1984 Nugget of Gold for the New Year

A Solemn Introduction and the Promise of a Golden Nugget

0:04 O our Father, we are made solemn in the contemplation that for multitudes,

0:13 last Lord's Day of 1983 was the last time they would ever meet with your people in that year,

0:25 that they would ever again gather in a final Lord's Day of the calendar year, and they have been summoned home to be with you, and others cut off in their sins to stand and give an account of their sins, naked and unclothed in the righteousness of your Son. And our Father, against the backdrop of that solemn reality that we know not what a day may bring forth, that none of us has grounds to boast himself of tomorrow, we pray that you would speak a particularly fitting word. May the word that we study, together, come alive, and may the Holy Spirit write it upon the fleshly tables of our hearts, that it may be a word that will be our constant companion through whatever portion of this coming year is allotted to each one of us. Hear us then, O God our Father, and answer us for the sake of your Son. Amen. Now, I would like you to imagine what your reaction might have been, this morning, if you were here this morning, when I stood to give the announcements, if in the course of giving out the announcements, or as our English friends say, giving out the notices,

1:52 I had said that if you came to the service tonight, I would stand at the door, at the conclusion of the service, and give to every one of you a very special New Year's present. And that New Year's present would be, in the form, of a three-ounce pure gold nugget.

2:18 Now, if I made such a promise, and if I were able to fulfill such a promise, those of you who follow the price of gold know that somewhere along the line, I would have had to realize a windfall. With gold kicking between $300 and $325 an ounce, that would be a nugget worth almost $1,000 for every one of you. Now, what would you do? What do you think your reaction would have been had I announced sincerely and honestly, with the ability to fulfill my promise, that were you to come tonight, such a gold nugget would be given to you as my own personal New Year's present to you?

3:01 Well, after you got over your astonishment, and then all of your debating and discussing whether or not it was some kind of a joke, and debating whether or not you could really trust my promise, I would hope, that if you really believed that my promise were valid, and I were able to fulfill it, that you would have come with a measure of expectancy, and delight, and joy, and the kind of eagerness little kids often have Christmas Eve before they open their presents on Christmas morning. Well, I'm sorry I couldn't have made such a promise, and have fulfilled it for you, but I have something tonight which is of infinitely more worth than I ever would have hoped for. I have something tonight, then a three-ounce solid gold nugget, then a ten-ounce, a thousand-pound solid gold ball, and I want to give it to you as a New Year's present. Rather, I should say, I want to help you to open up such a gift which God has already given you in His holy word, and that word is a promise couched in the passage read in your hearing, and I am not one who is much given to the promise of God, but I am not one who is much given to the promise of God, but I am not one who is much given to the promise of God, but I am not one who is much given to sermon titles, but as I meditated upon this passage, I said perhaps I could indulge a sermon title tonight, and what I want to give you is a nugget of gold for the New Year, and that nugget of gold

The Precious Promise: Deuteronomy 31:6 and its New Covenant Application

4:29 is this precious promise found in Deuteronomy 31 and verse 6, in which God speaks and says, Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them, for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And the word of promise is found in the latter part of that verse, for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Let me say at the very outset that I have no reservations of saying that this is a nugget for you as one of the people of God, that it is a nugget purchased for you in the blood of Jesus Christ, one of those promises that are yea and amen in Christ, and though it was spoken by Moses to the ancient people of God, according to Hebrews, chapter 13 and verse 5, this promise is for you. For we read in Hebrews 13, 5, in a document written to Christians under the new covenant,

5:57 be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. And that's a direct promise, a quotation from this promise couched in old covenant documents, spoken to God's ancient people, but in the language of that wonderful little chorus that we used to sing as kids, every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line, every promise in the book is mine. And so I would submit to you that this promise, if God by the Spirit, will enable us to lay hold of its truth, can indeed be a nugget that I trust tucked away in the cupboard of our hearts will be cherished, not only for the coming year, but throughout all the years that God may give us until he gathers us home to that city which he prepares for those that love his appearing. Notice with me first of all, as we look at the promise, the setting in which the promise came. And this is given to us in verses one through five. Moses has come to the end of his earthly pilgrimage.

The Setting of the Promise: A New Epoch and its Relevance for Today

7:22 God has made plain to him that his life has come to its terminal point. Because of his own sin of rashness, he would not be permitted to take the people of God in or witness with them the promised land. He looked at it from afar, but God had said his foot would not, be found in that land. And so Moses now, standing before the people of God on the plains of Moab, informs them of these facts.

7:54 And then he tells them in verse three that the Lord is going to go before his people. He's going to lead them into the land of promise and that Joshua will be their appointed leader and that under the leadership of Joshua and by the blessing and presence and power of God, they will be able to accomplish God's purpose of dispossessing the nations that now inherit that land. In other words, the setting of this promise is that of the people of God standing on the threshold of a whole new epoch of both privilege and responsibility in the history of redemption. You remember that Israel's history can be marked out in some of these very broad categories that had significant transitions. After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, God brought them out of Egypt over the Red Sea and constituted them a nation. And then after 40 years of wandering, God is now prepared to bring them into the land of promise under the leadership of Moses. And so the promise that God gives to his people is a promise that in a very unique way is suited to this new threshold,

9:21 this new epoch of responsibility and privilege which will come upon the people in the will and purpose of God. Now that very fact in itself should cause our ears to perk up and to think that perhaps there's something peculiarly suitable in this promise for us. For we, like the Israelites on the plains of Moab, we stand in a very real sense on the threshold of a new epoch of God's dealings with us. The new year stands before us with privileges and demands, with responsibilities and opportunities both in conjunction with our association with the people of God in our church life, in our families, and in our individual spheres of God-appointed responsibility and opportunity. Furthermore, for us as a church, this is an epochal year. We had hoped that we would enter into our new facilities during 1983, but it's evident now that God decreed otherwise. And we know what he decreed from what providence has unfolded.

10:38 Providence is the written transfer of God's decrees. That's the only place you'll ever see God's decrees is in the transcript of his providence. You try to read them anywhere else and you'll get in trouble. But we can read his decrees in the transcript of providence.

10:55 And I can stand here tonight without any claims to direct revelation and say God decreed that we should not enter our new facilities in 1983. And how do I know it? Because we haven't entered them in 1983. And whatever God has decreed, the purpose of the Lord, it shall stand.

The Specific Recipients: Nation and Leader, Ordinary and Strategic

11:14 And so entering into that new building with its new opportunities, responsibilities, with its new temptations, and all of the new things that will come to us, and all of the unknown new things that God has locked up in his own secret designs, new battles, new challenges, in a very special way. This promise couched in the setting, of the threshold of newness, has particular relevance for us as the Lord's people. Then in the second place, I would ask you to note not only the setting in which the promise came, but the specific recipients of the promise. To whom was this promise given? Well, according to verse 1, it was first of all given to the entire nation of Israel. And Moses went, and spake these words unto all Israel.

12:18 So the entire nation is addressed in the words of this promise, speaking still to the nation, promising that under the leadership of Joshua, they will go in and possess the land. God says in verse 6 to the nation, He it is that goes with you, he will not fail you, nor forsake you. But then we notice that Moses singles out Joshua in verse 7. And Moses called unto Joshua, a member of the nation, part of the larger group, and yet he is now singled out, and in the sight of all Israel, Moses speaks to him by the word of the Lord, and says, Be strong and of good courage, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn unto their fathers to give them, you shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, He it is, that doth go before you, and He will be with you, and He will not fail you, neither forsake you, fear not, neither be dismayed. So there is almost a verbatim repetition of the promise specifically to Joshua himself. So the recipients of the promise are, first of all, the entire nation.

13:44 Now think of who comprised that nation. It was the rank and file of the ordinary members of the nation. There were those men who were enrolled over age 20 from whom their soldiers, their army was conscripted. There were the priests, there were young women, young men, children, the entire nation.

14:08 In the vast complexity of whatever makes up a nation, of this vast spectrum of ability and responsibility and high and low profile, limited gift, great gift, whatever makes up a nation of a multitude of people was true of that nation, and yet God speaks this word to the entire nation. He throws, as it were, like a blanket over the entire nation this gracious word of promise. Then He singles out Joshua. Upon whose shoulders there was now to rest a tremendous responsibility to lead that vast army into this warlike Canaanitish area and there to drive out these nations under the blessing of God the tremendous burdens of that strategic place of leadership. And yet, the amazing thing is this, with all of the intensified responsibilities, with all of the peculiar temptations and burdens of that tremendous place of leadership, the promise given to every ordinary Israelite is exactly the promise God gives to Joshua. In other words, there's enough in that promise to meet the need of everyone from the most humble, limited in gift,

15:35 and low profile Israelite to the gifted Joshua with his high profile of leadership. There's enough in that one word of promise to meet the need of the whole bunch of them. And it's very significant that it is that one word of promise that comes to the nation at large and to Joshua in particular. And again, that has special relevance to us as the Lord's people.

16:04 We are in very many ways a motley bunch. And any true church will be just that. You beware of any church that has a peculiar cast to it in terms of either the gift, the deposit of gift, temperament, and all of these other things that make us so different each from the other. Because the Lord Jesus calls His people, God has made up the role of His elect from a motley bunch, what Fox called God's five-ranked army of descending human weakness.

16:42 You behold Your calling, brethren. Not many wise, doesn't say not any, God sprinkles a wise one in there now and then, but not many wise, not many mighty, once in a while a mighty one, but for the most part we're of no account. He takes the foolish and the things that are not, and the weak and the things that are despised, and He gathers them together and He makes them His dwelling place and He says, that's the people for whom I give My Son. They're the apple of My eye with the tremendous diversity of temperament, demand, gift, responsibility to us as the people of God, no matter what we may confront in the coming days in terms of what is unique to us as individuals, God dares to say, this promise is adequate for all of your needs. And then He comes to those of us who have been put through no choice of our own, but through the sovereign design and purpose of God into places of strategic leadership to whom He has given in His own purpose and in the exercise of His own sovereign will a higher profile, greater public responsibility. What does He give to us? He gives to us exactly the same promise that He gives to the most obscure, humble, saint of God in this place.

The Substance of the Promise: Abiding Presence and Unfailing Faithfulness

18:11 There is enough in this promise for us all. And that's the significance of the recipients of the promise in its context. Now we come in the third place to examine the substance of the promise. What is the real heart?

18:26 What's the pith? What is the meat of this promise that God gives to His ancient people and to the leader of that people as they stand on the threshold of entering in to the land of promise? Well, basically it has two ingredients. He first of all gives the pledge of His abiding presence.

18:48 Verse 6, Jehovah thy God, He it is that goes with you. That was the promise to the nation. That's the promise to Joshua. Verse 8, He will be with you.

19:04 There is the pledge of His abiding presence. The nation was to look at that word of God and to think in terms of that reality. What will await us when we cross the river, when we go into the land of promise? We've heard the report from our forefathers that it's a land of hills and valleys filled with abundant fruitfulness, but with giants in the land.

19:32 What will meet us? What demands will be made upon us? In the midst of all of this, God says, I want you first of all to know this, wherever you go, whatever you encounter, whatever demands are made upon you, I am previous to you, I am with you, I go before you, and I am with you. He pledges His abiding presence.

19:58 And then in the second place, He makes a pledge of His unfailing faithfulness. And He does so in terms of this statement. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. The end of verse 6.

20:15 And then the same words at the end of verse 8. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Now in trying to get a handle on the precise meaning of those words, as they are found here in the Hebrew, and then as we find them in the Greek, in the New Testament, the sense of them seems to be this. God will not relax His grip upon you, nor will He abandon you.

20:45 Now you see, before you can abandon something that you possess, you must first of all let it go. God says, I won't let you go, nor will I abandon you. In other words, He makes a pledge of His unfailing faithfulness. He first of all says, I will be with you, and in that being with you, He now states it negatively, I will not fail you, nor forsake you.

21:14 I will do neither of these things. The writer to Proverbs says in Proverbs 25, 19, Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and like a foot out of joint. Now there's a nice big steak in front of you. And you say, boy, that'll taste good.

21:35 And you go to chomp down, and lo and behold, the tooth that would grind it is broken. Doesn't do you much good. You've got to gum it. Or there's something you want, and you've got to get there in a hurry, and you try to run, and your ankle's out of joint.

21:47 It does you little good. Now God says, Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like trying to operate with a broken tooth, and like a foot out of joint. Well, may I say it, I trust, without being irreverent, confidence in an unfaithful God in time of trouble would be just like that. And what God is saying to His people is this, yes, as I now announce to you that the time has come to enter in and possess the land, though I've assured you that I'm going before you, and it's my power that will dispossess the nations entrenched in that land, and though I've promised my special help to your leader, Joshua, I know that you're full of fears.

22:29 I know that you're full of apprehensions, full of a thousand questions. What will meet us here? How will we respond to this there? But all my people, hear me, in every situation, this is my twofold pledge, I will be with you, and I will not fail you, nor forsake you.

22:49 And dear child of God, could we want anything more from God as we stand on the threshold of a new year? Could we want anything more from God than the pledge of His abiding presence and the pledge of His unfailing faithfulness? We face the coming year with all of its unknowns. We look back upon the past year, and we think within the very limited experience of interacting with some 400 or 450 people, and the things that God has brought to pass in His providence.

23:30 Some of us look back and say, if we had known that 1984 would have held that, I don't know if I could have faced it in any other posture, but one of inward paralysis, of emotional and mental paralysis. I don't know how I could have faced this, that, or the other. And yet, you sit here tonight, a monument of God's keeping faithfulness. Why?

23:56 Because His abiding presence and His unfailing faithfulness have brought you to this hour. And so God says to us, Himself hath said, and that's the emphasis that is, introduced and underscored in the quotation of this promise in Hebrews. Himself hath said. Oh yes, Moses spoke these words in Deuteronomy.

24:21 God speaks them more directly through Moses in the first person in the reiteration of the promise in Joshua chapter 1. But it is Himself who has said. It is God who has said. He has spoken and that word abides, and is there for us, the people of God to feed upon, that as we face the coming year, rather than trying to outguess God, or trying to project what this or that may come to pass, we should rather be feeding our souls upon this word of promise.

24:58 He it is, that has committed Himself to go with us, He will not fail us, nor forsake us. He will not release us, nor abandon us. He is with us. He will continue to hold us and to keep us.

The Specific Fruit of the Promise: Courage and Confidence, Not Fear

25:17 That's the substance of the promise. And then notice in the fourth place the specific fruit of that promise. If God's people then laid hold of it, what would the fruit of that promise be? Well, God commands the fruit, and then He describes the tree, the promise, on which that fruit grows.

25:39 Notice verse 6. Be strong, and of good courage. Do not fear, nor be affrighted at them, for the Lord thy God, He it is, that doth go with thee, He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. In other words, God expected the fruit of a believing grasp of that promise to be, from the positive standpoint, the presence of the grace of strength and courage, and the absence of this spirit of fearfulness.

26:18 Now notice how the same emphasis comes to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1. Joshua chapter 1. God gives the same promise in verse 5b. I will be with you, I will not fail you, nor forsake you.

26:38 Be strong, and of good courage. And that's exactly the principle that the writer to Hebrews extracts. So when he first of all gives the promise, Hebrews 13 and verse 5, he then quotes from the book of Psalms to describe the fruit of that promise. I will in no wise fail you, neither will I in any wise forsake you, Hebrews 13, 6, so that with good courage we say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

27:16 What shall man do unto me? So what is the specific fruit of this promise? It is to be the absence of a crippling, paralyzing, distracting fear, and the presence of a God-centered courage and confidence to face the future. Now this is not some kind of humanistic Norman Vincent, Peale positive thinking exhortation.

27:45 God says you are to have this spirit of courage and this spirit of non-fear and apprehension rooted not in some kind of con job, some kind of head game you play with yourself, but embedded in the reinforced concrete of my pledges given to you in my word. And my pledge is, I will be with you, I will not fail you, I will not forsake you. Therefore, there is solid, a solid basis for the exhortation, be not fearful, be not affrighted, be strong and of good courage. Whatever you and I face, it is not bigger than God. Whatever we face, it does not take God by surprise. Whatever demands His will makes upon us, God is adequate for that demand that comes to us in His will.

28:54 For the people of Israel, it was the River Jordan, swollen to its limits at its flood season. That was the first difficulty. And God says, I'll take care of that, and He parts the river. They no sooner get over on the other side as the walled city of Jerusalem, the river comes.

29:12 God says, I'll take care of that, just walk around it a few times. What is God saying to His people on the very outset of the conquest? He's saying, Oh, my people, don't you get my message. I'm with you.

29:25 And if I'm with you, and I lead you, then whatever you face in communion with me and in obedience to my will, is ultimately not a demand upon you, but a demand upon me. Now, can you trust me to be God? And to show that there's no doubt and no demand I place upon myself for which I am not adequate? Don't be afraid.

29:50 Be of good courage. Be not affrighted. Be strong. Not by playing head games on yourself.

29:59 Not by trying to puff yourself up and say, Well, I'm this and I'm that. No. But by focusing on the reality that your great and gracious God is with you, He will not fail you. So the fruit of the promise then believed and laid to heart is to be that grace of holy boldness, that grace of an undaunted spirit, and that has nothing to do with personality.

30:28 God has taken some of us who are the most trembling cowards by nature and has put in us a boldness that has nothing to do with our genes and our inherited temperament. It is a boldness born of the confidence that He is with us and He will not fail us. And if God is against us...

30:56 Oh, you say the whole world may be against us? Yes, but put the whole world in the balances and on the other side put God. And which side of the scale is going to go up? That's the emphasis of Romans 8.

31:06 If God before us, who is against us? Oh, yes. Many things and people may be against us, but what are they compared to the God who is committed to us? Because in grace He has made us His people and has purposed to accomplish His own redemptive designs in us and through us.

31:29 And so if we would face the coming here individually, corporately, with that kind of bright, happy, God-glorifying courage, it's not going to come by trying to whip up the troops into some kind of carnal fervor. It will come as each one of us, alone with God, sitting here even now under the preaching of the Word, are enabled by the Spirit to take that promise and to assimilate it spiritually and believingly that when God says, I am with you, I will not fail you nor forsake you, He means exactly what He says. And in every situation then where I feel like the children of Israel, there is something before me I cannot pass over, it is a call to remember, yes, but what is a swollen Jordan to my God? He can part it. And when I meet that which in my experience individually and ours corporately is like a walled city of Jericho and there's no way we don't have the instruments of war to batter down the walls, we don't have the manpower to lay siege until we destroy the city by a slow process, but that is nothing for God. God can take the most inconsequential tools.

The Expected Context: Obedience as the Path to Realizing the Promise

32:54 In this case, it was His people marching around the wall seven days and seven times on the seventh day and shouting the shout of victory and God Himself put His hands down and knocked the walls flat. And God calls upon us to believe that this is our God and He is our guide even unto death. But then, finally, in the fifth place, we must say a word about the expected context of realizing the blessedness of this promise, the expected context of realizing the blessedness of this promise. Let me put it in the form of a question.

33:37 Was this promise unconditional when God says in verse 6 to the nation at large, He it is that goes with you, He will not fail you nor forsake you, when He says to John, Joshua in particular, He will be with you, verse 8, He will not fail you nor forsake you, fear not, neither be dismayed. Was that an unconditional promise? No matter what they did, they could say in any set of circumstances, Hallelujah! God's with us!

34:05 He won't fail us! Well, if you read over in verse 17, apparently not. Listen to the word of God in verse 17, Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them. And I will hide my face from them.

34:23 They shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall come upon them so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? I thought God said, I'll be with them! I'll not forsake them! And now God says, I will forsake them and I won't be with them.

34:43 Well, is God talking double talk? No. God did not give this promise as an unconditional promise. It was a promise given upon the condition that in the way of obedience they would realize its fulfillment.

35:00 This is underscored at the very outset. Just before the promise, notice verse 5 of chapter 31, The Lord will deliver them up before you. You shall do unto them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage.

35:20 Fear not. The Lord is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. In other words, in the way of obedience you will know the fulfillment of this gracious promise.

35:34 And God said exactly the same thing to Joshua when he repeats the promise in Joshua chapter 1. Notice Joshua chapter 1. God is encouraging Joshua in the undertaking of this great task. Verse 5, There shall not be any man able to stand before you I will not fail you nor forsake you.

35:59 Be strong and of good courage. Verse 7, Only be strong and courageous to observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand nor to the left that you may have good success whithersoever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth.

36:27 You shall meditate thereon day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success. Have not I commanded you be strong and of good courage? Do not be affrighted neither be dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

36:55 See what a wretched mishandling of the word of God it is to simply take the promise and hang it out here on a sky book. God has embedded it in a context which clearly indicates that to realize the blessedness of the promise they as the people and Joshua as the individual were bound to walk in the path of obedience. Ah, but someone says that was under a covenant of the law. That was in the period of redemptive history when the nation as a nation was not a redeemed people inwardly and spiritually.

37:33 They were redeemed typically and redeemed in terms of a national redemption. But a new principle operates in this age of grace. Is that so? Not if I read my Bible rightly.

37:50 It is the King of Grace himself who says, He that hath my commandments he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. You see the Lord Jesus has promised his own gracious continuous presence and the unveiling of his glory and power to his people who walk in the path of obedience. Now I do know that no child of God once truly grafted into Christ will ever be ungrafted and lost. I believe that truth with all of my heart. To believe anything else to me is to bring the highest reproach upon God, the efficacy of the death of Christ, the intercession of Christ, the nature of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a host of other things that I'll not go into. So lest any of you construe what I am saying I am not saying that the true people of God can fall from grace but what I am saying is this. It's losing business

39:08 to try to suck sweetness from the promises of God in any other path but the path of obedience. When God is calling you to repentance for sin don't try to suck sweetness out of the promises of his nearness to his people. You suck sweetness from the promise if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous one. Those are the promises to plead when you've sinned. The promises to penitent sinners. And you see that in itself is an evidence that the principle of obedience is within us. And so if we as the people of God would know the blessedness of this promise this nugget of God's own word to us on the threshold of a new year with all of its unknowns with all of its big bold question marks with all of the question marks from which we fear perhaps there may be jagged lightning. All of the closets

40:14 that are yet closed that may hold in them as they open in divine providence sites that will shock us and all of the valleys through which God may bring us in which we'll know what it is to pass through valleys that we have not seen before. If we would know the sweetness of this promise dear people of God let us commit ourselves afresh to this simple principle we are here to do the will of God. To say with our Savior my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. To obey Him in those seasons when our hearts burned within us and obedience is no more a burden than breathing. I have seen no one while I've been preaching laboring to breathe. Now I know what it is to labor to breathe as a former asthmatic I know what it's like to sit up and struggle for the next breath but if you're free of those kinds of problems it's no labor to breathe and there are times when obedience is no more a labor than breathing. Love to Christ burns so brightly. Heaven and the promises

41:26 and holiness and the delights of a life of communion with Christ are so precious that a life of obedience is no more a burden than breathing. There are other times when a life of obedience is like climbing up a hill, 45 degree angle covered with ice and you've got slick slippers on your feet and a hundred pound burden on your back and people at the top throwing stones at you every time you make a little progress. Now that's the way the life of obedience is sometimes. The easiest thing to do is drop your hands and slide away from God, away from holiness, away from truth, away from His people. But dear people, what else is there for us to be but an obedient people? He died to make us an obedient people. He shed His blood that we might be bound to Him in cords of principle obedience.

42:31 Not this ephemeral cord of a feeling-oriented obedience that when our self-love is stronger than our obedience will be quick and spontaneous and full and universal. But when we're robbed of feelings then our obedience will be half-hearted and impartial and sporadic. God have mercy upon you if that's the pattern of your life. As you've been reminded many times the peculiar problem of a day that has fed itself upon feelings.

43:07 If it feels good it must be right, if it feels bad it must be bad. And the measure of right and wrong has been our feelings rather than the book of the law, the word of God. And here God is saying to His people and to Joshua their leader look, here's your task. Here's the pledge of my promise. Do what I say and you will know the fulfillment of my gracious word of promise. And I will again and again manifest that I am God. I am with you. The scripture says God even put His terror upon the nations. Word got out that there God is the God who does things that you can never predict. What a tragedy. When through disobedience they turned to superstitions. If only we can get the ark, the sacred object then we'll have God with us.

44:00 And God let their sacred object end up in a pagan idol temple. And the nations realized that their God was not in a box. He was with a people who obeyed them. And you see whatever we have known of God's presence in the past, it's not confined to these walls, nor will it be confined or in any way conditioned upon the aesthetic beauty of phase two. When God ceases to see in Trinity Church a body of people determined to do His will at any cost, then He'll remove His presence from us. And when that happens, I don't want to be here. You saw what happened to Joshua when he tried to lead a disobedient people. Ai. Little city!

44:46 Man, we've conquered Jericho! Ai, that's just a little push over town. And they got whipped. And they came back with their tails between their legs. And Joshua fell down before God and said, Lord! You said you'd be with us! No one could stand before us! Here we've turned tail before this little city of Ai.

45:04 The nations will hear about it! What will happen to your great name? God said, Joshua, enough of this business. Stop your praying. Get up off your face. He said, no sense praying. There's disobedience in the camp. Somebody has done what I said they're not to do! They've taken some accursed objects, and they've withheld some things that I said are to be devoted to me. Until the sin is dealt with, you can pray till you're blue in the face and hoarse in the throat. And Joshua, I will not be with you! You read the whole story of the conquest. This is the great lesson.

45:36 When His people are humbly obedient to God, God, as it were, chomps at the bit to manifest His power and His glory through a people willing to obey and trust Him. You see, if there's anything that can be called the secret of any blessing we've known as a church, ultimately it's grace, but grace that is delighted to work with a bunch of nobodies who by grace have sought to obey God. And if we're to know God's blessing as we enter this new phase of outreach and impact and usefulness and responsibility, yes, and heartache and burden and demand upon us as a church and in the leadership, but if we're to know the sweetness of this promise, don't be afraid. Don't quake before all of these demands and the unknowns that will come with them. I am with you. I'll not fail you. I'll not

46:38 forsake you. Dear people, we don't need to have a Bible conference on how to have the blessing of God. It tells us right here. You just do what God tells you.

46:48 You just do what God tells you. Oh yes, in the strength of His Spirit, trusting only in Christ, for without Him we can do nothing, relying upon Him to give us the grace to do what He demands, yes, but stopping all this clever arguing with God and excusing ourselves and saying, well, God really doesn't mean what He says and all that business. Just cut it all out and start taking the clear precepts of the Word of God and say, now, Lord, it seems to me when you said I'm to do this, that means this in my life, and if that's so, then, Lord, this has got to change, and Lord, if that's going to change, I'm not up to it. But, Lord, it's got to change. You're God and I'm Your servant, and I want to know the fulfillment of this promise. I want to know what it is to have You with me. I want to know what it is to have You not fail me nor forsake me. And, Lord, it's worth it to me to bend my neck to Your gracious yoke.

The New Testament Counterpart: Christ's Presence in the Great Commission

47:47 You give me grace to do what You say. That doesn't sound very spiritual, does it? But that's the path of blessing. That's the path in which the Lord makes real to us this promise. Some of you perhaps have been wondering, Pastor, how could you preach a sermon like that and not quote the New Testament text that is the counterpart of this? Well, I saved it for the end. The Lord Jesus gave to His Church that great promise in Matthew 28. Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age. But what's the context in which that came? It came in the context of a task laid upon them, an epical task. The Gospel light had penetrated into that little part of Palestine, up into the Galilee regions, occasionally spilled off into the area of Tyre and Sidon. Yes, a few of the Gentile and border nations had seen a great light, but now the Lord Jesus says, go and make disciples of all the nations.

48:51 He lays before them something that makes the walls of Jericho look like Playstack, makes it look like something made of Lego blocks. This little band of fishermen, rough, uncultured, untrained men, as the world looked upon them, and Jesus says, make disciples, all of the what a task. Now to the nations as you make disciples, constitute visible groups, baptizing them, and then you teach them, and as you go, no matter what you face, all you need to know is this, I'm with you. That's all He gave for that task.

49:30 That was the promise of His presence. And He says, in essence, that's all you need. If you have me, what else do you need? I'm amazed at that.

49:39 He doesn't say, and as you go, I give you this, this, this. All He says is, lo, I'm with you. I'm with you. I, the risen Christ.

49:48 I, whom you saw when you were with me, saying to those possessed with demons, saying to the demons, be still, be muzzled, come out. You saw me conquer the powers of darkness. You saw me when I looked into that mournful scene of Lazarus' grave, and weeping ones all about, and you heard me say, Lazarus, come forth! And you saw him come forth, and you remember that I commanded you to take the grave cloths from him that he might be free, and make it manifest to all that indeed he was alive. You saw me when I took sightless eyes and touched them. You saw me when I spoke a word, raised the dead, healed the twisted limbs. I, the risen Christ, whom you saw pour my life out upon the cross, whom you have seen now for over forty days as the living one, the resurrected one who conquered death. In the plenitude of the grace and power you've seen in my personal presence, now to be with you by my spirit, but it is I in the plenitude of that power and grace who am with you. What else do you need

50:57 in going forth to your task? O child of God, may God help us to lay hold of that promise. He is with us, and being with us he will not fail us, he will not forsake us, and in the way of obedience we shall know the blessedness of that promise. But as I close, I want to say to those of you who have no right to this promise, whatever else you have as you enter the new year, may I say it lovingly, you enter the new year impoverished if you don't have this God as your God. You see, he does not say this to all men indiscriminately. The promise we've studied was spoken to his elect nation, to his chosen people, those who had been bonded to him by power and by blood in that covenant which God made with them that constituted them a nation. And now in this age, that nation is his church, his true people, also bonded to him in a grace covenant of power and blood. The Holy Spirit having changed us and brought us to faith in Christ is our only hope of salvation.

An Invitation to the Unconverted: Embrace God's Promise in Christ

52:16 We, the purchased ones, bound to him in cords of love and faith. He says to us, don't be afraid, don't be dismayed, be of good courage, whatever you face. I am with you. I'll not fail you nor forsake you.

52:32 But my friend, what do you have as you face all the unknowns of the coming year? What if you're told in this coming year that you've got six months to live, that there is working in you a disease that will by degrees bring you down to your grave? What will you say if the doctor tells you, Mrs. So and so, Mr. So and so, I am grieved to tell you but, and you hear those horrible words, you have terminal cancer. What do you have with which to face that possibility? You say, well, I hope to dodge the bullet. Yes, it's nice to hope, but do you know you will?

53:11 What will you say if you hear the tragic news that one dear and near to your own heart, husband, wife, child, some other loved one of infinite or of great worth to you is cut off suddenly and tragically and you hear the news and there's the shock and the stunned response. Where will you go if you can't go to the God who says, I will never leave thee, who's with you in the crushing hours of grief and pain and anguish? What will you do if the bottom drops out and your husband loses his job and all the security you've worked for for years is gone? Where are you going to go and pour out your grief and then affirm your confidence that if the father takes care of sparrows in the grass of the field he's committed to take care of his children. Where are you going to go, my friend? Don't you see what a horrible thing it is to face all the unknowns of the coming years? Without this God as your God?

54:13 Oh, we entreat you. Taste and see that the Lord is God. Take this God to be your God. Take him in the only way you can have him as he's offered to you in Jesus Christ in the Gospel. You must come to that God through the way of his appointment, which is his only begotten son who died for sinners. My unconverted friend, young or old, don't face the coming year without this God who is willing to be your God. If you'll have him on his terms, that in Christ this promise is yours. You can go with this nugget for a new year's tucked away in your heart because it's part of that which God gives to everyone who embraces his son, for in him all the promises are yes and amen to the glory of God.

55:07 I will not leave thee. I will not tail thee. I will not forsake thee. May God bring that word to our remembrance again and again throughout the coming year.

55:21 If he is pleased to spare us, may it be to us a means of grace as we face all that God brings upon us. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful that you have condescended to speak to us in such plain, simple terms. And we thank you for this ancient promise given to your ancient people in a cultural setting altogether different from ours.

55:59 Yet we thank you that it is your word to us. You yourself have said to us, I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Oh, enable us to lay hold of that promise. Bring it to our remembrance when we most need it in the coming days. And help us by grace to remain in the way of obedience, that we may know the fulfillment of that promise in our individual, family, corporate life as a church. Oh, Lord, take us, the weak things, the despised, the things that are not the foolish, and do with us that which will make it evident to all men that the exceeding greatness of the power is not of ourselves but of you, that no flesh may glory before you. Hear our prayer. Have mercy upon those who cannot call you their God. Oh, may the

56:55 entreaties not fall upon deaf ears, but may some even this night turn from their sin and embrace you as their God and your Son as their only Savior. Hear our prayer and receive our thanks for this blessed day in your courts. Be with us especially over the next two days in all of our time together in feasting, in relaxation, times to be with loved ones and relatives. Oh, God, may we apply the things we considered in the first hour this morning, that we may come through these days not only able to testify that we have not regressed spiritually, but that by your grace we have made progress in our walk with you. Help us and hear us we plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.