Joshua Part 1 - A Study in Faithfulness

Andrew Grey starts a new series on the book of Joshua. The Bible text is Joshua 1v1-18. This sermon was preached on Sunday 7th Sept 2025

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Joshua chapter one. Let's listen to the words of God. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore, arise. Go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers, and shall help them, until the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as he has to you. And they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you beyond the Jordan, toward the sunrise. And they answered Joshua, All that you have commanded us, we will do, and wherever you send us, we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your commandments and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous. Thanks be to God for his word to us today. As we open up the book of Joshua, when are we? And verse one tells us after the death of Moses. Where are we, though, in the Bible story? Come back to the Garden of Eden for a moment. We find Adam and Eve enjoying fellowship with God in a paradise garden. It's like a temple. Then with a fall, our first parents, disobedience. Eden is lost. So all of Adam's children, us included, were born with rebellious hearts. And we and they, we are outside of that garden, temple, paradise. We're not in God's special place. Then our gracious God, well, he gave the gospel to Abraham. He promised to bring a people into covenant with him. They would be his people, they would be his, he would have them as their God, and they would enjoy him forever in a promised and a blessed land. And then Abraham's family, it becomes Israel, they're enslaved in Egypt, but God never forgets his promises. He leads them out by mighty judgment, but they disbelieve and they disobey, and a generation must dwell and then perish in the wilderness. And so we come to verse 1. They're now on the edge of the promised land after the death of Moses. So there we are, about to come in to the promised land. And the story of Joshua, it is about the old promises of God, the old, old, old covenant promises of God, specifically that promise of a beautiful, blessed, and fruitful home, the land of Canaan. Moses led them out of the land of slavery. Now Joshua would lead them in to the land of promise. These 24 chapters of Joshua, you can sum them up in four words. They've all got to do with the land. This is adapted from Del Ralph Davis. Enter, conquer, inherit, and obey. Enter, conquer, inherit, obey. And you can actually see the whole book summed up in just the first few verses of chapter one. Enter the land. See that in verse 2. Go over this Jordan. Then conquer this land. Verse 5 we read, No man shall be able to stand against you. Plenty will try, but no one will be able to. Then inherit the land. Verse 6, you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. And that's where we find those chapters of just place names, chapter after chapter, and to us they seem very boring. But imagine that is your inheritance, that is your land being read out. Your city, your village, your farm, your home. Precious. And then lastly, obey. Obey that you might keep the land. Verse 7, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. So that's the story of the book of Joshua. It's all about the land. Enter, conquer, inherit, and obey. So how will God, the Holy Spirit, speak to us today, here, the Church of Jesus Christ, through the book of Joshua? Well, the big message is this: we have a faithful God. Dear church, we have a faithful God. He always, always, always keeps his promises. And so we then are called to be faithful people and to serve him faithfully on our way to the promised heavenly home. For the earthly land of Canaan, it was not and it was never the final land of promise for the faithful people of God. Joshua knew it. The Old Testament saints knew it. The New Testament tells us that. That they, like we, are looking forward to a heavenly city whose designer and builder is God. We're looking forward to a better country, a heavenly one, to which the Lord has promised to bring his people. Some of us will have forgotten our heavenly home. It's quite timely, actually, that we read and prayed from Psalm 49 today, wasn't it? There are so many tasty and shiny and alluring things of this world. We see them in others, we sometimes covet them, and it turns down the beauty and the volume of the heavenly home to which we are going. Or maybe we just plain fear that we will not get there. We read in our psalm today, didn't we? That God will ransom my soul from the power of the grave, he will receive me. Sometimes, though, when we look at the grave, we fear that, don't we? Do we find that easy to believe? That we will be ransomed from the grave and brought home to glory. We find it hard to believe that sometimes. So into our weakness and our temptations and our sins and our fears, God the Holy Spirit, through Joshua, speaks. He will speak to us through wonderful stories, through lists of defeated kings and places, through encouragement, through warnings. And most of all, time and time again and in so many different ways, it will preach of the faithfulness of our triune God. He always, always, always keeps his promises. And so we can then serve him and we can fight and sacrifice on the basis that the Lord always keeps his word. So, with that in mind, let's come to chapter one. And actually, as we preach through chapter one, we do actually see the big themes of the entire book. So, first up, we have before us the faithful God, the Lord who will take his people home. The book is called Joshua, but the hero of this Bible book is not the man Joshua. The Lord does it all. And as I read those opening verses, did you see how the promises of God they are just piled up again and again and again for Joshua and the people to swim in, to rest in. You know, verse 2. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them. Verse 3 every place that the sole of your foot will tread. So wherever you go, I have given it to you, just as I promised Moses. So you're gonna have to walk in some pretty scary places. So when you think, where of where are where are my feet gonna have to go, Joshua and the people? They will have to walk in some pretty scary places. Uh the people who dwell in the land are strong and they are wicked. But as the book rolls on, we see the Lord keep his word, he protects his people, he wins the battle, and then he brings them into some new portion of the promised land. And that's what we see again and again. And from the very first word, the Lord says, I will do this. I will do this. And there is no possibility that the Lord would let his people down. It's such a glorious thing about our gods. He does not, he cannot let his people down. When he makes a promise, he keeps it. And if there's one thing we take away from our time in the book of Joshua, I do pray that it is this: that we would better understand and feel the faithfulness of God. We belong to Christ, we have surrounding us, protecting us, guarding us, challenging us the faithfulness of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I wonder if for a moment you just keep a finger in Joshua chapter 1 and turn on to chapter 21. These are really important verses. They're the summary of the book of the whole, really. So the end of chapter 21. Let me read verses 43 to 45. In a sense, it's a spoiler of the plot, but it's important we know the plot. Thus, the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there, and the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. So not one word failed. And that word for failed, it's literally fallen. Not one word has fallen. There are no fallen words with our God. We know unfaithfulness when we see it. We see it in others, we see it in ourselves. It's grievous, isn't it? A word of promise is made, and then it falls. It's very grievous. But never with him. Never, ever, ever. And most especially of all, he will keep his word to get his people home. Now the route to rest. For God's people. He uses many words to describe our heavenly home. One word is simply rest. The route to rest for the people of God was not, is not an easy route. So here at the start of Joshua, there they were perched on the edge of the promised land, the river Jordan before them, and then the land of Canaan full of Canaanites. Enemies lay ahead, sacrifices were needed. There was a call to costly obedience. So why would you walk that way? Why would you walk that way for us today? You know, we're not called to walk toward a Canaanite army, but we are called to engage in costly and painful discipleship. There is always costly obedience as we walk with Christ. And why would we do that? Simply because the Lord is faithful. Comes to us and he says, You know, I am giving you the land of promise. So that rest, uh, fellowship with me, ultimately in a renewed creation, yeah, ransoming your soul from the grave, receiving you unto myself. All of that I give you. Now walk with me and toward me. We'll come back to chapter one, uh, if you would. Uh we have before us then the faithful God. Alongside uh the promise of the faithful God comes a command and an encouragement. You'll have seen that. The command, verse six, be strong and courageous. In fact, verse seven, be strong and very courageous, and there will be much need for courage on the route into the land. And going alongside of it, it's kind of the flip side of that command to be strong and courageous. It's down in verse eight. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. So imagine a long, straight, good road, and that is the word of God. Now don't turn off it even an inch. Don't go to the right or to the left, don't take a shortcut, don't go up any cul-de-sacks, don't even look in the ditch on the side as you walk towards your home, as you walk towards the promised rest that the Lord is going to give. And the encouragement, if you walk in the way of the word, end of verse five, I will not leave you or forsake you. End of verse nine. The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. So that's the promise, isn't it? The promise of God's presence on the perilous journey into the land. In the face of enemies without, you know, Canaanites, in the face of temptations to sin, to walk away from the law of the Lord. And the promise of the covenant God here, as you walk in my way, so I will walk with you. But let me show you here something that may surprise us. Those commands and those encouragements, do you notice who they are given to? They were given by God to Joshua. This whole first section of chapter one, it's addressed to Joshua. When you see the word you in that section, it is you singular. It is you, Joshua. It's actually not saying you whole people of God. It's actually saying, you, Joshua, you be strong and courageous, you walk in the way of the word, and I will be with you. And that is exactly what they needed. And that is exactly what we need. This is our second heading, a faithful Saviour. The Lord provides the leader that we need. We're not actually meant to put ourselves into the shoes of Joshua. We are not meant to identify with Joshua. Because the Bible gives us clues that he is not just any old believer in God. The Lord comes and speaks to him personally. He gives him special commands and promises. His name, even, Joshua, well, it's not hard to work out, is it? Joshua means Jesus, same name. And so when the Christian reads the book of Joshua, when we hear about a man called Jesus, whose task is to bring God's people to the promised land, who's instructed to obey all the law of Moses and who is promised the presence of God, well, we think, yeah, it sounds like Jesus, doesn't it? The second, the greater Joshua, who brings a people with him to heaven, the one who is faithful to all God's laws, even to death, the one who enjoyed God's presence in a way unlike anyone else. The Lord arranged things so that we might see Jesus in the person of Joshua. Joshua is one of those characters in the Old Testament which we are given ahead of time, intentionally, very intentionally, to teach us about Jesus. Now, Joshua the man, back in the Promised Land, all of those centuries ago, he was just a man. He was like you and me. He was flesh and blood, he was fallen and sinful, and he was a wonderful man, and that there are great things we see from the life and the deeds of Joshua. He was a brilliant character. But most of all, Joshua lived and breathed and spoke in a special office, a special role. God made him a type, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's why that matters, and it's actually very wonderful. Who was commanded to get God's people safe to heaven? That's what really what it comes down to, doesn't it? Is it down to the people of God? Well, mercifully not. It is Joshua, it is Jesus, not you, not me. It's not up to us to win the land, to fight the war for heaven through perfect obedience, perfect courage, and perfect strength. Wonderfully, he is the one who fights to win the land and fights and wins for his people. So do you hear how important it is that the Lord comes to Joshua, to Jesus, if you like, and says, Jesus, be strong and very courageous. You know, the law of the Lord, it must not depart from your mouth according to whatever it says, and so I will be with you wherever you go. The second Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, the New Testament tells us that He He has indeed prepared a home, a house, a rest, a banquet. It's described in so many ways a city, that the first Joshua could never attain a heavenly inheritance, true and perfect rest. And so we are encouraged then to remain close to our Joshua, to follow him wherever he takes us. So, how is it that we can say, I just want to make sure we've got this all clear, how is it that we can say the Lord will never leave us or forsake us? And we can say that. Actually, Hebrews 13 quotes this verse and applies it to the church. And the way it's true of us is simply that we are in Christ. If we belong to Jesus, we are joined to him. The one who is strong, the one who is obedient, the one who will never be left by his father, and therefore in him, well, we can say, we can know the Lord will never leave or forsake us. So just consider a moment freshly the obedience of our Saviour, our leader. His perfect obedience. He never veered from the law of the Lord. Just think about the beautiful obedience of his life, his faithfulness even to death on a cross. The presence, the fellowship, the joyful presence of God that he enjoys with his father and his spirit, and the victory that he's being granted. You know, death of death, he's done it, hell's destruction, he's done it. His people, he will certainly land us safe on Canaan's side. But then in Joshua chapter 1, the people of God do get addressed. You see that the Lord comes and he proclaims his faithfulness, he speaks to the Savior, to the Joshua, to the Jesus. But then Joshua in turn does then speak to the people of God. That's chapter 1, verses uh 10 to 18. And what he puts before us here is the constant challenge of the book of Joshua. Will we be a faithful people? So faithful God, faithful saviour, faithful people. Question mark. Will we serve the Lord? Now that's actually the challenge that Joshua left the people at the end of his life. God willing, we'll get to chapter 24 in due time. When Joshua would say to the people, choose this day whom you are going to serve. Which gods are you going to serve? You can serve the one true God or you can serve a bunch of other gods like you used to. Who are you going to serve? And the Lord's intention was to have his people only, only love and serve and worship him. In chapter one, uh, the first command, it's down in verse 10, isn't it? This is what faith and obedience begins to look like. Joshua comes to the people and he says, Pack your bags. That must have been quite a scene, you know, removal vans and whatnot. It's time to go. It's time to go and take possession, take hold of what God is giving to you. Now, by the way, that dynamic we see in verse 10, that's a brilliant summary of the shape of the Christian life. Christian, you've got work to do, you've got battles to fight in order that you can take hold of what God is giving to you. The land is given to them, it was a gift of the Lord. But the Christian does not sit back and do nothing. There is work to do, there are battles to fight. There then is a there's a particular word to those tribes whose inheritance was on the east of the Jordan. That's verses 12 to 15. And that's a word about the unity of God's people. Fight alongside your brethren, don't just look after yourselves. And the heart of this commanded obedience, see it down in verse 17. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. So there we go. Follow Joshua, we might say follow Jesus, as he follows and obeys the law of the Lord. And as we go on through the book of Joshua, we'll see wonderful examples as the story unfolds. In a few chapters' time, we'll get to Caleb. I'll bet that for numbers of us, Caleb is one of our favourite men in the whole Bible. But we will also see horrible, negative examples. We'll see how sin and selfishness and idolatry and false worship creep in and then dominate, and actually leads ultimately to destruction. One last cross-reference before we finish. Could you turn on again to near the end of the Bible, chapter 23? Not the Bible, Joshua. Turn on to Joshua chapter 23. Let me read verses 14 to 16. Joshua says, And now I'm about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, if verse 16, if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you. And that's where the book of Joshua finishes. There's a reminder of the covenant, a faithful God who will be faithful in blessing, but who will also be faithful in cursing. He will bless those who trust him and walk with him in obedience. Those who worship other gods, those who disobey, well, they will be treated faithfully according to the terms of the covenant, and they will be cursed. And it's a bit of an ominous feel, isn't it, as the book ends? There's this fork in the road. Which way will you go? The minister Andrew Randall puts it like this He says, The covenant faithfulness of God must be met by the covenant obedience of God's people. The privileges of the covenant carry responsibilities. So free grace. The Lord comes to us in grace, doesn't he? He saves us freely. That's the promise of the gospel. But hand in hand with free grace is worship and service and sacrifice and obedience. Grace is entirely free, but those saved by grace we are called to walk worthy of our calling. So Joshua sort of holds before us as we go through ups and downs of the journey of that people back then into the land of Canaan. Well, which way will they go? Constant fork in the road, covenant faithfulness, covenant unfaithfulness, serve the Lord or serve something else. And the book of Joshua says the same to the covenant people of God today. Will we continue to serve the Lord, worship the Lord, fight battles for him, or something else? So as we receive the book of Joshua, as the Holy Spirit of Jesus, as he preaches Joshua to us, we are in a position that is both different to and exactly the same as those people who are going to cross the Jordan and go into Canaan. Different. We're in union with Christ, where we have the power of the Holy Spirit, and a greater obedience is possible than under the old covenant. Same, the covenant faithfulness of God is met by covenant obedience from the people of God. So the New Testament will say things like this to us, talking about Joshua, actually. He'll say, okay, New Testament church, while the promise of entering God's rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. So I wonder what the Lord has most uh addressed you with um today. Maybe it's his his total faithfulness, and I would love I would love for that to be ringing in our ears. He keeps his promises. Maybe it's Jesus, our wonderful leader. Get his people through this life, through this veil of tears, with its pitfalls and temptations and stumblings, his perfect obedience, his work, he says to us, he will never leave us or forsake us. Or maybe it is that warning note that we need to hear, that we need to trust and obey, need to be faithful to the covenant of our God. Let's bow our heads. I will lead us in prayer. God, our Heavenly Father, we we thank you that we can trust you like we can trust no one else. We thank you that you are entirely good and dependable, you are wise and you are powerful and strong. We thank you that you delight to give. You give rest. Most of all, you give yourself to people like us who simply do not deserve it, but you delight to bind us to your Son and you give us so many good things. We come before you with weaknesses and temptations and sins and fears. We acknowledge and confess all of that to you. We thank you for grace and mercy. We thank you for perfections in our Savior that we can never dream of in ourselves. Thank you for the greater Joshua for all he has done and is doing for his church now. And we pray for ourselves. We pray for the grace of perseverance and your work of preservation that we would walk with Christ all the days of our earthly pilgrimage. You know, the divide the divisions in our hearts, the things we are tempted to love instead of or alongside you. And we are sorry for that, and we pray for a deeper and a purer love of Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.