Not A Word Failed… | Sunday, October 29, 2023

So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45)

God kept every promise to Israel in spite of their failures—and He will not fail to fulfill every spiritual blessing He has promised us in Christ.

A False Dichotomy Between the Testaments

I'm grateful to have grown up in a church that values the whole of Scripture, teaching through it from Genesis to Revelation. Many well-known Bible teachers and Ministries—even great ones—spend little time in the Old Testament, and that approach is sadly more common than not.

One problem when we fail to take in the whole counsel of God is that we begin to adopt a false dichotomy between "the God of the Old Testament" and "the God of the New Testament." Too many Christians think God in the Old Testament is vengeful, harsh, and quick to smite, while God in the New Testament is merciful, gracious, and delights to bless His people.

But that is not the case. When you take time to go through the whole of Scripture, you discover that God does not change. He is merciful, kind, gracious, and compassionate from Genesis to Revelation. That is not to say He will not judge the guilty who refuse to turn to Him in faith and repentance—but He is merciful and gracious.

The God of the Bible Is Gracious and Merciful

When God introduces Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 34, the very first word He uses among all His innumerable attributes is merciful: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." How many of us are thankful that God is patient and suffers long with us?

That's point number one: the God of the Bible is gracious and merciful from cover to cover. As Peter says, it is good to be reminded of these things even when we are established in them. Sometimes we need to go back to the simple truths.

The psalmist writes, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). He is the great Giver. He even reveals the blessedness of giving—Paul reminds the Ephesian elders of Jesus' words, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). And He demonstrates His love in giving the most essential gift of all: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).

Not a Word Failed

This concept of God giving and blessing according to His good word is exactly what we find in Joshua 21. Our series through Joshua has been called Possessing Our Possession, and now Israel is laying hold of the land God had promised centuries before.

The Lord gave them the land, gave them rest from their enemies, and delivered all their enemies into their hand. Then verse 45, which is key for us this morning: "Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass." Not a single word failed of all His promises.

This reality of God's faithfulness to keep His word is so important, especially because we fall short. We fail to fulfill the things we say we will do, even the oaths we make to the Lord. But God never fails to fulfill all His word. That's point number two: God will not fail to fulfill all His promise and blessings toward us in Christ.

God Loves His People in Spite of Their Failures

I find that even Christians who know these truths often discount them because of condemning thoughts they carry—whether from their own flesh or from the enemy, the devil, who discourages us. The thought goes something like this: "God basically just puts up with me." We look at other people and think, "Well, of course God loves them—they're the good ones, they pray more, they serve. But me? He just tolerates me."

Yet as you read about Israel and how not a word failed of all the good things God promised them, you are reminded that God loves His people in spite of their failures. When you read the Old Testament, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Israel screwed up a lot. And yet God still loved them, remained faithful to them, and kept covenant with them. To this very day, in 2023, He continues to reach out to the children of Abraham in spite of their unbelief—and to everyone else who has yet to receive His grace. He continued to reach out to you when you were stubborn and rebellious.

It was not that all came to pass because Israel never faltered. They tripped up and fell flat on their faces constantly—and so do you, and so do I. Yet God remained faithful. Why did He pour out His blessing? Not because they were spectacular in their faith, but because He had sworn an oath and given a promise.

Blessed Through Abraham to Bless All Nations

That promise was not only for them but through them. God intended to bless Abraham's descendants and give them the land, not just so they would have wealth in a land flowing with milk and honey, but so that through them He would extend blessing to all people in all places at all times.

In Genesis 12, God called Abram—who at that point was not yet a great man of faith—and said, "Get out of your country... to a land that I will show you... I will make you a great nation; I will bless you... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Abraham followed God by faith, though imperfectly. And though fulfillment took more than 400 years, God still made good on His word. Not a word failed.

What God Has Promised Us in Christ

Knowing that God will not fail to fulfill His promise and blessing toward us in Christ, it begs the question: what has He promised us to receive as a blessing? It doesn't appear to be a physical piece of ground like it was for Abraham's descendants. So what is it?

For the answer, turn to Ephesians 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ—one sent with a message—writes to the saints in Ephesus: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Every spiritual blessing is yours today if you are a follower of Christ.

What are those blessings? "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." God has chosen you. You may remember being picked last for the team at recess—but in Christ, God has chosen you, and not just to be set apart, but unto something: "having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

Chosen, Adopted, Accepted, Redeemed

It actually pleases God to make you a part of His family. When we buy into those condemning thoughts that say "God just puts up with you," we fail to realize this truth. And what is glorified when God chooses you? His grace—"to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved."

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, "according to the riches of His grace." God is rich in grace; His well never runs dry. His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, "who is the guarantee of our inheritance." God has marked you as His son or daughter, adopted you, redeemed you, and given you an inheritance that does not fade away.

A Better Story of Identity

In the Western world today there is much confusion and crisis over identity—over who we are. This has to do with the story our culture tells us. I once read a book by Yuval Noah Harari that spends pages painting a grand narrative of how we all came to be here over billions of years through random chance and mutation.

Whether you are an atheist or a Christian, we all believe a certain story, and those stories have implications—they tell us about our origin, our destiny, our identity, our purpose, our morality. If you buy the story our culture promotes, then your origin is random, there is no ultimate hope or destiny, and you must manufacture meaning for yourself. It is a nihilistic, hopeless teaching.

But Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals that God created you for a purpose. When you hear the gospel and trust in Jesus' finished work, the Holy Spirit seals you and adopts you into God's family and gives you a new identity: you are in Christ, holy and without blame before the holy God, predestined to be His child, made accepted and loved. That's a much better story. Point number three: in Christ I am guaranteed the fullness of every spiritual blessing in heaven and earth.

Rest for the Soul

What else do we find in Christ? God has poured out the abundance of His love, and in Him we find rest—not just physical rest like Israel's rest from battle, but rest for our souls. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me... and you will find rest for your souls."

We all recognize that intangible part of us—we call it heart, mind, soul, psyche, or spirit. It's the part of you that can spin into anxious energy even when you're physically at rest, lying on a towel on a beautiful day yet freaked out about everything in your life and the lives of those you love. Our culture taxes the soul, which is why we've seen such a huge increase in anxiety over the last twenty years, with people self-medicating to cope. Jesus says, "Come to Me... and you will find rest for your soul."

Peace That Surpasses Understanding

In Christ we also receive peace—a "peace that surpasses understanding" that guards our hearts and minds (Philippians 4). Paul gives a command none of us could keep apart from Christ's power: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Paul continues, "Whatever things are noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report... meditate on these things." Our culture talks much about meditation and mindfulness, with studies on their physiological benefits. But there are many competing ideas of what meditation is. Scripture has its own way.

As I've said here before, if you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. What is worry? It's taking the issue weighing on your soul and thinking about it from every possible angle, night and day—you know that problem better than anyone because you've meditated upon it. And it produces anxiety, fear, and even physiological effects like stomach problems, headaches, and ticks that doctors often can't diagnose, because the root is in the soul, which science still cannot grasp.

Paul tells us how to experience the peace of God and the God of peace: by fixing our focus on what is lovely and good. Every time I meditate on my worries, I get sick; every time I fix my focus on the Lord, I experience His rest and peace that surpasses understanding.

Hope That Does Not Disappoint

Through His love, rest, and peace, we have something essential: hope. If you want to understand the critical necessity of hope, read Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning—a short, devastating book written by a Jewish man who survived the German concentration camps. Our hope is not as the world gives. Earthly hope disappoints—you hope for the promotion, the raise, the lottery, the Padres to win—but Romans 5 says the hope we have in Christ does not disappoint, and Hebrews 6:19 says it is an anchor for our soul that holds us in place through every storm.

These are the spiritual blessings we find in Christ: rest, love, peace, hope, and the fullness of the Spirit who brings the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. When these appear in your life, it is revolutionary to people; it begins to define your identity. And we desperately need this in our culture.

Secured by Grace, Not Works

These blessings are not secured by our faithfulness, our religious efforts, or our good works. They are secured by the riches of His grace. That theme comes up again in Ephesians 2: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace."

Throughout all future eternity, God will be revealing to us the riches of His grace. How do we lay hold of these? "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." Notice the order: we don't lay hold of these blessings by our good works; we receive them by grace, so that we might then be prepared for good works that flow out of our position under His grace.

Therefore Remember

Paul then says, "Therefore remember." Remember that you were once Gentiles in the flesh—for some of you that memory is stained in a way you'd like to forget. Remember that you used to be an unbeliever doing the things unbelievers do, things that may weigh on you and be the very source of that condemning voice. You think, "You just don't know how bad I am." You're right—I don't really want to. But God knows, and He's been gracious to you.

"Remember that you were... without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." That's point number four: Christ's shed blood and finished work on the cross have reconciled us to God.

Remembering in Communion

The last words of Jesus on the cross were "It is finished." What was finished? He paid by His death the debt for all sin, so that you might find a new identity in Christ. Before He was crucified, He shared a meal with His disciples, breaking bread and extending the cup as a way of remembering His body broken for them and His blood shed for them. The church has continued ever since to partake of the bread and the cup.

You have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. It is by His broken body and shed blood that we receive all these things—redemption, forgiveness, an incorruptible inheritance, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, a peace that surpasses understanding, rest for our souls, and a hope that does not disappoint.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation; we are ambassadors for Christ. Having been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus, we now share this good truth with those around us. This culture in 2023 is in desperate need of that gospel. May we walk in it and share it with others.

As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'... In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'"

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray as we prepare our hearts and minds for communion that You would remind us of all these things we've considered today, and that the truth of Your word would drown out those deep-seated condemning thoughts that so many people carry—the truth of forgiveness and redemption, grace and mercy, Your love, the peace You desire us to experience, the joy You want us to have in abundance. Remind us that all of this is secured, Jesus, not by our religious efforts or good works, but by Your finished work on the cross. Help us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds by this good gospel truth.

Lord, we thank You for Your grace and mercy. We thank You that not a word will fail of all Your promised blessings in Christ Jesus. We are guaranteed the fullness of every spiritual blessing in heaven and on earth because You have finished the work for our salvation and reconciled us to the Father. We thank You that we who were once so far off have been brought near by Your finished work on the cross. Help us not just to walk in the truth of the gospel but to share it with others, as so many people are toiling and anxious like sheep without a shepherd. Move us as You were moved with compassion for them. The harvest is plentiful, Lord; stir us and prepare us by Your Spirit to be laborers in that harvest. We praise You. Amen.