God's Justice in Judgment #1

Christianity is not meant to produce weak-kneed disciples.

We're meant to be strong and courageous. We're meant to live a life and display a confidence, a certainty about the outcome of the events of life, a sense of confidence, because we're confident in the fact that the Lord is with us. God has spoken from long ago, and He has made promises that He always fulfills. Those promises that have not yet been fulfilled certainly will be. And today on The Truth Pulpit, as Don Green continues to teach God's people God's Word, he'll offer a powerful example from the book of Joshua as we begin a series titled The Justice and Deliverance of God.

Hi there, I'm Bill Wright. And Don, what can we expect from this series? Well, Bill, it's our desire on The Truth Pulpit to teach the full counsel of God to the best of our ability in the opportunities the Lord gives us. And one of the ways that we're going to do that this time is to take a look at the wrath and the justice of God and to vindicate His righteousness in the matters of judgment and wrath that He brings upon unbelieving and disobedient people. We're going to be studying from the book of Joshua, and it's a crucial series that's going to answer questions, what does God do with those who have never heard the gospel? Why do bad things happen to good people? There are good answers in the Scriptures.

We're going to find them in this series. Thanks, Don. And friend, have your Bible ready as we join our teacher now in The Truth Pulpit. The book of Joshua shows the historical fulfillment of God's promise to give land to the seed of Abraham. If you remember from our studies in Genesis, God promised to bring a great nation out of the loins of Abraham.

And He promised to give land to his descendants in the general location of modern-day Israel. If you turn to Genesis 12, just to kind of get the gears loosened up in your mind so that we can remember exactly what we're talking about. Genesis chapter 12, verse 7.

This is just a very quick and paltry review. Genesis 12, verse 7. Genesis 12, verse 7. The Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants, I will give this land. So Abraham built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. And then if you turn over one chapter to chapter 13, verses 14 and 15. The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward.

For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. And as we saw in our study of Genesis, God renewed that promise to Isaac in Genesis 26 and to Jacob in Genesis 35. And about 400 years go by and God restates that oath to Moses. Look at the book of Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3, verse 8. You remember God is going to give birth to the nation of Israel now and they're in slavery in Egypt and had been for centuries. And so God says in verse 8, I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

Now, this is a little foreshadowing here. Notice that that land is occupied. This was not a vacant piece of real estate that God was giving to them. There were peoples already living there who were going to be dispossessed. God makes that plain.

We'll talk about that more in a minute. For now, look at verses 16 and 17 there of Exodus chapter 3. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me, saying, I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey. So, God made this promise to Abraham about 2,000 years before the time of Christ.

I'm speaking in very round terms. 600, 700 years go by and now he's speaking to Moses saying, Now I'm going to bring you into this land that I promised. That's a long time to be waiting on a promise. In one sense, the people of Israel were probably a little bit like a kid waiting for Christmas, knowing that this promise is coming, but waiting for the fulfillment to come. And generations come and generations go and they live and they anticipate and they die without seeing the fulfillment in their own lifetimes. Well, if you think about it, we're in a similar position today as New Testament believers. We're looking forward to the return of Christ. Christ promised us 2,000 years ago that he would return and come again. And we are still waiting for the fulfillment to that promise.

Our expectation is not diminished. We're not discouraged by the passage of time because God has promised, Christ has promised, and we live in anticipation of that, the fulfillment of that promise, even though 2,000 years have passed since that promise passed from the infallible lips of our Lord. Well, that's just to give you a little sense of perspective of what it must have been like for a Jew in those days, just before Moses, waiting for a long time, but yet a pious, faithful Jew would still be saying, I know that the Lord is going to bring us into the land, even though centuries have passed since he made the promise.

Well, there you go. God has promised, and in Joshua, he is about to deliver on that promise. In Exodus, and this is all pertinent to what we're going to see in Joshua in just a moment, turn over to Exodus 34, because God in Exodus 34 told Moses what the nation should expect in the coming time of deliverance into the land, and this starts to zero in on the reality of the conflict that's going to take place. Those Canaanites and Hivites and Perizzites weren't going to just walk away and just forfeit and cede, as it were, C-E-D-E, cede their land over to these former slaves that showed up and said, God has given us this land.

Exodus 34, verse 11, God says, Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, just like God had delivered them out of the land of Egypt by his mighty, outstretched hand, by the strength of his omnipotence. Now he's saying that I am going to use that same power and deliver you into the land that I promised to you. And so I brought you out by power, I'm going to bring you in by power. You can be confident that the same power that delivered you from Egypt will also deliver you into the land that I promised. Now, I like to go back and forth between the Old Testament and the application to us today. Think about it this way. I want to build up your sense of anticipation of the return of Christ, even as we're talking about the Old Testament land here.

You think about it this way. It's because the pattern of God, the principles of God, the way that God operates is analogous and similar to us as it was for them in the Old Testament. God by power had delivered them from slavery and promised them that more was to come, and that by his power he would do it. We know standing on this side of history that that's exactly what God did.

He did deliver them into the land just as he promised that he would do. Now, for you today, we want to know God really is the thing here. We're not just studying a text.

We want to know the God who inspired the text, and we want to understand what this means for our own spiritual lives, right? That's right. Thank you for that word of affirmation, both of you.

That's what we want. Now here, I just want you to see the pattern here. God has delivered you as a Christian. God has delivered you from the supernatural blindness of your former way of life. You were dead in sin. You were blinded to the gospel by the devil. You were under judgment, and yet God, by the strength of his spiritual omnipotence, moved in your heart, convicted you of sin, and opened up your eyes to the glory of Christ in such a way that you repented and turned to Christ for salvation. And he made you into a new creature, and he has forever forgiven your sin and brought you into his family. And that is the present position that you enjoy now as a child of God, as a born-again Christian. Now watch this.

Watch this. Christ has promised us that he will return for us. I will come again, he says in John 14.

I will bring you to myself. I will bring you to the place that I am preparing for you. And so, just as the Israelites, before the conquest of the land, were living on a promise, having been delivered from slavery, they were looking forward to a promise yet to be fulfilled in the same way. We have been no less miraculously delivered from sin. We are in a position of blessing, and we are waiting on a promise yet to be fulfilled. And just as God fulfilled his promise to the Israelites and gave them the land, we know for certain, more certain than the fact that we'll live to the end of this service, we know for certain that God will fulfill his promise to one day have Christ return and receive us to himself, so that where he is, we may be also. And so, the great deliverance that God has given us spiritually is a down payment that should encourage our faith and should give us a sense of assurance and absolute confidence that the promises that are yet unfulfilled will one day be fulfilled, just like he did in the nation of Israel, so also in the life of the church. We are greatly blessed. We have received great blessing. Great blessing is promised. We certainly receive it because God keeps his promises.

Now, that was all a little bit of a detour there. Go back to Exodus chapter 34. God said, I'm going to drive out the Amorite, verse 11.

Now in verse 12, he warns the nation about their responsibility and what they must do in order to enjoy the blessing of this deliverance. He says, Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their asherim, for you shall not worship any other God for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Otherwise, you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. God is warning them that when you go into this land, you must make a complete conquest and show no mercy.

You must utterly destroy them and destroy the remnants of their religion, so that you will not be compromised, so that you will not be sucked into the vortex of their paganism. And so, the call to holiness and the call to separation is very strong and absolute here, and it's going to involve military conflict for them to accomplish it. And so, God told them in advance what to expect, and gave them a little bit of a foreshadowing in that portion of Exodus, just after he had given the law, giving them a foreshadowing of what was ahead in their national future. So that promised to Abraham, let's say round numbers 2000 BC, Moses 1400 BC, now it's going to come to pass, God says. And with all of that little bit of introduction, turn now to the book of Joshua chapter 1. Joshua chapter 1. As we come to Joshua, the promise now is literally going to be filled in historical time and space, just as the promise for Christ to return to us is going to happen in literal time and space.

We will physically experience that with our own eyes, and I can't wait for that great day to come when faith becomes sight. Here in Joshua, their faith is about to become sight. Joshua chapter 1 verse 1. Now, it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, quote, Moses my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise. Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. This is a momentous step forward in redemptive history. All of the centuries of waiting, all of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, renewed centuries later to Moses, all of the deliverance out of Egypt and the great deliverance at the Red Sea and the slaughter of the Egyptian army, all of that leading up to this point in redemptive history, so that, to say, go into the land, what we need to see as we read that verse is, this is a massive step forward in the progress of God's dealings with his people. In verse 3, he says, every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.

North, south, east, west, God says, I'm now giving it to you. It's time. It's time. After all of this waiting, it's time.

Now move forward. Joshua was greatly prepared for this moment. He had been by Moses' side in many key places of the Book of Exodus, as we'll see in coming weeks. Joshua was prepared for this moment. But I want you to put yourself in the sandals of Joshua for a moment, if you will. Here he is, the appointed leader of the nation. Here he is, God has placed upon him the responsibility, Joshua, you lead my people now so that I could fulfill my promises that I made to the Father centuries ago.

You bear the responsibility to lead them into the land. And if you think about it, and you think about it as a spiritual man, as Joshua was, the weight of that moment must have been quite intense. Perhaps a sense of anticipation and eagerness, but also a sense of fear and a sense of the magnitude of the moment. You know, there aren't many great, really truly great moments in life, are there?

We go through life and there are, you know, and most of our life is consumed with the day-to-day routine. And that's okay, that's the way God designed it. But when a great moment comes, a great man of God, a great woman of God, has to step up and rise to the occasion of that moment. Well God, here in Joshua chapter 1, is strengthening Joshua for that task. As you think about and look at what God said to him, there must have been a sense of fear in his heart of some kind, a sense of dread.

Because look at the promise that God makes to him. He said, you go into the land, and now in verse 5, verse 5, he says, no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you, I will not fail you or forsake you. The promises of God are strengthening him in a task that he might in his flesh shrink back from, the promises of God are strengthening him to move forward. And in the same way, you as a Christian here today, you and I as believers in Christ in this room, whatever the challenges that you may be facing, and for some of you, I know that they are steep and they are difficult or they are heartbreaking. You are meant to draw upon like promises from God and rise to the occasion and display what it means to be a man of God, a woman of God in the midst of the challenge that you're facing. God is with you so that you can do that. God is with you so that you would not shrink back in fear or despair, but that you would rise up and step up to the challenge and say, in this challenging time of life, in this challenging moment of life, I will step up and display before God, display in the presence of Christ, display in the presence of the elect angels what it means to be a godly man or woman in a world that is filled with sorrow and difficulty. I will not shrink back. I will not be afraid. I will be strong and courageous. Well, this is what God calls his people to, and it's no less magnificent in your life, in the situations that God has appointed for you, it's no less magnificent for you to rise to the occasion than it is for Joshua to rise to the occasion as well. Because the same principle of trusting the promises of God is what's at work. And so, look at Joshua 1 verse 6. God tells Joshua, Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Wow.

Wow. Just think about that. The magnificence of the promises that God gave first to Abraham when Abraham was a single man of a hundred years old married to a barren wife. Now a nation, as God promised, has come out of his loins and Joshua has received the mantle and God tells him, You are my agent in advancing the course of redemptive history.

You are my man for this hour. It's magnificent to contemplate. As I said, we're going to see how Joshua was prepared for this moment, but God strengthens him. And in like manner, he strengthens you with these same words. Verse 7, Only be strong and very courageous. Be strong and very courageous, Christian, today in your faith in Christ. Be strong and courageous that the Lord will be faithful to you even if the answer seems remote and inaccessible to your human eyes. Be strong and be very courageous.

Live as though this has already happened. Live as though God has already displayed his faithfulness to you. Because he will, it is certain, it's just a matter of experiencing it in time. Now, going back to verse 7, God speaking to Joshua tells him, and given the context of what we saw from Exodus 34, this starts to make more sense to us. God says, Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. The path of success, Joshua, is the path of obedience. The path of success for you, Christian, is the path of obedience and fidelity and loyalty to Christ. Verse 8, 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 success. And God speaks to him, having strengthened him with promises, he now commands him.

Verse 9, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

He says, You don't need to know all of the details of the future. What you need to know is that I am with you. Knowing that, now go forward and be strong and very courageous. I love it.

I love it. We get a sense, once again, of the nobility of the life of being a disciple of the Lord God of the Bible. A sense that Christianity is not meant to produce weak, need disciples. We're not meant to be a shriveling bunch of people nursing and licking our spiritual wounds that have accumulated over life. We're meant to be strong and courageous. We're meant to live a life and display a confidence, a certainty about the outcome of the events of life, a sense of confidence, because we're confident in the fact that the Lord is with us. Jesus said at the end of Matthew 28, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

We're not afraid of what the future holds. Well, in a much, much greater way, he was called to courage as he went into battle. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, with part one of his message, God's Justice in Judgment. Next time, Don will help you understand the total devastation that came upon the inhabitants of Canaan, at the Lord's instruction, by the way. Join us then for the continuation of our series, The Justice and Deliverance of God, here on The Truth Pulpit. Meanwhile, we invite you to visit our website, thetruthpulpit.com. There you can download podcasts or find out how to receive CD copies of Don's radio messages for your personal study library. And if you want to go even more in depth, you'll also find the link, Follow Don's Pulpit. That'll take you to Don's full-length weekly sermons, not subject to the time editing needed for radio broadcasts. By the way, if you're in the Cincinnati area, check out the service times for Truth Community Church, also on our website, and plan a visit. We'd love to welcome you. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time, as Don Green again teaches God's people God's Word from the Truth Pulpit.