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0:53These enemy nations could form an alliance and quickly destroy the army. The army's last leader just died. And imagine that you have been selected to fill his shoes. You're also pretty inexperienced yourself. You've fought a few wars, but nothing could prepare you for a war on this scale. How would you feel? You've stepped into the shoes of Joshua right before the conquest of Canaan. And see, So we'll be looking at verses one to nine today of Joshua chapter one, which is the introduction to the book of Joshua. And I wanted to put you into Joshua's shoes so you could see how he felt, how he would have felt at this time. And let me set the scene for you for these verses. Moses, the leader of God's people, has just died. And Moses had led the nation of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery. He brought them to Mount Sinai. God had delivered the nation.

2:04And along the way, Israel had been unfaithful at every turn, essentially. And God brought them all the way to the edge of the promised land, and they didn't go in. And so that generation was judged, and Moses passed away. And now Joshua has been selected to lead a new generation into the land. But who is Joshua? Joshua had served with Moses as a young man. He was essentially Moses' assistant. And he'd seen all of God's faithfulness and miracles. He's basically inseparable from Moses.

2:47He'd seen the parting of the Red Sea, water from rocks, manna, all of God's faithfulness. And Joshua had seen Israel's unfaithfulness, the golden calf. Incident, Exodus. He'd seen what he saw when Israel refused to enter the land and rebelled against God and mutinied against Moses. He'd seen Moses' struggle in leading this unfaithful nation. And Moses, at one point, it was so bad that Moses told this to God, Numbers 11, 14. I alone am not able to carry all this people because it is too burdensome for me. So if you are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once if I have found favor in your sight. And do not let me see my wretchedness. Talk about a burden of leadership.

3:45Another thing, Joshua had also seen the holiness and the glory of God in all the journeys in the wilderness, in the parting of the Red Sea. And when you study the first five books of the Old Testament, the books of Moses, you see there's this prominent theme of God's holiness and God's glory. God is holy and sovereign. And there's this tension. How can a holy God dwell with a sinful people? And Joshua is caught right in the middle of that as a leader of Israel. He's the corporate representative. Something goes wrong, God goes to Joshua first.

4:27And Israel was so unfaithful that God was a good thing. God nearly annihilated the nation on multiple occasions. Moses was often the only thing standing between this holy God and this sinful nation. The leader of Israel had a holy God that he needed to please. And that was Joshua's number one need: to fear God and honor him. So, in light of all of this, Joshua has been chosen to lead God's people into the land. Imagine the fear, the stress of this burden. It's weighty. Joshua contributes nothing but weakness. You think Joshua might need some encouragement right now?

5:14That's what our text is. Verses 1 to 9. And in our text, Joshua, God commissions Joshua and gives him a plan of success for his ministry. And I want to read these nine verses for us. Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of none, Moses' servant, saying, 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. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness in 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. 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. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 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 ways prosperous, and then you will have success. 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.

7:12So in our text, we have God's plan of success for Joshua. And it's a straightforward plan. It's simple, it's succinct, but it's always effective. If you follow the book of Joshua, you'll find that the overall pattern of Joshua's life was. One that followed God's plan of success. And in our time this evening, I want you to understand God's plan of success for Joshua's life so that you, as a believer, as believers, can follow that pattern and live a life that's pleasing to Him wherever He's called you. God has a calling on each of your lives.

7:55You all come from different walks of life. Some of you are college students, some of you are parents, mothers. God has a calling for you, and He wants you to glorify Him in that. And so we can follow this pattern from Joshua's life and glorify Him as we live our lives. God's plan of success for Joshua included three elements: a gracious commission, a call to courage, and a commitment to Scripture. So let's start first with Joshua's gracious commission. We see this in the first five verses of our text. God spends these verses encouraging Joshua and his commission to lead Israel in the conquest. And there's really two promises that God gives to Joshua. And the first one is a sovereign guarantee of success. Look at verse 3: Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. In verse 4, God describes the land's future. Borders. And later in verse 5, God promises this: no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. And see, God had a plan to bring the people of Israel into the land of Canaan. A couple hundred years before this, he made a promise to Abraham. You might remember that sort of interesting story in Genesis 15 where God appears to Abraham and he tells him to cut all these different animals in half. He puts Abraham into a deep sleep, and God reveals his plans prophetically to Abraham in a dream. And then God passes through the middle of these animal halves. And in that culture, that signified that God was making a covenant with Abraham. And usually both people would pass through the middle in between each half of the animals. But that God only passed through signifies that he alone is responsible for upholding the covenant. It's unconditional, an unconditional promise.

10:13But God's basically saying, it's on me. My glory is at stake. I'm going to make this happen for my glory. And this Abrahamic covenant eventually gives rise to the true Israelite, Jesus, in the future, long after the. Who would save his people? God has a plan, and he's going to make it happen sovereignly. And he is the promise-keeping God, and his glory is at stake. But what part does Joshua play in this? Joshua is God's instrument for making this happen. He has to live this out, he has to sweat, and pray, and strategize, and work. He doesn't just sit back and do nothing and say, Lord, you're going to make this happen.

11:02He's an active participant in God's sovereignly ordained plan. But the reality of God's promise of success is the very thing that Joshua can be encouraged by to persevere. And there's really a pattern here for our lives as believers. If you're in Christ, and I pray you are, God has saved you, He's redeemed you, and He's sovereignly promised to finish His good work in your life. And from start to finish, salvation is a sovereign work of God. But who lives your Christian life? That's not a trick question. You live your Christian life.

11:48But the reality of God's promises of success should encourage you to seek to live for His glory. That's what it was intended to produce in Joshua. And I love. How the Apostle Paul kind of gives us this pattern in Romans 1 through 11. In those chapters, Paul goes through the gospel, God's promises, God's amazing plan of redemption for humanity. He finishes chapter 11. He gets to chapter 12. Chapter 12, verse 1, he says, Therefore, and there's a lot jammed into that, therefore, all of God's sovereign work and salvation. And in response to that, Paul says, Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. That's to be our response to God's promise of success in our lives as believers. A life of sanctification, a heart that's sensitive to sin, and a life that wants to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Just as God's promise of success to Joshua was intended to produce a life of love and obedience, that's what it should produce in our lives as believers.

13:22Let's look at the second promise of God to Joshua in his commission. We see this in the second half of verse 5. God says this, just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. And see, this is a promise of God's presence to be with Joshua in his task. And of course, this doesn't mean Joshua can never fail or mess up, but God will never abandon Joshua or leave him helpless as he executes his duties as leader of Israel. And the reality is that without this presence of God, leading Israel is impossible.

14:07The burden is too great. You might remember in Exodus 33, Moses literally begs God for his presence to help lead the nation into the land. But here, God just encourages Joshua with a promise, I will be with you. And Joshua is going to go through hardship. He's going to have to do all-night marches with his men later in the book across very harsh terrain. And he's going to suffer. But God is going to sustain him providentially in the background and be with him.

14:44And Hebrews 13:5 in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews very possibly quotes this promise and he applies it to believers. And he says this, Make sure that your way of life is free from the love of money, being contentious. Content with what you have, and this is the part where he might quote Joshua, for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we may confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? So we learn that this promise of God's presence is for the new covenant believer as well.

15:26And I've experienced this in my life. After God saved me, very shortly after, I went through a very difficult season of anxiety, very intense. I felt very alone, isolated. I had little sense of God's presence in my life. It was absolutely horrible. I only had scripture, God's promises. And God sustained me through the scriptures and through prayers, counsel of other believers in my life. I wasn't abandoned. I was kept. I was sustained in my trial. And the Lord was my helper.

16:08Maybe you're experiencing a trial in your life. Maybe your children have cut you out of their life. Maybe you have unexplainable health problems. Maybe you have unsaved loved ones. Maybe there's things going on in your life you would never share in church. This promise of God's presence is for you if you're a believer, if you're one of his children. And this is the fuel for living a life that's pleasing to God. God's promises are to produce that.

16:46And before I move on, I do want to say that unbelievers don't have a claim to this promise. If you're here tonight and you don't know Christ, God is not with you. The scripture says, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Sin separates us from God and brings judgment. But there's mercy through Christ. Run to him. Look to his work on the cross. Forgiveness is available there. We've looked at the realities of God's gracious commission to Joshua, and we've seen those two promises, a promise of success and a promise of God's presence.

17:35And we've seen that God's plan of success for us today involves us grasping the reality of God's promises for the believer. So let's look next at the next element of God's plan of success for Joshua, and that's a call to courage. We see this in verses 6 and 7. And what I want you to notice is that Joshua's greatest obstacle for Honoring the Lord and his ministry is fear. God tells Joshua three times: be strong and courageous. Remember all that Joshua is facing. He has to lead a massive ground campaign across a swollen river into a land with very varied terrain filled with hostile nations in this conquest. The army he's leading is notorious for unfaithfulness. That would make me afraid. But look with me. Look at verse 6. God says, be strong and courageous.

18:41I think we often imagine courage kind of like this mystical euphoria that kind of floods me and enables me to do things that I wouldn't normally do. The Bible doesn't see it that way. In our text, courage is a command, it's an imperative. Joshua must obey. Joshua can choose to be courageous and have a heart set on honoring God. He's given a choice. And courage only comes, he's only able to make that choice to the degree that he grasps the realities of God's character and promises we've already looked at in verses 1 to 5. Look at verse 6 again. Be strong and courageous. 4, you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. And later in verse 9, the sort of bookend and conclusion to this whole section, God again will remind Joshua, Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be in dread or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And there's a faith element which Joshua needs here. Joshua has to overcome fear by choosing to believe and feed on the promises of God.

20:08Feeling fearful is not really the problem. The problem is what often we allow that feeling to produce, which is always unbelief and lack of obedience. And we see this with the first generation of Israelites. They come to the edge of the promised land. They have all the same promises of God, God's presence, God's promises, God's faithfulness. And they go and spy out the land, and they come back. And they say, this is a land that devours its inhabitants. We're going to be destroyed. Let's kill Moses and go back to Egypt.

20:47That's what sinful fear produces. We need to fear God and believe his promises. And the realities of God's truth are far more substantive. And real than our fears. We don't have to live a life that's controlled by fear, even though we feel afraid or anxious. God's plan of success for Joshua included this call to courage. We need to apply this pattern to our lives as believers. There's so many ways, I know this in my life, that our lives are influenced by fear.

21:27And living a life that glorifies God necessarily involves us getting out of our comfort zone. I mean, evangelism. We have the great commission, share the gospel. But that's scary. Scary for me to hand out tracks. But we can choose to remember the promises of God. Like Jesus said, Jesus said, I'm with you in Matthew 28. I'm with you to the end of the age. We can believe that promise and take that with us. And the same is true for our other fears. God invites you and me to live a life that's not controlled by fear, but by faith in Him and His promises and the sureties of His Word. And He invites us to test Him in that. We need to step out in faith. And there's a quotation I've come across. I don't know the source exactly, but I remembered it. I wrote it in my margin of my. Notes, courage is not the absence of fear, but the acting in spite of it. I just, I find that helpful in understanding this. Courage is not the absence of fear, but acting in spite of it.

22:47We've seen two elements of God's plan of success for Joshua. We've seen a gracious commission, seen the call to courage. Let's finish up now by looking at the last element of God's plan of success. And that's the importance of a commitment to Scripture. In verses 7 to 8, Joshua is commanded to conform his life to the law of Moses, the Scriptures. Let me read that for us. Verse 7. Only be strong and very courageous, to be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be prosperous wherever you go. 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 successful, and then you will be prosperous. This is a crucial element of God's plan of success. But what is this book of the law of Moses? This is the first five books of the Old Testament written by Moses, Genesis to Deuteronomy.

24:00That's all that Joshua has at this point. An intimate knowledge of these books, the scriptures, is crucial if Joshua is going to lead God's people. He needs to be carefully familiar with all 613 commands in the law. There's no workarounds. He's not to forget things. He can't pick and choose which parts he wants to obey and throw away the rest. And look at verse 7. God says, do not turn aside to the right or the left. That's pathway imagery. It pictures Joshua walking down a straight path and avoiding anything that would cause him to veer off of the scriptures.

24:44And success for Joshua will only come through study, careful study, and application of the word of God. But how is Joshua to grow in his knowledge of scripture? How is this going to happen? Verse 8 is the key. 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. There's two things Joshua needs in his study of Scripture: he needs quality, and he needs consistency. And circle the word meditate in verse 8.

25:30This is part of Joshua's quality in Scripture study. In Hebrew, this word meditate, it means to murmur, to mutter to oneself. The idea is that Joshua is so engaged in his study of scripture that he's almost reading it out loud quietly. He's dialoguing through important passages, thinking it through, digesting it, meditating on it, filling his mind with the word of God. This isn't just a quick skim read. This is focused, engaged study of scripture. The next thing Joshua needs is consistency. Joshua is to spend frequent and consistent time in the scripture. Circle the phrase day and night in verse 8, right after meditate. And Joshua is to meditate day and night. That's sort of a figure of speech. The main idea is continually, consistently, a pattern of life, a consistent pattern of life in which the study of the Word of God is a priority. Like the blessed man in Psalm 1:2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Joshua is to love and savor and delight in God's word, the consistent pattern of his life.

27:00More than just the accumulation of facts. Joshua is a busy man. He's got a nation to lead. He has a conquest to fight. I don't think any of us have experienced this type of weight of responsibility of Joshua. His time would have been pulled in every direction. This is what made the study of Scripture all the more necessary for him. This was a matter of life and death for Joshua. The survival of the nation depended on Joshua teaching, articulating, and Israel obeying the word of God.

27:40Joshua needed quality and consistency in his study of scripture. We need to be men and women of the scriptures as believers. This is part of God's plan of success. It's not an optional accessory. And just like disaster would follow Israel if she forsook the law of God, disaster will follow us if we forsake God's word. And we're so blessed today. We have so many resources. We have essentially every person in this room has their own copy of the word of God just sitting on your lap. That is a relatively recent development in church history, and we're so blessed to have that.

28:28There was such a cost. For you to have the Word of God on your lap. And why should we study Scripture as believers? It's simple. It's so we can know and glorify God and help others know Him. So we can know the glories of the gospel of Jesus and share it. And really, everything, I love devotionals. I love commentaries. So helpful. Systematic theology is wonderful. That's all derivative. Scripture is the source. A life that's pleasing to God will be centered on his word. I like what Psalm 119, 103 says: this. How sweet are your words to my taste? Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. From your precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way.

29:26Let me illustrate this for you. I like animals, and I especially love the eastern fox squirrel. And that's kind of the big, chubbier one. It has an orange, kind of rust-colored tummy. And I love these things. Last week, I got like a two-minute video of one just on a table outside. He's just going to town on a nut. He's turning over in his hands, and I'm just completely enraptured studying every little nuance of this squirrel's behavior. Fascinating. I'm just totally engrossed. And to me, it's like a kaleidoscope of nuance and detail that just all points to God's glory. And that's really the way we should look at the scriptures. Just this fountain and treasure of God that we can know Him, every part of Scripture.

30:25And I know I'm often convicted of this. Even as a seminary student, my study of Scripture can be lackadaisical. And the only answer for a lack of hunger is a genuine taste. Pray for God to give you that taste. You might say, I don't have day and night to spend in the Bible. I'm not Joshua. Joshua's not Joshua. Joshua didn't have time to spend. His time was pulled in every direction. Remember that. This is where creativity is helpful.

31:02You know, we have audio Bibles. You can listen, commuting to work to the scripture. You can turn it on during routine tasks. Maybe you're doing something, doesn't require a whole lot of concentration. You can meditate on a passage in lines, in downtime, can memorize verses to help with temptation. Another thing that's important is our heart posture, praying before we open the scriptures. God would open our eyes and all the faculties of our mind would be engaged with the text, like Joshua. And sometimes it helps to have a pencil in hand, underline, write notes, highlight.

31:44And if we want to know God through his word, he'll make it possible for us. We just might need to be creative and we need to be willing. I love the example of Jesus in the wilderness and in his wilderness temptations. He's 40 days and 40 nights without food, and Satan comes to him in temptation. And every time Jesus responds with the scripture, he doesn't miss a beat. He quotes from Deuteronomy. He knew the context. He knew the meaning. He knew the theology. He was completely saturated with scriptures. And it's not just that he quotes the scripture, it's that he quotes the right scripture for the situation. That's how saturated our Lord was with the scriptures. We need to follow his example. Follow Joshua's example.

32:42I like what Charles Spurgeon once wrote of John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress. He said this about John Bunyan: The very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quotes. A text, for his soul is full of the word of God. Let our souls be full of God's word, too. Let's be like Joshua, meditating on God's Word day and night. We've seen all three elements of God's plan of success for Joshua now. It's simple. God gave Joshua a gracious commission, two promises, promise of success, promise of God's presence. Joshua is encouraged to grasp those realities and live in light of them. And the same is true for us. We've seen Joshua's call to courage. Fear was Joshua's great obstacle. And the same is true for us as well. But we can overcome fear by responding in faith to the promises of God.

33:57And lastly, we saw the importance of a commitment to Scripture in God's plan of success. To glorify God and his ministry, Joshua needs God's word. He needs to be studying, centering his life on it, organizing his life around the study of scripture. God's plan of success for us as believers is the same. And this is God's plan of success. It's so simple and straightforward, but difficult. Joshua carefully followed this plan. He wasn't perfect, but the pattern of his life was one of faithfulness to God's word. He followed God fully, as it was said of him. And as we come to a close, I want you to leave here today considering how you can follow this pattern of God's plan of success and live a life that glorifies him wherever he's called you.

35:00Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word and the promises you gave to Joshua and your faithfulness, Lord. You are good. And I thank you for your kindness to give us these patterns in Scripture. Lord, simple, but we fall so short so often. Would you help us? Would you help me? Lord, especially with fear, God, help us to respond by believing your promises and to center our lives on your word and to treasure your word, as it says in Job, more than our necessary food. And help us to live for the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ, in light of his gospel, carrying out his great commission.

36:00I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.