Joshua chapter 24, and I'm going
to dot around a little bit on the reading today. I just want to pick up a few
verses from the beginning, a couple from the middle, and a few at
the end. So we'll read together in 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. 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 Nachor, and 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. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and
Esau, and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. But Jacob
and his children went down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and
Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them.
And afterward I brought you out. And then verse 14. And Joshua
is continuing here to speak to the children of Israel. Now therefore
fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your
fathers served on the other side of the flood. That's a reference
actually to the river Euphrates. It's not talking about the flood
of Noah's day. It's the river Euphrates. And
in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. "'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 "'and were on
the other side of the flood, "'or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land ye dwell. "'But as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.'" And then verse 29. And it came to pass after these
things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord,
died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him
in the border of his inheritance in Timnathisera, which is in
Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gash. And 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, that he had done for Israel. And the bones of
Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt,
buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought
of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred pieces
of silver, and it became the inheritance of the children of
Joseph. and Eleazar the son of Aaron
died, and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phineas
his son, which was given him in Mount Ephraim. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. The last time we listened in
to these studies from the book of Judges, sorry, from the book
of Joshua, We learned then that Joshua in his old age preached
a sermon. We called it a three-point sermon
about faith. And he told the children of Israel
to follow the Lord, to be obedient to his word, or to cleave to
the Lord, to stick close to him and to stick close to his instructions,
and to learn to love him. as he enabled them to do so. And today we're going to, as
it were, continue on that theme and to hear some of Joshua's
last words. Here is an old soldier preacher
who had fought a good fight, who had led God's people into
the promised land. And in some ways, in doing so,
Joshua is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the captain
of our salvation and who has won for us the possession of
heavenly glory. The Saviour fought for us on
the cross where he delivered us from God's judgment and freed
us from the curse of the law. And then he rose again with the
promise of everlasting life for all who trust in him. And I think
as we come to this passage and indeed to this occasion in the
life of Joshua, we might think that we have come to an end in
some respects. This is the end of Joshua's life. It's the end of the book of Joshua. It is also the end of the period
of the patriarchs and of Moses. Now, of course, Moses has been
dead for quite a long time, but Joshua was still a direct link
to him in the minds of the people. Moses had written about Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and of God's promised land of
Canaan. Moses led the children of Israel
out of Egypt and through the desert and Joshua was Moses'
servant and took over from Moses when the old prophet died. or before Joshua died, he calls
together the leaders of the tribes of Israel one last time, and
he called them to publicly declare their commitment and their allegiance
to the one true God. and he confronted them with a
stern question, a question that demanded an answer. He called
out to them, choose you this day whom you 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 the land in whose
land you dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord. The gods which your father served
was a reminder of the fact that Abraham had been an idolater
before he came to the true faith in the living God. And it kind
of is that Joshua is asking the people, are you going to go back
to the gods that Abraham gave up? that proved to be of no use
to him when he discovered the true God? Or are you going to
the gods of the Amorites, the false idols that they worshipped?
Some of the people were still living in the land and they would
be a temptation to the children of Israel. Joshua asks, will
you follow the false gods of this world or the true God of
heaven? Choose you this day whom you
will serve. Joshua knew that he'd soon be
gone and he would soon be unable to provide the leadership and
the direction for the people that he once did. He knew that
God would punish them for the sin that they committed, and
he knew that he wanted them to be true followers of the Lord. And he wished them to declare
for the Lord. So he provided them with a final
personal example, saying, as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. I think this was a wise move
by Joshua. Sometimes we need to be brought
to make a decision, that we need to be required to make a commitment,
and that's what Joshua was pressing the people to do here. It can
be easy just to keep delaying and not get serious about how
we live and what we believe. Often in the Lord's own ministry,
he too called on men and women and boys and girls to follow
him and to trust him, to leave behind the things of their old
way of life and to dedicate themselves to him. When I preach, I sometimes
speak of a gospel call. This call is an encouragement
to choose Christ and to follow him. And when we study the Word
of God, we speak about two different kinds of call. There's a general
call and an effectual or a powerful call. In the preaching of the
Gospel, there's a general call given to all who hear the gospel
to repent of sin and believe the gospel. So the disciples
were told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature, to Jews and to Gentiles. They were to have the
gospel of God's grace preached in their hearing. and the disciples
were obedient. They went out as apostles, as
messengers of the word, as light carriers, preaching the words
and the works of Jesus and telling all who'd listen about his holy
life and his death and his resurrection. And they told them what these
things meant. That Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And when the
people heard these things, some believed and some did not. Some mocked and some said, we'd
like to hear more about this. Some, like Lydia and the Philippian
jailer, trusted in Christ and were saved. And some were so
offended at the Gospel that they became violent and tried to kill
the Gospel preachers so that they would never have to listen
to the message again. And the general call speaks of
seeking the Lord and of coming to Christ, of trusting the Lord
with all our heart. But clearly, not everyone who
hears that general call does this. So what is it that makes
the difference? Well, The Bible tells us that
no one can trust in the Lord by themselves because our old
sinful nature opposes God. And something more powerful than
a general call is needed. A powerful, transforming change
is required. And this is the effectual call
of the Holy Spirit. It is made secretly in the hearts
of men and women and boys and girls. It is made powerfully
and effectually in the soul of a sinner by which they are brought
to seek and to trust in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for
their salvation. So that this effectual call is
more than the outward message of the Word of God. It's internal
in the soul and it is the result of the enlightening and the quickening
work of the Holy Spirit. So Paul writes in Ephesians chapter
2, you hath he quickened or you hath he made alive spiritually
in your soul who were dead in trespasses and in sins. And this quickening is a new
birth in the soul of a sinner. It's what the Lord Jesus Christ
was talking about when he said to Nicodemus, you must be born
again. I can't. bring you to new life in Christ.
You can't bring you to new life in Christ. The mere word of God
preached cannot bring a sinner to life in Christ. It is a powerful,
creative work of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings
a person who is dead in their sin to trust Christ by giving
them faith to believe. the gospel of grace and peace. We find that described in the
Bible as Lydia's heart being opened or as sinners being taught
of God or being given the spirit of wisdom and revelation and
the knowledge of him. Truly choosing the Lord is the
effect of grace in a person's soul. The Holy Spirit teaches
us to think about sin seriously and genuinely as the Lord makes
himself known in gospel preaching. When I speak to you on a Sunday,
it is my desire to preach the general call of the gospel in
your ear by lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ. But as I'm preaching,
I'm also praying that you will also hear the effectual call
of the gospel in your heart. And when that happens, you will
gladly and willingly declare with Joshua, as for me, by the
grace of God, I will serve the Lord. May it be so, for his name's
sake. Amen.