Amen. Christchurch, please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Joshua. Today we begin a new series in the book of Joshua. I am so excited about this series. I have never preached through Joshua before. And so I'm excited to preach through the adventures, the conquests, the faith in Christ, the courage and the boldness of godly leadership and godly obedience in the life of God's covenant people. This book really is a bridge book, kind of like the Book of Acts. You have the four Gospels, then you have the Book of Acts, sort of bringing things together in terms of the action that takes place afterwards in the early church, and then it connects it to the epistles. This book is a bridge as well between the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and the rest of the historical books and the prophets that come. And so, a lot of wonderful things to learn here over the next several months. God willing, would you please stand with me, if you are able, as we look this morning at verses 1 and 2. Please hear the Word of God. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Amen. Would you pray with me? Our Father and our God, as we open up this book for the first time in the life of this congregation, we pray that you would be pleased to show us Christ in the pages of Joshua. We pray that you would show us your promises and your grace. We pray that you would show us how to live the Christian life. We pray, O Lord, that you would be glorified as your word is preached here this morning. and you would illumine our hearts and minds that we would receive and respond to by faith all that is found here. Help your servant, Lord, to preach faithfully. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Moses is dead. Israel's greatest leader is gone. With God's wisdom and presence, His life was full of profound accomplishments. Indeed, God had empowered his servant Moses to liberate his people from Egypt after 400 years of slavery. God used Moses to lead his people through the Red Sea as it was miraculously parted. And it was Moses who received the law of God on Mount Sinai from God's hand. Moses, of course, also led Israel in the wilderness for 40 long years. But now he's dead. It's the first thing reported in the book of Joshua. And the last thing reported in the book of Deuteronomy. If you have your Bible, turn back one page to Deuteronomy chapter 34. It's crucial that we have this historical context in mind as we begin this new series. Deuteronomy 34. Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead, as far as Dan, all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah, as far as the Western Sea, the Negev, and the plain, that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar, And the Lord said to him, this is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to your offspring. If you like writing in your Bible and you underline things, that is a good verse to underline. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor. But no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. For Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all the servants and to all his land and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel." End quote. Moses was the man. He was an extraordinary man, a great prophet. He was a priest. He was, in many respects, like a king. His most important title, however, as we see in verse 1 of our text in Joshua, is God's what? Servant. He was God's servant. It was his greatest title. It's the greatest title that any of us could have in this room. God's servant. God had raised Moses up for a specific purpose, but now he's gone. And a new leader would take his place, a new leader for a different purpose. He was Moses's chief assistant for decades, his right-hand man, as it were. He was a man of character. He was a man of valor. He was a man of courage. He was a godly man. He was a man who walked with God. He was also an experienced man of war. This man, of course, was Joshua. He was Israel's new leader. And under his military and spiritual guidance and leadership, Israel would enter the land that God had promised to give them. This promise of land spans back over 500 years and has been a constant theme since God called Abraham to himself and made covenant promises to him in Genesis 12, verses 1-3. It's hard for us to comprehend not only this time period, around 1400 BC, But then to think about just all the hundreds of years prior to that in this age, it's very other worldly to us. It was extraordinary walking through the National Museum in London just a couple of weeks ago, and to walk through hallways where there were stones with writing in them from ancient Assyrian kings. to see a bust of Ramses II whom Moses defied, to see all of the history that surrounded biblical history and all the centuries, and what came to my mind was the faithfulness of God through it all. All these great kings, and queens, and rulers, and peoples, and tribes, and nations, and through it all, God is on His throne, and He is faithful to His covenant people, and that is what we see happening in the book of Joshua. These promises that were made about land spanned all the way back, in fact, they go all the way back to the Garden of Eden, but hold on just a moment about that. But here we have, in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, and in Genesis 15, clear promises about land inheritance for the people of God. Genesis 12. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. We get a little hint of the great commission right there in Genesis 12, the calling of Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. In Genesis 15, God reminds struggling Abraham of his covenant promise. And Abraham, you remember, believes God, and it's credited to him as righteousness, Genesis 15, 6. We see this verse being used in the New Testament regularly to communicate that we're not saved by our own righteousness, but through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham was saved not by his own righteousness. He was saved by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the one who was to come. He believed the promise. And then God says to him in verse seven, immediately after, get this, verse six, he says this, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. You probably, when you're reading your Old Testament, had thought a lot about these land promises. But this is gospel news. It's good news, we will see, that this land is being promised to the people of God. And it's not good news because we're gonna inherit the dust bowl of the Middle East that we see today. It's so much better than that. Sometimes people bring me back a vial of water from the Jordan or some dust from Israel. Don't do that, by the way. Don't bring me any of that stuff, because I'm probably going to put it in a drawer, and in a few months, it's going to go in the garbage, because I don't collect dirt. And I don't believe that the waters of the Jordan are holy. At one time, it was a place where God's people dwelt. and where his promises were set forth and where extraordinary things took place, but all of that typified something so much greater. And if we ever take a trip over to Israel as a church, guess what? That's what we're gonna be talking about. We're gonna be talking about Christ, not Armageddon on the front page of the New York Times. We're gonna be talking about the gospel and the glorious inheritance of a better land. If we're going to understand the book of Joshua, we must understand that Israel's taking possession of the land is based on God's promise and his command. God has promised Israel this land of milk and honey, a kind of paradise. He's giving it to them that they would dwell with him, that they would dwell with God and commune with God and with one another. But they must possess the land, which won't happen under Moses, but under a new leader named Joshua. Moses's death, of course, must have been very hard for Israel. Think about the role that Moses played in their generation. Again, he liberated Israel from Egypt and led them in the wilderness for 40 years. He was a kind of mediator between God and Israel. He exercised the roles of prophet, priest, and as a ruler-king. God's presence was synonymous with Moses' presence and leadership. Therefore, the question would be asked, how would Israel survive without this great man of God? We would have all been thinking that if we had been following Moses all these decades. How would they enter the promised land and defeat God's enemies without Moses, the great man, the servant of the Lord? Well, the lesson Israel would have to learn is a recurring lesson for us, for the church, that is, that God's saving promises and faithful presence are not dependent upon the leadership of any man. They are not dependent on the leadership of any man. In God's sovereign purpose, he calls men to various callings and tasks, but his will is not contingent upon them. With Moses' passing into glory, one writer states, quote, there is the passing of an era, yet the endurance of a promise. The passing of an era, but the endurance of a promise. He goes on and writes, Yahweh's fidelity does not hinge on the achievements of men, however gifted they may be, nor does it evaporate in the face of funerals. End quote. Moses was gone, but God was not. Man, like the grass, withers, fades, and eventually dies. but God is from everlasting to everlasting. He forever lives and dwells with his people by his spirit and through his son. And here we learn that God raised up a new leader for his people, a godly, sacrificial, and courageous leader named Joshua. Now get this, a type of the one to come, who would defeat all of his and our enemies and secure for us an eternal dwelling place in the new heavens and the new earth, where we would dwell with God forever and ever. Dear ones, as we commence this expository series on Joshua this morning, I think it's important that we briefly consider the context of this book by looking first of all at the man and then looking at the message. the man who is featured in this book named Joshua, and then the message of the book of Joshua. First of all, the man. Look with me again at verses one and two. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Here God spoke with Joshua, even as He had spoken to Moses. But who was this man Joshua? What do we know about him up until this point? Joshua, in fact, appears several times in the Pentateuch. Indeed, he is mentioned no less than 27 times in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Joshua is first mentioned in Exodus 17 in Israel's war with the Amalekites. This was Israel's first war after the Exodus from Egypt. Joshua, God's mighty warrior, is actually credited with winning the victory. Exodus 17, 13 states that, quote, Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. He is mentioned again in Exodus 32, 17, in relation to the infamous golden calf incident. The verse reports that as Joshua had gone up with Moses on Mount Moriah, that Joshua had heard the rumblings and the noise of God's people in the camp, that noise associated with the dancing and idolatrous revelry of God's rebellious people. In Numbers 13, you'll remember that Moses sent out men on an expedition to spy out the land of Canaan, a kind of reconnaissance team. Joshua and Caleb were among them. After their 40-day expedition, they returned with a report from Moses, but it was generally a report of fear. They told Moses that the people in Canaan were strong, that all of the cities were heavily fortified, and that there were giants living there, descendants of Anak. Sounds pretty troubling. You imagine having this report coming back to you with this reconnaissance team. They didn't want to enter the land. They were scared. They didn't trust God for his land of promise. That is all but two of them. Caleb and Joshua, they were different. Caleb and Joshua were like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. While everyone else bowed down to the golden idol, they stood up and confessed their faith in the Lord. They trusted God's promise. They were ready to go. What are we waiting for? They said. God has promised us this land. He's promised to go with us. We are always in the majority. God's a lot taller than this tribe, the annex. In Numbers 14, it states that after the report was given that Joshua and Caleb tore their clothing in disgust at the rebellion against God. Rather than be a silent minority, however, They spoke up and said in verse 7, quote, the land which we passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land. for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Then all the congregation said, what? Yes, let's go. Quite the opposite. Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Not the response you want from a word of encouragement like that. But then it states at the end of this text in Numbers 14 and verse 10, Joshua, along with Caleb, trusted in the presence, power, and promises of God to give them the land. They did not live in the fear of man, but in the fear of God. and yet the people wanted to stone them. Due to Israel's rebellion, they would spend another 40 years in the wilderness. Can you imagine that news? I think I would have torn my clothes as well if I were Joshua or Caleb. Another 40 years, God's judgment would be that this generation, this generation who saw all the miracles who walked through the parting of the Red Sea, who were there when all of the plagues were brought upon Egypt by the hand of God through the leadership of Moses. They witnessed it all. And yet, with so little faith, so much doubt, were unwilling to go into the land. Perhaps they were thinking as sometimes we think, man, we've gotten this far. Why are we gonna risk even more? It'd be the modern version of, I've been living by faith in Christ for a very long time and I've taken a lot of risks and I've been faithful, but this is just a little much. And so I think I'll just do it like the world does it. It's our version of what they did. And their entire generation would die in the wilderness. It would be the following generation that would go in under the leadership of Joshua. and Caleb. In Numbers 27, we read of the succession plan for Joshua to replace Moses as Israel's leader when Moses dies. Some might wonder if the succession plan is stated all the way back in Numbers 27, then what is Deuteronomy about? There's a whole nother book there. Well, Deuteronomy is essentially a collection of five sermons that Moses gives to God's covenant people before he dies and before they go into the land. They are full of exhortations about how they are called to live according to God's law, filled with covenant blessings and curses depending upon how they live. Moses is preparing them through instruction and admonition. exhorting them to remember God's promises and to obey his word as they enter Canaan, that they wouldn't worship like the surrounding nations, that they wouldn't take on the values of the surrounding nations and the religions of the surrounding. They wouldn't intermarry with the surrounding nations. This was the call. So we see that Joshua was a courageous man and a strong leader. But one thing we don't want to miss is that he was a godly man. He was a man of war. He was a man of valor. He was a man of courage. He was a man of God. He was a godly man. He is described in Deuteronomy 34 as being full of the spirit of wisdom. In Numbers 27, he is called a man in whom is the spirit. You know, he sort of defies a lot of the wrong thinking and teaching about manhood in our day, which is more focused on machismo than it is godliness and wisdom, kindness, valor, servant-heartedness. This was Joshua. He was a man in whom is the Spirit of God. Perhaps he is most well-known for the powerful exhortation that he gives in Joshua 24. If you walk into our living room, in our home, you'll see these words on the wall given to us as a gift many years ago. You know these verses, Joshua 24, 14 and 15. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, what? We will serve the Lord. May that ring out in our hearts, in our conversation, in our meditations as we study the book of Joshua. We're gonna learn a lot of interesting history in the book of Joshua. But Joshua, of course, is more than just a recounting of Israel's history. It's a call to faith in Christ, the greater Joshua. It's a call to sincere faith in God's promises and a strong call to faithfulness to his word. It's a call to make a bold stand for Christ, to forsake the idols of our surrounding culture and to serve the Lord. Dear ones, Joshua is not just a dusty old history book, though I do like dusty old history books, but that's not all that this is. It's a book that has a living call to faith in Christ. He who is the yes and amen of all God's promises. It's a call to live in grateful obedience to God's word, to say courageously with Joshua, others may serve the idols of this world, but as for me, as for my house, as for my family, we will serve the Lord. I want to ask before I go on, I want to ask you a question. Is this your heart? Is this your heart? Or may I put it this way, was this your heart? Was there a time that you boldly and unashamedly and unyieldingly and freely made this confession? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I will not serve the idols of this culture. But since then, perhaps over the weeks, months, maybe even years, you've drifted away. You're now conforming to the world more than to the word. You've lost your first love. You're now embracing that which the world is offering you, and it's certainly not bringing you joy. Maybe some weak and cheap pleasure, but not true divine joy. and you're burdened with guilt, and you're struggling, and you're looking for direction, and you're hearing all this, and you're thinking, that's what I want. I wanna get back to that. I wanna get back to my first love. Well, let me just tell you something. Your first love will embrace you with open arms right now. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to Christ for grace and forgiveness and mercy. He calls all sinners to himself. Come ye sinners, poor and needy. Come to Christ. Are you worthy of his love? No, you are not. None of us are. But come to him. If you have never known the Lord, repent of your sins and come to him. He offers you life and forgiveness and mercy and saving righteousness and salvation and an eternal inheritance in the land of promise. He offers this to you. What compares? Nothing. Nothing compares to knowing God in Jesus Christ. Is this your heart this morning? By God's grace, may it be. Come to Him. Don't wait any longer. I urge you. I urge you, if your life is full of worldliness and immorality and foul language and illicit relationships and perhaps pornography and all these things that are just pulling people down into hell, today is the day to say, I am no longer going to serve the idols of this world. I'm going to serve the Lord by his grace. Because I can't do it apart from His grace. I need a new heart. I need a new life. Lord, would you do this for me? Would you give me a new heart and a new life? This is the call of Joshua. It's the call of every book in the Bible. A call back to reconciliation with God through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. This leads us to the message of Joshua. The message of Joshua. The message of Joshua, the overall message of Joshua is not do better, be better. It's not be strong and courageous. It's not you need to be an adventurer and a conqueror and all these things. Yes, those things, but all under the main thing, which is God's covenant faithfulness. That is the message of Joshua, God's covenant faithfulness in the gospel. If any message defines the book of Joshua, it is this, God's covenant faithfulness. You see, as we are reminded this morning, God created mankind in his own image, and he placed mankind in the garden paradise. There, of course, they enjoyed perfect, sinless, harmonious, and joyful communion with God and one another. It was paradise. It was paradise. Paradise is perfect communion with God. What is paradise? Paradise is communion with God. Some people think paradise is the best 18-hole golf course that I can play forever in heaven. They say things like that. That is just, I know it's meant to be lighthearted and everything, but it's really, it's terrible. Because the ultimate happiness, the ultimate joy, the ultimate pleasure and glory is communion with God. And that's what we will enjoy in heaven. This is what they enjoyed in the garden. Our first parents, however, they sinned and they and all their progeny, namely all of us and throughout history, all of humanity were expelled from God's presence, expelled from the land that very much represented God's presence. Expelled from that temple garden where God dwelt with man in perfect fellowship. But they were expelled and they lost the perfect communion with God that humanity possessed. But God was not finished with mankind. He would not merely cast us all off and give us what our sins deserve. No, He made covenant promises. He made covenant promises to send a Messiah, to bless and to save people from every tribe, tongue and nation, to save guilty sinners through faith, to lead them back into the land where His abiding presence would be with them, where they would again commune with God and with one another in harmony and joy. This promise of blessing and the inheritance of land is a golden thread that runs all throughout the Bible, from Genesis chapter 2 all the way through to the end of Revelation. This promise of blessing and the inheritance of land. It goes throughout redemptive history, and we will explore this promise again and again in this series. What I want us to recognize for now is that the ultimate realization of this land promise that we see in Joshua is the new heavens and the new earth. that's promised in Isaiah 65, and clearly in 2 Peter 3 13, where it says, quote, but according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. A new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. What is typified in the book of Joshua is Jesus Christ, our great warrior, coming into our broken and sin-torn world to defeat all of his and our enemies and lead us back into communion with God, ultimately in the new heavens and the new earth. If we don't see Christ in the book of Joshua, then we are not reading it rightly. He is the ultimate realization of all of God's covenant promises. He defeated sin. He defeated Satan. He defeated hell. He defeated death through his redemptive work, through his sinless life and atoning death and glorious resurrection from the dead. He ascended into heaven and will one day return and make all things right and all things new. Do you believe that this morning? Do you believe in the greater Joshua, he who is the greatest conqueror, the greatest leader, the only true savior of sinners? The second message we get from Joshua is God's resplendent holiness. God's resplendent holiness. You know, when people talk about Joshua, they often will refer to the total war passages. the Total War passages. It's a stumbling block, many say, for becoming a Christian. The Total War passages in Joshua are often used by people, quite frankly, to mischaracterize God and his word. Atheist apologists like Richard Dawkins have pointed to passages in Joshua as proof of the Bible's cruel and barbaric God, so to speak. But two things should be kept in mind here, and we're gonna cover these things in much greater depth as we come to these passages, of course. This is just a flyover zone this morning. But we must keep in mind, there was not uncommon in those times for tribes and nations to inflict total war on those whom they conquered. This is not some kind of a thing specialized to Israel. It happened all of the time. But more importantly, the complete destruction of the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan was, in part, God's sovereign judgment inflicted against them. God is God, and he can inflict judgment on whom he wants. He is the Lord, the earth is the Lord's, and everyone therein. He is the sovereign God. And so if He wants to inflict judgment on this peoples, or on this individual, at any time, He can do this, because He's God. And He is just in doing so. All of this is a foreshadowing, of course, of what is to come in the future, when Christ returns. When Christ returns, He will spare none of His enemies. None. God's holiness in judgment will shine brightly in the last day. But alongside his holy judgment, we will see his holy and loving mercy. You see, God, at the very same time, all the time, is a God of judgment and a God of mercy. How do you know him this morning? God's lavish mercy is the third thing, message we see in this book. We can't unpack this like we'd want to, but we see this mercy nowhere more highlighted than in the mercy extended to Rahab. Do you know what Rahab did for a living? Was she a librarian? Did she have all of her morals in place so that she could come to God with her life all cleaned up and nice and pretty? No. Rahab was a prostitute. Now, I don't need to share with you what kind of a lifestyle that is, but she would have been understood as the worst of sinners. And God has mercy on her and her family. It's a little window into a little picture of the coming great commission when the gospel would go out to the nations. But here she is spared and she becomes and her family, a part of the covenant people of God. She was a great sinner, but as John Wesley would say, Jesus is a great savior, and she believed the promises of God. She was spared. She was spared what she deserved, just as we are spared what we deserve when we cling to Christ. He offers us this mercy this morning. If you think that you are too stained, Too wicked, too much of a pass to come to Christ today. Just remember this, Christ loves Rahab. And Rahab then becomes one in the line of the coming Messiah. She's in the genealogy. What a great God of mercy we serve. God's loving presence is the final theme I'll mention today. God's presence is an ongoing theme throughout the book of Joshua. It's what gives Joshua courage to lead, courage to fight, courage to believe, courage to obey. God's presence. In chapter one in verse five, God says to Joshua, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers to give them. You know, it's such an encouragement to hear this language. I will be with you. There are a lot of daunting things that we do in life. I think of my own life in ministry, a lot of daunting things, but we have the promise, don't we? In Matthew 28, it's an echoing of Joshua 1. Jesus says, go forth into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all that I've commanded you. And lo, I will, what? Be with you always. I'm gonna be with you. Another point. These are bonuses. I forgot I had these on here. God's power through weak means. God's power through weak means. God delights in showing his power through weak means. He uses a broken prostitute to hide his spies, and through her would one day come the Messiah. In Israel's first great battle, he commands them to do what? To march around the city walls. You want us to do what? Very unconventional with warfare of that day. March around the city of Jericho seven times, but this is what the Lord said. And with a mighty shout and a trumpet blast, God calls the walls to come tumbling down. What is important for the advancement of God's kingdom is not earthly power, but faith in God's promises and the means that he chooses for his own glory. The means of grace. God called the armies of Israel to march around Jericho and the walls fell. It seems foolish, but the Lord accomplishes his purpose through these so-called foolish means, so he gets all the glory. It's the same with the means of grace. Preaching, water, bread, wine, you want us to pray? You want these to be the things that advance the kingdom of God in this wicked world? Yes, I will advance my kingdom in that way, God says, and I will get all the glory. Finally, We have God's call to obedience. This is a theme in Joshua. The call to obedience. Look with me at Joshua 1, 6 through 9. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, now look here, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good 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 way prosperous and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." How encouraging is that? The great military leader, the man of war, the man of valor, the one who has all these victories already under his belt, he is called to meditate on the word of God day and night. to be a man of God first before he is a man of war. The Christian life, dear ones, is one of grace. We abide in God's rich promises of salvation through faith in Christ. And we show forth the fruit of that faith through growing conformity to his word. And we cannot conform to his word if we are not studying, hearing, reading, and meditating upon his word. Dear ones, Salvation is a gift, and yet the road to the promised land is hard. Discipleship is hard. The Christian life is hard. We are called to put sin to death daily, to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. By grace, like Joshua, we are called to forsake the idols of our culture and to say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Dear ones, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table this morning, we are reminded that we are not so different than the nation of Israel on the threshold of entering Canaan. They faced formidable challenges. Doubts and fears would have welled up in their hearts, but God's steadfast promises were with them. God himself would be with them to fight for them, to be with them, to remind them not to fear, man, but to fear God, to be courageous. They were told that God would dwell with them in the land that he swore to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, just as he was with their forefathers, so he would be with them, just as he was with them, so he will be with us. The land of Canaan, of course, was just a foreshadowing of the eternal land inheritance that God would give his people through his son. The meek in Christ will inherit what? The earth, the meek shall inherit the earth. Christ, the son of God, the one whom Joshua typified, will never leave or forsake us as we make our way through this wilderness to the promised land, where the lion sleeps with the lamb, where sin and tears and enemies and disease and bad news will be no more. And where most importantly, we will dwell in perfect fellowship with our triune God forever. Beloved, as you eat of the bread and wine, remember these truths. Remember Christ's mercy. Remember his forgiveness and saving righteousness. Remember that you have the privilege and obligation joyfully to serve him according to his word. Would you pray with me? Our Father, we thank you for the book of Joshua, and we do pray that your Spirit would bless the preaching of your word from Joshua over these next weeks and months. But Lord, we do pray that you would return, Lord Jesus, and return quickly. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you to please