The sermon focuses on the Book of Joshua as a powerful testament to faith-building, highlighting God's faithfulness in fulfilling promises. The narrative begins with the Israelites transitioning from receiving manna to eating Canaan's produce, marking a new phase in their journey. Joshua's encounter with the commander of the Lord's army underscores divine leadership and holy reverence. The sermon emphasizes the importance of trusting God over human logic, illustrated by the unconventional military strategy at Jericho and the need for seeking divine counsel, as seen in the Gibeonite deception. Joshua's narrative is split into four distinct sections: crossing into the land, conquering it, dividing it among the tribes, and settling. The book underscores God's faithfulness, seen in the fulfillment of promises made to Abraham and the judgment of the Canaanites. Joshua's farewell addresses call for clinging to and loving God, and the narrative concludes with a reflection on God's unerring faithfulness and a challenge to act boldly on the Great Commission.

Be reading Joshua 5 verses 10 through 15. Verse 10. Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went to him and said to him are you for us for our adversaries and so he said no but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy, and Joshua did so. Father, we too are here in your presence on holy ground before you, and I pray that our minds and our hearts would be attentive. There would be a sense of holy reverence and fear as our brother opens your word and proclaims it and he would do so in your power and that you would meet with us.

We need nothing more but to meet with you, to have a fresh glimpse of you, to have you strengthen weak hands and weak faith. So please come and meet with us powerfully through the preaching of Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is the book of Joshua, a great book for faith building. It's had 24 chapters of faith building content given to us here in the Word of God.

And I hope we're exiting this time with just a greater confidence than we've ever had before. That God will keep every promise that He ever made to us. God's intentions towards us are good and kind and He will carry them all out. He has the ability to carry them all out. He has the willingness to carry them all out.

So church, be encouraged. Brothers and sisters, be encouraged. Some facts and figures about our time in Joshua for those of you who like data and statistics. Looking at you Janet. I preached the introduction sermon on November 7th, So it's been about nine months.

If I counted it right, I think this is the 34th sermon in the book of Joshua. So we've had 1.4 sermons per chapter, and that is probably a record for us. That's going really fast. 1.4 sermons per chapter is a really fast-paced course. That was skewed by the land distribution chapters where we went really fast so we didn't get bogged down in all those city names, but even so.

We've had four recitation texts in the last months of last year. It was chapter 1 verses 6 through 9, and The key phrase from that recitation text, we said it 13 times together or something like that, was, be strong and of good courage. God's speaking to Joshua telling him to be strong and of good courage. Then in January, February, March, it was chapter 4 verses 19 through 24. And the key phrase from that recitation text was, what are these stones?

You remember when they crossed into Jordan, God told them, each tribe needs to have a representative that picks up one of the stones from the dry river bed. And when they went to the other side, they made a monument with those twelve stones. And Joshua said, this is so that when your children say, what are these stones, you essentially have grounds to brag about God and His goodness to us and His faithfulness to us. It will prompt you to say, we were slaves in Egypt when God set us free and brought us into the land that he promised to our forefathers. In April, May, June, it was chapter 21 verses 43 through 45.

My favorite for sure. And The summary of that is these two phrases, not a word failed, all came to pass. And then now as of the beginning of July, it's been chapter 24 verses 14 through 18. We recited it today. And of course the key phrase is, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

As I've said in other summary sermons, every time we come to the end of a book of the Bible, and my task is to summarize it. It's actually easy and fun. Why is that? Well, all the heavy lifting has already happened in terms of looking in depth at individual sections of scripture. And there's too much content to worry about trying to repreach them all.

You wouldn't appreciate it if I tried to repreach all 34 sermons. So that's not what we're here doing today. So it's just, I just get the pleasure of picking out highlights in hopes that I can drive home just the very key points of the book. So that's what I'm doing today. I'm just picking out some highlights from these 24 chapters because I like them best.

Here's a roadmap for our time. There will be three major headings today. One, a few key points from the introductory sermon. So I'm gonna reach all the way back to the introduction to Joshua and pull out a few key points that I haven't touched very often along the way, just to remind us. Major heading number two, a key passage from each of the four sections of Joshua.

Joshua is a book that can be really distinctly divided up. If you had ten scholars divide up the book of Joshua, they would probably all divide it up exactly the same way. There are four very pronounced sections. So I'll be summarizing each of those four sections very briefly and then pulling out sort of a representative passage of scripture that we hit in those four sections. And then the third major heading is a few concluding remarks to say stuff that I want to say.

There you go. Let's ask God to help us. Oh God of Joshua, so often referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but it's been so clear over our nine months in this book that you were the God of Joshua. And I thank you that You are the God of all your people that you know. Every one of us by name, you know the number of our days, you know the count of the hairs on our heads.

Nothing happens to us unless you sent it for a good and wise purpose. So thank you for being a God who has made exceedingly Great and precious promises. And thank you for proving over and over and over again in the book of Joshua that you keep them one by one. Everyone is fulfilled. How refreshing to our souls to know you.

Thank you for this in Jesus name, Amen. Major heading number one, a few key points from the introductory sermon. The events that are encapsulated in the book of Joshua happened around 1400 BC. Historians know this as the late Bronze Age for what that's worth and during that period of time, Canaan was on the trade routes between Africa and Asia. So it was a much trafficked area because it was on this major trade routes and as they excavate cities, areas within this geographical area and date the things they can tell.

It was a time of prosperity and affluence for these nations. These were mighty affluent prosperous nations that God gave his people victory over. All this happened around 1400 BC. These 24 chapters cover events that span something like two or three decades. So, from the time markers that we have, it can't be much less than two decades, and it's probably not more than three decades.

You're talking about something like 20, 20 years or 30 years covered in these 24 chapters. I started in the introductory sermon Quoting Dale Davis, not knowing how often I would quote Dale Davis, but it's been a lot, hasn't it? Let me reach back into the introductory sermon and quote something now that I quoted then. He said, the history of the Old Testament is a declaration from God about God. I think we might have been soured on Bible history by high school history.

Meaning, When I went through high school history, it was a whole lot about dates and names and things that I don't remember anymore. Bible history includes dates and names, but it's so different than every other kind of history. Bible history is a declaration by God. He's the author of it. About God, he's revealing himself to us.

And so we should think of Joshua, which is a history book in some ways, way beyond how we think of high school history, American history, world history, and such. This is inspired history. God telling us about Himself, revealing Himself, by telling us about His dealings with His people. And I'm just plucking the summary from James' sermon last week, Faithfulness, Faithfulness, Faithfulness, Faithfulness, Faithfulness. That is what the book of Joshua is about about this God who makes promises and then always always always keeps them.

The point is that the book of Joshua is not a morality play where Joshua is our hero and example, so that the big point is be like Joshua. No, no, no. It is a book about God and the major point is take Joshua's God for your God. Joshua was nothing without this God who was faithful to him. So We've spent 24 chapters, going through 24 chapters, in finding that in many ways his behavior is inspiring.

But don't let the big takeaway be, be like Joshua. No, no, no. The big takeaway is take Joshua's God for your God. He'll keep his promises to you. Major heading number two.

Key passage from each of the four sections. The first section was chapters one through five, crossing into the land. In chapter 1, God speaks to Joshua. He actually has to tell Joshua that Moses is dead. Why is that?

Well, Moses went up to the top of Mount Pisgah, never came back. But God spoke to Joshua and told him what happened. Moses had died and God tells Joshua that he'll be with him just like he was with Moses. Imagine how significant that would be to a man who had been the helper to Moses for a period of decades to know that God would now be with him as he led the people as he had been with Moses. In the second half of chapter 1, Joshua commands the people to prepare to go over.

So, God told Joshua to do it and Joshua told the people to prepare. In chapter 2, is chapter 2 my favorite chapter? I haven't really thought through this. This is a lousy time to be thinking through that question, isn't it? I think chapter 2 is my favorite.

Rahab. A prostitute who became a former prostitute. A never again prostitute who we find in Matthew chapter 1 in the genealogy of Jesus. I think she was the great grandmother of David. Is that right?

I think that's right. Great grandmother of David. Amazing. She was a pagan prostitute who believed in God, was born again, and was absorbed into the people of God. God used her in the genealogical line to bring forward the Messiah that we owe everything to.

Rahab was a fearless woman in chapter 2. She commits treason. She puts her life on the line. She bets it all to take Israel's God as her God. Praise God for Joshua chapter 2.

I want to go back and re-preach that chapter now. Chapter 3, God brings Israel across the dry riverbed of the Jordan. Why a dry riverbed? That's the season actually of flooding. James got to preach that text and he pointed out that when God brought them across the Jordan was actually the season when the Jordan would be jumping its banks and flooding.

God was showing off, by the way. If you wondered, sometimes he doesn't say I'm showing off, but he was showing off. He did it during that time of year just to show his mighty power on behalf of his people. In James' sermon on that, We know where God cut off the flood waters. It was probably 15 miles upstream.

Amazing. He cut them off at the right moment and opened the flood gates at the right moment. The people crossed over on a dry riverbed. God said, as you're going across, have each tribe have a representative, take a stone, and we'll make a monument. The next chapter, chapter four, was about the erecting of this monument and again this was about their children and their grandchildren seeing this and wondering what it's about and it creating an opportunity to teach them about what God did on the day that the Jordan was cut off so that they could cross over on dry ground.

In chapter 5, now They're across, they're in Gilgal now, which is across the Jordan, they're across the Jordan, and in chapter 5, they circumcise those born in the wilderness. So, 40 years earlier, the ones who came out of slavery in Egypt had been circumcised, but they didn't circumcise in the wilderness. We find that out here in chapter 5. So they take time after they've crossed the Jordan to circumcise all the males born in the wilderness, and then they celebrated the Passover. I initiated a phrase that I used many times after that and I'll use several times today which was military malpractice.

Do you remember that? No human planning warfare would cross the geological boundary into the theater of war and then do surgery on most of their males, all their youngest males, 40 and younger, and then take time to celebrate the Passover. As soon as you cross the Jordan, the clock is ticking and your enemies are mobilizing. This is not the way to wage war unless God commands you, unless all things are in his hands. And then it's not military malpractice at all.

You just obey him and know that he'll fight for you and give you the victory, even though your military strategy from a human perspective stinks. No US general in history would have done this unless he was a God-fearing man and God told him to do it. We're being taught a lot by the military malpractice that we see over and over again in the book of Joshua. Don't think in human terms. Trust God, obey God, and He'll fight on behalf of His people.

The first text I'd like to review here, Michael's already read some of it, but go back to Joshua chapter 5. I want to read the part about the commander of the Lord's army. This is chapter 5 verses 13 through 15. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

So he said, No. But as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so.

So this is right back to Exodus chapter 3 burning bush language. The god of the burning bush, actually This God comes in Joshua chapter 5 and says the same thing, take your sandals off. And Joshua is worshipping him and this cannot just be an angel because in other places in scripture where people bow down to worship angels, the angel will actually rebuke that worship because it's misplaced and redirect it to God. There's no such thing here. Why?

It's because this is God. God came here. It can't be God the Father. He dwells in unapproachable light. It can't be God the Spirit.

John chapter 3, He's like a wind. You don't see Him, you just see the results of His workings. Almost all scholars affirm that this is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, and I very heartily agree. If you want Jesus in the book of Joshua, this is a great place to start. Joshua asks him the right question, air quotes, You for us or for our adversary?

What a strange answer. No. I'm your commander. I'm your commander. I'm here to take command.

I'm not for you or for your adversaries. You report to me. I'm your commander. Wonderful. Next section, chapters 6 through 12, we're about conquering the land, starting with Jericho.

More military malpractice. Whose battle plan has ever been walk around the city one time for six consecutive days and then on the seventh day walk around the city for seven times and blow a horn. Military malpractice, that would never be a military commander's strategy. All of the Preparations are spiritual. Priests are doing more than the warriors.

The Levites are carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The priests are blowing the horns. The warriors are just trudging around the city. As they're told, there's no fighting to be done because God is fighting. God is winning this battle.

Then after Jericho comes the only defeat. Little tiny, inconsequential little AI. Why are they defeated? Because there's a great army? No.

When the initial reports come back to Joshua, they say, oh please don't make us all go. This is just a little place. So Joshua just sends 3, 000 people who are then routed. Not because of the military might of this little dot on the map, AI. It's because of sin in the camp.

It's because of Achan. God withheld the spoils of war in Jericho, and Achan couldn't wait. So he took gold and a Babylonian garment, and it cost him and his family and all of his livestock their lives. As it turns out, God lets his people keep all the spoils of war after Jericho. It was just a matter of timing.

If Achan could have just kept his fingers off that gold and that Babylonian garment, he would have enjoyed the spoils of war through the rest of the conquest. But he didn't obey God. God reserved the first spoils of war to himself, and then gave the rest to his people. But Achan couldn't wait. In chapter 9, we have the treaty with the Gibeonites.

They actually live within the borders of Canaan, but they act like they came from far away and it's quite dramatic. The links they go to to trick the Israelites. The bad news is in chapter 914 quote, they did not ask counsel of the Lord if they'd just asked of the Lord. The Gibeonites never would have been able to trick them. The good news is that though they made a covenant that they couldn't make, they kept it.

Which is what you should do. If you call God to witness and to judge when you make a covenant, even if you shouldn't have made it, you keep that covenant. Psalm 15 describes a righteous man and says he swears to his own hurt. If he swears and finds out later, oh this is going to hurt in ways I never anticipated, you go through with it because you promised before God that you would. In chapter 10, Adonai-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, rallies four other kings of the south and they wage war against Israel trying to repel this people who were being given the promised land.

And God heard Joshua's prayer and made the sun stand still. Do you remember that? They don't have enough time during the normal allotted daylight to make an end of their enemies. So Joshua prays that God will give them more daylight and God gives them a second period of daylight in order to annihilate their enemies. So again we just see, it's God, God, God.

There's not enough daylight, God will give them more daylight. God fighting on behalf of His people. In chapter 11, Jabin, king of Hazor, rallies many kings. Here's what we read in chapter 11 verse 4. So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore and multitude with very many horses and chariots.

You don't have horses and chariots. They have very many horses and chariots. You have an army that is coming out of 40 years in the wilderness and they have as many people as the sand that is on the seashore. They must have gulped hard before they embarked on that battle, but God gave them the victory. God tells them, this was so interesting, do you remember this?

God tells them, don't keep the horses, hamstring the horses. Make them useless for battle. Don't keep the chariots, burn the chariots. Now why was that? God didn't want them depending on horses and chariots.

God wanted them depending on Him and He proved Himself worthy of their trust. Chapter 12, we have a recounting of the two kings east of the Jordan. All that happened before the book of Joshua, but God gave Sihon and Og into their hands. And then We have a recap in the second half of chapter 12 of the 31 kings west of the Jordan. So he just names them.

He names names of the kings that can't stand before God when he's determined to keep his promise to give away their lands to his own people. The text I'd like to reread here would be Joshua chapter 10. Turn to Joshua chapter 10. I'll read verses 11 through 14. Joshua 10, 11 through 14.

And it happened as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Bethharon, that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword. Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Eijalon. So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped till the people had revenge upon their enemies.

Is this not written in the book of Jasher, so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of the man, for the Lord fought for Israel." That's pretty much it. There's the book, For the Lord Fought for Israel. The next section is chapters 13 through 21. Why do we go through this section fast?

This is the dividing of the land. Nine chapters, five sermons. In this section we were going about two chapters a sermon. Amazing. I didn't think I was capable of such a thing, and neither did you.

Admit it. This is where we had our map on the lap weeks. Do you remember that? Studying the map. Honestly, I found that really helpful, and I've found that to have helped me since then to make other sense of things that I've read in Scripture because I was just a little more familiar with the geography of Israel and so things that I've been reading in my Bible reading plan have made a little more sense.

I've gotten one more layer of understanding because I understand where things are a little bit better. This is where we had the tribal allotments. And do you remember in the allotments we had bookends? At the very beginning, one man gets an allotment for himself. It's Caleb.

It was one of two faithful spies more than 40 years earlier who begged the people to trust God and take possession of the land then they never would have had to wander in the wilderness. He got his inheritance first. Then the other bookend at the very end of the tribal allotments was Joshua, the other faithful spy. Do you remember there was a working group allotting the land? It was Joshua, the leader of the people, and Eliezer, the high priest, the head of worship for the nation, and then 12 other men, one representative from every tribe.

So that every tribe who was going to get an allotment had a representative there with Joshua and Eliezer the high priest so they would know all of what was happening and could see and participate in that process. How wise? No wonder it was wise. Moses told them to do it that way because God commanded Moses to tell them to do it that way. In chapter 14 verse 2 we read this, their inheritance was by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses.

So they rolled the dice, figuratively speaking. We don't cast the lot, It would be like us rolling the dice. So they left it to chance. No, no, no. They left it to God.

Listen to Proverbs 16.33. The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord. God actually said through Moses that this was how they were to do the land allotments. And then they did exactly what God had said through Moses. And This is the point in the sermon where I just want to point out Joshua's careful obedience.

He knew what God had said. That's important. How do you obey when you don't know what God said? He knew what God had said and then he was careful to do it. We saw that from the first chapter to the last.

Joshua being careful really. His misstep might be the Gibeonites and not asking of the Lord. Well, I mean, I make bigger missteps than that. Monthly, weekly, daily. Joshua is a wonderful example of trust in God and therefore careful obedience comes out of that trust in God.

In chapter 17, Ephraim and Manasseh asked for more land. God has made us fruitful and has made us mighty. We need more land. You know what Joshua tells them? Work for it and fight for it.

If you would clear forest land, you would have all you need. If you would displace the rest, the remaining Canaanites within your territory, you'd have plenty of land. You don't need more land. You need to get to work and you need to fight and obey God and expel the rest of the Canaanites and you'll have all that you need. And as we had map in the lap weeks, you find that Ephraim and Manasseh had plenty of land.

They just needed to get to work and fight. Wow, we could go back to the applications for that one, but there's no time now. Chapter 20 was cities of refuge. Places, three on the east side of the Jordan, three on the west side of the Jordan, that if you killed someone unintentionally, you could flee to one of those places for due process. If they found you to be a murderer, it did not save your life.

But if you really had done it unintentionally, then it would save your life and you could get due process there. Chapter 21, we had the cities of the Levites. You remember the Levites didn't get one geographical area. All the other tribes got one geographical area. They all lived together with their fellow family members, but the Levites were going to get God as their inheritance.

God sprinkled them throughout 48 cities in the other tribal allotments. So essentially every other tribe had four cities within their borders that the Levites were. Why did God do that? Because They were to be worship centers and centers that the Word of God went out of. You really had men who were laboring to understand and to teach the Word of God within these 48 cities that were sprinkled throughout Israel.

In the final section we have chapters 22 through 24, settling into the land and the farewell addresses. In chapter 22, Joshua releases the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, whose inheritances were all the way on the other side of the Jordan River, but they had come over in order to fight with their brethren until they had their land secured as well, and then they would be released. And now Joshua releases them and then gets a report. They've built an altar. And he suspects that they're already engaging in paganism, but when they find out what's really happening, they find that these two and a half tribes were afraid that future generations would forget that they were one people with one God.

And so they had actually built a replica of the real altar in order to remind future generations we're one people with one God. Chapter 23 is known as Joshua's farewell address. And if Joshua is about the same age of Caleb than at the time of chapter 23. The people have been at rest from war for about 25 years. So they've had time to settle in and enjoy a land filled with milk and honey, a land of abundance.

And Joshua calls them back together again. And in verse 14 he says, Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. He had a sense that he didn't have much life left, and he was going to use whatever life God gave him to the day of his death. He wanted to hold forth to plead with the people to be faithful to God. He really preaches a two-point sermon.

Are you ready? Cling to God, love God. I wish my sermon outlines were that simple. Cling to God and love God. Look at chapter 23, verses 8-11.

Joshua chapter 23 verses 8-11. Here's this two point sermon. But you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations, but as for you no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised you Therefore take careful heed to yourselves That you love the Lord your God He's preaching he says you've had this God who's been who's been fighting for you who has given you this land filled with milk and honey, cling to Him.

You have all of these idolatrous influences around you. Cling to God. Don't be diverted to these pagan gods around you. And be careful to love Him. It really is the heart of everything that God's people are to be about.

You should be able to trace it all back to just love for God in the heart. And that's what Joshua is preaching about. In chapter 24, he gathers all the tribes again. God let him live a little longer, and he gathers all the tribes again. And we can tell that he hasn't been to a sales training class, but that he has been to Jesus' preaching school.

He says, follow the Lord. They say, we'll follow the Lord. Instead of closing the sale and locking it in, if he was a good Baptist, he would immediately baptize them and then he would report the numbers to the astonishment of everyone everywhere. But no, he hasn't been to that sales training class, he's been to Jesus' preaching school and Jesus says, count the cost. This God is holy.

Don't trifle with the name of this God. If you don't intend with all your heart to serve this God, don't take up His name upon yourself. Such is the preaching of Joshua. He affirms that God makes two kinds of promises. Not just one kind of promise of blessing, but two kinds of promises.

There are blessings for clinging to Him and loving Him, but there are also curses to those who will not cling to Him, who do not love Him. This is really, The whole book is about two kinds of promises. Think, this is about promises to Abraham being fulfilled, and promises about the Canaanites and the rising tide of sin and what God will do to bring judgment upon a people who will not cling to Him and will not love Him. And now we see God reaffirming. I make two kinds of promises, one to the Abrahams and one to the Canaanites who continue, persist in sin.

Last week we finished 24 and there were three burials. Joshua at 110 years old, Joseph's bones at maybe 500 years old, brought. They carried that coffin for 40, excuse me, for 500 years. No, for 40 years, 40 plus years, maybe 50 plus years. They finally bury his bones.

They brought that coffin out of Egypt when God delivered them and it's been with them the whole time and now they bury his bones in Shechem and then finally Eliezer of the high priest is Buried in his on his son's property on Phineas's property So we see about God's faithfulness to Joshua, and God's faithfulness to Joseph, who saw by faith that God would bring his people out of Egypt, and God's faithfulness to Eliezer. Ok, major heading number three, a few concluding remarks. I'll give you four. Four concluding remarks. Number one, the wages of sin is death.

Where'd you get that out of Joshua? All those Canaanites. God commanded them to face of the earth. Men, women, children, old, young. The world reads those pages and they complain about the death of the innocent.

Did you know the Bible doesn't have a category for the death of the innocent? One. One innocent person has ever died, and it was Jesus Christ. No one else has died innocent. Christians should read these pages and say, God, thank you for your mercy.

It shouldn't surprise us that God wipes sinners off the face of the earth. It should surprise us that He's patient, century after century, and that he hasn't already done it to me with the things that I've thought and the things that I've said and the things that I've done in my lifetime. The wages of sin is death. Like all scripture, this actually points to Jesus. We saw Jesus in chapter 5, the commander of the army of the Lord.

But we actually see it in Joshua, throughout the book of Joshua, in the person of Joshua. He is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. They actually share a name. Joshua and Jesus are just two language variations of exactly the same name it means Savior. And Joshua is a living picture that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Well, what do I mean? Moses is the living picture of what? What does the New Testament call Moses? The law. Sometimes when New Testament authors are speaking of the law, it doesn't even say the law, it says Moses, But it's not meaning the person, it's meaning the law that came through Moses.

He is the type of the law. You know what? The law can't bring you into the promised land. In the Old Testament, the law doesn't bring you into the promised land. Moses couldn't bring the people into the promised land.

It was Joshua. It was the Savior. The law is perfect. The law is wonderful. But the law will never bring a soul into the promised land because we're simply law breakers.

You have to have a savior to come into the promised land. So Joshua is a type, and Jesus is the fulfillment of the type. Jesus is ultimately the one who obeys God and brings his people into a land eternally flowing with milk and honey. Yeah, the macaroni and cheese is done. I better wrap it up.

I better wrap it up. Number three. The book of Joshua has a significant relationship with the book of Acts. The book of Joshua is such a book of victory. Aren't you refreshed by the things that we see in Joshua?

Overwhelmingly, obedience and victory. Some of the old testers... I'm thankful we're going to Romans and not judges. If we went Joshua judges, we would get a lot of disobedience and a lot of defeats. But Joshua hasn't been that.

Joshua has been so refreshing in that we actually see the people with a heart to obey God and being given victory and being given the land. That's what the book of Acts is. That's what the book of Acts is. You have the disciples of Jesus, obeying Jesus, trusting in Jesus, and being given the land, being given the whole world. I'm going to read it straight from my notes.

I want to say it just like I read it. If God won't fight for us, what are we doing? Friends, find another hobby. As if he won't fight for it, the best that this is, if he won't fight for it, the best that this is, is a hobby. But if God will fight for us, why aren't we acting on the Great Commission more boldly?

I want to challenge myself. I want to challenge you with this. If He won't fight for us, go do something else with your time. If he will fight for us, we should be chomping at the bit to do bold things in the category of the Great Commission. To see the victories that God gave them, why wouldn't we think that He would give them to us?

If God won't fight for us, what are we doing? If God will fight for us, why aren't we acting on the Great Commission more boldly. Number four, finally, I'm going to give you the four word summary of the book of Joshua.