There's a lot of talk these days
about the coronavirus. If nothing else, in my opinion,
it shows who's still in control. That this is God's world. And
what God is able to do by just a very little thing, really. And how men need to be reminded
of that and to seek God's will and God's blessing in life. If you will, let's open our Bibles
this evening to Joshua chapter 1. The first five books of the Bible
called the Pentateuch, written by Moses, and then the book of
Joshua. 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. This book
begins with God's command to Joshua to lead the nation of
Israel into the land of Canaan. And I want you to notice especially
the words in verse two, which I do give them. which I do give
them." 400 years before this, God promised Abraham that this
day would come. Let's look back at that promise,
if you will. Keep your places here, but let's
turn back to Genesis chapter 15. 400 years before, God promised Abraham
that this day would come. when the land of Canaan would
be given unto the nation of Israel, Abraham's descendants, beginning
here in verse 7. And he said unto him, Genesis
15 and verse 7, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of
the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said,
Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And
he said unto him, take me an heifer of three years old, and
a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old,
and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him
all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece
one against another, but the birds divided he not. And when
the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, and horror of great darkness
fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict
them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve, that is the nation of Israel, will I judge. And
afterward, they shall come out with great substance, and thou
shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good
old age. But in the fourth generation,
they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. Abraham at this time was dwelling
in Canaan. He was dwelling among the Amorites. And so God told him that the
iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. Evidently God used that one nation,
the Amorites, but we know that seven nations were included. And they're listed in Joshua
chapter 3 and verse 10. The Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Havites, the Perizzites, the Gergesites, the Amorites,
and the Jebusites. And according to the Bible dictionary
that I use, all of these nations, all of these seven nations that
are named here, except for one, and maybe that one, but we're
not sure. All of these nations were descendants
from Noah's son, Ham. You remember after Noah came
out of the ark that he planted a vineyard and he drank the wine
and was drunk. And his youngest son committed
a sin, a sin against his father. And when he did, he was cursed. He was cursed because of this
sin, their iniquity. God told Abraham, this land is
going to be yours and your descendants, but it will be 400 years. It
will be in the fourth generation because the iniquity of the Amorites
was not yet full. All sin, all sin. All iniquity is provoking to
God. He cannot, because of the holy
being that he is, he cannot take pleasure in any sin, nor look
upon it. Remember, this is one of the
things the scripture says that God cannot do. He cannot lie,
he cannot change, he cannot deny himself, and he canst not look
upon iniquity. He is of purer eyes than to look
upon iniquity. All sin is against God's holy
name. All sin. When David sinned, his
sin of adultery, his sin of murder, You remember when he sought forgiveness,
he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. All sin is
against God. But I quote John Gill, there
are some sins more especially which provoke him to anger. There are some sins, all sin
is against God. God hates all sin. because of
the holy being that he is. He can't not look upon iniquity. But there are some sins, more
especially, which provoke him to anger. In the Ten Commandments,
as they are given in Exodus, as you read through those Ten
Commandments, I'm sure it has often appeared to you that that
second commandment there is especially attached to it a penalty that
we do not see with the other commandments. Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and move on to the
next commandment, and so forth and so on. But the second commandment
concerns idolatry. Idolatry. And let me read it
to us. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God, visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Seems to me that idolatry is
especially singled out of all those commands as a sin that
God especially hates. As I said, all sin God hates. I want you to look with me in the
book of Judges just a moment. Let's turn to a few passages
of Scripture. And I think we can see from these
passages of scripture that there are some sins which especially,
as John Gill said, there are some sins which especially provoke
God to anger. And I say unto us tonight that
idolatry is one of those sins. And that was one of the sins
of the Amorites. The iniquity of the Amorites
was not yet full, and that included all of those other nations with
them. And they practiced idolatry,
which is especially abhorrent unto God, to think that the holy
Lord God, the perfect being that He is, a spirit, that he may
be represented by something that man makes, something that man
makes and bows down to and says, this is our God. Here in Judges
chapter two and verse 12, we read, and they forsook the
Lord God of their fathers. Now this is speaking of the nation
of Israel. God gives them the land, and
God commands them to bring judgment upon all of the inhabitants of
the land. All of the Amorites are to be
judged. Israel didn't do that. They did
not obey God. And because these nations were
left in the land, and they continued with their idolatry, then it
wasn't long till the nation of Israel also was given into idolatry. Remember that one sin that was
connected with idolatry that seems to me was the most awful
of all, and that is when they burned their children. When they
offered their babies, put their babies into the iron hands of
that God, Baal, sacrificed their children. The wickedness of idolatry. The iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full, God told Abraham. here in Judges chapter 2 and
verse 2. And they, that is Israel, forsook
the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the
land of Egypt, and followed other gods. You remember when they
came out of Egypt, it wasn't long when Moses went up on the
mountain, stayed there for 40 days while he was there. Aaron,
his brother, manufactured that calf, that golden calf, those
two golden calves, and told the nation of Israel, Behold your
gods. After they had just seen the
miracles of God, God's judgment upon the gods of Egypt, and some
believe that all of those pestilences, as we would call them, the frogs
and the lice and all of those things, the judgments that God
brought upon Egypt, God was judging their gods, that these were gods
that the Egyptians worshiped, and God judged them. But notice
here, we read, soon after they forsook the Lord God of their
fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed
other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about
them, and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to
anger. And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtoreth. And the anger of the Lord was
hot against Israel. And he delivered them into the
hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the
hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not
any longer stand before their enemies. And look at this passage,
if you will, in 1 Kings. What am I saying? I'm saying
that there are some sin, some iniquities, which are especially, more especially,
that provoke God to anger. And idolatry is one of them. 1 Kings chapter 16, verse 30.
And Ahab, The son of Amri did evil in the
sight of the Lord," now watch this, "...above all that were
before him." All the wicked kings from Jeroboam on that had reigned
over Israel. Now Ahab comes to the throne
and God says that he was more guilty than all those before
him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing
for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Navath,
that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king
of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for
Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove, and Ahab
did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all
the kings of Israel that were before him. His idolatry. Another quote from John Gill,
wicked people have a measure of iniquity to fill up. Wicked people have a measure
of iniquity to fill up, which is known to God. Some are longer,
some are quicker in filling it up, during which time God waits
patiently, bears with them, but when it is completed, He stays
no longer, but takes vengeance on them. God's judgment upon
sin may be long in coming, but it will come. The Lord Jesus
later told the Jews, fill you up than the measure of your fathers. Fill you up than the measure
of your fathers. It was by crucifying the Son
of God that the nation of Israel filled up their iniquity. And
when it was full, God's judgment came upon that nation just as
Moses had foretold hundreds of years before. Now, there are three truths about
God that I want to mention. from this that we've read and
what I've said so far. First, the long-suffering of
God. The long-suffering of God. This
is one way that God shows his mercy by his suffering long with
people. God was long-suffering toward
the Amorites, 400 years. 400 years. Their iniquity was not
yet full. In Romans chapter 9, the Apostle
Paul speaks of God and he says, who endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. God's long-suffering
towards those that he loves as well as those that he hates God's
long suffering. Turn with me, if you will, to
2 Peter chapter three. 2 Peter chapter three. In verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. God is longsuffering towards
the wicked, we say that Concerning the Amorites, 400 years. Their iniquity was not yet filled. But when that 400 years came
to pass, God's vengeance through the nation of Israel coming into
the land of Canaan, they were commanded to destroy all the
inhabitants. God's judgment. God's judgment
upon them for their iniquity, for their sin. When it was filled
up, judgment came. But the point here in 2 Peter
is that God is long-suffering toward those that He loves. Usward. Usward. Do you see who is included in
that word, usward? The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward. not willing that any should perish. Well, look back to the first
verse of that chapter. Who's he writing to? Who are
the usward? The second epistle, beloved. They are the beloved of God,
those that God has loved with an everlasting, eternal love. If you can receive this from
the Word of God tonight, there never has been a time when God
has not loved His chosen people. That love is eternal. He's long-suffering usward, towards
those that He loves. One verse of scripture tells
us that we should count his long-suffering as salvation. Romans chapter 8 and verse 32,
the apostle said, he that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all. Some people read this verse here
in 2 Peter and they say, well, God's not willing that anybody
perish. People perish. Some people go
to hell. Some people are sent to hell. So this cannot be saying that
God's will, His absolute will, His sovereign will is that not
anyone perish because we know that men do perish. But God is
not willing that any of His chosen beloved perish. He's long-suffering. Some of you here tonight, if
you look back in your life, you remember and you are reminded
by the grace of God how God suffered long with you. He suffered long
with you. So the long suffering of God.
The second thing that I want to mention is the faithfulness
of God. Not only the long-suffering of
God, but the faithfulness of God. 400 years had transpired
since God promised Abram this land. But what is 400 years to
God? What is 400 years to God to whom
a thousand years in his sight are but as yesterday when it
is past? God promised a Savior. Just as
soon as sin entered into this world, God promised that a Savior
would come, the seed of the woman would come to deliver His people. Years, decades, centuries passed. Is He coming? Is He coming? But when the fullness of the
time was come, God's time, God sent forth his son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. When Joseph was down in Egypt,
became the prime minister, his brothers and his father came
down there. You know the wonderful story
of God's providence, how God provided for the nation of Israel.
When Jacob, Israel said, all these things are against me.
Oh, everything's against me. When everything was working together
for his good. And how he ends up down there
in Egypt, And his son is the ruler next to Pharaoh. And Jacob
tells his brothers, tells the nation of Israel, when you leave
here, take my bones. Why would he do that? Why would
he mention his bones? Because he believed God. And
he knew the God that he believed in, the God of his father, Jacob. And Isaac and Abraham was a faithful
God. And yes, the day would come and
did come when God delivered them out of Egypt, redeemed them out
of Egypt. They were servants. God redeemed. They were hostages, if you please. And they needed to be redeemed.
And they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And the day
came when God sent Moses there to bring them out. And what did
they do? They carried Joseph's bones with
him. Why would he want that? Why would
he remember that, say that? Because he believed in God and
he believed and knew that God is a faithful God. When God promises,
whatever it is, You may believe, you may trust in His promise.
Job, when you think about the Old Testament patriarch Job, humanly speaking, he had a whole
lot less light than we have. We know that. He had a whole
lot less life than we are given, and yet he trusted in the faithfulness
of God. He was able to say, for I know,
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand, He shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after My
skin's worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another, though my reins be consumed within me. He had
less light than you and I have, but he knew and believed. I know that my Redeemer liveth. He knew that God, his God, His
Redeemer is a faithful God. And He would, He would see God
in the flesh. When we take the body of one
of our loved ones, a believer, out to the cemetery, one that we've worshipped with,
one that we've rejoiced with, one that we've sang these hymns
with, It's a sad day, always, but my
friends, we expect to meet again. Why? Because God is faithful. And as He has promised, so it
will come to pass. Now the third truth about God
I want to mention is the grace of God. Remember in our text
tonight, God commands that they enter the land which I do give
them. I do give them. Is there anything,
you read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You read the history of the nation
of Israel from Abraham on. Is there anything recorded in
those books that would make you think that this nation, their
descendants, that they deserved God giving them this land. That
there was ever any conduct that would make you believe of all
the people in the world, the nation of Israel, they deserved,
they merited the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and
honey. You know there isn't. God covenanted
with Abraham, and God promised to his seed that he would give
them this land. Even so, we know tonight that
God covenanted with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and promised
to give his seed, his spiritual seed, everlasting, eternal life. Just as God gave Canaan to the
seed of Abraham, not because they deserved it, not because
they earned it, not because they merited it. So God gives eternal
life to those that he covenanted to with his son. And his son
came as a surety of that covenant, and he fulfilled every, every,
every obligation that God might give eternal life to those who
he calls his seed, his spiritual seed. In Isaiah 53 and verse 10, the
scripture said, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath
put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, now listen, he shall see his seed. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Just as The nation of Israel
was given the land of Canaan, so God gives eternal life to
all of his chosen people. The Lord Jesus Christ said, no
man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw
him. And him that cometh unto me I
will in no wise cast out. I read part of a message this
past week from that text by Charles Spurgeon, and he was of the opinion
that some people told him there was two contradictions there,
God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. And someone asked him one day,
how do you reconcile these two truths? He said, I don't. He
said, I've never thought that friends needed to be reconciled.
God's sovereign grace and man's responsibility are two truths. All that the Father giveth me
will come to him. And him that cometh, he will
in no wise cast out. I pray that the Lord would bless
these words to all of us here tonight.