Seeking once again the Lord's
help to enable me to speak to you, I'd like to draw your attention
to the chapter that we read together, Joshua 24, and the text you will
find in 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 fathers
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." At the end of Joshua's life,
after he had led the people of Israel through the River Jordan
and into the Promised Land and defeated Jericho and divided
up the land into their families. and now he comes to the end of
his life and he gathers the people together to encourage them and
to cause them to make a covenant that they would continue following
the God of Israel, the God who led them forth out of the land
of Egypt and he He encourages them by reciting what the Lord
has done for them. He takes them back in their history
all the way back to Abraham and how Abraham was brought out of
his land and how he was with his terror, his father, and they
were brought out from the other side of the river and they had
been brought from serving the gods of those people and how
the Lord chose Abraham and his seed and how that seed, that
family multiplied as the Lord directed them and then how Joseph
went into Egypt and there they multiplied and there the Lord
raised up Moses and how the plagues took place and the Lord defeated
the people of Egypt and how he brought them through the Red
Sea and how he blessed them and guided them and provided for
them as they wandered in the wilderness for a long time and
then as he eventually brought them into the promised land. And so Joshua lays before them
this is all that the Lord has done for you he is the true and
the living God there is no other God beside him and then he compares
the true and living God with the original idols that Abraham
used to worship and then the idols that they brought out of
Egypt and he gives them a choice Here is the true and the living
God. All you have for these idols
of the people round about you or the idols that your great-great-great
grandfather Abraham used to worship. Choose this day, he says, whom
ye will serve. This morning we looked at Martha
and Mary and how they made different choices. Martha chose to serve
and to give herself wholly to the service of Christ and in
doing so neglected the spiritual side of sitting at the feet of
the Lord Jesus and Jesus rebukes her and says to her that there
is one thing that is needful and Mary has chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from her. And so we saw
that it wasn't the choice of her salvation, but it was the
choice that she made to sit at the feet of Christ rather than
to busy herself in housework, in being a hostess. But she rather she chose to sit
and to feed off the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so the People of Israel are presented with a choice. Who are you going
to serve? You see all that God has done
for you and for your fathers, for Abraham and for Moses and
the passage through the Red Sea and all of these wonderful things
and now you have inherited a land in which you have not labored,
you have houses, you have vineyards, you have olive groves, all of
these things you eat and you are satisfied and it's all because
of the hand of Almighty God. Even there are people that were
driven out of their land not by you but by the hornets or
the wasps that God used to drive out those people before. You
didn't even have to fight in some occasions and yet when he
looked around he still saw There were those who were cleaving
to their idols. There were those who were still
cleaving to those gods that they had brought out of Egypt. They
were still looking at the gods that were around about them.
And he says to them, put away those gods which your fathers
served and serve the Lord. And he asked them a question.
If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose who you will
serve. If it seems burdensome to you,
if this God who has done all these great things is a burden
to you, he's tedious, he's unreasonable, he's a hard taskmaster,
then continue on with your gods that you see round about you.
If you think that this Lord, this Jehovah is a hard taskmaster,
if he burdens you with so much then choose today you are going
to serve but don't try and hold them both in the same hand, don't
try and have God reigning in one side of your heart and your
idols reigning in the other side of your heart for it won't work. In verse 19 he says 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 so he was concerned for these people. He understood that they
were not wholeheartedly following the Lord and that he knew that
if they continued in this double standard that God would not show
them mercy he would come in judgment upon them and he says to them
you can't serve God in the way that you are continuing to do
so at this present time you can't do it for God is a jealous God
he is a holy God he will not have any other gods before him
And so he says, rid yourselves of the idols which you had, the
gods which you had from the land of Egypt. Rid them from amongst
you and serve the true and the living God. And so he warns them. You can't have both. You can't have one foot in the
world and following the world and you can't have the other
foot in the church or with God. God does not share his throne
with anyone. He is either on the throne of
our lives or he's off the throne. He's a jealous God and he will
not rival, he will not have a rival within our hearts. Encouraged
by the hymns that we have been singing about the idols, tear
each idol from our hearts. And Joshua says, I'm drawing
a line in the sand here. And I want you to decide today,
who are you going to serve? Are you going to continue serving
those gods that are no gods? Or are you going to serve the
true and living God? But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. He says, I don't care what you
lot are going to do. You do what you want to do. But
I'm drawing a line in the sand and either you're with me you're
not. Either you're with the Lord or
you are not. Either you are following the
Lord or you are following the other gods. And so he asked them
the question, choose you this day whom you will serve. I'm
thankful that this is written in the Bible for if I was to
declare this from the pulpit, choose today who you will serve,
I would have letters written to me from all over the place. But it's here in the scripture
and it is God speaking through his prophet Joshua to the people
of Israel who had been brought out, they were God's people.
they had been corrupted by the environment that they lived in
and so God comes to them and says make a decision which side
of the line are you going to stand because I'm not having
you stand with one foot on one side and one foot on the other
you must be on the left or the right you must be with Joshua
or you will be outside or not with Joshua choose who you will
serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Often
in many Christian homes you go into and you see this as a plaque
in the house but as for me and my house we serve the Lord. It's interesting when you look
at the word serve In the New Testament a deacon is one who
serves. He is a waiter we would call
it. But here in the Old Testament
it also can be translated as a slave or one enslaved by or
one who worships. And if you think about someone
who has an idol or someone who has a god They are enslaved by
that one. It is their object, their focus,
what governs their life, what directs them. And so you become
chained to or linked to or governed by or ruled by the one that you
worship or the idol. The idols of the Old Testament
were served because of fear. The people always sought to appease
them so that bad things wouldn't happen. The idol of Molech and
the people of Moab, they offered their children to the idol and
to appease the god. And we find even today, even
in Kenya, they live in fear and they're always seeking to appease
the gods. And so they live as slaves to
fear, always seeking to appease. But God, the true and living
God, is worthy of our worship. He is worthy to be served. He is worthy to be the object
of our devotion Joshua says as for me and my
house we will serve the Lord we will worship the Lord we will
be servants or slaves to the Lord. Now I know that we have
a bad we don't like the word slaves In our minds, we immediately
go back to the slave trade and we think of the horrendous things
that took place with the slaves there that were chained in ships
and taken captive by force. And immediately in our minds,
we think of a slave who is chained and whipped and cruelly treated. But in the scripture, it was
not like that. The Jews were given strict instructions
as to how they were to treat their slaves. And those in the
Greek and the Roman times, obviously there were some who were cruelly
treated, but there were many, many slaves in the Roman Empire
who were well treated. And in the scripture it tells
us that on the seventh year there were those Jewish slaves who
were able to be released and there were those who volunteered
to continue to serve their master because they were good masters.
Their families were there and so there was a process of the
boring of the ear. and where the slave who had the
right to go free volunteered himself to serve his master for
the rest of his life. And so he would have a nail borne
through his ears so he'd have a hole in his ear and he would
be a bond slave, he'd be a slave for the rest of his life. But it was the choice that he
made. He willingly volunteered himself
because he felt that his master was a good master. And so when
we read in the scripture, in the New Testament that we are
bond slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not to be filled
with horror. And our minds are not to be cast
back to the slave trade in Africa when the horrendous things happened
there. But we're to view it as it is
played out in the scriptures that Christ is a worthy master. he has brought his people with
his own blood and he loves them he is not a hard task master
he says my burden is easy my yoke is light and he loves those
who are under his authority and they serve him. The apostle Paul
calls himself Paul a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ I looked
up the word the meaning of it. The word in the Greek is called
doulas and it's a slave or a bondman and that is somebody who works
for nothing. A servant is someone who receives
a wage they work they receive a wage at the end of the day
but a bondman or a slave is someone who has no will of their own
they are owned by their master and they receive nothing so they
work for nothing one who has given up himself to the will
of another or devoted to another to the total disregard of his
own interests and surely that is what a Christian is. Someone who has been brought
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and they are willingly
serve the Lord Jesus Christ. As for me and my house we will
serve the Lord, we will work for nothing we will give ourselves
up to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will devote ourselves
to the utter disregard of our own interests and that is what
Joshua is setting before the people. You're going to serve
these idols or you're going to serve the true and the living
God you going to be his bond slave? You have no right to receive
anything from him. He has created you for his own
honor and for his own glory and he has called you to himself
and we are called to serve him and to obey him and to have no
other gods before him and to live in total disregard for our
own interests and our own will but to serve the one and true
living God. Not out of fear. The idols cause
people to fear. the true and living God is a
fatherly figure to his people. We live in utter respect and
devotion, not a terrifying fear but a fear of offending our holy
God. He says, for he is a holy God
and a jealous God. in Kings. Elijah comes to the same point as Joshua. Things have deteriorated again.
The people are going after other gods and he says, I've had enough. Who are you going to follow? First Kings 18. and the account
of Mount Carmel. And we have the prophets of Baal,
and we have Elijah by himself, and the plan was that the altar
would be built, the sacrifice placed on top, and the God who
answers prayer would come, the true and living God would reveal
himself. And so Elijah says to them, in
verse 21, Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long
halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered, Not
a word. See again, which one are you
going to choose? the true and living God or Baal
and the idols. You can't hold them two in different
hands you can't hop between two opinions either you are one for
the Lord you are serving the Lord you're utterly devoted to
the Lord you've sold yourself out to the Lord or you are following
the world and you have sold yourself out to the world and you have
your as I've said utter disregard
for your own interests you are following the things of this
world and you cannot have them both You can't come to chapel and
pretend that you're a Christian and you're following God and
you're sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ and on Monday you hop
onto your other foot and you go along Monday to Saturday and
you're worldly. You're halting between two opinions. You're trying to have God in
one hand and you're trying to have the world in the other.
He says, how long are you going to halt between these two opinions?
If God is God, if Christ is your savior, then follow him. If he
is not, then forget it and follow the ways of sin. But you will
reap the consequences. And we see that the true and
living God appeared. The prophets of Baal, they dance
around, they cut themselves with stones until the blood gushed
out of them and in the end there was nothing. All their efforts
came to nothing. They served a vain, useless God
that is no God at all. But in verse 38, it is Elijah's
turn. Or verse 36. came to pass at
the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice at Elijah,
the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and
of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel
and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things
according to thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou
hast turned their hearts back again.' Then the fire of the
Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and
the stones, and the dust, and licked up all the water that
was in the trench. And all the people saw it, and fell on their
faces, and they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is
the God. They realised that their previous
life had been an utter waste of time. They had been spending
their strength for nothing and now the Lord appears and proves
that he is the true and living God by answering the prayer of
his servant. And so God says, Who
will you choose? God says, why do you halt? Why do you hop from one foot
to the other? Who are you following? In the
book of James, it tells us that we shouldn't be double-minded
people. And Jesus tells us in Matthew
chapter six and verse 24, No man can serve two masters
for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and Mammon. You can't have two. objects of
affection and hold them in perfect harmony together. You will either
love one or hate the other, you either despise one or you will
elevate the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. The word mammon means wealth
or worldly things possessions everything which is passing away
and so God says you can't have me and the world. I will not share my throne, I
will not dwell in a heart that is divided, I will not be in
a place where there are other idols, the idols that we have
must be removed and Christ must reign, we must be utterly devoted
to him to the total disregard of our own interests, he will
not have our will and his will. Christ said not my will, but
thy will be done. And a servant or a slave has
no will of his own, he is under the authority of his master. He is owned. If his master says you do this,
he does it. You go there, he does it. He has no will of his own and
if he has a will of his own then he will be in trouble For he
will reason with his master. And so God says, you can't have
me and wealth. It doesn't mean you can't be
rich. It doesn't mean you can't be wealthy. It doesn't mean you
can't have material things. But those things cannot reign
in your heart. I've met with some businessmen
in my life And some say that Christianity cannot be mixed
with business. And when you examine their life
that's exactly how they govern things. When they've got their
Christian hat on then they are Christian. But as soon as they
put their business hat on, they become another type of person,
ruthless and no grace, hard-hearted and unmerciful. And so that's
what Jesus is saying, you can't have me and I don't affect your
whole life. I will not share my throne with
another god, I will only reign there by myself. So which line, which side of
the line are we standing? Choose today, he says, who you
will serve. The world, Satan, wealth, or
the true and the living God? Who is it that we really worship. I'm trying
to think about this, how do we know if we have any idols in
our life? How do we know whether God is
truly the object of our worship, the object of our devotion? And really I think it can be
decided by we think about? What governs
the decisions that we make? Why do we make the choices that
we do make? Who is the object of our thoughts
day by day? I know we all have busy lives
and there are many things that occupy our minds How often do
we think about God? Or is it that we think about
money? Is it that we think about our
future? Is it that we think about our
friends? Is it that we think about our
plans and our will and what we are going to do? And all those
things can become our gods the object of our focus object of
our time and God gets pushed down to the bottom of the pile
like Martha Cumbered about much serving, not interested at sitting
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Mary found that good
place. Christ was her object of focus. Christ was her object of worship
and she was devoting her time and herself to feed from his
word. Joshua here, he says, as for
me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. That's what
he wanted for his family, that's what he wanted for them to come
to know to serve the Lord as the man of the house, as the
elder of the family, as the head of the home. That is what he
desired for all of those under his authority. He was going to
seek to gather them around himself and to say, me and my house,
we are going to serve the Lord. I'm going to do my utmost to
instill in those under my authority that right way, that true way,
that living way to serve God. Joshua wanted the people of Israel to purify
themselves. He didn't want the people of
God to be contaminated with the idols of the world. He didn't
want the strange gods from around about coming in to the people
of Israel. He knew that the people of Israel
were God's people and that they should be devoted to God and
he didn't want that external influence to destroy the relationship
that they had, that covenantal relationship that they had with
the Lord. And so he wanted them to purify
themselves. And that thought brought me to
the New Testament. because that is exactly what
Paul wanted for the people of God. He knew that these people
had been born again and they had been brought out of the world. And he knew that there were many
temptations that would seek to allure them back. He knew that
there would be those times when they would hop back into the
world and hop back into religion. And he wanted them to be pure,
unworldly, be uncontaminated by the influence that was around
about them. As Joshua wanted Israel to be
pure from idols, So Paul wanted the church to be pure from sinful
outside influences. 2 Corinthians 11 from verse 1
it says, Would to God that ye could bear with me a little in
my folly, and indeed bear with me. He says, For I am jealous
over you with a godly jealousy. Do we read about God that he's
a jealous God? Paul says, I am jealous over
you with a godly jealousy. As Joshua was jealous over the
people of Israel and with a godly jealousy, he wanted them to be
pure. He wanted them to be God's people. He wanted them to serve
the Lord as he served the Lord. And he said, as I follow Christ,
follow me also. Step this side of the line. He says, for I have espoused
you to one husband. I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ but I fear lest by any means the serpent that
beguiled thee through his subtlety so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. That was Paul's fear. He had ministered the Word of
God and he had seen the Holy Spirit move and bring about salvation
to those who were once idol worshippers, dead in trespasses and sins and
he was worried. He was concerned that the false
preachers would come and lure them away and that Satan, how
he beguiled Eve, as he tricked Eve, he was so concerned that
this beautiful bride of the Lord Jesus Christ would be corrupted
by external influences and sin and he says I am jealous over
you and surely this is the heart of a true pastor or a true husband
he is jealous over his flock He is jealous over his family. He doesn't want them to be influenced
by the worldliness and the ungodliness and the dangers that are around
about. He doesn't want those beautiful
white sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ to be contaminated by
the things of the world and so he is jealous over them. He wants
them to be knit together with Christ and to be pure and to
be chaste. What does that mean? Chaste means pure from worldliness. It means innocent. He says I have married you I
have espoused you, you are engaged to one husband that is the Lord
Jesus Christ. You imagine those of us who are
married and you saw your wife or you saw your husband being very close to another person. How it would make you feel. I
know some know how it makes you feel. And Paul says, I've engaged you
to a husband. And he doesn't want that female,
that bride of Christ's to go off and to flirt with other men
or the things of the world. He wants her to be chaste, he
wants her to be pure, he wants her to be unworldly, he wants
her to be innocent. Satan wants to draw us aside
and he uses all manner of temptations to seduce us to deny and to cheat
we can say cheat on the Lord Jesus. But not only does he use the
word chase he also uses the word virgin and we know a virgin is
somebody who is untouched are untouched, they are pure but
also it can mean free from idolatry and he wants the church to be
pure, untouched and free from idolatry and worldliness And
that was his desire for those who had been saved. He wanted
to present these people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear Lord
Jesus, this is the church of Corinth and I want to present
them to you as pure and chaste, unworldly, not drawn aside or those who
have not flirted with the things of this world. And that was his desire. I am jealous over you and I can
say that I am jealous over you. My desire for this church is
that you also may be presented to Christ as a chaste virgin
pure and undefiled that I have sought my utmost to teach you
the Word of God and to present to you what the Scriptures say
and as Joshua says, today who are you going to serve? As you
go out of these doors which way are you going to go? Are you
going to go back into the world tomorrow? you're going to continue
being wholly devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ with total disregard
for your own interests and to be a slave of the Lord Jesus
and to say Lord what do you want me to do? Is this going to contaminate
me? Is this going to make me cheat
on you? Is this like I have committed
adultery with another? Am I meant to be going here? Am I meant to be doing this?
Is this really the pathway of a true believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ? And we're to ask ourselves questions
because we have to make choices as believers. What do I do? Is this the godly way? Is this
the way that Christ would want me to go? Is this where Christ
would want me to be? Is this where Christ would have
me to appear? There was one young man who asked
his father if he could go to a big football match. The boy wasn't a professing Christian
at the time, but his father was. And so he asked his dad, Dad,
I want to go to this football match. And his dad said, OK. Let me ask you a question. What
would you do if the Lord Jesus Christ arrived when you were
there? Surrounded by worldliness, the boy chose not to go. You see we are presented always
with choices. We can either say yes and we
can deny the Lord Jesus Christ and go after our own hearts or
we can say no. Who will you serve? God or worldliness? Who will you serve? Christ or
the things of this world. Choose this day whom you will
serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. There's
one more reference that I had here Ephesians 5 from verse 25. It says husbands love your wives even as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he
might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish. And so that is the desire of
the Lord Jesus Christ that his bride, that is all of those who
are in him, those who have professed Christ, those who are truly born
again of the Spirit, his desire is that they may be sanctified
by the word as it is like washing of water by the word that he
might have a glorious church presented it to himself without
wrinkle, without spot, without blemish but holy. That is the desire of the Lord
Jesus so we know that he himself has cleansed the church of all
sin they are justified in his sight yet we are left to walk
the narrow way that leads to life, we are left day by day
to make decisions regarding what is godly and what is worldly,
what we bring into our lives, what we reject, from our lives. The people of Israel as they
walked through the nations they began to bring this idol, that
idol, that girl, that boy and they began to be corrupted by
their choices that they made but Joshua says God will not
reign together with an idol. Choose today who you will serve
walk through this world with blinkered vision and make the
right choices. Not as Martha, Martha thou careful
and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and
Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away
from her. Choose you this day whom you
will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. We will be utterly devoted to
God with a total disregard for our own interests, we will serve
him and not expect anything from him because we have been brought
with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not
our own, we have been brought with a price. May the Lord help
us then to make right choices and to serve the true and the
living God. Amen. We'll sing our final hymn today
from Hymns for Worship, number 161. Forth in thy name, O Lord, I
go, my daily labour to pursue thee, only thee resolve to know
in all I think or speak or do. Hymns for Worship, number 161,
tune 401. O there in thy neighbour, Lord,
I go, My daily labour to pursue, Thee, O near Thee, restful to
know, ? In all I fear, thoughts speak of death ? ? At last I
wish them at their sight ? ? The wrath that they cheerfully foretell
? In all my works thy presence guide, And through thy good will
and perfect will. Ye may I say that my right hand
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? Give me to build the easy road,
and every moment watch and pray, and still to things eternal look
and listen to thy glorious day. Oh, we delight fully employed
? Whatever help Jesus Christ has given ? ? And run my course
with faith and joy ? ? And bless ye all with thee to dwell ? Almighty God, again we thank
Thee for Thy Word and the history of Thy people and how we can
relate to the many temptations and the influences of those things
round about us, but we pray that We may be granted that ability
like Joshua to say, as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord. Help us to stand the right side
of the line. Help us to worship thee and thee
only and do remove from our hearts any idol that we have raised
up in thy place and do enable us to be wholly devoted unto
the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that thou
dismiss us with thy blessing to be with the brethren over
the next coming weeks. Do bless the ministers of thy
word who will come and minister amongst them. We ask, Lord, that
there may be those divine appointments great spiritual blessings. We
pray that the saints would be fed from thy holy word and that
there were those who might be born again of thy holy spirit. Do edify thy people we pray in
the coming weeks and we ask that all may be done for thy honour
and for thy glory. Do dismiss us then with thy blessing. watch between us while we are
apart and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
of God the Father with the fellowship and the communion of the Holy
Spirit do rest and abide with us each now and for evermore. Amen.