Revering the Word
Joshua 24 Choose 'today' who you will serve.
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Joshua 24, the closing chapter of Joshua. Let's take it in together. Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel, Tushikhem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and their officers, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, and we're going to have a couple of historical accounts of what God has done. I think it's good and healthy, and right to see the faithfulness of God, and what He's done for Israel, you know, all the way back from Abraham till today, in a summary form. Let's take it in. From ancient times, your fathers lived beyond the river, namely Terra, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. So Abraham originally was in a different land when God originally called Abraham. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river, and let him through the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac, I gave Jacob, and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seer to possess it, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, and in Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots, and horsemen to the Red Sea. But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them, and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness for a long time. And you know, it's good and right for all of us to remember the Passover, to remember the parting of the sea, to remember Israel going through on dry ground. It's one of the most remarkable and amazing events in history, and God provided for Israel. Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you. These are things that took place in the desert. Then the lock, the son of Zippur, a king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sat in some in balam, the son of Beor to curse you. But I was not willing to listen to balam, so he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand. Quite a story that was, you remember the talking donkey, and that whole thing? That was really an interesting story. Verse 11, "You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and the Amorite, and the Parasite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Gergeschai, and the Hivite, and the Jubusite." Now imagine just recalling all of these people that came up against Israel when they entered across the Promised Land, and Joshua was having them remember. Look at all of what God has done for you so far. I mean he has incredibly removed you out of Egypt, part of this sea. He provided for you in the desert. He helped you cross the Jordan River and imparted that river. Now he gave you great victory from all of these people, and Joshua was like, "Please remember all that God has done." Thus I gave them into your hand. Verse 12, "Then I sent the hornet before you, and I drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before you, but not by your sword or your bow, meaning God was fighting for them, and provided for them in miraculous ways. I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you lived in them. You were eating of vineyards and olive girls which you did not plant." Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your father served beyond the river, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And here we get to, you know, there's a lot of punch lines I guess you'd say as we get into Joshua 24, but we got to a big one there. He's saying, "All that God has done for you, now therefore fear Him, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and don't worship any other God. Worship Him and serve Him alone." That is something that God desires strongly. It's echoed throughout the entire word. The Lord our God is one, and serve Him alone. Serve no other. Verse 15, "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve." And you know what? We got to make a choice. Who are we going to serve? Are we going to serve now today? God's revelation of Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him and serve Him only. "Choose today whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord," Joshua says. And you know, everywhere they went, whether it be down to Egypt or into the promised land, there were people worshiping all kinds of gods. And Israel wasn't enticed many times to follow after other gods. But Joshua is saying, "Listen, serve God alone." And he is being an example of that. Verse 16, "The people are going to answer now. The people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we would forsake the Lord to serve other gods." You know, it's really interesting how things are easy to say and harder to do. You know, a lot of times I can remember, you know, just throughout history and working with people, counseling people. A lot of times people will say what they're gonna do that they haven't done yet. You know, "Well, I'm gonna get in shape, or I'm gonna lose weight, or I'm gonna go apply for that job, or I'm gonna, you know, and it's easy. It's easy to say what you're gonna do. It's harder to do it. And here they're gonna say what they're gonna do. But sadly, they're not gonna actually do it well. Far be it from us that we would forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt. So now they're reciting and remembering what God has done, which is a good thing to do. From the house of bondage and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed, the Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord for He is our God. I mean, it's good and right what they're saying, you know, and we should make that declaration that, you know what? I'm gonna serve Jesus the rest of my life. Now we got to go do it. Then Joshua said to the people, you will not be able to serve the Lord for He is holy. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you. And you know, if you turn away and serve other gods, it's not gonna go well and that's what Joshua's letting them know. You know what? If you don't honor the words you're saying here and you end up falling away and serving other gods, all the good that God wants to do for you is it's not gonna happen and instead you're gonna get the curse of the law essentially. You know, the curse, the law was a covenant of blessings and curses, blessings if they followed, but cursed if they disobeyed and followed and served other gods. The people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourself the Lord to serve Him and they said we are witnesses. Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. You know, and put those two together. I mean, put away anything else that is of false worship and then incline your heart to the Lord. The people said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statue and an ordinance in Shechem and Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and he took up a large stone and he set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. Joshua said to the people, "Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, where He has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us, thus it shall be for a witness against you so that you do not deny your God." And so this was a stone of memory and you know, God doesn't condemn them for this and there were other memorial things they put up simply just to remember the Lord or remember their commitment. I'm sitting in my sunroom which is set apart from the rest of the house. It's quiet in here and it's dark actually. It's in the morning so it's before the sun has come up. But I actually, can I see, I don't know if I can or not through the night sky even though you know it's almost morning, but I have a cross, you know, a guy at our church made a cross and it's out the window here. It's a beautiful wooden cross and it's kind of on the descent of a hill and then it goes down after that this cross and you know it's just a reminder of our Lord Jesus, a reminder His sacrifice and you know what as we read this it's like you know what it's just reminding me I want to serve the Lord, my Lord Jesus Christ all the days of my life and I pray that you would remember that you would honor the Lord and that you would serve Him all the days of your life. All right then Joshua dismissed the people each to his inheritance so they're gonna they're gonna go all to their land now. It came about after these things that Joshua the son of none the servant of the Lord died being 110 years old and as you can see the life spans have you know that's still good healthy life right 110 years but they've fallen into you know life spans more like ours at this point and they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath Surah which is in the hill country of Ephraim on the north of Mount Gash and you know one of the things that we're gonna hear here is about the burial and even the bones that have been brought up of former patriarchs because it's a sign of God's faithfulness and you know many times they said before they died just make sure you don't let my bones like stay here in Egypt as an example but bury him you know by my father Abraham and the same cave that he had or you know bring up my bones out of here and it's a sign of God's faithfulness to do that so we're gonna see that God is faithful to to do that here. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and it's an interesting statement that they remain faithful while I was here now they don't get into the negative yet but the next book of the Bible judges we will see and when we get to it very early on that they did not do well in honoring the Lord and they did not get all the other people out of the land and they did end up worshiping false gods and I'll talk more about that in a moment but let's finish this. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua and had known all the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel so they're faithful for Joshua's life and a little bit into the next leader's life but now they buried the bones of Joseph which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt and that was a promise at Shechem in the peace of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for 100 pieces of money and they became the inheritance of inheritance of Joseph's sons and Eleazar the son of Aaron died and they buried him at Gibia of Finnehas his son which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim so God was faithful to bring these guys and their bones even into the promised land. A couple of things I want to talk about today as as we close the book of Joshua it was about 1380 when they won the promised land somewhere in that time frame this is a BC and now as I've mentioned they you know they they they have a hard time following God you know very long in the promised land but for a long time they they go without a king they ended up getting a king Israel did King Saul who was not a good king they got him in around 130 BC so about about 350 years later that they said you know what we we now need a king over us after King Saul they got King David after David they got Solomon. Solomon's reign was right around 950 BC so now we're around 400 years ish from when they got to the promised land but after Solomon not that and they finally get a temple by the way in 966 they get a temple in Jerusalem that's when it started and so they get a temple by the time Solomon's done by the time they get done with Solomon in the temple the kingdom already is divided so you get Jeroboam going to the north Rehoboam to the south now they're at war so Israel is already divided literally within I mean from the time they get a temple to the time that Israel divides is like 30 years can you believe that from the time they got their temple built in Jerusalem they're divided in 30 years now another 200 years the northern 10 tribes go into captivity Assyria takes them over so they're already divided immediately then they only last another 200 years and then you know Jerusalem is destroyed in and they're taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in around 600 BC so they only last Judah the southern kingdom they only last 300 years and then they're gone and as we've talked about that's when Israel as a nation ended and it didn't from from around you know 580 BC all the way until you know 1948 Israel wasn't even a country I say all this to say a couple things you know America is an experiment you know there was a when people first came here it was largely Christian and there was a great revival through people like George Whitfield in the early to mid 1700s and that was probably one of the hey days of America from a Christianity perspective the nation was devoted to Jesus and largely Christian in that time by the time that 1776 came around and we actually became a country and because of the fear of how England had domineered and said everyone has to follow the king's religion when America was founded they said we're gonna have a freedom of religious expression so we're not going to tell you who you're gonna worship although in 1776 it was very largely a Christian country it had declined in by 1776 from about 20 30 years earlier when they had their their high watermark of Christianity in America it had already declined and then they you know we began this country with a freedom and there's there's a lot of great things about freedom and a lot of great things about being able to be free to worship who you want but isn't it interesting that God set up a country totally different I mean all as we read about in Joshua chapter 24 was how they needed to worship him and him alone and worship no other gods and you know it's it's interesting talking to some liberals today you know Christianity's Christians believe that there's only one true God and that we should follow him now we realize that we live in a land in America where there is freedom but yet we desire for people to worship Jesus and we desire for our the laws of our land to be largely Christian influence because we believe he is the only one true God and that they're all the other gods are false that's what the Bible teaches that's what Jesus teaches you know so it's interesting that we have that dichotomy in America that really you know we don't have a theocracy we have you know we we have what we have here in America and I want you to know it's an experiment you know think of the decline of the Christian faith in America now praise God that you know one day Jesus is going to come back by the way and he's gonna separate the sheep from the goats he's gonna separate the wheat from the tears and he's able to discern who's a believer in of him and who is not he knows who has the holy spirit inside of them and who doesn't so you know those who believe in him are going to be saved and hallelujah I believe protected and I believe hallelujah even raptured so that we don't have to experience the tribulation because there are dark days coming there is a time of judgment coming on this earth for those who have rejected Jesus the Messiah and it's important that you get yourself in the wheat so you go up into God's barn it's important that you know you place your faith in Jesus because I believe he's going to protect you from the wrath that is going to come upon this earth and you know what there's signs for those of you you know you're gonna be watching this many of you in some different day and praise God for that but it is what is it October 2nd 2024 today and just yesterday Iran launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel and isn't it incredible that they are able to basically knock down all of those missiles it's it's almost like an act of God that they're able to protect themselves that way it really is remarkable but we're seeing a significant escalation in the middle of east and you know when Jesus talked about his return he said you're gonna hear about wars and rumors of wars and and the actors and the people that are a part of what's taking place in the Middle East right now are definitely signs of the return of Jesus Christ now listen this pastor's not going to make any bold predictions about whether that's going to be this year or in many many many years to come but we are supposed to be looking we are supposed to be ready and awaiting the fact that our Savior is going to come and I believe he's going to rapture his church before he comes and then bring seven years of tribulation upon the earth and it's going to be important with that rapture that you believe in Jesus that you've given your life to him because if not you're gonna face a very difficult time of God's judgment coming upon the earth so here's what I'd say I'd say you know what choose today who you're gonna serve don't wait listen you don't we don't know how much time we've got we first of all we don't know when we're gonna die we don't know how many days we have left on the earth as far as just our own physical health anything can happen at any time and you need to have your life right you need to give your life to Jesus but now with everything going on in the Middle East and these signs of the end times it may not be that you even live the rest of your life it may be that Jesus comes back before that I'm telling you what choose today who you're gonna serve make sure you're found in him are you born again is the Holy Spirit living in you have you been baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ listen there's gonna be a time of judgment coming make sure you're ready give your life to Jesus and when you do you can know you're forgiven of all of your former sin you can know that you have the promise of eternal life Jesus Christ will come and live inside of you and you know what you don't have to fear about what's gonna happen in the future because you know what if anything happens to you you're gonna be found with Jesus in heaven hallelujah choose today who are you gonna serve are you ready have you given your life to Jesus I pray that you'd find a good pastor in a good church if you're in Wisconsin please come the crossing community church please give your life to him and start a new journey of faith with Jesus you'll be glad you did God bless you all