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Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

Mark Finley

01 Recipe for Success

Welcome to another Sabbath School lesson series.

This quarter, we're going to be studying the book of Joshua, Lessons of Faith from Joshua.

Now a little background might be helpful.

Moses took the children of Israel to the borders of the promised land, but he did not take them in.

Joshua was the new Moses to take Israel into the promised land.

Now there are 2 great lessons that I want us to be conscious of during this series.

They failed him at the borders of Canaan 40 years before.

They saw giants in the land, but yet, although they lacked faith and although those adults who came to the borders of the promised land and didn't go in because of lack of faith died in the wilderness, God gave Israel a second chance.

That's 1 thing we want to keep prominent.

The second thing we want to keep focused on is that God fulfills his promises, that the promises of God will always be fulfilled.

And we can claim those promises if we respond to the promises by faith.

The only reason the promise of God won't be fulfilled for us personally is if we don't claim them by faith and live the godly lives through his power, by his grace, that enables us to receive the promise that he's given.

Well, let's jump right into our lesson this week.

Our lesson this week is entitled, The Recipe for Success.

Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts for the opportunity to study Joshua, a really moving spiritual book in the Old Testament.

As we study, may the truths of this book penetrate deeply into our lives to produce changes, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from the right hand or from the left, that it prosper you wherever you go." Now notice that text, be strong and courageous.

God is saying to Joshua, Joshua, if you're going to enter into this battle, it's not going to take any weakness to conquer Canaan.

Benjamin Zander, musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, taught a music interpretation class.

We met with the students the first day of class.

He said, every 1 of you is going to get an A in this class, but I want you to do this.

Within the first 2 weeks of the semester, I want you to write me a letter why you are going to get that A.

And I'm going to take it and we're going to read it the last day of class." In other words, what he was saying was, an A is yours, but you've got to cooperate to receive that A.

God was leading the Israelites into the promised land to defeat the Canaanites.

They could not do it without God, but God would not do it without them.

They could not do it without his strength, but he wouldn't do it without their cooperation.

So we come to Sunday's lesson, A New Moses.

The theme of this lesson is that God always fulfills his promises, that God is always true to his word when it comes to guiding and directing his people.

The question that's asked under Sunday's lesson, Why is it significant that the book of Joshua starts by echoing a promise related to what would happen after the death of Moses?

We read there 2 passages, 1, Deuteronomy 18, verse 15 to 22.

And I want to focus particularly on verses 15 and 16.

The Lord will raise up a prophet for you, a prophet like me from your mist, from your brethren, him shall you hear, according to all that you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire any more, lest I die.

And the Lord said to me, verse 17, what they have spoken is good.

And God, as he's speaking, says this in verse 22, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him." What's God saying there?

God is saying that true prophecy is going to be fulfilled.

There are some conditional prophecies, certainly, but true prophecy that is based on historical facts is going to be fulfilled.

The difference between true and false prophecy is God is right 100% of the time.

False prophets may guess and get it right some of the time, but a majority of the time they're not gonna get it right.

Here, God is saying, I have promised to lead Israel into the promised land.

You can stake your life on it, you can trust it.

Now, it may be that Israel and the leaders of Israel who have come out of Egypt, those adult Israelites don't go into the promised land because of their lack of faith.

You can pair Deuteronomy 18, verse 22, with Joshua 1, verse 9.

"'Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, "'for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

God says, I'm gonna lead you into that promised land.

Be strong, be of good courage, because I'm gonna be with you.

So the promises of God depend on the presence of God.

God's promise to lead Israel into the promised land depended on his presence in going with them into the promised land.

When you look at a variety of texts in the Old and New Testament that mentioned Joshua.

We learn some things about the character of Joshua.

We discover, for example, that he's a man of faith, a man of courage, a man wholly following the Lord, a man of deep understanding of the presence of God, a man full of wisdom.

I like Numbers 27 and verse 18 and its description of Joshua.

Numbers 27, verse 18, describes Joshua in these words.

It says, 27th chapter, 18th verse, here we go, And the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the spirit and lay your hand on him.

Joshua gave evidence that he was guided by, directed by, filled with the Spirit.

And then there's another wonderful passage about Joshua in chapter 32 of Numbers and verse 12.

It says, except Caleb, the son of Jameuth, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord." Caleb and Joshua wholly followed the Lord.

Wouldn't you like that to be said of you?

When you see John or Sally, when you see Ted or Mary, when you see Alice or Harry, when they come into the church, you know, the smile on their face, the sparkle in their eyes, the spirit of God is in them.

And you know that they wholly followed the Lord.

1 of the things that I long for in my life that it is said of me, Pastor Mark has wholly followed the Lord.

You see, Joshua had a lifetime of service and obedience to God.

We come to Monday's lesson, and there are 4 aspects of Monday's lesson in the book of Joshua chapter 1.

So cross, take, divide and serve are the keys.

Crossing and conquering and dividing and servicing.

God's promise is that as his people are faithful to him, he will fulfill his word.

Now the structure of the book of Joshua, if you want to look at Monday's lesson last paragraph, the structure of the book of Joshua conveys its main message.

God's initiatives are not accumulated automatically.

Instead they require the faithful response of his people.

That is, with all that God has done for us, including all that he has done for us that we cannot do for ourselves, we are then called to do what we can do for ourselves, which is to obey what God commands us to do.

This is how it has always been in all sacred history, and it remains so today.

For example, the depiction of God's end time people in Revelation 14 verse 12 conveys the same idea.

Faith in what God has done for us leads to obedience.

Now it's not that God has done something for me, therefore I will grit my teeth, clench my fists, and I'll obey him.

The faith that justifies me, that sets me before God just as if I'd never sinned, that faith is a dynamic power that enters into my life that produces sanctification or holiness.

02 Surprised by Grace

The book of Joshua has practical lessons for us today.

Although this book was written centuries ago, its lessons speak to our heart and encourage us on life's journey.

Father in heaven, as we study lesson number 2 in our series on Joshua, I pray once again that the principles of scripture would leap off the page, transform us as we study.

Oh Lord, bless us in a powerful way, we pray thee, during our time together, in Christ's name, amen.

You lost your temper and you said I'm never gonna do that again and then a short time later here you go doing it again or have you ever felt I can control my appetite I'm not gonna eat that which is unhealthful for me again.

I'm not going to take 3 pieces of pie and 2 chocolate chip cookies." And then you end up doing the very thing that you said you wouldn't do.

You say, Mark, well, 3 pieces of pie, 2 chocolate chip cookies is a little exaggeration.

It is, but it still makes the point, doesn't it?

That sometimes we just can't control those appetites of ours.

Some people have a difficult time controlling their lust or their pornography addiction.

Other people have a difficult time controlling the fact of their watching violence on television or video games or et cetera.

Just like Joshua felt extremely weak, and just like the Israelites were too weak to go into the promised land and to confront the Canaanites.

So God gave them that strength and power, and God will give you that strength or power.

But 1 thing that's brought out in our lesson today, and that's God is a God of second chances.

But what it does do is it lifts up people who are discouraged.

And you may have been discouraged over the fact that you have failed your Lord, that you've not lived in harmony with the principles of life that you have wanted to live with.

We find that here in our lesson under the Sabbath afternoon reading, second paragraph.

Israel has a second chance of entering the promised land and Joshua takes this mission seriously.

The first step is to have a clear understanding of what Joshua and the Israelites face.

Joshua sends out 2 spies to bring him valuable information about the land, its defense system, military preparedness, water supplies, and the attitude of the population in the face of an invading force.

1 would think that God's promise of giving the land to the Israelites did not require any effort from them.

Yet the assurance of divine support does not override human responsibility.

That sentence, that 1 sentence is incredibly powerful.

If you grasp that 1 sentence, it can be life transformation.

The assurance of divine support does not override human responsibility.

In other words, because God promised Israel that he'd lead them into the promised land, did not override their responsibility to cooperate with God.

In the Christian life, God invites us to cooperate with him.

In fact, in the book of James chapter 4, verse 7 and 8, it says, submit yourself to God and resist the devil and he'll flee from you.

If we don't do that, we can never resist the devil.

Then we resist by making a positive choice to obey God and to renounce or forsake that sin.

If we fail, he's right there to pick us up.

Why do you think Joshua sent out the 2 spies?

You remember, he remembered what happened 40 years before, I'm sure.

They are to evaluate, they're cooperating with God.

What's the water supply, et cetera, et cetera.

Now just at the beginning of that conquest of the promised land, Joshua has to evaluate the challenge to cooperate with God.

And so we read in Joshua 2 verse 1, now Joshua the son of Nun sent out 2 men from the Acacia grove to spy secretly saying, go view the land, especially Jericho.

So they went out and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there.

You know, it's sometimes easy to miss divine truths that are really significant.

It says, Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out 2 men from the Acacia Grove.

Now in my Bible, I have a little number 1 after Acacia Grove.

And you go down there and it says, Shittim, S-H-I-T-T-U-I-M, Shittim.

But yet, our author explains what it's about.

In this spy story, that was the place that the Israeli spies were sent out from.

It was the place where they ultimately come back to and it is the place that is a similar name.

See, it's not the exact location, but it's the similar name.

And then they come back to that place with a negative report.

The first is another spy story, see Numbers 13, featuring the same essential elements, the commissioning of the spies, the secret incursion of the spies into enemy territory, the return of the spies, the report of the spies on their findings, and the decision to act based on the report.

See, the place from which they're sent out is Shittim in the text.

It reminds us of that first negative experience, that negative episode where the spies come back and they give this negative report.

But there's another instance at Shittim, and it represents 1 of the most defiant, idolatrous violations of the covenant by the Israelites when at the instigation of Balaam they committed debauchery with the Moabite women and worshipped the false gods." Shittim really creates this tension of idolatry and rebellion and negativeness.

He sends the spies out from the Acacia Grove, the shittin' place, and he sends them out.

We find constantly that God is the God of the second chances.

The Lord says, 1 of you are gonna deny me.

Jesus says, before the cock crows 3 times you're gonna deny me.

First, his weakness, and secondly, the strength of the temptation.

He didn't know his weakness, and he didn't know the fury of the storm.

But after the resurrection of Christ, He appears to Peter and a few of those disciples by the shore of Galilee.

3 times Jesus calls out this expression of faith and Jesus says, go feed my lambs, go feed my lambs.

03 Memorials of Grace

We're studying the book of Joshua and lesson number 3 this week.

I know this will be an exciting lesson for you, so let's pray as we open the word of God.

Father in heaven, Thank you for the opportunity to study Joshua.

May the lessons this week touch our hearts, draw us closer to you, and give us a sense of your divine presence.

As we learn about memorials of grace, help us establish practical memorials in our own life, where we never forget you, where we remember your goodness and grace.

Our author begins this week's Sabbath School lesson, under Sabbath Afternoon's lesson, with a kind of humorous but a very fascinating story.

John was traveling down the highway, evidently going too fast.

A policeman stopped him and he said, may I have your driver's license?

John's face turned red, he was a little chagrined, he said, I forgot it at home.

The policeman said, well, John, what do you do?

And the policeman said, you know, I'm writing you out something, and I don't want you to think of this as a ticket, John.

Your students pay tuition, and the reason they pay tuition is to learn something.

And I'm giving you this ticket, and you're gonna pay a fine, but I want you to think about it as a tuition, not a fine or punishment.

Because John, you need to learn something.

You know, that's a humorous story, but yet it's true.

John forgot his driver's license and often we can forget too, can't we?

For example, when you have a birthday celebration, it's a memorial.

You remember your kids' birthdays and you affirm them on those days.

When you have an anniversary, that's a memorial of your marriage.

In our lesson this week, we're going to study God's memorials to Israel, and these memorials of grace, and how they were to keep ever fresh, keep ever forefront in the memory of the Israelites, the goodness, the graciousness of God.

We jump right into Sunday's lesson, Crossing the Jordan.

Israel's getting ready to cross the Jordan.

They're getting ready to march around Jericho.

This takes absolute, total dependence on God, but it also takes an honest heart.

So we read in Joshua 3, verse 2 and 3, so it was after 3 days that the officers went through the camp.

And they commanded the people saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it." So the Israelites were to follow the ark of the covenant.

The ark of the covenant represented the presence of God.

Be conscious of where God moves, and move when God moves.

Now, remember what was in the Ark of the Covenant?

The 10 Commandment Law, Aaron's rod that budded, and the pot of manna.

These 3 things represent God's commands in the law, they represent God's guidance through his appointed leadership in the Aaron's rod that budded, and they represent God's provisions for us in manna and his healthful diet.

So, when Israel followed the ark, they were staying in the presence of God, saying to God, we accept your commands, we accept your guidance through your leadership, and we accept that you have a unique diet for us that's different from Egypt and that you'll always provide for us.

Staying in the presence of God opens our hearts to be obedient to God.

Now, here in Joshua chapter 3 we read that the Israelites were to keep a space between them and the ark about 2, 000 cubits, that's about 3, 000 feet, It's a little more than half a mile that they were to keep between them and the Ark, showing the holiness of God and the unholiness of humanity.

Then it says, don't come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before." So they were keeping their eyes on the ark because God was guiding them into new territory, uncharted territory.

Joshua said to the people, verse 5, "'Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Notice the 2 contrasts, the 2 relationships, sanctify and wonders.

God is saying in Genesis in in Joshua 3 verse 5, I'm going to work wonders among you.

But for me to work those wonders, your hearts must be right with me.

For every great work that God prepares us to do, God does a work in us before he can ever do a work through us.

God does something for us before he does something with us.

God longs for you to come in harmony with him so he can bless your life abundantly.

You know, here in our lesson, about 6 lines up from the bottom, it says, the consecration involved the laying aside of sin and the removal of all ritual impurities.

The same command appears in Numbers 11, 18, relating to an impending miracle of God.

Such a preparation was also required before battles were fought in war.

Before God can fight for Israel in battle, they must show their allegiance to him and trust in him as their commander." So God wants to work miracles in your life and mine.

God wants to do something special in our lives, but it's only as our hearts and minds are dedicated to him that we allow him to work those miracles in our lives.

We go to Monday's lesson, The Living God of Wonders.

And here we see that God is not limited by God's creation.

Genesis, rather, Joshua chapter 3, verse 6 and onward.

And I'm going to go to verse 13 in Joshua chapter 3.

It shall come to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap." God's saying, I'm the God of all creation, and I can roll back the waters of Jordan.

God says to you today, I can roll back the troubled waters of your life.

God says to you today, I can work a miracle where it seemed impossible for Israel to go through the Jordan River.

The springtime, the river is overflowing, but God says, I can take you through, don't worry about that.

What is the lesson of Israel going through the Jordan say to us?

It says that God intervenes in human history.

In contrast to the gods of other nations who cannot save, who are powerless, God is all-powerful.

In Isaiah 44, verse 8, we read God's great challenge.

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Series

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

01 Recipe for Success

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

05 God Fights for You

25m

The 4 P’s: Predicament, Praise, Purpose, and Potential

54m

70

42m

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

02 The Burning Bush

22m

Optical

Small Differences with Big Consequences: A Story of Underrated Maladies

56m

Apologetics

Remnant or a Cult

1h

Morning Devotional: It's War Time

It’s Wartime - Part 3: Wartime Communication

58m

Hebrews 11- Faith

05 The Faith of Sarah

44m

Hebrews 11- Faith

20 The Faith of Jephthah

41m

Witnessing on Campus

Willing to Be Led

56m

Plenary

The Storm Is Here

1h 22m

Sound Doctrine