A Monthly Article
by Rev. John Arcovio September 1998
TEXT:Joshua
23:14-15
INTRODUCTION:
If you really want to know what is the character of a person,
listen to their conversation when they think their life
is over. Their last words will reveal their true priorities.
The true secrets of their hearts come out. I knew a man
who found out he was dying with cancer and spent his last
weeks calling people all over the place apologizing to them.
Priorities tend to change at that time.
The words of this text are the last words of Joshua. He
is reminding them of God's faithfulness and their backsliding.
The name Joshua and Jesus are the same word in the Greek.
Joshua is testifying to how they know God has kept every
promise. Nothing he has ever said has not come true. If
you and I will look back we would have to admit that the
same is true for us as well. Every place and every age has
seen and experienced that "not one thing has failed!!"
God will do what he said he would.
I. HE KEPT HIS WORD TO THE PEOPLE IN JOSHUA'S DAY:
A. He promised a deliverer and
sent Moses.
1.
Through the murder of the infant boys, raised as Pharaoh's
grandson,
rejection
by his people, many personal mistakes, 80 years of running
from
the
call of God. After all of that God used him to get the job
done.
2.
When Moses died just short of the promise land, God had
Joshua ready
to
step in and take over.
3.
The devil did all he could to stop the promise from coming
to pass, but,
God
did not let anything nor any one get in the way.
B. He promised a land of blessing.
1.
Pharaoh did not want to let them go, they had many conflicts.
Inside and
out!!!
2.
They had unpassable rivers to cross and great walls to get
over.
3.
God did what he said he would do!!!
II. GOD GAVE HIS WORD TO THE CHURCH:
A. God's promises and his words
did not end with Joshua's day, or his
generation.
1.
I have problems with those who want to say God does not
work today
like
he once did.
2.
I believe him when he said he is the same yesterday, today
and forever.
To as many as be far off.
B. He has promised the church;
1.
He promised a deliverer.
Isaiah
7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself
shall give you a sign; Behold, a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel.
Isaiah
9:6 - For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given: and the
government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful,
Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince
of Peace.
2.
He promised the outpouring of the Spirit.
Joel 2:28-29
- And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out
my
spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters
shall
prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see
visions:29
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those
days
will I pour out my spirit.
Peter
stood up at Pentecost and testified;
Acts
2:16 - But this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel;
3. He promised the church victory over all it's enemies.
Matthew
16:18-19 - And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and
upon
this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not
prevail
against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of
heaven:
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven:and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.
B. He has given his promises to
individuals.
1.
To humble -
Isaiah
66:2 - For all those things hath
mine hand made, and all those
things
have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look,
even to
him
that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at
my word.
2.
to the weak -
Isaiah
40:30-31 - Even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the
young
men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD
shall
renew
their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they
shall
run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
3.
The tempted -
1
Cor. 10:13 - There hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common
to
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above
that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way
to escape,
that
ye may be able to bear it.
4.
To the backslider -
Jeremiah
3:22 - Return, ye backsliding
children, and I will heal your
backslidings.
Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our
God.
5.
To those who trust in God -
Jeremiah
17:7-8 - Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the LORD, and
whose
hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the
waters,
and
that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not
see when
heat
cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful
in the
year
of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
C. God has given you and I many
promises. Some people want to focus on the
negative, I want to hold to the
promises!!!
2
Peter 1:4 - Whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious
promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
III. NO ONE CAN ACCUSE GOD OF FAILING:
Micah 6:3 - O my people, what
have I done unto thee? and wherein have I
wearied thee? testify against me.
A. Joshua said at the end of his
life, Joshua 23:14 ...ye know
in all your
hearts and in all your souls, that
not one thing hath failed of all the good
things which the LORD your God
spake concerning you; all are come to
pass unto you, and not one thing
hath failed thereof.
2 Tim. 2:13 - If
we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny
himself.
B. Some have not excepted his promises.
2 Peter 3:3-4 - Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days
scoffers, walking after their own
lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of
his coming? for since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the
creation.
1.
There scoffing has kept the promises of God from blessing
themselves.
2.
All of their critical talk can't stop is promises from coming
to us!
B. To those who hold to his promises
he will do it.
Psalm 119:111 - Thy
testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever:
for they are the rejoicing of my
heart.
C. Hold on to his promises!!
Hebrews 10:23 - Let
us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; (for he is faithful that
promised;)
