Justice and Mercy - Part 1 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!

This is LeSaire Bradley Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Holy, holy, glory, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three birth tongues, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adored Thee, casting down their golden crowns, the crown the blessed sea. Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee, who worked and bought, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide Thee, though the idols in moment thy glory may not see, only Thou art holy, there done beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea.

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three birth tongues, blessed Trinity. Well, it's hard to believe we're already here in the middle of summer. It seems that the summer months pass more quickly than the winter ones, at least they do for me. As many of you know, my wife and I both had COVID back in the month of December, and so the past six months have been very challenging for us. I have recovered very well, but my wife, between being in the hospital and the rehab, was away from home for 101 days, even after coming home. It's been a very difficult time.

She's had a lot of pain. I'm thankful to report that she is doing better. I mention this again because she is the office manager of our radio broadcast, and so without her at the office, I know things have gone rather slowly. In these past months, we haven't been able to answer your mail as quickly as we normally would.

I appreciate your patience. We certainly continue to need your support and ask that you pray for us as we desire to continue this radio broadcast. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Let our repenting rebel live, O'er not thy mercy large and free, O say can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Can it be that mercy still reserved for me? O can my God his wrath forbear, And be the chief of sinners' care. In our last message from the book of Joshua, we observed in chapter 6 a sure promise of faithful obedience and a great victory. Today we're still looking at chapter 6, and we consider God's wrath on a wicked city. And God's mercy on a sinful woman. And God's blessing on a faithful leader.

We saw that when they marched around the city for seven days and seven times on the seventh day that the wall fell and that the soldiers easily entered the city. We now look at Joshua chapter 6 verse 17. And the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, and she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that were set. The city shall be accursed. All in it, all living things were to die.

And they were to take none of the spoil. Those things that were of any value were to be taken to the house of God. So first of all we see God's wrath on a wicked city. God clearly commanded them to destroy it. Let's look at verse 18. And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it. Now the instruction is very clear. They were not to take any of the spoil for themselves. Nobody could come back later and say, well I just didn't understand that.

That point really wasn't made, it was made. And so he says you're not to take anything, lest the whole camp of Israel be accursed. Verse 21. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and ass with the edge of the sword.

Now somebody reads that and says that troubles me. Must be that there's a difference between God and the Old Testament and God and the New Testament. I like to think only about God being a God of love. But here, without any question, were clear instructions from God that they were to go into the city, destroy it, both man and woman, young and old, and even the animals. Verse 24.

And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein, only the silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. This makes us think of some New Testament references. Or somebody would like to say, well that's the God of years gone by.

He's not the same today. But we turn to the New Testament and find in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And then chapter 12 verse 29, for our God is a consuming fire. So the same God that told his people in Old Testament times to destroy the city, to burn it up, is depicted in the New Testament as being a consuming fire. Now this instruction to destroy the city was not something new.

This didn't come as a surprise to Joshua, because the directions had been given even before they started on the journey. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 20, we read beginning with the 16th verse. But of the cities of these people which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.

Very plain directions that are given. Anything that breathes must die. But thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that they teach you not to do after their abominations. Now we get some insight as to one of the reasons as to why God says they're to be destroyed. If you spare them, they worship false gods, and you live among them, you're apt to be influenced. And you would worship the gods that they worship. God is a jealous God that will not have his own to worship a false god. The very first commandment is thou shalt have no other gods before me. Any violation of that, obviously, is idolatry. And God in his holiness hates idolatry. So lest they teach you to do after their abominations which they have done unto their gods, so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

So I want you to destroy these pagans who worship false gods. Now the people of Canaan were very wicked. They were idolatrous, incest was prevalent among them. They worshiped Ashtaroth involved in the worship of this false god, where all kinds of orgies and ungodly activities in the name of religion.

And they also engaged in human sacrifice, sometimes burning their own children or putting them on an altar to offer them unto their gods. God despised that. God hates sin.

God hates idolatry. So he said these are wicked people. You can just rest assured there was not one innocent person in the land of Canaan that was put to death. I've had people say that to me sometimes about Noah's day and the flood.

Think about all the innocent people that died. I can promise you on the authority of God's word there was not one innocent soul that drowned in that flood. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Now these Canaanites not only were extremely wicked but they sinned against light. First of all the creation declares the existence of the true and living God. According to Psalm 19 it displays his handiwork. So they had the ability to observe the very earth upon which they lived and the sky that was over them with the sun, moon and stars. And God tells us in the book of Romans chapter 1 that the creation is enough testimony for one to be convinced there is a creator.

One true and living God. But not only did they have that benefit which is available to all human beings living on this earth obviously. But they had heard the report of what God had done for Israel.

They had heard the report about the Red Sea being dried up. Now to find out that these people worshiped a God that was able to give them safe passage across the Red Sea as he held the waters back. That should have been enough to say we want to find out more about this God.

We are going to inquire after him. We are going to discover more about what has happened. And then they heard about them defeating the two kings that invaded them early on. The success that they had. They had heard about all the marvelous, miraculous works that God had displayed on behalf of his people. But they didn't repent.

They didn't acknowledge him as the true and living God. Now God's judgment that came on Jericho is really a picture of the final judgment that is going to come upon the wicked. The walls of Jericho could not protect them from destruction. They no doubt felt secure. We built these walls. They may have stood the test in some form or time if they were attacked. But now with the God of heaven supporting the efforts of his people to take the city, the walls were not sufficient.

They had closed the gates to the city. The gate to the wall could not keep out the judgment of God. And sinners cannot protect themselves from the judgment that is to come.

Somebody may feel, I don't fear judgment because I'm just not all that bad. But that's not the description we get of human beings when we look at God's word. There's none that understand it. There's none that seeketh after God.

They've ever once turned to their own way. They're born with a sinful nature connected to the fallen parent Adam. And so sinners are unable to protect themselves. They may hide behind their wall of self-righteousness, but that will not protect them. They may attempt to build the wall of religious activity, but that will not protect them.

Judgment is coming. And the ruins of Jericho stood as a memorial. It was a constant reminder when anybody would come that way and see here once stood this city with its walls to protect it.

Now the walls are flat on the ground and the city is burned with fire. This is a reminder that God hates idolatry. Anytime a person looked on that scene, if they could understand the situation, they would know God hates idolatry. It was a reminder to Israel not to be influenced by the pagan worship around them. That God doesn't tolerate it. He can't say, well, you know, there's some good things in this other religion.

I think I might get some benefit out of it. I'm not going to leave God, but I'd just like to add on something. No, God said specifically he did not want his people to be influenced by and or involved with the pagan worship.

He despises idolatry. For it was a lasting memorial as a reminder to the greatness of God's power in delivering his people. Somebody might have looked at that from the human standpoint and say, well, that city is secure. And if they observed the people marching around the walls and say, what's that all about?

Do those poor souls think they're going to take that city by just marching around it? But it was the power of God that brought down the walls flat to the ground, and it was a memorial, a lasting memorial to prove what God is able to do in defense of his people. Furthermore, it was a reminder that they must not lean on the arm of the flesh.

All of us know what the scriptures say in that regard. The arm of flesh will surely fail you. But how many times do we forget that? How many times do we depend on our own ingenuity, our own thoughts, our own plans, our own strength? And then we're defeated, we're surprised.

Well, not me. We're repeatedly told that the arm of flesh will fail us. And then as we look at that scene, the city destroyed.

Everybody in it put to death. You cringe as you think about it. But you learn some things about God. First of all, God is holy. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 25. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Seraphim, as recorded in Isaiah chapter 6, sang holy, holy, holy, perpetually in his presence. It's hard for us to fathom what that means, that God is holy.

Since we are sinners by nature, we are influenced by our own inclinations and like to fashion a God that suits our preferences. But God being holy abhors sin, will punish sinners, will send his judgments when they are necessary. First Peter chapter 1 verse 16 says, because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. Someone said to me recently, well, we know that we can't be perfectly holy, so why does God say that? Well, it's a fact. First John chapter 1 tells us that if we claim that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Well, what's he talking about? Well, would you expect God to say, be ye seventy-five percent holy? And if you don't make that, try for fifty. All that would do would say, all right, I'm only striving for fifty percent, so I got another fifty percent over here where I can just go on and sin and no, I can't make it, I can't live up to the standard. No, you're not going to be sinlessly perfect in this life, but God says, here's the standard. Be ye holy even as I am holy. God is holy. Furthermore, we see that God is just. Whatever God does is just.

It may not meet your criteria. You may not be able to understand the why and wherefore of his movement in some particular direction, but he is just. Anything that he does is in keeping with his justice. Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4. He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth without iniquity, just and right is he.

So when somebody replies, this doesn't seem fair to me. They obviously haven't come to grips with the fact that the God that we worship is holy and is just. In the ninth chapter of the book of Romans, where the apostle talks about the Lord raising up Pharaoh. Put him where he was for a purpose that God's name might be glorified in the destruction that he brought upon Egypt.

Somebody says, that's not fair. How could God hold him accountable when God put him in that position? Now, you must understand that what Pharaoh did in that position, he did not because God was forcing him. God is not the author of sin. Pharaoh did what he did out of his own evil heart, out of his own self-centered thoughts and attitudes.

Well, somebody says, it doesn't seem fair that God would hold Pharaoh accountable for his actions. And as the apostle wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he knew in advance that that question would be raised. So he said, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to the one that created him?

Shall the clay rise up against the potter and raise question? You can't read Romans chapter 9 without coming to the grips with the fact that God is just in all he does, even if you don't understand him. Psalm 145 verse 17, the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works.

Everything that he does, in all of his plans, all of his decrees, all of his works, he is righteous, he is holy. And then furthermore, not only is God holy, not only is he just, he is a God of wrath. Psalm 21 verse 8, thine hand shall find all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out all those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them. There are well over 100 references in the Old Testament alone to the wrath of God.

Something that cannot be ignored. Because God is holy, he hates that which is evil. He is going to punish sin. He has punished it and he will punish it. Revelation chapter 6 verse 17, for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand? So as his wrath has been meted out numerous times through the ages, there is coming a day called the great day of his wrath. And who shall be able to stand? Raw is the road that leads to death and thousands walk together there.

On wisdom shows a narrow path with year and there of travel blue. What a dreadful thing to think about the wrath of God being poured out upon the ungodly. The only hope for any of us is in his mercy that has given us the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a Savior we have, how we rejoice in him. I hope that you are right. Let us know that you've listened to the program today. Until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Let not all my hopes be vain, create my heart entirely new. Which immigrants could ne'er obtain, which false apostates never knew.