The Lord Going Before His People

[Posted by permission. Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Bethel Chapel, Luton, by Mr. B.A. Ramsbottom, on Lord’s day evening, 1st January, 2023 (This was the last sermon preached by Mr. Ramsbottom)

“And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed”—Deuteronomy 31:8

There is a similar circumstance in these events in ancient Israel and the state of us as a church and as a nation today. First of all, it was a time of great sadness in Israel, and especially a time of sadness to Joshua to whom these words were spoken. Moses was about to die, and O what a terrible loss this was for God’s ancient people. He had ruled them, he had led them wisely. Most of them could not remember a time without him. But what were things going to be like when Moses was taken from them?

So it was a time of crisis in Israel, and there must have been many thoughts among the people. There was the personal sadness, the personal grief, the loss of one loved for so long, loved so dearly, one who was going to be so sorely missed. So the personal sadness.

But then secondly, there were the things before them. They were just about to enter the Promised Land by divine commandment. They had to cross the River Jordan. How could they cross it? There was that great multitude, and as soon as they had crossed, there were these mighty cities of war like the city of Jericho, much stronger than a poor little band of Israelites. How were they going to manage in all these things? There was the unknown way stretching out before them, and there must have been many thoughts and many questions.

This must have been a blessed word to them. No doubt you noticed as we read the chapter, it is almost a repetition of what had gone before. First of all, these words were spoken directly by Almighty God to Moses, and then Moses more or less repeated them to Joshua. For Joshua himself it must have been a time of trial. He could have sung the hymn we have sung: “How can I stand that trying day?” when he felt so weak in himself and so weak compared with such an eminent servant of the most high God as Moses. But all these things were to be for his help and for the sweet assurance of his faith.

May I just pause a moment here. I am sure one thing that comes up occasionally, and people even say it, and some painfully feel it: Well, this was Moses; this was Joshua; this was ancient Israel; this is not us. But if you read carefully some of those opening words in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Lord makes it clear, exceedingly clear, that some of these exceeding great and precious promises did not end with Moses, did not end with Joshua. They belong to the Lord’s dear people now and to the end of time, and the rock foundation: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

“And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee.” I do not know whether you have ever thought about these words, but to me there always seems to be a special emphasis. There seems to be what naturally would be an unnecessary repetition. If one of our children wrote this in a composition at school, the teacher would probably say, Well, you have said it. You normally say, The Lord doth go before thee – simple English grammar. “The Lord doth go before thee.” But how sweetly it is put here: “The Lord, He it is that doth go before thee.”

Now this is a lovely subject. Strangely, it has been with us quite a bit in various ways, in prayer and in some of the preaching we have heard towards the end of the old year: the risen Saviour going before His people. But if I may speak of myself a little, before I commenced my pastorate, two years before, when I first came for three months with a view to the pastorate, my opening text was about the Lord going before, and I felt that was the only hope I had got of ever coming to Bethel. I remember some of those dark days: how fearful I was of coming for those three months, how gladly I would have got out of it; at the end of November, preaching from, “All my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee.” And then suddenly a word struck me, and it was this: “When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them” – this very truth we have here. It seemed to come just with a little help. I felt that the Lord had put me forth to venture to Luton, and it was not some devising of myself, and if that was so, then He would go before me. “When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him.” But then some time after, it followed with this, and this was my opening text here – the Lord Himself speaking – “I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.” With that as my first text in 1965, I ventured. It is interesting that so many years later, the preciousness of the Lord going before His people is being a help to many here.

“And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee.” May many of you sweetly prove it in this new year. There is not a place, not a single step you will have to take, that the Lord has not gone before. And of course in its fullest sense it goes back to our Lord Jesus when He was here upon earth, and the way He had to walk, some of those deep paths of sorrow, but in all these things going before His poor, unworthy people, you and me, to prepare the way for us.

“The Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee” – the sweet assurance of His gracious presence. Well, Joshua needed it; Israel needed it. They had strong cities against them. They had mighty warriors. But it was the Lord’s presence. Of course, in its literal sense, the Lord promised to be with them to drive out the Canaanites, and to enable them to possess that good land which flows with milk and with honey.

“He will be with thee.” There is a depth of divinity here. You think of it. It is a yea and amen promise. “He will be with thee.” Really, if you want it in one sentence this evening, this word, this little word, and yet this great word, it is your security for every day of the new year. “He will be with thee” – no uncertainty. “Hath he said, and shall He not do it?” You can think of all the things you need. He will be with thee to help thee. He will be with thee to supply all your needs. He will be with you to guide you in the way you need to go. He will be with you at all times. He will be with you in all places.

“He will be with thee, He will not fail thee.” I think, beloved friends, this is the thing they were a bit fearful of: they were going to fail. Really, if you think about it, you all know the story of Jericho and the walls of Jericho falling down, the impossibility of it. If the Lord did not help them, well it must be an utter, an abject failure. But, “He will not fail thee.” We have a lot of little, short, sharp sentences here, that are coming staccato-like. Churchill was noted for speaking like this: little, short, staccato sentences, and they carried such weight in those dark days when England was in such peril and such fear, and wondering what was going to take place. But not some great compendious essay, but just these little, short, sharp things like that: “He will be with thee, He will not fail thee.”

Now the sad thing is that people do fail us. I do not always mean through being dishonest or anything like that, or being deceitful. Why do people fail you sometimes? Well, of course sometimes they are taken away by the hand of death. They are no longer there to be with you. But some- times they would do anything to help you, but they do not understand your case, or another time they would do anything to help you, but they have not got the ability, or they have not got the means. “He will not fail thee.”

“A faithful and unchanging God, 

Lays the foundation of my hope,

In oaths, and promises, and blood.”

“He will not fail thee.” But of course we ourselves fail, and we know it. Sometimes we fail badly, and sometimes it is not just we fail, but we fail the Lord. But though we fail the Lord, in His matchless mercy the Lord does not fail us! O these little sentences: “He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee.”

“Resting on His promise, what have we to fear? 

God is all-sufficient for the coming year.”

That is a good word, and it is true: “An all-sufficient God.” Now we are not all-sufficient. Some people think they are, and they have to prove that they are not. But we are not all-sufficient. Really, the Apostle Paul, when he considered the greatness of the work of salvation, and the wonders of what he had to preach, and the greatness of his need, and the greatness of his people’s need, he suddenly came out with this exclamation: “Who is sufficient for these things?” Well, that is it. John Kent says,

“All-sufficient is our Jesus,

Though our sins are black as hell.”

The all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus. Then a few verses later, in the next chapter, Paul said one or two things: “But our sufficiency is of God.” Now remember that. If you think you can manage everything yourself, if you think you are sufficient, if you think your friends are self-sufficient, that is where things go wrong. “But our sufficiency is of God.”

“He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not.” Well, this is an exhortation. It is one of the fear nots of Scripture, and they are precious, especially spoken to unworthy, sinful creatures, those who have every reason to fear. “Fear not.” Some people are more fearful than others. I think if ever there was a time in the history of God’s ancient people when they were fearful, it was this very time. They were fearful of crossing Jordan. There was no way across. There was no ford or bridge. They could not swim across, and Jordan was overflowing its banks. Talk about them getting safely through – it seemed they would be drowned in it. And then of course there was Jericho, but it was only the first of many walled cities. It is one of those things we have to say, these things are too hard for us, and that echo resounds in our hearts: “The cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto Me” – it is not too hard for the Lord – “bring it unto Me, and I will hear it.” It is on the grounds of this. This is Almighty God saying to Joshua and Israel, “Fear not,” and the implication is, fear not all these giants and walled cities and these impossible things. Fear them not.

Now when the Lord says, “Fear not,” then His people have little cause to fear. Again going back to that last terrible war, Churchill in his speeches so often spoke along these lines: there is no need to fear; we are sure to be victorious; there is hope in this. But looking back, what grounds did he have to say all these wonderful things? I remember as a young boy what days of fear they were, and people would say, “Well, let’s wait and see what Churchill has to say this weekend.” You would see people with smiling faces the next day, who had hardly felt like lifting up their head the day before. When the Lord says, “Fear not,” it covers everything.

When I think of this beautiful word, what seems to join with it to me is a similar word in the prophet Isaiah. Again, it has lots of little, short pieces in, but they are not all the same; it is not vain repetition. There is something a little bit different, something more helpful, something precious in all of them. But what about this: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” Really all those things are very graciously promised in this verse we have before us. “I will strengthen thee.” That is what you need. “I will help thee.” We cannot do without divine help. “Yea, I will uphold thee.” If the Lord does not uphold us, we must sink; we must fall; we cannot be brought through. “Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.”

“Fear not, neither be dismayed.” Well, in the text I have just quoted from Isaiah, the Lord quotes it there, and He gives a reason: “Be not dismayed; for I am thy God.” I have pondered this. The Word of God uses some slightly-unusual words and strong words to describe how often we are really feeling. One is being dismayed. Another one is being disquieted. The Lord has that blessed ability to deal with these things, and in their place to give true peace. Whenever we mention peace, it makes us think of the dear Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace. O how He suffered on the cross to make peace by the blood of His cross, and how He delights to give that peace to those who feel dismayed, those who feel disquieted.

“Fear not, neither be dismayed.” Well, when we get some of these magnificent verses here and there, it almost seems a shame trying to speak from them, or expound them. There is everything in them, and they do not need much expounding or explaining. What they do need is the dear Holy Spirit to breathe them into your hearts. Well, many of you have many things before you in the new year. There are those who are sad, those who have lost loved ones, those whose lives will never be the same again, those of you with your bodily trials before you, and also with our friend Dan as well, following all the surgery he is having. How can you not be disquieted? Only as the dear Holy Spirit breathes comfort where distress abounds, where He breathes peace into your heart.

Well, it is a lovely word, and there is one thing which really summarises the whole lot, and everything I have tried to say, and it is this:

“The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, 

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

Afflicted saint, to Christ draw near, 

Thy Saviour’s gracious promise hear; 

His faithful word declares to thee, 

That as thy days, thy strength shall be.

Let not thy heart despond, and say, 

“How shall I stand the trying day?” 

He has engaged, by firm decree,

That as thy days, thy strength shall be.

Thy faith is weak, thy foes are strong; 

And if the conflict should be long, 

Thy Lord will make the tempter flee; 

For as thy days, thy strength shall be.

Should persecution rage and flame, 

Still trust in thy Redeemer’s name;

In fiery trials thou shalt see,

That as thy days, thy strength shall be.

When called to bear the weighty cross, 

Or sore affliction, pain, or loss,

Or deep distress, or poverty,

Still, as thy days, thy strength shall be.

When ghastly death appears in view, 

Christ’s presence shall thy fears subdue; 

He comes to set thy spirit free,

And as thy days, thy strength shall be.

J. Fawcett

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, 

Is laid for your faith in His excellent word! 

What more can He say than to you He has said, 

You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition – in sickness, in health,

In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;

At home, or abroad, on the land, on the sea,

“As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

“Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed;

I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, 

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go, 

The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, 

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, 

My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

“E’en down to old age, all My people shall prove 

My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;

And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, 

Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

“The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, 

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”