Not One Word Failed

Not One Word Failed

Text: Joshua 21:41–45

Bottom Line: God’s promises never fail because God is always faithful.

Join me again in thanking Harvey Clanton for leading us today while Ed is on vacation. Thank you, brother. He'll be back to lead us in our closing song. But I'm so blessed every Sunday with the way our worship team leads us to the throne of grace.

And now, what an honor it is to open God's holy word to the Old Testament book of Joshua, chapter 21. If you're new to our church, we preach in sermon series. Usually we're in a book of the Bible, and this time we're in the Old Testament book of Joshua. We encourage you to join us in chapter 21.

I don't know if you're familiar with the fact that after a major event, whether it's in a home, with your family, in your company, or with our country, it's always wise to stop and ask, what are the lessons learned? We see that after a football season, the coach doesn't just celebrate the wins and grieve the losses. He gathers the team together and asks, what did we learn this season that we can apply for next season?

In the business world you call it a post-project analysis, a post-project review. How did it go? What went well? What didn't work? Here at our church, in our staff meetings, we call it lessons learned. What did we learn from Vacation Bible School this year? What did we learn from the revival and how everything was put together? Lessons learned.

In the military they call it an after-action review asking, what did we learn?

You see, it's not just experience that teaches you. It's evaluated experience that best teaches you lessons you can apply to your life moving forward.

We find something similar here in Joshua chapter 21. From the beginning of this book we've seen Israel enter the promised land. We then watch them, under the leadership of God through Joshua and the power of God, conquer the land, and now they have settled the land. The tribes of Israel have their allotment, their place to live. And it would be quick and easy for us to say, let's just keep moving. It would have been easy for them to say, hey, we're in the land, we've settled it, we all have our piece of property, let's just keep moving forward.

But God makes them stop and pause and take a look at the lessons they've learned thus far. Because living for God is not only about watching God's faithfulness in the past, but letting that faithfulness inspire us in our present, and as we walk into our own future.

And one of the most important lessons Israel is going to learn in this chapter, in these few verses we're going to read today, is that God keeps his promises. In fact, God’s promises never fail because God is always faithful. And that is a lesson Israel needed to learn, because their living for God by faith was not in the rearview mirror. They were going to have more battles to face, more obstacles to face, more challenges to face. And they were going to have to be reminded that God's promises never fail, because God is always faithful. And what that means is they're going to have to always trust him, no matter what.

You never graduate, this side of heaven, from the school of faith. You're always growing, always learning. And listen, that's important for us today as well. God not only made promises to his ancient people Israel, he has made promises to you as a New Testament follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a member of the family of God.

God has promised you his presence. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Jesus said, “I am always with you, even to the end of the age.” And there are going to be days that's the only promise you have to cling to by faith.

God's promised his power, that his Holy Spirit will not only be with you but will be in you, and he will give you the strength you need to live for him.

God's promised you his provisions. He never promised to meet your greeds, but he did promise to meet your needs through his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Jesus teaches us to pray every day, give us this day our daily bread. Jesus teaches us, don't worry about tomorrow, God will take care of you today.

And ultimately, God has made the promise to us that his kingdom coming will one day be fulfilled. No more sickness, no more sorrow, no more grief, no more pain, no more death. All those things we are all so afflicted with will be no more. Revelation chapter 21 says they will have passed away. And I look forward to that day when Christ returns and all that is wrong is made right, and every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

There are days that's going to be the only promise you can hang onto by faith, that God keeps his promises because he's always faithful. His promises will never fail. He's always faithful. And in the meantime, we;re going to have to trust him.

Now, some of you are looking at Joshua chapter 21 and instead of saying amen you're saying, oh me, there are forty-five verses. But why don't we do this? Let's skip down to verse 41. Let's skip down to Joshua chapter 21, beginning with verse 41. I want to read these words from the English Standard Version. Why don't you read silently from your copy of God's word.

Scripture Reading — Joshua 21:41–45 (ESV)

41 The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasturelands.

42 These cities each had its pasturelands around it. So it was with all these cities.

43 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.

44 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.

45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

May God bless the reading of his holy word.

God's promises never fail because God is always faithful. That is a lesson Israel needed to stop and learn. It's a lesson we still need to learn today.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy word. We pray that now your Holy Spirit would help us to see not only the message you had for then, but the message you have for now. Not just the message for them, but the message for us. Father, we thank you that you were the same yesterday, today, and forever, and your promises never fail because you are always faithful. Teach us to put our faith in you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

I love that in the closing chapters of Joshua we don't hear the people of Israel sitting around celebrating Joshua's supreme leadership. We don't see them gathered around celebrating the strength of Israel's army. We don't see them sitting around celebrating even the fact that they have this piece of property and you have that piece of property, look at our property.

No, the lesson they have learned over all these years of entering the land, then seven-plus years of war and battling, and now settling in, is this: they don't celebrate themselves. They celebrate the faithfulness of their God. God is a promise-making God, and he's a promise-keeping God. He had promised this land, and now, centuries later, he has given this land to his people.

We need to be reminded this morning, whatever you're facing, that you still serve a promise-keeping God. Whenever you read the word of God and you read about the promises God has made to you in Christ, you need to know, whether you see it in your lifetime or not, that God is a promise-keeping God. His promises never fail. He is always faithful.

And when we look at this passage, we learn three lessons about why we can trust God. Three reasons you should put your faith in God, no matter what you're facing today. If you're taking notes, first of all, the first reason you can trust God is because God gave the land.

I. God Gave the Land.

Evidence for God's faithfulness is that he actually gave the land to the people of Israel that he had promised them. As we enter Joshua chapter 21 we see the cities have been divided among the tribes of Israel. The boundaries of their land have been measured out in precise detail. Even the Levites, that priestly class who were not given their own land but were given places within the tribes to live, because that was God's way of saying, I'm going to be among my people, my Spirit, my truth, my word will be among the people. So God scattered the Levites among the people in their respective lands, gave them pastureland so that they could be cared for. God gave all that land.

But did you catch verse 43? “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.” That word swore, in the Hebrew, means that God made a commitment by his own name and his own character that he would keep this promise.

When did God make that promise? God made that promise to give the promised land to his people over four hundred years earlier, to a man named Abram. You remember in Genesis 12:1-3, God promises Abram, even though you have no descendants, and you and Sarai are old and barren, I'm going to give you descendants that outnumber the sands of the sea, and I'm going to make you a great nation. Yes, you, a little senior adult couple with no family, whom the world has written off as hopeless, I'm going to make you into a great nation and I'm going to give you a land that is your own. And I am going to bless the world through you, because through your lineage Messiah will come.

And four hundred plus years later, God is keeping his promise to their forefathers, just as he had sworn to them.

You say, but man, that was a lot of waiting. Have you ever learned that life is about waiting? How often are you waiting? Some of you are thinking, I'm waiting right now for this sermon to be over. But how often are you in a waiting room waiting on the doctor to call? You're waiting on your wedding day. You're waiting on graduation from high school or college. You're waiting on your retirement. You're waiting on the test results to come back. You're waiting on that phone call from a family member who said, I'll check in with you as soon as I arrive at my destination.

And how often are we waiting on the promises of God to be kept? Waiting doesn't mean there's something wrong. Waiting means God is forming our faith in his waiting room. God is testing us, developing our faith. God's delays are not his denials. Sometimes God is teaching us to trust him in the waiting.

But we often worry when we have to wait. Is that doctor ever going to show up? Will that phone call ever come through? Am I going to make it to that milestone? And we start worrying while we're waiting whether the promise made to us will come true.

Now, when other people make promises, they're imperfect people, like you are, and there could be reasons for you to start worrying. Promises made, promises kept, well, read the fine print, not all the promises made were kept. During a political season a politician will run for office and make all these promises. If you elect me, crime will go down, the value of your home will go up, the stock market is going to go up, there will be peace and prosperity for all. And then you get into office and you discover reality doesn't often care about your slogan. You've got political opposition you've got to deal with. There's an economic recession you didn't see coming. You actually have to work with other politicians to pass laws to get things done. You can't just be a benevolent dictator and get it done yourself. And sometimes promises made are not promises kept.

And because we're so accustomed to promises not always being kept, we start getting worried, or we start becoming distrustful. When somebody makes us a promise, we think to ourselves, yeah, we'll see. And if we're not careful, when we read the word of God and we read about the promises of God, and we're having to wait to see the fulfillment of those promises, we will be tempted to worry, or to question God.

The easiest thing I do as your pastor is to preach the word of God. The hardest thing I do is live by faith every day, like you, trusting that even when I don't see it, even when God's not working on my timeline, even when God doesn't work the way I think he ought to work, because God doesn't usually check in with me to see how to run the universe, even when God doesn't make sense to me, I have to trust him, that God's promises will never fail because he is always faithful. And in the waiting room, I'm called to trust him.

You think about generation after generation of ancient Israel that lived by the promises of God and died not having seen all those promises fulfilled. Even Abram, who became Abraham, and his wife Sarai who became Sarah, they had a family. God promised him this land. But read Abraham's life. He never possessed the promised land. He only purchased a little piece of property in Canaan in which to bury his wife when she died.

But the book of Hebrews in the New Testament says Abraham lived by faith, trusting, looking for a city not made by hands. He lived by faith even as he waited (Hebrews 11:8-10).

Some of you are in God's waiting room right now. You've prayed, you've trusted, you're waiting on God to show up, and you're wondering, when God, how God, why not now, God? And in that moment I'm going to challenge you: remember, lessons learned. God's promises never fail because he is always faithful. You're going to have to trust him in your waiting.

And evidence that you can trust him: as God gave the land to his people centuries ago, how much more, through Christ, will he keep his word to you today. First reason we can trust God is that God gave the land, just as he promised.

II. God Gave Rest.

The second reason we can trust God is because God gave rest. God gave the land just as he promised, and he gave rest to his people Israel just as he had promised them. Back in verse 44 it says, “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.”

Did you hear it again, that phrase, just as he had sworn, just as he had promised? God put his name on the line. God put his character on the line. He promised them rest in the land, and now he has given it.

Forty-plus years earlier, God had said through Moses in Deuteronomy 25:19, when the Lord your God gives you rest from all your enemies around you, then you will not forget him. God promised through Moses, rest. It was Moses' way of saying, there are battles ahead of us, there are obstacles ahead of us, there are giants ahead of us, there are raging rivers to cross ahead of us, there are fortified cities ahead of us. But once God has given you the land, you will be at rest, you will be able to relax.

Now, that word rest in our day means a little something different. It means a vacation, a hammock strung between two palm trees on a beach. It means taking selfies of your toes in the sand. Rest means, whew, we had a wonderful week with the grandkids and now they've gone home and we get to rest. Rest means, I finally get to retire, no more getting up at 5:30 in the morning to be at the office or at the factory, I get to rest.

But in the biblical picture of rest, it doesn't simply mean you get to stretch out in a hammock. The biblical picture of rest that God promised was to be at peace, no more at war.

Some of you, like me, love history. My son Caleb and I have been watching the Tom Hanks documentary on World War II recently, and I'm so grateful to have a son in his twenties who cares about learning history. It's encouraging to a dad when your twenty-four-year-old son says, hey, why don't we watch this documentary on World War II. Well, yes, absolutely, we'll do that.

You remember in 1945 when V-E Day finally came, victory in Europe, and the newsreels showed people pouring into the streets in London and pouring into the streets in New York City, ticker-tape parades, loud horns and trumpets blaring, strangers hugging one another and kissing on the cheek when the news came, there's victory in Europe, there's rest now.

Now, there had been lulls in the fighting throughout World War II, but the rest God promised his people was not simply a ceasefire that may or may not last. God promised rest from all hostilities. Your enemies are defeated, and you are at peace.

Now, some of you Bible scholars will say, but pastor, is that not a contradiction in the Bible? Because as you read the book of Judges, you discover that things don't always go well for Israel. And even as we close out the book of Joshua, not all the land had been conquered. There were still pockets of pagans who would rise up against the people of Israel.

Well, you're an astute Bible student, and I'm glad you know your Old Testament. But listen, don't ever forget that earlier in the book of Joshua, when you see those city-states aligned in alliance against Israel, that will never happen again. They, as nation-states, as city-states, are defeated. Yes, there are pockets here and there where Israel is going to have to stand up and live for the Lord, and fight for the Lord, and be true to the Lord. But God gave them that land. Now they fight not for victory, they fight from it.

Just like you as a New Testament Christian, the moment you trusted Jesus as your Savior, all your problems didn't disappear. All the temptations of your flesh don't go away. All the struggles of your soul aren't over. You have to live by faith and fight from the victory that you have in Christ. But don't make the mistake, God's the one who gave you that victory, and you get to rest in peace with him because he conquered your enemies. They are a defeated foe.

The apostle Paul put it this way, in 2 Thessalonians 1:6–7, he said to Christians who were struggling, God will repay with affliction those who afflict you, and grant relief to you who are afflicted. And when will that relief, that rest, come? For New Testament Christians he wrote, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. We're still waiting on the rest that Christ has promised us. Until then, we're still going to have to fight some battles with the world, with the flesh, with the devil. But the victory is ours. We rest in Christ. The ultimate rest, the victory, comes not when there's a ceasefire. The rest comes when there's victory in Christ.

The reason I tell you that is because some of you are in the battle right now, the battle of faith. You keep thinking, if God is God, and if my faith is real, I wouldn't be struggling. Find that in the Bible. I'm sorry, that's not anywhere in my Bible. My Savior said, in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. Christ says, just trust me, rest in me. I gave them rest, one day I'm going to give you rest. I gave them victory over their enemies, one day even the last enemy of our soul, which is death, will be under the conquering boot of the King of kings and Lord of lords. That day's coming. Until then, keep your faith in Christ, because he swore.

God Gave His Word

Can I give you a third reason why you can put your faith in God? Not only did he give land, he gave rest, but the third reason you can put your faith in God is he gave his word. God gave his word.

I was listening to a couple of older gentlemen one day talk about how things were in their day, and I remember one of them said his father had helped a lot of people with their finances. He was a banker, and he helped a lot of people when they were in financial trouble. And he said, back then, when my father shook your hand and gave you his word, that meant something. He was as good as his word. Now we have contracts with more fine print than you can read, and you need a lawyer who knows a lawyer who can read the contract to make sure you're not getting swindled.

One of the reasons you and I need to put our faith in God is because he gave his word. Whether you can see it or not, God gave his word, and that should be enough for us. But in grace, God gives us so much more evidence, we have no excuse not to trust him. God gave his word, he promised.

Did you hear that three times in those closing verses of chapter 21? Verse 43, he swore. Verse 44, as he had sworn. Verse 45, the good promises that the Lord had made. And Joshua tells us emphatically in verse 45, 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 got it right every time. God was faithful every time.

I remember hearing, in the eighties and early nineties, infomercials, late night, the Psychic Friends Network. And, you know, for a nominal fee per minute, you could call this number and talk to a psychic. I think it was Dionne Warwick who became one of their spokespeople promoting this psychic network. And then I recall reading how the Psychic Network went bankrupt. Everybody's shocked, all the employees are disappointed, and I'm going, wait, you didn't see it coming? That doesn't even make sense to me. You didn't see it coming. So people gave you their word, but their word didn't mean anything.

But when it comes to God, not one word of his good promises that he made to his people failed to come to pass. And as a New Testament Christian claiming the promises I have in Christ, it comforts my heart to know not one word he's made, not one promise he's made, will fail to come to pass.

There have always been scoffers. Even in the first century the apostle Peter said, there are scoffers who say, well, where is the coming of the Lord? And Peter said, God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but that all would come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. God will keep his promise. In the meantime he's given grace and time so more people can come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And I'm going to tell you something, I've got some lost family members and lost friends I want to see come to faith in Jesus. And as much as I want Jesus to come back, I want to make sure they have time to get saved. And Lord, if I've got to suffer in the meantime, if I've got to go through some problems in my life that don't make sense to me, if I'm going to have to live in this tension between already I'm saved but not yet it has been revealed what I'm going to be, then I'm okay with that, if it means you give them more time to come to faith in you. We live in that tension, don't we? But the question isn't, will God keep his word? No, he will keep his word. There's no question about it.

One of the commentaries I was reading in my study for Joshua is Dale Ralph Davis's commentary on Joshua. He's an Old Testament scholar, and he recounts a time in his life as a young teenager that his father, who was a pastor, rushed home. His father had been out visiting the sick and taking care of the people in his congregation, but he rushed home one afternoon when his wife said, why are you home, I thought you had more to do. He said, I promised Dale that I would let him borrow the car, and I wanted to make sure I was home in time.

Dale Ralph Davis said his dad actually hadn't made that promise, but he learned something about his dad that day, that his dad would do whatever it took to keep his word to him. How much more do we have a heavenly Father who has made real promises to his children, that he will keep those promises no matter what.

If somebody makes a promise and doesn't keep it, that tells you a little something about them. It at least tells you they're not perfect, because either maybe they sincerely made that promise but circumstances were beyond their control and they just couldn't make it happen, they meant to, they wanted to, but they just couldn't, that just means they're imperfect. Or if they made a promise knowing good and well they weren't going to keep it, that tells you something else about them.

But our God, who makes his promises and keeps every one of them, that tells you about his character. He is worthy of your trust. It tells you that God's promises never fail. Why? Because God is always faithful. He will be there for you.

2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 13, the apostle Paul wrote, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. God can't help being who he is. He's a faithful, promise-keeping God. And if God did it for them, he'll do it for you too.

You say, I'm still struggling, pastor. Well, it's called living by faith. You say, I got up early for that, that's your answer, live by faith. You say, I just don't have enough faith, man, my faith is struggling right now, my faith is weak right now.

Just this past week I sat down with a man in his nineties and asked him how I could pray for him, and he said, pray that God will increase my faith, I want more of God. And he confessed, times I struggle, is my faith strong enough? A man in his late nineties, walked with Jesus all of his adult life, but wants more, and struggles with, is my faith strong enough?

So we talked about, is it that your faith needs to be stronger, or is it that you need to remember your God is stronger? Jesus said, even faith as small as a mustard seed, you could barely see it in your palm if you held one, even faith that size can move mountains. Why? Because it's not about the size of your faith, it's the object of your faith that makes the difference.

Our God is great. He gave the land, he gave rest, and he gave his word. You can trust him. God's promises never fail because God is always faithful.

Closing Appeal

You say, pastor, that's helpful, but I'm still struggling. How can I know that God's promises to me will come true?

I'll just leave you with this. Read the gospels and see how many times Jesus alludes to or emphatically declares the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, he will be beaten, crucified, killed, but on the third day he will rise from the dead. Go read in the gospels how often Jesus alluded to, or explicitly promised, that he would not only die, he would rise from the dead.

And three days later, after his death, he walked out of his tomb alive on his own two feet, appeared to his own disciples who did not believe. And those disciples, the majority of them, went to martyrs' deaths because they would not stop telling people, Jesus is alive. He kept his promise. And if he kept that promise, what other promise won't he keep, or can't he keep? Put your faith in him.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for your word. It has reminded me this week that your promises never fail because you are always faithful. It tells us something about you, that you are God, you're trustworthy, and we should put our faith in you. We should trust you day by day.

Ancient Israel had many reasons and much evidence for faith in you for the days ahead of them, even after they settled the promised land. But we as New Testament Christians have far greater reason to trust you to keep your promises in your time, in your way. We have an empty tomb of our Savior Jesus. We have a Savior who ascended to the right hand of God the Father, who is bodily seated right now in heaven, praying for us, telling us through his own example there's a way up and out by faith. Trust that God will keep his promises.

Jesus would say, the Father promised that I would not see corruption, and he raised me from the dead. He's made promises to you, that in Christ all things will be made new. Wait on him, trust in him, keep living for him.

In the meantime, Father, if there's a discouraged Christian here today, I point them to the resurrected Jesus as exhibit A of why they should trust you to keep your promises. And Father, if there's someone here who's never trusted Christ as Savior, I pray that right now, before it is eternally too late for them, that they would take hold of that great promise of Jesus: for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.