Joshua 23
Amen. Turn in your copy of God’s
word to the book of Joshua chapter 23. I think I mentioned, uh,
last time, which would have been two weeks ago that there are
three final addresses or, uh, summons for different folks to
gather and hear Joshua speak. And so, uh, the last time the
summons was for the. two and a half tribes that would
go back across the Jordan River and they would live across the
Jordan. And you remember the big issue, they built an altar
of imposing size and there was near a holy war until they came
to an understanding. So that summons was to say, go
across and live for the Lord. And then they had the little
brouhaha. Tonight’s summons is for the
leaders of Israel. The leaders of Israel will be
called by Joshua to hear his sort of last will and testament.
And then next week, we’ll begin to take a look at chapter 24,
which includes summons for all Israel to come and renew covenant. So we’ll be soon done with the
book of Joshua and make our way to Judges. Let’s give our attention to God’s
word, Joshua 23, and I believe it has 16 verses for us. A long time afterward, when the
Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies,
and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua summoned all
Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and
said to them, I am now old and well advanced in years, and you
have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all those nations
for your sake. For it is the Lord your God who
has fought for you. Behold, I have allotted to you
as an inheritance for your tribes, those nations that remain along
with all the nations that I have already cut off from the Jordan
to the great sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them
back before you and will drive them out of your sight and you
shall possess their land just as the Lord your God promised
you. Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is
written in the book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from
it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may
not mix with these nations remaining among you, or make mention of
the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow
down to them, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as
you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out before
you great and strong nations, And as for you, no man has been
able to stand before you to this day. One man of you puts to flight
a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you,
just as he promised you. Be very careful, therefore, to
love the Lord your God. For if you turn back and cling
to the remnant of these nations remaining among you, and make
marriages with them so that you associate with them and they
with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer
drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare. and a trap for you, a whip on
your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off
this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. And now
I am about to go the way of all the earth and you know in your
hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed
of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning
you. All have come to pass for you.
Not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things
that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled
for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things
until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord
your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant
of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve
other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will
be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off
the good land that he has given you. Amen. This is the word of
the living God for us. Several weeks back in Sunday
school, I think most of you were in attendance, and we talked
about our funerals. We talked about what is a funeral, what
should be part of a funeral, and importantly, we talked about
what should not be part of a funeral. A funeral is, in a sense, your
last word to your loved ones. It’s what you’re going to leave
them with. I shared with you some of my experiences in funerals
and particularly some of the non-Christian ones. Oklahoma
Sooners fight song. That’s it. That’s all you got
to leave to your loved ones. Fight, fight, fight. Or one particular
occasion doing a funeral for a local funeral director who
needed somebody in a pinch. I heard Highway to Hell during
a funeral. It was rather interesting and
probably very appropriate given the scene I witnessed. But scriptures
And hymns and themes of our walk with Jesus are important to leave
to our loved ones. Our funeral can be our last words
to our family, to our loved ones. It can be our witness to Jesus
Christ and his power of the resurrection. They ought to be God-centered,
right? They ought to present mom’s faith, dad’s journey with
the Lord, Now think on a different level here for a moment. If you
knew that you were dying, it’s one thing to plan your funeral
and what will be said at your funeral, but if you knew you
were dying, what would you say if you could gather all your
loved ones around your bed? What words would you say? Would it be go Sooners, go Tar
Heels, fight, fight, fight? Or would it be fear God and keep
his commandments? Would it be something spiritual
or something earthy, something of this world? Would you rehearse
God’s acts of faithfulness in your lives, your life, and then
encourage your loved ones to continue to walk by faith in
him? Or perhaps they don’t love God
yet. Maybe it’s your deathbed gospel call that does the trick. Would you beg of them to be found
in heaven one day where you plan to be with God Almighty. I think
of Paul to the Ephesians when in the book of Acts, he’s on
his way back to Jerusalem where he will ultimately be sent off
to Rome where he will lose his head later. But Paul speaks to
the Ephesian elders and with many tears, he pleads with them
to watch over the flock of God. Do not let the wolves in. but
continue to shepherd the flock and to watch over them. Well,
Joshua does the same thing here as Paul to the Ephesians. He
gathers the elders, he gathers the judges, he gathers the leaders,
and he says to them, be very strong. Now I want you to stop
and think for a minute about how the book of Joshua started.
That was a lot of wars ago. That was a lot of ites and a
lot of fights and a lot of battles ago. But remember at the beginning
of the book of Joshua, it is said of Joshua, he is very old.
He is advanced in years, or I’m sorry, of Moses. Moses now dies
and Joshua takes up the mantle of leadership. And so at the
beginning of the book, and now at the end of the book, God’s
leader, God’s man on earth is old and dying. And so he’s passing
the torch, he’s passing the mantle. But God had said to Joshua in
chapter one, verse eight, you, Joshua, be strong and courageous. And now Joshua at the end of
his life is saying to the leaders of Israel, be very strong. You know, from time to time we
ordain officers in the church and it’s one of our jobs, it’s
one of my jobs as the pastor to install them into office,
but also to give them some kind of charge. This would be a good
simple one, wouldn’t it? Be very strong. That’s enough said, isn’t it?
That’s a great word to the leaders of God’s people. Fear God, walk
in his holiness. Maybe a more colloquial way to
say what Joshua means is, hey, leaders of Israel, don’t let
off the gas. Keep the pedal to the metal. keep on walking towards heaven,
press on, keep the faith, don’t let off the gas, keep your eyes
fixed on the Lord Jesus. Well, that’s exactly the speech
that Joshua gives to the leaders of Israel. You have seen all
that God has done. Not one man of all the thousands
of people you have fought has stood up to you. You have whooped,
you have routed, you have beaten, you have driven back, you have
put to the sword all the enemies of God. And it wasn’t in your
strength that it was done. It was God Almighty. And so press
on. Keep on. Don’t let off the gas. Carry on in this great work.
But it gives three categories of advice here that we want to
think about. Three categories of challenge
and charge to the people of God. The first one in verses one through
five is he reminds them that thus far God has helped them. That’s what we see in verses
one through five. Thus far God has helped us. One of the things
God promised to Israel is you’ll go into the promised land, you’ll
empty it out, you’ll clear it out, and at some point in time
you will have rest. I have neighbors that moved in
across the street probably about three months ago. Maybe two months
ago. I lose track of time. It’s been
a good little while now. So I see them. I say, how you
doing? Well, we’re still settling in. You know, there’s still plumbers’
trucks out front. They’re getting the trees trimmed.
And, you know, they’re doing everything to make the house
their own. But I imagine for them it’s been a pretty intense
time of hanging pictures and putting up dishes, finding things,
hunting for things. Where’s the tool, trips to Lowe’s,
you know, all those things, intense, intense, intense. But there’s
some point where I’m guessing they would like to sit down and
have Thanksgiving meal. Or maybe put up a Christmas tree
this year and just sit in front of the fireplace. Um, it seems
like all we ever do is work, work, work, work, work. We don’t,
we, you know, we cut the yard, but we don’t sit and enjoy it.
We cut the yard, but we don’t sit on the porch and look at
it. Um, we, we just work, work, work, busy, busy, busy, but God
promised them after this intense stretch of entering the land,
taking the land and possessing the land, I’m going to give you
rest from your enemies. And so that’s where Israel is
at this particular point in their history. God is going to give
them rest. And that’s why this speech is
important. Don’t let off the gas. Don’t stop growing in grace. Don’t rest on your laurels. I
think sometimes, and I hate to use this, well, I probably shouldn’t
use that phrase. I think sometimes the way we
live life is in extremes. We go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
and then we crash. And we go, go, go, go, go, and
then we crash. And I think that can be the way we live the Christian
life sometimes. It really ought to be a steady
on pace, the Christian life. Just drive 55, set the cruise,
ease on down the road, mile after mile. That’s how we ought to
live the Christian life. But sometimes we go, go, go,
crash, go, go, go, crash. And we live on edge. And then
we have these little crashes where we kind of let go and then
we have to get back. And that’s why I think it’s important
for us to live the weekly rhythm of the Christian life, Sunday
by Sunday, day by day, week by week, year by year. But it has
been intense for the Israelites, and now it is time for rest,
but they don’t rest from their spiritual labors. And it’s good
for them to be reminded of all that God has done for them as
they rest, and that will motivate them to live for him. What all
has God done? Well, he’s helped them enter
a rugged terrain of a promised land. He’s helped them overcome
enemy after enemy after enemy, some of them nasty, mean people. Remember the spies the first
time they went and then the second time they went throughout the
promised land. Oh, they’re big and hairy and
mean and scary. We can’t possibly take the promised
land, but just look at them now. God has done it. God can make rivers dry up. He can make walls tumble down.
He can make the sun stand still and he can bring hailstones from
heaven, which will drive back the enemies of God’s people.
Now stop for just a moment and say, we need to say to ourselves,
this is all Israel, this is all Joshua, this is all thousands
of years ago. What about today? Is the God
that we serve able to fight off our enemies? Just the other week,
I was reading through one of the Psalms, and it was one of
the Psalms where David is saying, I’m tired of being surrounded
by enemies, I’m tired of being hit with arrows, I’m tired of
warfare. God, when are you gonna help?
When are you gonna come? When are you gonna listen? When are you
gonna give me rest? And I think our spiritual walk
with God can sometimes be so fraught with enemies and hardships
that we feel worn out. We need rest from the intensity. And there could be something
in this for you to pray for your own life. Lord, I need a little
stretch of rest. I need some time in a foxhole
where the bullets aren’t flying at me. I need some peace. Give me a little peace. Give
me a little growth. And then I’ll get back in the fray. I’ll get back into
the fire. But God has been with them. He
has seen them through Egypt. He’s seen them through the desert.
He’s given them bread from heaven. He’s given them a safe passage
across the Red Sea and across the Jordan River. He’s given
them all kinds of wonderful provisions, and then we have to insert in
there rather loud and large our own experience. He sent his own
son to the cross. And so God has helped us. He’s helped the Israelites, but
he has helped us. And you could begin to fill in
the blanks. Not just the cross, that no doubt is the most important
redemptive event in any of our lives, But God has seen us through
all kinds of stages and stretches of our Christian life. And we
can say with Israel, with Joshua, thus far, God has helped us. And that leads us to a second
encouragement, a second exhortation in this passage. If therefore
God has helped us. then we must remain faithful
to God. That’s the second exhortation.
You find the details of it in verses six through 13. You must
remain faithful to God. In fact, if you look at verse
six, he says, be very strong to keep all that is written in
the book of the law of Moses. Be very strong to do all that
is written in the law of Moses. Don’t turn to the right, don’t
turn to the left. You know, we say sometimes on Sunday mornings,
we’ve all come from busy weeks, we’ve come from a noisy world.
There’s so much coming at us saying, give me your allegiance,
give me your attention, give me your worship, give me your
money, give me all of you. And we need to be very careful
to be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the
law of Moses. Why? because of all that God
has already done for us. He has not brought us this far
for us to quit, for us to stop, for us to let off the gas, but
we have been brought this far that we might press on and keep
the faith. And then he warns them, don’t, in addition to not
turning right or left, don’t mix with the nations. Don’t mention
the names of their gods, but cling to the Lord your God, just
as you have done to this day. Verse 11, he says, be very careful,
therefore, to love the Lord your God. For if you turn back and
cling to the remnant of these nations, the nations remaining
among you, and you make marriages with them, so that you associate
with them and they with you, know for certain the Lord your
God will no longer drive out these nations. They will be a
snare, a trap, a whip, and they will be thorns until you perish. You know, you think about the
cultural wars that we’ve all lived through as Christians. You know, I became aware of things
probably in the 1980s of, you know, don’t listen to rock and
roll, right? And especially don’t play rock
and roll backwards. You know, say Satan a thousand times. That
was the big 1980s thing. And then it was Hollywood, don’t
go to the movies. When I was a kid, you had a little
thing on your cable box. We didn’t, our neighbors did.
We didn’t have cable. But you could put a key in it and you
could lock out the Disney Channel. And we all laughed and joked
about those things. You know, fundamentalism, right?
Not the fundamentalism y’all learned about in Sunday school.
J. Gresham Machen in that area,
but the cultural fundamentalism. We all sort of poked fun at that.
And now looking back and seeing where we are, it’s not funny,
is it? We live in a rotten, bankrupt
culture, and it has dragged a majority of Christians. I encourage you
to take a look at the 2022 Ligonier survey on the state of theology.
Get a box of tissues. I think this week I read that
65% of people in the church do not believe in original sin.
And if you go back to the great debate between Saint Augustine
in the 300s and Pelagius, Pelagianism or semi-Pelagianism is what’s
led to Arminianism. No belief in original sin. And
that heresy has plagued us for 1,500 years. And 65% of people surveyed in the American
church believe that stuff. That’s a dangerous time for us
to be living in. And so we have been asleep at
the wheel. We have let culture suck people
into the vacuum. And God is saying to Israel,
and he’s saying to us today as Americans in the 21st century,
the 2022 church, you must remain faithful to God. Now, the question
is why? Well, we just saw that God has
helped us, right? He’s fought all of our battles.
He’s given us strength for war. But I think a second reason for
us to remain faithful to God is that Heidelberg catechism
trifecta, we might call it, guilt, grace, and gratitude. God and
his word shows us our guilt, our sin. God in his word shows
us his grace, the cross of Jesus and forgiveness. And then God
in his word shows us that out of gratitude for what God has
done for us in Christ, we live for him. And so when Joshua says,
be very careful to do the law, be very careful to keep the law,
he’s saying in a sense, remember all that Jesus has done for you.
Remember all that God has done for you, all the enemies he’s
routed. all the blessings he’s given you. God has done so much
for you, and out of gratitude for his labor in your redemption,
keep faithful to Almighty God. But then he also gives another
reason, and it’s a really good reason. It won’t go well for
you if you remain unfaithful. Some of you remember, you know,
I can remember when everybody smoked, right? before Bill Clinton
came along and killed the cigarette industry. You would see a TV commercial,
you know, be of the Marlboro Man. You know, remember when
NASCAR could be supported by cigarettes? It was Winston Cup.
They had to cut all that out because it was bad, bad for young
people. But they had this big warning, Surgeon General’s Warning. Smoking may be bad for your health.
I probably should have said smoking is bad for your health. Don’t
do it unless you have a death wish. But I grew up when everybody
smoked, it was a thing. I remember my grandmother smoked
and we didn’t think much of it. Now when you smell cigarette
smoke, it’s pretty strange. But remember those big warnings.
Well, there ought to be a big warning right here. It is dangerous
to go against God. We don’t think that way anymore.
In fact, I think some people think, oh, that’s Old Testament
God. Old Testament God, yeah, he took care of business with
Nadab and Abihu when they offered strange fire. Old Testament God
took care of Uzzah when he reached out and touched the Ark of the
Covenant when it stumbled on the ox cart. Oh, but the book
of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira. Oh, God still is angry with sin.
And then you bump over to the book of Hebrews, where in chapter
10, 31 says, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. A couple of weeks ago, when I
attended a preaching conference, one of the biggest takeaways
that I got when I left and was kind of thinking through was
the charge to all of us preachers. If you have lost the fear of
God, Personally, you have no business preaching. And I would
extend that to say what Joshua is telling Israel. You’re not
gonna remain faithful to Yahweh if you’ve lost the fear of God.
It’s bad for you to disobey God. We have become so watered down
in sin. Sin is what R.C. Sproul says
so well. It’s cosmic treason. And it doesn’t
matter if it’s a little bitty sin or a great big sin. It’s
cosmic treason. Every sin deserves God’s wrath,
God’s curse, and God’s punishment. In our Westminster Confession
of Faith and larger and shorter catechism, it has a wonderful
chapter on what is repentance unto life. And if you read the
shorter catechism, the larger catechism, or the bigger chapter
in the confession on repentance unto life, it talks about it
being a saving grace whereby out of a sight and sense, of
the mercy of God and Jesus Christ. We do hate and grieve and forsake
our sins because of the warnings of God, the threatenings of God.
And because of the stench of our sin that rises up to God,
we do with grief and hatred of our sin turn from them unto almighty
God. And I don’t know if even a majority
of the church today has a sense of sin or a sense of the fear
of God. And you can see that in our culture
today. When I was growing up, we were
afraid of our parents. Right, just wait till your dad
comes home. Well, that meant something to us. Some kids these
days don’t even have a dad to come home and to threaten them.
But we grew up with a sense of authority. We grew up where we
respected those in authority, whether it be our parents or
our teachers or a police officer. And even in the church today,
I don’t think we promote that those in authority ought to be
feared. What does Romans chapter 13 tell us about the governing
authorities? They bear the sword to punish
evil. Well, the authorities today don’t
really bear the sword. Our armies are weakening. We’ve
gotten rid of the death penalty and on and on it goes. But this
challenge to us, you must remain faithful to God. Do it out of
gratitude to God for what he’s done for you in Christ. how he’s
brought you into this good land and blessed you. But also realize
if you don’t obey God, it will not go well for you. Don’t yoke yourself to the ideologies
and the ways of this world. Cling to God. Cling to Almighty
God. Don’t go over to the dark side.
to the dark side of sin and misery. Well, there’s a third thing.
It’s similar to what we’ve just spoken of, but in verses 14 through
16, we have another exhortation. The first exhortation was, thus
far God has helped us. The second exhortation was, you
must remain faithful to God. The third exhortation is simply
this, or else. We need a dose of that from time
to time, or else. Out on the highway, there’s a
billboard. And it’s a billboard discouraging you from drinking
and driving. And it says, you just blew $10,000. All the legal troubles, the loss
of license, the lawyer’s fees, the court fees, the on and on. There’s a car that I walk by
every morning on my morning walk. And I’m nosy, just to tell you
that. I look and observe, but there’s
a car that I walk by, and it has one of those things you gotta
blow into to crank the car up. This billboard is trying to be
a deterrent. Don’t drink and drive. And then I think back to the
Scared Straight program. I don’t think they’re allowed
to do this to kids anymore, because it will psychologically traumatize
them. But I can remember as a kid, we got taken down to the old
Burlington Police Station, and I remember hearing the jail door
clink shut. Clink, you know, kapunk. What’s the point of that? You don’t want to go to jail.
This is the scared straight program that Joshua is giving Israel. God is a wonderful kind God. He’s done all these wonderful
things for you. But if you go after the other gods, if you
yoke yourselves to the remaining people of the land and you marry
their families, your life in the promised land will dry up.
Your life in the promised land will not go well. One of the
things we have to remember is that God is a covenant-making
God, and when God makes a covenant, it has stipulations. I’m God,
this is how this is gonna go, and if you do it, there’s gonna
be blessing. And if you don’t do it, there’s
gonna be curses. Just think back to the Garden of Eden. You can
eat from all the trees of the garden except the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And if you eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, you will die. Okay, that’s a curse. But if you don’t eat, you will
live. That’s the blessing. God is a
blessing and a cursing God. He is a kind God, but he is a
severe God. And this is the point in our
passage where we know that Joshua failed the Dale Carnegie course
on how to win friends and influence people. He begins verse 14, I’m
about to die. I’m about to go the way of the
earth. You know, in your hearts and souls, all of you, not one
word of all that God has promised. has failed. Everything God said
he would do, he’s done. All of it’s come to pass. Not
one of them has failed. But just as all the good things
the Lord your God has promised concerning you have been fulfilled
for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things
until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord
your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant
of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, going and serving
other gods, This is not a popular way to end the sermon. Our friend
down in Houston would not end his sermon this way. Probably
wouldn’t even bring this up. But don’t we need to hear the
warnings and the threatenings and hear the fires of judgment
being stoked? You know, one of the greatest
sermons that had the greatest effect on American soil was sinners
in the hands of an angry God. And he told them over and over,
painted wonderful horrible pictures with his words, uh, you, you
are walking over a rotted bridge over hell. And then he used that
wonderful old Testament phrase, your foot will slip in due time. Uh, just as, as, as, um, Edwards
preached that sermon, Joshua is giving his last will in Testament
and he hits them hard. Don’t let off the gas. Now you’re
wondering about the results. The end of Joshua is going to
tell us that generation after Joshua, they were good men. They stepped on the gas. They
pressed on. They kept the faith. They walked
with the Lord. They finished the work that God
had given them. What would be said of our generation?
I kind of wonder if the church is going to peter out in some
sense, not in the sense from God and the true church. but is the visible church in
America gonna peter out? I think COVID is a harbinger
of things to come. You know, so many people who
are in church are no longer in church. And if you’re not in
church, something’s wrong with you. If you have no desire to
be with the people of God, and it’s not mediated through a TV
screen, something is wrong, I think, with your profession of faith,
or maybe your understanding, and maybe there’s hope in that
that could be corrected, but just in general, the desire to
be in God’s house should be the first first and maybe the front
and foremost thing in our minds and our hearts, but what would
be said of our generation of the American church? I don’t
think it looks promising, but maybe there’ll be a small remnant
who stepped on the gas, a small remnant who remained faithful
to God, a small remnant who said his threatenings are real, a
small remnant would say he’s done so much for me, I’ll press
on, I’ll keep the faith, and I’ll serve him like Joshua till
my last breath. Let’s go to God in prayer. Lord,
we thank you for the gift of Joshua, the gift of his faithfulness,
and even his challenge to us. Lord, in Christ Jesus, we want
to walk firmly in the gospel, not by the works of our hands,
but by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the strength and might
and the direction of your word. We ask for your help now and
pray for it. In Christ’s name, amen.