Sabbath School lessons are part of a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the fourth quarter of 2025, we will explore the theme “Joshua” This week’s lesson, titled “God Is Faithful!” covers the period from December 13 - December 19. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.

<p>Sabbath School lessons are part of a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the fourth quarter of 2025, we will explore the theme “Joshua” This week’s lesson, titled “God Is Faithful!” covers the period from December 13 - December 19. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

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

Mark Finley

01 Recipe for Success

02 Surprised by Grace

03 Memorials of Grace

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

05 God Fights for You

06 The Enemy Within

07 Ultimate Loyalty: Worship in a War Zone

08 Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb

09 Heirs of Promises, Prisoners of Hope

10 The True Joshua

11 Living in the Land

12 God is Faithful!


If you had to summarize in just a few words the theme that we've been studying in Joshua this quarter, how would you summarize that? In a few words, what's the theme of the book of Joshua? I think I would summarize it with the title of this week's lesson, lesson number 12, God is faithful. God is faithful to every generation, God is faithful to all peoples, and God is faithful to you and me. As we study this lesson today, let's pray as we dive right into this significant and very inspiring lesson.

Father in heaven, we're thankful with all of our hearts that You are faithful. We're thankful that you're faithful to every generation. And particularly, we're thankful that you are faithful to us. That you never let us down, you never mislead us, you never abandon or forsake us. So Lord, as we study today, help us to sense your faithfulness in Jesus name.

Amen. Our lesson this week begins with an interesting illustration from a speech that John F. Kennedy gave in January 20th 1961. He said this, with a good conscience our only sure reward with history the final judge of our deeds let us go forth to lead the land we love, "'asking his blessing and his help, "'but knowing that here on earth, "'God's work must truly be our own.'" With good conscience, he says, knowing that our only sure reward will history be the final judge. When you look back at the history of Israel, God indeed is the final judge.

God led Israel out of Egypt. God led them through the wilderness in spite of their unfaithfulness. God led them to the borders of the promised land. The river Jordan opened, they marched around Jericho, Jericho's walls fell. In all that time, God, the righteous judge, their mighty leader, their victorious Lord was leading them." God was faithful to them and God is faithful to every 1 of us.

If you look at our memory verse in Joshua 21, verse 45, It's an incredibly inspiring verse to memorize where it says, not 1 word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. Not 1 word of the good promises. You remember that magnificent Bible passage on the promises of God in the book of Corinthians. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, we read about In 2 Corinthians 1, we read about the promises of God. God's promises are true.

God's promises are faithful. Look, 2 Corinthians 1, verses 18 and 19. But God is faithful. God is what? Faithful.

That's what we're studying about in Joshua, isn't it? Our word to you was not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among us, among you by us, by me, Silvanus and Tympathy, was not yes and no, but in him was yes. For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him, amen to the glory of God through us. All the promises of God are what?

All the promises of God are yes. What God says, he will do. Because God cannot lie, and God is faithful to his character. So when God says, if you confess your sins, I'm faithful and just to forgive them, we can count on that. He's faithful.

We need not walk around in guilt or shame. God's faithful. When God says, through Paul, We can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. We can believe it, he's faithful. When God says in Philippians 4 verse 19, my God shall supply all your need, he's faithful.

He was faithful to Israel and he'll be faithful to us. Everything that God promised came to pass because God cannot deny himself. In Joshua 21, chapter 21, verse 43 to 45, there's an interesting use of the word all, which to me helps us to understand this concept of God's faithfulness. You find this in Joshua 21, verse 43 and onward. So the Lord gave to Israel all the land.

Who gave it to Israel? God did. He was faithful. Abraham was promised the land. It took them years, but God led them into the land and he gave them all the land.

The Lord gave them rest next all, all around, according to next all, all that he had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of next word, all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand, not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to pass." Notice, there's 1234567 alls. 7 is an indication of perfection. God here fulfills his promises perfectly.

Everything that he has promised comes to pass. Not a word of God failed. He drove out all their enemies. He gave them all the land. All Israel's success was contributed or attributed solely to God's divine initiative and trustworthiness.

But there's a sign of concern. When you come to Joshua 23, verse 1 to 5, you read that although God gave them the land, although God fought for them, God drove out the nations, there was still work to be done. In Joshua 21, verse 5, I read, and the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God has promised." When Israel entered the land, the work was not complete because there were still more tribes to be drawn out, driven out. And if God did not drive them out, if God didn't use Israel to drive them out, the temptation of idolatry, the temptation of worshipping false gods, the temptation of being sucked in to the compromise would still be there.

What practical lesson does that teach us? When we come to Christ, all the enemy is not fully driven out of our hearts. When we accept Jesus, the battle is not over. There is still a battle to be fought. There is still the enemy to be conquered.

There are still temptations to be overcome. There is still more work to be done. And that's what Joshua was concerned about, this idea that there's still more work to be done. Now, what are the similarities, this is Monday's lesson, bottom question, what are the similarities between how the Israelites conquered Canaan under Joshua's leadership in the way Christians today can live a victorious life. In both instances, there was a battle.

Joshua 23, verse 10 says, 1 man of you shall chase 1000 for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised." Israel faced a battle with the enemy as they went into the land. They were the people of God, anointed by God. God is faithful to his promises, but there was a battle. Throughout the New Testament we read also of a battle. Let me give you 2 examples of this, 2 Corinthians chapter 10.

These are some of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. 2 Corinthians 10, and we're going to look there at verses 3 through 5. And you'll notice what the Lord says, for we walk in the flesh, but we do not war according to the flesh." In other words, we're not struggling against the enemy in our own power. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. For the pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience to Christ.

So there is a battle, there is a struggle, but the weapons of our warfare are prayer, the weapons of our warfare are Bible study, The weapons of our warfare are a sanctified gift of choice where we choose to serve God completely and totally. You remember in Ephesians 6 it says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, verse 11 and onward, but against powers and principalities, against the wickedness in high places. So there is a battle in the Christian life, but we don't fight on our own, just like Israel didn't fight its enemies on their own. There is a battle. Look, last paragraph, Monday's lesson.

The victories of the Israelites could not be attributed to their strength and strategy. Similarly, spiritual victory over sin, don't miss this, and temptation, have been secured through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But God's people today must constantly rely on the spiritual supplies provided by the Holy Spirit in order to live a triumphant life. We go to Tuesday's lesson titled, Clear Boundaries. Joshua was concerned about Israel's backsliding.

That subject was introduced in Monday's lesson, but it's even more clearly introduced here. Using the same words that were addressed to him at the beginning of the book, Joshua states that the task that lay ahead of Israel is not primarily military in nature, it's spiritual. Why do you think Joshua took such a strong position about relations with other nations. We find the answer to that question in Joshua chapter 23. Joshua chapter 23, verses 6 through 8.

Why did Joshua take such a strong stand against these other nations? Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the Lord Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left. Unless you go among these nations who remain among you, you shall not mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them, and shall not serve them nor bow down to them. But you should hold Fast to the Lord your God as you've done this day. I love that word, hold fast.

You remember that old song, hold fast till I come? Here, Joshua says have clear boundaries. Don't speak of their gods, don't worship their gods. Compromise begins a little bit at a time. The danger facing Israel, the note under Tuesday's lesson, is not the threat of the remaining nations anonymously, but the risk of their friendship.

Their weapons might represent any challenge to Israel. However, that is the key, their ideology and values, or counter values, could prove to be more harmful than any military force. So here, Joshua prohibits them invoking the names of those false gods. We live in a society of secularism, godlessness, materialism. We live in an immoral society where there's violence all around us, where there's lewdness and nudity paraded on the screens of our television and through the internet, where violent games capture the minds of our children.

And if you compromise with evil, if you let your heart admire the world that we live in around us and its wickedness and its evil, that compromise is going to eventually lead you from God. Joshua's concerns are well taken. Any compromise with evil leads you on the slippery slope downward. There was a road in Alaska, and it was a long road, 600, 700 miles as I recall. And there's a sign at the beginning of the road, because this old dirt road had a lot of ruts in it, deep holes.

And it said, avoid the ruts, because if you get in 1 of them, you're going to be in 1 for 600 miles. If you start compromising and you start going down, you're going to be stuck there for a long time. And so God calls us through Joshua to avoid the ruts in the road. He talks to Joshua about idolatry, calls him away from idolatry. He also talks about intermarriage.

Look at the paragraph Tuesday's lesson, the danger of intermarriage with the remaining Canaanites consisted in losing Israel's spiritual purity. The intent of Joshua's admonition is not to promote racial or ethnic purity, but rather to avoid idolatry, which can lead to spiritual collapse of Israel. The case of Solomon is a dramatic example of the sad spiritual consequences of intermarriage. In the New Testament, Christians are openly warned against seeking marital relationships with non-believers. Although, in the case of existing marriages, Paul does not advise divorce from the unbelieving spouse, but calls them to live an exemplary Christian life in the hope of winning the spouse to the Lord.

So, if you're a young person contemplating marriage to an unbeliever, the scriptures would urge you to rethink that because it's very difficult to remain spiritual if you consciously, knowingly marry an unbeliever. But if you're married to an unbeliever, the scripture says that to reflect the loving character of Jesus, and Jesus will powerfully, powerfully move to work on the life of that unbeliever. You know, My father was a Protestant, my mother was a Catholic. My father became an Adventist when he was 33 years old. My mother was an ardent Catholic.

Mom didn't know how to drive. Dad would drive her to the Catholic church, let her off, wait for her in the car and study his Sabbath school lesson. Mom smoked, Dad never smoked. Mom on Easter, as a dutiful Catholic, she would make a big pork roast and a pork meal. I don't know how I ever ate that stuff back then, but you know, as she served it, now dad's an Adventist, he would fill his plate with salad, fill his plate with mashed potatoes, fill his plate with corn, pass the pork by of course, and say to my wife, my mother, say to my mother, Gloria, what a beautiful meal.

You know, his loving kindness over the years, his non-argumentative spirit over the years eventually broke her heart, and mom eventually became a Seventh-day Adventist. So if you're married to somebody who is not an Adventist Christian, rather than trying to out-argue them, try to out-love them, and watch what God does. In Wednesday's lesson, we come over now to the anger of the Lord. Can God get angry? Is anger an emotion?

If you say that God is emotionally out of control, that's totally not biblical. What is the anger of God, of the Lord? It's similar to God's wrath. What is God's wrath? God's wrath is his righteous judgment against sin.

So God's anger is his righteous judgment upon sinful human beings who are abusing humanity, who are unjust, unkind. Here we read about that, for example, in Joshua 23, verse 15 and 16. Joshua 23, verse 15 and 16. It says, therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you, which the Lord your God promised, so the Lord will bring upon you all the harmful things until he has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. Verse 16, when you've transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you and have gone and served other gods and have bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you shall perish quickly from the good land which he's given you.

Now notice, there's a linkage between disobedience, knowingly, willingly, consciously, turning from the will of God, living a godless disobedient life. The natural result of that is the judgments of God that fall upon those who have naturally turned their back on him, the righteous judgments of God. Disobedience brings disaster. The wrath of God, the judgments of God come. If you look at the last paragraph, it's quite lengthy under Wednesday's lesson but worth taking a notice of.

At first glance, the biblical teaching on God's anger seems to be incompatible with the affirmation that God is love. It does, doesn't it? This idea of anger, God is love. Yet it's exactly in the light of God's wrath that the biblical doctrine of God's love becomes even more relevant. First, the Bible presents God as loving, patient, long-suffering and ready to forgive.

However, in the context of a world affected by sin, the wrath of God, the Lord, now this defines it, is the attitude of his holiness and righteousness when confronted by sin and evil. So what is God's anger? It's his attitude of holiness and righteousness when confronted by sin and evil. I continue, his wrath is never an emotional, revengeful, unpredictable overreaction. The New Testament teaches that Christ became sin for us.

And through his death, we've been reconciled with God. Whoever believes in him will not have to face God's wrath. The concept of the wrath of God presents God as the righteous judge of the universe and the 1 who upholds the cause of justice. So what is the wrath of God? It presents God's righteousness and holiness.

It presents God as the 1 who upholds justice, who opposes injustice, inoppression and hate. This is God's wrath. It's his anger not at the individual, but it's his anger at oppression, his anger at injustice, his anger at disobedience, his anger at the lustful abuse of others, his anger at the unjust abuse of others. So this is an anger at the action and at the sin. If you cling to sin, the natural result of sin is combustible material, and so ultimately it's the destruction of sin and those who cling to it.

But rather than cling to sin, we come to Thursday's lesson, cling to God. Joshua appeals to Israel to love the Lord their God. Joshua 23, verse 11. You can compare that with Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, but Joshua 23, 11 says, therefore take diligent heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 6 verse 5 puts it this way.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So the Old Testament is not some legalistic document. It's an appeal to love God. It's an appeal for people to come to the point where their hearts are broken with God's love. God desires to enter into an intimate, personal relationship with every person who reciprocates his love.

Thus, his universal love to all constitutes the framework of the manifestation for our voluntary, mutually love. God appeals to you and me. He says, I love you with a love beyond what you can imagine. I love you beyond what you can ever think. You're my child.

And I long to have you saved in my kingdom. I long for you to be with me forever and ever. And I invite you now into an intimate relationship with me, a relationship that will never end through all eternity, a relationship that bonds us in the golden courts of love, where heart is united with heart, mind is united with mind, soul is united with soul. Jesus invites you into that experience with him. He is faithful to all generations and he invites you to be faithful as well.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts that you call us to faithfulness. We long to be faithful to you. Enable us, Lord, To love you with all of our heart, soul and mind. Reveal to us your grace and goodness.

Draw us close to yourself and help there never be a barrier between us. In Christ's name, amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org

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Series

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

12 God is Faithful!

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 Recipe for Success

27m

02 Surprised by Grace

25m

03 Memorials of Grace

24m

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

25m

05 God Fights for You

25m

06 The Enemy Within

22m

07 Ultimate Loyalty: Worship in a War Zone

24m

08 Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb

24m

09 Heirs of Promises, Prisoners of Hope

23m

10 The True Joshua

25m

11 Living in the Land

26m

12 God is Faithful!

23m

Sound Doctrine