Be Of Good Courage - Part 2 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley Jr., pastor of the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! Thou the rays of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace!

This is Lacerre Bradley Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Lift me up above the shadows, plant my feet on higher ground. Lift me up above the clouds, on where the pure sunshine is found. Lift me up above my weakness, lift me up into thy strength. Lift me up above the shadows, till I stand with thee at bay. Lift me up above the shadows, lift me up above the shadows. Lift me up, and let me stand, and let me stand.

On the mountain, tops of mountain, tops of mountain, tops of mountain, let me land, let me tell you a land. Lift me up above the shadows, for the storms are raging high. Lift me up, my blessed Savior, let me to thy bosom fly.

Bear no evil link and touch me over on the shining side. Lift me up above the shadows, let me evermore abide. Lift me up above the shadows, lift me up, and let me stand, and let me stand. On the mountain, tops of mountain, tops of mountain, tops of mountain, let me dwell, let me dwell, and hear the Lamb. Lift me up above the shadows, out of sorrow into joy. Lift me up above my grief, Lord, give me gold for my alloy. Then when death must claim my spirit and the storms of life are past, lift me up above the shadows, till in heaven I stand at last. Lift me up above the shadows, lift me up above the shadows. Lift me up, and let me stand, and let me stand.

On the mountain, tops of mountain, tops of mountain, tops of mountain, let me dwell, and hear the Lamb. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the privilege of being on the air to bring messages from Thy word. We come to Thee because we need Thy help.

We live in troubled times. We have great concern about our country and pray that Thou would bless that the liberties that we've enjoyed, the religious liberty that is so precious to us, may be preserved. May Thy people be moved upon to seek Thy face and to stand firm by their convictions, standing for the principles that are clearly taught in Thy word that we may serve and honor Thee, and that Thy church may move forward and be blessed and prospered in these challenging times. Hear us for Jesus' sake, we pray.

Amen. I appreciate it so much when our listeners write us and tell us how the messages have been a blessing and how the Lord has used the truth of His word in their life. I would appreciate it if you would write us. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Or you can make a donation by going to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org. We continue the message today, Be of Good Courage.

The text is Joshua chapter 1, verses 5 to 7. The Lord says, I will be with Thee, I will not fail Thee nor forsake Thee, be strong and of a good courage. Certainly, we're living in a day when we need to be encouraged in the Lord, considering all of the circumstances that surround us, the difficulties that we are encountering. Last time, we talked about facing discouragement, the many things that do discourage us, but we come today to speak of finding encouragement.

But then let's talk about finding encouragement. We find encouragement by going to the Word of God, Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. The 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 thou shalt have good success. Now this is the word that's given to Joshua. Now Moses will no longer be the leader. He's led them all through the wilderness journey. And this is a new day, a new time.

And Joshua becomes the leader. And God is giving him instruction, telling him that he must be courageous, because his trust is going to be in God. So what's he telling us here? The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. So the three things in this passage that we need to know with respect to our involvement with the Word of God, we're to talk about it, we're to meditate on it day and night, and we're to obey it, not turning either to the right hand or to the left.

Let's think about that a little bit. When you are facing discouragement, do you allow Satan just to drag you down so that you think about the problem, you think about everything that's wrong, you think about even some of the exaggeration that has been made, maybe in your own mind, or what somebody else has said to you to bring about this discouragement, or do you go to the Word of God? Talk about it. You may have to talk to yourself, you may have to read it out loud, just to say, Lord, I need what's there, and I'm going to talk about it to others. I'm going to meditate on it day and night. Sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, and immediately what comes to your mind?

Things that discourage you. Think about your problems. Just think on it day and night.

It's to be an integral part of our daily life. How many times do you have to rely on the Scriptures that you have been able to quote? You've memorized them, and so you're facing discouragement. You have to quickly go to some that you recall that have meant something to you time and time again, but they're still good, they're still God's Word, and you can count on it. So to deal with discouragement, we desperately need the Word of God. Not just to read it, not just to talk about it, not just to meditate on it, but to obey it, to do what it says.

Not turn to the right hand or to the left, not step out of place. Follow the narrow path of divine truth as laid down in His Word. In close conjunction with that, not only by going to the Word, but by relying on the promises of God. Verse 9 of Joshua chapter 1. 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.

What a promise! Joshua might have had some apprehension or concern down deep, thinking Moses was such an outstanding leader, and now I've got to try to fill his shoes, how am I going to be able to go forward? But the Lord says, be strong, be of good courage, be not afraid, don't be dismayed. Now just to say all of that might not have much impact. But the Lord adds to that, thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

That makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? If you're going to have to travel alone, if you're going to have to face difficulties, if you're going to have to go through various challenges that come your way in life, and you've got to handle it in your own strength and depend on your own wisdom, sure, you feel like giving up. But when the Lord says, I will be with you, that changes the picture.

And he says that so often. I love that passage in Isaiah chapter 35 verse 3 says, Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. One with weak hands say, I don't think I can hold on much longer. The way is too difficult.

Feeble knees, I feel like I'm going down for the count, I can't continue to travel. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Again, if that's all there was in this passage, you'd say, that just doesn't do much for me. Says to these who are of a fearful heart, fear not, I don't want to fear, I don't want to be fearful.

But how can I deal with it? Here comes the rest of it, the whole your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. So if you're afraid, help is on the way.

The Lord says, I will come and rescue you. And so there's no need to fear. In our human nature, we're prone to fear.

But God says, I'm going to come and rescue you. And then chapter 41 of Isaiah, those three passages in close proximity, beginning with verse 10. Fear thou not. Now it indeed is recognized in scripture that to give into fear is the tendency of human nature.

Because there's repeated words calling us not to fear. Fear thou not, and quickly he says, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Then you go down to verse 13. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Now the question comes, do you believe the promise of God? You say, well I want to, I want to believe it, but right now I don't see any change in my circumstances. I don't see a clear path about how everything is going to work out in a satisfactory way.

I just can't help but fear. But here's the promise. God says, I will help thee. And then verse 14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and you men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

I will help you. That's the promise of God. Do you believe it? Faith, as we noted, is crucial in this Christian walk to get the benefit of these wonderful promises. And then, it's wonderful in the midst of trials, heartaches, disappointments, difficulties, to remember suffering is temporary.

2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. First of all, somebody reads that text and says, well, my affliction is not light, it's heavy. But it's light in comparison. That's the point of the text. It's comparing the present situation to what is coming. So, it's light compared to the glory that's going to come afterward. And it is but for a moment. Some trouble seems to go on and on and on and on. But it is temporary.

It is going to come to an end. I think about years ago, visiting Elder E.D. Bryant when he was in the hospital. And I knew that he had a serious illness and that he might not survive. And I walked in and he was so cheerful. He said, Elder Bradley, I'm glad to see you. And he said, I'm rejoicing in the Lord because I know that the Lord is either going to heal me now or in the resurrection, one or the other.

So, I'm in his hands. And when we come to recognize that whatever the sufferings are here, they don't last forever. There is an end to suffering. And then, to recall his mighty works. Psalm 105 verse 5 says, remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. Remember what God has done. Remember what God has done for you. You can recall, no doubt, abundant mercies in your life. Sometimes a person gets in such a negative frame of mind and so full of doubt, fear and apprehension that they can't even recall past mercies. It might be good if you struggle with that. Sit down and begin to write them out.

Or if you're like some people who write it out as you go along, go back and look at your diary and recall. Here's something God has done for me in the past. Here was a dark day and God brought me through the darkness.

Here was a deep valley and I didn't know how I was going to get through it, but the Lord brought me through it. And so, you recall his marvelous works that he hath done. Joshua had many of the wonders of God's work, you recall. He had witnessed them. He saw the ten plagues that came upon the Egyptians. It wasn't something that he just read about or heard about. He saw it. He was there.

He witnessed the death of the firstborn, the tenth plague that came upon the Egyptians. He was present and saw the Red Sea parted. Can't you imagine what a thrilling sight that was? That here's this army of people that need to cross. These Israelites that have been slaves and now God is bringing them out, but the Red Sea is in their path. And God rolls the waters back and they come across safely. And then Pharaoh's army, in hot pursuit after them, must drown in the depths. And the people sang, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. To see that, surely you could say I could never doubt.

God can do all things. And then after they were starting on their journey, they were in the wilderness. They were attacked by the Amalekites. About two months into their wilderness journey, they're attacked. And Joshua was the general that led them to victory. And a lot of good things to recall. And so as God is telling him, be not afraid, be of good courage, be strong.

He had every reason to do it. And if you say, well my list is not very long. I can't think of a lot of outstanding deliverances that go back to the book itself. These things are written before time for our learning and admonition. And you read about these things that Joshua saw. And you read about some of the other miracles that were performed. You read about some of the great deliverances for the three Hebrew children. For Daniel in the dead of limes.

For Peter when he was in prison. And on and on it goes. All right, if God has done all of these great things, he can give me the help that I so desperately need. And I would say, be an encourager. Sometimes I've had people say, well I just don't know where I fit in. I don't know what my place is in the church. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Well I'm going to give everybody here today a biblical assignment.

You can't say you don't have a job. Your job is to be an encourager. Now the first thing you've got to do is encourage yourself. That's where you've got to start.

Because you can't much encourage anybody else if you're not encouraged. We find in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 30, the description of that devastating event when David had gone leading his men after the enemy. And when they came back, ziklag had been burned to the ground. And their wives, the wives of these soldiers and their children, their families that had been there, were gone. They didn't know what had happened. Soon perhaps they'd all been killed.

So this was indeed a devastating experience. In 1 Samuel 30 verse 6, And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. Think of it. They're blaming David. You misjudge this thing.

It's your fault. His own men are thinking about stoning him to get rid of him. That had to be heartbreaking for David. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

That doesn't give us the details. It doesn't tell us exactly what he did, but he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. He's facing potential death. He's facing severe criticism.

He's facing a loss of respect by those that he has led. But he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And you read the Psalms of David and you can imagine what he might have said on this event because you know how he thought. How he repeatedly came to the Lord in humility, acknowledging his sin, praying for grace to overcome, praying for wisdom and strength to go forward and serve God in an acceptable way. So you encourage yourself. Secondly, as a part of that encouragement, not only to do just exactly what David did here, encouraging himself in the Lord, but it may be necessary to forget some things. The things we need to remember, the things that we need to learn from our trials and affliction so that we don't have to go through the same thing again. We need to be sensitive and learn whatever God is teaching us in all of our troubles. But sometimes people get focused on past events, even sins that they confess but somehow do not feel forgiven.

So Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 verse 13, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press toward the mark toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Forgetting those things that are behind. If you're overwhelmed with thinking of past disappointments, past experiences, past sins, whatever they are, then not only was that time disrupted, but the present is being disrupted by what happened in the past. Forgetting those things that are behind and accepting things which you cannot change. The person just gets all stirred up about some situation that they wish had not happened this way or wish I had done differently or whatever it is and you cannot change it.

You have to learn how to move forward. Nevertheless, think of what Joshua was experiencing. He was one of the spies along with Caleb who had said at Kadesh Barnea, let's go up at once, let's believe God, let's possess our possessions, let's go into the land. But because the people listened to the majority, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. For 40 years, Joshua was a part of that company. No doubt there may have been times that he thought if we had just gone in when we had that opportunity, we wouldn't have had all of this difficulty on our wilderness wanderings. But see, that was an event in the past.

It could not be changed. But it's evident that Joshua was not consumed by it. He continued to be a noble leader and led that victory even when the enemy came upon them in the wilderness. And so you first encourage yourself and then you encourage others by speaking of the goodness of the Lord. Psalm 145 verse 8, Speak of the goodness of the Lord. You believe the Lord is good? Talk about His goodness. Express to others how thankful you are for the goodness that's been demonstrated to you in your own life.

You speak to others words of encouragement like this. Psalm 102 verse 17 says, He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. A reminder of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. It's admitted that there are times God's children may feel forsaken. The psalmist referred to those dark days repeatedly. But the promise still stands.

The God of heaven, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who rules upon the throne, working His will, accomplishing His purposes says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now when you're trying to encourage somebody or help somebody, don't use those meaningless phrases that people sometimes bring up at such a time of difficulty. They'll say, well, cheer up. Things will be better. Well, first of all, you don't know that they're going to be better. They get worse.

So unless you're a prophet and the Lord has enabled you to see into the future, you've got no business saying that because you're telling something that isn't so. And particularly if a person is weighed down in the mollygrubs and you come up and say, cheer up. That doesn't cheer you. That doesn't cheer the person that's down.

They've got to have something more substantial than that. So these well-worn trite phrases are not what can be used. But the promise of Almighty God. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Focus on being an encourager. Barnabas that we read about in the book of Acts actually was named Joseph. But the apostles gave him the name Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. You read about him over and over again as one who was encouraging other people.

Now, how would you identify yourself? Are you one who is sometimes guilty of sharing your discouragement to the point that you discourage other people? Or are you an encourager? Ephesians 4 29 says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. The words that you speak, do they build up? Do they edify?

Do they encourage? Do they minister grace to the hearers? Be strong and of a good courage. We can be strong because our strength comes from the Lord. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 29 says, He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might.

He increaseth strength. We can be of good courage because we know that God is on the throne reigning according to his pleasure, accomplishing that which is to the glory of his name and the good of his people. We can be of good courage because God is the God of all grace. Salvation is by grace.

Aren't you glad that that's true? If it was left up to you, you would recognize I would be eternally lost and ruined. But knowing it's by grace, according to the purpose of God who sent his Son, came into the world to lay down his life and redeem a people, all of those that were given him by the Father, he secured them. So we have good news, the good news of the gospel. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, you have his promise that you have eternal life. We can be of good courage because he has promised to keep those who are his own.

They're secure in the Father's hand, and no man can pluck them out. We can be of good courage because not only will he keep us and preserve us here, but someday he'll take us home to live with him forever. Be of good courage. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. O my soul, praise him for he is my health and salvation. How good to know that in the most difficult of times, in the darkest of days, we can be of good courage because of the promise of the Lord, where he says, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee, therefore be strong and of a good courage. If you would like to get this complete message on CD, please request it when writing us, and until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper, thy work and defend thee. Show me his goodness and mercy, here daily attend thee.

I wonder anew what the Almighty can do, if with his love he be friendly. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr., pastor of the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church. Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.

That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Praise to the Lord, who let all that is in me adore him. All that hath life and breath come now with praises before him. Let thee, amen, sound from his people again, gladly, for aye, we adore him.