Joshua gathers the people – Final message: First 13 verses
of Ch. 24 Joshua reviews Israel’s past blessings
A) From the beginning of their history, they owed
EVERYTHING to God for intervening in their lives by His love and His power!!!
B) In this we see some interesting Parallels to our
Salvation:
1) Notice in v 2-4 that God chose Israel Rd v . 2-4
C)Joshua Chronicles how Israel came into existence
by God CHOOSING a man [Abe] to start a nation -
THROUGH WHOM He could accomplish His purposes
(bring redemption to the world).
D) Now Abe
the man through whom God would start this work was in TOTAL DARKNESS
spiritually, Idolater – When God
called him
1)God called Him out of darkness and MADE a nation
from Abraham and REVEALED Himself to Israel
A) Paul makes it clear in Eph 1:4-5 that God chose us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
B) And in Eph. 2: 1-6 He called us when we were dead in our trespasses and sin – DARKNESS - He showed his grace to us !!!!
C) So the first Parallel that we see is that God
chose them – he has chosen us
Now
in v. 5-7 Joshua emphasizes how the Lord delivered them or Redeemed them out of
their Bondage in Egypt { RD v. 5-7
A)It was thru a
great display of his Power over the Egyptians – Plagues culminated at the Red
Sea
B) So too as believers we have been redeemed by the
Mighty out pouring of God – thru the work of Christ on the Cross
Eph. 1:7 In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace;
C) So God
Chose them – He delivered them – 3rd He gave them their land Rd v. 8-13
Eph 1:3
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Eph 1:13-14
13 In Him you also trusted, after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having
believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,
to the praise of His glory.
The Point that Joshua is making very Clear is that - God did
it all ! Paul in Ephesians says the
Same is true of us !
A)IF you are saved,
it IS NOT because of anything you have done....
It is
because GOD CHOSE you
B)It is because GOD GAVE
His Son as a sacrifice for your sins
1) It is
because GOD CONVICTING of sin and your need for Jesus
C) It is because God MADE you alive when you were
dead in sin and in slavery to sin and Satan
And IF there is spiritual growth, THEN it is
by His grace
A)Every step of your Christian
life is ENABLED and SUSTAINED by God
1) It is
God who delivers you from Bondage of
the world - spiritual Egypt
B)It is God who brings you through your wanderings
in your spiritual wilderness
1) It is God who brings you into the ABUNDANT life
in Christ
C) It is God who SEALS you
and KEEPS you
1) It is God who will one day BRING you to stand
before Him HOLY AND WITHOUT BLAME IN LOVE.
D) It is HIS POWER that is at work in us.- It is HIS
POWER that gives us VICTORY - We owe
EVERYTHING to the GRACE of God.!!
So in V. 1-13 We
have what God has done for them – It is a description of how blessed they were
A)VERSES 14-33 We have Israel’s responsibilties
because they have been so blessed !
B)One of the key
words in this section is serve, used fifteen
times.
1)To serve God means to fear Him, obey Him, and worship only Him.
C) It means to love Him
and fix your heart upon Him, obeying Him because you want to and not because
you have to.
RD VERSES
14-15
Now
here we see that Joshua challenges the people Concerning their spiritual unsettledness.
A)He even implies that some of them have brought with them from Egypt, or acquired since they've come into the land, some Idols of pagan worship.
B)His accusation represents a double-mindedness, a kind of restless indecision that was amongst some of the People.
1)An attitude that
needed TO CHANGE
C)
Joshua's own life represents a wonderful contrast to the unwillingness of many
Israelites to make the defining choice to follow God wholeheartedly.
1) He has earned the right to be heard on this
important issue of choice.
D) So he stands before the congregation &
declares: In light of all that God has done for
you, you MUST chose who you will serve
See Joshua Understands that – Everyone will serve someone/something
B) Now what is also interesting is that the Prominent god’s of that day are also the Prominent god’s of today
C) Take for instance Baal – God of Knowledge – god of the Intellect
1) It is the attitude of the Agnostic & the Atheist that says "I don’t believe in any God", they are serving their own intellect...... That is Ba-al worship
D) Or that attitude
that says I won’t believe it unless I can see it – or scientifically Proven
1) Gravity /
Air / Wind – Design point to designer
E) Did you know Greek for agnostic = Without
Knowledge... Or - I know nothing /
Latin for agnostic = Ignoramus.... Or - I know nothing
F) Some thru their pursuit of Knowledge are guilty of worshipping Baal
1) Professing to be wise they became fools – Worship
meant for the Creator turned to the Creature – Man –
It
is that Mentality that says We are the World / We can make a change We will make this world a Better place –
A)News for you accept for Technology – not Happening !!!!
B)We can make the world more Sophisticated – but we can’t make it more Kind / More
Unselfish / Less Rapes & Murders / Theft{ Baal
Worship ….
A)god of Sex & Lust – we definitely see that in
our society – People living to gratify their sexual appetites/ Pornography
entertainment{ 3,000 sites
B) Then there was the god Mammon..... The pursuit of
possessions{ Money and Materialism – There are plenty of people serving that
god today
C) QUESTION: What will Ba-al or Molek or
Mammon do for you
When you are on your death bed / When
your child is dying of cancer
1) Oh Baal Knowledge save me – Oh Pleasure save me
Oh Money save me – Some
things money can’t Buy!!!!
D) Joshua is saying: There is a true & living
God – A God who is real – God of Power & might and Because I've seen what
He has done
1)As for me and my house, we're serving the Lord......
A)Look at the men who were like that in the Bible
B) NOAH - Who built rooms for his sons on the ark
BEFORE they were even born
1) He was providing a place of salvation for his
children that were not yet even born - THAT is a man of faith
C)JOB - Who got up early every morning and made sacrifices for his children perchance they had sinned
D)ABRAHAM - Who took his only son whom he loved much to be sacrificed
1)Because he loved
God......& he was more
concerned with obeying God than anything else in his life
E) Men Let's make a stand with Joshua and these guys
- As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
So Joshua
Challenges the men of Israel – to make a stand – notice their response: v.
16-18
A)Here we see that The people assure Joshua that they do want to respond to the Lord with
faithfulness and loyalty to him only.
GREAT ?
B) WELL notice how
Joshua responds to their ZEAL !! V. 19-20
1) Now it almost seems like Joshua takes the wind
out of their sails here why does he do this – 2
Reasons
C)1st I think his stern words , are meant
to curb their overconfidence and make them look honestly at their own hearts.
1)Joshua understands that it's easy for people to
promise obedience to the Lord, but it's something else
to actually follow through
D) So It's a warning against easy-believism and
cheap grace. He's saying, "Don't make
this decision lightly. Understand what's involved."
1) New Believers: Not a Bed of Roses / \
High School Counselors – Demanding life – Mon / Tues
Wed Fri Sunday
Think
about how many times have you responded to the claims of JC & found
yourself POWERLESS to fulfill your promises to live for Him?
A)IF you are like me, you have found that your failures are frequent and our successes are short.
B) We need power that is
beyound us !!!!
QUOTE: GRAHAM SCROGGIE
"All Christians have eternal life; but not all Christians have abundant life. There can
be life without health; there can be movement without any progress; there may
be war, but defeat. We may serve but never succeed. We may try but never
triumph, and the difference all along the line is the difference between possessing life and experiencing life more
abundant. This abundant life is simply the fullness of life in Jesus
Christ made possible by His death and resurrection, and made real by the incoming of His Spirit.
That is abundant life. The trouble with so many of us is that we are on the
right side of Easter but the wrong side of Pentecost, the right side of pardon,
but the wrong side of power."
C) That unfortunately is a good description of many Christians – They Possess life – Born again – But not Experiencing Life – Abundant Life
1) They are Existing from Day to day – Not Living that life that is available that has been made possible thru the Rez & Indwelling of Christ in our hearts
1) Our righteousness is like filthy rags before a
Holy God
E)God has done everything FOR
US on the cross and wants to do everything IN
US by the power of the
Spirit
So We MUST ask
ourselves an important question: How can my
HELPLESSNESS meet God's OMNIPOTENCE
D.L. Moody once said in Glasgow,— "One day in
New York—oh, what a day! I cannot describe
it; I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name.
I can only say God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His
love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand. I
went to preaching again; the sermons were no different. I did not present any
new truth, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not be placed back where I
was before that blessed experience if you would give
me all Glasgow."
Now Moody was
referring to the Baptism of the HS – Empowering he experienced in his life –
after which he began to stress the need
A)Why always talking about being filled w/ the
Spirit – You are of you aren’t – I LEAK
B) Hudson
Taylor spoke of a Similar experience: Home in England for new
recruits after years on the mission field,
1)Hudson Taylor sat in contemplation one day and
became conscious as never before of his helplessness and unworthiness and
uselessness in the service of God, when, to quote his own words, he recognized
that
"it is not what Hudson Taylor does for God that matters, but
what God does through Hudson Taylor." And from that day he commenced to
live what he called the "exchanged
life," in which it was "no more I, but Christ."
Are you Living
an Exchanged Life? Understand These men
ARE NOT exceptions because God has NO favorites.
A)But These men became giants because they WAITED on God and claimed
the promises of God in His Book
B) In fact, they found that God was WAITING for
them- Waiting to give them all that they needed for the task at hand
1)
So
too God is looking today for willing vessels – Dependent upon Him
C) Well the people understand that Joshua wants them
to be serious about this and so they respond in v. 21
21 And the people said to Joshua,
"No, but we will serve the LORD!"
D) Then Joshua declares 22 So Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses
against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, "We are witnesses!"
23 "Now
therefore," he said, "put away the foreign gods which are among you,
and incline your heart to the LORD God of Israel."
24 And the
people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we will serve, and His voice we
will obey!"
NOTICE: 3 things about these
verses just read
A)1st SERVICE means SURRENDER
B)In order to INCLINE your
heart to the Lord you MUST turn away
from any thing that will compete for your heart
1) What idols must you lay down in order to INCLINE
your heart to the
Lord?
C) The idol of affections outside of God's will?
1) The idol of unyielded possessions/abilities? The
idol of resentment /cold-heartedness?
2nd
OVERCOMING means OBEYING
A)It is Listening with the desire to do{ Be doers not hearers only!!!!
B) 3rd
SERVICE is more than ceremony
1) It is
bowing the heart before God
C) It is
the approach of a needy and unholy heart to God
D)It is not
my struggle to attain/ It is not my
efforts to be pure and godly
It is all of faith
1)It is
receiving by faith all that there is of Jesus that He offers to us!!!
Then Joshua leads
the nation in an oath of loyalty to the Lord, a covenant ceremony renewing this
love relationship.
A)It's a beautiful time of worship together as a
spiritual family. V. 25-28
B) Now so they won't forget this solemn covenant with the
Lord, Joshua writes it out in a book.
1)And then he sets up a large stone as a permanent
witness to their wholehearted agreement before the Lord, and as a reminder to
never go back on this commitment that they have made to their loving heavenly
Father.
This
is the ninth and last memorial mentioned in the Book of Joshua. The nine
memorials are:
1. The stones in the midst of the Jordan (4:9).
2. The stones on the western bank of the Jordan (4:20-24).
3. The stones in the Valley of Achor (7:26).
4. The heap of stones at Ai (8:29).
5. The altar on Mt. Ebal (8:30).
6. The stones of the law on Mt. Ebal (8:32).
7. The stones at the cave at Makkedah (10:27).
8. The altar built by the Transjordanic tribes (22:10ff).
9. Joshua’s stone of witness (24:26-28).
There’s
certainly nothing unbiblical about God’s people memorializing a wonderful event
or a sacred decision,
A)What we need to be careful of is that we don’t live in the Past –
B)The book closes with three burials. Rd V. 29-33
C)Joshua died at the age of 110 and was buried in his own inheritance. 1)Eleazar the high priest (Num. 20:28) died and was also buried in Ephraim, near Shiloh, where his son Phinehas had property.
D)The bones of Joseph were buried in Shechem in the plot of ground Jacob had bought from Hamor (Gen. 33:19).
Moses
had named Joshua as his successor, but it’s significant that God didn’t tell
Joshua to appoint a successor.
A)The elders who had served with Joshua guided the nation after his death, but then the people went astray and began to disobey the Lord and worship the false gods of the Canaanites (Judges 2:6-15).
B)Why didn’t the next generation know the Lord and what He
had done for Israel? Because the people of Joshua’s generation
failed to keep their promise and teach
their children and grandchildren to fear
and serve the Lord.