God's Faithfulness (Joshua)

I had the honor of officiating Ron Slaughter's funeral last Thursday. And one of the family members of Ron came up to me and one of the things that was very consistent throughout all the different things shared in the eulogies was how wonderful their marriage was, Ron and Ann. And one of the family members came up and she mentioned to me that a pastor once told her that there are a lot of nice weddings but not many good marriages. And she was telling me Ron and Anne, they had a good marriage. There are a lot of nice weddings and not many good marriages. I told her I was gonna use that one day, and so here we are. But think about it, why are there a lot of nice weddings, but not a lot of healthy marriages? Well, if you think about it, weddings are kind of easy, right? A lot of work goes into making that thing real fancy and special. But the wedding is simply where the two people come up and they make promises. The marriage is harder because that's where you have to keep those promises. It's really easy to make a promise. It's very difficult to keep a promise. Anybody can just go around making promises. The important thing is keeping that promise. As we think about our passage this morning, which is about promises, I really wanted to think about how hard it is for us to keep a promise and how easy it is to make a promise. Two questions that we could ponder is, how trusting are we of others because of all the promises that have been broken in the past? Another question, How trustworthy are we because of all our broken promises? Sometimes we don't intend to break a promise, it's just we're not able to keep it. Sometimes we truly desire to keep a promise and we just can't. And sometimes we just don't put forth enough effort to keep it. I want us to think about how difficult it is to keep promises, because it really is a weighty matter that's worthy of our attention, but it helps us put into perspective how great God is. Because he is the most amazing promise provider. He gives such wonderful promises that are absolutely unnecessary for him. Every promise God gives, he doesn't have to give. But once he gives that promise, he has to keep it. And this is what makes God so unique. He is the one who is truly capable of keeping every promise. He is unique in that he has the power to keep his promise. That's why we're saying, great is thy faithfulness. That's what we're seeing of His love. There's not a scroll available. Even the whole sky were a scroll. You could not contain it all because His commitment to His Word is beyond our comprehension, but we can know enough to say He's never failed. Every word He's ever given has come true. And as John pointed out, we know as Christians that these promises are true in Christ. This morning we're looking at Joshua, and we're gonna take a fairly large section, but we're gonna boil it down to Joshua's own summary of this section. So if you have a pew Bible and you're wanting to follow along, you can look to page 188. The scripture reading ends on 195, or the scripture we have ends on 195, or 196 rather. And that's where I wanna draw your attention. Page 196, chapter 21, verses 43 through 45. We're gonna go through and we're gonna briefly walk through these texts, but I want us to see the very climactic ending of what Joshua intended. Conquer the land, divide the land. That's what Joshua's about, right? It's pretty simple. Take the land from the Canaanite inhabitants who were rebelling against God, and then give it away to the Israelite tribes who are now called to worship God. Let's read just 43 through 45. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that He swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. Not one word failed. Everything he said would happen has come to pass. Now, I just want to look at this passage briefly. We'll go back and do a little of a summary, but verse 43, that really is a summary of 13 to 21. He gave the land. Everything he said he would give, he's given them and they've settled there. Verse 43 is a summary of 13 through 21. Verse 44 is a summary of six to 12. He gave them rest. They won the battles. They've conquered. Every enemy was given over to the Israelites into their hands. We see the whole book being summarized in two simple verses. And just so we know what Joshua's getting at, not one word of all the good promises that the Lord God had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. Let's go back and just look at a simple summary of where we are in Joshua. Joshua is the book that tells us that the people that God created, and the people that God made a nation, and the people that God delivered out of Egypt, and the people that wondered, now that next generation, they've come to the promised land, they've conquered that promised land, they now are settling that promised land. What God has said would happen has happened. You see, about 450 years prior to this, God told Abraham, Your descendants are going to come back to this land I've promised you. You're going to go to another nation, I'm going to deliver you, and then you're going to come out. God keeps his word. This is good news for us Christians. You don't get land today. But you get to see something much more precious. God never fails. He's faithful. We can go back to that charge Joshua won. Be strong and courageous. I will give you the land. Be strong and courageous. I am fighting for you. Be strong and courageous. What I have said, if you simply hear it, believe it, and obey it, you will be successful. You will receive what I have for you. Again, here in these three simple verses, really two verses, we see the entire book of Joshua summarized, and our main message is this. It's a simple message today that covers numerous chapters. God keeps his word. We can trust him. God keeps his word. We're called to trust him. So here's our three points. First, God keeps his word. He gave him the land. That's verse 43. God keeps his word, he gave them the land. Second, God keeps his word, he fought for Israel. That's verse 44. Third, God keeps his word, he is faithful. That's verse 45. Let's look at our first great declaration, and this is summarizing the primary section here that we're looking at, verses 13 to 21. God keeps his word, he gave them the land. The inheritance of Israel is focused on receiving land. Land is necessary for a sustainable life. They need agriculture, they need to be able to settle roots. This is a huge blessing. God is taking them from being a wandering people to now having the most precious land that's rich, that's able to provide for their needs. Land is one of the primary promises for Israel, the nation. It's one of the most significant blessings that the firstborn of a family would typically receive the larger amount of the inheritance of the land. The people would depend upon the land. The crops provide for them. Children would be raised on that land. It gives you a sense of being settled. It gives you security. It allows you to really start building a society. Sadly, we'll be able to look back soon. and see that Israel, they forsook God. Israel refused to worship God and live according to God's word in this land, and he's going to take them out, and it's going to be painful. He's going to strip them of this great blessing, because Israel said, Jesus started thinking, this is a right we have, not a grace. This is something that we deserve, it's not a gift. They take it for granted, they worship other gods, and God rips this land out from underneath them. Our focus this morning is on the land being given. We can look back to chapter one, verse six, where God told Joshua, be strong and courageous, you shall cause this people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers to give them. So we look at this, Joshua's the executive of the state. The inheritance is God's, he's giving it to his people, and Joshua is simply giving out what God has commanded. So let's look over these chapters quickly so we can get an idea what this looks like. They've conquered many enemies. They've conquered many kings and armies. Now they're going to get the land. If you believe, look at chapter 13. What's surprising here is that the very first thing Joshua wants to be recorded, the very first thing God records is how much of the land has yet to be conquered. See, Israel was told to wipe out all the inhabitants because they were all under judgment. In Israel, they're actually pretty slow to even take the land, some of them. They're slow to keep fighting, even though they should know God is going to fight for them, he's going to give them success, but they're very slow and they're cautious to keep doing this hard work to clean off the land of the idol worship. And the reason God wants them to clean up the land of the idol worship is they're leaving a very dangerous enemy behind. Yes, they've removed all the key threats, all the major armies and their kings, but the most dangerous thing is still there. Idols of the nations. Israel's heart is going to constantly be lured away from God because they have not taken the action in faith to remove the rest of these people. Second, we look to chapter 13, the second half. The land of the east of the Jordan, it's simply restated. Remember Moses had already given this land away. So the eastern land, the east of the Jordan, it's simply repeated for clarity so that we know who has which inheritance. Chapter 14 explains how and why the land west of the Jordan is allotted. And I want us to pay special attention here. Caleb, the individual, is given land before the tribes. And I wanna read this because this should challenge us. Chapter 14, verse six. Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenazite, said to him, you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God in Kadesh Barnea? Concerning you and me, I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day saying, surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive. Just as he said, these 45 years since the time that the Lord spoke with the word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness, and now behold, I am this day 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength now is as my strength was then for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that day how the Anakim were there with great fortitude cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said. Then Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. and inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenazite, to this day because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. Friends, that's a testimony. Okay, he's 85 and still as strong as he was when he was 40. That's not really the point of the testimony, is it? He wholly trusted God. When everybody else except for Joshua is coming back and they're giving a bad report, he stands up and says, no, I'm going to speak out on behalf of what God has shown me, and that is he is able to fight. We should have hearts that are committed to God and trust him. This is a man of faith who persevered. This is a testimony that challenges us all. This is a testimony worth living for, a life wholly devoted to God. He does not turn to the left. He does not turn to the right. He trusts God and he obeys God. Now let's turn to chapter 15. Now this is significant because this is the first tribe who's going to get an allotment in the promised land proper on the west of the Jordan. And it is significant that it's Judah. Like I said before, usually the firstborn gets the largest allotment of land, the first choice of land. Judah is not the firstborn. He's not even the second or third. Judah should not be first here, but God's ways are not our ways. Just as he chose Jacob, the technical secondborn, or the by birth order secondborn. He chose him to have the privileges and rights of the firstborn. So here, Judah, who's going to be the main emphasis of most of the rest of the Bible, because the king, the snake slayer, the conqueror, the one who's going to come and reverse the curse, he's going to come out of Judah. We know that David is going to come out of Judah. We see here a lot of emphasis in the boundaries. You see a western boundary and a northern boundary, and they're very well laid out and they're very clear. And then you see, here's all the cities of Judah. There's a lot of attention given to Judah because what's setting us up here is what's going to happen later. Judah's going to be the primary tribe because that's the tribe from which Jesus Christ, the Savior, is going to come from. Let's look at verse 63 before we move on. But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah, could not drive out. They dwelled there to this day. We know David will eventually drive them out and Jerusalem will become the capital city. Fifth, we look ahead and, well, the remaining tribes, verse 18, they're actually kind of slow. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh to set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them. They remained among the people of Israel, seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. So Joshua said to the people, how long will you put off going to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? They're not actively obeying. They're not eager. They've kind of gotten lazy and content. They're not going to go out and get the blessing and the inheritance that God has provided. And we see there then, and inheritance for Benjamin and Simeon and Zebulun and Issachar. And again, there's boundaries and cities, but nothing of the nature of detail as Judah. Chapter 20, one of the things that God has put in place that Moses already prescribed in earlier writing, cities of refuge. This is for when a man actually takes another man's life or takes another man's life, he can flee to the city of refuge until he has a proper hearing and a just judgment. And finally, the last thing I want us to see is Levi. Judah gets the most attention in terms of his land, and Judah's gonna get the most attention according to his tribe, but Levi has a very unique role. They don't get a land with boundaries. Let's look at a few verses. First, turn to chapter 13. 13, verse 14. These are sprinkled throughout. To the tribe of Levi alone, Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the Lord God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to them. Look over chapter 13 verse 33. But in the tribe of Levi, Moses gave no inheritance. The Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them. And then chapter 18 verse 7. The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their heritage. So there we see Israel has a unique role. They're going to be the priests who are sprinkled throughout the nation, throughout the tribes. Their inheritance is that they get to serve their brothers by representing them before God, and they get to go before God. Their inheritance is a unique one in that they don't have these boundaries. They're going to get pasture land. But they don't have these great boundaries that make them protected. They're relying upon their brothers, but they serve them and their inheritance is being able to serve God in a unique way and worship. Now, how are we to think about these promises? Again, much of this, and if your kid's got the sheet with all the different tribes, you can see how the land's allotted. We could get really excited about what kind of ways that God gave land to these people. I personally love land. It's wonderful, I love to walk land, I love to look at topography. We could get real excited about it, but we need to think, how are we as Christians today, after Christ, supposed to think about this promise of land? When you think it's good, the earth is good, God created the earth. God made his people of the earth to work it. It's enjoyable to seek to try to subdue it, but we usually fail, or I do rather. As Christians, we need to see something in that our inheritance is not land. Our inheritance is less tangible and less measurable But it's better. Turn back with me to the passage that John read earlier. And I want you to see highlighted here the key word, inheritance. The key word, inheritance. Look at verse 11. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined. Look at verse 13 and 14. And Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until we acquire possession of it. And then look at verse 17. This is a pray. A prayer, his prayers are this, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, the knowledge of him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of which you've been called, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Now notice there, it's, you've obtained an inheritance. This inheritance has been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and now his prayer is that you, by the power of the Holy Spirit revealing in your heart, would know the riches of this glorious inheritance. Christians, we're not gonna think about land. We're gonna think about this rich inheritance. If we go back to Ephesians 1, and we look up, every blessing, is ours from the Father in Christ. The inheritance we receive, it's not the tangible, immeasurable land. It's something so much better. It's having a proper relationship with God. Key words, again, chosen. We're chosen. God didn't say this one's worthy and this one's not. God simply said, they're all unworthy, but I'm going to set my affection on you Chosen. You're not left alone in your despair and your destruction. You're predestined. This is a decision that was made by God despite our failure, our weakness, our self-righteousness. We're adopted. What an inheritance to be able to call God Father. That's part of the inheritance. To be loved as a son when we were enemies. Redeemed. Redeemed through His blood. Delivered from our enemy's sin, and Satan, and death, and the worst of all, redeemed, delivered away from the wrath of God. Forgiveness. Look at this one, verse seven. In Him we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Here, Paul, he can't resist according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. God's inheritance is so much better than land. It's being able to know God, to know God in his love, to know God in his righteousness, to go to God in his truth, to be able to go to God with a clear conscience and say, God, I want to be your child. To be able to go to God and say, I want to know how to love you and to know your love. This is a beautiful inheritance that is ours only because Christ has come as the one true son and shared his life with us by dying for us. If you're not a Christian this morning, if you're not a Christian this morning, I have to challenge you that you have a future ahead. And that future is standing before God, and it's going to be very clear how you rebelled against Him. How you refused Him, how you rejected Him. And what you're going to see is how holy and righteous and good He is, and how sinful you've been, and you're going to realize you're getting the just consequence. You're getting righteous response from God when he puts his wrath on you. The only way to not receive that righteous, proper response of God, who is holy and right, is to look to see that he actually sent his son to die in our place. See, when a believer goes before God and he stands before God and he doesn't say, I'm better than the other guy. No, what happens is Christ comes and he says, Father, I died to satisfy your wrath against all the sins he or she has committed. Now they get to come in because I have prepared a place for them. If you're not a Christian this morning, I want you to see something in that you are a sinner. You've rejected God, you've lied, you've stolen, you've refused to worship. And what you can see is that Christ, when he died on the cross, he died not as a sinner, but as if a sinner. He was a righteous man who was put to death for the sins of all who believe in him. You can believe in him today. You can be redeemed from God's wrath. You can be forgiven of your sins, but you must believe in Him so that He will stand before the Father on your behalf. Brothers and sisters, as we think about this inheritance, not only can we say that God's gifts to us are so much better than land, He gives us love. It's a perfect love that is a sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. Christ is always there mediating for us. We do not deserve it. We have to remember this, we do not deserve it. We're creatures who rebel, but as Paul says, God lavishes his riches upon us. He's quick to show his grace. In Christ, we are forgiven and delivered. Something we need to see here also is that God doesn't have secondary children. because we are all equally sinful before God, and we are all equally dependent upon Jesus Christ, the one Son. We're all on the same adoption. We're all one in the Spirit. We all share the one baptism. There's no secondary status. We're all unworthy, but receive the most amazing inheritance, beloved. That's why favoritism within the church is spoken against in James. That's why it's unacceptable to have favoritism within a church. That's why slander and gospel are not permitted. That's why we are our brother's keepers. We care so much about the name of the one big brother, Jesus Christ, and the father who has sent him that we care about all the other brothers and sisters and how we live. Because he's attached his name to us. It means we don't overlook sin so that we can live a more comfortable life without confronting. No, we're supposed to be conformed to the image of that son. The inheritance is not just that we receive this new status, but we'll begin to live a new life. As we think about our inheritance, something I need to assure you, your status never changes. Once you're predestined, you're chosen, you're adopted, you're redeemed, you're forgiven, that status does not change. But it should change us. Your status Your position in Christ, it never changes, but you should constantly be changed by it, because you're supposed to be conformed to that Son. As I think about this a little further, I want us to look and see, our inheritance, if it's anything like any of these tribes, it's like Levi. Our inheritance is God. If that's not good enough, you haven't really gotten the picture yet. Heaven isn't your inheritance. Whatever you think heaven is, which is usually like our favorite thing, right? Heaven, I better have ice cream. I really like ice cream. No, that's not an inheritance. That's an idol. Your inheritance is God. Your inheritance is beholding the beauty and the power and the glory of God forever. We're like Levites, only better. Because they had to make sacrifices to go into the presence of God. The sacrifice we need to go into the presence of God, it's made and it's perfect and it's better. Now we get to go boldly into the throne of God all the time. And we get to call him Father. This is a glorious inheritance. Let's look to our second point. God keeps his word, he fought for Israel. Let's go all the way back to Joshua. Joshua chapter 21, let's read this again. I'm gonna read it in its entirety. We've got three verses and they just help us see how faithful and good God is. Thus the Lord God gave to Israel all the land that he swore. Notice again, everything God says He does, He swore He gave. The Lord God gave them rest on every side. I'm sorry. The Lord gave to Israel the land that He swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord God gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. He fights for His people. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. God, he gave their enemies into their hands. God gave them rest. The giving of rest is something that's repeated. We actually saw it last week. Look at chapter 11. The very last verse, verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments and the land had rest from war Now it's very important We see here that Joshua gave Israel according to God's Word and his power gave them rest from something very specific from war All the kings who were a threat, all the mighty armies, they've been defeated. Many of the fortified cities have been destroyed or overtaken. Israel had a rest. Rest is one of God's designed purposes for us. He is a good God of rest. If we back out for a moment, again, we wanna go back to creation, and everything is made good and made good and made good, and then there's that last day that has no beginning or end. Remember the last day, there's no morning or evening. It's meant to be kind of an ongoing, purposeful day, a goal. God rested. God rest. One of the things we need to realize is God is, he's committed to righteous rest. We really like unrighteous rest. We like trying to get comfort and ease outside of God's way. But the only true rest is when we actually listen to God, believe God, and obey God. That's righteous rest. His righteous rule is good. Rest happens when his people acknowledge him as God and worship him as God. That's also a definition of the kingdom of God. When God's people listen and obey God. See, God has a special kind of rest. It's his own rest where we have a right relationship with him, where we trust him, we obey him, and he calls it my rest. He longs for all of us to enter into his rest. Now the people of Israel and Joshua, they get a real rest, but it's not what we're talking about in Psalm 95. They have a rest from enemies in their own land with swords and arrows and spears. They have a rest from war, and it's a real rest, but I want us to go to another New Testament passage as we look at this. You see, Joshua, he gave them a real rest that was a rest from war, and he's capable of this. God has given him the power to do it, but he can't give the kind of rest that the people of Israel really need. He can't give them a right relationship with God. He does not have that capability. Let's all turn to page 1002, if you're using a pew Bible, Hebrews 4.8. Our author makes this exact point. Hebrews 4.8, 1002, if you're using a pew Bible. So Israel, they got a kind of rest, it's a good rest, it's a rest that God purposed for them at that time and that place, but it's not my rest. Let's look at chapter four, and we're just gonna read verse eight through 11. For if Joshua had given them rest, the real rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest. For the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest, he has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Psalm 95 is a warning. Do not disobey God again. If you hear His voice, do not refuse Him. Enter the rest He's welcoming you into. This isn't a rest from our physical enemies. This isn't a rest from trials and tribulations in this world. This is a rest that is God's unique right relationship that He gives to us in Christ. This is what we have to realize. We cannot do enough good works to outweigh our bad works. We cannot do enough stuff to be at peace with God so that he's happy with us. We can't cause a rest ourselves in our own work with God. And so he sent his son to die after he has been a righteous son, as if unrighteous, and he rose again, and now he sends the right hand of the Father who's a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul so that we can now rest in him. We don't rely upon our own works. We place our faith in Christ who has done everything we need. Jesus is the Son of God who has the power to conquer sin and death. He's the perfect high priest in the sacrifice. He's the perfect sacrifice who's able to purify our conscience. He's the perfect high priest who's able to lead us into the very throne of grace. Christian, Jesus has come to give us Rest. Not vacation. It's very different. To truly enjoy a peace with God. To truly be able to delight and see His glory and to see our sin in light of His glory and not be overwhelmed with guilt because we can see that Christ perfectly paid the penalty. It's a rest. unlike anything you'll ever experience unless you believe in Christ. He gives us rest from an unclean conscience. That constant nagging, we're not who we're supposed to be, and that is true, but in Christ we know he has declared us something we are not, and that is righteous. It's a rest from that twisted and corrupt heart that's always turning us to other idols and other gods. It's a rest that says, I am going to commit to worshiping God alone in Christ, and I know he forgives me. It's a wrath from the enslaving power of sin that sets us free to now worship God in obedience. It's a wrath from that internal battle that constantly plagues us. It's a wrath from guilt and shame. If Christ has declared you righteous, you are righteous and forgiven. It's a wrath from building up our self-righteousness that it's exhausting. Let's just admit it. Trying to pretend we're righteous is simply exhausting. That's why it's so glorious. We can say I am a sinner saved by grace. I can rest in Christ and I can quit trying to pretend that I'm somebody I'm not so that I can please other people. Give up the facade. Make much of Christ when we talk about our sin. It's rest from fear. God tells us in Hebrews how firm out to hold firm to our confession. And it's because Christ is truly our victor. Christ has truly won for us a rest that we could never gain on our own. Let's look at our last point. God keeps his promises. Again, back to Joshua, Joshua 21. Not one word of all the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. Every single one of them came to pass. That should be the end of the story. Think about it. God made Abraham a promise. You'd have a son and you'd have some land. We got sons and we got land. This should be the end of the story. God did everything he said he would do, and now Israel, for the rest of their lives, they worship happily and willingly. There's a lot more to the story. Why isn't that the end of the story? Well, we know it's not because God failed. His people failed. His people did not remove the idols. His people forsook Him. His people refused Him. And yet God remained faithful to every promise. To the point where He sent His own Son to die on the cross for all the failures. He sent His Son to suffer the wrath of all the forsaking. This should be the end of the story, folks. And as we see God's promises, it's within a story. Now I'm going to live a life of obedience. Well, no, that's not the way it is either. See, we may not turn to what we think are idols, an image or a graven image. We may turn to those things, but we have our idols. Our number one idol as Americans is self-reliance. We think we have the energy and the strength and the wherewithal to do what we need to do. We're self-glorifiers. We don't submit to the Lord and commander. See, there's two kinds of pride that we can have. One, one boast of ourselves. Right, we wanna have a kind of pride that says, I'm gonna make much of myself and I want others to see how much I am. There's another point of pride that's just self-pity. This seems to be more acceptable in the church. When somebody has self-pity where they talk about how bad they've had it. Whenever that kind of focuses on oneself, we need to be careful. You see, the real Christian, he has perseverance and patience and obedience. The real Christian looks to God and says, your word is true, I'm not gonna complain, I'm not gonna grumble, I'm going to persevere with patience. That's a lot easier for me to say up here than to live out there. But that's what we should all be longing for. We need to be convinced that God is good. That is the key to seeing the great blessing of God and enjoying that blessing and living in obedience to it. God is good. Think about all the good promises God makes and think about how he's never failed. See, Satan's number one thing is he wants you to question God's goodness. Once you start questioning God's goodness, you don't think you have anything good at all. You don't thank God. We complain and grumble. We have to constantly remember his word never fails. He keeps every promise. And so I exhort you with two words, trust God. Trust God. We have to say God is trustworthy. He's given us all these stories for a reason so we can see how concrete His promises are. No matter what kind of fickle His people get themselves into with their sin, He's always true. So trust God. Let's walk through that a little bit. Trust God in the midst of trials. Trust God in the midst of trials. When there's a physical health trial, maybe a vocational trial, make sure you always remember God He's good. He's good to teach us to rely upon him and to wait upon him. He's good to provide us for all the things we need, and he is always with us. God may not give us what we ask for, but he'll always give us what is best. He's good. What he says is good, what he does is good. We have to remember this in trials. Remember this in conflicts. When other brothers and sisters are not living out the faith, they're sending out repentance, or they're not apologizing, or they're seeking justice and not extending grace, we have to remember God is good. He turns hearts, he has vengeance. God brings about his will. In the midst of conflict, trust that God is good and his will will always win. We have to avoid letting someone else's sin justify our sin. Remain in grace, keep extending grace, have perseverance and patience. Third, trust God in death. Trust God in death. We're all gonna die. It's appointed for each man to die. We lose loved ones. We're going to face death. I want you to see that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is your clear declaration that God is good and he's going to give you eternal life. Do not let your eyes wander away from the cross and the resurrection. This is for no matter how old you are. Caleb's testimony was true because at a young age he decided he was going to trust wholly in God all of his life. Fourth, trust God in fear. Anxiety is disabling. There are real fears. There's real trouble. It's abounding. There's a lot of clear, real fear out there. We could ask the question, will I ever find a spouse? Some are asking the question, will the spouse I found ever be like he's supposed to be or she's supposed to be? Will they ever change? How can I protect my children? What will their futures be like? Will I find a job? Will it provide for my family? What is the future of our country? These are real fears. They're real concerns. And the most amazing thing about what God's word says is that he is good and therefore we can rejoice even in trials, in fear, in conflict, in death. Christ, he's king. Christ is king. It doesn't matter who's gonna be president. Christ is king. Trust him. If any of your faith is in one of the presidential candidates to actually change and fix the real problems of this country, you've got your faith in the wrong person. Christ is king. We need to realize, first and foremost, Christ cares about the state of his church more than the state of his nation. That's where our desires should also be. Finally, trust Christ in temptation. There are sins that entangle you. You can look back to Hebrews. There are sins that entangle you. Trust Christ who gives you the power to say no. He is your help. Look up and then trust Christ in the accusation. This is what's so powerful about Satan's accusations. They're actually real, right? I mean, he doesn't accuse us of sins we may have done. He accuses us of sins we've done. They have teeth because we're sinners and we commit sin. And when he says you're guilty, you say yes, I'm culpable, I did that, but Christ died so that I have rest in his death for me. He has plenty of ways to make us feel guilty and they're all connected to some truth. But the inheritance we have is a clean conscience because Christ has died for us. Trust what God has said. Friends, the number one thing, as we started, he's faithful. God can be taken at his word. We can trust him. We have to listen. We have to be willing to be changed. We have to be willing to obey. We have to trust that his grace is efficient to lead us to trust him. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that your son has come to give us true rest. We thank you that he is the exalted king, the name above every name, who cares for us, who has made a promise that he'll be with us to the very end of the age, that he fights for us. He has won the victory for us. We can now have rest in him. Help us to not be distracted, to look for rest in every other kind of thing in your creation. Help us to truly strive into that rest of Jesus Christ, that is not relying upon our works and our ability, but relies upon what He has done. Help us to have faith. Help our unbelief, God. Help us to see how faithful you are, how you never change, how your word is always true. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.