In this sermon, the speaker recounts a story of a young man waiting for the director of a company for several hours. The director asks the young man some simple questions, testing his knowledge. The speaker then delves into the biblical story of Joshua and the captain of the Lord's host, emphasizing the importance of humility and obedience. He highlights how Joshua remained calm and dignified despite facing challenges and opposition. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the significance of setting a good example and the importance of patience in the Christian life.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan thou, and all this people unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses. I was going to say last Sunday, but I don't like that word, it's a heathen word. I like the word Sabbath, that's a scriptural word. Sunday is a pagan word. The old Quakers used to talk about the Sabbath day, and then the first day of the week, and the second, and they'll say, friend, I'll meet thee on the third day of the week. And you would reply, friend, I will see thee on the third day of the week. But now we've paganized the week, and so we have Monday, and the school teachers will tell you what all the other days mean. Wednesday, the day of Woden, Thursday, the day of Thor, and so forth and so on. The last Sabbath we did consider the, what we called, mighty Moses. At least we considered that aspect of his life where he was called in the midst of the burning bush. Now as we've just read here, Moses, my servant, is dead. Would you like to have followed him? Not a head, well they're all shaking, but this way, not this way. Would you like to take on, I don't know how many, nobody does, they've estimated a million, as many as five million disgruntled, dissatisfied, disappointed, dejected people. And you think you have problems with the two you know. But how would you like to handle about five million of them? What do you do after mighty Moses? Well you get a giant Joshua. It's the only thing you can do. I was trained in a little church where the pastor was always saying, or said very often, God buries his workmen, but he carries on his work. And it's amazing how one chapter can close, and another chapter opens in the history of the church. Now this, this is one of the great books of the Bible. I think Joshua was an amazing man of faith. He couldn't finish a job one day. Maybe like Brother John here, but, and he said, well it's been bad weather or something, and I need an extra hour or two. And so he said to the son, stand still on Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Adullam. Now if you don't think that takes faith, I'm prepared to go outside and let you demonstrate your faith tonight. I think it does. And yet despite the fact that he did such amazing things in faith, he's not found in Hebrews 11, the chapter of faith. But there is a whole book here called the book of Joshua, and that's more than we have of Moses. We don't have the book of Moses. But God has a wonderful way of balancing things out. You have a book of Joshua, no book of Moses, but Joshua is not mentioned in Hebrews 11 except by inference, the walls of Jericho fell down, we always chime in with that. But Moses gets more space in Hebrews 11 than anybody else, so you see the Lord balances it out one way or another. This book of Joshua is, to me, and it's a very obvious thing I think, well let's say this, the first 12 chapters in this book of Joshua are describing the conquest of Canaan. We used to sing a little hymn, come over into Canaan's land, where the grapes of Eshkol grow and the milk and honey flow, come over into Canaan's land. I guess the folk in England wish they were there right now, I see the water is turned off 17 hours a day now. They've no money, they've no water, they've no work, I don't know what they'll do next. But to be in that land of Canaan, it was a very beckoning country to them. The grapes of Eshkol grow, the milk and honey flow, and sometimes we lay a lot of emphasis on that aspect. It's described as the spirit for life. Come over into Canaan. Joshua does what Moses could not do. Moses brought them out of Egypt, up to the edge of the promised land, and then because of disobedience. Doesn't God punish us severely sometimes? He only got mad for 50 seconds, you'd be mad much longer than that. But he only got mad for 50 seconds, and he got kicked out of the country. He wasn't allowed to go into the land that he'd expected to go in, just for getting angry a few minutes. Severe punishment. But he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and he brought them into the wilderness, but he couldn't take them over into Canaan's land. And so Joshua does what Moses could not do. Moses brought them out, he couldn't get them in. Joshua got them in, but he couldn't give them rest. There remaineth a rest for the people of God. So often we quote, and rightly so, the 11th chapter of Matthew, the great saying of Jesus, Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Period. No, a comma there. The other half is over the bridge, Take my yoke upon you, learn of me, and ye shall find rest. They've already got rest, it says so in the verse. Yeah, they've got rest from their sins. But they haven't entered into the rest, there remaineth a rest. You know, really, to be in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ is really the most relaxed thing in the world. My, my, my. If, if everybody entered in, the drug stores would all close down. Psychiatrists would be out of work, have to close hospitals down. Heavens, what wouldn't we have to do? But you see, there is a price to pay. We think of the Promised Land as luscious, grapes of Esk and everything, but remember this please, there were 31 kings in that Promised Land too. It says strive to enter into that rest in Hebrews, what, 2 or 3? There's opposition all the way. It's not all downhill, it's all uphill. It's not all ease, it's conquest. Every area you surrender in your life to God, Satan will fight like the devil he is to get it back. That's why he works on us so much, he doesn't need to work on the other folk outside, he's got them. But he's envious, he's jealous of those areas in our lives that he's been crowded out of. Because God has come and changed us, he's brought us out of Egypt. Otherwise, as the word says, he's brought us out of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. Now, this wonderful book. My, sometimes I think I'd like to live another hundred, not just to be a hundred, another hundred years and sit and read it and explore it and exploit it. Because it is, again, the most profound thing in the whole world. The revelation of God himself. Now, as you know, Genesis, Genesis is what? Well, it's the book of beginnings, isn't it? There are at least three beginnings there, how God made the heavens, and there are heavens and the earth. And then there is a story of the flood, and after the flood, a new world is begun, as it were, and then after that, there's God's choice of Abraham. Then you have the book of Exodus. What is the book of Exodus? Well, in one word, if you want it doctrinally, it's the book of redemption. It's the place where blood is shed. The lintels are put across the, the lintels and the doorposts, and there the blood is shed. Leviticus is the book of worship and fellowship. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Well, that's an interesting book. You know, the way we read the word of God very often, I think we're cheated, because as I said the other day, sometimes the dividing of a chapter, we think one thing follows immediately after the other, and there may be a space of scores or dozens of years. Now, this book of Leviticus is very interesting. There are 27 chapters. And when you read those 27, and then read the next 10 chapters in the next book, what comes after Leviticus? Numbers. All right. You've got 37 chapters. Do you know how much of the history of the children of Israel they cover? Two months. That's all. You see, God is showing us the way of fellowship, and the way of worship, and so you get all that description there in the book of Leviticus, and I'm not going to stay there anyhow. Numbers is the wilderness place. Going through the wilderness. An extended interpretation of God's dealings with the children of Israel. You know, they came up to the promised land, but they zigzag. They do a lot of backsliding. They get up there, and they go back, and then they're wandering. Wandering is the right word. There's no direction to it. They're just wandering almost aimlessly. And then we come to, what's the other book now? Deuteronomy is, of course, a bridge. The four books before Deuteronomy tell us about the children of Israel before they came into the promised land. The next books after, because Deuteronomy is a bridge, and the next seven books that come afterwards, they just show us the workings of God in his people. Now, let's go back to this wonderful character. No, I'll do something else before that. Let me go back a minute or two here into Deuteronomy chapter 8. This is a Bible study, not a sermon. Deuteronomy 8. And in the second verse, God says, Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness. Now, why did he lead them that way? Well, here is the explanation in the same verse. Number one, to humble thee. Number two, to prove thee. Number three, to know what is in thine heart. Verse three, he humbled thee, he suffered thee, and he fed thee with manna. Why? Manna which thou knewest not. They'd never had this before. Neither did your fathers know it. That he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. You see, they're told here to remember all the way that God had led them for forty years. Now, you see, when they were down in that lush country, remember again, they were in Goshen. They were in one of the most fertile areas of the world and they had no problem feeding themselves. You see, there was no River Nile running through the wilderness. The River Nile was running down in Egypt where they had been in bondage. And the Nile overflowed its banks and it brought the greatest fertilization that man has ever known. It brought a rich deposit and that whole area was fertile and everything. You threw the seed in the ground and up it came, 60, 80, 100 fold. They never had any problems. But when they got in the wilderness, they did. They had no rich River Nile. They hadn't the other things that they'd usually had previously. And so God has to provide them with something that they'd never had before. He makes them totally dependent upon himself and they'd not been dependent upon himself before. He has to send them bread every day. He has to supply the water and so forth and so on. In verse 6 of that chapter he says, Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks and waters, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil, the oil of the olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he doth give. But beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God. Now he has to say this over and over and over and over again. It's true of all of us we're forgetful. That's why we need to tell ourselves again and again, count your blessing. For instance, if I said to you right now, I won't, not because it wouldn't embarrass me, it might embarrass you, but if I said to you today, did you thank God for your eyesight? Oh no, well it's there every morning I wake up. Well if it isn't there tomorrow morning, what would the first thing be? Would you call brother Herb or myself or somebody else and say, I don't know what happened, but I can't get my eyes open, I can't see, I can't see. Now that's one of the greatest blessings in the world. The blessing of sight. Our senses, our freedom, we take these things in our status quo. You see. And God is repeatedly saying to the children of India, remember thou wast a bondsman in Egypt, remember the way that I brought you, remember the condition of your fathers. All right, they have to look back and I'm just reminding you of that, they must look back before they can look forward. In Exodus 17 and verse 9, we have the first mention at least that I can find of this man who is going to be one of the great men of history, this man Joshua. In verse 6 remember now he says, Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Mount Horeb and thou shalt smite the rock. All right. In verse 8 he says, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out, men, and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow. I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. Verse 10, So Joshua did as Moses said. Verse 13, Joshua discomfited, or he destroyed the enemy. Verse 14, The Lord said unto Moses, Notice this, write this from a memorial in a book and rehearse it not in the ears of Israel, not in the ears of the leaders of Israel, but rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. Why? Well I suggest to you, he is saying to him, Get this deep into the mind of this young man how I delivered against tremendous odds. You had no armies, you were outnumbered, and yet I made a pledge to you. Now I am not bothered right here about Israel, he says. Get it into the mind of this young man, he is going to be a great leader some years ahead. And get him firmly established here in the word of God. Now as far as I know, and you can't dispute this, you wouldn't want to maybe. But as far as I know, this young man Joshua was born in captivity. I've often wondered, I've often thought, I'd like to have slipped up to a campfire when Moses was there with his father-in-law at night when they gathered the sheep in and he began to say to him, You know, I've just been remembering, I've just been thinking, I notice where the moon is and I notice the season of the year. I just remembered that 21 years ago today, I was in the greatest chariot race that we ever raced against the foreigners. I remember winning the race, I remember the reward I got. Oh, and I remember the banquet that night after we finished. Man, we just had everything. Don't you think he recounted a lot of the amazing events? Do you think he said, I can remember getting a straight A in every subject I had? Every language I learned? After all, I was, I've kept this away from you for the 20 years, but you know, I was the most brilliant student that we ever had in Egypt. They'd already started carving images of me. They were going to put them down the Nile with Ramesses I and Ramesses II and maybe the greatest intellect the world has ever had. I can imagine recounting some of those things and I can imagine the young fellow that sat there or, as he must have said, some of those things, I'm sure to Joshua. Joshua must have thought, you know, there must be something in it. Because the nearer I get to this fellow, I know he rings true. It must be worthwhile making all that sacrifice. This poor man, dusty and weary. The things he puts up with. And he could be sitting on the throne while people wash his feet and serve him the best meals and heavens. Boy, he's put up with some of the rough stuff we've had and most days you can clean your teeth by rubbing your tongue over them with all the grit that's around. Tramping after a million people isn't fun. And he could be riding on the back of a horse. He could be riding in a chariot. I notice he does have gold clasps on his sandals, but they're pretty rough. You wouldn't get much for them now. But he must have had some glory previously and his garment that he wraps around him is pretty moth-eaten, but they're evidences of his former glory. You say, well, that's all your imagination. Well, I didn't claim it was inspiration. I'm just suggesting that it could have happened because they were human beings. And they sat for hours, they sat for days, they sat for months, they sat for years. Forty years is an awful long time. And God gets hold of this young man and he says, Moses, listen. I know he went through it all yesterday, but you know what? It's an old saying, but it's true. You get like the people you live with. So parents watch out. Because if you get a bunch of little somethings later on, well, just watch that it wasn't coming out of you, huh? If children live with violence, we're told they become violent. If they live amongst ambition, they become ambitious. If they live with music, you can affect the life of your children. I'm always trying to tell you this. You let your children have the jungle stuff they put on from the radio stations and you see them like this, and you go in a restaurant one day and the youngster jumps down and goes, but the bathroom, but, but, but, and you say, I don't know that, don't be so silly. You let him do it all the way at home, so why worry about it? You fed him jungle music, so let him act as though he's swinging from tree to tree. But if you play them the classics, they learn to love classical music. If you speak loftily, they'll speak loftily. If you speak about holy things, they'll desire holy things. And God says, don't worry, because, you see, it was already beginning to rub off onto this man Joshua. I can prove it later. He says, you know, this man Moses is a marvelous man. I'll tell you why he's marvelous. He's got self-control. He's got everything under control. And the book of Proverbs that we're going to learn bit by bit says what? Greater is he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city. Now, if you take a city, you blast it to bits, they'll give you a pension from the army, they'll give you a medal as big as a frying pan, and you can strut with all you've got. But if you rule your own city, somebody will say, you know what? He's not only meek, he's weak. Now, meekness and weakness are not the same thing because Moses could get angry. Jesus says, I am meek and lowly of heart. Moses was meek and lowly of heart. But Jesus got angry, Moses got angry. The only man who can celebrate pure anger is the man who's meek, because he's purified of all self-interest. He wants nothing for himself, only for God. And if he gets angry, it's a righteous anger, not a self-pity. It's not that somebody's trouble on his toes or hurt his feelings or he's beginning to suffer from something worse than cancer, which of course is self-pity. Then look, will you, at Numbers 13 and verse 6. Now, when you're a bit weary sometimes, read through this chapter. It's very refreshing. From verse 4. These were the names of the tribe. Reubing, Shammuah, the son of Zechar, the tribe of Sinion, Shaphat, and Horai of Judah, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and the tribe... Oh, that's as refreshing as a mouthful of sand. But come down to verse 16, and there's something very interesting. These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses caught... Now look, before you read the rest of the verse, do you know the name of Joshua before he was Joshua? Or did you know he had another name? Hmm? Okay, read the verse. Good lady at the back. Thank you, dear sister. You've raised the age. She didn't know. You're not the only ignorant one around here. But anyhow, verse 16 says, these are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshiah, the son of Non... What did he call him? Jehoshua. Joshua. Joshua. Oshiah by itself means salvation. You see, God changes the names of all the people He's going to use. You say, well He didn't change the name of Moses. Hey, you've forgotten. He certainly did. He wasn't Moses when He went there into the little casket, pardon me, basket. It sounds like casket, but it's basket. Basket He put... they put in the river. But she pulled Him out and she called Him Moses, withdrawn from... His name was changed because His ministry was changed. Oshiah means what? Oshiah means salvation, deliverer. Well, then you put Jeho in front of it. Jehosh. Do you know what that means? The one by whom He will save. Joshua cannot do it. But if you link Joshua to God, they can do it together. You see? So He has changed His name. I just think of a hymn, I've got an awful clicker in my mind, the law of association. And there's a hymn that says, Thy nature gracious, Lord, impart, come quickly from above. Write Thy new name upon my heart. You see, when God takes possession of somebody, He changes their name. Saul, who is called Paul. Uh-huh. Barnabas became the son of consolation. All right. He changed the name of Moses. He changed the name of Jacob, didn't He? Didn't He change the name of a man who wrestled all night on a hilltop there? He changed His name because He changed His nature. Okay. Let's go a bit further here. Exodus 24. Let's read verse 13. Moses rose up and his minister Joshua, and Moses went up into the mount of God. And he said to the elders, until we... Notice that. Who's gone up with him? Joshua, his minister, his servant, his assistant. The man that's having this very slow, very wonderful, wonderful influence of the greatest man that had ever lived up to that time, I think. You see, there's something brushing off or rubbing off onto him all the time. He's living in the presence of this amazing man. He said to the elders, For us, until we come again unto you, and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. With you, if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them. Now, Aaron and Hur stayed down the hillside. The seventy were further down, and the other people were further down still. And up in the mountain goes Moses for this fantastic revelation, and with him is Joshua. Now look, let's finish this because it's so thrilling. And Moses went up into the cloud, and the cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon the mount, Sinai. And the cloud covered it six days, and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud and got him up into the mount. And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. Now, will you notice what that chapter is? What is it? Twenty-four. All right, go right down now to twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two. And what does it say in verse thirty-two and verse seventeen? And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. Oh, what had happened? Well, the rest of the people got weary and they said, The servant of God, Moses, has obviously died. He's been away too long. And so, we'd better do something ourselves. Let's get organized. And they came to Aaron, the man anointed of God. And you remember that they began to take off their earrings and their jewelry and he made a calf and he said it leapt out somehow out of the fire, a golden image. And they danced around it. Not only danced, they became obscene. They tore off their clothes. They got excited. Now Moses has been wrapped up there in the glory with God. He fasted forty days. Well, don't you think Joshua fasted forty days? He was waiting down the hill. He didn't get weary. In other words, you see what God's doing? He's giving him a long, long lesson in patience that he can sit there between a warring people down here and the man to whom God is giving the revelation and he isn't drawn by either. This is his place and he's satisfied to sit still and see the salvation of God. He's prepared to be still and know that God is God. God placed me here and I'm staying here. I'm not saying he wasn't tempted to run up the hill, but I think in more sense he obviously had. He just stayed on the mountain and he waited and he fasted. Isn't there a scripture that says in patience possess ye your souls? Isn't the waiting period the hardest things to do? The thing to do? I read a while ago a very interesting story of a young man that felt he was called to a mission field. He applied to a mission board and he got a favorable answer. I'm not sure, I think it was New York City. He was told to come to the office of the director of the mission at five o'clock in the morning and answer certain questions. Five o'clock in the morning? Boy, that's inconvenient. Five in the afternoon will be easy, but five in the morning? I'm going to have to be out of bed about two o'clock to get there. He got there at five o'clock. There's a doorbell that was with a light and he rang it and the janitor came and said, what do you want at this hour? Oh, oh yes. Yes, I remember. Mr. So-and-so, the director, said you were coming at five o'clock. Please come this way. Took him upstairs and he said, just wait here. The director's coming. And he waited till nine o'clock. Director came in, Larry Brown said, good morning, brother. And he said, good morning, sir. Just give me two minutes. I just washed my hands. I just came off the train there, a bit grimy. And he said to his secretary, bring the young man in. So he sat the young man down and he said, your name is, what is it now? John Brown. Oh yes. How old are you? Twenty-two. Very good. Would you answer some questions? He said yes. He said, what are the first three letters in the alphabet? Oh, this guy is cookie. Got me here four hours before I'd come and now ask me, me with my degrees? But he didn't say a thing except A, B, C. Very good. What's twice two? Four. What's twice four? Eight. What's twice eight? Sixteen. Very good. Man, you've come through 100% so far. Now, what is the capital of New York State? Albany. Right. And he asked him about a dozen, just about first grade questions. And he said, you'll receive a letter from the examining board later in the week. They were having a meeting that morning and the rest of the crowd came along, the big shots, and they sat around. Oh, did you interview that boy, John Brown, this morning? Yes. He's the stuff we want. He is? Yeah. How do you know? Well, I tried to get him a bit rattled by, I got him here at five o'clock this morning and I discovered he had to be up at two to get here. But he never said a word. Never said, it's not convenient, you know. After all, it is my vacation time. And then I asked him, what were the first three letters of the alphabet? And he smiled and said, A, B, C. And I said to him, what's twice two? And he said, four. And I went on and I asked him, I asked him about ten questions any ten-year-old could answer. He's got the goods we want. He's got patience, he waited four hours. He's got humility, he never rebelled against it. And he went right down the list and he said, these are the kind of men we want. He's got a childlike spirit. He's got a teachable spirit. He's got a spirit where you can't upset him and offend him, you see. There's a nice psalm, a hundred and, what's the longest psalm? 119 verse 156, is it? Where it says, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Is that where you live? Hmm? One lady shakes her head. I wouldn't, I won't say which way. But anyhow, nothing shall offend, you never get offended? Hmm? See, the scripture talks about peace and great peace. It talks about love and perfect love. It talks about life and fullness of life. And really what, what this is all about, actually, in this wonderful book which we'll explore later, is telling us about this promised land which is full of hostility and full of opposition. There used to be an old man in Scotland, um, Andrew Lancelot, I was going to say. No, that's not right. Lancelot Andrews. He kept a personal diary of his spiritual life. Every day he put down his reactions. Whether he was disturbed, or whether he was quiet, or if there was anything rebellious in him, or if he found a long stretch of patience and forgiveness and so forth. And when he died they found this diary. It was written in the old days, you know, before with these funny pens they used to write with ink. And it wasn't too good, that ink. And he wrote beautifully, but his tears were always smearing his writing. But one day somebody found a page and it was smeared, but they worked on it and found that he, he put something like this, Lord, cleanse my heart from the, the Amalekite of pride, and the Jebusite of anger, and the Perizite of covetousness, and the Hittite of envy. And he called all those 31 kings by a name. And he said, little by little, I'm going to get God to drive every one of these out, so that my heart is a promised land for God. Isn't that nice? That's why God is preparing this amazing man. Look at Numbers chapter 11. Verse 1, When the people complained, it displeased the Lord. And the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. Verse 4, And the mixed multitude that was among them fell lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we ate in Egypt, freely, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlics, and now our souls are dried away, and there's nothing at all except this manner. Verse 11, Moses said to the Lord, Wherefore art thou afflicted, thy servant? And wherewith have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all these people upon me? Verse 13, When should I have flesh to give to all these people? For they weep to me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. Verse 15, And if thou deal'dst with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight, and let me not see their wretchedness. Hmm? Now, does God answer prayer? Yeah, He answers some things we don't want Him to answer too. Look at this 18th verse, Say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh. For you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it is well with us in Egypt, therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat it one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils. Now, isn't that pretty? Hmm? Have you heard people say, Do you want some of that? Oh, no, we've been eating that for a week, it's coming out of our ears. Well, that may not be so bad, but brother, when it comes out of your nostrils, you're just about choking. But you see, they complained. They complained, Were there no graves in Egypt? Sure, there were graves, they could have had one each, but they didn't ask for them when they were in Egypt. They asked for them when they got into a place of difficulty. This manner that God has made, this isn't enough for us. Verse 28 says what? Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men answered and said, My Lord Moses, what has happened here? Well, they've come out of this state of being disgruntled, huh? Verse 24, Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the certainty of the men, of the elders of the people, and set them around the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud. Oh, you talk about the mercy of God, He should have spit on them, He should have killed them, but He came in mercy again, despite their rebellion. The Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders, and it came to pass that when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied and did not cease, that there remained two of the men in the camp, and the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other was Medad. And the spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, that went not out into the tabernacle, they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp, and Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses. One of his young men answered and said, My Lord, Moses forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Envious thou them for my sake? That's where I suggest the meekness had rubbed off, off Moses unto him. The spirit of the Lord had come upon seventy. Seventy of them moved off. Eldad and Medad stayed behind, and they continued with their prophecy. And the young man thought, No, they've no right to do that. This is Moses' job. But I like his meekness. Number one, he didn't try and exercise any power. He didn't rebuke them. He didn't say to Moses, Call down fire from heaven upon them. He just says, Forbid them. And I know why he did it, because this verse gives it away. The 29th verse, it says, And Moses said unto them, Envious thou, said unto him, Envious thou for my sake? Would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets. Now look at Exodus 33.11, will you? We'll go back a little further, I'm sorry, here. This is after they've had that horrible time of idolatry. We'll begin to read at verse 7. And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend, and he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Isn't that wonderful? You see, the tabernacle had been taken out of the midst, and it had been put in another place where everybody went who wanted to go. Moses had to return back into the crowd, but the young man wanted to stay there in the presence of God. That to me again is symbolic of him hungering and thirsting after God. Let the others go back in the camp. Let them go to the excitement. You see, God is going to take these people very soon into a place where sight is changed to faith. Do you remember what happened when they went into the promised land? There was no pillar of fire by night. There was no pillar of cloud by day. Now it's true that when they were in that pillar, well, at least when Moses was in the cloud, God gave him specific instructions about the ark of testimony. And when they got into the promised land, there was no pillar of fire, there was no pillar of cloud, but they had to have a bunch of men, an elect company of men, carrying the ark. They had to stay a certain distance away from the presence of God. Now, what do you think the other people felt like at the end of the trail if there were two million of them? They couldn't see. Previously, if they woke up in the night afraid, they'd move their tent door and say, Ah, praise the Lord. There's the pillar of fire. Hallelujah. Oh, I bow down and worship you, the most high God. Our God is a consuming fire. Yes. As I said Sunday, we sing pretty choruses and they're all lovely. I'm not saying that, but you see, we're not balanced. We're all on one side. Numbers 11 just now. The fire of God came on a people who were disobedient. It burned them up. Makes you wonder why we're still living in America, doesn't it? The church isn't much good. You never judge a nation by the rottenest thing in it. You judge a nation by the best thing in it. And as lousy as the church may be right now, she's still the best thing in the land. She's still the best thing in any country. But if the church is low, you start going from where the church is low down, do you wonder where the world is down? God, you're consuming fire. Remember Elijah says, Well, all right, all right. If you want to have a showdown, that's easy. And I'll tell you what, I'll give you an eight-hour start. Hey, that sounds like confidence. Either he's too cocky or he's got faith a bit stronger than that. He says, All right, go on, build your altars, slay your cattle. Notice the sun's got pretty high and you worship God, the sun and the moon, and the sun isn't doing much for you. Hey, why don't you tear your chests and pull your hair out? And maybe you should stand on and jump on the blood, on the sacrifice. Get really serious about it. Tell old Bill, time's running out, it's time you woke up or came back from his hunting or shopping or whatever he's doing. Time to get by. You talk about sarcasm, Elijah had plenty of it. He poured it on them, ridiculed them. And then he says, Four hundred priests there, four, sit down. Now, then he says, Lord, vindicate my name. He never said anything of the kind. The first thing he said, Lord, let it be known this day there is a God in Israel. He was jealous for God. He didn't care a hill of beans in one sense about the country. He didn't care about his own ministry. He says, let it be known that there is still a God who is mighty. You ever got a fire, send down fire upon the altar. The God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And he did, right. He sure did. And what does Malachi say? He's standing at the other side of a big gulf, bigger than the Grand Canyon. Makes the Grand Canyon look like a cavity in your tooth. And this man's looking over the four hundred years of darkness and he says with divine inspiration, and who shall abide the day of his coming? My Lord, I wish I could say that in a thousand languages over every radio station in America today. Listen, who's going to abide the day of his coming? He's either going to come in mercy or judgment, and God help us if he comes in judgment. Who shall abide the day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appears? He's like a refiner's fire. John the Baptist brings them to a place of repentance, but he can't bring them into the promised land. He says, listen, you think I'm wonderful? Forget it. There's somebody coming and you know, hey look, you see his shoes, I'm not worthy even to carry his shoes. I'm not even worthy to carry his shoes. The only thing you think I'm a giant is you've been living with dwarves so long. The only thing, I speak with a bit of fire and a bit of urgency, because the priests are fat and they think they have a calm on God. But I want to tell you, when he comes, he's coming as a refining fire. When he comes, he'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire and his fan is in his hand and he'll thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. I know the world has forgotten that, but I'm sorry to tell you, the church has forgotten it too. I look for God one of these days to come and, you know, I'm a simple soul. You know that. Everybody nods. Thank you. Well, I'm simple. But you know what? I hang on to little words. And one of the words I love so much, you know what it is? Suddenly. Suddenly. 400 years everybody being under church and say, I don't know what they mean. I'm just sick to death. I bought a pair of pigeons for an offering. Well, I bought a bullock for an offering. Boy, I didn't feel any better. My conscience is loaded. I feel dead and doomed and damned and I don't know there's anything in this thing at all. Nothing in it. And then when they hear there's a man down there in the desert, I tease the Baptist every time I go preach for Baptists. I say, you dumb bunch. Listen, the first man that ever preached on the baptism of the Holy Ghost was a Baptist. Why don't you preach it? John Baptist was the first that preached on the baptism with the Holy Ghost. When He is coming to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. I like that word suddenly. Poor old shepherd wrapped up that night on the hills and said, it's cold, isn't it? My, I'll be glad when this is nighted. And suddenly there was a sound of the heavenly host singing. No, they weren't singing. Angels don't sing. They were saying glory to God in the highest. Oh, what's this? The Christ has come. Hmm? Hey, angels, you got it wrong. You should have gone down to the king's palace. You don't tell a bunch of shepherds. You got it wrong. Why didn't you wake the high priest up? He's asleep as usual, but why didn't you wake him up and tell him that the Messiah had come? He was reading it the other day from Isaiah, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. He said it, you know, like he always does half asleep. Why didn't you go tell him? Shepherds. Isn't that great? Do you remember that other bunch waiting in the upper room and saying, you know, boy, we fouled it up, didn't we? Suddenly there was a sound of what? A rushing mighty wind. And in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, God changes history. One of the things that Evan Roberts used to say, I'm not sure if it was Evan Roberts, maybe it was Seth Joshua who lived at that time. Seth Joshua used to say, there's a sound of a going in the mulberry trees, God is going to come. Would you like to be absent from the sanctuary the night the fire falls? And you know it increased the tendencies in the church in Wales. I don't think I'll go tonight. You know what? I'll have a bit of lumbago. Hey, maybe the Holy Ghost will come. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right, let's go, let's go. Boy. Oh, that was the best therapy you could get. The Lord may come tonight. Oh, yes. What did this young man do? He stayed in the temple when the others had gone. You know, there's a scripture, I don't just locate it here, but it came to me this afternoon. It talks about somebody's bowels yearning over somebody. You know what it means? Well, women know that physically, I guess, when a child is going to be born. But it talks about his bowels. His bowels were moved. I'm going to tell you something. If I can. I got a simple analogy. You know what? I once went round the Ford plant. It's a pretty big place. Acres and acres and acres and acres. I just about saw everything there. It was interesting. It took hours to go around. Just the other week, when we were out west, we went to the shop of a friend of ours. He deals in diamonds and whatnot. And his room was about, it was no larger than from that wall to here, that square. You don't need much room to polish diamonds. You need acres of ground to make automobiles. And I said to the Lord, Lord, will you make that little chapel down there on the back of the road or the front? Will you make it a diamond shop where you get hold of some lives and polish them like jewels? And I called your names. Let me go a bit further here. Can I do that? Go into the book of Joshua a minute. We'll forget the first part. I'll come to it again. I'm going to speak on this more than once. Let's go to chapter 5, verse 12 for a moment. The manna ceased on the morrow after they'd eaten the old corn of the land. Isn't that great? Neither had the children of Israel manna anymore, but they ate the fruit of the land. Well, hallelujah forever. They stopped eating manna, that old stuff that had been in the wilderness, and they said we're in the promised land, and they got the fruits, which seemed to me again a type of the fruits of the spirit. Fruit doesn't grow on a tree that has life. It grows on a tree that has overflowing life. All right. Don't look so surprised. It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with a sword in his hand. It was drawn, a drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said nay, but as the captain of the hosts of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped. I reminded you the other night, the same thing happened in the case of Abraham, didn't it? When the Lord came to him and it says what? You're going to have a child, and he fell down with embarrassment. He fell down and he worshipped. He fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto him, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Hmm? You see, previously, go back a minute, will you? At the end of the, and the last time that Joshua's name is mentioned in the, well, never mind the long name of it anyhow. Pentateuch, I was going to say, is in the, just above the book of Joshua there, look at the end of the previous chapter, verse 9. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hand upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded him. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Ha, ha. That must have been something. Huh? Have you ever wished the hand of somebody you thought was outstandingly spiritual were put on your head? People often ask me to pray for them, I don't know why. Would you lay your hands on me? Most usually I say no. No, I don't. Because some of you just want to say somebody touched me or something else. If I have to pray with somebody and then lay hands, maybe I will. But Moses laid hands upon him, and Joshua the son of Nun, he was filled with the spirit of wisdom. Why? Because Moses was filled with the spirit of wisdom. And the children of Israel hearkened unto him. We lay that up a bit later because the time has gone. Let me go back to that verse where, what is it? It's the commander of who? The captain of the hosts of the Lord. And Joshua fell on his face to worship, and the captain of the Lord's host said unto him, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet. You know, this really got to me today. Huh? Listen, fella, you may have to get rid of your shoes. Hmm? Football shoes, baseball shoes, golf shoes. What are they? They're in the way. Didn't he say the same thing to Moses? Well, why have you to take your shoes off? Because you've been treading the ordinary ways of life, and there's filth there, and animal filth, and dirt, and everything that's sordid. And there's something between you and that sacred ground. So, take your shoes off and get rid of that defiling thing, and you cease to walk in that way. Now, that's exactly the same thing that he said to Moses, but he had a different way of saying it to Moses. You see, he came to Moses when? He came to Moses how? Well, he came to Moses, you said suddenly, which is scriptural, of course. He came in a burning bush. Not to show him that the bush could not be consumed, but to show him that he was the eternal God. Our God is a consuming fire. Now, this man could have said, you know, I've often thought, well, I remember Moses did lay his hand on me, but I'm not sure. I mean, it was Moses, and Moses always liked me, you know, he loved me. He used to say to me, my son Joshua, do this and do the other. But, you know, I just wish that, I wish one day when I was going down the road, a bush would burn, and a voice would say, take your shoes off from your feet. And, you know, that would really clinch the whole deal for me. You know, but as a matter of fact, I know it's, well, I guess I'll have to just put up with it, because it's never, ooh, who art thou? Boy, I guess he was all shaky. I'm the captain of the hosts of God. I haven't brought a burning bush, but take your shoes off your feet. The place where you stand is holy ground. Cease walking in the way you've walked. Now, I'm saying, I called your names. I said, Lord, don't let one young man out of our fellowship walk the wrong way. If you're to burn your shoes or your bridges, don't miss it. And in my office, I leaned back in my chair, and I said, Lord, I call you to bear witness. Put it in the book of life. Put it in the book of remembrance. That's what God says. At the end of Malachi, what does he say? A book of remembrance was written. And I said, Lord, put it in the book of remembrance. Here, I'm calling names. I don't want any young man to miss the way. I don't want anything, any way that he should walk to cause him to cease to have the supreme blessing of God. Don't let one of them miss it. I went right down the line. I said, Lord, don't let John miss it. Lord, don't let Randy miss it. Lord, don't let Jay miss it. Don't let Trey miss it. Don't let David miss it. Don't let the other little fellow there miss it. Mark. I mentioned Philip's, Bill's boys. Make this little room here a place where you polish your gems. Don't miss it for anything. We don't need a political wizard in the White House. We need prophets in God's house. Oh, I prayed for Scott. He don't look sad. Bobby's looking as though you missed my little guy out. I didn't miss him out. I said his name. You ask the Lord when you see him. He's got it up there in the record this afternoon. I said, Lord, I'm claiming every one of them. Not one of them. Not one of them. He's going to miss God's best. Turn your shoes. Crisis in my life came when I searched the whole city one Saturday afternoon with my daddy for a pair of soccer boots. Because I love soccer and I could play soccer. And I could run in those days too, like a hare. We went to about six shops and they had every size you could imagine. The biggest football boots I've ever seen and the smallest. They had them in half sizes. They had every boot you could imagine. You could have furnished every football team in town with them but they hadn't my size. We went from shop to shop to shop to shop and I was disgusted. I was disgusted with my father. I was disgusted with the Lord too. Because I prayed and asked him to send me soccer boots and he didn't. And that's pretty mad. Because I was only 14. And I'll tell you what, many times I thank God I miss those boots. It's amazing, you know, God doesn't always speak in the positive way you think. He speaks the other way. It's not always what he does, it's what he doesn't do. Dr. Alexander White went to preach from Edinburgh. Edinburgh, oh, beautiful Edinburgh, way on the coast of Scotland. You could set off on a train from Edinburgh and when you'd gone about half an hour you could be in a fog so thick if you put your hand out like that you couldn't see it. He thought the train was going slow, he was reading his Bible, ready to preach at this country place for the night, just give them one special anniversary night when the church would be packed out. And he thought, oh, dear, as they say, oh, man, he says, and he pulled out his, oh, no, no, no, he says, I missed it, I missed it. And the train stopped at every little country station and he rubbed the steam off the window. Ah, he looked out, and I don't know what it was, it was Glengarry or something, and he wanted some other strange name up there, you know, Bonny Doon or something. Ah, he says, I'm way, no, no, I'm way past for 15 minutes. Hmm, I missed it. And the next Sunday he went to church and he preached on all the sins he'd missed in his life. He said, the Lord told me you not only missed the train, but do you know how many pitfalls you've missed? Do you know how many sins you didn't commit? Do you know how many tragedies you averted? My, my, you thank me for all the things I've done. You haven't any idea how many times I've delivered you from the snare of the fowler and from the noise and pestilence and from all those things where Satan was going to get hold of you and ambush you and destroy you. But I came in right at the right moment. That's what the book says, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and he delivereth them. Hmm. Yeah, I've got a lot of ambitions for this little outfit here. If Jesus tarries, I'm praying the Lord's going to give us some Joshua's. He's going to give us prophets. He's going to give us apostles. He's going to give us evangelists. We won't have a softball team, so he can't get anybody out of that. We're not going to have anything that's worldly as far as I'm concerned, I'm sure as you're concerned. I'd rather work with a couple of dozen people that wholly want to follow the Lord. For after all, you know Joshua, isn't it amazing? Only Joshua and another guy, another fellow, made it out of the million, two million, three million people that came out of Egypt. Only two of them ever made it. Hmm. That fellow Caleb, was it Caleb? Caleb. Hmm. He's a character. Couldn't shake him up. He's 80 years of age, and he says, well, the boss said, what can I do? He says, give me this mountain. I think that's great, when you want to start climbing mountains when you're 80. Give me this mountain, this is my inheritance. I've been cheated, but I'm going to die without it. Joshua, to take on a nation like this, and we'll follow on later, and see where he led them, how he led them, how God delivered them. Yeah, he needed it. He needed every moment of the 40 years he'd gone through the wilderness. Hmm. He needed every moment of that training for what was coming up. The Lord said, I'll be with thee. You'd better know that. You say, well, you're going to be in trouble anyhow, because you know, you don't have to go far up the road. There's a river right across your path. He says, I've got news for you, brother. He brought me through the sea, so the river won't be too much. Well, do you know there's some kings there? There's a king there with about 5,000 men. He says, do you know what? We got out of the clutches of a whole army, the greatest army in the world. We got out of their clutches, so do you think I'm worried about that bunch? Hmm? I mean, they're grasshoppers. You've not seen the children of Anak, have you? He hasn't got a son under 7 feet high. You haven't seen the walls. When you get to the walls, you can't see the sun. Now, how do you think you're going to get them down? Well, he said, the Lord was saying to me the other night, get your voice clear, because I want you to sing and blow. Sing and blow what? Oh, we're going around with hooters. Hmm. Just what I thought. I always thought you were a bit something. Think you're going to blow it down once? No, no, he says. We're going to rehearse it for 6 days. 5 days, was it? And then the last day, we're going around 7 times. It's a perfect number. So they must have gone around 13 times. Isn't that something? Hmm? What is that in thy hand? It's a rod. Oh. Oh boy, he's got the rod of Moses. What is that in thy hand? Jawbone of an ass. What is that in thy hand? 5 loaves and 2 fishes. What is in that in thy hand? A bit of a cow's horn. What are you going to do? Oh, I've joined the band. The band? Yeah, we're going on a sort of... People are going to lean over the walls and say, see those lunatics? They said they had a strange religion. I don't know what it's all about. You see, the secret of success in the Christian life is not greatness. Except knowing his greatness, the secret is humility. And obedience. And God puts this little fellow Joshua at the side of this giant. And little by little it rubs off. He says, yes, I can see, I can see the patience. Oh my, our God purified him through patience. The king turned on him. His own relatives turned on him. The people turned on him. And you know what? He kept his cool. He was calm. He was dignified. Well, I'm glad you learned that lesson because it's going to come upon you before very long. You know, there's nothing like the power of example. I remember one day I was praying and I got up laughing. I sometimes get up crying, but I got up laughing. Because the thing that the Lord seemed to say just before I finished praying was, Jesus never said to his disciples, take out your notebooks and write this down. They never did. They never had pencils and papers. What did he do? He lived it before them. He was the example before them. And every time they came into the situation, they had to say, well, what would Jesus do in this situation? They'd seen him live it. And I say again, you, you, you, we never know. That's why, that's why every day when you get out of bed in the morning, particularly when you have children, you say, Lord, help me today to walk before these children as though Jesus himself was walking before them. Help me to show his meekness, help me to show his love, help me to show his graciousness. And one day they'll do two things. They'll rise up and call him blessed, and they'll rise up and call you blessed. And the God that made Joshua, the man that he became, is still in the same business. Still wanting to make us into giants. Still wanting to take us out to fight those kings and pull down the strongholds. And see God do something in a heathen, godless, thoughtless age like this. I believe if we could get under the crust, we'd find people saying what they said there in the Old Testament. Is there any word from the Lord? There's none from anywhere else just now. Father, we thank you tonight for this fellowship. We can really sing in our hearts, what a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms. And we thank you for the fellowship of those of like precious faith. Keep us again, we pray, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In Jesus' name.