Then You Will Have Success

Then You Will Have Success

Joshua 1:1-9

Imagine a man engaged to a perfect woman. He can find no fault in her love. Imagine the same man describing the great need he feels for the love of his fiancée to find fulfillment in life. Imagine this man celebrating his fiancée has clearly communicating her love in accepting his marriage proposal.

Now imagine your shock if this man announces that he is going to marry two women because his one fiancée does not have enough love to satisfy him. We rightly judge this to be immoral. In the sphere of marriage, the love of one person must be sufficient. When we call the Bible our authority it must be sufficient.

In recent messages, we've been thinking about four words that describe how the Bible functions as the final authority in our lives. We've called these the four corner posts of biblical authority.

The Four Corner Posts of Biblical Authority

This is a way of thinking about the strong supports that allow the Bible to function as a reliable boundary fence in our lives as individuals, families, and the church.

Inerrancy. In an earlier message we declared the perfection of the Bible. We established its inerrancy. It is without error as originally revealed to us by God.

Necessity. In another message we described the necessity of the Bible. Our limitation as creatures and our liability as sinners make a word from God necessary if we are to know and live the truth.

Clarity. Last week's message highlighted the clarity of the Bible. The Bible's central message is not confusing. It is the hardness of the human heart that perverts the Bible's meaning.

Sufficiency. After all this, after working out the inerrancy, necessity, and clarity of the Scriptures as our final authority, it is possible to completely degrade the Bible by refusing to believe that it is sufficient.

It is critical that every Christian understand and live convinced of the sufficiency of Scripture. The Sufficient Bible does not rely on anyone or anything else, except God, to function as the final authority; the Sufficient Bible judges every other authority.

Think of building a pyramid with blocks. The bottom row has four blocks. The next row up has three. The next consists of two. At each level the blocks stand at equal height. The top row has only one block. If another block is on the same level, you either have not reached the top or you do not have a pyramid.

The only authority available to all God's people for all of life by which we might know how to glorify and enjoy God and so achieve our purpose in life is the Bible. The Bible speaks of itself in this way. If the Bible claims to be sufficient and it is not, then it does not deserve to be treated as any kind of authority. But if it is sufficient, then it must stand alone above all other authorities. The following passages expound this truth.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV) — All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:3–4 (ESV) — His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Psalm 19:7 (ESV) — The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

Psalm 119:1 (ESV) — Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!

This morning I invite you to take a closer look at a passage that, without apology, assumes and affirms the sufficiency of God's word. Come with me to Joshua 1. Walk through the opening nine verses of this book.

The book in the Bible named for Joshua is the sixth book of the Old Testament after the five books of Moses. These nine verses describe a completely unique event. It is the public transfer of national leadership in ancient Israel from the late Moses to young Joshua. At the same time, Joshua's experience is that of every person. God's commission to Joshua serves as the way all of us must live before God in his blessing.

Joshua 1:1–9 (ESV) — After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

For our purposes this morning, note how this passage focuses on God's written word. In verse 3 God refers to a land that He had promised to Moses. When is this promise given?

Deuteronomy 11:22–25 (ESV) — For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God ... 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you.... 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours....

You hear similar language in Joshua 1. God himself quotes his own word as Moses had written it down earlier. In this earlier passage, God speaks not only to Joshua, but to the whole nation. What Joshua hears in chapter 1 is not limited to him, but applies to all God's people. God reminds Joshua personally because he wants his leader to know that when it comes to his word, the leader is not above the law. The authority of Joshua is not an authority in itself. Joshua is dependent upon the Law of God just like all the congregation of Israel.

A second reference to God's written word in this passage is found in verse 7. Verse 7 refers to the law of Moses, which we have seen is a specific collection of writings, the first five books of the Bible that the nation revered as God's word to them.

Deuteronomy 31:24–26 (ESV) — 24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded ... 26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.

Moses words were secured in the most holy place immediately beside the sacred box, which represented the very presence of God. They recognized the divine authority of his words to judge and witness against them.

Note a third reference to Scripture in verse 8. Verse 8 refers to the same collection as "this Book of the Law." God's written word is central to this passage. But how is it describing this word as sufficient?

There are two key phrases in this passage that put the Bible in a category by itself. The first is in verse 7, "Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left." God said to be careful to do according to all that is written and commanded in Moses' law. There can be no deviation in any direction from God's written word. If God gave instruction to Moses about any subject, Joshua was to follow it to the letter. Any deviation was deadly.

The second phrase is in verse 8; "you shall meditate on it day and night." God's written word was to be the source of continual meditation. The word means to mutter. Joshua was to be talking the word of God in whatever situation he found himself in life. The Bible is not just the book for church. It is the book for life.

Joshua was not a religious leader, needing the Bible because he was confined to a certain sphere of religious activity. He was a military commander, a government leader, a father, a judge, a landowner and a teacher. His challenge to enter, subdue, and portion the land required him to dabble in many disciplines. The written word of God was his constant companion.

What does this mean for us? We violate the sufficiency of Scripture when we proceed on the assumption that the Bible does not address some issue we face. So we are forced to seek wisdom from some other source. We deviate to the right or left out of deadly ignorance.

Because of our ignorance of God's word, we may conclude that God has nothing to say about, for example, a contemporary problem in medical ethics or how to conduct a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. In fact, the Bible has much to say both directly and indirectly on such subjects. Our concern should be to understand it carefully so that we do not deviate from the Bible in any way.

We are so used to Google searches that take us to specific articles on specific subjects and in a few seconds we can learn how to do anything or find the answer to any question. The Bible is not that kind of a "how-to" manual, so we discard it as being impractical. The Bible doesn't even have a neat summary about something like how to run a church service. It's not that kind of book.

It takes hard work to identify all the verses that touch upon an issue in life. It takes more hard work to analyze the full testimony of Scripture on a particular issue. But when the Bible touches upon a subject we conclude that God has told us all we need to know about that subject to glorify Him. We may want to know more, but we do not need to know more. Our concern should be to fully apply what God has revealed rather than seeking what He has not.

But ignorance is not our only problem. We can arrogantly think that our world is so different and more complicated that the Bible's commands and instruction no longer apply. For example, Christians are commanded in 1 Corinthians 6 not to settle disputes among themselves by going to civil court. The church should handle such cases. We assume that such a command must have worked back in Roman days but not in our context today.

We narrow the scope of the Bible's authority down to a small segment of our lives, daily devotions and Sunday services, and remove it from the "day and night" of daily life. We can summarize what Joshua 1 says about Scripture simply:

When it comes to deviating from God's word we should have a very narrow perspective, not to the left or right. When it comes to applying that word, we should have a broad perspective, day and night.

God promises Joshua that he will prosper and have success if he honors His word. To prosper means to advance. God's command to Joshua is arise. As he does this he is to remain in the Scriptures. As he fulfills this condition, he will advance. He will make progress in the mission. His "way", his path in life, will move in a God-honoring direction.

God is not coaxing Joshua with material prosperity. He's saying, "If you do my will you will do my will and that's the greatest prosperity you could ever know." The word for success means insight or wisdom. God's promise is that, as Joshua follows his word, he will be successful. He will have the insight and wisdom to handle all the situations in life that confront him.

Again, success is defined as the capacity to glorify God, but not in some human-centered terms. To see this concept most clearly we have to note the first use of this word success in the Bible.

Genesis 3:1–6 (ESV) — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise [successful], she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Sin from the beginning is a rejection of God's word in favor of some deviant way to try to ensure success in life. Failure to grasp the sufficiency of God's word brought on the misery of the fall and condemnation. That's how serious this issue is. Because the Bible is sufficient for life, it not only tells us how to live but what to live for. It points us to the ultimate purpose and defines how we get there.

Objections

But I know that people raise many objections to this teaching about the sufficiency of the Bible. Let me address some of them out of this passage and referring to others.

1. Until the complete New Testament, God's people did not have the full Bible, so how could it be sufficient?

We answer this objection by noting that in every age God reveals that which is necessary and sufficient for people to glorify Him in life. We have more than Joshua did. To whom much is given much is required.

This is related to the question of how we know which books are in the Bible, which we covered in an earlier message. But we acknowledge that the Bible is an unfolding Book. It did not come all at once.

The people of Joshua's day were to be content with what God had given them. So we may have lots of questions that the Bible does not answer. But we trust God's wisdom. Before Moses died he reminded the whole nation, including Joshua,

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV) — “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

2. The Bible is not the only source of truth in our lives, so how can it be sufficient?

Joshua learned a lot as Moses' assistant that he applied later when he succeeded Moses. They were together constantly. Not everything he learned was written down in the Book.

So today we learn truth in places outside the Bible. God as Creator has revealed much about himself in His creation. The Bible does not explain how to build an airplane or perform a hip replacement surgery. We discover these wonders through scientific observation and inquiry.

The sufficiency of the Bible does not require that we learn only from the Bible. It does mean that everything we learn must be subjected to the truth claims of the Bible. If any other so-called truth deviates from the Bible to the right or the left, we conclude that it is not truth at all.

At one point, scientific observation concluded that not all human beings are equal but that some so-called races were superior. The Bible insists that there is only one human race and that all members of it are made in the image of God with equal dignity (see Genesis 1 and Acts 17).

Cornelius Van Til observed about the building of the temple,

Solomon used the Phoenicians as his servants, not his architects. Something similar to this should be our attitude to science. We gladly recognize the detail work of many scientists (yes, even social scientists) as being highly valuable... But we cannot use modern science and their methods as the architects of our structures of Christian interpretation.[1]