All right, if we can turn to
Deuteronomy 34. Nothing will humble a man more
than being given this charge. And I pray that the Lord will
bless this, that He's given us a word for His people, for His
sheep, and that I can get out of the way of it and we can just
Listen to Christ, listen to God, and that he'll bless his people.
We need to pray for our pastors. So today's lesson, we're going
to look at the death of Moses, representing the law and giving
way to Joshua, who's a picture of Christ. Hopefully we'll see
through this lesson where Christ provides that double cure that
we sing about in the song, Rock of Ages, that Joshua is a picture
of Christ, saves from wrath and makes us pure. So starting chapter 34 of Deuteronomy,
we see that the Lord sent Moses up on the mountain and showed
him the promised land. but told him that he wasn't going
to go in. And in verse four we see, And the Lord said unto him, This
is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, unto Jacob,
saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see
it with thine eyes, but that shall not go thither. So Moses, the servant of the
Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word
of the Lord. and he buried him in the valley
in the land of Moab over against Bethpora. But no man knoweth
his sepulcher unto this day." So the first thing that we're
going to see in this lesson is that Moses, whom we've all been
taught time and again, represents the law. That Moses, as the law,
could not take his people into the Promised Land. And the reason that he couldn't
take his people into the promised land is that the law reveals
our sin. The law can't save us because
we're imperfect through the flesh. Even Moses, as a picture of the
law, was in that flesh. And back in Numbers 27, we see
that instead of looking to Christ, the rock for that water, he looked
to his own works, he looked produce his own salvation, and he struck
that rock a second time. God had told him to speak to
the rock, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he, looking
to his own works, struck that rock a second time in that weakness
of the flesh. And because of that, God said,
you're not going into the promised land. So the first thing we see
in that, though, is that That sin that Moses had when he struck
that rock the second time, it's got the same root as all of our
sin. And that root is man thinking
more of himself than he is, man trying to make gods of themselves
and trying to steal God's glory by providing their own salvation
instead of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can see
that if we go back into Genesis 3, verses 4 and 5. That's the
appeal that Satan made to Adam and Eve. And the serpent said
unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know
that in the day ye thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. So we see that
root of sin. of man thinking more of himself
than he is, thinking less of God than he is, and trying to
save himself, trying to steal the glory that God has given
to our Lord Jesus Christ in saving sinners. The next thing that we see is
that the law reveals our sin. And I just want to just read
a few scriptures. You all are very familiar with
these scriptures. We've, we've been taught these through the
years, but just to read through a few scriptures to back up what
I'm saying about the law, revealing our sin in Romans three 20, we
read therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. Then in Matthew 5, 21 and 22,
Christ himself tells us of our inability to keep the law. Christ
says, And you know, we read that and
natural man says, well, I wasn't angry at my brother without cause.
He, he deserved that. He did something to me. He, he
slighted me. That's why I was angry. That's
like two maggots arguing over who slighted each other. We're,
we're all guilty. If we think that someone has
slighted us and deserves our anger, we don't have a very good
view of ourselves. I mean, we, it's, They're no
different than us. They deserve our wrath no more
than we deserve God's wrath, no less than we deserve God's
wrath. Then one more scripture on that,
if we could turn to Galatians 2, verse 16. You know, we've read that the
law reveals our sin. Well, how then can men be saved? We can see that in Galatians
2 verse 16. Knowing that man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by works of the law, for by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So then we see
that our only hope of salvation is the faithfulness of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The person and work of Christ,
what he accomplished, that double cure that he provided for us
is our only hope of salvation. The next thing I wanted to look
at is that death of Moses. When Moses died, that signified
that the law had fulfilled its purpose. But it's interesting
if we look at that, We go to verses, verse seven of Deuteronomy
34. It says, and Moses was 120 years
old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated. So here we see that the law never
lost its power. Moses didn't die because he was
weak. The law is not weak. Moses died
because he had fulfilled his purpose, the purpose that God
gave him of leading his children out of Egypt and taking them
right to the borders of the promised land. In 1 Samuel 16.7, we see,
talking about the eye not being dim, we can see that we cannot
hide our sin. from the eyes of the Lord because
God looks on the heart. He doesn't look on the outward
countenance. You and I can clean ourselves up pretty well. We
can make people think that we're not sinners because we're just
men looking at men. But 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 says,
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance or
on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For
the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. We've all got that
sin in our hearts. That sin from our father Adam,
that sin from our own unright looking at ourselves, we're full
of that sin. And God sees it. We can't hide
from it. And the power of the law doesn't
go away. As long as sin remains, The power
of the law is going to be there. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 56,
we see the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin
is the law. God's law causes our sin to result
in death. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. We need a substitute. And this death of Moses shows
that before Joshua could lead Israel into the Holy Land, into
the promised land, that Moses had to die. Just as before God
saves his children, they must die to the law and the law must
die to them. And that happens in the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Joshua. When Christ died, we died in
Him. We came dead to the law, and the law became dead to us.
He fulfilled the law for us, and in Him, we're finally free
from the power of the law. We can see that in Romans chapter
seven. If we look in Romans chapter
seven, verse four, we have Christ, or we, Romans chapter 7 verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So it's in that death
of Christ on the cross, putting away our sin, making it no more
by enduring the wrath of God for our sin that we're made dead
to the law. And that had to happen before
salvation. If we look again back in Deuteronomy
34 verse eight, we see just how much men by nature love the law. And the children of Israel wept
for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. So the days of weeping
and mourning for Moses were ended. Men, by nature, think that they
can follow that law to salvation. And we are so tied up to it that
we weep for that law. When we can't fulfill that law,
when we see that the law can't save us, we weep. We don't want to let go of that
law by nature. And then one final thought on
the death of Moses. Deuteronomy 34, verse 12. Well, we can go ahead and read
the rest, starting at verse 9. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was
full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands
upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and
it is the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet
since in Israel like unto Moses, and the Lord knew face to face.
And then in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him
to do into the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to his servants
and to all his land and all that mighty hand and all the great
terror which Moses showed in the sight of Israel. So here
we see that Moses showed forth the power of God as he led the
people out of Egypt. But the last great terror that
God showed the people of Israel through the death of Moses is
that the law can't save us. The soul that sins is going to
die. Moses didn't look to Christ.
Moses looked to himself. And because of that, he couldn't
go into the promised land. So all these mighty works that
God showed us through Moses, the very last lesson that he
gave is that We can't save ourselves. We need a substitute. We need
a savior. Man can't follow the law into
the promised land. So that's kind of a sad story
up to that point, isn't it? But thank God that we're not
left without a hope. God provided one, Joshua, who
could lead his children into the promised land. And I want
to now focus the rest of this lesson on how Joshua is a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the very first thing that
we see when we look at Joshua is the obvious thing that him
and Christ have the same name. We've been taught before the
Old Testament name Joshua is the same as the New Testament
name Jesus. And if there's not a clearer picture, I don't know
what is. God is telling us this is a picture of what Christ is
gonna do for us. And scripture makes much of that
name. Let me just read through some scriptures real quick as
we talk about the name Jesus. Matthew 1.21 says, And she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And in Acts 4.12, Neither is
there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." I
like that word must. It's not we will be saved, we
shall be saved. Christ must save his people. God must save, if Christ died
for one, that sin's put away, and God's not gonna punish that
sin again. God can't be God and punish that sin a second time.
We must be saved in Christ. If we're in him, we must be saved.
Philippians 2 verses 9 through 11. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. And then one more scripture,
Romans 10 verse 13, for whosoever, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. So we can see right off the bat
that there's much to this name, Joshua. But as I was studying
this, I found something that I didn't realize. Perhaps you
knew this. I would say that several of you
knew this. But Joshua received that name
from Moses. Joshua wasn't his name when he
was born. His name was Oshei or Hosea,
son of Nun. We can see that in Numbers 13,
verse eight. We see that his name is Hosea. Numbers 13, and of the tribe
of Ephraim, Hosea, son of Nun. Then we see in Numbers 13 verse
16, These are the names of the men
which Moses sent to spy on the land. And Moses called Hosea,
the son of Nun, Joshua. That was interesting to me. From what I've been able to discern
from studying, his name originally meant salvation. That sounds
like a pretty good name. for the person that's gonna lead
us to the promised land, for the person who's going to save,
salvation. But you know, there are a lot
of people out there preaching salvation through the works of
men. Moses, the law changed his name
to Joshua. That name means Jehovah is salvation. So here we see in that name,
Joshua, that even the law is telling us You can't save yourselves. There's no salvation outside
of Jehovah. God is salvation. Salvation is
a person. Salvation is Jesus Christ. So
I thought that was very interesting. Then in Deuteronomy 34, let's
go back there again. Verse 9, we see that Joshua,
the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. That's that
same spirit of wisdom that Christ is full of. In Isaiah 11, verses
1 and 2, we read, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. That spirit of wisdom
is the knowledge that God saves, that we don't save ourselves,
that if you want to look for wisdom in this world, that's
it, that we cannot save ourselves, that we're not high and mighty
like we think we are. If you are given that spirit
of that wisdom, that salvation is in Christ, you're going to
be given humility. You're going to be given the
ability to look to Christ for all things. That's the beginning
of wisdom. Then we see that Joshua is a
shepherd. He's going to go before the people
and lead God's sheep. If you would turn to Numbers
27, I want to look back in Numbers 27, where God told Moses that
he wasn't going to go, that he wouldn't enter the promised land.
If we go to Numbers 27, verses 13 and 14, Well, we can start with verse
12. And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee up into this Mount Abram
and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.
And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy
people as Aaron, thy brother, was gathered. He's going to die
just like Aaron did. For he rebelled against my commandment
in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to
sanctify me at the water before their eyes. That is the water
of Meribah and Kadesh. in the wilderness of Zen. So
God tells Moses that because of his sin, because he didn't
look to the Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't look to the rock, that
he's not gonna enter the promised land. Immediately after that,
Moses asked the Lord to set a man over the congregation, that he
might go before them and take them into the promised land.
in that picture, or that man is Joshua, a picture of Christ.
Let's continue reading in verses 15 through 17. And Moses spake
unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits
of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, a man which
may go out before them and which may go in before them and which
may lead them out and which may bring them in that the congregation
of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. So there we see that Moses is
asking the Lord to give the people a shepherd. And if there's no
better picture of Christ, the good shepherd. We know when we
hear that shepherd that it's referring to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's go and look and just read in John chapter 10 verses 11
through 16 and see Christ talking about that good shepherd. John chapter 10, Christ is talking
to us and he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. But he that is in hireling and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth
them, and scattereth the sheep. A hireling fleeth, because he
is in hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd, and I know my sheep, and none of mine. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. And other sheep have I, which
are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."
So when we see By the grace of God, Moses, praying God, give
his people a shepherd to lead them in, to lead them out, to
take them to that promised land. What a blessed picture that is
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That shepherd is also going in
and going out. That's also pictured, if you
will, with Melchizedek. Christ, Joshua, is our forerunner
into glory, that he's going to go in before us. He's going to
lead us in. He's the forerunner into the
veil. Hebrews 6, verse 20, we read,
whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made
in high praise forever after the order of Melchizedek. Here
we see that he goes before, Christ went before us into glory, just
as Joshua is going to go before and lead the people into the
promised land. Then God gives the response in
Numbers 27, verses 18 through 20. And the Lord said unto Moses,
take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit,
and lay thine hand upon him, and set him before Eleazar the
priest, and before all the congregation, and give him a charge in their
sight. And thou shalt put some of thine
honor upon him, that all the congregation of the children
of Israel may be obedient." So in that scripture, there are
several things that I would like to point out there. First of
all, We see that Joshua, picturing Christ, isn't just a man, that
he has the spirit of God in him. Jesus Christ is both man and
God. So he's got that dual nature
there where we see that he's got that spirit. He's also set
before the priest and the congregation. That's a picture of a sacrifice. That's what was done with the
sacrifice. They were set before the priests
in the congregation, just as Jesus Christ was made a sacrifice
for the sin of his people. And then we see that he's given
a charge by Moses. Moses, as we know, represents
the law. So here we see Jesus Christ being made sin for his
people. Our sin was charged by the law
to him. He took his sins, our sins, and
his body on the tree. And he stood up to that charge,
and he suffered the death of that charge. And then we see
that some of Moses' honor was put upon him. That pictures Christ as the only
man who ever honored the law. Christ honored the law in two
ways. We talked about that earlier, that double cure, Christ the
God-man is the only man who ever honored the law completely. He
fulfilled it completely, establishing a righteousness for his people.
He honored the law by fulfilling it completely, and the children
of Israel, we read, became obedient when the honor of the law, when
some of Moses' honor was put on Joshua. We became obedient
in Christ when he honored that law. Christ also honored the
law by enduring the punishment of the sin of his people. Christ bore the wrath of the
law for spiritual Israel, and all our disobedience is put away
in him. There's only one man who was
ever obedient to the law, who fully honored God's law, both
establishing righteousness and suffering the death due for breaking
that law, and that was our Lord Jesus Christ. The next thing I saw in that
scripture, though, was Moses laying his hands on Joshua. And
when we think of laying hands on, especially in the context
of church or religion, you know, our our traditions kind of make
us think that you're, we're laying your hands on someone in order
to ordain them. And in a sense, that's what Moses
was doing before the people, you know, he was laying his hands
on showing the authority that I had over you is being given
to Joshua. Just like the authority that
the law was had over us is now passed on to Jesus Christ who
fulfilled that law for us. Thinking of Christ as being a
picture of the eternal God, inordination isn't really necessary. I'm sorry,
of Joshua being a picture of Christ, the eternal God, he doesn't
need inordination. He was the lamb slain before
the foundation of the earth. So I started looking at that,
and when I hear laying hands on somebody, the first thing
that went through my mind was, when I was younger and I did
something wrong and mom would say, wait till your father gets
home and wait till your dad gets his hands on you. One of the
meanings of laying hands on someone is to get a hold of someone with
punishment or harm as a goal. Okay, well, that's what I thought
of, but what does God's word say about that? So I did some
searching and the first place that I found in the Bible, that
uses that expression is in Genesis 22. So let's all turn to Genesis
22 verses 9 through 13. And this blessed me when I saw this. Genesis 22 verse 9. And they
came to the place which God had told them of, and Abraham built
an altar there. and laid the wood in order and
bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay
his son. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
here am I. And the angel of the Lord said,
lay not thine hand upon the lad. Neither do thou anything unto
him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast
not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.' And Abraham lifted
up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in
a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son." So here we see the first time in the Bible that it talks
about laying hands on someone. It's referring to laying hands
on them as a sacrifice, that they're going to be sacrificed
before the Lord. To me, that is a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I went and I looked further
in Genesis 37, verse 22, that laying hands signifies shedding
of blood. when Joseph's brothers were sought
to kill him. And Reuben said unto them, shed
no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness
and lay no hand upon him. Don't shed that blood. Don't
kill them. Don't kill him. So we see that
laying hands signifies a sacrifice, signifies the shedding of blood.
Moses the law laid his hands upon Joshua. Then I also went a little bit
further. I found in Exodus. Let's turn
over there. Exodus 7 verse 4. Yes, Exodus 7 verse 4. But Pharaoh shall not hearken
unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine
armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of
Egypt by great judgments. There we see Egypt representing
sin and God ordained that he would bring forth his children
out of their sin by laying hands with a great judgment. That great
judgment is our sin being laid on our Lord Jesus Christ and
God in judgment killing his son because he cannot look on sin. Sin is not going to enter into
glory. There's no place in heaven for sin. The soul that sins must
surely die. And in our substitute, God had
that great, great judgment for his people. Then one more scripture in Leviticus
16, 21 through 22, we read of the Lord ordaining a sin offering
of two goats that signified the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who
is both God and man. One goat was killed and the other
had hands laid on him to put the sins of Israel on him and
was born away. We can read And Aaron shall lay
both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all
their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of
a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he
shall let go the goat in the wilderness. So there we see that
laying of hands is a sacrifice, that laying of hands is the shedding
of blood, that laying of hands is God punishing sin in Jesus
Christ for his people. And we see that that laying of
hands is transferring those sins, the sins of the people, on to
the Lord Jesus Christ and having them taken away. As far as the
East is from the West, they're never going to see each other
again. They're gone. So That has shown us the picture
of Christ, our substitute, bearing the wrath of God. But if we continue
reading in Joshua, we'll see that not only does Joshua picture
God saving us from wrath, but he pictures Christ making us
pure and establishing a righteousness for his people. Let's look at
Joshua chapter one. And let's go ahead and skip down
to verse 6 through 9. God's told Joshua that he's going
to lead the people into the promised land. And then he tells Joshua, Be
strong and of good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide
for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to
give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou
mayest observe to do according to the law which Moses my servant
commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the
left, that thou mayest prosper with whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but
thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe
to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou
shalt make thy way Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have a good success. Have I not commanded
thee, be strong and be of good courage, be not afraid, neither
be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, wheresoever
thou goest." If there's not a clearer picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
establishing a righteousness for his people, I don't know
what it would be. That reference to Joshua there
describes our Lord Jesus Christ. No man ever kept the law perfectly
other than Christ Jesus the Lord. The instruction that God gives
Joshua of how the people are going to be saved is exactly
what Christ accomplished. He came and he lived a perfect,
sinless life for his people. died on the cross imputing that
righteousness to them. And now we can be seen before
God as righteous in Him. Christ said in Matthew 5, verses
17 through 18, think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall and no wise pass
from the law till all be fulfilled. Jesus Christ fulfilled that law
perfectly for his people. Now we know that we were, we're
all sinners. We've all come short of the law. You know, let's, Get personal
here. I've had enough sin in this message
to send me to hell a hundred times over, whether it's pride
or insecurity or whatever you want to call it. We're sinners. I'm a sinner. I need salvation. There's salvation in no one else
but our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us look to Him to provide
everything that we need to save us from the wrath that we know
we deserve and to give us that righteousness that we know we
could never earn ourselves. We are made so completely righteous
in our Lord Jesus Christ that God refers to us His bride is
the very righteousness of God. We've seen that several times.
Our pastor has pointed this out, and it's been one of my favorite
scriptures ever since he first pointed that out to us. In Jeremiah
23, verse six, it says, in his days, Judah shall be saved and
Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name, whereby
he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. But then as
we go forward a little bit more in scripture, come to Jeremiah
33, verses 15 and 16, we read, in those days and at that time,
I will cause a branch of righteousness to grow up unto David and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah
shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness."
I pray that God would use this clay pot, this stammering message
to cause us to look to our Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. for
that double cure that he might cause us to run to him, to cling
to him, to know just the glimpse of our sin and our utter helplessness
outside of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might call on him to save us from wrath and make us
pure.