Turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 24. Joshua 24. We're not going to read the whole chapter this morning, but I encourage you to do so when you get home. But I want us to read the first three verses. The entire rest of the chapter is kind of an explanation or an example of what he's talking about in these first three verses. He's going to say something and then he's going to show you how this applies to us.

Now let's read these verses together. Joshua chapter 24 and verse 1. And Joshua 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.

Now let me just make a quick comment about this. They gathered before Joshua's command, but when they came, they presented themselves before God. You know, we have services here. on Sunday at a certain time. And I call for you to come here. But when you come here, you're not coming here to present yourselves to me. You're coming here and gathered before God. And that's what this is telling us. God has something to say, and he's going to say it through his man. And this man was Joshua.

And Joshua said unto all the people, and that's the next thing. God's man has to say, he's saying to everybody. He's not looking over here at Russell and freaking Russell. He's freaking to everybody there. He's talking to everybody there. He 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 and they served other gods. They weren't just wrong in a few points of doctrine, they served other gods. It wasn't that they were mixed up over the sacrifice and didn't know what to bring. They served other gods.

And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac." That's the son of promise.

Now, the rest of Joshua 24 is just a repetition of the great deliverance that God had done for their fathers, and which he mentions all through the book of Joshua, which led right up to this present time. These things they had experienced just as truly as every saved sinner has experienced the grace and power of God in his own conversion.

You know, after talking about what he'd done for their fathers, now he's getting ready to tell them what God had done with them. You understand? If you're talking to a believer, you can't tell him what God's doing now without telling him what God has done in the past. Because salvation don't begin with you, it begins with God. You see where I'm coming from?

And though it mentions it several times throughout the chapter in the first three versions, he mentions the Lord's hand of deliverance extending to their fathers on the other side of the flood. Now, unless you're totally ignorant of scripture, You understand that their fathers, the fathers that he just mentioned, were not on the other side of the fluke. They were on this side of the fluke. Abraham wasn't born before Noah. He was born after the fluke. You understand what I'm saying?

But here, he says, I took your fathers, Tera, who's the father of Abraham, and your brother, Nacor, from the other side of the fluke. a part of God's salvation that's hidden and it can only be known by faith. And you can check me out on this. You can read the genealogies periodically in scripture. He'll give you a genealogy. And it's kind of an explanation for what he's saying. He's going to give you an example, so he gives that genealogy. So you can go check it out if you want to. verify what I'm saying to you. But you're going to discover that Terah and Nahor and Abraham were all born on this side of the flood, not on the other side. And there is but one way that their deliverance can be understood, and that is by covenant theology.

Wow, what's that mean? I bet nobody here can tell me what that means. God's purpose of grace took Tegra and Nahor and Abraham from the other side of the flood by preserving eight precious souls that entered into the ark of God. And the reason they entered into that ark was to produce the heirs of grace. Now you think about that. Now, there's no indication that Tira or Nahor were ever called of God, but they were preserved to produce them who would be. In fact, that's precisely the reason that anyone existed before or after the flood. And covenant theology, that's the lesson. That's the lesson. That's what Joshua was talking about. That's where he's coming from.

Now, I don't intend to leave that to your imagination to discern or define. You listen close, I'm going to tell you exactly what it is I'm going to teach you this morning. Covenant theology, as I'll teach it, is a framework for understanding the Word of God as a series of arguments, agreements rather, or covenants, contracts. between God and his elect, and in these things, he's unfolding his eternal purpose of grace in Christ, and he's going to distinguish even among the covenants. He's going to distinguish between a covenant of works, or a contract depending on your works, and a covenant of grace, a contract depending on the grace of God. That's what covenant theology is all about.

And this covenant of works is a covenant by which all men are condemned. This covenant of grace is a covenant by which all men are saved. This covenant of works is a conditional covenant and takes place in time. The covenant of grace is a conditional covenant, but the conditions all rest on God. And it's eternal. It don't take place in time. It was established in eternity. The covenant of grace stands or falls on the works of men, and God's eternal covenant of grace is conditioned upon the work and merit of God alone. And it's eternal.

And God has so arranged his creation. Now understand me, what I'm saying here. He so arranged his creation that all men are represented in two men, Adam and Christ. These two. If you carefully read Romans chapter 5, you'll see what I'm talking about. He compares the fall of man, the salvation of Christ, all of these things. He rests all of these things upon these two heads, Adam and Christ. You read the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15 and on and on it goes.

Now let me just cut to the chase. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, in Adam, under that covenant, in Adam, our federal head, our representative, the first man, the man out of whom seed the whole race will come into being. in Adam all die. All die. In Christ shall all be made alive. That's what the word of God says. We're all represented in the garden by Adam. He's the first man and God put him as such under a covenant of works. Now understand what I'm saying. We're talking about a perfect man. a sinless man. God made him in his own image. This was a perfect man. He was sinless. He had no nature of sin. He had no thought of sin. He was a perfect man. And I can't even imagine, maybe you can, but I can't imagine a pristine creation. Can you? I've seen things in this creation, this corrupted creation that was so beautiful we understand in awe. I went up to Canada, where it's not very populated, and went way out on the lake to fish. I'm telling you, that water was about 30 feet deep, and you could drop a penny in there and watch it go all the way to the bottom. I was just awed by the beauty of it. You could take a cup, drink out of the lake. Just get a cup of water and drink it. It was that pure and that pristine. I couldn't find a bottle cap or a cigarette bud or a paper of any kind anywhere.

Now that's a corruptible creation. Can you even imagine in your mind what an uncorrupt? It didn't even rain back then. God caused a mist of the ground to come up and water the tree. So here's this perfect man and he's in a perfect creation. Now watch this. In this perfect creation, God said, I'm going over here to plant a garden. Any of you plant a garden? I know you do. Well, the garden don't look like a yard. Garden's special, isn't it? Got things in the garden don't grow anywhere else. Can you even imagine the environment of living in the garden of God?

So here's a perfect man. He's going to be the head of all mankind. He puts him in a perfect garden, in a perfect environment. And this man fails. and falls. Is there any point to us who are under sin? Is there any point in each one of us being our own head? Need God go through an example after example after example to prove his point? No. We fell in Adam. There's no possibility that any man can please God of himself. He proved that in Adam. You see what I'm talking about? In Adam all die. Why? Because by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. We sinned in him. We're all represented in the garden by Adam. He was the first man. God put him under this covenant of works. He said, you can eat anything you want to in this garden except for this tree. You can't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? Why would God tell him that? Well, first of all, to establish his authority and his trust in God as God. That's the first reason. Second reason is for his own good. Knowing evil, he wouldn't be able to resist it. And knowing good, he wouldn't be able to produce it. Don't eat of that tree. The day you eat of that tree, you'll die. And he did. And we died in him. Are you with me so far?

But there's another covenant. David talks about this on his deathbed over in 2 Samuel 23. That's just a little ways past Joshua. You'll see it there. Now listen. 2 Samuel 23, verse 5. After establishing himself as a prophet, the sweet psalmist of Israel, and a spokesman for God. He establishes all these in the preceding verses leading up to this. David said in verse 5, although my house be not so with God. He's not talking about all my children, and my wife, and my concubines, and my people, and everything else. He's talking about although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me. Now watch this, an everlasting covenant. What's that mean? It means it had no beginnings. It's as old as God. Well, don't it have a statute of limitations? No, it's everlasting. It's everlasting. Isn't that what Paul argues about Christ as our priest after the order of Melchizedek, seeing he has a never-ending priesthood? He lives forever as our high priest. He's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. He's established for me an everlasting covenant.

Now watch this. Ordered in all things. Ordered in all things and sure. Nothing iffy in the covenant. It's a sure, it's sure.

So what's his thought concerning this covenant? Well, here it is. This is all my salvation. All of it. Oh, but what about this and that? There ain't no whatabouts. Not with God. I got plenty of whatabouts with me, but there are no whatabouts with God.

He said, this is all my salvation, now listen, and all my desire. I don't want anything else. I don't want my way. I want His way. His way is sure. His way is ordered in all things. I'm subject to fall. He's not.

This is all my salvation, all my desire, although He make it not to grow, that is, It is a covenant made by God, ordered by God, made effectual by God for a people that he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, and it's not going to grow. It's fixed. It's fixed.

And were it not for this covenant, God would have burnt this world to ascenders when Adam fell. all hope of its future would have went down the drain in Adam. Are you with me? We sinned. The whole race sinned in our father Adam. A perfect man in a perfect environment, standing before a perfect God. Only had one commandment. The law, 600 and some statutes. Adam just had one, don't eat that tree.

Now let me tell you something. You don't believe that we have his nature, you take a little child, a little innocent child, don't know anything. Put him in a room. Tell him he can play with everything in the room, but don't go in that closet. And then go hide and watch where he goes. Where's he going to go? To the one place he's forbidden to go. You'll go there first. You'll go there first. We go astray as soon as we be born, speaking lies. That's what David said. Cry when there's nothing wrong. Just one our way.

This is ordered in all things. Nothing's left out. No extenuating circumstances. No exception to the rule. No contingency based on man.

Now turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Let me show you something over here that'll help you understand what I'm saying. Ephesians chapter 2. Paul starts out talking about election. And then he goes on to say, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. This is all parts of that covenant.

And after defining the stewardship of Christ, clearly laying before us his redemptive work of grace and how he accomplished these things, Paul writes in verse 11, in whom this Christ who's gathering all things to himself, everything that's his, everything that's purposed in him, everything in the covenant, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, just like Israel did in Joshua, being predestinated, that is, by a fixed decree of God according to the purpose of him, now watch this, who worketh all things after the council.

What's that? That's his covenant. That's his purpose. That's the purpose behind the covenant. He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Why? He tells you in the next verse. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.

What's that talking about? That's talking about the covenant surety, his son. God made a covenant of salvation, salvation by grace. He's going to manifest the glory of his name. But man's not fit to be a covenant head. Well, who is? Read about it over in Revelation chapter five. Who's worthy to take this book? God has a book. His eternal decrees, he's holding it in his hand. Perfect God, holy God, holding this book. I've determined to save a people for the glory of my name, and I've made a covenant for them. Now, who's gonna take the book? Who's gonna open the seal? And nobody could be found, not in heaven, earth, nowhere. Nobody could be found.

But the line of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take the book and open the seals, as of a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. That's our covenant surety to Christ, and he comes and takes the book. There's not going to be a future unless somebody can take that book and open its seals, meet its requirements. Nobody's worthy. Whose death is going to satisfy God for the sins of His elect? Huh? Nobody. God not pleased. He tells you that in Hebrews chapter 10. God not pleased with all these sacrifices. There was a river of blood shed throughout the Old Testament. Millions of people bringing each one a lamb to the priest to slaughter. Its blood carried in and poured out on the mercy seat. I can't imagine how much blood was shed. But he said, in all these offerings, God wasn't satisfied. God wasn't satisfied. It didn't put away a single sin.

But Christ did. Christ did. He said, and in the volume of the book it's written of me, I come. I come. Not us. He did. I come to do thy will, O God. And then in John chapter 6, it'll tell you what God's will is that he came to do. That of all which he had given me, I should lose nothing. I'm going to raise it up at the last day, just like the covenant said. And then I'm going to ascend unto my father, and I'm going to sit at his right hand, and I'm going to see to it that every rightful heir receives what the what God has laid up for him. He's going to receive it. And then I'm going to see to it that he's preserved in faith that all the means of grace come to pass, that providence is ordered so that all things will work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Are you with me? I'm talking about the covenant of grace. And then after that, over here in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 13, he said, in whom we also trusted after we heard. You just heard. Now, I'm going to tell you something. If God can trust his son who knows all things, shouldn't we be able to trust his son who don't know nothing? After that we heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, in whom also after that you believe, now watch this, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

And this verse, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14, listen to this. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, talking about the offering of Christ, whereof the Holy Ghost He said, also is a witness to us. This is his part in the covenant. This is his part. For after that he'd said before, this is the covenant I'll make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws in their hearts and in their minds I'll write them. How so? as honored and exalted in Christ. I look at that law, that perfect holy law, knowing myself to be a transgressor and totally unable to keep it.

I was going to move on to the book of Judges, but I found another three messages from Joshua, so we're going to stick in Joshua. But one of them is this. They said, we're going to serve God. Joshua said, you can't serve God. God's holy. How are you going to serve him? Man at his best states altogether vanity and you're going to serve God? You're going to let God? You're going to do this and you're going to do that? You ain't going to do anything. God's holy.

I'll tell you what your only hope is, his covenant. We see that law. That law is written in our minds and hearts as exalted. and honored in Christ. Fulfilled. Listen to me. That law is fulfilled. All of it, it's priesthood, it's offerings, everything. We don't still do those things today. Why? They're fulfilled.

Christ submitted himself to baptism. And John said, I need to be baptized with you. And he said, you allow this to be so for now. because it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Let me tell you something. He fulfilled that law in every jot and tittle. And in perfect harmony with the character and attributes of God, which is what Joshua tells Israel, you can't serve God. You can in Christ.

Not too long ago, I brought you a message. We walk in him. Isn't that what Paul said? Walk in him. That's the only way you can please God. Walk in him. I'd give you a hundred statutes to keep. You ought to do this. You ought to do that. But that don't mean you're going to do them. You don't do them.

Oh, and this is the hope and desire of all his elect. We're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Promise. The Holy Ghost is a witness to us of the effectual work of Christ as our covenant surety. That's what I'm saying.

And then look at this one over in Hebrews chapter 13. I keep reading about the blood of Christ. You've been hearing it since you was a kid, haven't you? The blood, the blood, the blood, the blood. By his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it to you upon the altar.

" And then over in Hebrews chapter 9, he's talking about that one who entered into the holy place one time by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And then he says this, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And that's what I said earlier. You can't serve God apart from Christ.

And the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Peter 1, that blood is applied. Where is it applied? To your conscience. Romans 3.25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.

All right, so what is this blood all about? Look with me here at Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20. I want you to see this in the word of God. I'm not just up here blabbering on about this, that, and the next thing, telling you my opinion and all this kind of stuff. I'm trying to teach you something out of the word of God.

Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, how? How? He had our sins on him. He stood in my place before a holy God and God killed her. He slayed his son. He took him out of the land of the living. That's what Isaiah said over in chapter 53. And who's going to declare his generation? Now watch this. He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. That covenant is sealed with the blood of Christ. Now listen to me. He's the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Does that mean he was crucified back in eternity in the purpose of God he was? The triune God had come to a divine covenant concerning the manifestation of God's eternal purpose of grace in which the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost all struck hands. They were all in perfect agreement. And that agreement was that the preeminence of these things was going to be in the Son. Why? Because he was going to be made flesh, he was going to suffer and die, and he was going to be raised from the dead. It pleased the Father that in him should all forms dwell. He's the surety of the everlasting covenant, and his blood is the blood by which that covenant is sealed.

All hope of salvation by works is already set. It's already fixed. No man will ever be accepted based on his works. It's not of works, lest any man should boast.

Now, let me tell you something. And this is exactly what Joshua was telling Israel at the close of his days. I read to you the last words of the psalmist David. These are the last words of Joshua, a preeminent type of Christ. He's just all the way through the book. God's everlasting covenant of grace has gone before you in provenient grace, even before the flood. I could say the same thing to you this morning that he said to them. God took your father from the other side of the flood. You wouldn't have a father if he didn't. He didn't destroy everybody. Why not? Noah found, what did he find? Grace. Where did grace come from? The everlasting covenant comes from God. And this covenant is a covenant of grace. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

You reckon T. Reaver even thought about that or Abraham when he was a little kid working there in that house of idols? You think he ever thought about that? No. And neither did I until I heard and read Oh, all hope of salvation by works already proved a farce. No man will ever be accepted based on his works. And I'll tell you something, this is exactly what he was telling them over there. God's everlasting covenant of grace, all things are ordered. What's that mean? That means even your bloodline. Huh? Even your bloodline. You wouldn't have a daddy. You wouldn't have a being. In him, we live and move and have our being. That's what he tells us over there in Acts 17, isn't it? And he said, God's already set the bounds of your habitation. Did he do that with Israel and Canaan? Exactly. Your boundary goes from here to there. And yours goes from here to there. Where'd my boundary go? Where God set it. What are you doing in Arkansas? This is where God set my boundaries. This is where he sent me. You follow what I'm saying? And that's the story of our lives, isn't it? That's our whole family all the way back to Adam. Oh, my. Every man born of Adam has a being according to this covenant.

And when God destroyed the world, he preserved eight souls, not because they were saints. I've heard that proved. That's just not so. Everybody on that ark was not a saint. He proved it as soon as the ark landed. Just as perverse as he was on the other side of the flood. He just rolled across on the ark. Not because they were all saints, but because they would produce them who would be. Terah produced Abraham, and then Isaac, and then Jacob. Nacor produced their wives. Check me out, Rebekah, and on and on. All these godly women, they all came from Nacor's bloodline. How come Abraham even had a brother? That's why. That's why. Now, I don't know if that's why Abraham sent his servant back to his father's house to get a bride for Isaac or not. I don't know. But I suspect he knew. But if he didn't, I do. You go back there, boy, that's an odd place to look for a girlfriend, isn't it? Go back to my daddy's house. No, I already come out of there. That's a house of idols. I don't care. God sees being preserved in him, and that's where I want my bride.

Oh, what a picture. God's hand working all things after the counsel of his own will. And because of these mysteries revealed in the gospel, now that's how we know all things work together for good. They're all already stipulated in the covenant, and this is God working it out right out here.

So unlike me, whose water froze and he whined for three days, when your water freezes, give God the praise. There's a reason for it. When your car gets locked in low range four-wheel drive and you have to beg to ride to church, don't go whining about it. It's already covered. Huh? When your business is way up here, and you're just, boy, I mean, the money's just coming in faster than you can spend it. Watch out. Watch out. Something's going to happen, and you're going to say, oh! And you're going to start whining about this or that. Don't do it. This is God's hand. He's going to teach you something. He's going to give you something. He's going to use this for your good and His glory.

Oh, I want to learn that, don't you? I don't want to think about it for three days and then arrive at the decision. I want it to be right now. Right now.

That sin that caused God to destroy the whole world came right on into the new world by our fathers. How? By way of their cursed nature, by their father Adam, nothing changed. Flood didn't change anything. So what was the problem? Why did God want to kill everybody? Why would God just suddenly say, it repents me, I ever made man. Sorry I ever made the person. I'm going to destroy the whole outfit. But he can't. Why? His covenant of grace. He said, I'm going to save this one, and that one, and that one, and all eight of these souls. I'm going to save them because of my covenant. And that word took. God took your father Abraham. You know what that word is? Fetch. He fetched him. He fetched him. He laid hold of him. How? In his covenant. His covenant.

Now, I'm telling you, this is a real offense, as this was demonstrated to Cain and Abel. It was a real offense. Cain brought the works of his hands, and God basically spit on it. I honestly believe he brought ear to corn that day. I think he brought fruit that we'd be astounded at. He was so proud of it. And he took the best he had to offer and he laid it out on the altar before God. And God come by and just spit on it. You know what the scripture says? He had no regard. Boy, if somebody gets up in my face and I don't regard them, I'm going to spit on them. That's what God did. He just spit on sacrifice. Spit on his ears of corn and his potatoes. Had no regard to him whatsoever.

But he come over here to this old bloody altar, and there's blood all over it. Where'd the blood come from? The death of the substitute. He had regard to that, didn't he? No. Abel brought the blood of a substitute. Why? Because Adam taught him what to bring, and he believed it and came. determined in his own heart to bring what his concept of God allowed him to do. And when he says they served other gods, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Well, I don't think my God would do like that. Your God may not, but the living God will. And he tells you so in his word. God said he took their father Abraham, he fetched him, in covenant grace from the other side of the flood, and in that revelation of grace revealed his gospel to him, and in providential grace, he showed him what will be of his inheritance in all his posterity.

He said, Abraham, let me tell you something. Your seed, look up there. Can you count them stars? That's your seed. Look over here at the beach. See that sand? Boy, we love to go to the beach, don't we? Feel that sand between our toes and go down to the beach. He said, you see that sand? Your sea is going to be like the number of the sands on the seashore. Showed it. Well, how's that going to be? I don't even have an heir. You will have when you get old enough to where it's impossible. My covenant said you would, and you're going to have one. Your name's going to be Isaac.

Oh, is this not the story of Christ's open tongue? I was reading her some things out of Joshua 24 later on in the chapter. And God said, or Joshua said, Israel said to Joshua, we're going to serve God. Joshua said, you can't serve God. He's holy. You can't, in your present condition, serve God. No man can. That's what every church in this country is telling folks. Come up here. We're going to get you out of here, and you're going to serve God. No, you ain't. God's holy. How you going to serve him? Nothing you can do will satisfy God or please God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

But they said they was, and this will be one of my next lessons to you in the book of Joshua. He said, I'm going to make a covenant with you today, and you're going to testify against yourself. That's what you're going to do. Because they said no. He said, you can't serve God. They said, no, we're going to serve God. All right? He said, I'm faithful. I'm going to take this as a testimony against yourself, and I'm going to take this big old stone, and I'm going to put it under this oak tree right beside the sanctuary of God.

What's that stone? That's the stone of stone. You see, I'm going to show you what your covenant's worth. Here's the stone. This stone has heard your words, and it's going to stand as a testimony against you, this stone, that stone of stone. Huh? They're going to stumble at the stumbling stone, all down through scripture. Oh, may we, as they did, understand this covenant and live out our days rejoicing in it.

What if God didn't make a covenant? We wouldn't even be here. We wouldn't be here. Wouldn't have a house, wouldn't have a car, wouldn't have a future. Wouldn't have anything. We'd have been burned up in the asshole. He destroyed this whole thing. But God made a covenant. And Christ is the surety of it. And it's as sure as God. May the Lord add his blessing to his people.