God's command to Joshua to be strong and courageous in leading Israel into the Promised Land serves as a model for believers today. The sermon highlights God's promise of presence and guidance, emphasizing that obedience to His Word is the key to spiritual prosperity and success. By meditating on Scripture and acting upon it, believers can overcome challenges and experience the fullness of God's blessings. The message concludes by urging faithfulness to God's Word, assuring that His presence guarantees victory.
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the book of Joshua chapter one. I would like to read verses one through nine only, where God writes by his Spirit concerning the wonderful privilege that he gave and responsibility to 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's minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan. Thou in all this people unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel, every place that the soul of your feet shall tread upon.
That have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness, And this Lebanon, even under the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and under 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.
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 with us so ever thou goest. If 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. May God bless the reading of his precious word. I'm sure that most of you may be instructed enough to recognize the meaning of the great book of Joshua. When God brings these earthly people into the land of promise, the land of Canaan, and they inherit the blessing that he had provided for them, though they after thus fight in the conquering of the land.
The whole book can be divided into three great sections. You can take chapters one through five, recording the fact they entered the land. Then from chapter six and on through chapter twelve approximately, they conquered the land. And after chapter twelve and on, they possess the land. Many of you may be familiar, I trust, that in the New Testament typology of this story, it represents towards the end it often been spoken of here. Our beloved brother George Kirk has mentioned it more than once.
It represents in its type the book of Ephesians. and the great blessings that God has blessed his people of this age with. And I quote the words of chapter one, verse three, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And I'm sure we can recognize that our blessings are not earthly, but go down the chapter. We'll speak of them as we go along. And cover with me very briefly, and I trust thoroughly what we have here. In verse one, you find God giving them a new leader.
Moses had died. Now Joshua takes the place of leadership, commanded by God. You can read in Numbers chapter twenty-seven how God gave that command to Moses to put his hand of authority and decision upon Joshua to be the servant which would follow. And Joshua became the leader of the nation to lead them into the land of blessing. And I'm sure you will agree with me. Our leader is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Joshua typifies. My beloved fellow believer, may I say to you as well as to my own heart, who is the leader for the assembly?
Who is the leader for you and for me in seeking to carry out the testimony of the Lord? None but the Lord Jesus himself. And may I be reminded he's with us. May I be reminded that it is written. Galatians chapter two and verse twenty, Paul wrote, Christ liveth where? In me. My beloved is in you. You who have trusted him as your Savior. Christ liveth in me. And not only is that true, but you have the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, not only dwelling with us, but also, as we know from John fourteen, he shall not only be with you, he shall be in you, and that forever.
May I emphasize right away, Joshua is a type of the Lord Jesus leading his people to those rich blessings that are in heavenly places. Read on, if you will, please. Note if I may go to verse, may we go to verse three? Very briefly, every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon. That I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses. My beloved, may I say we have to use our seed of faith? Joshua had to go ahead. The people of Israel had to put their seed in the land. And as we know they did.
And so every promise was given, every part of the land that you put your foot upon, it'll be yours. And my beloved, every blessing that God has for us in Christ and the heavenly places is only yours and mine if you go ahead and put your feet on them. It's a practical expression of faith. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. But may I point out something very unique in verse three. For verse four, rather. Note the boundary of the land to which they were going. It was on one side there was the wilderness, a great desert.
On another side of it was the mountain of Lebanon. On another side of it the border was the great river Euphrates. And then on another side was the great sea, the Mediterranean Sea. Now may I picture before you They were to be in the land that was surrounded, but the land was theirs to possess and stay in and enjoy. But around them there was a great desert, a barren place. That's the type of the world, my friend, my fellow believer. The world doesn't give you and me any spiritual food.
It's a desert. The mountain of Lebanon, and a mountain oftentimes through Scripture, is a type of the great power in the world. Babylon was one of them, and there have been many others. But it's a type of the power of the world. And then you've got the River Euphrates. So typical of blessing, a river bringing blessing to the land. You've got that in Egypt. The River Nile was the source of the blessing of the land of Egypt. And the world is a place of worldly prosperity. And the great sea, the Mediterranean Sea on the other side, typical of the nation.
And the wicked. The wicked are like the restless sea, or like the sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up my render. There is no peace that might cause to the wicked. And let me give you the thought. Please. You and I who are believers, we're surrounded. As far as this world is concerned, there's a big desert. And there's also a mountain of power in the world under Satan. And there is, as we well know, there's also a great sea of unrest among the nations, together with what we have also noticed. There is also...
As we have noticed in this same verse, the great river of prosperity. Now let me please suggest to you, we're surrounded. And you know from your Bible, the great sin that Israel committed against their Jehovah caused them to be vanished out of the land and cast them on the nations in judgment. Those dangers were there. And then in the land there were enemies they had to conquer. And you know from Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in higher heavenly places.
Like these people, well in fact a little different, we're still in the desert, literally. But we're also in spiritual places in heaven with spiritual blessings promised to us. And there's a conflict. We have a conflict and we have a desert. We're going through the desert and we have a conflict at the same time. But please know what God has to say here. Verse five, notice the encouragement he gives to Joshua. There shall not any man. This is his promise. 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. Can I emphasize that last phrase of the verse? God saying, What a promise. And to Joshua, this was encouragement. I will, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Now note the moral qualifications that follow. They're very typical of what should be yours and mine, as we face the difficulties of our day, as we face the problems of the testimony we seek to have for the Lord.
And we have these words, first of all. Let me read verse six and seven. Let me read verse six and seven together. Be strong and have a good courage for unto this people that thou shalt thou divide for in inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers. Only be thou strong and very courageous. Let me stop there, please. The New Testament in chapter six of the Ephesian epistle before telling of the warfare and telling us of the character of the armor we wear begins by saying that we need to put on the whole armor of God.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of what? His might. Be strong in the Lord. Paul writing to Timothy, first, second Timothy chapter two, verse one. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And may I encourage my fellow believers, be strong. And here's the one who's encouraging us to be strong. Now, it could be any better leader, could it? Be strong, be strong. But I want you to notice something. The responsibility that Joshua was given that yours and mine can indeed be applied to our own hearts at the present time.
As he said, he says, 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 with us so ever thou goest. Now God gave him some written commandment through Moses. And he said, Be careful to do all according to what I've written. Don't turn to the right or to the left. Do it. All that I've commanded. You remember? The only command that Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave when he was upon the earth in John chapter two, at the one when the water was turned into the wine, and she told the servants at the wedding feast, whatsoever he set unto you, do it.
Can I say this humbly, faithfully, to my own soul as well as to yours, your responsibility in mind And together with dear brother Robert St. John and his family who may come, is to do what the Lord Jesus tells us to do. Thumbs it all up. So let's go further down and see how God develops it with Joshua in verse eight. Please note this fact though at the end of verse seven. If you do it, it's because that thou mayest prosper. Whither so ever thou goeth. Can I say lovingly?
May I say it faithfully. This assembly will not prosper unless you and I individually will obey the word of God. I believe that's the teaching of the whole book. Obedient. Now please know what we say. God in verse six. In fact the books emphasize. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Joshua had a book. And may I say, he only had about five books at the most out of the Bible. And you and I have got six, six books. This book.
This book. My beloved, may I say lovingly, earnestly, your obedience and mind to this book depends upon the prosperity of this assembly for God's glory. It's not to depart out of thy mouth. What a book. Go by the book. There's only one book. Sir Walter Scott, they say when he was dying, a great writer that he had been, poet, as well as an author. He called on his dying bed, bring me the book.
And they looked at him surprised the members of his family. He had a big library. And they said, which book? There's only one, he said. Debo, the Bible. My beloved, please let me say, I don't care how many other books are written. I don't care how many other books are now being written. And may I humbly say, sometimes I think there's too many books being written, even for Christians, without emphasizing Debo. Beable. Now let's see what he had to do with it. Let it not be poured out of thy mouth. And I know. But thou shalt meditate in that book.
What was his responsibility to meditate in that book? My beloved, please let me... And I say this to my own conscience. I thank God for the good books that I have been blessed with and am being blessed with. when I get a good book from any author that is exalting the Lord Jesus. But there's only one book that I find God telling me to meditate in, this book. Meditate in. Now let me ask the question, what does it mean to meditate? Meditate. Let me emphasize it plainly and simply. It means I think God's thought I'm thinking God's thoughts, not my own.
I'm thinking God's thoughts that I find in the book. And I delight in them. Let me quote Psalm one hundred and four, verse thirty four, one example. My meditation of him shall what? Be sweet. Let me quote Psalm chapter one, the opening verses. Blessed is the man that walks of none in the council of the ungodly. or standeth in the way of sinning, or siteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is where? In the Word of God, and in His Word, he meditates day and night. I'm reminded of Isaiah chapter fifty-five, verses seven and eight.
You may know them well. God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. As the higher is the higher above the earth. So are my ways than your ways. And your thoughts. And your thoughts. And with my thoughts. Listen, let me tell you something. God doesn't want you and I to think on the low level. He said my thoughts are higher. Would you find them? In the book. In the book. From Genesis through Revelation. The psalmist wrote in Psalm one thirty-nine, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they are more renumbered than the sum. Now please let me ask you something. How many of God's thoughts did you think about today? And let me re-emphasize it. You've got to get them from the book. Don't think they come out of the air. Don't think that they come out of the air. They come from his word. God has expressed his thoughts through the whole Bible. Let me ask again, how many of his thoughts have you had in your mind and heart today?
Doesn't matter whether you're in the kitchen, whether you're in the office, whether in the shop, whether in the factory, whether on the street. Name wherever you might be as a Christian. You've got the responsibility of meditating every day upon the Word of God. And know how often should you meditate? Well, what is that? As Psalm chapter one does. Day and night. Day and night. Day and night. Day and night. For unless the word of God has its free course with us and in us and through us, it will not be blessing.
Read on, please, quickly. Let me finish that eighth verse. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Let me finish. Think for a moment of Jeremiah, what he wrote in chapters fifteen, I think of sixteen in verse fifteen. Thy words were found and I did what? Heaped them. Did you chew over God's word today? No, I'll tell you something. It's a precious fact. I've enjoyed it in my past days, in my early days. Chewing over the word of God while I was working. Oh, you say, now wait a minute. Don't you say it's not possible?
chewing over the word of God. Thy words were found and I did eat them. And they were to me the joy and the rejoicing of mine heart. I'm going to be very blunt. One reason we're not being blessed by God, we're not meditating upon the word of God. And that meditation means in its original meaning of the word, we draw all we can out of it. And please let me remind you, As we've said in Isaiah fifty-five, God isn't very pleased when we have low thoughts. I don't like that. My thoughts are higher.
My ways are different. And may I say things, frankly, your life and my life won't be different unless we obey his ways and his thoughts and his words. It depends, and it was for Joshua. Thou shalt meditate in that book. How often? Day and night. I wanted to tell you, Joshua had a big job, but he did it. He did it. And the blessed man of Psalm one, did it. And the psalmist said in one thirty-nine, as we say, listen, God said as a psalmist, how precious of thy thought unto me.
As the hymn writer wrote, all the thoughts forever flowing, all the joy forever flowing from God's thoughts of His dear Son. Now can I say it again? Please let me say. I can't do it too greatly. The blessing of your daily life depends how much you give time to give thoughts to His Word. You don't have to read a whole chapter and memorize it. You probably couldn't. We could sure take one verse and chew it all day long. Meditate. Meditate. Meditate.
The Word of God in your mouth. You know, it's a good thing to have it where you can have it in your mouth. Then you're able to tell it. If you don't get it in your heart, it doesn't get to your mouth, I know. But if it's not in your mouth, nobody else is going to hear it either. But please know what it's for. Now let's read the rest of the verse. Meditate therein day and night. Why? That thou mayest observe to do, according to all that is written therein. Can I say this simply that I think it's right here expressed? The reason Christians are not obeying the word of the Lord, they're not even meditating in it.
If they get it, maybe just on Sunday morning and Sunday night. And if they come to the prayer meeting, that's not enough. Individually, every day and night. It produces obedience. Note it again, let me emphasize it. that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. You have to obey it. And if you meditate upon it, it produces obedience, the blessing of it.
It produces obedience to do according to that word. And read on why. is the objective as you get to the end of the verse. Then, not before, then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. My beloved, can I say it again? I say to my conscience as well as to yours, my heart as well as to yours, unless I meditate in the word of God day and night as much as possible, I'm not going to be a successful Christian. The assembly is not going to be a successful assembly.
Let me say it lovingly, not only lovingly, but encouragingly. I don't care how few we are if we were doing that. I'd rather be with a handful who was keeping the Word of God than with the five thousand You don't know who they are, what they are, where they are, spiritually. I'd rather be with just a handful of dear Christians who want to obey the words of God. Obedience, the key to blessing. Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous. Then thou shalt have good faith.
And please let me say this, right from the beginning of this book, You can read it all the way through and you'll find how successful Joshua was. With only one exception you might find he went wrong. But you will have to say that he really kept the word of God. He was so successful. Right to the end. He obeyed. But note the encouragement of the end. Verse nine. Have not I commanded thee? Have not I commanded thee? My beloved, let me say, God gave him to you and me a command.
The commandment that we should keep is word. Keep my commandment, says the Lord Jesus. And his commandments, John wrote in the epistle, are not grievous. Let me say, my brother, Don't look at me and don't look at any preacher. Look at yourself. Let me look at myself. God's commanded me. Keep my word. Keep my word. And then he encourages me. Be strong and have a good courage. Be not afraid. Neither be thou dismayed. Why, the Lord thy God is with thee. Whither so ever thou goeth.
My, what an encouragement. He knows you can't do it alone. He says, I'm with you. Can I say it humbly again, but prayerfully from the depths of my heart, I'd rather be with a little group of believers who are faithful to the Word of God and know that the Lord is with us as we obey His Word. Joshua really enjoyed the land, didn't he? And we'll enjoy our blessing if we seek to do the same. Shall we pray? Father, we thank thee for thy word.
But we have to confess. The word of God is quick, living and effective, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the divining of thunder of the soul and the spirit, of the joints and the narrow. is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And Lord thy servant who speaks to thee confesses the need of this portion, speaking to his heart and his conscience. And pray that the dear ones with us will take it to their heart and their conscience. Here's an example. There are blessings that belong to us in Christ.
We're not enjoying them as we should. If we were enjoying them, Lord, we'd be conquering. We'd be winning souls. We'd be making thee known in the midst of difficulties. And we humbly pray, Lord. Lord Jesus, you're our great Joshua. Please, leader, as Joshua led the people of Israel long ago, We've already entered into the land. We crossed the Red Sea when we trusted Christ as our Savior. We crossed the River Jordan when we saw that we were identified with him in his death.
We're in the land. Blessed Lord, we have to conquer it. The devil doesn't want us to enjoy it. All these blessings. Lord, please bless the little assembly. Lord, and hear our prayer. And search every one of us. And let every one of us get in such condition with thee, Lord. You can't help but bless us. Let us see thy prosperity. Blessing us. And may every one of us hear thee say, Be strong and have good courage.
Be not dismayed. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Lord, we ask it. Lord, as we face the future, Lord, we don't know how long the future is going to be. We long for thee to come, Lord, and more probably every one of us are saying, we wish you would come. But, Lord, look, we don't want to meet thee defeated. We'd like to meet thee victoriously. And please, Lord, from the depth of the heart, we pray for this testimony. That by thy Holy Spirit, and by each one of us, letting the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, through the book, guide us in a path of obedience, and will have spiritual prosperity.
We ask it, Lord, in thy precious and worthy name. Give him these things. Amen.