A Review of Divine Mercies - Part 2 of 2

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

This is LeSaire Bradley, Jr., inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. O God, our health in ages past, our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. Under the shadow of life, from still may we dwell secure, Suffice our feet, hide arm alone, and our defense is sure.

Before the hills, in order stood for her, precede her frame. From everlasting, thou art God, to endless years contain. O God, our health in ages past, our hope for years to come, Be thou my guide, my life's helpest, and our eternal home. I'm glad you're with us today and if you enjoy the program I hope you will tell others where they can hear these messages from God's Word and I would like to remind you that if you missed the broadcast and still want to hear it and keep up with the schedule we're pursuing you can always hear both our Sunday and daily programs at BaptistBibleHour.org.

If you would like to write us, which I hope you will, our mailing address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not thy compassions, they fail not, As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see, All I have needed thy hand hath provided, Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, By all dear presence to cheer and to guide, Strength for today and right hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine with ten thousand reside. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see, All I have needed thy hand hath provided, Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Now today we go to the second part of the message from the book of Joshua entitled A Review of Divine Mercies. What a comfort then to believe Philippians 1 6 being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

That's encouraging isn't it to know that God who has begun a good work in you is going to perform it. He's going to continue with you. He's not going to give up on you. Maybe sometimes you feel like giving up on yourself.

You say I'm such a miserable failure. I've missed the mark so far. I feel like giving up. God doesn't give up. He started the work. He's carrying it on.

He's going to complete it. He has called you and He has justified you and ultimately He will glorify you. So we need to have a continual reminder of what God has done and that's exactly the way God dealt with Israel. So I'd have said well we just heard this same thing over and over again. Do we have to hear it once more?

Yes! It was God's purpose that they hear it again and it's God's purpose that we hear repeatedly what He's done for us and the truth of His word. Their history at that particular point was reviewed by Moses as he anticipated what their experience would be when they came to the land, came into the land of promise. So Moses went over all these various details of what God had done for them up to that point. And then you look at Psalm 78 and that whole Psalm goes down point by point, detail by detail, talking about the plagues that came upon the Egyptians, talking about their deliverance of the Red Sea and you say well I've heard about that before. Well it was God's purpose that they hear about it again and that they would sing about it and praise God for it. And so Psalm 78 gives a very detailed description of what God did for His people, not only delivering them at the Red Sea but bringing them through the wilderness and into the land and blessing them to possess it. And then in Nehemiah's day they had an assembly, the whole body of people coming and it said that they stood for a fourth part of the day for the reading of God's word.

Stood for a fourth part of the day. They came and were attended and the mercies of God were acknowledged, point by point, everything being reviewed about the fact that they had been in bondage and God sent the ten plagues and brought them out and brought them across the Red Sea and ultimately brought them across the River Jordan and it was God's work. And then Nehemiah also pointed out that the people had been unfaithful.

They murmured and complained in the wilderness, they came into the land of Canaan and ultimately while they were warned repeatedly by Joshua, do not be influenced by their false gods, God hates idolatry, don't worship another god, some of them did. And so Nehemiah speaks of the mercy of God. In Nehemiah 9 31 he says, nevertheless for thy mercy's sake thou didst not utterly consume them nor forsake them for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

That verse was due to read rather frequently, would it not? Isn't it consoling and encouraging to know that in spite of their failure for God's great mercy's sake he did not utterly consume them. Now there were times that he had them carried into captivity, there were times they had to suffer the consequences of their sinful actions but he did not have them utterly destroyed. He did not forsake them for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

What's that mean to you today when you hear those words? If you know your own weakness, your own shortcomings, you can just say, praise God that he is merciful. His mercy endures forever. He is gracious, kind to us in spite of our shortcomings and that's not to defend any of our sinful actions. When we sin we're to repent, we're to come before him in confession and his promise is if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But he is gracious and merciful. You say, all right, Moses covered all this, Joshua covered all this, Psalm 78 covered it, Nehemiah did, that's probably enough isn't it? No, you come to the New Testament and it's still being covered. Stephen preached that message prior to the time that they stoned him to death and he went all through the details of what God had done for his people Israel. And he not only reviewed what God had done but he also described their rebellion because many of those that were listening to him were of the nation of Israel and he's pointing out that they had rebelled and sinned. So in all of these accounts, certainly in this one that Stephen delivered, in all of them it's clear that God had great disdain for false gods, for idolatry. And when we think about that we may initially feel like, well, I'm excused, I've got my faults, my failings, but I certainly have never worshiped an idol. Well no doubt we can all say we've never bowed down before a god that was made out of gold or silver or hewn out of wood, but John speaks of those idols of the heart. In 1 John 5 21 he says, little children, keep yourself from idols. You can fall into idolatry without realizing it.

When you set your heart and affection on something that you put above your love for God, that is idolatry. And so as God abhorred that in the lives of his people, when they were influenced by the pagan gods around them, he certainly is unhappy when we may develop an idol in our own heart. So as Israel was frequently reminded of what God had done for them, we need to be reminded of what God has done for us. Israel was reminded that there was nothing in them to influence God's choice. He said, I didn't choose you because you were the greatest, the fact is you were the fewest of all people, but I chose you because I loved you. That was God's sovereign choice, not because there was anything about them that attracted his attention. And he said that to the disciples in John chapter 15 verse 16, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. You need to give thought to that. They say, well, I love the Lord, I'm trying to serve him.

Yes, but you go back to what put that all in motion. It's not because you chose the Lord, but because he chose you. Just amazing how many professed Christians say they believe the Bible, yet when confronted with this truth, have difficulty with it.

Just can't come to grips with the fact that God is sovereign in his choice, in choosing of people, as he says in Ephesians 1-4, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Language very explicit, very plain, that the whole process started with God's choice. And then Israel was reminded of their redemption on an ongoing basis. They were to observe the Passover, keep the lamb up for 14 days, that it might be proven to be without spot and without blemish. And then the lamb was slain. In memory of the fact that in Egypt, they were told to put the lamb up, tested that it might be qualified, then sprinkle the blood on the doorpost.

And the Lord said then, concerning the angel of death that would pass through, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And they were reminded of that on an annual basis, when they observed the Passover, that the basis of their redemption, the basis of their deliverance, was the sacrificial lamb, the Passover lamb that was put to death that the blood might be on the doorpost. And we need to be reminded of that.

Well, that's something we know, but as Israel was reminded of it annually, we need to be reminded of it on a regular basis. And we are reminded of it in the singing of the hymns, the talk about his predictive work. We're reminded of it in the preaching of his word. We're reminded of it when we sit at the Lord's table, and knowing that Christ, our Passover, is sacrifice for us. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18 says, For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. I'm sure that as much as we may rejoice in the truth of his redemptive work, as much as we may be thankful for it, that we cannot fully grasp what that really means.

The precious blood of Christ, the perfect man, the spotless man, the sinless man, shedding his blood that our sins might be atoned for. Yet in the place you're having some difficulties in life, having a bad day, you're like, Everything's going wrong. I don't have much to be thankful for. You've always got this.

You've always got this. That Jesus Christ died for sinners and shed his blood to redeem you. And then God protected Israel through their wilderness wanderings, protected them and blessed them in many ways when they came into the land. And so as they were reminded of that, we need to be reminded of God's protection for us.

Romans 8 and 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Now these are real issues described here, things that we may well encounter in life. Surely we're all going to encounter some kind of tribulation, some kind of distress, and we may encounter persecution. There are people today that are losing their jobs because of their Christian testimony, because they refuse to give in to some of the things that are being expected of the employees in that company. Famine could come, nakedness, peril, sword, but it's written that we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. This is what's to be expected, that in the world you shall have tribulation, but we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. When I think about being more than a conqueror, I think about those Old Testament accounts which talk about how God delivered some of his faithful servants. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-gol were told to bow down before that image the king had erected, and they refused, and the king had them put into the fiery furnace, but they came out without even the smell of smoke on their garment.

Now remember the king had prepared this festification to bring glory to himself because he was unveiling this image. Now, not only were these young men conquerors in that they were not consumed in the fire, they were more than a conqueror because I'm sure as the people went home, nobody was talking about the king's image, but everybody was talking about the fact those three boys went in the fire and came out alive. What a God they served.

How marvelous that their God delivered them. And when we walk by faith, we trust God in the most difficult times of adversity. We become more than a conqueror because God uses the testimony of what he has given us and done for us to be to the praise and glory of his name. So we need to consider not only what God has done for us, but what he is doing for us. Hebrews 4 16 says that he gives grace to help. And James chapter 4 verse 6 says he gives more grace.

That's a marvelous thing to consider. We needed grace in the beginning for the salvation of our soul. We needed grace all along the journey for every difficulty we've encountered. He gives grace. He gives grace to help and he gives more grace, an abundant supply of it. And then Psalm 103 verse 13 says this, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. Isn't that comforting to realize that just as a father pities his child, the Lord pities us in our infirmities. He knows our weakness and he pities us and has mercy upon us. We need to remember that. Remember what he's doing, that he's having mercy on us from day to day. Do we give thanks for that? How easy it is to be caught up in the difficulties, the challenges, the discouragements of life and fail to give thanks. Fail to thank him in detail for every blessing that he gives us.

And not only what he has done and what he is doing, but what he's going to do. That we have that blessed hope to someday be with him. As the apostle says in the Corinthian letter, we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Everything here is quickly passing away. That which we have on the other side is eternal in the heavens. First Thessalonians 4 17 says, When the Lord comes back, so shall we ever be with the Lord. And then Joshua draws a conclusion.

Chapter 24 verse 14 he says, Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. What's he saying? Here's the conclusion. Seeing that we have enumerated the mercies of God that he has showered upon you. Seeing what he continues to do for you.

Here's the conclusion. Fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and truth.

The word serve is used 15 times in Joshua's message. So certainly he intended for the people to do more than just give a little technical acknowledgement. This is what God has done for us. He wanted us to be turned into action.

That they would serve the Lord, to worship him, to obey him. And the pattern that he follows is very similar to what we see in the New Testament. But first he reviews in detail what God has done. And then he says, Now I'm calling on you to serve. And we see that repeated in the New Testament. In the first part of the book of Romans, Paul is telling us all of the wonderful things about the grace of God. What he's done for us, how he has chosen us, how he will ultimately glorify us. And then when he gets to chapter 12, it says in verse 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, in view of all the things we've been talking about, in view of God's love, grace, mercy, his purpose of predestination, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

So he's saying, Here is the ground. Here's the incentive. Here's the motivation for your service. Look what God has done for you. Now, this is your reasonable service, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice that you serve. We see it also in the book of Ephesians, after telling us in chapters 1, 2, and 3, the great things God has done for us. It comes to chapter 4, verse 1, it says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering. I beseech you, seeing what God has done for you. Now, you walk worthy of the vocation.

That isn't the calling. The way that you are living, you walk worthy of the name Christian. With all lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Same thing we observe in the book of Colossians. Another time he gets to chapter 3, he says, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Same is true in 1 Thessalonians. Get to chapter 4, after talking about much of what God has done for us, and says, Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

The apostle Paul was never satisfied with the status quo. You've received the teaching previously as to how you ought to walk, how you ought to live, how you ought to please God. I want you to abound more and more.

I want you to be on the upward climb. I want to see more fruit being born to the glory of God. So as we consider this message delivered to Israel, as Joshua came near the end of his life, let us be stirred to give closer attention to what God has done for us, to live every day with thankful hearts for his abundant mercies. Psalm 103 verse 2 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, and may we hear the call to serve him in sincerity and truth. Heavenly Father, we thank thee for these Old Testament lessons that are so vivid in bringing to our minds the truth that we should repeatedly review what great things thou hast done for us, and that the conclusion drawn should be applied in our own life, seeing thy grace, thy love, thy mercy, thy blessing upon us, that we would serve thee faithfully to the glory and honor of thy name. Hear us, we ask, for Jesus' sake.

Amen. It's uplifting to review the great things God has done for his people in times past, and it's a reminder that we can trust him now to do great and mighty things which we know not, and we trust him in every situation in life, knowing that he has promised that he will hear us when we call on him. I hope you will write us, and until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. That's The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. From his people again, gladly, for aye, we adore him.