May it please God to bless us
this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let us turn to
the book of Joshua and we'll read the 15th verse in the 24th
chapter. The 24th chapter in the book
of Joshua and reading verse 15. And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve,
whether the gods which your father served that were on the other
side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land
ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. We should be very thankful that
God has given to us his word with a wonderful record of the
history of his ancient people Israel and all that they did
and in their many journeys and in their many paths and their
many evil and wrong ways and their many warnings they were
given because we of course today have the same evil hearts that
God's ancient people had and we should never think that well
we're different and we're better than these people And therefore
we won't do the things which they did. We won't disobey God
as they did. Well, we should never draw a
conclusion like that. We should always realize that
we are, of course, sinners of the earth. We're all on level
ground. Everyone who is born into this
earth is a sinner. Everyone. None of us can escape
that situation and condition. And because we are all sinners,
we therefore all need salvation. We all need to be born again
by the Spirit of God. And how easy it is to just hear
such things spoken and yet to really ignore them and just carry
on almost aimlessly in this world. and are more concerned about
our natural prosperity, how we fare in this world, than how
we fare with regard to the condition and state of our eternal soul. The reality is, there's no real
comparison. There's such a great, vast difference
because we live on this earth for such a short time a near
eternity where there is no time and we would think therefore
that we would concentrate so, so much on our eternal life but
sadly that is not so we spend so, so much of our time on our
natural life And we give so little time to the condition of our
eternal life. Well, quite clearly, Joshua was
concerned about that. And he knew that he was an old
man and he knew that he wouldn't have long on this earth. And
therefore, he wanted to bring to the attention of the people
that he'd been leading for a good few years of the importance of
worshipping and serving the true God. And he didn't want them
to be under any misapprehension. He didn't want them to just be
left, as it were, on the side with just some vague notion that
there might be another God who they should really worship. He
wanted to point out to them their condition and wanted to point
out to them the need they had. And so he reiterates to them
how God had led their forefathers. And of course, he traced it back
to Abraham, and that would have been somewhere about 500 years
previously. And he wanted them to quite clearly
understand how God it was who had been with them and God it
was who had guided and directed those who had been their forefathers. He didn't want them to just think
it was just some sheer chance, some sheer situation of luck
which had been with them. No, he wanted to establish in
their mind that God had been with them and so He is the mouthpiece
of God in these verses that we read because we have been told
what God said. And thus saith the Lord God of
Israel. Joshua said unto the people thus
saith the Lord God of Israel. He was God's mouthpiece and we
should recognize, and few people do today, that the people that
God calls to preach the gospel, not because there's any good
thing in themselves, but he has called them to be his mouthpiece. Not because of any virtue in
themselves, but because of his determinate counsel, just like
really he called Moses, and just like he's called Joshua, and
of course he called Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. All those people
were called by God specifically for their position, specifically
for the work they had to do. And that's continued down through
the ages. And we only have to trace it
in history to see how God has used sinful men to proclaim His
Word. And therefore we should never
think, oh well that's some old codger who's just speaking again. We should recognise that as we
come to hear the Gospel, to hear God speaking to our souls, and
God directing us, and God being mindful of us, well, That was
the concern of Joshua as he therefore spoke the words of the Lord. God gave him these words. They
were God's words which he was speaking to them. It wasn't any
words that Joshua dreamt or thought up. It was the words of Almighty
God. And we should realize that also
when we do hear those who preach the gospel, it's not those men's
words, it is the words of Almighty God. And that should perhaps
change the direction of our thoughts sometimes. Do not think, oh well,
I'm not going to listen to that, it's just the words of a man.
Well, if they are the words of God, through a man, we should
recognise they're important and worth our consideration. And so here we have these words
before us this morning and how God speaks through Joshua and
he reminds them of what God's done for them. He also reminds
them of those who tried to turn Israel away and he quotes Balak
and he quotes Balaam, men who tried to speak evil, but could
not, especially Balaam. He just couldn't speak the words
he wanted to. God was in control. And that's
a wonderful thing, to think that God is in control of the words
that are spoken. And so, Joshua comes down and
he tells them, now therefore, having given a brief history
of how God had been with Israel. He says, now, therefore, fear
the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Easy words to read,
aren't they? But they're very great words,
really, because they are very relevant to us. First of all,
to know that we are to be sincere in our worship. Perhaps we look
back in our lives, and perhaps it is so today, when we have
not been sincere at all. In actual fact, we've pretended
to worship. We've come and sat before God
and we haven't worshipped at all. Our minds have wandered
all round. What we've done in the past week
what we're planning to do in the weeks ahead, and we haven't
worshipped at all. What have we been? We've been
hypocrites. What does that mean? We've been
pretending what we're not. Would it be a blessing for us
today that if we're not found in that condition, if we're not
found in that position, And therefore, we hear such words as this, that
we are to serve him in sincerity and in truth, in all honesty,
in the things of God, and sincerely. You know, they're very simple,
aren't they? Just two words, really. Sincerity and truth. And yet, how easy it is for us
to ignore words like that and to forget about them and think
they're not relevant. Well, they are. They are solemnly
relevant. And then he goes on, having made
that very simple statement, he says, and put away the gods which
your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt,
and serve ye the Lord. Now, the reality is that you
and I can be found serving not the Lord God. We can be found
serving other gods. We can be serving other gods
in our thoughts. I don't know, you see. I don't
know who you've been serving this morning as you come here
to set in chapel. If you've been serving the true
God, if your heart's really been involved in worship, you really
come here to hear what God the Lord will speak. Or you come
here just out of duty. You come here just out of tradition.
You come here to fulfill some obligation And you're really
just hoping that it won't be long before there's the Amen
and you can go home and have your lunch. You see, the Lord
looks at our hearts. The Lord looks at your heart
and he looks at my heart. And you and I cannot escape the
eye of God because that eye penetrates into that which nobody else can. Because God's eye looks into
our mind, into our hearts. He knows exactly what we're thinking. No one else does. No one else
does. I don't know, the person next
to you doesn't know, but God does know. And when we think
that you and I have to do with that God who controls our life
on this earth, and that God who has a right to take away our
life, and that God who has determined where we shall spend eternity. It's a very tremendous consideration. And therefore, Joshua was no
doubt under no misapprehension as to the relevance and the importance
of these words that he was bringing to these Israelites. And as we
read in the first verse, he gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem
and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and
for their judges and for their officers. And they presented
themselves before God, so they were all there before Him, before
Almighty God. And therefore Joshua was now
speaking to them the words of God. And so he tells them, and
put away the gods which your father served on the other side
of the flood and in Egypt. And of course, as I've said to
you quite often, The Lord doesn't leave us in a vacuum. He doesn't
say, well, stop doing that, full stop. He tells them to stop doing
that and serve ye the Lord. It's a wonderful and blessed
alternative. And you see, again, for us here
today, we should either be serving false gods, you might say, well,
I don't bow down to any idol of stone or wood. You may not,
but you may have gods in your heart which you're bowing down
to. No one else knows. You may have
had gods in your heart this morning, which no one else knows about. And those are the gods, or the
god perhaps, which you're worshipping. And so we have this statement
here. Put away the gods. which your
father served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and
serve ye the Lord. And therefore, having given,
as you might say, this introduction to all these people now, he comes
and says, and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord. And you may say, well, what does
he mean by that? What does he mean by that? And
if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord. Well, what it means
really is this, that we know that to serve the true God means
departing from things which are not in accordance with God's
will and not in accordance with God's way. And therefore, to
depart from those things may seem in our mind not a good idea
at all. And we may say, well, why have
I got to not, why can't I follow that way? Why have I got to give
up doing this? Why have I got to? It's all harmless
and it's all quite, you know, in my view, clean and tidy. Well, the reality is, does it
lead us closer to God or does it lead us away from God? That's not very hard, is it,
to actually evaluate. To think of that in our lives,
the things that we do and are pleased to do and want to do,
are they leading us towards God or are they leading us away from
God? And that's really what Joshua
is saying here. And if it seemed evil unto you
to serve the Lord, if you don't want to do that, if you don't
want to do that at all, if you want to carry on in your own
way, You've got your own plan. That's my plan. I think it's
a good plan. That's what I'm doing. Then you
see, Joshua then puts this before them. Choose you this day whom
you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that
were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell. He points out the things which
are past, the things which are present. But then he tells them,
but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So really, it's a very solemn
choice that Joshua points out to these Israelites. And it's
a very solemn choice, really, that God points out to us today. Because we should realize that
we have a very subtle and evil devil who is very keen, very
keen, who never gives up to try and turn us away from the things
of God. And he'll lay things before us
in such a way that we think, well, OK, I can justify doing
this. I can justify doing that. But
we should not listen to what the devil says, because he's
very subtle. And I'm sure you know, he is
a great deceiver. He was very subtle. He was a
great deceiver way back in the Garden of Eden to Eve and also
to Adam. And he very subtly said, hath
God said? Has God said? Well, Eve did know, but she told. the devil what God has said.
But the devil said, yeah, but it's very nice, and it's very
pleasant, and it won't hurt you, and surely you can do this. And
she thought, well, perhaps I can. Of course, we all know that was
the tragic sin that entered into the world and ruined this world. And the hymn writer has it right.
when he said, O thou hideous monster sin, what a curse hast
thou brought in. All creation groans through thee. The subtlety of Satan. And so today, we have that same
Satan who hasn't changed. And he knows that his time is
short. And he's very keen to change
the ideals of the word of God. He's very keen to turn us away
from the simplicity of serving the true God. And sometimes we
just need to be reminded of words like this that Joshua has been
able to speak in all sincerity to these people. He was concerned
for their spiritual welfare. He was really concerned and therefore
he puts before them these two signs. Here's the two conditions. You can serve these false gods
or you can serve the true God. Which is it gonna be? And then
he says, well, let me tell you, I'm gonna serve the true God.
Let me set the example. Let me show you what I'm gonna
do. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. Isn't that a great blessing,
isn't it? We have such an example from
a man of God. a man of God who, as we might
say, wasn't afraid to nail his colours to the mast. He knew what was good, he knew
what was right, and therefore he wanted the people to truly
serve the Lord. And as we read on in this account,
it gives really the question and answers. And the people answered
and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve
other gods. And on the face of it, that would
seem a very good and a very honorable answer, wouldn't it? And Joshua
could have retired and said, well, that's fine then. That
sounds OK. For the Lord, our God, he it
is that brought us up out and our fathers. out of the land
of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs
in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went,
and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord
drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites,
which dwelt in the land. Therefore will we also serve
the Lord, for he is our God." Well, Joshua responds, And it's
very interesting how he responds. You cannot serve the Lord, for
He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will
not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake
the Lord and serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you
hurt and consume you. After that, He has done you good.
And the people said, No, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua
said, ye are witnesses against yourselves. They have chosen
you, the Lord, to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. You see, God was the one they stood before
when they made such a statement. And then the Lord and the people
said, the Lord our God, will we serve? And his voice, will
we obey? And Joshua made a covenant with
the people that day and set them a statute and an ordinance in
Shechem. Yes, he wanted them to not forget
what they had covenanted, really, with Almighty God. Sadly, as you read on in the
Word of God, they did not do that because we come on next
to the Book of Judges. As you read through the Judges,
you will see how Israel again and again departed from the ways
of God. They'd made this covenant and
yet you see they departed from it. You may say, well, why was
that? Well, they were relying on their
own strength. They were relying on their own
ability. And the Word of God tells us,
no man can keep alive his own soul. Now, we're not to hide
under such a truth as that, but we are to be aware of it and
to realize, therefore, that we cannot in ourselves truly serve
the living God at all times. But yet we should be concerned
to follow this pattern and choose the true God. As Joshua said,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And as we therefore
venture on day by day in our lives, to be able to question
whether in that which we're doing we are serving the Lord or whether
we're serving the devil. There's only two positions. There's only two positions. We're
either serving the Lord or we're serving the devil. Serving the
Lord will be good. Serving the Lord will be a blessing
to our souls. It doesn't mean, necessarily,
that our lives are going to be easy. Indeed, we're not promised
that. But I'll tell you this much.
We will have the answer of a good conscience. We will have the
answer before God that He is leading us and that He is directing
us. You may remember that many years
afterwards, there was that case when Elijah was on the earth. And there were so, so many people
serving Baal, so many people. And Elijah was well concerned
about it. You may remember there was that
time then when there were the prophets of Baal and Elijah. And they had that test to see
who the true God was, who the true God was, whether it was
the gods of Baal and whether it was the God of Elijah. And
they built this altar and they put wood on it and then the bullock
and tried to produce fire. servants of Baal could not do
so could not do so no and Elijah had questioned them and he said
this he came to them people and said how long halt ye between
two opinions and that meant they were standing in the middle and
they weren't sure who to decide for how long halt ye between
two opinions. If the Lord be God, follow him,
just like Joshua. But if Baal, then follow him. What do the people say? Then
all the people answered him, not a word. Not a word. They weren't prepared
to answer. They weren't prepared to say
which way they were thinking. But, you may remember, Baal's
prophets could not bring down fire. Elijah's God, the true God, brought
down fire and consumed everything. And what did the people say?
He is the God. He is the Lord. He is the true God. A wonderful
demonstration of the power of God. And then another just very
simple illustration. Very different. You may remember
the lovely little book which speaks to us about Ruth, the
Moabitess. And I remember that Naomi and
her husband had gone down into Mayab. They tried to escape the
famine. They didn't go with God's blessing.
They hadn't sought the Lord. They thought, we'll go this way.
It's going to be much better. Well, it wasn't. And of course,
Naomi's husband died and her two sons. She was left with her
two daughters-in-law. She heard that there was now
food in Bethlehem, and she thought she'd return. and she advised
her daughter-in-law to go back. Opa went back, but Ruth didn't. What did Ruth say? Entreat me
not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. Whither
thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God. Ruth had seen the reality of
true religion, which had been set forth to her through the
life of Nehobi. She'd seen that there was a person
worshipping the true God. And she therefore desired to
worship the true God. And Joshua here was concerned
that the people might worship the true God. And so today, the
desire should be that you and I are worshipping the true God. Now the blessing will be when
Almighty God comes and shows to us that we're not following the
true God, that we're following our own gods. We're following
our own way. What are we doing? We're listening
to the voice of Satan. Satan can whisper, he can shout,
Whatever suits, he'll do. And what does he do? To turn us away
from God. What does he do? He turns us
into sinful ways. What are sinful ways? Ways that
oppose God. That's sinful ways. Walking contrary
to God. Walking in opposite direction.
Do those things which are pleased into the flesh and not following
the true God. Sinful ways. Sinful ways will
never bring us home to glory. We shall need the wonderful blessing
of the Saviour. We shall need indeed to be one
who desires to know the Saviour as the great and wonderful God
who forgives sin. The God who comes to us and looks
upon us and causes us to consider our ways. What a blessing that
is. Some of us can look back in our
lives and realise the time when God called us, caused us to consider
our ways. Consider as to whether we were
a true believer, as to whether we were following the true God,
or whether we were just pleasing ourselves and didn't want to.
forsake this and forsake that, and didn't want to, consider
Him. As the Apostle tells us, consider
Him. You see, that's the alternative. We can consider and be taken
up with the trivial things of time, or by the grace of God,
we can consider Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it's
you and I are blessed and led by the Spirit of God to consider
Him and to realize what a great Savior He is. What a wonderful
God we have, who has not cast us off, who has not cut us off. If your life had been taken yesterday,
where would you be? Where would you be? If God had
come and taken your life yesterday, where would you be? And can you
say to God today, well, God in his mercy. Didn't take my life
and cast me into hell. I'm still on praying ground today.
And I desire to truly seek his face. desire to truly seek for
mercy. A true desire to know that the
Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven me. He has taken away all my
sins. In order to do that, he gave
his life. He died upon that cross at Calvary.
He shed his most precious blood. in order to redeem my soul. And we come and say then, my
hope today, perhaps not yesterday, perhaps today, my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Oh, there's been a change. Mercy,
if it has been so, If it's not, may it be so. And may our concern
truly be like Joshua's was. As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. You know, in John's gospel, the
Lord Jesus speaks in the 12th chapter. This is what he says,
verse 26. If any man serve me, If we are
to be one who serves the Lord, what are we to do? The Lord Jesus
tells us, If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where
I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him
will my father honour. Well, if it is our true concern
to be found choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. That was
Moses. Moses had the option he could
have stayed in Pharaoh's palace. No, by the grace of God, He chose
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasure of sin for a season. What a wonderful blessing that
was to Moses. What a wonderful blessing it
is to us today. If God comes to us and shows
us by the grace of his spirit, as Solomon said, all is vanity
of vanity. and vexation of spirit. You won't
believe that unless the Holy Spirit comes and reveals it to
you. You look here and you look there
and you see it's marred with sin. It's only passing. It's only vanity. And yet the
things of God are eternal. The things of God are eternal. and then you see the Apostle
Paul encourages us when he wrote to the Colossians he didn't say
well just just do this you know kind of half-heartedly not at
all this is what Paul says when he wrote to the Colossians chapter
3 and whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not
unto men It's not something to do half-heartedly. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall
receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord God. And my friends today, you see
we have that set before us, that inheritance which is incorruptible
and undefiled. which fadeth not away, or the
poor pleasures of this world, the salters of Satan, which will
vanish away, which we will have to leave all behind, when for
us time will be no more. And oh, may it be then that we
are found forever with the Lord. Well, may we heed these words
today And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose
you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father
served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods
of the Amorites in his land you dwell. But as for me, my house,
we will serve the Lord. And let me just say this. Serving the Lord is a blessed
occupation because the Lord is a good master. The Lord never
lays on us more than we're able to bear. That always helps us
in the path that we're walking in, in that path of serving him. He will never leave us nor forsake
us. So remember, we have a good God. We have the best master. We have
a wonderful favour of being found in. In this position, if God
gives us grace to truly serve the Lord, may we be found numbered
with Joshua and able to say, but as for me, and my house we
will serve.