Let me ask you if you would to take your Bibles and turn with me again to the book of Joshua. Turning this morning to two portions, one in the 23rd chapter and then another in chapter 24, the final chapter. To Joshua chapter 23, I'm going to begin reading the opening verse here. I'll read down a portion of the chapter. and then over some verses in chapter 24 as well. Again, let's give attention to the public reading of God's word. It came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all her enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel and for her elders and their heads and for their judges and for their officers and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age, and ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God He shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight, and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you. Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left, that ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods. nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them, but cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong, but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you. as he hath promised you. Take good heed, therefore, unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. And over to chapter 24, 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 Nacor, 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 I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And ye came into the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long season. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side, Jordan. And they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you.' Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Baor to curse you. But it would not hearken unto Balaam. Therefore he blessed you still, so I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over, Jordan, and came unto Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites and the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Bergeshites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I delivered them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you built not, and you dwell in them. Of the vineyards and olive yards which you planted not do ye eat. Now therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, 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 whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Amen. We'll end our reading in verse 15. And again, we trust the Lord's blessing to be upon the public reading. of his inspired word. I will ask you to join together with me in a word of prayer. O gracious Heavenly Father, as we come together again, bowed in thy holy presence, we come asking thee to grant us help today. Lord, even at the reading of the word, that our souls will have been edified and enlarged, that we might hear some even of the sermons brought to Israel in that day. And Lord, be readily able to apply to our own souls the words of challenge, the words to remember blessings that we have known at the hand of God, and to remember the admonition and warning from the Lord of Israel for those that are of flesh. Lord, so are we. So we ask thee today, grant us help, minister to us in our meditations upon thy word. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. We come today to draw our studies, perhaps our brief studies, in the book of Joshua to a close. We've come to see that God had done great things for an undeserving people, and yet God had honored his promise to the patriarchs. It's interesting, we did not take occasion there, but there are some phrases in Joshua about his fulfilling all that word to the patriarchs that give us little bits of things to chew upon in our debates about the millennium and the future blessing and promises to the nation of Israel. We have not chosen to deal with those, but again, perhaps at another time. But here we see that Israel has inherited the land. We've seen Joshua giving them in the proportions and the allotments to the various tribes, that that befell them. And we have focused in some ways upon the fact that the land was secure. There's emphasis here upon the fact that Joshua gave them rest. And so, in a sense, they were at peace. And yet we've seen previously, in particular we see here in these admonitions, and then sadly later the sequel in the Book of Judges, that there were other aspects of their possessing the land that Israel was still to engage in. That they were to thrust out the gods of the Amorites, in some ways that generic term for the peoples whose lands they had inherited. And we have seen in so many ways how that this parallels the great truth of our justification, our security, our possession in Christ, and yet in our sanctification as we wait for the day of glory, the many battles in which we're to be engaged, the energy with which we're to pursue the kingdom of God. And so Joshua comes in these last days as his earthly pilgrimage is drawn to a close, gather Israel together yet again, as he beckons for the leaders of the people, the elders and the leaders of the tribes to come. And we read in chapter 23 and chapter 24 what could appear to be two addresses, two gatherings, but many believe, and I think perhaps rightly so, that this is but one final gathering of the people to Joshua, yet we get to versions, really, of the story. And it's really not uncommon in the Old Testament. We see it as early as Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, how that the same account is told over again, that from another perspective we might focus and meditate on it afresh. But Joshua here comes, and I say, stands before this people at the close of his days, a man that is named Blessing, a man that's named the power of God. A man really among few in scripture that we see very little to criticize in his life. He was faithful and served the Lord all of his days. How many in scripture, even of the heroes, can that be said of? Here is a man, I say, that calls Israel together to give them charge and to give them counsel in the close of his life. I want to focus upon Joshua's final charge then today. I had to smile as I thought of putting that as the title to the message because Joshua was a military man. He was a soldier. Thoughts perhaps of Pickett's charge. Well, it is not Joshua's charge in that regard that we come to look at today. Those charges, those days of conquest, that type of charge are over. but in some ways a more important charge to Israel. A sermon. A sermon to this people that his heart has been full, that he has sought their good and the blessing of God for them. And so I want today to look, and really these two chapters are lengthy, they deserve fuller study than we're giving, but just to focus our thoughts together today on three key thoughts as we draw, as I say, our thoughts in Joshua to a close. And the first thought that I believe we can discover in these words, this charge of Joshua, is that in a sense we could say Joshua possessed an earthly realism. Joshua here has gathered the elders of the people, and in a sense there are assumptions that he makes, and there are assumptions that in some ways we might be surprised to read. Joshua makes an assumption, as these elders, these leaders of the people are gathered together, that the people themselves have of the gods of the people, those whose land they have inherited, that they possess them. Perhaps not in bold and outward ways, though sanctuaries, the groves, and these various things that would come in Israel's later history have not yet come out. But yet he knows his people. He's persuaded of their needs. He's persuaded of their sin. And so I say he possesses an earthly realism. And in this way I think Joshua is not unlike other leaders we see in scripture. If you turn back with me to the book of Deuteronomy, just for a moment. You may remember that we focused a little bit on this chapter in our opening study in the life of Joshua, when we looked somewhat at Joshua's background, because Joshua, remember from the starting block, had a word from the Lord that Israel would go into future apostasy. Now, I don't know about you, but when you consider taking up leadership in a cause, you consider taking on a task, you really want to have in view that it's going to turn out well, that it's going to end good, and that your labor is not going to be wasted. But look at what the Lord says in Deuteronomy 31. These are in Moses' final words and in the Lord's words to Moses and to Joshua in that close of Moses' life and ministry. We read here Deuteronomy 31 verse 14 and following. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approacheth, I must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in the pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. We noted early on how Joshua had known the experience of the presence of God in unusual ways. Here, Joshua again is in the cloud. Verse 16, And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go a-hauling after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. And you read on and it almost becomes even more sobering the word that God gives to Moses and to Joshua at that point. So in his closing days, I say Joshua has this earthly realism. He recognizes the tendency. He recognizes the future. And as I say, is it any different? You go to the New Testament, you look in the life and the experience of the Apostle Paul. Those were his last words to the Ephesian elders there in Acts 20. as they love this apostle, as these godly men raised up to lead among the Lord's people, I'll reap them on his shoulder. He says, I know that after my departure, evil men are going to rise up from among you and lead the people astray. And so I say this is realism with reference to the people of God. Again, in the earthly manifestations of the kingdom. Joshua here is mindful. that this will be true. Little does he know of perhaps the horrors that we read of in the book that follows upon the book of Joshua in the canon. The book of Judges in which there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Judges in some ways reads like our contemporary newspapers. the idolatry, the immorality, the murders, the dismemberment, all of these horrors, I say little does Joshua know how soon that prophecy of Deuteronomy 31 will begin to come true. I come and consider this and I think, you know, for us this could be pretty discouraging. If we are realists, And we think about the condition of the church, and we think about the almost inevitability of declension and apostasy. But yet, that's been the history of the world. You can see, and I remember on one occasion in a course on church history where even the whole focus of the course was on the evolution of apostasy to be, we believe, brought to its culmination in the last days. But I have to step back and say, realism should never be equated with or descend into pessimism. Now I don't want to go on a long side trail here, but I've mentioned already some of the debates that we have about the millennium. We're open in eschatology, we're happy to engage, we hope charitably in those debates with certain borders of orthodoxy that are fixed. But one of the things that troubles me in some of the modern manifestations or modern expressions of post-millennialism, some of which I think test the borders of orthodoxy and reconstructionism, is this whole suggestion that the pre-millennial view is pessimistic. I don't believe that. I don't see how you can read Romans 11 and see all Israel being saved as pessimism. I don't believe you can read the book of Revelation and see the enthronement of Christ as pessimistic. And I don't believe you can see what I think is the theme throughout the Word. Thy people shall be ruined in the day of thy power as pessimistic. Premillennialism, if it's ever reversed from belief in revival, is wrong. But I say premillennialism with a fervent belief in revival. That can be something then of this earthly realism. to recognize that there is going to be, until the day of the second advent, this tendency of the world, and can we say of the church, as it flirts with the world, downward to apostasy. It's only checked as the Lord sovereignly intervenes, and understand revival in history has always been a sovereign work of God. Every time men have tried to work it up on their own, you've had false impressions, you have had false representations of revival. I'm striving for another word and it's not coming, but you haven't had the real thing. Revival is a sovereign work of God. But I believe that that will be true in the last days. I ponder this often. You can fill in the gaps, but I thought of it a lot, particularly in the 90s. You may be thinking of it a little more in the next few years. But, you know, a leader can come to power and never even have a majority. And I read the Scriptures and I believe the picture of the man of sin. Why is he so worried about the Lord's people? Why are campaigns pursued to snuff them out? If they're insignificant, why worry about them? But if they're significant, If they have a voice and a message and a testimony that people are listening to, then you perhaps better worry about them. And I say, here's where we can see realism and optimism that are brought together. That God is upon the throne and God does and will intervene. That's why I have to smile sometimes at some of the stuff that goes on in the modern context with reference to prophecy. You heard about these tribulation kits? You know, you're supposed to make one. You didn't know this. Perhaps you should learn you're supposed to make one. You've got to have some type of video and some literature and stuff so that when you get raptured out, all your friends and family and neighbors that are unsaved will get this. And then your disappearance is, I guess, to motivate them to view it and pay attention to it. Of course, they're going to be saved. Perhaps the Lord in his mercy and even perhaps with his sense of humor may bless an activity such as that. But I have to marvel at the inherent Arminianism of such things. Didn't the Lord say in Luke that if one were to come from hell? We're not talking about leaving the video. We're talking about leaving hell and coming and talking to his brethren. about eternal things that they won't listen. People of the last days apostasy don't need kits and videos left. They're going to need the presence and power of God the Holy Ghost to revive them and visit them. It would be better perhaps if Christians today would leave something other than a video. Maybe be concerned about leaving a godly testimony while they're still here. But that is perhaps another sermon. Here I say, Joshua's burdened about the future of this people. Burdened even about the future of the church. I don't know where we are in God's timetable. I do not seek to pontificate as to where we are. I'm sobered about current events, but every generation has been sobered about current events. If you read church history, if you read Those that have gone before, particularly in their sermons and their devotional literature, they're all concerned about their times as they should be. And every generation should be expected and burdened as if they were the last. That's healthy. That's watchfulness. And it's always going to end an issue in a more fervent pursuit of genuine godliness when it's Christ-oriented, when it's gospel. oriented, not merely sensationally oriented. If we come to that second thought this morning, Joshua here shows what I would suggest to you is an energetic resolve. This is perhaps, along with chapter 1 and verse 8, one of the most familiar verses in Joshua. But chapter 24, verse 15 again, the last verse we read together, And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, 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 whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It's interesting as you read through these two chapters, this final address, Joshua really puts before the people a pretty objective choice. You've got four options. You've got the idolatry of the predecessors of Abraham on the other side of the Euphrates, which is called the flood here. Interestingly, in each of these mentions, there's a body of water associated with the idolatry on the other side of the Euphrates. Those were caught up in the worship of planetary bodies, the moon. That's what God called Abraham out of. After those from the days of the flood and Noah and the revival of that time had degenerated in their apostasy to that end, and God called Abraham out of that. Planted him in the land of Canaan. He's a sojourner there. Then, after the separation with Esau and the formation of Edom and all that, Their forefathers were taken down into Egypt for the season described in Genesis until the iniquity of the Amorites would be full. And I think again we have to remember that as we come to the book of Joshua and all the military aspects of the book. That God is using Israel judicially as His hand in chastening and judging the Amorites for their idolatry. Those that He has already immediately judged in measure in Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction. during the days of Abraham. But as Israel sojourns in Egypt, they're exposed to yet another version of idolatry and all the gods of Egypt over which God showed himself strong in the days of the Exodus and bringing Israel out. Israel now only to cross from the Red Sea through the wilderness to cross over Jordan, now into the land of the Amorites, a people whose idols are there. The land that they are to inherit, and yet thrust this from themselves. Joshua says, here it is, you have four options. Go to the idols that Abraham had to leave. Go to the idols that our forefathers had to come out of Egypt to leave. Or go to the idols of the people whose land you have now inherited. Or, serve the Lord. And here Joshua puts before us what I guess should be patently obvious, and certainly has been the subject of many a sermon, and rightly so. But I put to you here his energetic resolve, that for me and my house, he says, we will serve the Lord. Now, I want to highlight this to you, and again, maybe I am being very simple. I hope not simplistic. Simple can be good. but yet very obvious. The point here is that Joshua's resolve is irrespective of what other people do. And I fear that, in a sense, this is the beginning of the problem. Whenever we begin to degenerate into apostasy, somehow our eyes begin to take over. We cease walking by faith, and that we speak of as the eye of faith, and we walk by sight. Well, I see these people every day, and I see what they do every day. And then as I begin to lose track and lose focus upon my God and His things, these begin to become more real to me, perhaps more real to me than Him. And here, the people began to move. I say, the part of Joshua's charge here is this. This, in a sense, as we've considered already, and that realism, is going to happen. Don't let its happening alter your resolve. And I say, how many times do we see in the church people that are happy enough to run after what other people run after? And so in seasons of blessing and revival, the crowd goes along. And how many times do you see in church history that after days of genuine revival, there has to be a sifting out of what was genuine and what was spurious. Why is that? Because there's this subset of people that are just following the crowd. And in days of revival, the crowd is going in a pretty good direction. But when days of revival cease, when the days of conquest are over, when the blessings of inheritance and answer to prayer and the promises of God being fulfilled are no longer fresh in view, and the crowd is no longer excited about these things, and little by little, in secret, And then as more and more numbers have in secret began to engage in these things and talk with one another about it. I think often and speak of this, we hear it in the political realm, but you know, the trial balloon. How many times do the Lord's people set up a little trial balloon about some aspect of worldliness or thought or activity to see what response they get from another Christian? Enough of those trial balloons go up that now things that were only pursued among the lived people in secret become now to be more pursued openly. And then ultimately in Israel's day, would not only be the Teraphim and the little idols as we see at one juncture, actually this very place, Shechem. Interestingly, if you read the account, another oak is mentioned, but where Jacob and his family had to bury their idols. and to move on with the Lord. It comes to a place in history where it's not just the little idols that are hidden away in the individual homes, but maybe we could have a high place over here. And then a leader of the people could say, we'll set up the worship of the golden calf at Bethel and at Dan. And then we see later in Israel's history that one of the awful practices of Canaan, if you want to choose the three other options of idolatry, that even the sacrifice of their children, and the worship of Moloch, you read a little bit of that practice. I found it interesting years ago, I'm sure I've shared it, but as one commentator and historian recounted, best they can piece together the accounts as in the oven, and its idolatrous emblems itself is heated to white heat, that the musicians would play and beat the drums, most particularly to drown out the cries, the screams of the infant that's placed into the oven, in the worship of the gods, the Amorites, the Israelites. Joshua says here, whatever you choose to do, be it known, me and my house serve the Lord. I just challenge you today, you think through how much weight you place upon what other segments of the church what other people that call themselves Christians. Well, he's a Christian and he does that. Well, this is an orthodox assembly and they do that. And it's just piece by piece down the way. Let us be as Joshua. It doesn't matter what other people do. It doesn't matter what they call themselves when they do it. We have a book. Joshua has charged these people, chapter 23, did you notice in our reading? The very thing the Lord charged him with in chapter 1. Take heed to the book of Moses. Follow it. Purpose in your heart to read it, to know it, to pursue it. Don't gauge what you do by what the church does. Gauge what you do by what the book says. And there are times in which that as Joshua realizes here, may take you in another direction. He says, it doesn't matter. A little segment of the tribes brings in a little bit of Egypt. Well, that didn't hurt us too bad when we were in Egypt. We can keep that. A little segment of the tribes gets interested in history. Guess what I learned about Abraham's parents? Oh, wow. That's pretty cool. You know what I found over here in this cave? Drawings and etches we found. But wait a minute. Moses said, don't look at their pictures. Joshua says, whatever comes out of what will go after me, be it known, me and my house will serve the Lord. And I challenge you today with Joshua's energetic resolve, do not base your convictions, your standards, your doctrines on what others do, even others that are in the church. whether representatively as an individual or corporately, base it upon the book. And be willing with Joshua to look different from the world, and yes, from Joshua's resolve here to look different from the church. What an example I say of energetic resolve. The last thought I put before you this morning is this. Joshua's encouraging legacy. Joshua had, by way of remembrance, a testimony that really was exemplary in Scripture. If you read the close of his life, if you turn over the page to the opening of the book of Judges, and you see that Israel followed the Lord all the days of Joshua, And all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua. That's the preface to the awful period of the judges. That there was a season of two generations in which the impact and ministry of Joshua and the presence of the Lord in revival in his days was felt. It carried on. I say here's an encouraging remembrance. A legacy that was exemplary. I heard, and some of you were there, my father-in-law at Jessica's wedding made an interesting comment that he felt he could not view himself as successful in the ministry and in the family until he had seen his grandchildren. Now again, we know and understand Individual circumstances, we even see in scripture times that giants of the faith, that their children were far less than that. But yet in the general rule. And again, I say this is where we need to be mindful and careful. And I think this is where so many in the last couple of generations really, even in fundamentalism, have lost out. Because there's been this surrendering of the conscience to the church or to the school, and there's been a missing out of vital and vibrant Christianity in the home. Oh, we're alright. We're God's people. Why? Because we go to a good church. We're alright. We're God's people. Why? Because we don't go to a bad church. Oh. The kid goes up and says, oh, this is it. Where's the joy of Christ? Where is the example of walking by faith to understand and see that His commandments are not grievous? We've got young people growing up now and they look at the list of rules and say, where's the support for these things? This is just a list of rules. And where can this come from? Where they see. Or perhaps where they have not seen that His commandments are not grievous. People who live this way are happy people. Or you can live another way and say, yeah, here's our list of rules, and in an unspoken way, we would really like to live like the world because they're having fun, but we are God's people and we have to do this. That's not very attractive. And they wonder that young people are leaving churches where that's what's presented. What about the joy? What about the understanding of what happiness is there in sin? Look where this leads. Look at the awful thing that tastes good at the beginning, but at the end it bites like an adder. It's a snake. It's a lie. It's an illusion. No, rather, Joshua, I say, exemplifies for us, and interestingly, and you think about this, anything of Joshua as far as his outward life and ministry, he was a soldier. He was a military man. If there was ever an example of somebody in the history of the church that was out there in the details, in the doing of this and the doing of that, the externals, if you will, it was Joshua. That was his job. That was his place. And yet, if you look through the little windows into his own heart, into his own experience, Joshua was a man of great devotion. It wasn't just an external thing that Joshua fulfilled. He was a man of great devotion. You look as we did in our first message of the little snippets where he's mentioned in the Pentateuch. The times where he's with Moses. In the cloud! And he knows of the glory of the presence of God! That's what motivates Joshua and carries him through all the external stuff he has to do in the conquest of Canaan. Well, there's a lot of external stuff we have to do in our stand, in our testimony, in a world that's impacted by apostasy. If we're going to have any type of a legacy, any type of encouragement for the days of our children, or our grandchildren, as Joshua had, then that devotional aspect, not devotion that's empty of content, People would go down that road too. But this realistic, purposeful, faithful, earnest pursuit of the whole of the things of God. Joshua, I say, stands for us as a great example of this. And so Joshua, not unique, but in an elite group in the characters of Scripture, leaves us this encouraging legacy. The people followed the Lord all of His days and all the days of the elders that outlived Him. What a testimony. I say a man that was given to fight the Lord's battles, fight the church's battles, and yet a man, if we have to write it down, that is overflowing with devotional realism. Here's a man. that knew and walked with God. And I pray that some of the thoughts and lessons we have shared together throughout this book that bears His name will lodge in our hearts and that we may know something of that encouraging legacy as well. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, we ask Thee today take up again the feeble words that man has spoken. And yet, Lord, give power to the living word that we have read and considered. The Lord bless us. Even as we part one from another, may we recognize we do not leave the presence of our God. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.