Josh 14:9, So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.' 
    	Last time, we dealt with the truth that the Lord honored Caleb’s request because Caleb was consecrated unto following the Lord. He had proven that the Lord meant everything to Him and that he was serving the Lord no matter what. He and Joshua were the only two of the spies who had encouraged the first generation of Israelites to enter the Promised Land despite the giants that lived there. They did so because they knew that God would go before them. As a result, he and Joshua were the only two of that first generation to enter into the Land of Promise. All the others were buried on the other side of the Jordan River, victims of their faithlessness to the trust God to fight their battles.
	Before we leave this passage, we want to delve into another aspect of this interaction between Caleb and Joshua, as Caleb was asking for the inheritance of his choice in the Promised Land. It is the fact that Moses had promised that the land upon which Caleb’s feet had walked would be his. This was a promise made by the Prophet of the Lord to this consecrated and faithful servant who had done everything in his power to honor the Lord God Almighty. Therefore, the promise was given as from the very mouth of the Lord unto Caleb. Accordingly Joshua was absolutely bound to it and most willing to honor Caleb’s request.
	It is something that gives us pause in our reading. It brings before us the truth of all the promises of God in scripture. I know that we have dealt with them, over and over again. We do so because they are the bedrock upon which we can stand against all the lies and the hurled insults and the doubts and the faltering of human spirit. Despite everything that assails and assaults of this age, we can know that what the Lord promises will come into fruition. What the Lord says He will do, He will do! 
It may not be according to the thoughts and the urgings and the cravings and the so limited concepts of humanity, but God’s Word stands firm and solid, the bulwark of our salvation in Jesus Christ. When Jehovah’s view of the life we lived is revealed to us, there will be the evident and sure reality in place that God had His Hand securely upon us. We will see that He continually guided us and directed our paths and manifested His Omniscience and His Omnipotence through His Omnipresence, over and over and over again. This will add to the universal tapestry of the testimony of all the saints that Our God has surely been, ever is, and always will be faithful and true! His Word of Promise in Jesus Christ will stand brilliantly and gloriously forever and forever more!
	As a means of refreshing our heart’s contentment in all the promises of God, please turn back to Exodus Chapter 20, verses 5+6. Ex 20:5+6, You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 
In the commandments of the Lord to His Chosen People, He made a very forthright and openly plain and simple promise. The people were to honor Him, Alone, and as they did, He would show forth His lovingkindness to the thousandth of generations. That would begin to cover the generations into eternity. 
Somewhere in that great multitude of peoples and tribes and nations, we are found solidly in the ranks of those chosen by God. That is if we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God sent to die for our sins, and that He rose again in victory over death, bringing you and me out of the realm of darkness and into His glorious light and life everlasting. It is the promise that will be culminated as detailed in Rev 5:8-10. 
We jump ahead to the very last book of the Bible, Rev 5:8-10. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." 
	What begins in the first books of scripture in the promises of God to so bless those who are faithful and consecrated and loyal to Him, covered by His promise of lovingkindness, culminates in the final texts of His Word. It is sure! It is true! It is set eternally into place through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ! We are redeemed unto God forevermore and we will sing His praise with joy unspeakable. That is what awaits those who are the people who hold to the Promise of God and Honor Him, Alone as the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth! He is the Only Living God in Whom is found salvation and glory and joy and peace and eternal life through the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ!
	 Please now turn to the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 4, verses 35-40, wherein we want to read about how the Lord fulfilled His promise to the ancients. It is a promise that is still being manifested in the lives of those whom He has chosen out of this world, in Christ, to be His very own.
	Deut 4:35-40, "To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time." 
	The Lord made Himself known to those whom He had chosen. He still does that with His people. What was through Prophets and Signs and Wonders is now through His Word revealed and opened by the Holy Spirit. It can be in our private study and meditation. It can be through the preaching of His Word by those Shepherds whom He chooses to feed His flock. Whatsoever manner Jehovah chooses to employ, He continues to open up the great mysteries of the ages. This is His promised affirmation of goodness and blessing upon those who will so honor Him as the Lord Alone, Faithful and True, and the Rock of our salvation. He is our most beloved and awesome Heavenly Father, Only Begotten Son, and Ever present Holy Spirit. 
    	Sadly, God knew that the people of old would not cling to the promises that He invoked. They would eventually allow the nations of the world to stir up that, within them, which needed to be utterly destroyed, that sinful nature of enmity toward God. That is why He made such a declaration, as in Deut 5:29. 
Deut 5:29, 'Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever! 
God wanted them to know the fulfillment of His promise of goodness and grace and mercy. Yet, all the time He knew that they would choose the path of their rejection of Him in favor of the man-made idols of this age. 
	Later in Deut 7:9, Moses would again give voice to the truth that the promises of God were sure and eternal. The people would do well to hold onto Him in every situation and circumstance of life rather than to seek after the smoke and mirrors of this deceitful age. To hold to the Lord and to live lives that would honor Him would bring His promises, not only upon themselves, but upon generations of their posterity to follow.
	Deut 7:9, Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 
    	The Prophet Isaiah recounts how the Lord tried to establish the fact that He was willing to do everything that was required to deal with the vile attitudes and behavior of His people, if they were willing. He promised them redemption from their sins and pardon for their trespasses, if they would only turn back to Him. However, He also made very clear what would be the course of their lives if they continued to seek after the lies and false idols of this age. Please consider Isa 1:18-20.
	Isa 1:18-20, "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. "If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; "But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword." Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 
   	… Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. That is what we are dealing with in this discussion. When the Lord speaks, whatever He proclaims will come into fruition. His Word is true and His Word is life. It will proceed from Him and do all that He intends for it to accomplish. Therefore, when He promises life and health and well-being to even the thousandth generation of the people, if you and I, obey Him and honor Him and seek after His ways and His will, it will be vastly evident how unreasonable and foolish it is to do otherwise.
	However, the nation still turned its back on the Lord and sought after the filthy and defiled lucre of this age. The people forgot their God. Accordingly, He brought forth the destruction of the bulk of that nation through the swords of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and thus scattered Israel abroad. 
	Despite this conquest and the removal of most of the people, the Lord still had that remnant who were true to Him. They held to the promise by which He had sworn that there would be a people, who would proclaim the glory and the reality of what it meant to belong to the Lord. 
The Lord made it very clear, through the Prophet Jeremiah, in Jer 32:37-41, that what God was establishing in the creation of these, His people, would come into place by the Word of His promised Faithfulness and Sovereignty and Mercy and Grace. 
	Jer 32:37-41, "Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. "And they shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good, and for the good of their children after them. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. "And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. 
       	Then gloriously, as so proclaimed by the Apostle John, in John 1:14, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 
It is through the Word, Jesus Christ, that God fulfilled all the promises of His heart toward mankind. In Jesus, everything that was gloriously guaranteed and pledged from the heart of God was brought into its absolute accomplishment. By the death and resurrection of the Only Begotten of the Father, we are now made the very family of God, adopted into a living relationship which far supersedes anything that we could ever have considered. In Christ Jesus, the bountiful storehouse of all of Heaven has been lavished abundantly upon all who will but believe and accept the freely offered salvation that He is for all of eternity.
	It is incumbent upon us to hear the promise of God in Christ and then to obey and to honor Him above all else. Those oaths of God voiced throughout the Old Testament are still very much our heritage in Christ Jesus. We are able to receive all the bountiful treasures of the mercy and the grace of God right now, here, today, tomorrow, and always as we listen and obey.
	 Consider that which is recorded in Luke 11:27+28. This was with regard to those who tried to turn the focus away from Who Jesus was and what He was to accomplish. 
Luke 11:27+28, And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice, and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed." But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it." 
We need to listen as the Holy Spirit opens the Word, the promises of God to us here and now! Then we must obey with an attitude that desires to only do that which pleases the Father.
	In John 7, verses 16-18, Jesus made it abundantly clear, as did God by His prophets throughout the Old Testament days, that our place as the people of the Lord is to cherish our relationship with God. If we do, we will find that we are daily operating with all the promises of God lavished upon our lives. We will be blessed with the fact that we know that God is receiving all the glory for the manner in which we are walking on this earth. As God is glorified, so will we come into an even deeper knowledge of the fullness of Christ, beyond any possible measurement of righteousness, joy, and peace on this earth.
	John 7:16-18, Jesus therefore answered them, and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. 
    	Then, in John 14:15-23, we have the words of Christ concerning His promise to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to be the source of our ability to honor and to obey and to seek the will of the Father. Christ was consoling His disciples with this truth. This promise includes everyone who believes in Him. We are not alone to try to do better than that nation of old. No, we have the power and the strength and the ability to obey, not by our feeble human effort, but by the very Omnipotence of God abiding within us through His Holy Spirit. 
	John 14:15-23, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. "After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. 
    	Jesus sealed this glorious promise as detailed in John 17:14-23, wherein He made it very clear that the promise was to Him from the Heavenly Father, and then flowing forth unto all who would be given to Him. Each one, who opens his or her heart to the salvation and the Lordship of Jesus Christ is now a partaker of a promise that is greater than any spoken in the Old Testament. Each of those glorious promises is ours in Christ. But the greater promise, that of the Father to the Son, is now fulfilled in our being given to the Son for our safekeeping, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and adopted into the very family of the Father. 
	John 17:14-23, "I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. "As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. 
	The Apostle Peter closes out this course of consideration for us this morning in Acts, Chapter 2, verses 38+39. As he was speaking to the gathered people before him on the day of Pentecost, he gave the summation of all that had been promised to the people by God in the writings of old. It is all centered in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What Caleb had been promised because of his faithful service rendered unto God was the physical representation of that place of safety and refuge in the Promised Land, a home to call his own. What we each have, in Jesus Christ, is that heritage of adoption into the very family of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and eternally secure in the salvation of Jesus Christ. 
	Acts 2:38+39, And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself." So be it!
So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.' Amen. 

		
This morning’s benediction is Ps 72:18. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders. Amen.