I like that course and other
courses that we have, and one reason I like for us to sing
courses is because you don't have to look at the words, and
you can sing better when you don't have to look down at a
book. Let us turn in our Bibles today
to the book of Joshua chapter 1. Joshua chapter 1. Now 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, unto 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 river Euphrates, all
the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, toward the
going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not
any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail
thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage,
for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the
land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Oh, only
be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all the law, which Moses, my servant, commanded
thee. Turn not from it to the right
hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper 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 prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be
strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with
thee, whithersoever thou goest. I want to speak to us this morning
primarily from those words in verse nine, neither be thou dismayed. Neither be thou dismayed. That's been on my heart this
past week and I prepared this message for us here this morning.
But before we come to the text, there are two truths that I want
to point out to us in this passage that we have read. First of all,
God's work marches on. God's work marches on. Moses,
the servant of the Lord that God had used to lead Israel out
of Egypt, was now dead, as this text tells us, now after the
death of Moses, the servant of the Lord. He was now dead, and
the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, they were not in the
land of promise. He, by God's grace and power
and purpose, had delivered them out of Egypt, yes. But now he
was dead, and the people were not in the land of promise. I
thought about these words in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah
is one of the minor prophets, and he asked this question, speaking,
of course, for God. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live
forever? Couldn't those questions, rhetorical
questions, couldn't those questions be asked to the nation of Israel
here? As they were out of Egypt, yes,
they were in the wilderness, but not in the land of promise. Your fathers, where are they?
They're dead. They're dead. They had died in
the wilderness, all except two men. Joshua and Caleb, that were
above 20 years of age when they came out of Egypt. Where are
your fathers? And the prophets, do they live
forever? Now in that passage, the reason
it came to my mind, your fathers, where are they? And the prophets,
do they live forever? But that's not the end, but my
words. but my words. Yes, your fathers
died in the wilderness. Yes, the great prophet Moses
is dead, but my words, the word of God, the word of God, as the
scripture says, abides forever. God's word is settled in heaven
and God's purpose will always be accomplished. Here they were,
still in the wilderness. Had God's purpose changed? Their
fathers were dead. The prophet was dead. Of course
not. God's purpose doesn't change
because God himself never changes. One of the wonderful attributes
of God, characteristics of our God, the God of the Bible, is
not only that He is all-knowing and all-powerful and in all places
at the same time, but He never changes. And yes, they were not
in the land of promise, but God's purpose had not changed. And
I want you to look over a few pages into chapter 21, Joshua
chapter 21. Verse 43. Moses, or Joshua rather speaking. The Lord gave unto Israel all
the land 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 unto their fathers. And
there stood not a man of all their enemies before them. The
Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed
not, now notice this, there failed not ought of any good thing which
the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel. It all came
to pass. It all came to pass. God's work marches on. And many times we get dismayed
because God takes one of his servants and it seems like sometimes
there are not any of God's men being raised up to preach the
gospel. But I can assure all of us here
this morning, God's purpose is never thwarted. It's never overthrown. It never does not come to pass
that he is working all things, as the scripture says, after
the counsel of his own will, always at all times. And everything is, is right on
time. Everything is going. as God had
determined and purposed. God's work marches on. And then
a second thing is before we come to the text this morning, Joshua
is a type of Christ. Now, you're familiar that many
times in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, the
scriptures speak of me. And one way the scriptures speak
of Christ from the beginning all the way through, before he's
actually born here of the Virgin Mary, is in the types and the
shadows and the pictures that are given in the Old Testament.
And Joshua is a type of Christ. He serves as a type of Christ
in two ways, at least. His name. His name, Joshua, Jehovah
saves. And that's the name of Jesus. In Matthew 1, in verse 21, the
angel told Joseph, thou shalt call his name, Jesus, Jehovah
saves, same word, words rather, Jehovah saves. You know the King
James translators in Hebrews chapter four, at one point they
put the word Jesus when it should have been Joshua. It should have
been Joshua. Why did they do that? Because
the name is the same. Joshua serves as a type of Christ,
first of all, by his name. Jehovah saved. Salvation is of
the Lord. That's not a new teaching. That's
not a new doctrine. That's been the teaching of the
Word of God from the very beginning. No one has ever been saved who
God didn't save. No one has ever saved himself
or partially saved himself or some way brought salvation to
himself. God saves whom he will. He said to Jacob, have I loved? Esau, have I hated? So then it's
not of him that run it, but of him that showeth mercy. Mercy. Jehovah saves. And then notice
here a second way that Joshua is a type of Christ. If you notice
in verse one, it says, now, after the death of Moses, the servant
of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua,
the son of Nun. And notice Moses, minister, Moses,
minister. Now Moses, of course, stands
for the law. God had given the law, that old
covenant, through Moses to the nation of Israel. Joshua was
the law, Moses minister. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
in this world, born of a woman. That's what Paul says in Galatians,
right? Born of a woman, made of a woman. but made under the law. He was
made under the law. In other words, he became obedient
to the law and he obeyed God's law perfectly. The law of God
demands that we love him, we love God. with all our heart,
all our soul, all our mind, all our being, and we love our neighbor
as ourself. You haven't done that. I haven't
done that. Neither has any other son of
Adam. We're fallen creatures. But the
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world made of a woman. And Paul
in Romans said, made in the likeness Now listen, made in the likeness,
Romans 8, of sinful flesh. He had no sin. He had no sin
of his own because he was the seed of the woman, yes. But if
you hadn't seen him, if you had been alive at that time, he looked
like the other man. He didn't look any different
from Peter or James or John. He didn't have a halo above his
head or anything like that. No, Paul said he was made in
the likeness of sinful flesh. He doesn't say he was made sinful
flesh because he had no sin of his own, but he was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, made under the law. And what was he
doing? What was he doing? His obedience
to the law. He was obeying the law for his
people. In fact, we in union with him
obeyed God's law perfectly. That's that righteousness, that
righteousness of God that allows God to be both just and the justifier
of all who believe in Christ. Now let's go on to the text. I want you to notice that three
times in these nine verses, God told Joshua, be strong and courageous. Look at that in verse six. Be
strong and of a good courage. Verse seven, only be thou strong
and very courageous. Verse nine, have not I commanded
thee? Be strong and of a good courage. But the last time, the third
time in verse nine, when he spoke those same words, he also said,
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. As we look at this
verse this morning, I want us to do so asking three questions. First of all, what does it mean
to be dismayed? What does it mean to be dismayed?
Well, if you look the word up in the dictionary, as I did,
I found that the word in my dictionary
is an old dictionary, 1828, Noah Webster's 1828 edition. And this is the way it defined
the word dismay. To deprive of that strength,
or firmness of mind which constitutes courage. In other words, to not
be dismayed is the opposite of being strong and of a good courage. That's the command, be strong
and of a good courage, and just the opposite of that is for a
person to be dismayed. We've been dismayed many times.
We know that, and I'll come to that in just a minute. But second,
the second question is, may this word, may this word, which is
a command and a promise, we'll see, may it be applied to us. It was issued to Joshua directly
to him Well, there are some specifics in this passage that can only
apply to Joshua. They don't apply to us. I had
a friend years ago, and he was engaged in starting a new church.
And they were looking for a piece of property to buy for a location
to locate the church building there. And he took this verse,
in verse three, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread
upon, that have I given unto you. And he went out there, he
told me one night, he said, I walked all around that property. We
found that property. And he said, I walked all around
that property claiming that in the name of the Lord. Did they
get that property? No. No. That was a specific word
to Joshua. It really was. And then in verse
6, when he speaks about dividing
the property, the land of Israel. Be strong and of a good courage,
for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the
land. Now that doesn't apply to you,
it doesn't apply to me. That was a specific word to Joshua,
yes. But what about this word, be
strong or be not afraid and be not dismayed. Does that command
and promise apply to you and apply to me? Absolutely. Absolutely. You say, how do you
know that? Well, there's two reasons I know
this command applies to us. First of all, because in the
New Testament, in Hebrews chapter 13, the writer there He quotes
part of this verse. Now he's warning believers about
covetousness and being content with such things as you have.
It reads like this. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have For he
hath said, and he quotes this verse. He quotes this verse. So I know this word applies to
you and applies to me because the New Testament writer quotes
it. And a second reason, the reason
that Joshua was not to be afraid and not to be dismayed is true
of you. If you are a child of God, it's
true of you, it's true of me. Notice the text again, if you
will, verse nine. Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed. Far, far. Why? Should we be of a good courage? Why should we be strong? Why
should we not be afraid? Why should we not be dismayed?
For, here's the reason why, for the Lord thy God is with thee,
whithersoever thou goest. Well, that's true of you if you're
a child of God. That's true of every child of
God, isn't it? Remember our Lord, the last words
almost in the Gospel according to Matthew are, and lo, I am
with you till the end of the ages. And then in John 14, the
Lord told his disciples, and it applies to all of us, I will
pray the Father, and he shall send thee another comforter,
that he may abide with thee forever. Yes, this does apply to each
and every one of us. Now, my third point and third
question is this. What might cause a person to
be dismayed? What might cause a person to
be dismayed? And I want to say a word, first
of all, to the unsaved. I know I know this verse is to
the saved, I understand that. But I don't want to preach a
message and not speak a word to those who are here this morning
without Christ. And I asked myself this question.
What might cause an unbeliever to be dismayed? There are several reasons. But
I thought of this one. Suppose a person has attended
the services and they've heard the preacher preach and they
say something like this. I heard you and I've heard other
preachers use the word election. I've heard you say something
about God choosing a people from before the foundation of the
world. And that just causes me dismay. Am I one of God's elect? Am I one that he chose before
the foundation of the world in Christ? That would cause a lost
person maybe to be dismayed, wouldn't it? Sure it would. Yes. But I say unto you this
morning, those words which you have heard, elect, election,
God choosing a people in Christ before the foundation of the
world. The reason you've heard the preacher use those words
and use those terms, the reason you've heard that is because
it's scriptural. He's just preaching the word
of God. And if you listen to a preacher, call himself a preacher,
a man can call himself anything he wants to. But if you listen
to a man, he's supposedly preaching, and you never hear him talk about
election, you'd best leave that man alone. Because he's not rightly
dividing the word of truth. He's not declaring the whole
counsel of God, as we are commanded to do. But if a person would
be here this morning, and you might be dismayed because of
those things, let me ask you this. You've heard that word, but have
you also heard this word? When the Lord Jesus commanded
His church, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. Have you heard that? You are
a creature, are you not? Well, God command, his command
is to preach the gospel to every creature. And have you heard
this word where the apostle Paul wrote, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. You are a sinner, are you not?
Are you not? You can't deny that, can you? And have you heard this word,
where the scriptures almost close with this word, and whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely. Are you willing? Are you willing to be saved freely? Oh, no. Oh, no. I've got to do
my part. You'll never be saved like that.
Oh no! Do you hear God's word? Whosoever
shall take the water of life freely. Freely! The only thing that you contribute
is the sinner. You are a sinner. I am a sinner. But the saving work is God's
work. It's Christ's work. And he said,
whosoever believeth on me hath everlasting life. Hath. Well, let's go on. Now to the
saved. But I had to say that. And I
wanted to say that. And I don't ever want to preach
a message in this place or any other place that I don't speak
to the lost. After all, that's one of our
purposes in being here, isn't it? To reach the lost. God help
us. God help us not to just cumber
the ground. Just exist as a church and go
through the motions. But God give us a burden for
the lost. Help us to see. help us to see
the awful plight of a person who's lost, a person who dies
and goes out of this world without Christ. Our Lord told some men one day,
he said, except you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. You will die in your sins. Nothing
worse than that. Nothing worse than dying in your
sins without a savior, without a sacrifice, without a righteousness
that pleases God. Let's move on to the saved. What
might cause a saved person to be dismayed? And I've got four
things I'll go through rapidly, but first of all, Losing a spiritual
battle. Losing a spiritual battle. Now
we know, because we're familiar with the word of God, that Joshua,
just a few chapters on, he became dismayed when the people of Ai,
just a very small city, small town, when they defeated the
armies of Israel. He became dismayed. A child of
God is struggling with some particular sin. Maybe it's lust. Maybe it's
covetousness. Maybe it's pride. Maybe it's
envy. Any one of the innumerable evils
that we are capable of and maybe we're struggling with this particular
sin and we think by the grace of God we've overcome it. We've
got the victory. And then we fall. And then we
fall. And sure enough, we're guilty
of doing what we thought we had the victory over. That caused
a person to be dismayed. But remember this, as I said,
Joshua, he was dismayed when the army of Israel was defeated. But that was just one battle.
That wasn't the war. That was just one battle in the
war. But overall, they won the victory. And yes, as a child
of God, because we know that we still have a nature that has
fallen, we have a new nature, yes, that loves God, that loves
the things of God, but we still have an old nature that pulls
us, drags us down, and many times we're dismayed. But remember
this, victory's coming. Victory's coming. Fight on. Or as our brother the other night
told us, soldier on. Soldier on. Fight on. Be strong. Be of good courage. Be not afraid. The day's coming. when you'll be
done with sin forever and ever. A second thing, disappointment
because of others. This causes believers sometimes
to be dismayed. Disappointment because of others. And I thought, how many parents,
how many parents do I know and have I spoken to over the years
who are dismayed Because for some of them, when their children
were young, they had them under the gospel. They prayed for them
and continued to pray for them. But now they're older and seemingly
they've gone on and left God and left the word of God and
left the way of God. They've just gone on. Be not dismayed. Be not dismayed. You know, Charles Spurgeon told
the story of a man in his congregation back in the 1800s, a very godly
man, he said. He had two sons. And his two sons,
when they got up old enough, of course, they left home and
left their dad behind, went out to make their own way in the
life and in the world, rather, and they became Unconcerned about
their souls and had no interest in the gospel. And they got word,
both of these boys got word that their dad was dying. And so they
came home to be with him and help him. And his dad struggled
in death. He struggled greatly as he was
taken out of this world. And you know God used that. Those
two sons watched their father die. And they reasoned, I know
it's the work of God, the Holy Spirit, but they reasoned to
themselves, if our father, who served God, who loved God, if
he had such a struggle in dying, what's gonna happen to us? What's
gonna be our lot? We show no interest, we have
no interest, no concern for our soul. What's it gonna be like
for us when that time comes? And Charles Spurgeon said that
both of those young men were converted as a result of seeing
their father die. And my word is be not dismayed,
be not afraid, be not dismayed. We don't know what the Lord may
do, The old-time preachers, they used to use a term, putting your
children to bed in the dark. Now, we live in a modern day,
and we've learned a little bit. You young parents here, you've
learned a whole lot. You're such good parents. You
wouldn't put your child to bed in the dark, but evidently that
was something people used to do to chastise their children,
put them to bed in the dark. You know, God sometimes puts
his children to bed in the dark. Now, we all want to go through
that valley of the shadow of death, and he's with us. We know
that. He's not gonna forsake us. But
we don't know exactly how it's going to be. I pray for myself,
and I hope you do as well. that in my death that I will
honor God. However it comes, whatever God's
purpose for me, that it'll be in such a way that God will be
honored and glorified. And that's the way we want to
live, isn't it? Whatsoever you do, in word or deed, do all to
the glory of God. We want to do all for the glory
of God in our life, and yes, even in our death. A third thing, a frowning providence. Now, people don't talk like that
anymore. A frowning providence. What's
that? Well, it might be sickness. You
know, God keep you healthy. God can take you through this
world. If it's his will, you never suffer even a cold. But
he may let you have cancer. a frowning providence. God's
children are not exempt from these sicknesses, are they? That'd
cause a person dismay. Financial reversals. Some of
God's children have been dismayed like that. Their ships went out
full, but came back empty. Scripture speaks about silver
having wings and flying away. Many men and women, you know,
they have all their plans. They've got all their retirement
figured out. And yes, sir, everything's going
to be okay. It's amazing to me that people
will make all these plans for what may never happen. You may
not live to retirement, but make no plans for death. And that's something you will
experience, I will experience, all of us. People say, well,
I've got my funeral arrangements, I've got all that taken care
of, I got a lot out there in the cemetery, already picked
out my coffin. I've got all these things, got
my insurance policies, But what about your soul? Have you made
any preparation for eternity? You remember that hymn, God Moves
in Mysterious Ways? One of a couple of those lines,
judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his
grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. Amen. Amen. God's good, and good to his children. I know that's so. I know that's
so. Why? Because I'm a father, and
I know other fathers, and fathers want to be good to their children. Oh, there's some outliners who
are not. That's true. But I know my heavenly
father, behind frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. He sure
does. And another line, and you fearful
saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. The last thing, fear of death.
Fear of death causes some people to be dismayed. Well, remember
this, God's grace will prove sufficient then, as it does day
by day. And death itself, it's lost its
sting. It's a conquered foe. I always
think about my brother in Christ, who's my brother-in-law also,
But he told the story of being in Chiapas, Mexico. He's a missionary there. And
they were in a house and having a service. And the man who owned
the house, here comes this scorpion crawling out. And the man who
owned the house, he reached down with his knife and cut his tail
off. And my brother said, I watched
him do that. I saw he cut the tail off, but
then he picked up that scarpion and threw it at me. He said,
it scared me. It scared me. Well, it shouldn't
have. Why? Because the sting was gone. And the sting of death is gone. He said, how's it go? Christ
conquered death. Yes, he went into that tomb. But thank God on the third day
he came out, and he ever lives to make intercession for all
who come unto God by him. And he didn't just conquer death
for himself, but for you, and for you, and for you, and for
me. And should we see death before
our Lord comes again, yes, this body will go back to the dust,
but there's coming a day when he shall come with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and the dead in him shall rise. And
those who are alive shall be changed and will be caught up
in the air to be with the Lord forever. Amen. Be not dismayed, be strong. All right, David, if you will
lead us in this hymn.