“As For Me...” • 12.27.21 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- I will not hide the fact that I love the final week of any given year. It is a joy to look forward, to anticipate what is before us and to strategize for a more faithful walk.
- Along these lines, it is not difficult to find scriptures that clearly call upon us to consider that ethic. The passage that has most impressed me at this time is the one that we have just read.
- These are, in my estimation, the most choice among Joshua's final words to Israel. Before we consider them in earnest, allow me to quickly recap what precedes this part of his address.
Text
- As you can see from verse 1, Joshua has called a gathering of the leadership of Israel. Elders, chiefs, judges and officers are all present in Shechem.
- They are gathered "before God" and it is clear by the seventeen times that the word "I" appears that it is He that speaks through Joshua. The Lord furnishes them with a history lesson.
- You and I may bristle at the thought of another history lesson, but that is often precisely our problem. History is only a burden to those that have not experienced any pain.
- It's fascinating how important our personal history becomes when we experience a crisis. "What did this person do" or, "how did they handle this challenge," become staple questions.
• "There are three things you should never forget: Who you are, where you've come from and what you stand for." Unnamed Speaker referenced by Sandy Adams
- That is the danger facing the people of Israel as they gathered at Shechem, itself a place of interesting history. It is the location where God called his people to commitment at least five times.
- I'd encourage you to seek these out on your own. Suffice it to say, history is an important teaching tool. This is why the Apostle Peter seems compelled to write the Christians of his day.
- Why did he repeat himself? He wanted them to have a reminder after his decease. (II Peter 1:15) Paul would say the same things to the Philippians because it was "safe."
- The word there refers to be unable to fail. It allows them to be secure in their walk with the Lord and be in a state of rejoicing. (Philippians 3:1) This is the Lord's intent through Joshua here.
- The nation's roots, as they are reviewed, were not necessarily flattering. Their progenitors, Terah and Abraham were originally idolators in Ur of the Chaldeas. (v.2,3)
- Their national ancestors were slaves in a land of idols, until the Lord crushed those enemies and freed the people from their Egyptian slavery. (v.4,5)
- God delivered them from active threats, drowning the Egyptian army and dealing with the unseen threats of Balak and Baalam. (v.6-10)
- God would only allow Balaam to bless the people, infuriating his Midianite employer.
- Then, this very generation experienced the power of God as they successfully marched through the land that they were now sitting in, from Jericho onward! (v.11,12)
- The Lord speaks through Joshua at verse 13, summarizing the entirety of their current status as a "developing nation" inside her new borders.
• Joshua 24:13 : "I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’" : Is this not a succinct testimony of all Christians? God has done it all! He has acted with all grace toward us before we ever knew a thing about Him!
- We have come into "a land," a walk with God, that we would never have worked for!
- He has built our lives upon the Rock and has fed us with the best that His land has to offer! We didn't deliver ourselves, nor would we ever have been able to give ourselves this life!
- As the Hebrews inherited their physical land, we have inherited the spiritual land and it is a place of sweet grace and divine blessing.
- Given the history and summation of Israel's privilege, it really seems to be strange that the next line would be necessary for the people of God to hear.
- Please understand: What is about to be said is said to people with a rich history of deliverance from idolatry into a life of blessing. Joshua speaks this from his heart.
• Joshua 24:14 : "Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!" : "Now that you are in the land. Now that you are experiencing the fullness of His blessing. Now that you have reviewed your history, fear the Lord!"
- Reverence, respect, and live with an attitude that belies a responsibility to Him above every other loyalty!
- Solomon will later call this mental acknowledgment "the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 1:7) It's not that it starts with fear per se. It's that wisdom is built upon reverence.
- Fear of the Lord is the foundation stone, the first and most important element of a life before God! It is the mentality that all other attitudes and actions are built upon.
- "Do I fear the Lord?" Do I fear Him more with each passing year? How will I address my fear of Him as we enter this new year?
- If this is not our first concern as Christians, the cracks at the foundation will eventually reveal serious flaws in the building. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." (Proverbs 8:13)
- Joshua admonishes this gathering to fear Him and serve Him! When you fear the Lord in your heart, service will be the natural action! The Apostle Paul adds great clarity to this in Romans 12.
• Romans 12:1 : "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." : As with the Jews, so with the Church. Because of what you were, where you would be and what He has blessed you with, it's natural, reasonable for you to serve Him!
- Joshua tells the people though, that there is a kind of service that a reverence for Him will produce. They are to serve Him in sincerity and truth. "Sincerity" speaks of wholeness.
- It refers to an entirety. God doesn't want you to "part" yourself out. Joshua tells his people that only a whole life is worthy of this Holy God!
- Jesus did not die to get a part of us, but to have the right to all of us for He has given us all of Himself! When we understand this, serving Him with our entire being seems profoundly rational!
- Serve Him in sincerity and in truth. In our language, this seems a bit redundant.
- In the Hebrew language, the word "truth" conveys the meaning of "stability." There is a firm, resigned, determined heart. This person is "true" to the Lord.
- That is the sense that is being communicated. Whatever it means to look at a person and consider them a "true" disciple, a "true follower," that is what Joshua is hitting upon!
- "This is what I want!" If that is your thinking, you are headed in the right direction! Joshua has offered two directives and turns to challenge them with one negative.
- In essence, they are to "put on" fear and service with "sincerity" and "truth." Why does he need to say this? Because of what else they had been putting on!
- They cannot continue in this manner before the Lord without also "putting away" their idols! "Turn aside" from them. Be done with that old way of life!
- The other side of the river corresponds NOT to the Jordan river, but the river that corresponds to Ur! Joshua is referring to the Euphrates river that Terah and Abraham crossed!
- How old was the life of idolatry that Joshua was referring to? It went back as far as Terah, yet, it was as current as Egypt! This is both astounding and incredibly relevant!
- Terah and Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeas behind. It's idolatry failed to satisfy them. Egypt, a land of gods, was decimated by the Lord. "Your eyes saw what I did in Egypt!" (v.7)
- Balak, another idolator, sought to curse Israel while looking down upon their gathering, but found that his prophet could do nothing but bless them because of God's intervention!
- Finally, all of the idolatrous nations that have just been dispossessed by the nation of Israel, have been so only as their God proved to be stronger than the so-called "gods" of those nations! v.11
• Joshua 24:11a,12 : "But I delivered them into your hand. I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow." : Israel's God had done all of this. How is it possible that Israel would still have to be told to put aside their gods?
- Because even at this point in history, there was still a temptation to run back to them! Laban was unable to find his gods when he came searching, but Jacob buried his families gods. (Gen.35:4)
- Throughout the Monarchy, the people vascillated between serving the true God and idols. As you read, look for statements that contain the words "high places."
- The Lord Himself had revealed that this would be the nation's way at Joshua's inauguration!
• Deuteronomy 31:16 : "And the Lord said to Moses: 'Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them." : God's people have always had to be told to put away their idols. It's the same story for you and I!
- Remember that idols are not merely figurines that men bow before. Those "figurines" all represented concepts that we relate to easily.
- People bowed to Baal, but were actually doing so for the sake of their businesses. They worship Ashtoreth, but were worshipping pleasure. Sex, money, pleasure, security, entertainment.
- Which of those gods did we NOT worship before the Lord rescued us? How often are we called back to bring our value to these concepts again, even after we have been delivered!?
- Do you see why Joshua has to tell them this? Do you see why we must be called to remember these things as well?
- At the end of the New Testament canon, the last author of scripture says, "Keep yourselves from idols!" (I Jn 5:21) "Serve the Lord!" Joshua says! That's the antidote to worshipping idols!
- At the very least, don't keep vascillating between the two! Listen to the first half of verse 15.
• Joshua 24:15a : "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell." : The verse begins with an interesting choice by the translators. The word in question can be rendered "evil" but the better translation is probably "displeasing."
- The NASB uses the word "disagreeable," the NIV employs the word "undesireable." Any of these words give us the sense. It may not please the Hebrews to serve the Lord.
- They may not want to serve Him, but they cannot think that they will serve Him and serve some other entity at the same time! This is why Joshua says, "Choose!"
- No matter how much a person wants this to be true it can never be. No man has ever successfully served two Masters. Jesus made this inspired and authoritative comment.
• Matthew 6:24 : "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." : This is indeed the issue: Love and loyalty! Unlike the other "gods," the God of the Bible, the true God, calls for His people to love Him!
- Deuteronomy 6:4, the great "Shema" is the backbone of the entire law. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength!"
- That love issues in loyalty and that demands single hearted devotion! If the people of Israel did not want to serve the Lord, they had plenty of other options available to them.
- They could serve the gods of the Babylonians or the gods of the Amorites. Notice that last comment, said under Joshua's breath, "in whose land you dwell!"
- The irony is that each of these gods had failed miserably, but they could still serve them. The truth is that each of us WILL serve something!
- The addage made famous by Bob Dylan is always true: "You're gonna have to serve somebody!" We were built to worship! This issue is where we will place that worship!
- What Master could you serve that is more kind, loving, merciful and consistent than YHWH!?" Serving Him brings benefit after benefit for eternity!
- Serving the gods of the nations meant slavery and demeaning themselves under a capricious, opportunistic priesthood that whipped it's adherants into frenzied action.
- For Joshua, it is this clear. The nation has a choice to make between the potent God who had affected their greatest success or the gods that had fallen before Him! That is true today!
- You may worship the God that saved you, that made you what you are or, serve yourself!
- This leads us to one of the greatest statements that were ever recorded by this amazing man of God. Listen to it again.
• Joshua 24:15b : "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." : Consider who is saying this. Consider the "me" of this sentence.
- This is God's chosen man who succeeded Moses as leader of the nation. He has been a proven warrior from his youth.
- He is never once mentioned in any negative light, unlike Moses' brother and sister.
- He has served consistently, fought bravely, worked tirelessly, and lead with integrity. Still, Joshua says, "But as for me!"
- You might think, "Does he really have to include himself in this statement? Surely, if there was ever a man that could be counted on, it's Joshua!" Therein is the rub.
- I could furnish you with another bevy of biblical examples of men that didn't finish well. Sadly, I could easily point us toward many recent and public examples.
- There are no automatic servants of God. I suggest that it is best to consider the breadth of our history of serving the Lord in context with the last day that we lived!
- Yes, the Lord will remember everything that we have ever done, but it's best if we forget what is behind! Joshua, the long standing faithful leader says, "As for me!
- Without the benefit of knowing how many others will follow him, Joshua reveals that he as made his choice! In fact, the language would read more like this: "I have chosen and will choose!"
- It is this Joshua, who has served all of his life to the present moment, who makes this choice again. Consider also WHEN he makes this choice. Listen to Joshua 13:1.
• Joshua 13:1 : "Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: 'You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed." : The scripture and the Lord confirm that this man is old! The KJV tells us that he was "stricken in years." Yet, he still counts himself in. He still has more to do!
- Turn with me to Joshua 17. Joshua has been apportioning the land that each tribe was to inherit as their own. In chapter 17, his own tribe shows up to register a complaint.
• Joshua 17:14-16 : "Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, 'Why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are a great people, inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now?' So Joshua answered them, 'If you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you.' But the children of Joseph said, 'The mountain country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Beth Shean and its towns and those who are of the Valley of Jezreel.'" : Joshua finishes admonishing them by saying that they WILL take the full extent of that territory.
- If you turn back to chapter 24, you'll find that Joshua was buried in that very land, in the mountains of Ephraim! The point I'm making, I hope is clear: There is no retirement in the Lord!
- You should not lean upon your history and you should not plan to stand pat in the Lord! There are plans to make, there are gains to be had in Christ!
- Jesus tells His servants to "do business" until He comes! (Luke 19:13) He wants us to be as He was when He told Mary and Joseph that He was about His Father's business! (Luke 2:49)
• Philippians 3:12-15 : "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you." : For some this will be obvious. For others, there will be a holy restlessness.
- For all that would live godly, there is a heart to be useful, to find what it is that God would order for our steps in this next year!
- Joshua's statement is personal. He is not looking at others, which is surely a mark of a failure to understand this passage.
- Consider the story of Peter who had just been re-commissioned by Jesus to serve the Lord after denying Him three times.
- Peter asked about John. "Lord what about this man?" How did the Lord respond?
• John 21:23 : "Jesus said to him, 'If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.'" : Joshua says, "As for me." This nation can do whatever it wants. I'm going to go this direction! "Though none go with me, still I will follow!" Is that your heart!?
- But Joshua continues because he also includes his house! He speaks for his home, his circle of influence. When Joshua names his house, he speaks of all of his descendants.
- He is NOT saying that each of his descendants will follow or serve the Lord. Many fallaciously believe that their trust in Christ will automatically transfer to their children.
- That wasn't the case with one of Adam's children, either of Samuel's children or a fair number of David's children!
- What Joshua IS saying is that his home would be dedicated to the service of the Lord! Joshua's name and the name of his home would be synonymous with service to the Lord!
- The decisions that he would make would be consistent with the Lord's will. The reputation among the neighborhood, the social media platforms, would all speak of a loyalty to the Lord!
- Those that served the Lord in his family would find themselves joyful and blessed. Those that did not would be left watching.
- What could be said of the effect of Joshua's words and actions? We don't have time today to continue our journey, but Israel did respond. His words did have an effect.
- The men and women who were gathered to listen immediately sought to comply.
- The entire nation at that time left this imprint upon the pages of scripture. Verse 31.
• Joshua 24:31 : "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel." : Joshua's commitment on this day, may have helped to spare the nation of Israel a sudden doom. Joshua served the Lord's interest and this was the result!
- He served the Lord in his generation well.
Conclusion
- As the year 2021 approaches, what say you? The choice to serve the
Lord lies before you personally. There are other interests and loves to serve,
but are they "for you?"
- Did you business die for your sin? Does your sexuality afford you with a holy heart? Will your security lead you to a more peaceful life?
- While there are millions of interests to serve only God through Christ has given His life for and to you, in order that you might be free to live as He created you!
- Joshua had a rich history of service and a short time left. He says, "As for me and my house!" What will it be for you? What if none will support you? What if it means death to relationships?
- Though none go with me, still I will follow! "Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have words of eternal life!" I pray that this year will be a banner year for you.
- I pray that you will find His employ far more joyful and wonderful than you ever have before and that you will realize just how reasonable it is to serve this faithful Master of ours!