The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lassaire Bradley Jr. When I get scared. A thousand times to see my grace. Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. This is Lisa Bradley, Jr., inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace.
Almighty fortress is our love never failing. Our helper means the flood of mortal is prepared for still our ancient foe the seed to work us woe is raft and our brain adorned with cruel pain on earth is not his equal. I'm glad that you're with us today and hope that you will tell others where they can hear these messages from God's Word each week on your local station. I hope that you will write us and do what you can to help support the work Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, box seventeen oh thirty seven. Cincinnati, Ohio, four five two one seven.
And you can make a donation at our website, BaptistBibleHour.org. There you can read the Baptist Witness and also here. our broadcast both the Sunday and daily editions. I ask an interest in your prayers that the Lord will use this radio work to the glory of His name, supply the needs that we can continue on all of these stations. We continue with the message today entitled Forward March.
Our text is Joshua chapter 1 verse 3. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said. Unto you. We first have observed that as the children of Israel came into the land of promise, It was important that they recall the lessons learned from past experiences. and then we come to day to consider that they must trust in God, They'll go on to talk about the fact that they were to commit to God's word and finally to obey God's commands.
So the second thing that we see as essential. for them to move forward. It's faith. and the promises of God. God had promised to give this land, first of all, to Abraham, then to Isaac, and to Jacob.
And now in Exodus chapter 3, verse 17, he's saying to Moses, And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites unto a land flowing with milk and honey. God says now. I'm ready to fulfill this promise. I made the promise, I made the covenant.
Now I'm ready to take you unto this land. A great land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But there is a test of faith. Joshua chapter 1 verse 2. Moses, my servant, is dead now.
Therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even the children of Israel. Forward march. Ready for you to go. This is the command of God. Moses is dead.
Now, Joshua, you're in charge, you're the leader, you go over Jordan. Take all this people. I'm going to give them this land. Joshua chapter 3, verse 5. And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
Now the river is at flood stage. Not only do we think about the complication of giving directions to thousands of people who are going to be marching What? The river is out of its banks. It's rushing madly downstream. How are we going to be able to cross this river?
No solution in sight. No boats available, no way to build a bridge. What are we going to do? Joshua chapter 3, verse 13. And it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord.
The Lord of all the earth. how the Lord interjects that by way of inspiration. He's reminding him. He is the Lord of all the earth. And when we're reminded of that, does that not give us hope and courage?
The Lord to whom we pray is one who has all power. He's the Lord of all the earth. We have the privilege of talking to Him, communing with Him, pouring out our hearts before Him, making our requests to Him, and our expectation is from Him, the Lord of all the earth. When the priests that bear the ark Shall rest in the waters of Jordan. The waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand up and heap.
Forward march. The waters are they roll back. But the priest had to move forward by faith. They couldn't just stand there on the bank and say, well, I'll believe that when I see it. Let's have a prayer meeting and pray that the waters will roll back.
No, God's plan was the priests have got to move forward, and when they get their feet wet, When their feet get in the water, then I'll roll it back. You see, the Lord requires obedience on our part. There's obviously An important Place for prayer. But there's also a place for action.
Something that the Lord requires of us. And the action required was that they would move forward. Showing their confidence was in God. Nope. River is rolling on.
But we're Moving Like we're gonna cross it. And When they Feet two. Touch the water. Then the Lord said it rolls back as a heap. What a sight that must have been.
And now these people can indeed heed the command. Marching forward. And just as They had to demonstrate faith. It was a test of their faith. operate here?
How we're going to get across this river? But it had to be demonstrated that they were trusting God when they got their feet wet. The water roll back and we must embrace the promises of God.
Sometimes you read it and you say, that sounds good. I believe God. And the word God says is so. But you still walk away with doubts and fears and apprehension. In the book of Romans chapter 4.
describes The experience of Abraham. When the Lord had brought news that there was going to be a son born. Although Abraham and Sharah We're both old. Romans chapter 4, verse 19. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead.
when he was about a hundred years old. neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
Now this seemed to be an impossibility. Abraham and Sarah passed the age that they could have a child. But the message of the Lord says She's going to have a son. Power. You recall Sarah laughs.
She thought this is absolutely ridiculous. She later denied it, but in fact, she did laugh. How can this possibly be? But it says Abraham staggered not. at the promise of God.
They believed God. Con said it. I rest in his word. Can't understand it. But I'm trusting him.
How many times do you stagger? At the promise of God. You read the promise. You're certainly not going to say, well, I believe God's wrong. I don't embrace his word.
But you still struggle. You're staggering. You're stumbling back. You're not standing strong. Abraham did not stagger.
At the promise of God. And we're told in the Hebrew letter, without faith it is impossible to please him.
So we can go through a lot of routine, a lot of outward formality. We can say a lot with our lips, but if we don't demonstrate with our feet, By our actions. that we're trusting God. Then Our activity is empty and meaningless without faith. It is impossible.
to please him. And we must consider the fact that true faith works. James tells us that faith without works is dead. And a dead faith is no faith at all. It's worthless, meaningless.
Well, you see that Joshua commanded the people Joshua chapter 1, verse 3: The people were commanded to prepare victuals. because they would be crossing Jordan in three days.
Now, the manna had not ceased, but it was going to cease once they crossed the river and into the land. But Joshua was saying, I want you to make preparation in three days. We're going to be leaving.
Now you can imagine that There may have been some who were a little reluctant. Say, well, I think I'll just wait. see what happens. I don't I don't want to be making any preparation at this time. It may be wrong.
But it gives the instruction. And if you have faith, if you believe what God says, and believe God's servant God had chosen Joshua as the leader, and as he declares what God would have him to speak to the people, prepare vitals because We're going to be crossing Jordan in three days. You say Faith then required action. Not just to say, I believe God, but to demonstrate it by making the preparation, preparing the victuals. You see, there was action required in that preparation.
There was action required when the priests actually went down and got their feet into the water. And later when they came into the land, And they faced the walled city of Jericho. Once again, The solution was not to sit there and pray, Lord, bring down the walls. It's a place to pray, all right. But when God gave directions, then those directions are to be followed.
And God's instruction to them was, you march around the wall one time a day for six days, seven times on the seventh day, and as you know, the story, the walls fell flat to the ground. It was God that brought them down, that they were doing what God commanded. You see, Belief in the sovereignty of God. And relying on his promises does not relieve us of the work. that is expected and required of us.
Believing God's sovereignty gives us hope, and courage, and confidence. Believing in his promises. Enables us to move forward in face of what appears to be an impossible situation. But you don't hold back. You don't just say I'm praying about it.
If God has given you directions, about what to do. He gave them the land. The land had been promised to Abraham long ago. It was rightly theirs. By covenant, God says, This is your land, but you must come in to possess it.
And just like it was necessary for the foot of the priest to touch the water, for the river to roll back, he says, when you come into the land, Every part of it will be yours where your foot does trod. You come into the land. You've got title to it. But you got to possess it. You got to drive out the enemy.
You got to destroy these pagan kings. What an undertaking. For people who had been wilderness Wanderers for 40 years.
Now they come and they've got the challenge of conquering this land, one city after another. But they demonstrate that they were willing to follow God's instruction. as they marched around the walls of the city.
So there must be Faith. Faith in the promises of God. And next, there must be commitment. to God's word. We look once again at that first chapter of the book of Joshua.
Verse 5. 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. Verse 7. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do all according to the law which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 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 thou shalt have good success. Here's the word to Joshua. Joshua Be of good courage. but also give attention to The word.
You must meditate on it. The book of the law must not depart out of thy mouth. You must talk about it. You must meditate on it. You must read it.
You must act in harmony with it.
So commitment to the word. is vital. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 11. Verse 18. It says, Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, similar to what's being said to Joshua here.
and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that ye may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children. Speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and where thou walkest by the way, and where thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt write them upon the post of thine house, and upon thy gates. That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children in the land which the LORD swear unto your fathers to give thee as the days of heaven upon the earth.
So going back to the promise that God had made. Previously, he once again puts emphasis upon the value and necessity of being involved with the word. I want you, he says, to have them as frontlets between your eyes. I want you to have the word easily accessible. But oh, how important is this instruction?
I want you to speak of it with your children. When you walk with a way, when you lie down, when you get up, make it a part of your life. It's not just having family devotions once a week. Or even once a day. for just a few minutes.
It's a matter of parents having the responsibility to teach their children the things of God so that it's a part of their life. Doesn't mean you can't talk about anything else, but wherever opportunity avails itself, when you're walking by the way, when you're getting up, when you're laying down, wherever you are, to be able to talk about the things of God. Parents cannot shift that responsibility. I find a lot of parents like to do that today. They don't really want to accept.
The solemn responsibility God has given them to teach their children. Say, I'd like to delegate that. But God holds parents responsible for it. Bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. how vital it is in this day when there are so many distractions.
Young people are being influenced and pulled away by so many things. They need to be taught. They need to be grounded. They need to understand the basic truths of God's Word. And so Clear instruction is given to Joshua.
As to the importance of God's word. And of course There are many words of instruction to us.
Some One verse one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. That's the description. of the godly man. It's July.
is in God's word. He meditates on it. It's a regular thing. It's an integral part of his life. And then Psalm 119, verse 105 says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Oh, that we might treasure God's word, see the importance of it, the value of it, the necessity of making it an integral part of our life. And then The fourth thing. Obedience to God's commands. It's required that we not just know the word but that we obey it. You might have a lot of knowledge.
You might have read through the Bible several times. You might memorize portions of it. You might have a good understanding of theology. But If there's no application. All of that knowledge means nothing.
The truth, the practical instruction of God in the living. How to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. How to live a life That is Christ-centered. If all of that's neglected, it doesn't matter how much else you know, it's empty. It doesn't mean anything.
Jesus said in John 6, 46, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? You might call him Lord. You might say, I believe the Bible. But if you don't do what it says Tessage Empty its vein. And notice the instruction to Joshua, turn not.
to the right hand or to the left. In other words, there's to be no compromise. You don't give in. You don't Try to somehow fit into the world so that you don't stand out. as being Somebody that's so strange and different.
You don't turn to the right hand or to the left. And You need to be careful when it comes to matters of doctrine. not going to extremes. Not turning to the right hand or the left. In other words.
Hold. You've gone the way. To the truth as laid down in God's word. Say, well, what are we talking about? I'm talking about this.
But say You have a special love for the truth of sovereignty. And you should have. That's a wonderful Bible truth that God is sovereign. He works His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? But suppose You hold that so tenaciously.
That then you don't want to hear. anything about Accountability. You don't want to hear about your duty. You don't want to hear about your responsibility. I just want to rest in the fact that God is working his will.
You've turned aside. You've neglected part of the truth of God's word. Or then somebody Leans the other direction. I I I like to hear accountability set forth. I like to hear Strong appeal made.
for somebody to repent. And yet leave out the fact. That the very foundation of it all, the very basis of it, The reason somebody will repent is as The book of Acts records God granted repentance. Or as we find in John chapter 1, verse 11, He came into his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Now get this, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
Now Paul goes to Mars Hill. and preaches, God commands all men everywhere to repent. He didn't say anything in his discourse about men being dead in trespasses and in sin, but did he believe that? Certainly he did, because he did talk about it in Ephesians 2, verse 1. Paul well knew that there wasn't going to be anybody who was dead in sin, resurrect themselves by an act of free will.
If anybody repented, it was going to be because God worked in their heart effectually by his Holy Spirit. But the time and place for that was when he was writing to the church at Ephesus. The message that was needed at Mars Hill among all of these pagans worshiping many gods. He said, I'm going to tell you about the unknown God, the one you admit you don't know, and this God, who is the creator of heaven and earth, and the one that gives you life, commands you to repent. And says, if you don't, there's a day coming, you're going to stand in judgment, and Jesus Christ will be the judge.
You see, we need to have balance, not turning to the left hand or to the right. but preaching the whole counsel of God. We find in Romans chapter 9 Where it says that God raised up Pharaoh.
Well, somebody draws the conclusion then because they want to be strong on Saturday.
Well, God raised him up. then Pharaoh couldn't help what he did. Oh no. He says, What Pharaoh did? He did because he hardened his heart.
He was a wicked man. He did what he wanted to do. God has never forced anybody to sin. Everybody that sins sins because they want to. Because they're a sinner by nature.
But God put Pharaoh in a particular place at a particular time for a particular purpose to bring glory to his name. And he says he was fully accountable for his actions.
So let us not turn either to the left hand or to the right, but preach the whole counsel of God. We must then observe To do all that He has commanded, not just meditating on His Word, not just reading the commands, but doing them. I would say For any of you here today. who had an experience of grace. You've come to faith in Jesus Christ.
But you've never been baptized. What holds you back? Why is it you've never taken up your cross to follow him and to become identified with him? He calls on us to obey. His command.
And for any who say, well, I have taken up my cross, I'm following Jesus, what does that mean? The cross is not just a burden for you to carry. The cross is a place to die. The Apostle Paul said, I die. Daily.
Are you dying out to self? to selfish desires. to the desires of the flesh. Are you dying out? Show that in.
Instead of thinking always, what's best for me, what's my comfort zone, what do I want to do? Your concern was me. What does my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Want me to do? Do you pray?
without ceasing. Do you display the qualities? of a Christian. With somebody observing you. Say, as they did of those in the early days of the church, they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
How do they know that? Because they maintain that attitude, that spirit. That conduct in life. For Joshua. This was a new beginning.
He was leading the people into new territory. The wilderness wanderings were behind them. But there were many, many challenges ahead. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13, forgetting those things that are behind. And reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Forward. March. God was calling his people. to move forward. Coming to a land that they had heard about.
Long for And we now come Do I land? where they would find rest. And Hebrews tells us about finding rest for our souls. in our Joshua Jesus who gives us rest. Because we rest.
In here. Am I Soldier of Of the cross a follower of Oh, the land. And shall I fear to own his cause, or blush to speak his name? Yes, the message of the children of Israel as they came to the land of Canaan was forward marched. There were enemies to be faced.
There were battles to be fought. But their trust must be in the Lord, and therefore they could move forward. I hope that you will write us, and until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Are there enough foes for me to face? Must I not stem the fly?
Yeah. Is this file world? A friend to grace to help me on to God. Sure I must fight if I would reign Increase my courage lord Lord, I'll bear the toil. shall endure the pain supported by thy word.
The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder Lessere Bradley Jr. Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45217. That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45217. Thy saints in all this glorious war Shall conquer, though they die They see the triumph from afar By faith it is brought nigh. When that illustrious day shall rise, and all thine armies shine.
In robes of victory through. The skies, the glory shall be thine.
