Last week we looked at the first three verses of Joshua 24 on this subject, covenant theology. That's what Joshua was talking about all through here, is God's covenant blessings on Israel. They didn't do anything to deserve it. They weren't really looking for it. They were in bondage. They were down in Egypt.

But he goes further back than that. He goes all the way back on the other side of the flood, talking about their fathers. And why would he preserve their fathers, who were idol worshippers, except to produce those who shall be heirs of salvation? And he preserved them on the ark, brought them over to this side.

And there's no other reason for that except covenant grace. So that's what I tried to teach on those first three verses. The covenant theology, not the kind that Reformed Baptist teaches. That's a whole different kind of covenant theology. But this covenant is the covenant of grace. And everything that happens in time happens because of this covenant. Covenant theology. And Joshua was telling them, as David, who would follow him, did, that God works everything after the counsel of his own will. These are Joshua's dying words. Those were David's dying words.

He established with me an everlasting covenant. And he works everything after the counsel of his own will. And that all men that are saved under these covenant blessings are going to be to the praise of the glory of God who first trusted in Christ. That's what he's telling them. And he's doing it event by event by event. And he goes all the way back. If he's on the other side of the flood, he's gone all the way to the garden. This week, I have another lesson arising from these things, which I titled Either Or. Now, let's begin where I left off at verse 4. Since nobody read this, I'm going to read it to you. Joshua 24, verse 4. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau. And I gave unto Esau Mount Seir. He went there, and he prospered, and he made a comfortable living, more than a comfortable living. And I gave him Mount Seir to possess it. But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

And you remember the story. And I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did among them, and afterward brought you out. You went down there, and when that first Pharaoh died and Joseph wasn't in power anymore, you become bondsmen. You were used of these people, tormented by them. And I sent Moses and Aaron down there and brought you out.

And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came under the sea. And the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen under the Red Sea. And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians. And he brought the sea upon them and covered them.

And your eyes have seen what I did in Egypt. And then you dwelt in the wilderness for a long season. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side of Jordan. And they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land. And I destroyed them before you.

Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel. and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. But I would not hearken unto Balaam. Therefore, he blessed you. He was hired to curse you, but I overtook him. God overtook that. His authority is far greater than anything on this earth. He just went on top of that, and he caused old Balaam to bless him instead of curse him.

Therefore he blessed you still, so I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and Perizzites, and Canaanites, and Hittites, and the Gergesites, and Hivites, and Jebusites, and I delivered them into your hand. And I sent Hornet before you, which Drave them out before you, even to two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword nor with thy bow.

Now therefore, in consideration of everything you just heard, fear the Lord. He just went back and reminds them of the hand of God in their life. showing them the grace of God that had delivered them and the power of God that had delivered them, the love of God that had provided for them, fought for them, that brought them all the way up to that present day.

Fear the Lord. Now watch this. And serve him with sincerity. You know what that word means? Without flaw. That's what it means. Serve. That's the only way you can serve God. He won't accept anything else. Where does that leave me? It leaves me out, don't it? The only way I can serve Him is take my place as a bankrupt sinner. That's the only way you can serve him. You still think you can serve God? You serve him without flaw and serve him in truth. We don't even know what truth is. I know I didn't before the Lord did something for me. I didn't know what truth was. Pilate, after everything he said, he said, what's truth? He was still confused. Sincerity and truth.

And then in the New Testament, he says spirit and truth. And if you look that up over in John 4, 24, that word spirit has the little s on it. What's that mean? That means our persuasion of the spirit is what that's talking about. The convincing of the Spirit of God in us. That's what that's all about. Spirit and truth.

Now he said, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood in Egypt and serve the Lord. Now here's the verse Armenians love. They'd argue with me about man's free will, and they'd always quote this verse, choose you this day whom you'll suffer. All right, now here's the verse in proper context. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, what you talking about? If it's irksome to you to serve the Lord, troublesome, unnecessarily difficult, overly confusing, if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord in the way that He tells us to serve Him, then choose you this day whom you'll serve.

The God's on the other side of the flood or the God's on this side of the flood? And the people answered, verse 16 of Joshua 24, And 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 that brought us up and our fathers out of Egypt from the house of bondage in which did these great signs in our sight and preserved us all the way wherein we went and among all the people through which we passed. And the Lord drave 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.

Now watch this. Now, I missed a part back there in that verse I forgot to quote. Joshua said, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. And now, that was the statement I just read to you, how they answered him. God forbid that we should do this. We're going to serve the Lord. Now listen to what Joshua says, verse 19. You cannot serve the Lord. He's holy. And he's a jealous God. He won't forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve other gods, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that he's done you good.

And the people said unto Joshua, nay, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua told them what's going on. They said, oh, no, no, no, we ain't going to have that. We're going to serve the Lord. We're going to serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, you are witnesses against yourselves.

You're on trial. You're sitting here. But you're also sitting over here, and you're a witness against yourself. You're going to testify against yourself. What is he going to testify? That you've chosen you, the Lord, to serve him. And they said, OK, we're witnesses.

What's that sound like? That sounds like that other statement. Let his blood be on our head. Huh? And on the heads of our children. They said, we're witnesses. All right? Now, therefore, put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, the Lord our God, will we serve in his voice? Will we obey?

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and sent them a statute and ordinance in Shechem. That's where the ark was. That's where they met to worship. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it there under a big oak tree. that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. Evidently, they pitched the ark there. And he brought this big stone in under that oak tree and set it up. And Joshua said unto all the people, verse 27, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us. It shall be, therefore, a witness unto you, lest you deny your God. So Joshua let all the people depart unto his inheritance. They all went their way.

Now let me tell you a few things. When the Lord began to work in me in such a way that I first become aware of it, can you remember a time when the Lord began to work in you? I don't care how small it is, all of a sudden it wasn't just you. thinking about this and that, it was very obvious that the Lord was working in you. This was something different than just everyday life. I began to see that the men that I'd been listening to and had gone to for counsel were saying things contrary to the word of God. That's my first recollection of when I began to see the work of God in me. Something that I never saw the whole time I was growing up is that these men were telling me things contrary to the word of God. Now, when God begins to work in you, that's one thing he's going to show you.

You know, most men believe whatever the religion is, we need to respect it because it has to do with God. No, it don't. No, it don't. It's satanic. And when he first begins, it's not just this big hammer that comes down on you. It's showing you some things, teaching you some things. Let me just give you a few things. I've been told that if men would take the first step, God would take the rest. Have you ever heard that? But the Bible says that God took all the steps. Don't it?

You didn't choose me. I chose you. You didn't give me life. I gave you life. You didn't birth yourself. Huh? Take the first step, how you gonna do that? You, as I quickened, who were dead. Go down to the cemetery and sit there and beg all day long. You take the first step, I'll take the rest. Huh? They ain't gonna take no steps, they're dead. He took the first step and all the other steps.

I was told that if I'd give my heart to the Lord, he'd bless me. You ever heard that? He's knocking at the door. If you just open the door, just let him have your heart, he'll bless you. The Bible says, my old heart is nothing but a cesspool of iniquity, and by it all men are defiled. That's that heart. You look it up. My wife's been talking to me about it for the last several days. That word heart is singular. It's just one heart. The heart of natural man, it's one heart.

And out of that heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, spornication, and on and on it goes. What would God want with my heart? Actually, the Bible says he's going to give me a new heart. He's going to take that old stony heart out of me. He's going to give me a new heart.

I'm not giving him anything. He's giving me everything. You see how contrary it is? But men are playing on your emotions. I don't even know that they realize it. They think they're doing God a service by doing this. But what they're saying is totally contrary to the word of God.

They called me down an aisle. They had an altar call. After nearly every service, they'd have an altar call. Sing about 30 verses of Just As I Am. And in between each verse, they'd have a little something to say. On and on it went. I was just a little old kid standing up in the pew. I wasn't very old at all. And I was looking around, and this guy said, with every head bowed and every eye closed, he said, if you feel like you need this church to remember you in prayer, raise your hand. And he'd say, I see that hand. And I was just a little old kid looking around, and there wasn't nobody raising no hand.

And he just going on and on and on. It's just a big game. trying to get folks down that aisle. And he'd just keep on and on and on until finally he got a few, you know. Called me down an aisle, gathered around me, told me, said, if you pray through, you'll be saved.

I had no idea what they were talking about. I discovered in the scripture is, that we're born of God through the hearing of the gospel, and prayer is the fruit of that birth. You know, they questioned Saul of Tarsus. They knew how mean he was, and they knew how many people he delivered to death, and so on. And they started talking about him being a saint. And boy, they had all kinds of questions. But one of them says, behold, he prayeth. Huh? What's he doing praying? Well, God did something for him. That's why he's praying. But he didn't pray and then God did something for him. You're not going to call on God until he makes you meet, gives you the ability to do it. You're just going to go on in your life doing whatever it is you want to do.

They told me that I had a free will and that I was the master of my destiny. I could choose the Lord or go my way and be damned. What I learned in the scripture is that I was already condemned. Boy, you talk about a light bulb coming on. I was already condemned, and God makes his people willing in the day of his power.

He told Israel, he said, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they that testify of me, but you will not come unto me that you might have life. Search all you want to. God has to make us meet, and he'll make us willing in the day of his power.

I was told to do good, and God has blessed me. What I learned is, He didn't come to save the righteous, but to cause sinners to repentance. And you know why you can't do good? Why don't I tell people to do good? Because there's none good. How are you going to do good? There's none good.

And then, of course, this one, give and the Lord will increase. And again, the scripture says, what have you gotten that you haven't received? And if you received it, why do you act like you didn't? And then God said this. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. The earth is mine and the fullness thereof, and a cattle on a thousand hills. Why would I come to you? You're a bankrupt beggar. And I'm the God who possesses all. And I'm going to come to you and ask you for something? I don't think so. What would we give to God?

And then this one, they told me God loves everybody. Well, it must be telling the truth, because I see that bumper sticker everywhere I go. Smile, God loves you. God loves everybody. And out of his love, he made it possible that every man, woman, and child's sins could be taken away. All they had to do is believe.

Do you know what that says? That says if you don't believe, every man that don't believe has made his death without a cause. It just made it. It didn't accomplish anything. Can you even imagine in your mind that God would let the death of his son be for nothing?

But that's what they're saying. They make faith the Savior. That's what they do. How contrary these things are to scripture. In fact, the apostle Paul said, if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. That's what he's trying to tell us.

And I can't even imagine that his death would be in vain. But I used to, because that's what I was told. I didn't understand it. I couldn't make any sense out of it. And what they do is they spit out little bits of truth, portions of scripture. I'll give you three of them. You can look at them when you go home.

John 3.16, everybody knows that.

Nearly everything they say, they go to John 3.16.

And then the other one's 1 Timothy 2.4.

And the other one's in 1 John 2.2.

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. All he's saying there is there's just one propitiation, Christ. I don't care whose sins you talk about, there's just one propitiation. Doesn't matter if you're a non-believer, there's still only one propitiation. All right, preacher, what's all this have to do with Joshua 24?

I've just given you examples of a few of the gods that was on the other side of the flood and a few of the gods that's on this side of the flood. It's not that we're just separate in doctrine a little bit. We're serving two different gods. gods of men's imaginations, and then figured in a form which Paul outlines in Romans 1 as men, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

That's the decline. Starts up here with men. God said, you thought I was altogether such a one as yourself, but he said, I'll come show you who I am. It always starts with man. He tries to discern God by himself and his own nature. And then it goes downhill from there, them birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.

Down in Egypt, they were worshiping a dung beetle. Think about that. Down in Yucatan, they worship Kukulkan, the feathered serpent. They worshiping a snake. These are gods of men's imaginations in their figure, just like Paul outlined. Now, let me tell you something. God is spirit. What's that mean? Well, he's called in scripture the invisible God. What's that mean? You can't see?

He's here. In Him, we live and move and have our being. He's not far from any one of us. He's everywhere. Fact is, the whole universe is in Him. You can't go where He's not present. Read the Psalms. David will tell you. I don't care if I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea.

That's where He is. He stretches out the heavens as a tent. He's everywhere present. Christ came into this world as the image, it says in the book of Colossians, of the invisible God. He has no outward image. His image is who he is and what he is. He's holy and just and righteous. He's loving, merciful, gracious, kind, long-suffering. But he's also wrath. power, immutability. He's unchangeable. He's wise.

I don't know if you ever thought about this, but God's never learned anything. Boy, you better hope God don't see that. He saw it from the beginning. He never learns anything. He knows everything. In John chapter 2, verse 25, the Lord said he didn't need anybody to testify to him what was in man. He already knew what was in man. He knows everything. He knew the coin was in the fish's mouth. He's all wise.

And God's almighty. I know he uses that word in here, resist, resisting the Holy Spirit and so on, but I'm going to tell you something. He's irresistible. God is. The reason men resist him is because they don't know him. God's irresistible. None can stay his hand or even question what he does. He's God. He's God. He's everywhere present. And he's holy. Every attribute of God, including his wrath and his justice and all these things, is working in perfect harmony in him all the time with everything.

That's hard to imagine. You and I are most inconsistent people. It's unbelievable how inconsistent we are. But boy, when you think about God, he's consistent. Nothing is ever compromised in the character of God. His wrath never infringes on his love. Never. Or vice versa. His mercy never infringes on his justice. If God loves a sinner and shows mercy to him, his justice will back up that mercy and that love.

Now listen. Every other religion in the world, no matter What the name on the door says is idolatry because the name of God, the character of God, is compromised. It's compromised. If this character is compromised any at all, then you're worshiping a false god.

Now, it's obvious to me that Joshua knew he was talking to two kinds of people, both going under the name of God's elect. The one true chosen of God, he's determined in his heart. These are his last words. He's determined in his heart to encourage them, to motivate them, comfort them. and the other he's determined to warn, to correct, to reprove and instruct. Now watch this, Joshua 24,

14. Now therefore, based on all that I told you, based on the intervening grace of God and the distinguishing providence of God, serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away these gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and down in Egypt and served the Lord. All these peanut gods of your imagination, all this gods of self-will and self-exalting Tommy Rock, what I call it, get rid of it. Isn't that what he's telling them? Get rid of it. Oh, I don't really worship an idol. I just carry this cross around because mama had it. Huh? Watch out.

Jacob getting ready to meet Esau. And he really thought that Esau was just going to crush him like a bug. And he could have. In fleshly power, he could have. You know what he did? He called for his family and said, bring all them earrings, anything that even resembled a god, you bring it to me.

And he buried it under an oak tree in Shechem. Isn't that something? Probably the same oak tree here that Joshua sets up the stone under. I wouldn't doubt that it was the same pile of stones that Jacob built when he reached that agreement with Laban. They said, here's the point.

We can't pass this point. This is the point between faith and idolatry. We can't pass this point, and I'm going to make this altar of stones here. And you can't come to me, and I can't go to you. This is as far as we can go right here. That's as close as I can come to you. Well, what's that? That's Christ, isn't it?

Ain't he the stone? Read Genesis 49, and you'll see who the stone is. He's the shepherd. the stone of Israel, that's Christ. And he's both that living stone that Peter talked about, that we're built up into a holy temple on that living stone, which is Christ, and then just a few verses down from that, he talks about a stumbling stone. Well, that's this stone that Joshua's laying there, it's both. It's both, and it's a witness. It's a witness. And he said, you get rid of all these peanut gods. Get them out of your mind. Why are you still hanging on to this mess? Now look down here at verse 15.

If it seemed evil to you to serve the Lord, which one? The one true and living God, the electing God, the God of distinguishing grace, almighty God, unchangeable God, eternal God, holy God, the God of his people. to seem evil to you to serve him. One man told old Barnard, he said, my God's not like that. And he said, your God may not be, but the true and living God is. He'll sacrifice a nation for one of his. He has and will. Does it seem evil to you to serve the God I preach? Huh? Does it seem troublesome? Boy, that just irks me. Does it seem that way to you? If it does, your so-called free will can now be exercised. Choose you this day whom you'll serve, the gods before or after the flood. Men and women are only free to choose the God of their idolatry. How come? Because they don't know any other God. That's why.

Now Joshua said, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. He knew who he served. And no sooner had he spoken those words than the whole company of elders and heads and judges and officers said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord and serve other gods. That was my first reaction.

I'm not an idolater. I don't worship Buddha or Muhammad or Jupiter or Diana. I'm a Christian. I belong to a local church. I carry a Bible. I read the scriptures. I pray. I give my offerings. But the God of my imagination was not the true and living God. I had a twisted and distorted view of God. And it was more like man than it was like God. Limited. He was so limited.

Now after they boasted about serving the Lord as though they always had and always would, Joshua said this, you can't serve the Lord. Now listen to me. He just told them as for me and my house we're going to, and then he tells them they can't. What's going on? That seemed puzzling to you? It did to me. So why is he now telling them that they cannot serve the Lord? He's telling them they cannot serve the Lord in the same fashion as they did these other gods. That's what he's telling them. Why?

Because he's holy. and he's a jealous God, and he won't forgive your transgressions. Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but God will not forgive your trespasses and sins. Your sins and transgressions have to be paid for. This world of idolaters, they believe God takes this big eraser and just erases your sins. Your sins have to be paid for. Your sins required the death of his son, the suffering, humility.

I can't imagine the humility. He who thought it not robbery to be equal, God made himself of no reputation. Boy, you can look at that for a while. He said, the soul that sinneth shall surely die. If God says that, you can bet it, he's going to have to die. He's going to have to die. How then does the living God forgive sin?

By way of substitution and representation. Somebody has to die in my stead. Is that not the lesson of the whole law of God? Huh? Every time they slay the sacrifice, God's telling you that your sins can't be forgiven without a substitute. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, a bruise for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes were he And to serve the Lord is to take our place as ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinners being saved by grace. That's what it is. To serve the Lord is to take your place as a bankrupt beggar. That's what our Lord said to his disciples.

Now listen to him. He said, If you will follow me, deny yourselves. What's he talking about? Is he saying if you want a Pepsi, don't drink one? No. He's saying deny yourselves. Deny that there's anything in you worth saving, that there's anything in you that I want or could use to save you. Deny yourselves totally, completely. Deny yourselves. Take up your cross and follow me.

That's the only way you can serve the Lord. We serve him, that was his purpose from the beginning, isn't it? To save sinners, to manifest the glory of his great name. I have to take my place as a sinner. That's how you serve him. And if he has something else for you to do, he'll qualify you to do it. You ain't gonna muster it up, huh? I think I'll just be a preacher. You better think about it. You won't without his hand. But Israel, or at least some of them, insisted that they could.

And so the man of God says this in verse 22, your witnesses against yourself that you've chosen you the Lord to serve him. And they said, OK, we're witnesses. And so he made this covenant with the people. Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone, set it up under an oak by the sanctuary of the Lord. And it's very much akin to the words between Laban and Jacob in Genesis 31. Or you can look at Genesis 35, where Jacob built an altar, buried all the strange gods and earrings among his people. And then look at Genesis 49, where he tells you what the stone is.

He's the shepherd. And having now fully made known his words and his covenant with them, he sends the people away. Did he have full confidence that all of them understood it? No. No. And no preacher ever does. No man of God ever does. But he commits those things into the hands of God.

That's what he did. Now, he said, you go back to your land. You know the boundaries of it. You know what's demanded of you. We've set this stone here. And it'll be to the believer a living stone or to the unbeliever a stumbling stone, one or the other. And it'll always be over this issue, who God is. Who God is. Isn't that right? Who God is. That's what Joshua's telling them. May the Lord teach us all this lesson.