My text this morning is in Judges chapter 1, and it's exactly as it was last week and the week before that, and even going back the week before that into the book of Joshua. The lesson this morning, I don't feel the need to read these things. We've read them several times. But the lesson this morning is about things already done.

The last chapter of Joshua, God's servant Joshua, delivers a message. It's a message of encouragement. He's encouraging God's children. And a strong warning concerning compromise on any level concerning the word of God, God's covenant promises, and God's way of mercy and grace.

There's no room for compromise in these things. And I know they're offensive. We get into all kinds of situations where people get offended and so on, and we feel like we have a little leeway with these things. There is no leeway. There's no room for compromise on any level concerning these things.

And he tells them that the same God who crushed your enemies and showed you favor will turn on you as he turned on them. As he done you good, he'll also do you evil. You don't want the living God as an enemy. I just can't imagine. You know, in one place he talks about the future and the coming of the Messiah and so on. And he said, the Lord will hiss for a fly. That's all he has to do. He don't have to have atomic weapons. He can hiss for a bunch of insects. He did it with the Canaanites. He brought the hornets down and run them out. Gave hemorrhoids to a people. Hemorrhoids.

You don't want the living God as an enemy. He controls providence. Every breath you take is in His hands. And God's covenant blessings involve the glory of His name. That's why there's no compromise. His very character is laid on the line in these promises. His very Godhead rests in the outcome of the promises.

If some part of God's promises failed, we'd lose our souls. Now, that's a big deal to lose your soul, isn't it? But God would lose his Godhead. If one promise failed that God gave, he'd lose his Godhead. His character would be flawed forever. His glory would be compromised and his character put into question. God would by far be the bigger loser if I might be allowed the liberty to suggest such a thing. He would be the bigger loser.

Our confidence is entirely in our God. It's not in our faith or our faithfulness. It's in our God. And Joshua delivers his final words to Israel, sends them back to their inheritance, Everything they have, they have by the grace of God. But now listen to me. They had nothing in the beginning. Isn't that true with all his children? We have nothing in the beginning. What have we got? A little strip of land, a job, an income. That's nothing. It can be taken away from you so fast it'll make your head spin.

Abraham was the son of an idol maker. He wasn't somebody really special. God made him special when he called him. Abraham wasn't any different than any other son of Adam. God saved him out of the house of the idols. His daddy was an idol maker. And God brought him from the other side of the flood.

That is, he preserved his seed and those men that he put on the ark. All God's elect. Their seed was preserved in those eight souls on the ark. You think about that. Why God save him and his sons and their wives? Because of his elect. Called him out of the house of idols, promised him a great inheritance because of his seed.

Now turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. I want to show you something over here. Galatians chapter 3. Abraham's called the father of the faithful. He's a prime example of faith. And here's what it says. Now to Abraham, verse 16, Galatians chapter 3. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one unto thy seed, which is Christ, to Abraham and his seed. The surety of the promise is the seed, not Abraham. It's Abraham's seed.

And then turn with me again to Romans chapter 9. Everyone here is aware of Israel's rejection of the Christ and God's righteous wrath that was poured out on them and their children, just as they said. They said, let his blood be on us and our children. And so it was in 70 AD. God destroyed the priesthood. He destroyed The nation of Israel, he just ripped it to shreds. There was nothing left. Temple was gone. The priesthood was gone.

In Romans 9, 6, it says, not as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. That is, they're not all God's elect, which are of Israel the person. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac, shall thy seed be called. We're talking about believers. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.

Now, I don't know what our country believes concerning Israel, the nation, right now. And I don't question God's providence. Whatever he's doing, he's doing, and it's OK with me. But you've got to know this. These are not the children of God. That's what he says right here.

The children of the flesh, that is, they were born of Abraham. They can trace their genealogy back to Abraham. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. God's spiritual seed has spiritual children, and they are in picture the same as Isaac. You remember how Isaac came to be? Sarah was barren. Couldn't have any children. But God told Abraham she was going to have a child. It was going to be his child. And when they got past childbearing, both of them 100 years old, then she conceived and had a child.

So there's no question this child was the gift of God. His calling was of God. His inheritance was of God. And he's a picture of all God's elect. We're his children by promise. It's not of blood, nor of him that willeth, nor the will of man, but it's of God. It's of God.

This is the word of promise, that this time I'll come and Sarah shall have a son. But then there's more here in Romans 9. And not only this, verse 10, but when Rebekah also conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.

That's totally backwards from the way things work. The eldest son, he was the heir. He was the priest of the family. Everything fell unto him, but not Not so in election. The elder is going to serve the younger. God's elect, if you don't mind an old card ploy, he's the trump card, isn't he? He's the trump card. God's elect.

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And what all this boils down to is this. God has a people he chose in Christ to save for the glory of his name. Saved, not the possibility of salvation, but the certainty of it. If you read Luke chapter 1, my wife Yvonne played Luke chapter 1, and I was listening to it being read. And Luke says that he set down to write these things that we might know the certainty of them. Salvation's not a possibility. This whole religious world sets forth the gospel as accomplishing the possibility of salvation. There's no possibility about it. It's absolutely certain.

God would not sacrifice his son for the possibility of somebody being saved. And that would bring him no glory, that all the glory be on man. You see what I'm saying? God has a people he chose in Christ, and he did it for the glory of his name. And it's not the possibility of salvation, but the certainty of it. And God's glory is never wasted on possibilities. It's based upon the sure mercies of God.

And so he says in Romans 9, 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Because God chose it. of people, God forbid. When he revealed himself to Moses, here's what he said, I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion. He's God. He's holy. Nobody can blame God. Nobody can even question what God does. He's holy. so far apart from us that in our wildest imagination we couldn't conceive how holy God is. You can't look on me and live, he said. That's how holy he is.

You think about that. And then here's the sinner. He's a sinner by nature, and he's a sinner because of his father Adam, but he's also a sinner by choice and by practice. He didn't have to do the things that he did, but he did. Now, God's been gracious and allowed us to see why because of his nature. But it doesn't relieve him of his responsibility. He's guilty. The law proves him guilty. His conscience proves him guilty. Any kind of reasoning based on the word of God realizes he's guilty. And then God says this.

He's looking down on guilty man, and he said, I'll have mercy. Boy, we ought to be dancing around over that, shouldn't we? He's not just going to be just. What if God were all just and no mercy? But he said, I'll have mercy. This is my glory, Moses. This is what I'm going to reveal to you. I'll be merciful. But I'll be merciful to whom I will, and I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So then, verse 16, Romans 9, it's not of him that willeth. Boy, that's not what I've been hearing. I've been hearing since I was a little kid, it is of him that willeth. Bible says that several times. Not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy. Now look down at verse 19. Here's what men gonna say when they hear that. You may be saying it this morning. Thou wilt say unto me, why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will? And here's the answer for anybody who asked that question. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Who in the world do you think you are?

Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Had not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another under dishonor? Who created man? Did man evolve from a paramecium, that's what science is, crawled out of the salt water, energized by volcanic flow, evolved into a man? What blasphemy?

Beloved, our God is God. He's God. He's eternal, all-wise, everywhere present, unchangeable God, sovereign over all things, especially His grace and mercy. And the mere fact that such a god is willing to show his mercy and grace ought to thrill our hearts. But we sure don't deserve it.

He brought his people out of total annihilation from the other side of the flood. He brought them out of heathen idolatry. He brought them out of the bondage of Egypt and the captive oppression of slavery. He preserved them in the wilderness. And this saints of God, this world, is a wilderness. It's a wilderness. I love the fact that he called it the wilderness of sin, because that's what we live in. And did not God's provenient grace go before us, preserving us till the time of our calling? Boy, when I think back time after time after time, I should be dead. There's no other reason for me being alive but the grace of God.

And then comes his effectual calling. He brought them all the way to Jordan before, but it wasn't effectual. It was just an outward thing. And remember, this is a picture of God's kingdom being set up in the heart. And how many times before God actually called us did we make professions of faith and prove that they were nothing more than professions, made our decisions, And he shows them what this is all about. Their carcasses perished in the wilderness because of unbelief. They heard the same gospel we did, tells us in Hebrews chapter 4. But then came the effectual calling, the circumcision of the heart.

And Israel passed from death unto life. They crossed that Jordan. They went into the promised land. They received their inheritance. And it all become a living reality. And seeing the power and glory of God in the Ark, the Gospel of Christ. I'm talking about the Ark of the Covenant that went before him across Jordan. And the way led them into this glorious victory.

And took from those people what God had promised to be for them. And notice this. In the book of Joshua, it says Joshua addressed the people, and then he died. You remember that? He addressed them. He gave them these warnings. He gave them these blessings. He reminded them of all that God had done for them before. And then he died.

In Judges, it says the angel of the Lord addressed the people. If you carefully examine the words, the words are almost identical. that the angel of the Lord addressed the people, and then Joshua died. The truth is, when Joshua spake, the angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ, spoke through him. That's the harmony of these verses. The fact of which this whole generation is ignorant is that Christ always speaks to true Israel through a man. He always has, he always will. That's God's way.

And he plainly tells us in Hebrews 1.1 that in time past he spake to our fathers by the prophets. He still does. Not necessarily through prophets, but through men called to God. There's no difference between a prophet and an apostle except the time and the message. One talks about the Christ who should come. The other says Christ has come. Oh, that my heart, my faith, my soul could get a grip on this. When God sends his messenger, he speaks through him to his people.

And what he says, Paul acknowledges in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, or 1 Thessalonians 2.13, is the truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. Now listen to me, we're talking about things already done. That's what I'm talking to you about this morning. Things that already happened, being written as though they hadn't.

The scripture presents salvation as a future prospect, though it's settled in the purpose and mind of God. Christ didn't die for thousands of years. But when Adam sinned, God didn't destroy the world. Why? Because there was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Was he actually slain? No, but he was in the purpose of God. He was slain. One writer went so far as to say he saved men on credit. He trusted all things into his hands. They're saying, well, I haven't died yet. Yeah, but you will. You will.

Scripture presents salvation as a future prospect, though it be settled. It's a settled matter in the purpose of God. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But Paul nearly reverses the order in 2 Timothy 1.9, God has saved us. called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see what I'm saying? It's a settled thing in the purpose of God. Romans 9, Paul quotes Hosea saying, I will call them my people and call her beloved that was not beloved.

This was 800 years before the mystery of the Gentiles was revealed. Think about that. He talked about this as though it had already happened. Time has no bearing on God. And I believe there's a lesson here for us to learn about things already done. Most of what I preach is based on things already done. I live in a world that the Spirit says exists because God spoke and it was done. It was done.

It wasn't a thing that gradually comes to pass. I don't care what scientists say. That's not what God said. And he said the things that appear were not made from things which was already here. There was nothing here. There was nothing here. He calls it a void. There was nothing here. And God spoke and it was done. Do you reckon it needs something added to it? No. No. He commanded and it stood fast. The Bible says our obtaining of our inheritance is to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.

And if I understand Hebrews 4.10, when God trusted his salvation to his son, he rested from all his works. His works were not in vain. His creation was not in vain. His purpose to glorify his name was not in vain.

And it says along with that line of reasoning in Ephesians 1.13, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And this is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Do you realize that one day these bodies are going to be raised from the dead? Right now I can't even preach and teach with that wicked thought going through my head. I can't preach and teach like I want to. I can't do it perfectly.

But oh, how I want to. I want to set it before you till you can't resist it. You see it, and you have to have it. It says that John the Baptist, when he preached, he turned their hearts, turned them unto the Lord through his preaching. That's how I want to preach. But I can't.

But one day, this body is not going to be plagued with sin. One day, this body is going to stand before God sinless. It is in the justice of God. It is in the purpose of God. But one day, it's actually going to happen. He's going to raise these vile bodies from the grave, and we're going to stand faultless in the presence of God. And our minds and mouths are going to be filled with the glory of God. You say, well, I just can't see myself standing there praising God for all eternity. That's because your body is not fit for it. That's because you've never experienced it. But one day we'll stand there, Russell, no sin, no sin, glorified. And we'll sing his praise then. But thank God for that earnest of the spirit that right now reveals those promises in such a way that these hearts are able to worship God and be thankful. Most of our confidence is based on things already done. We're not waiting for the promised redeemer. He's already appeared. Not waiting to see about death.

He abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We're not waiting to see how God saves sinners. He's already revealed this and is continuing to teach it to chosen sinners by way of the gospel ministry. We're not waiting to be reconciled to God. Paul said in Colossians 121, you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. That's a thing already done. We're not waiting to see if God will accept the works of Jesus Christ. The Bible said he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.

I'm not trying to make my peace with God. Oh, how I hate when I hear preachers talk about that. Inviting people to make their peace with God. You couldn't make your peace with God. It took everything Christ had to make your peace with God. took 100% of his person to make your peace with God.

And I'm not waiting for a power to be given to enable us to believe. Christ said, if I go to my father, I'll send the Comforter to you, and he'll reprove the world, the world of his elect. He's going to reprove every one of them. He's going to convince everyone of sin, righteousness, that is imputed righteousness, and justice satisfied. I'm not waiting on the power. Power is already here. He's the spirit of truth. He'll testify of me. He shall bear witness. You shall bear witness because the spirit of truth is in you. You're going to bear witness. And you've been with me from the beginning.

And God's local churches have been established. I'm not waiting to see if God's going to establish a church. He already has. Been doing it now for centuries. I wonder how God's going to work in this world. I read a history book. My soul, the whole book of Acts is about how God operates. He established churches. He sent pastors, preachers, evangelists.

We want to turn that all around because it don't fit our imaginations. It don't fit our traditions and our reasoning, our fleshly reasoning. God doesn't leave these things to our imagination. He's already proved what he's going to do. He's already established what he's going to do. He continues to do it. That's another thing already done.

And preachers, oh, this ignorant generation and their ever-broadening imagination of how God's gospel comes to men. I heard a voice. If it was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, I might go along with you. But you're not going to just hear a voice. You're going to hear from a man. You're going to hear from God's preacher. Please God, through the foolishness of preaching, to save them, believe.

Now, Israel still had enemies living within what they called their inheritance. But they had knowledge of God's purpose, and they'd seen things that had already happened. So with confidence, they served the Lord. Confidence based on what? On what had already happened. And what's our confidence? Is it not based 100% on things already accomplished?

Sure it is. Sure it is. Oh, precious Father of Light, teach us something of your glory in things already done. that we might, from these things which are being done, serve Him and serve Him with confidence and hope. We've got a good hope. Good hope. I'm not hoping for things that haven't happened. I'm hoping based on things that's already happened. Things based on the word of God, on the word of His grace and His mercy. Oh, my soul, how privileged we ought to feel that we've heard these things. I'm telling you, I grew up hearing junk, religious junk. You know what junk will do for you?

It'll make you dance around in the aisle. It'll make you say things to make your daddy feel good or your mama feel good. That's what it'll do. You need an experience, it'll give you one. It'll give you one. And you'll hang on to it for the rest of your life. Oh, I remember back in 1948. You better remember what's going on right now. Right now. If God gives faith, that faith is continual. It'll just keep on going. Keep on going. These all died in faith.