Good morning, everybody. It's
an honor and a privilege to be here. It always is. Thank you
for having me. My text this morning is found
in the 21st chapter of Joshua, Joshua chapter 21. I believe
when I was here in November, I preached out of the book of
Joshua. We're studying that book at home chapter by chapter, and
it's been a great blessing to us there. The scriptures, the
Old Testament scriptures, are about Christ, just like the rest
of the Bible. It's all about Him. We say it
all the time, it's become a little cliché, but it's a hymn book.
It's about him, H-I-M. Look at verse 43, I'm going to
emphasize a few words here on purpose. Verse 43, Joshua chapter
21, And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware.
That word means solemnly promised with an oath. which he sware
to give unto their fathers, and they possessed it and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round
about, according to all that he sware, faithfully promised
unto their fathers. And there stood not a man of
all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand, and there fell not aught of any good
thing. which the Lord had spoken unto
the house of Israel, all came to pass." God is sovereign. That's what makes Him God. Not
long ago, I had a man in our church who's nearly 90 years
young. He asked me, David, why do you
always feel the need to accredit God with sovereignty? He said,
when I was a young believer, the name God qualified Him as
sovereign. Well, I sadly responded, not
anymore. Not anymore. So that's why we
add that adjective. We put that adjective sovereign
before the name of God to distinguish the God of the Bible from the
puny, weak, pathetic God of religion today. And this morning I'm flipping
through the channels, getting ready. You know, there they were,
as they are every Sunday morning. Preachers on there. It was a
shame. It's just a shame. It just saddens
my heart. It just breaks my heart to hear
how people rely on God. God is sovereign. We put that adjective before
His name because our God's different than the God that most men today
preach that religion promotes. Today, the God preached, He wants
to save. He's trying to save sinners. God? No. He's sovereign. He didn't try
to do anything. He didn't want to do anything.
The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Truly as I have fought,
so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand." Do you believe that? That's what God says about Himself. We better believe Him. I hear
men preach and declare that God's grace today is determined by
man's will, man's choice, and man's decision, not God's. That's
a lie. That's not true. And religion
doesn't like us to add that word, sovereign. I'll just quickly
tell you this. There's a so-called Christian
radio station at home, and we approached them about paying
to put a broadcast on the radio, and he said, I'd like to hear
one of your programs. I took it to him. Brother Gabe does
the intro for our radio program, and it says sovereign in there.
Welcome to a sovereign grace broadcast, or a sovereign grace
of God, preaching the sovereign grace of God, that's what it
said. And they said, oh, we can't hear your program. I said, why
not? He said, because you said sovereign. God is sovereign. There is no
other God. There is no other grace but sovereign
grace. If God don't intervene in the
heart of a sinner, they're bound for hell unless God divinely
intervenes and reveals Christ to them. No other kind of grace. No other
kind of God. to preach God being dependent
on the sinner, shame on me. The sinner must allow God to
save them and be gracious to them. They've got to let go and
let God. I went to a wedding a few years back in a big Baptist
church, and I don't know what they spent for the sign, but
it said, let go and let God. This is not just a difference
of opinion, this is deadly poison. Those who drink, it's going to
die. We don't make ourselves to differ, do we? Every child
of God will tell you that. Every true believer will tell
you, I didn't make myself to differ. God intervened in my
life. God knocked the door down. Not a difference of opinion,
no. who maketh thee a different from another. What do you have
you didn't receive? God gave it to you. And if you received
it, why do you glory in it as if you didn't receive it? I heard
a self-proclaimed preacher recently say, God has no hands but your
hands. It's by your hands that He blesses
the world. God has no feet but your feet.
And it's with your feet that God walks to do good. God has no eyes but your eyes,
and with them, that God sees and has compassion on the world.
Friends, if these things are so, then we don't have a God. Just an idol. Just a figment
of men's imagination. He's nothing more than that idol
that David defines in Psalm chapter 15. Hold your place here and
turn there with me. Psalm chapter 115. You know this passage well. No God but a sovereign God. No
grace but sovereign grace. In Psalm 115, verse 1, David
says, Not unto us. That ought to be a pretty good
clue to us who does the saving. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name give glory. For what? For Thy mercy and for
Thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where now is their God? David said, Our God's in the
heavens. He's done whatsoever He hath pleased. That means God's
sovereign. Then in verse 4, David immediately
begins to describe this little G-God of men's imaginations.
He said their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes they have, but they
see not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but
they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. And then David makes this distinction
and comes to this conclusion in verse 8. They that make them
are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusteth in them.
Do you know what that means? It means that this God of men's
imagination doesn't exist. He's dead. And those that trust
Him are just like Him, and they're dead too. But David said, not
our God. He makes a distinguishing comment
here. And we should. We should. A man
told me one time, he said, well, we're all just spokes in the
same wheel, and that center hub is Christ. And I'm like, no,
that wheel will not roll. It just won't. Not our God, David said, He's
in the heavens. He's doing whatsoever He's pleased.
Verse 16, he says, the heavens, even the heavens are the Lord's.
Verse 17, the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go
down into silence, but we, the chosen children of God, will
bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Why? Because
He is God. He's sovereign. And there's no
other word or adjective that we add today to the title believer. We have to add the word chosen
to it, because everybody's a believer. But the God of the Bible elected
a people before the foundation of the world, and He chose them,
and He called them by His grace, and He justified them. It's as
certain as you're certain of your name this morning. More
certain. More certain. Chosen. Chosen children of God. We have to distinguish. To preach
the truth of the Scripture, we've got to distinguish and qualify
who it is that does the saving. Did God save us or did we save
ourselves? The scripture's clear. Salvation
is of the Lord. Religion today teaches that God
made salvation possible for everyone and the sinner chooses and makes
the difference. You've heard it. Those who believe these things
pretty much base their thinking on one verse of scripture, John
3, 16. I heard it all my life. You know, I was thinking here
a while back, John 3.16 actually proves the opposite of that,
when you really look at it. It proves that if Christ didn't
die for everyone in the world, and if Christ died for everyone
in the world, then you know everyone's going to be saved, because there's
none for whom Christ died that will be lost. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and then God qualifies
who in the world is saved. Whosoever believeth in Him shall
not perish. That's who He came to save. Those
who believe in Him. So simple, we just read right
over it. God saves only those in the world
who believe in Christ. Who shall then be saved in the
world whosoever believeth in Him? They shall not perish. They shall have everlasting life.
Christ died for everyone in the world who believes. You want
to say it that way, that'd be correct. Their believing is not
the cause or the reason that Christ died for them. Their believing
is the result. One who's born dead and trespasses
in sin, in this pretty common sense, cannot do anything. Can't choose to believe, can't
make a decision, can't walk an aisle, can't raise a hand, say
a prayer, get in the baptismal water, join the church. No. They have to first be given life.
If you can take the first step, then you can walk all the way,
but the first step for a dead man is the impossible one. You've
got to be given life, and God has to give them life. And if
He gave this spiritual life to everyone, then everybody's going
to be saved. The Lord Jesus said, you've not
chosen me, but I've chosen you and I ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.
Sounds to me like God's in charge of the whole shooting match.
From beginning to end. You and I and no one else are
going to bear fruit of repentance or fruit of the Spirit or any
other kind of fruit unless God does for us what we cannot do
for ourselves. It's a sovereign God that has
mercy on whom He'll have mercy. And it has compassion on whom
He'll have compassion. And it's God Almighty who hardens
whom He'll harden. The true God of the Bible is
not popular today. And He's definitely not politically
correct. But yet everything that He does
is right. And He doesn't do what He does
because it's right. You've heard this said a thousand
times. It's right because He does it. Because he's sovereign,
he's in control. I had a friend one time that
was a big guy, like 6'8 or so, 350 pounds, and they called him
large and in charge. God's large and in charge. He's
in charge of everything. He's sovereign. He does what
He wills in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And none can say His hand, surely not puny man. None
can say His hand or say unto Him, God, what are You doing?
He's doing what He wants to do. And you might say, well, that
ain't the God that I know. Well, you better get ready to
deal with a God you don't know then. Because that's the God
of the Bible. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He. in heaven and in earth and seas and all deep places.
There's seven words. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he. Period. It's the end of the matter. I received a message last week
concerning a dear brother, a young man, because of health reasons,
has had to have a big part of his foot amputated. And he'll
be the first to tell you that God was the first cause of this. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, David said. Why? That I might learn thy statutes,
thy ordinances, your purpose, your providence. That's what
affliction brings to his people. It's what chastening is. I was recently informed that
a precious sister in Christ whom I love, love her family, just
informed she had incurable cancer. I don't know all the details. And she'll be quick to tell you
that God sent her that cancer. And it's for her good and for
God's glory. See, that's the way a child of
God thinks. God sent this. It's got to be
for my good. That's what he said. All things,
everything, works together for the good of them that love the
Lord, who are thee called according to His purpose. I love to say
it, God's out to do you good if you're in Christ. We distinguish
our great God as sovereign because He is. And God's got to reveal
that to you. Because only a sovereign can.
Paul wrote, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. That's
what being called by grace does. It reveals Christ to you. And
then Christ becomes your everything. Well, I don't worship Him like
I should, and you never will, and neither will I. But we ought
to be worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. All things are delivered unto
me and my Father, our Lord said. No man knoweth who the Son is
but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and to whom the
Son will reveal Him. Has God revealed His Son to you?
If He has, you know He's a sovereign Savior. He don't try to save
and He doesn't want to save. He saves. Successful cannot fail. The book of Revelation is not
a book about the end of times. It's not a book about Armageddon.
It's not a book about a thousand year reign or any other exaggerated
subject for that matter. The book of Revelation is just
what it says it is. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's about Him. It reveals to
us that Christ is Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end.
He's the first and the last. Which is and was and which is
to come. The Almighty. Sovereign. Christ is He that liveth and
was dead, and behold, is alive forevermore, and He has the keys
of hell and death. Who can have the keys to hell
and death? Only a sovereign. My, my, and it's Christ who the four
beasts cried, holy, holy, holy, and they threw their crowns down
before His throne. And it's Christ whom they'll
worship, He that liveth forever and ever. That's what the book
of Revelation is about. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, whom
they worship and say, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things. Who
creates all things? Only a sovereign God can. You
talk about a God that wants to save a wretched sinner, but the
sinner's got to let him. That's not God. Is that the same
one that spoke the worlds into existence? On and on and on. He's the sovereign
God who's saved by His sovereign grace. That's who this whole
book's about. And the child of God doesn't make any apologies
for using that adjective. I had someone try to convince
me otherwise by saying that, well, they said, well, the word
sovereign doesn't even appear in the Bible one time. I said,
it's all through it. Every word points to it. Only a sovereign God can bring
sinners to life. Well, sorry to be so slow to
get into our text, but I'll be brief on these verses. Look again
back to Joshua 21 with me. We see the sovereignty of God
very clearly in the first four words of verse 43. And the Lord
gave. Who gave? The Lord gave. For God so loved
His people and the world that He did what? He gave. It's the
Lord that gives. That's what makes Him sovereign.
He gave Baron Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Manoah's anonymous wife,
and Hannah, a child, the Lord gave it. The Lord gave Solomon
wisdom, 1 Kings 5.12. The Lord gave Israel a Savior,
2 Kings 13.5. Joel said the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Whether He gives or takes away, He's sovereign. Abraham's servant told Rebekah
and her family, and the Lord had blessed my master greatly,
and he's become great. And he, God, hath given him flocks,
and herds, and silver, and gold, and men's servants, and maid's
servants, and camels, and asses. And all that he has, he's given
to his son. It's God who gives understanding
to the heart, Job 38, 36. It's God who gives His counsel.
It's God who gives repentance, Ecclesiastes 3, 10. It's God
who gives life abundantly, John chapter 10. God does. It's His to give. It's God who
gives riches. Ecclesiastes 6.2. It's God who
gives knowledge. Jeremiah 11.18. It's God who
causes the rain and the sun to fall on the just and the unjust.
It's God who gives assurance. It's God who gives the Spirit. Just look in your concordance
sometimes. It's the Word gave. It's amazing. God's related to
it. He's the one that gives. And
most importantly, it's God who gave Himself. God's able to provide
for Himself a sacrifice, and God provides Himself as that
sacrifice. So the first thing we see is
that God is God that gives. Secondly, who did God give it
to? Again, verse 43, and the Lord gave unto Israel all the
land. He didn't give it to everybody. He gave it to Israel, His people.
He didn't give it to the whole world. He gave it to his people
in the world. The Lord said it's a father's
good pleasure to give you, those who believe, the kingdom. God
didn't give it to the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Hivites, the Jebusites. He actually took it from them
and gave it to his people. Paul wrote, "...who has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His purpose in grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began." If a sinner should ever have
anything, a dead... My pastor Marie, she always said,
dead, dog, sinner. Nothing dead, an old dog on the
side of the road. It's been run over. I'm not trying
to be graphic, but that's what we are. in the eyes of God by
nature. And if that offends you, I'm
sorry, but that's what God said. He said it about me too. The Lord gave unto Israel all
the land which He sware to give unto their fathers. He made a
covenant with Abraham. He swore to do so by an oath.
Genesis 12 said, And the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said,
Unto thy seed will I give this land. For all the land which
thou seest, to thee will I give it unto thy seed forever. God
promised this 450 years or so before. And the same day the Lord made
a covenant with Abraham, saying, unto thy seed have I given this
land, from the river of Egypt until the great river, the river
Euphrates. All of it, God gave it. Will
we ever learn it's God that gives? It's God that does what He promises.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
Why? For He's faithful. I sure wouldn't want to be standing
on my faithfulness. He's faithful to the promise,
Hebrews 10, verse 23. And then fourthly, those to whom
He gave it, being His people, He swore, promised, made an oath
to give it to their seed, and they most certainly received
it. Again, verse 43, And the Lord gave unto Israel all the
land which He swore to give unto their fathers, and they possessed
it and dwelt therein. Are you dwelling in Emmanuel's
land? Are we going to be like the Reubenites
and the Gaddites and the half-tribe of Manasseh and stay on the other
side of Jordan because our cattle thrives better there? Better
land to live in this earth? Are we going to cross Jordan
and trust Joshua, our Savior? In Christ we possess the inheritance
of our eternal dwelling place and we dwell therein. When God
gave Christ to us and us to Christ, all His became ours. His perfection,
His righteousness, His sinlessness. That's mine. That's yours. Quit looking at yourself and
look to Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. No hope outside of that. And
then fifthly, we see that it was the Lord who gave them rest. The Lord gave them rest round
about according to all that He sware, promised unto their fathers.
How can a sinner rest? Well, when can a sinner rest?
I know how a sinner can, only one way. But when can a sinner
rest? When their work's finished. Rest,
settle, quiet, calm, grounded. that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height of His mercy and love and grace.
That's what brings the believers rest, isn't it? Christ. And to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might
be filled with all the fullness of God. That's what gives the
sinner rest. Well, sixthly, the Lord gives
us deliverance from all our enemies. All of them. The last part of
verse 44 says, And there stood not a man of all their enemies
before them. The Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand. When can we rest? When we come
to the same place Israel did. When our work's finished, all
the enemies are defeated, God's delivered them to us. No more
enemies to fight, they've all been delivered into our hands.
There stood not a man before them that said, for Christ must
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, the Lord
Jesus Christ became flesh and blood, lived a perfectly righteous
life before God as a man, fulfilled the law, satisfied God's justice,
and gave His perfect righteousness to us. And that's why you can
stand before God in the day of judgment without any sin on you
whatsoever. And he says, well done, thy good
and faithful servant, he just called me. Yes, in Christ, you
better believe. That's how we rest. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord for as much as you know, your labor is not in vain. And it's not. We just keep on
keeping on. The eye on the prize of the high
calling in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's finished the work that God
gave Him to do. John 17, verse 4. That's how
we rest. Steadfast. Unmovable. Always
abounding in God's work. How can we do that? We can't. The work's finished. We don't
have to. Nothing for us to do. Just rest. Believe. Trust. Verse 45. There fell not aught
of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of
Israel, all came to pass. Who did these good things that
came to pass and come to pass? Who did He do them for in the
house of Israel? It was God that did them, a sovereign
God. For all the promises of God in
Him, in Christ, Yea, yes, and in Him, Christ, amen, so be. Unto the glory of God by us.
It's God that's faithful, it's promised. Now you've got some
big shoulders to lean upon. God cannot fail. He cannot fail. May the Lord continue to give
us grace to look to Him, Him alone, trust in Him. Don't look
within, look to Him. Look and live. Those that look
to Christ high and lifted up, they're the ones that live. Thank
you again for having me. The congregation is wonderful.
So many good friends here. It's always good to see you.
Good crowd. Thank you for coming out. I appreciate
it. you