in the last chapter of the book
of Joshua. Joshua is an old man now. He's 110 years old, scripture
tells us. And these are his last words
to Israel. And he starts off in Joshua 24
in verse one, it says, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel
to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads
and for their judges and for their officers, and they presented
themselves before God. And what Joshua does here now
in his last words to the tribes is he goes back over their whole
history from the time of Abraham, when God made promise to Abraham
through that unconditional covenant made to Abraham. That was an
unconditional covenant to Abraham. And he reminds them of their
history In verse two, look at verse two, he says, and Joshua
said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,
even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nacor, and
they served other gods. You know, a lot of people sort
of try to indicate that when God first called Abraham, Abraham
was not an idolater. But this settles it, Joshua said,
and understand the Holy Spirit is inspiring Joshua to speak
and to write these words. And he tells us that they served
other gods. Abraham was an idolater. And
of course, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter four that Abraham
was an example, a supreme example of how God justifies the ungodly. So in other words, don't ever
think that when God chose these people, you know, you go all
the way back to Noah, you know, the world was in bad shape. But
you know what? The world's always been in bad
shape since the fall. You know, we often, I know in
our day, we look back on our childhood, you know, I was born
in the 50s, and some of you in the 60s, and we look back and
we see that times were better, and they probably were in our
view of things, and economically and politically and all that.
There's always been turmoil, there's always been that big
word, the biggest word in the world, but only three letters,
S-I-N, that's the world. This is a cursed world. So when
God looked, when he sought out Noah, the first thing he says
about Noah is what? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. It doesn't say Noah was looking
for grace, but he found it because God found him. And Noah's salvation
was a salvation in the same way that we're saved, by God's grace
through the blood and righteousness of Christ, even though Christ
had not yet come. But it was by promise, like a
promissory note, that God would send Christ to redeem Noah from
his sins. And it was sure and certain because
this is God. And so this history shows us
something about the faithfulness of God. And that's why I wanted
you to look at Isaiah 46. This is a passage that I often
refer to when I want to talk about history. What is history
all about? What is the main thrust of teaching
of truth that we find in the historical books of the Old Testament? And as God, as Joshua, God through
Joshua is relating the history of Israel. Why is he doing that?
All right. And listen to what he says in
Isaiah 46, look at verse nine. This is kind of like a summation
of what it's all about. And Isaiah preaching to the people
in Jerusalem, he says, remember the former things of old. That's history. For I'm God and
there's none else. That's what God is showing through
history, that he's God and there's no other gods. He says, there
is none else. I am God, there is none like
me. There's none even be compared with our God. That's what history
shows if you're looking at it from God's point of view. And
he says in verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning. Now
that's predestination. That's what, we can declare the
beginning from the end. I often use this, I know how
today has already started. So I can declare the beginning,
but I don't know how it's gonna end up. I don't know what's gonna
happen an hour from now, two hours from now, tomorrow. But
God declares the end from the beginning. He knows because he's
predetermined it. He says, the end from the beginning,
from ancient time, the things that are not yet done. He declares
from ancient things that are not yet done. God's declared
them. And it's not going to take him by surprise. He says from
ancient time, the things that are not yet done saying my counsel
shall stand. In other words, when he talks
about his counsel, that tells you that God is not just looking
at some crystal ball or through some telescope of time to see
what's going to happen. But it's going to happen according
to his counsel, his wise counsel. Ephesians chapter one tells us
that he, 111 tells us he works all things after the counsel
of his own will. So this is not God just seeing
what's going to happen. You know, people today, they'll
say, well, God looked down through the telescope of time and he
foresaw what you would do, whether you would believe in him or not.
And based on that, he chose you. Oh no, that's not the God of
this book. That's an idol, you see? And he says, the thing's not
yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure.
I'm going to do what I want to do. Now God has that right. You might say, I'm going to do
what I want to do and not happen. And what you want to do may not
be right, but not according to God. Now he says in verse 11,
calling a ravenous bird from the East, the man that executed
my counsel from a far country. Now, the reason that Isaiah is,
the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to make this prophecy, is because
after Isaiah, probably around 100 years or more after Isaiah,
was coming the time when God was going to punish Judah and
take him into captivity in Babylon. He'd already wiped out the northern
kingdom by the Assyrian Empire. But Isaiah assures them that
God will, even though they're going to be punished because
of their sin and their unbelief, that God was not gonna utterly
forsake them at that time. He's gonna bring them back. And
this is a prophecy of the man who's going to come and bring
them out of captivity and let them go back to Jerusalem. His
name was Cyrus. You can read about it in the
book of Ezra and Nehemiah. But he said, God's gonna do this.
This is already set in stone. And he says in verse 11, yea,
I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass, I have purposed it,
I will also do it. Now, can it get any plainer than
that? Well, what does all this have
to do with us? What does it have to do with
the gospel? Well, look at the next two verses.
Verse 12, hearken unto me, you stout-hearted that are far from
righteousness. Now, who's that describing? All
of us by nature. What is it to be stout-hearted?
It means to be proud. It means to think more highly
of ourselves than we really are. And he says, you are far from
righteousness. See, man by nature thinks he's
righteous. Or he thinks he's righteous enough
to be saved, to be accepted. Or he thinks if he does enough,
he'll make himself righteous. That's pride. That's idolatry. The God in your mind who accepts
such efforts is an idol. Isn't that right? Because the
true and living God won't, and he says you're far from righteousness. None righteous, no not one. Well
how is there any hope for us then? Verse 13, I bring near
my righteousness. That's what God said. God's righteousness. It shall not be far off. It's
not going to be something you have to achieve and reach for
and strive for. It's not gonna be far off. And
my salvation shall not tarry. Somebody says, are you saved?
Preacher says, well, let's wait and see. No, God says you shall
not, my salvation shall not tarry. and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory. Now who is that speaking? That's
talking about Christ. Righteousness can only be found
in Christ. Now if you go back to Joshua
24, that's the whole message that Joshua's telling these people.
He's saying if you go through your history, and as we look
at it, he mentions Abraham in verse three, He mentions Isaac,
the child of promise, and I've got scripture references in your
lesson to all of this, how for all who've been brought by God
to believe the gospel, Abraham is a prime example of how God
saves by grace, justifies the ungodly based upon the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed, and which we receive by God-given
faith. He mentions Jacob and Esau, how
God said, I love Jacob and hateth Esau. And how this is a prime
example of God's sovereign mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. And how also this is an example
that it's not of him that runneth, nor of him that willeth, but
of God that showeth mercy. This is the sovereign act of
God. It's not by the works of man,
it's not by the will of man. Verse four, he talks about Jacob
and Esau. Verse five, he talks about Moses.
Remember he talked about how God providentially brought Jacob's
family down into Egypt, but he raised up Moses to bring them
out. Moses and Aaron, Moses was God's prophet. Aaron was God's
priest. That was a picture of Christ,
our prophet, and our priest, and our king of salvation, and
how he's going to bring all of his people out of the bondage
of sin and depravity. That's what Christ did. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me
I will in no wise cast out. How he plagued Egypt in verse
six, he talks about he brought them out of Egypt, crossed the
Red Sea, all by the power of God. And all the time that we
see this happening, when we read about it back in the book of
Exodus, the children of Israel were in rebellion. How many times
did they murmur and complain and speak against God's prophet,
Moses? even after the Red Sea experience,
all of that. And then verse seven, when they
cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians
and brought the sea upon them and covered them. And your eyes
have seen what I have done in Egypt. In other words, their
eyes saw what God had done in Egypt. Now this generation here
probably didn't see it physically. because they were already across
the Jordan River now, and they were in the promised land. God had already defeated Jericho,
and now their task was to conquer all the nations and take possession
of the land. They did conquer some of the
nations, but they didn't do it all. We're gonna talk about that
when we get to the next facet of this in the Book of Judges.
They were in that wilderness. Verse eight, God says, through
Joshua, I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt
on the other side of Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave
them into your hand. God did this, that you might
possess their land, and I destroyed them before you. You see, the
children of Israel, they were numerous, but they were a weak
nation. They were fodder for these warrior, nations who had
weapons and you remember when they sent the spies over across
the Jordan to see how the spies described the, they were giants,
they were very well armed, all of that. The children of Israel
in the wilderness were just fodder for the other nations. But God,
see that's who we need, God defeated them. He said, I gave them to
you. He mentions in verse nine, Balak, the son of Zippor, king
of Moab, and Balaam. You remember the story of Balaam.
I didn't include that in this series of lessons, but you know,
the king of Moab, Balak, he wanted Balaam to curse Israel for money,
and Balaam said he would, and when he tried to curse Israel,
God stopped him and he blessed Israel. What does that show? It shows what God has blessed,
man cannot curse. That's right. God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus by his grace and mercy. And whatever man can do to us,
they cannot make us curse before God. Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. So we're
blessed no matter what they say. And this is all based on God's
goodness and power towards them. He talks about Jericho and then
verse 11 talks about other nations that God gave them, the Perizzites,
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites,
the Jebusites, all of these nations. But verse 13, it sort of summarizes this part
of it. Listen to what he says. He says,
and I have given you a land for which you did not labor. You're
occupying and possessing land you didn't work for. Cities which
you built not. You're occupying cities you didn't
build. And you dwell in them of the
vineyards and olive yards which you planted not do you eat. Now right there is a great picture. of God's grace in the salvation
of sinners. What you're enjoying, what you've
been blessed with, you didn't work for it, you didn't build
it, and you didn't plant it, God did. Isn't that something? This is the work of God. This
is what the Lord has done. This is what Joshua was saying
to the people. See what the Lord has done. And that's what we
do if we preach the true gospel. When I preach the gospel, I'm
not here to tell you what you can do, what you can build and
what you can plan. I'm telling you, see what the
Lord has done. And what he say in Isaiah 40,
I bring near my righteousness. You want righteousness, you need
it. I need it, you want it, where
are you gonna find righteousness? Where are you gonna find the
perfection of the law? Satisfaction to God's justice,
perfect satisfaction, where are you gonna find that? Well, let's
get busy, folks. Let's build, let's plant, let's
buy whatever we need. No, we won't do it. All those
efforts are meaningless and profitless. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. It'll come to naught. So where
are we gonna find righteousness? We find it in the glorious person
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death,
burial, and resurrection, all that he accomplished, his ascension
unto glory where he now sitteth at the right hand of the Father
ever living to make intercession for us. That's where we find
righteousness, no other place. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. How do we do that? We believe
in Christ. We rest in Christ. In verse 14
he says, now therefore, now based upon all this that God has freely
given you, fear the Lord. What is it to fear the Lord?
It means to give him the respect and the honor that he deserves.
Worship him, believe him. Serve him, serve him in sincerity
and in truth. You're in a state and a blessing
that you didn't deserve and you didn't earn, but God has sovereignly,
freely bestowed it upon you. Therefore serve him in sincerity
and in truth and put away the gods which your father served
on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the
Lord. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your dead
works and your idolatry. That's what he's saying, basically.
And really, that's the whole message of the Bible, isn't it?
Salvation by grace in every way. We're saved by grace, we're kept
by grace, and we'll enter glory by grace. Now look at verse 15.
He says, and if it seemed evil or unacceptable 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 whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, you
know, a lot of modern day false preachers take that one verse
and try to prove that man has a free will. Choose this day
whom you will serve. Does man choose? Well, of course
he does. But the Bible teaches us that
left to himself, man will always choose wrongly. Now that's the
bottom line. And this is no support for the
free will of man. Man's will is just as much in
bondage to sin as any part of it. How does God bring us to
himself? He gives us a new heart, a new
spirit, new life, new knowledge. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. So Joshua was not saying that,
well, if you'll accept Jesus as your personal savior, you'll
be all right. That's not what he's saying at all. He's just
simply telling, look, if you don't have a will to serve the
Lord, then choose which one of these other idols you want to
serve because it doesn't matter, it's all death. And that's what
man will do by nature. He'll choose his idol. But they're
all idols. It doesn't matter whether you
choose the Hindu idol, the Islam idol, the Christian idol. The
false Christian idol, it doesn't matter who you choose, it's all
death. So if you don't have a will to serve the true and living
God, and who gives you that will? God does. He makes us willing
in the day of his power. Then choose among these other
gods. You've got your choice. As the old Irishman said, pays
your money, takes your choice. They're all idols. You may differ up. You may say, well, I'm going
to serve Baal. Others say, I'm going to serve
Chemosh. Doesn't matter, Baal and Chemosh are dead idols. And
that's all a man can do of his own will without God making him
willing to serve the Lord. All he can do is choose whichever
idol, whichever way of death that he wants to choose. And
that's it. And in verse 16, it says, But
Joshua said, as for me in my house, we're gonna serve the
Lord. God had made Joshua willing to serve him. We're gonna serve
the Lord. Isn't that what we say? Let man by nature serve whatever
he wants, but as for me, I'm gonna serve the God of this book.
And I know this, that it's God who made me willing to do that.
It wasn't just a, It wasn't out of my own innate goodness where
I exercised the right choice, it was God who chose me out and
brought me out by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
verse 16 says, the people answered and said, God forbid that we
should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our
God, He it is, and brought us up 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 people, the Amorites dwelt
in the land. Therefore will we also serve
the Lord, for he is our God. But look what Joshua says in
verse 19. Now the people determined in
their minds at that time to serve the Lord. But look what Joshua
said, verse 19. And Joshua said unto the people,
you cannot serve the Lord, for he's an holy God. He's a jealous
God. He will not forgive your transgressions
nor your sins. And he says, if you forsake the
Lord and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you
hurt and consume you. After that, he hath done you
good. And the people said unto Joshua,
nay, but we will serve the Lord. Well, what's happening here? You know, when I was in false
religion in a seminary, we were constantly being taught different
ways and methods of evangelism. How to get people down an aisle. That's right. Make a decision.
How to encourage them to do so. And I can tell you, Joshua's
method of evangelism was not the way we learned. If you wanna serve other gods,
choose whichever one you want, but as for me and my house, we're
gonna serve the Lord. They said, we'll serve the Lord.
Joshua says, you cannot serve the Lord. Now what's he doing
there? Is he trying to discourage them? No. Joshua's simply recognizing
this reality. that man by nature is totally
depraved, and if God doesn't do a work, if God doesn't intervene
in his power, man will not serve the Lord. That's right. He knew
these people. There were a few who believed
the promise of the future coming of the Messiah. But the majority
of them didn't. And he'd seen these people before.
He saw them when they crossed the Red Sea and Moses went up
into Mount Sinai. Joshua was there. He saw him
make the golden calf, worship it. He saw him murmuring through
the desert. He knew these people. And he
knew that if God doesn't do a sovereign work, man will not serve the
Lord. And that's what he's saying there.
And I believe this too, I believe Joshua knew that this people,
they were gonna fail. I believe he knew that. I believe
he wanted and desired and prayed for the people to believe the
Lord, but he told them the truth. Well, verse 21, the people said
unto Joshua, nay, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said
unto the people, you're witnesses against yourself and you've chosen
you, the Lord, to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses.
Now therefore put away, said he, verse 23 here, the strange
gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the Lord
God of Israel. Did you notice something there?
He said, you notice what he said there? Look at it again. Verse 23, now therefore put away,
said he, the strange gods which are among you. You mean there
were strange gods there then? Apparently. You know, I don't
know where they got them. Maybe they got them on the way.
And, you know, it was common for the Gentile nations to make
little idols, you know, of silver and gold. And, you know, if you're
going through and the people are conquered, you know, it might
be real tempting to pick up one of them little silver idols and
take it with you. You know, that's money. So Joshua, don't put away these
idols that are among you. Verse 24, the people said unto
Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve and we will obey his
voice. So Joshua made a covenant with
the people that day, this is between their leader and them,
and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua
wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a
great study. That's why I believe Joshua wrote
this book. God wrote it through Joshua.
And he took a great stone and he set it up there under an oak
that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. In verse 27, Joshua
said unto all the people, behold, this stone shall be a witness
unto us, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which
he spake unto us. It shall be therefore a witness
unto you, lest you deny your God. So Joshua let the people
depart, every man to his heritage. That stone here was a memorial
of their pledge to serve the Lord. And later on it would serve
as a witness against them when they broke God's covenant. Now
we know that this covenant was conditional towards Israel as
far as their land was concerned and their prosperity in the land.
And I thought about this because, and I've got this in your lesson,
when I read things like this, knowing myself, and you know
yourselves, I am so thankful that our salvation is not based
upon a conditional covenant between me and God. That it's all conditioned
on Christ. And he fulfilled those conditions.
And what you'll see as you go through the Old Testament, you
know this is true, the people of the nation broke this covenant.
But we're saved based upon the terms of a covenant that cannot
be broken. If it were conditioned on us,
we'd be no better than these people here. And that's what
God is showing. That the gospel message of salvation
is not salvation conditioned on sinners. But it's salvation
conditioned on Christ. who fulfilled those conditions
and secured the salvation and eternal well-being of all for
whom he died and was buried and arose again the third day. That's
a blessing. Well, let's finish up here. He says, verse 29, it came to
pass 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 Sira, which is in the Mount of
Ephraim on the north side of the hill of Gaash. And look at
verse 31. It says, Israel served the Lord
all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that overlived
Joshua and which had known all the works of the Lord, which
he had done for Israel. And these elders there, they
must have been young children when they left Egypt, but they'd
grown older now. But it says Israel served the
Lord. There were, in the history of the nation Israel under the
Old Covenant, there were a few times in their history where
it seems that the leaders of the nation and the majority of
the people were in obedience to the Old Covenant law. Doesn't
mean they kept it perfectly now. Because if they could keep the
law perfectly, they wouldn't have needed the sacrifices and
the priesthood and the tabernacle. but they seem to be in obedience.
And idolatrous practices were gone. But here's the point, didn't
last long. When you open up the book of
Judges, you're gonna see this is right after Joshua's death.
You're gonna see that the people fell away again. And what does
that tell us? Well, it says this, if the Lord
doesn't keep us, we won't be kept. And there is no keeping
under a conditional covenant based on the works of sinners.
That's why Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Well, it closes out, the bones of Joseph were buried, that shows
the fulfillment of Joseph's promise to be buried in the land of promise. And of course, this is all the
work of the Lord and in salvation, We continually remember and rest
in what the Lord has done and not what we do. All right.