pitiful
dust that we had. It takes away all the fear that
we had. We may go through this life, have those days of doubt
and those days of, what is God doing? And yet under the blood,
I will present them spotless, without wrinkle. They will be
mine. I will present them whole before
my throne. We have it because of the imputed
righteousness of Christ, that God would give us His righteousness
in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. He is righteous, and His righteousness
is given to His children. When we are born again, we are
given of that great robe. Now, it's not something we can
physically see, and nobody else can see it, but God sees it.
He sees we are covered with the righteousness of Christ. It's
been imputed to us. Our sin was imputed to Christ.
His righteousness is imputed to us. And we have what we could
never have on our own. We're given the greatest gift
of all, and that is the righteousness of Christ. And in that we are
justified, we are made whole, we are without sin, without spot,
and without wrinkle. We are going to be able to be
presented to the throne room of God in such completeness that
we can't even imagine. That we would come before Him
without sin is something I cannot imagine because I am so permeated
with it. You know, when the Lord saved
me, He never did anything for this flesh. That promise is coming,
but he gave me Christ, the indwelling of Christ, my hope of glory. All right, Joshua and Caleb,
for they wholly followed the Lord. They had the imputed righteousness
of Christ. And in the book of Deuteronomy,
would you turn there with me? Back in the book of Deuteronomy,
we were just there in chapter three, in chapter three, verse
22. This whole chapter is just full. But this, well, let's read verses
21 and 22 here. And I commanded Joshua at that
time saying, how the Lord instructed this great preacher of righteousness. Gave him the words, grace, preach
grace. Preach sovereign grace. Preach
grace that comes from God. We cannot do this on our own. We can't lift our finger on our
own. He goes on to say, I commanded Joshua at that time saying, thine
eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these
two kings. So shall the Lord do unto all
the kingdoms where thou passest. Ye shall not fear them, for the
LORD your God, He shall fight for you." The battles of the
Lords. You know, I read over there in
the book of Revelation that they overcome Satan by the blood of
the Lamb. They didn't overcome it. I hear
people, I threw off a demon. I may not say it, but I say in
my heart, you're a liar. I find in the book of Luke there,
the fourth chapter, that a man was filled with a demon. He was
even religious. He went down to the synagogue,
but he couldn't do a thing about this problem he had. Christ took
care of it all. All right, let's go on here.
The Lord your God shall fight for you. Chapter 31 of the book
of, he told that to Joshua, of the book of Deuteronomy, chapter
31 and verses one through four. Moses went and spake these words
unto all Israel, I'm a hundred and twenty years old. I can no
more go out and come in. Now it's not because he's frail.
because we find out when he was buried. His eyes were still good,
his strength hadn't abated, but he understands, my time is short
because the Lord said, you're not going in. As a representative
of the law, I believe Moses understood that. There could be no one lead
the children of Israel into the promised land that was the law. Now we could have someone lead
us in that is of grace and that's Joshua. Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord is the Savior. I go
not more go out and come in also the Lord has said to me thou
shall not go over Jordan and the Lord Thy God will, he will,
go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before
thee, and thou shalt possess them. And Joshua, he shall go
over before thee, as the Lord hath said. And the Lord shall
do unto them as he did to Sihon, and to all kings of the Amorites,
and unto the land of them whom he destroyed. As we follow this,
we find that as Joshua is given his commission and as Joshua
is blessed, everything that God tells him, Joshua says, yea and
amen. It's going to happen just as
God purposed it to fall out. There will be deliverance. That
land will be ours, not because of our fighting. Now, if we follow
this, and we've mentioned this a number of times, almost all
the battles that the children of Israel fought in the promised
land under Joshua, they went into battle, and 100% of the
warriors came back home, excepted Ai. Now, what kind of record
is that? That's a miraculous record, that
God would deliver every one of His children in such a miraculous
way. The Lord spoke unto Joshua. Turn with me to the book of Joshua,
chapter 1, as we find Him taking over the children of Israel.
In Joshua, chapter 1, verse 1, the Scriptures share this. Now,
after the death of Moses, Now, we haven't got quite there in
the book of Numbers, but this is, they're in the land. And
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 into
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. From the wilderness, and this
Lebanon, even unto the great river, the great river Euphrates.
And he describes what the inheritance is. In that same book, drop down
to the end of that book, chapter 24, verse one. After the land has been taken,
Joshua gathered all the children of Israel, the tribes of Israel,
together. And he says in verse two, and
Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,
even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nacor, and
they served other gods. What a commentary about Abraham. You know what it said about Abraham?
The Lord said this about Abraham. Abraham saw my day and was glad. What does that mean? God dealt
with him with the new birth and he was glad. Brought him out
of Ur of the Chaldees, led him. I took your father Abraham from
the other side. I gave him Isaac. I gave Isaac
Jacob, Esau, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And then
we just go down through here. You know what? We find out that
these pictures, types, and shadows of what Joshua did are just a
picture of what we find our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, did. You
know, we mentioned His name in the book of Matthew, chapter
1, verse 21. We have, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus. Now, if it was in Hebrew times,
Joshua. Greek times, Jesus. Thou shall call his name Jesus. You know why? Because his name
means Savior. He shall save his people from
their sins. Now, Joshua pictured that. Jesus
Christ did that. shall call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins. Joshua had a good
word about the Messiah. You know what? That's what God
did for Joshua. He had a good word about the
Messiah, about God. He believed God. He believed
God. He believed God there as he went
in, looked around. Can you imagine going through
that land and having 10 people complaining about everything
they saw? You know, this looks really good, but I don't know.
There's giants over there. I just don't know. I don't know
about this. You know, you hear that in religion
all the time. God's done all he can do. Now the rest is up to you. What
a terrible thing to say about Almighty God. God never tried
to do anything. He's always done exactly what
He said He will do. You know, Jesus often has the
title mentioned as Messiah, Christ, Joshua set aside, He was anointed. Boy, they called an anointing. laid hands on him. You know what? Our Savior, the word Jesus means
Savior, and Christ is a title given to him, which means anointed
one. Messiah in the Old Testament.
Where was he anointed? In heaven before time. to do
the work of the everlasting covenant. You know, I just think for a
moment about that conversation that went on. We don't know and
we don't have the words of it, but when we compare scripture
with scripture, we have a whole lot of it filled in. And when
we think about the Savior being anointed and his conversation
upon his anointing, that he had promised to come to this earth
to do what the covenant of grace demanded and he was pleased to
do. Now, in the covenant of grace,
it was not a two against one vote. Oh, we got three of us
here. Now, one of us is going to have
to go. You know what? The Messiah said, it's me. I volunteer for this duty in
the covenant of grace. It was not a vote against him. All were in agreement. They all
had their ministry to perform. And as he was anointed Messiah
or Christ, I can almost hear him say these words at the conclusion
of that anointing. that he declared and covenanted
with his father. Now, these words are not my words.
I heard them in a message by Brother Farrell Griswold, who's
passed, but he just said it in such a powerful way. My father,
on my part, I covenant that in the fullness of time, I will
become man. I will take upon myself the form
and nature of the fallen race. I will live in their wretched
world, and for my people I will keep the law perfectly. I will
work out a spotless righteousness, which shall be acceptable to
the demands of thy just and holy law. In due time I will bear
the sins of all my people. Thou shalt exact their deaths
on me, the chastisement of their peace I will endure, and by my
stripes they shall be healed. My Father, I covenant and promise
that I will be obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. I will magnify thy law, and I
will make it honorable. I will suffer all they ought
to have suffered. I will endure the curse of the
law, and all the vials of thy wrath shall be emptied and spent
upon my head. I will then rise again, I will
ascend into heaven, I will intercede for them at thy right hand, I
will make myself responsible for every one of them, that not
one of those of whom thou hast given me shall ever be lost,
and I will bring all my sheep of whom by my blood thou hast
constituted me their shepherd, I will bring everyone safe to
thee at last." He says, I'm ready to go. I have this to do, and
I promise to do it, and guess what? What he promised to do,
he carried out. And guess what? He's now sitting
at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for his people.
He's not pleading with the devil, says, well, you know, you got
this day, and I hope to get tomorrow. No! He's there, mine. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. So
nobody can bring up a railing accusation against God's people. They will forever belong to him. Well, our friend Caleb, excuse
me, Joshua, gonna lead these people into the promised land. He will be their guide, director,
leader in battle. Why? Because there is a captain
of his salvation. that will be leading him to be
an under-captain of their salvation. And so we have Jesus. He says
there in John 17, I think it's five or six times, the people
thou hast given me. I will do this for them, the
people thou hast given me, I'll do this for them. And so the
people that have been given by God the Father to God the Son,
they all were paid for on the cross and shall all appear before
Him in glory. And the Holy Spirit has promised
that in time He will take the gospel to them, or bring them
to the gospel, and when they hear it, He will give them the
new birth, and they will be like Caleb's and Joshua's, and saying,
God can do everything He said He would do. And the church says,
yea and amen. Brother Mike.