[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church. Knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. Good morning.
[0:16] Tom, don't get too comfortable in the house after work while your wife is working in the 90 degree heat down at Turkey Hill. So, okay, well, it is good to be here.
[0:29] I'll tell you what, I am thankful for the building and I am thankful that we are a private organization. So we're not here wearing masks today.
[0:41] So, although I see you guys as a rebellious group, so I'm sure that maybe even if we were in a public location, maybe some of those masks wouldn't be on.
[0:53] I do tend to, my people, I do tend to spew words quite far, Tom, so you may want to take caution there. So, good to be here. I tell you what, I passed a church on the way here that said online services and they weren't meeting.
[1:07] I told Nicole, I said, hard to believe, almost five months. Their congregation's been at home, not able to be together. So, it's good to be together, good to be here this morning.
[1:19] And if you would, go ahead and turn with me in your Bible to the book of Joshua. If you want to, go ahead and thumb your way over to chapter 23. We're going to be spending most of our time this morning primarily looking at verses 11 through, or Dave might be nervous if I said that, 1 to 11.
[1:37] I'm going to leave him 12 to 16 for next week. So, as we, as my brother, my brother-in-law is a, is one who sells on eBay. And he said whenever he buys and sells, a guy will try to sell him on something and say, hey, you know, leave a little meat on the bone for me, you know, to sell and make some money.
[1:53] So, I'll try to leave Dave a little meat on the bone from chapter 23 here, because the meat may be a bit limited in regard to what there is to cover. But I think the Lord has some good stuff for us. So, let me ask you, how many people would consider themselves to be forgetful at times?
[2:07] Okay? Yeah. All hands went up, I think. I know as I get older, I feel like I'm more forgetful. Sometimes, I don't know, my wife never has to remind me of anything, but I'm sure some of you guys have wives who have to remind you or husbands who have to remind you.
[2:22] And we talk about coming together here on Sundays, and it's a good reminder, right? It never hurts to be reminded. You know, I have my wife, maybe you older guys who have been married longer can tell me, at what point did your wife tell you that you no longer have to remind her that you love her?
[2:39] Is that like in year 20? Because I'm coming up on 20. Does that work? Man, I can save some words. She wants to hear that she's loved, right? We all want to hear that.
[2:49] We want to be reminded. And really, what we've got here is we've got in Joshua 23 is we have somewhat a passing of the torch, right? We're starting the long farewell, so to speak, or the two-chapter farewell of Joshua.
[3:01] So we're looking again primarily at verses 1 to 11. And with the Israelites, sometimes you would think, I know I think this at times, like why would the Israelites have to be reminded of God's faithfulness or his goodness?
[3:13] I mean, they've seen it again and again and again. If they can't see that, then, you know, it doesn't matter that you remind them. But then, obviously, I look in the mirror and I say, you know what, Kent, again and again and again, you see God's faithfulness, and yet I forget, and I need to be reminded.
[3:28] And that's what we're going to see this morning. And so these last two chapters of the book, they record the farewell address of Joshua, the faithful servant of the Lord. And as we pause and we look at the message, what we're going to see is we see Joshua's final or last message that was to the people and what it should look like, what they should look to in regards to the covenant Lord, who is faithful in the past, who is faithful in the present, and who he's going to say will be faithful in the future.
[3:59] And that's ultimately what we're going to look at this morning. Again, we have Joshua here, and unlike most people in Scripture, there's a time that comes when in Scripture a man has to die, right?
[4:13] Throughout the Bible we see God's people getting old and dying. And Joshua is described in Exodus 33, 11, as a young man. But then here in verse 1, he tells us, Now it came after about many days when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side.
[4:32] And Joshua was old. He was advanced in years. If we were to look down in verse 14, Joshua says, I'm about to go the way of all the earth. So he was older.
[4:44] He was probably about 110 years of age at this time. And in the same way that Paul, who was introduced in Acts 7, verse 58, as a young man, in Philemon, verse 9, he refers to himself as an aged man.
[4:59] And so we know as a result of original sin, people die. It doesn't matter if you're poor. It doesn't matter if you're rich. It doesn't matter if you are mighty or weak.
[5:10] Even Methuselah, he lasted 969 years. But ultimately, he died. Noah died. Abraham died. Enoch and Elijah, they escaped death, but only by divine intervention.
[5:21] And so we know in Romans 5.12, it tells us that, therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and, excuse me, death through sin, death passed upon all men, because all have sinned.
[5:36] And we know Joshua wasn't perfect. He was a sinner. So it's time for him to go. And so the problem of suffering here, we see it's seen, we see it in the light of the fall of men, incidentally, and the world that we see is not the world that God created.
[5:51] And because of Adam's fall, and now we're experiencing suffering and terror and war and sickness and hatred and death, and Hebrews 9.27, a well-known verse says, it's appointed unto man, what?
[6:01] Wants to die. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His final words were recorded in the book of Deuteronomy. And now Joshua is about to do the same.
[6:12] So he's about to die. He's about to pass on the same type of information. And so we would be well, or we would do well to pay careful attention here to what Joshua has to say, what his last words are.
[6:24] Because ultimately, we're going to be able to sum up his last words in this. He says, look to the Lord. Look to the Lord. So with that, let's go ahead and read Joshua 23, 1 to 11, and then let's open up in prayer.
[6:38] It says here in Joshua 23, verse 1, Now it came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest, Israel from their enemies, round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age.
[6:52] And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers. And he said to them, I am old, I am old, advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done for all these nations because of you.
[7:08] For the Lord your God is he who has fought for you. See, I have divided you by lot, these nations that remain, to an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward.
[7:24] And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their lands, and the Lord your God, as the Lord your God promised you.
[7:35] Therefore, be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, test, or lest you turn aside from it, and the right hand, or to the left. And lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anything to swear by them.
[7:56] You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations.
[8:08] But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as he promised you.
[8:22] Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for an opportunity to come together, Lord, to look at your word.
[8:34] Lord, we pray that our time this morning would be beneficial, that, Lord, we would see these words of Joshua, and that we would see how they not only applied to the Israelites thousands of years ago, Lord, but how we may implement them in our own lives today.
[8:48] We do pray that you would bless our next 25 or 30 minutes or so, and we ask this in your name. Amen. So in verse 2, it says that Joshua, incidentally, I'm going to be jumping back and forth throughout the 11 verses, so you can follow along.
[9:02] I'll also be in many other scriptures, which I'll probably go to pretty quick, so you don't have to thumb over there, but again, we'll spend most of our time in these first 11 verses. But in verse 2, it says that Joshua summoned all the leaders of Israel, and possibly this here is at Shiloh.
[9:18] We're going to see in verse, in chapter 24, we're going to see this farewell address, so to speak, continued, where it talks about them convening in Shechem.
[9:28] And so he summons the leaders, and he summons them to extort them, and even as he himself had been exhorted by Moses, or by the Lord, just after the death of Moses.
[9:42] So you may remember these words. This is from Joshua 1, chapter 1, verse 6 through 9, and this is what the Lord said to Joshua. He said, Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.
[9:56] Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this book of law depart from your mouth.
[10:10] Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful, have I not commanded you, and for a third time, and be strong and courageous.
[10:20] Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. You see, Joshua had the right to give this counsel that we see here in chapter 23, for he had lived an obedient and a holy life.
[10:37] Thinking back on his life, as a slave in Egypt, he was an eyewitness to the miracles that God had done. He saw the ten plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.
[10:47] He had a lot of experience. He saw the pillar of the cloud and the pillar of fire that guided Israel. And he drank the sweet waters and the water from the plenty rock and he ate manna for 40 years.
[11:01] He also saw fellow Israelites in the desert and the judgment on them.
[11:12] And throughout all this, Joshua obeyed the Lord fully, never murmuring against him. And when the other spies, we know the story, when they discouraged the people, what did Joshua do?
[11:23] He gave a good report. He fought violently against the Amalekites and against the Amorites in the desert and he conquered Canaan after crossing the Jordan.
[11:36] And in his prayer, the sun stood still. Later, he divided the land, all the tribes, all in obedience to God's command. So he had quite a track record. He had lived a full life of obedience, choosing to follow the Lord wholeheartedly.
[11:50] And he was commanded by the Lord as a good, or he was commended as a good and faithful servant. And I think, again, we would do well this morning to heed the counsel of such a faithful servant of the Lord.
[12:04] So the question is, what counsel did he give? Well, first, he pointed the people to God. In the 16 verses that we see here in chapter 23, again, the first 11 we'll look at this morning.
[12:19] Dave will be speaking next week on 12 through the end of the chapter. But in these 16 verses, he cites the name of the Lord 17 times. I think that's pretty important, right?
[12:31] I mean, how many times do you hear someone speak and you hear them refer to me or you hear them refer to their family or you hear them refer to themselves? Here, 17 times in 16 verses, he refers to the Lord.
[12:43] And he's saying, don't look to me. You know, I'm old. I'm about to die. I'm not going to be around. So don't look to anyone else, but rather look to the Lord of the covenant and follow him because he alone, not Abraham, not Isaac, not Jacob, not Abraham, not myself, he alone is the undying everlasting one.
[13:03] And he's reminding them of that. And this is the counsel that God himself, we see in Isaiah 45, 22, where it says, turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there are no other.
[13:19] So Joshua says, this is who you're to be focused on. Who is this Yahweh or this Lord that we see referred to 17 times in these 16 verses? Well, he's a self-existing God.
[13:31] He's unchanging in his being and his relationship with people. Yahweh is the gracious God, the covenant Lord and the Savior who saves his people by his mighty deeds.
[13:43] He is the sovereign Lord who controls all history and the universe. That's one to have your eyes pointed on. And that's what Joshua says here. As Israel's counselor, Joshua, reminds the people of Yahweh's dealings with them in the past.
[13:59] And he calls to them their attention, Yahweh's dealings in the present. And then finally, he is going to show them that this Yahweh will be faithful to them in the future.
[14:11] And it's a message that I think oftentimes we need to be reminded of. So let's take a look at that this morning. So number one, let's look at his faithfulness in the past. Again, I opened up by asking how many of us are forgetful?
[14:24] And you ever find yourself in a relationship where somebody acts as if there was nothing that you ever did for them and you start to think in your head, well, what about this? And what about this? And what about this?
[14:34] How could they forget this? And you start to kind of build your track record of, well, no, look in the past. Look what I did for you. Well, Joshua told the people, he says in verse 3, you yourselves have seen everything that the Lord God has done.
[14:51] He tells them, you guys have seen it. You have the benefit of with your own eyes seeing that the Lord was faithful. You didn't have to read about it. You didn't have generations to tell you about it. You saw it.
[15:03] And he says, to appreciate God's faithfulness, I think we have to be reminded of the history of salvation as the elderly Joshua did here with the people of Israel.
[15:15] You see, and we know this, that God entered into a covenant with Abraham to give him children, to give him a nation. That's recorded in Genesis 15, and he spoke about that covenant to his children as he grew old.
[15:27] In Genesis 48, we see another old man, Abraham's grandson, Jacob, and he tells this to his offspring. He says in verse 1 of chapter 48 of Genesis, some time later, Joseph was told, your father is ill.
[15:43] And then Israel said to Joseph, I'm about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. In Genesis 50, verse 24, we read the words of Joseph when he's about to die.
[15:57] And this is what he says. He says, then Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely come to you, come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land that he promised and oath to Abraham.
[16:07] Isaac and Jacob. And then later, several hundred years later, the Lord of the covenant appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and he commissioned him to deliver the Israelites from the nation of Egypt, from the slavery.
[16:23] And the Lord brought his people out of Egypt by his mighty deeds, leading them, feeding them, keeping them, and finally bringing them into the promised land of Canaan. And there the Lord himself fought for his people, conquering the land, giving it to them as an inheritance.
[16:39] As we're told in Joshua 23, 1, after a long time had passed, the Lord gave his people rest from their enemies around them. And thus God was faithful to his people in the past, giving them the land of Canaan with its cities to live in.
[16:56] And this points to the truth of salvation, that it's always a gift from God. It is never earned, nor is ever merited.
[17:08] And Israel was to reflect on God's past faithfulness so that they could trust him and him alone in the present. When you think about that, what with kids, why do they trust you as a parent?
[17:23] Is it because of what you've done since they woke up? No. They don't say, here's what you did in the last hour for me. They say over the last year, three years, five years, 15, 25 plus years, you've been faithful.
[17:38] And so therefore, they're encouraged by that in the present. And thus Joshua emphasizes several points regarding the Lord's faithfulness. How has he been faithful to his people? Well, number one, God gave them rest as he had promised.
[17:52] In chapter 21, verse 44 of Joshua, it says the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies would stood them. Joshua told the people here in verse 3 of chapter 23, you yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done.
[18:11] They were eyewitnesses to the Lord's vast saving deeds. So he gave them rest. Secondly, as David shared earlier, as we sang that song, God fought for them.
[18:27] Joshua reminded the people in verse 3, it was the Lord your God who fought for you. In other words, you didn't give yourselves rest. It was the result of God fighting for you, and it was he who fought for you in the past that will continue to fight for you in the present and who will fight for you in the future.
[18:48] In Joshua 5, verse 13 to 15, the Lord appears, you may recall, as a soldier, and it says, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up, and he saw a man standing in front of him. With a drawn sword in his hand, Joshua went to him, and he asked, are you for us, or are you our enemies?
[19:04] Neither he replied, but as a commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And in Joshua 10, 11, we read, as they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth-Horan to Ezekiel, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones and were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
[19:27] So the Lord fought, and the Lord fights, and the Lord will continue to fight on their behalf. So he gives them rest. He reminds them that he fights for them.
[19:38] And thirdly, the Lord drove out their enemies. In verse 9 of this chapter, Joshua reminded the people, he said, the Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations.
[19:49] To this day, no one has been able to withstand you. He wanted to assure the people that their God was greater than the Egyptians. He was greater than the Amalekites and the Amorites and all the other nations and their gods together.
[20:05] That is the God who is fighting for them. And he wants to remind them of that. You know, fourthly, he wants to remind them that the Lord was faithful with all of his promises.
[20:20] Verse 45 of chapter 1 of Joshua says, not one of the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed. Every one is fulfilled. If we look in 1 Samuel 15 and in Numbers 23, it says, He who is the glory of Israel does not lie, nor does he change his mind, for he is not a man that he should change his mind.
[20:44] You see, what God promises, he fulfills. I think that is so encouraging. You think about, if my kids rely on me, I will fail. I've failed in the past.
[20:54] I fail daily. And I'm going to continue to fail. And if they rest, or if they are putting their laurels in me, I'm going to fail them. But it says there that God is not a man that he should change his mind.
[21:10] And Joshua says, all of his good promises are fulfilled. Not most of them, not the majority of them, but all of them. And that's something that we can rest on. When we know that there is an absolute, it's so much better to rest on that knowing what will happen, that God's promises are fulfilled.
[21:28] What he promises, he fulfills. And therefore, Joshua declares in verse 14, this is just a sneak peek at next week, just one verse here. It says, You know with all your heart and soul, not one of all the good promises of the Lord your God gave you has failed.
[21:42] Every promise has been fulfilled. Not one has failed. I mean, think how encouraging that is when we talk about the faithfulness of our God.
[21:57] So this then is the first part of Joshua's farewell counsel. He says, Look back and see the faithfulness of God and know that God will do what he promised.
[22:09] He has done so in the past. He will do so in the present. That brings us to the second point. The Lord not only is faithful in the past, but rather he is going to be continued to be faithful in the present.
[22:23] You know, we can't change our past, right? A lot of times we spend time lamenting the past, thinking about, I wish I had done things differently. If I could go back, this is what I would change. If only I had done this.
[22:35] We can't change the past, nor can we control the future, but what we can do is we can focus on the present. That we must do the will of God now, knowing that he is with us.
[22:48] And so Joshua said a number of things to the leaders here to encourage them about the faithfulness of God in the future. And number one is this, and it ties to the past.
[22:59] He says, God will fight for us. You know, as Joshua was commanded by the Lord, and now commands those around him in verse 23, 6. You remember we read those verses back in Joshua 1.
[23:10] He said three times, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. In verse 23, 6, be very strong. As we think about God's faithfulness to his covenant in the past, we will be strengthened and encouraged in the present that we don't need to fear our enemies.
[23:30] Whatever our enemies are today, be it scoffers, be it people who are, you know, in some lands it's physical harm, in some lands it's verbal harm, in some it might be financial.
[23:41] Whatever those enemies are, we don't need to fear them, for we know that the sovereign Lord is for us. And he who fought our past battles is going to continue to fight on our behalf.
[23:56] Verse 3 speaks of the past. It was the Lord, your God, who fought for you. While verse 10 speaks of the present. One of you routes a thousand because the Lord, your God, fights for you, just as he had promised.
[24:11] So past and present. God fought and God fights. And the examples of his faithfulness in the past are written down for our encouragement in the future or in the present.
[24:22] You know, never think that we are fighting by ourselves. Yes, we are to fight, but we are to do so in conjunction with the Lord. Again, verse 10 says, one of you routes a thousand.
[24:34] And then Leviticus 26, 8 says this, five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
[24:45] So we're strengthened and we're energized to fight, but we must not take the credit for ourselves. We're able to do these things because the Lord himself fights for us.
[24:59] So that's number one. Presently he fights for us. Number two, we're called to obey the Scripture. And that's what Joshua tells him here in verse 6. He says, be careful to obey all that is written in the book of the law of Moses without turning aside to the right or to the left.
[25:15] You know, the Lord instructs us through Scripture. And in the present, we must read it. We must study it. We're to meditate on it. We're to do what it says. We are called to obedience.
[25:28] We have God's, we're fortunate enough here, we have God's complete word. And we're called to study and we're called to do what it says. And third, we're called to be separate.
[25:40] You know, God commands his people to separate themselves from the pagan world and we're to be in the world but not of the world. You know, we're to be the light of the world. And so Joshua tells the people in verse 7, do not associate with these nations that remain among you.
[25:58] Do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. You know, for that's idolatry. You think about, we live in a world today much like then where there are plenty of idols around us.
[26:13] You know, there's plenty of calls to do things that are not right to serve other gods. You think about, what was the problem for Solomon? You know, he rejected the biblical mandate to be separate and holy.
[26:26] And instead, he brought in these worldly idols, right? That was a downfall. Earlier, we see in Baal-peor that the Israelites, they were seduced by foreign women and they invited them to worship their foreign gods.
[26:45] We see this in Numbers chapter 25 and it says roughly 24,000 of them were killed by God himself for the idolatry. And just earlier in Numbers 23, we see Balaam, though a pagan, prophesying the truth about God's people when he said this.
[27:02] He said, from the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart, who do not consider themselves one of the nations. This is the separation that be holy just as I am holy.
[27:17] My question would be is, does the world see us that way? Do they see a group of believers who are set apart for the purpose of God, who don't partake in this idolatry?
[27:29] 2 Corinthians 6.14 is often a passage that we read or we hear when we talk about people who are preparing to be married. And Paul exhorts and he says, don't be yoked together with unbelievers.
[27:43] For what righteousness, what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? What's the answer to that? What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? They have nothing. They're polar opposites of one another.
[27:55] What fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
[28:05] What agreement is there between the temple of God and the idols? There's none. For we are the temple of the living God and God has said, I will live with them and will walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people.
[28:19] Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord all night. mighty.
[28:30] Romans 12, 2, says that we are commanded, do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed.
[28:42] Don't think the way we thought before. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. God's people were called to be separate. And then lastly, here in the present, we must hold fast hold fast to the Lord.
[28:56] Hold fast to the Lord. Joshua 23, 8, says this, but you are to hold fast to the Lord. That word hold fast, it's also used in Genesis 2, verse 24, and it's in reference to marriage, that one must leave one's father and mother and cleave to or join to or cling to one's spouse.
[29:16] It's a language of marriage, of intimacy, of communion. And it's a language that is exclusive to love. And in verse 11, Joshua says, so be very careful to love the Lord, your God.
[29:33] So hold fast to the Lord and love the Lord, your God. As Jesus said in John 15, we are to abide in Christ as a branch that abides in the vine.
[29:43] It's a vital union with Christ. that we must be joined and hold fast to the Lord. You know, there's not to be any adultery or any idolatry that our Lord delivered.
[29:58] Here we see that the covenant Lord delivered him from Egypt and we must have no other gods before him. Joshua 22, 5 in the prior chapter, it gives a clear definition of what does it mean to hold fast and to love God.
[30:13] Well, it says this, be very careful to keep the commandment in the law of Moses, the very servant of the Lord gave you, to love the Lord, your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.
[30:27] In other words, love is keeping God's commandments, right? It's doing what he said. Jesus said this in John 14, it says, if you love me, you'll obey what I command.
[30:39] You know, I think we have to sometimes get rid of this idea of love being a feeling. How do we feel about things versus how do we show that love in our actions?
[30:50] What are we doing for the Lord? What does our daily walk look like? To love God means to keep his commandments. And the question is, why do we love him? Well, because he first loved us.
[31:00] Deuteronomy 7, verse 7 and 8 says this, the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples. for you were the fewest of all the peoples.
[31:14] But it was because the Lord loved you and kept an oath and swore to your forefathers, here obviously speaking of Israel, that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
[31:31] So he says here, God loved you first. He saved, he redeemed, he fought, and ultimately he gave them rest. No other God or man does these things and the sovereign Lord alone did these things and he calls them to love them.
[31:51] So again, Joshua's farewell counsel, God's been faithful in the past, he'll be faithful in the present and finally we'll wrap up here with God is going to be faithful in the future.
[32:03] He speaks about the future. You know, as humans, we tend to be fearful or anxious about what will happen to us in the future. I used to really worry about what would happen in the past. Maybe some of you still do that or found yourself doing that.
[32:14] I recall I was at one of the believers conference probably 25 years ago and there was something that stuck with me. I think it may have been Rob Lindstedt who was speaking. It probably was because he obviously is really, enjoys prophecy and is gifted in that.
[32:29] But I remember saying what they said was nine out of ten things that you worry about never happen and the tenth one you have no control over. And that kind of stuck with me.
[32:42] All these things I worry about, nine out of ten of them, I don't have any control or will never come to fruition and the tenth one I likely have no control over that. Yet we have anxiety and we worry so how do we fix that?
[32:55] Well, if we live, if we do what's right and we live for God in the present then we don't need to worry about the future. The Lord who fought for us in the past and who fights for us in the present will surely fight for us in the future.
[33:12] We've been saved. We're being made more like him. We're being saved and ultimately we know in the end that we will be saved. In verse three, Joshua spoke about the past and in verse ten he spoke about the present and then if we go in between there in verse five he addresses the future.
[33:31] He says this, the Lord your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you and he will take possession of their land as the Lord your God promised you.
[33:43] So he says if we trust in God he's going to drive out our enemies and in Joshua 1.5 the Lord had told Joshua this, he said, no one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life.
[33:55] As I was with Moses so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. You see, our God is not just a God of the, a partner of the past or of the present but that he is also a God of the future.
[34:10] Jesus Christ when we move forward to the New Testament he told us this, he said, surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. You know, he'll be with us at the moment of our death giving us strength as we die in hope.
[34:25] He's there yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If the worship team wants to come back up here, we're going to wrap up. You know, we're looking here in Joshua and here's the reality.
[34:40] Great men of the Old Testament are great to look at as examples but the reality is that they still fall short, right? As great as Joshua was, he was only a man.
[34:54] In God's plan, Joshua brought Israel to the rest in Canaan but he could not bring anyone to the rest of being forgiven, right?
[35:06] Joshua, as great as he was, could not justify a man because he himself needed to be justified. Joshua himself could not bring peace himself with a holy God.
[35:20] Joshua, son of Nun, he couldn't make atonement for the sins of Israel because he himself was a sinner in need of salvation.
[35:32] And so to receive the rest of forgiveness and the restoration of communion with God, we have to look to so-called one who is greater than Joshua, the son of Nun.
[35:44] One that is greater than Moses. One that is greater than Solomon or of David or of Isaac or Jacob or Isaac or Abraham, we have to look to Jesus Christ, right?
[35:56] The son of God. Jesus Christ is the lamb of God who takes away our sins by the death, by his death. And now he calls to all sinners, Jew and Gentile alike.
[36:10] That's what it says in Matthew 11. It says, come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Not the kind of rest that Joshua spoke of in chapter 23, but of eternal rest.
[36:23] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
[36:35] You see, the Lord, the shepherd of Israel, the underlying eternal one, he died, we know because of scripture that he died in atoning death for our sins that he alone gives rest to our souls.
[36:47] He does so the moment that we trust him for salvation. He continues to give us rest as we walk in him daily and we can enjoy rest every day as we walk with the Lord.
[36:57] We don't have to worry about the anxiety. We don't have to worry about what's going to happen in the future. We don't have to worry about our sins of the past because he paid for it. Because he was faithful and he will continue to be faithful.
[37:09] And one day when we walk, when our work on earth is done, the good shepherd shall bring us to eternal rest with him. You know, the people of Israel, they enjoyed a certain rest when they received a portion of the land in Canaan, but the rest that Christ gives has nothing to do with a piece of real estate.
[37:30] Take in the New Testament, Paul, how much property did he own? He didn't own a piece of real estate. Right? How much real estate did Jesus own? He didn't own one piece.
[37:40] And Paul, yet, he spoke of a greater rest in Philippians 1 where he says, I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far. And so the farewell message of Joshua, son of Nun, is this.
[37:57] It's, look not at me, but look at the greater one, Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of salvation and he will give you the true rest.
[38:08] He who has been faithful, he who is faithful, and he who will continue to be faithful for all of eternity. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time this morning.
[38:19] Lord, as we wrap up here in the next couple of weeks this book in the Old Testament, Lord, just some great reminders. We see, Lord, how you protected your chosen people, Lord, in the Old Testament.
[38:30] And Lord, sometimes we are, as a sinful people, we just need a reminder we need a reminder, Lord, that you're not like us, Lord. You are faithful through and through from eternity past, Lord.
[38:44] And we just ask that as we go out this week that we remember who we have fighting for us. Sometimes, Lord, we're in a world that's very discouraging. We think that we're losing. We think that the evil one, Lord, is making headway, Lord, that we don't have any say in what's going to happen, Lord, that we're just falling behind, Lord.
[39:03] But just ask that we would encourage us that we look back and we see what you've done for us. We see that you're fighting for us, Lord. And if you're fighting for us, then who can be against us? And we know who the ultimate victor is.
[39:15] Yet, Lord, we ask that we do so in a way that we look at those who are around us who are lost and we share the good news of your salvation that's offered through the death of the cross.
[39:27] Lord, we thank you for this message this morning, this time. We thank you for your word. Lord, we just pray for each as they go out this week and we ask this in your name. Amen. Thank you.