Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

Lord, as we take time this evening to open Your Word again, I pray that You would open our hearts. I ask that You would speak to us the truths of Your Word and give us Your divine inspiration to understand what it is that You are speaking to this church here at Calvary Chapel. Lord, I ask that You would be the one who leads and guides our lives.

As Israel was the nation governed by You, I pray that we too would be governed by You, that we would be led by You, whether we are going through a time of bondage, a time in the wilderness, or dwelling in the promised land. Lord, I pray that You would help us to keep our hearts and our minds, and all that we are, focused and fixed upon You until that day when we will see You with unveiled face. I do look forward to that day, and I know that my brothers and sisters here do as well. So again, we pray, Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come quickly. The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come," even so, Lord Jesus, come. We ask this in Your precious name. Amen. You can be seated.

I have found over the last several years, almost five years now, of teaching through the Word and studying God's Scripture to teach, that oftentimes as I come to the end of a book, I have the hardest time with the conclusion. It's difficult for me to conclude the passage of Scripture that I've been studying and to figure out how to wrap it all together and put it into a final message on the passage.

However, wonderfully, the book of Joshua gives us a conclusion at the end. In fact, Joshua now calls the children of Israel to himself. There in the place of Shechem, we see in verse 1 that he calls all of Israel, the whole nation, all twelve tribes, their elders, their heads, and their officers to stand before him in that valley, in that place called Shechem. He knows that he is nearing the end of his life and the end of the leadership that God had given to him, so he is going to speak a conclusion to them.

You see, I didn't need to come up with a conclusion for this because it's all right here in front of us. I was praising the Lord this week for that. Joshua gathers these people who have now lived in the promised land for almost 25 years, as we talked about last week. He speaks to them to encourage them and to call to them. Last week, we saw how he called them to be courageous, cautious, and to remain consistent in their walks with the Lord.

To be careful or they'd be chastened. And now, this time, he calls the nation together again. He gathers all of them at a place that they knew well. If you've been going through this study with us, you may remember back in Joshua chapter 8 when the children of Israel gathered in the valley of Shechem once before. Half of the tribes gathered over against Mount Ebal, and the other half gathered over against Mount Gerizim. Joshua and the priests stood in the middle, down there in the valley of Shechem, and they declared the curses and the blessings of the law. As they declared the curses to one group, they would say, "Amen." As they declared the blessings to the other group, they too would say, "So be it."

The Lord is good, and He will bring blessings to His people—those who follow Him, those who are truly governed by Him. But those who turn from Him, as we saw in that passage of Scripture in Joshua chapter 8, He will surely turn His hand against them. They will find that the curses of the law will come upon them as well. So now they come again to this place called Shechem.

Going back a little further, this place called Shechem had another significant event in Scripture. You may remember Jacob, the heel catcher from the book of Genesis. He was a deceiver, a supplanter, and he had fled from his home in the land of Canaan, the promised land, to escape from his brother Esau. Why? Because his brother said, "I'm going to kill you because you stole the blessing that was rightfully mine." Jacob fled to the area of Paran, where he lived for a period of time, took on several wives, and had several children until he was run out of that land too.

As he returned to the promised land, he finally began to truly follow the Lord. The Lord changed his name from Jacob, the supplanter and deceiver, to Israel, one who was governed by God. The very first place he camped upon returning to the promised land, to Canaan, was Shechem. In Genesis chapter 33, he erected an altar to the Lord and began to call on His name once again, worshiping Him.

Then, in Genesis chapter 35, we see that it was at this place, Shechem, that Jacob, now Israel, purged all the false gods and strange gods from his household. He got rid of all the images that had been built up while he was out in the world, all the things that maybe his servants were bowing down to or that his children had started to cling to.

He grabbed all these false gods, all these strange gods there in the valley of Shechem, and he buried them under an oak tree. He recommitted his life to the Lord and said, "These things are not going to be in my household. These things are not going to be a part of my family." Shechem also had a great place in the nation because of that purpose back in Genesis chapters 33 and 35.

If we go back even further to Genesis chapter 12, you may remember the story when God called a man by the name of Abraham. God said, "I want you to leave your family, I want you to leave your country, your household, all that you have, and I want you to come and follow me into a new land. I'm going to make you a great nation." So, Abraham began to follow the Lord there in Genesis chapter 12.

As we come to Genesis chapter 12, verse 6, it says that he came to a place called Shechem. It was there that the Lord appeared to him, and he built an altar in the valley of Shechem. He worshipped the Lord, and the Lord said, "Abraham, I'm going to give you this land to all of your descendants. It's yours." This place, Shechem, had a great history in the nation of Israel.

Joshua called the nation, gathering all the tribes to this place where so many wonderful things had happened in their nation. He began to speak with them about all these great things. This portion of Scripture divides well into four different sections. The very first thing, if you're taking notes, is that a recall is given. Starting in verse 1 and going through verse 13, Joshua stands up and begins to speak to his fellow people in the nation.

You know how sometimes our memories can have rolling blackouts? We start to get a little bit gray in the areas of our thoughts. We too need to have a recall, just like we're having here in California today. Joshua gathers these people together because they may have been experiencing rolling blackouts in their memories and were a little fuzzy about what had happened. Joshua says, "It's time to recall. It's time to look back and see what God has done and the wonderful things, because we forget."

Pastor Richard was standing there, trying to remember her name for about 40 seconds. He couldn't get it, but he finally did. As we get older and live throughout this life, we get a little bit gray—not just on our heads, but in our heads too. We begin to forget, and we kind of black out every now and again.

Joshua, knowing this and being 110 years old, gathers his people together and says to them, "Remember. Remember what it was that God had done for you. Remember the great things that He had done." He begins in verse 2, saying, "Thus says the Lord, God of Israel." He emphasizes that this isn't what he has said; this is what God has said. God is speaking here.

God says, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood or on the other side of the river in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham." Abraham, of course, is not Abraham Lincoln, but Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. His father's name was Terah, and they lived in an area called Ur, located in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. It was there in Ur that he worshipped the moon god, whose name was actually Sin. At that point in time, the moon god's name was truly Sin.

In that area of Ur, there was a man named Terah who had a son named Abraham and a son named Nahor. They served other gods. The first thing I want us to see as we continue through this passage of Scripture is God's overwhelming grace. God's overwhelming grace is evident because there was nothing special or great about Abraham. There was nothing that God would look upon and say, "This guy is a man after my own heart." No, not when he began. When he started, he was truly bowing down to false gods and serving Sin there in Ur.

But God called him. God stepped out, reached out, and called to him. He said there in Genesis chapter 12, as I've already talked about a few minutes ago, "I want you to follow me." The one true God spoke.

To this man who was in the midst of serving false gods, God said, "Come, follow me. Come away from all the things that you have and all the things that you've worked so hard for." At this point in time, Abraham was not a young guy; he was 75 years old when the Lord called him. He left all that he had and all that he had worked so hard for. He went and followed the Lord and came into the land of Canaan, leaving the false gods that he had followed. The Lord was the one who called him. The Lord was the one who came to him and said, "Abraham, I want you to follow me."

While Abraham was dead in trespasses and sins, serving false gods and living in the world, God said, "You come and follow me." There really was nothing great and spectacular about him. In much the same way, we too were once in the world. We too had turned our backs on God and were not following after Him; we were serving false gods. Yet, God came and spoke to us.

If you turn in your Bibles to the New Testament, in the book of Ephesians, Paul the Apostle begins to talk about this very thing. He explains how you and I were at one time far off, just like Abraham, bowing down to all sorts of false gods. Yet, the Lord reached out and sought after us in the very same way He came after Abraham.

Ephesians chapter 2, starting at verse 1, states, "And you." Paul here is speaking about us. Specifically, he is addressing the church at Ephesus, but he is speaking about us Gentiles. "And you he has quickened, who were dead." You were dead in trespasses and sins. In times past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we had our conduct, or our conversation, in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the others.

God says through the Apostle Paul, "You Gentiles, once upon a time, you were far off. You walked according to the lusts of your flesh and according to the course of this world, just like all the rest of the people in the world." But I want you to note these very next two words.

In verse 4, we see that these truths are essential to our lives as believers. But God. You were dead. You were gone. You had committed trespasses against the Lord. You were children of wrath, sons and daughters of disobedience. But God. Abraham was there, serving this false god, this deity called sin. He was living for himself and trying to acquire all kinds of riches for himself. But God reached down, and God sought after man.

We need to know and realize that salvation always begins and ends with God, and everything in between as well. Because God is the one who calls. God is the one who justifies. He is the one who sanctifies, and He is the one who will ultimately glorify you and me on that day when we stand before Him. He initiated our salvation when we were dead in trespasses and sins. But God, who is rich in mercy! I'm glad that it doesn't say there that He is rich in justice, although He is; it doesn't say that. He is rich in mercy because of His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead. When we were dead in sins, He has quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you are saved.

I praise the Lord for that verse because I know that I was once far off, away from the Lord, dead in my trespasses and sins, just like all the others, just like you. Just like Abraham was several thousand years ago when the Lord came down and said, "Abraham, I want you to leave all this and follow Me." The Lord has come to you and to me, and He said, "I want you to leave all these things that you've been going through, all these things that you've been pursuing, all these false gods that you've been serving, and I want you to come and follow Me."

In very much the same way, Jesus, very early in His ministry, in Matthew chapters 3 and 4, speaks His very first words after being tempted in the wilderness. His first words are, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Then He meets two men who are fishing and says, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." I believe the thing that you have been trying for so long to make yourself is the one thing that God wants to make you for Him.

Simon Peter and his brother Andrew were there casting their nets. For so long, they were trying to make themselves fishermen. Peter, the great fisherman of the Bible, was the guy who never caught a fish. He never caught a fish apart from Jesus' help. If you read the Gospels, you will find that this great fisherman never caught a fish unless Jesus said, "Hey, cast the net on the other side." Then he began to catch fish.

More than that, the Lord came and said, "I want you to leave all this stuff, repent, follow me, and I will make you." I believe the Lord calls out to every single one of us every day of our lives and says, "I want you to leave all that other stuff. I want you to die today. Die to yourself and follow me today, and I will make you."

God called Abraham way back there thousands of years ago in the book of Genesis. He said, "I want you to come, and I want you to follow me." Now, Joshua is speaking to a group of people who, like us, sometimes have blackouts. We forget the things that God has done and the way that He called us. So, Joshua says, "I want you to call to remembrance. I want you to recall what God has done."

There was a man named Abraham who served false gods, but the one true God reached down and said, "I want you to follow me." Note in the next several verses how many times the divine personal pronoun is used. How many times God says "I"? Joshua said, "Thus says the Lord." In verse 3, God says, "I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan. I multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau. I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it, but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did among them. Afterward, I brought you out. I brought you out, and I brought your fathers out of Egypt. You came unto the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea."

God is speaking here, and He says to His children, His people, "I'm the one who brought you out. I looked upon you who were dead."

In trespasses and sins, I looked upon you who were serving all manner of false gods, and I said, "I want you to come out." So I brought you out. I want you to know for sure that God has brought us out so that He might bring us in, not that we would wander in the wilderness. God has brought us out of bondage; He has brought us out of Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. The Lord reached in and brought plagues upon the Egyptians when they would not let the children of Israel go.

So much so that God brought His people out, and right early, as they came out of the land of Egypt, they found themselves in a tight spot. They were there at the Red Sea, in between two mountains, Piahiroth and Migdal. Behind them were the Egyptians; the army was pursuing after them, and they were boxed in. The Lord was the one who brought them out; the Lord was the one who brought them into this place. Sometimes the Lord will bring us into places that we don't know about, places where we feel pretty boxed in, where we feel like there's no way for us to get out.

In Exodus chapter 15, the children of Israel were crying out against Moses and Aaron. They were crying out against the Lord, saying, "Why have you brought us out here? What are you thinking? What are you doing, putting us right in this place between Piahiroth and Migdal, with the Red Sea and the Egyptian army behind us?" The Lord spoke to Moses and said, "Why are you crying to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward."

You see, the Lord has brought us in; He has brought us out of the world, and He has placed us in this new life. Sometimes we feel boxed in, and we don't think that we can go anywhere, but the Lord says, "Go forward. Keep walking because I am going to do a greater work than this." So the children of Israel began to go forward, and the Lord caused the Red Sea to open.

"I brought your fathers out of Egypt," verse 6 says, "and you came unto the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. When they cried unto the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them. Your eyes have seen what I have done."

You see, the Lord brings us through these things so that we can see that He is faithful, that He is able. The Lord has come to you and me, and He has sent us His letter.

His Word seeks to pursue us, to draw us and woo us. He begins to declare to us a future and a hope, this new life that He desires to give to us. He told the children of Israel, "I want you to come follow Me. I'm going to take you to the promised land."

As we leave the bondage of Egypt and begin to follow the Lord to that new future, that new hope He has prepared for us, He begins to show us His faithfulness. God brought the children of Israel to this place, and they cried out to Him so that they could see Him. "Your eyes have seen all that I have done," the Lord says. "Remember, take some time to consider, recall, sit down and think about it. Don't be gray; don't have rolling blackouts. Recall this to remembrance. Consider what God has done. You've seen it with your eyes," He says. "Never forget."

He brought you into the land of the Amorite, which dwells in the land of Israel, on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand so that you might possess their land. I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel. He sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore, he blessed you still, and I delivered you out of his hand.

The Lord again says, "This is what I've done. I've brought you out; I've delivered you. Yes, these people came against you, but I went to fight for you." You went over the Jordan and came unto Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, along with the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. I delivered them into your hand.

God says, "See what I have done. Take note of it, consider it, recall it, call it to remembrance. Never forget what I've done. You were in bondage; your fathers served false gods. But I came and sought after you, and I have delivered you. Yes, there were times when I brought you into places where you felt boxed in, but I did it so that you could see My hand, so that you could see that I am a good God. I proved My faithfulness to you. I gave you a future and a hope."

Because I was wooing you and pursuing you, I desire you to be my bride. I have brought you out and delivered all of these wicked enemies of yours into your hands. In verse 12, I sent the hornet before you, who drove them out before you, even the two kings of the Amorites. But not with your sword and not with your bow; I was the one who did it. I got rid of your enemies. I went before you and pushed them away. You didn't do anything; it wasn't you, it was me, the Lord says.

He is calling out to His people and saying, "Listen up." As you stand in this very historical place and look around, over there is probably the oak tree where Jacob buried those false gods underneath it. Right in front of you is the altar that Jacob worshipped at, the altar that Abraham worshipped at, and the altar that we built back there several months ago, several years ago, when we worshipped the Lord here and recounted the blessings and the curses in this historical place.

I want you to remember—never forget what I have done for you. But you know, it is sometimes very easy for us to forget. As the Lord says in verse 13, I am the one who has given you this land from which you did not labor. You didn't work for this land; you didn't have to pay for it. The cities that you live in, you didn't build them. You came into this land and took them, and you dwell in these cities and vineyards and olive yards that you didn't plant, but you eat from. He says, "I gave all of this stuff to you. Don't forget."

But we do. There are those times when we begin to forget what God has done. We feel so overwhelmed and wonder, "Where is God in the midst of this?" We begin to be cast down and bummed out. As the psalmist in Psalm 42, verse 5 says, "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" The psalmist stands there, perhaps forgetting the things that God has done and the way that God has poured out for him. He says, "Why am I so downcast?" Speaking to his soul, he asks, "What's going on here today, soul?"

Why are you so downcast? Why are you so disquieted within me? Then he reminds himself to hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore, I will remember Thee. The psalmist cries out to God and says, "Lord, I'm having a really bad day. I'm forgetting. I'm not seeming to have a victorious day. God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore, I will remember Thee."

"Lord, I'm cast down. I don't know what to do in this situation." And the Lord would say to you and to me, "Remember. Recall. Don't black out. Don't go gray. Remember."

Again, in Psalm 77, a friend of mine just a couple of weeks ago sent me this verse. I was kind of going through a thing in my mind where I was feeling downcast, and I was saying to my soul, "Why are you so downcast? What's going on here?" In Psalm 77, verse 6, the psalmist says, "I call to remembrance my song in the night; I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search."

The psalmist is saying that in the middle of the night, he was downcast and was considering, "Lord, help me to remember." His spirit made a diligent search. Then he asks several interesting questions: "Will the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Does His promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in His anger shut His tender mercies?" Selah.

The psalmist says, "Has the Lord forgotten me? Has He forgotten to be merciful? Is His mercy clean gone? Does His promise ever fail?" These are rhetorical questions that the psalmist begins to ask. There, in the middle of the night, upon his bed, he begins to ponder, meditate upon, and consider, "Has God ever let me down?"

That word "Selah" at the end of verse 6, or wherever it is—yes, verse 9—means to wait and to ponder, to consider. The psalmist says, "I'm having this horrible time, and yet I'm remembering, 'Lord, You've never...'"

Failed in your promise towards me, Lord. You won't cast me off forever; your favor has not left me. In verse 10, he says, "And I said, this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember thy works, O Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also on all thy work and talk of thy doings."

You see, there are those times for you and for me where we feel boxed in. There’s a pie of Hieroth and a Migdol on the right, and the Red Sea in front of us, while the enemy is coming quickly. We begin to cry out to the Lord, and the Lord says, "Remember, have I ever let you down in the past? Recall to remembrance what I've done." God is so kind to us, so good to us, and we need to remember that our God, as Romans chapter 8, verse 28 tells us, is the one who works all things together for good.

We need to remember, as Philippians chapter 2, verse 13 says, that it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. We have a God who works, not like the gods of the world who have eyes but cannot see, mouths but cannot speak, ears but cannot hear, and hands but cannot handle. As Psalm 115 tells us, the gods of the world are the works of men's hands. They are dumb; they can't speak. They are deaf; they can't hear. They are blind; they can't see because they are not a God.

As Jeremiah recalls, in Jeremiah chapter 2, he says, "Those people who say to a rock, 'You are my father,' and to a tree, 'You gave birth to me.'" It’s kind of interesting. Psalm 115 goes on to say that those gods that have eyes cannot see and hands that cannot handle. He says, "Those who make them are like them." Those people who worship and bow down to those sorts of things, you know what they become in the end? They become dumb, blind, deaf, and stupid. Their conscience is seared as with a hot iron; they can't think straight anymore.

We see that in our day, and that's what happens when people begin to forget the Almighty God. They start to bow down to false things.

Wicked things can happen to God's people. He says, "Remember, remember that this is what I've done for you. I've wooed you, I've pursued you, and I brought you out so that I can bring you into this promised land that I gave to you. I delivered you; I fought for you. You didn't do anything; it was all me," the Lord says.

We, too, when we go through difficult days and hard times, need to recall and call to remembrance the things that God has done. As we move on into verse 14, we see our second point. First, a recall is given in verses 1 through 13. In verses 14 and 15, we see a call and a commission. He says, "Now therefore, fear the Lord." Now that you remember all these things that God has done for you, all the things that He did and is promised to do, "now therefore remember, now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth."

Sincerity means, basically, if you look it up, it means without spot or blemish. Serve Him in sincerity, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. That's what the Lord has called us to. If you read the book of Ephesians, that's what He desires of us. So Joshua says, "Now therefore, because God has done all these things for you, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood in Egypt, and serve you the Lord."

A call and a commission are given here to the people as he stands before these forgetful individuals, just like you and just like me. He says to them, as they stand in this historical place, "These are the things that God has done. Recall it to remembrance." Now he calls to them and says, "Listen up, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth." He commissions them to serve Him, to follow Him, to love the Lord.

He says in verse 15, "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell." But underline this in your Bibles: "But as for me and my house."

We will serve the Lord. Joshua turns to these people, calls them, and commissions them. He says, "Listen, remember the things that God has done for you. Now, therefore, because He has done these things for you, serve Him without spot or blemish. Follow after Him in all truth. Put away these false gods."

It's amazing to me that just a few short years after the Lord has given His law to His people, they actually had the Ten Commandments in their possession. After they had seen God do incredible works and brought them into the Promised Land, it says here to put away the false gods from among you. That tells me that it's very easy to slip back into those old ways.

I mean, don't think that just because these guys had the law and got to see God come down in power—there was fire, you know, the fire consumed the sacrifices, and they saw the Red Sea part and the Jordan River open up. They witnessed the walls of Jericho fall down. How could they turn against the Lord? If I had that, I'd never turn against the Lord.

Oh, but we would, because it's very easy for us to forget all those things. Take some time and think about all the things that God has done for you this week. You can say, "Yeah, God did this and this and this." Now think about the things God did for you this time last year.

All I remember was this little area of Piah, Hiroth, and Migdal. I was in this little box, and it wasn't very good. God didn't show up, and it didn't work out. You see how quickly we forget the really awesome and good things that God has done.

It's really hard for us, just like it was for the children of Israel, to forget Egypt. We so quickly remember all the good things that we had in Egypt and forget those bad days working for Pharaoh. There are the children of Israel, just after they saw God part the Red Sea, crying out to the Lord and saying, "Let us go back to Egypt. We had meat and flesh pots out there in Egypt." Yet they forgot about the bondage. They forgot that Pharaoh had commanded them to kill their firstborn sons. They forgot that they were under taskmasters who beat them every single day.

You and I do the very same thing. We tend to forget the bad of Egypt, remember the good of Egypt, and forget the good of God. And so Joshua calls these people.

He commissions them and reminds them of all that God has done. Now he says, "Therefore, fear the Lord, follow Him, and get rid of these false gods. Put away these gods that your fathers served." He continues, "But if it seems evil, if it seems like a bad idea to you, if you think, 'No, I don't want to do that,' then choose this day whom you will serve. Whether it's the gods of your fathers that they served over there on the other side of the Jordan River or the gods of the Amorites, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Dads, fathers, husbands in this room tonight, I ask you: Is that your statement? Do you too follow along with Joshua and say, "Hey, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord"? That little false image of whoever it may be—Eminem, 50 Cent, Britney Spears—it's got to go. That's not going to be here. Are we willing to stand up and say, like Joshua, "Hey, you choose what you're going to do, but as for me and my house—not just me, but my people, the people who are under me—they're going to serve the Lord"?

Oh, okay honey, you don't want to go to church today? That's okay, maybe next week. Far be it from us. Joshua says, "Choose this day whom you're going to serve, but we will serve the Lord." He gives these people this call and this commission. Then he says in verse 16, "The people answered and said, 'God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.' Amen! Far be it from us that we should sin against the Lord and serve these false gods."

Why? Because the Lord our God, in verse 17, is the one who brought us up out of our fathers, out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He did these great signs in our sight and preserved us in the way wherein we went and among all the people through whom we passed. The Lord drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land. Therefore, we will serve the Lord, for He is our God.

So they say, "Hey, you know what? You're right. God did all these great things. He drove out all these people; He preserved us in the wilderness. So we'll serve the Lord. Joshua, you're right; let's get rid of these false gods. Let's serve the Lord." That's right, Joshua, we'll do that. Then Joshua, in verse 19...

He gives the people a caution. He says to them, "You cannot serve the Lord." What? Excuse me? What are you thinking, Joshua? You just commanded us that we are going to serve the Lord. Why can't we serve the Lord? You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God.

Well, wait a minute. Yes, we know He's holy, but what do you mean we can't serve Him? You get to serve Him; we don't get to serve Him. You just said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." What about you guys? But now you're saying we can't serve Him? No, no, no. He's holy; He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

Wait, what? Why not? Well, in verse 20, if you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then you will not serve the Lord. He will turn and do you hurt and consume you after He has done good for you. So, in verses 19 and 20, we have a caution spoken, a recall given, a call, and a commission. He says to them, "If you forsake the Lord and serve these strange gods, then He is going to turn from you. You will not be able to serve Him any longer at that point in time."

Well, why not? Because, as Jesus would say, no man can have two masters. You can't serve God and mammon. You can't have any other false gods in the house while you're worshipping the Lord God, the one true God. He's a jealous God. They say Joshua says He's jealous; He's not going to allow you to serve these false gods during the week and sow your wild oats, then come to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. He's not going to allow you to do it.

"Choose this day whom you're going to serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." We will serve the Lord, Joshua. But hold on, he says, "Why?" Well, maybe you remember back in the book of Exodus, chapter 24, when God had given the law to His people. Just a few chapters later, after Moses recounts the law to them, there in Exodus chapter 24, they say, "All that the Lord has said, we will do." In verse 3, "All these commandments, we're going to do it." Then Moses says, "Alright, well here is the book of the law before you."

He sprinkles upon them the blood of the sacrifice. In verse 7, they say, "All that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient." And you know what? Forty days later, they were dancing around a golden calf.

Joshua tells the people to be careful. Quickly jumping up and saying, "We will serve the Lord," he warns them, "Be careful." He calls to these people and says, "If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then the Lord will turn and do you hurt and consume you after He has done you good." You can't serve God and mammon; you can't serve these two false things.

Why? Why not? Well, because as Saul learned in 1 Samuel chapter 15, obedience to God is much better than sacrifice. It's really easy to do service to the Lord, go to church on Sunday, maybe serve in the children's ministry, or do something like that. You can offer your sacrifices, give your tithes, and say, "I'm serving the Lord." But during the week, you might spend your money on other things. On the weekend, He can have His 10%, and He can have His couple of hours, and that's fine. You think you're serving the Lord, but the Lord says, "I do not want that."

In 1 Samuel chapter 15, God spoke to King Saul, the first king, and said to him, "I want you to go out and utterly destroy the Amalekites," who are a picture of the flesh in Scripture. He tells Saul to get rid of them. Saul goes out but does not utterly destroy them. Instead, he brings back the good of the land and Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

Then Samuel comes to him, and Saul says, "All that the Lord has said, I have done. I did my service; I've done what God told me to do." Samuel basically tells him to fall on his face and be quiet—literally, to be dumb, not to speak. He asks, "What then is this bleeding of the sheep that I hear? If you've done everything that God told you to do, why do I hear all these little sounds in the background? What is that?"

Saul responds, "You know, the people decided they thought it would be really good if we brought back the good of the land, and we're going to sacrifice it to the Lord. We're going to offer service to the Lord, even though He said to utterly destroy it."

We brought back all these sheep and all these cattle so we can serve the Lord and sacrifice to Him. Saul tells him in 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 22, "Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and in sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king."

In the very same way that Joshua, in our text tonight, says to the people that if they turn from following the Lord, He is going to turn against them. That day, God turned against His king, King Saul, and said, "I've rejected you because you rejected My word." The Lord does not delight in sacrifices, burnt offerings, and the fat of rams as much as He does in obedience.

You might say, "Well, hey, I'm not going down and bowing down to idols." But notice what He says in verse 23: "Stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry." You might think, "I don't commit witchcraft; I'm not in my room soothsaying." The Lord says, "Hey, are you being rebellious?" Because if you are, it's the very same thing. Choose this day whom you're going to serve.

You might say, "Well, I'm not bowing down to any false gods. I don't have little Molechs, Ishtars, Nebos, or Dianas in my room." But today, have you made yourself your own false god? Are you bowing down to yourself, being stubborn, being rebellious, because it's all about you?

I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about me. It happens. So Joshua tells the children of Israel, and he says, "Hey, be careful." A caution is spoken there in verses 19 and 20. He says, "Be careful that your heart's right when you come to serve the Lord, that you've been obeying the Lord so that when you come into the house, you're not just giving lip service. When you're worshiping Him, it's not just flapping gums, but your heart is far from Me," as the prophet would say. "Yeah, you worship Me with your mouth."

But your heart—that's the problem. Obedience is truly better than sacrifice, and it's so important to God that Jesus would say in the Sermon on the Mount, "If you come to worship the Lord and you find there at the altar that you have ought with your brother, that you have a problem with your brother or he with you, then leave your gift at the altar. Go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer it." The sacrifice is not what God is really looking for.

The sacrifices of God in Psalm 51, after David had sinned with Bathsheba and kept it a secret for a year, reveal this truth. After he had her husband killed and was sacrificing to the Lord, he was doing all these things. Finally, when he was broken, Nathan the prophet came to him and said, "You are the man." In Psalm 51, he cries out to the Lord, saying, "Lord, sacrifice and offering you do not desire. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart." Lord, you're looking for my obedience.

If you have ought with your brother tonight and you're coming to worship the Lord, it's just lip service. Leave your gift at the altar and go make it right. That's why Paul, in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, would say, "Examine yourself before you sit at the Lord's table and partake of communion." Examine yourself. Am I serving the Lord in sincerity and truth, or am I a whitewashed tomb that looks really good on the outside but is full of dead men's bones?

There, in verses 19 and 20, that caution is spoken to the children of Israel. After they recalled what God had done for them and after He called to them and commissioned them to follow the Lord, He then gives them a caution. He says, "Listen, if you turn from the Lord, know for certain that He will turn from you." It blows my mind that it says there, "And He will turn and do you hurt." I think, what in the world? Whatever happened to the loving God, you know, the merciful and gracious, abounding in long-suffering and everything? Well, you know, God will chasten those whom He loves, as we looked at last week in Hebrews chapter 12.

When I consider that, I think of King Manasseh. As you continue on through the Old Testament, you find that there came a wicked king in Israel whose name was Manasseh. He killed the prophets, set up all the high places, and undid all the wonderful things that his father before him had done. He was the one who killed the prophet Elijah. Was he Elijah?

No, Isaiah was cut asunder. The Scriptures tell us, and that is what the tradition of the rabbis also states: they cut him in half from his feet to his head. It was not a cut this way, but they sawed him in half from his feet to his head under King Manasseh. The Lord took him and put hooks in his jaws, leading Manasseh into captivity somewhere. Why? The Lord did this to this man to draw him back to Himself.

The end of Manasseh's story is that he turned to the Lord. Why would the Lord do something like this? Why would He turn from His people, forsake them, and cause them hurt? It was so that they could see what life without God is all about. I believe the Lord will allow people to go through horrendous and horrific things while they live here on earth to draw them back to Himself, so they do not end up in hell eternally. A little bit of pain here and now is a lot better than eternity in fire and brimstone.

Joshua gives them a caution. He says, "Listen up, people! You can't serve the Lord if you're going to be serving these false gods. You need to get rid of that stuff." The people said unto Joshua, "Nay, but we will serve the Lord. We'll serve the Lord. We're going to get it on. We'll do it, Lord."

Joshua said unto the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves this day that you have chosen the Lord to serve Him." They replied, "We are witnesses." Now, therefore, he says, "Put away the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the Lord your God, the Lord God of Israel."

He continues, "Forget about all these sacrifices. Obey the Lord. Put away these false gods. We're not just talking about serving the Lord now; we're not just talking about sacrificing to the Lord. I'm saying put away these false gods. Get rid of them." The people said unto Joshua, "The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey."

So Joshua made a covenant with the people. He made a covenant, and a recall was given, a call and a commission, a caution spoken, and now a covenant opened. Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. Joshua wrote these words.

In the book of the law of God, he took a great stone and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. This was very likely the same oak that Jacob put those false gods under back in Genesis chapter 35. He wrote all this down in the book of the law, took up a big stone, and set it up by this oak. Joshua said unto all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke unto us. It shall therefore be a witness unto you, lest you deny your God."

Joshua then let the people depart, every man to his inheritance. In verses 1 through 13, a recall was given. Lest they should become gray and start to black out a little bit, he said to recall to mind and call to remembrance all the things that God has done for them. Then, in verses 14 and 15, a call and a commission were given to them to follow the Lord, to serve Him, and to put away all the false gods.

In verses 19 and 20, a caution was spoken to them: they needed to put these away, or else they could not serve the Lord. If they did, He would turn from them. A covenant was opened with the people of Israel there in Shechem once again in verses 24 and 25.

It came to pass, in verse 29, after these things, that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gash. Israel served the Lord—note this—Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had known the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel.

As the writer finishes up the book of Joshua, he notes that the children of Israel served the Lord as long as Joshua lived and as long as the elders lived, all those who had seen the works of the Lord. This is why it is so important for every generation to see a moving of God in their midst. Sadly, next week we will get into Judges. As we come to Judges chapter 2, verse 10, we see that after that generation was gathered unto their fathers, there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord nor the works which He had done for Israel. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam.

The children of Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, those who had known the works of the Lord. But then there arose a generation who did not serve the Lord and did not know the works of the Lord. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

In verse 32, the children of Israel brought out the bones of Joseph, which they had carried from Egypt, and they buried them in Shechem, in a parcel of ground that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver. It became an inheritance of the children of Joseph.

Joseph, the son of Jacob and the eleventh son of Israel, was the one who went down into Egypt because his brothers sold him into slavery. He ended up becoming the prime minister of Egypt and saving his people. His whole family came to live with him in Egypt. Right before he died, in Genesis chapter 49, he told them not to leave his bones in Egypt. He did not want his body or bones to be left there. They made a promise to carry his bones out when God brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they were going to bury him in the cave he had told them about in the promised land.

For almost 500 years, they carried these bones with them. You may think that's kind of weird, but he was the deliverer of Israel at that point in time. We too, as mentioned in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, are always to be bearing about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. We carry around the life of Christ in our bodies because He is transforming us and sanctifying us.

They brought the bones of Joseph into the land of Israel, into the promised land that God had given to him, and they buried them there just as he had requested. In verse 33, the very last verse says that Eliezer, the son of Aaron, died, and they buried him in the hill that pertains to Phineas, his son.

Which was given to him in Mount Ephraim. In verses 29 and 30, we see that Joshua died. Joshua, as we've looked at through our study in the Book of Joshua, is a picture of Jesus, our Joshua. Then Eliezer, the son of Aaron, died, as noted in the very last verse. We saw several weeks ago that he is a picture; his name means "the helper." He represents the Holy Spirit.

As we begin the Book of Judges next week, we're going to see what happens to a nation when they forget their God. We will observe how their memories become a little gray when Eliezer is gone and when Joshua has died. I believe the Book of Judges reflects where our nation is today—a nation where many say God is dead and we have forgotten our God.

The Book of Joshua recounts wonderful victories and high hills, while the Book of Judges presents great valleys and defeats. Yet, in the midst of it all, we will see that God is good and loves His people. Sometimes God allows us to go through hard times; He allows us to find ourselves in Piah, Hiroth, and Migdal. However, He wants to show us His faithfulness.

I believe we have seen, as we've gone through the Book of Joshua, God's faithfulness to His people. I hope that you have been encouraged as I have. I have learned a lot from these passages. Let us never forget what God has done and what God has promised to do. When we remember what God has done and what He has promised, it helps us see that God is at work right now. Even in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, we have to remember to see the work of God in our lives. We are the light to this world. What a glorious opportunity we have in these dark days to shine brightly.

Let's pray. God, I thank You for this portion of Scripture as we close this text tonight.

I pray that it wouldn't be soon forgotten, Lord, but that You would hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against You. As we have learned and as we have seen the principles laid out before us in this passage of Scripture, Lord, I pray that You would help us to commit these things to our lives, that they would become real.

Lord, that we too would recall to remembrance the great things that You have done, that we would follow the call and the commission that You've given to us. Lord, that we take heed to the caution that's been spoken, Father, and Lord, that we would realize that You, on that day, on that cross, opened a new covenant. Let us never forget that we are in this new covenant, Lord, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.