The title of our message tonight is, If You Love God, Commit to Him. And it comes from Joshua chapter 24. We've been studying through the book of Joshua for some time and we're coming near to the end. And last week we looked at chapter 23, which is Joshua's first, or the first part of his farewell discourse. Joshua is old. We would say really old. Somewhere around a hundred years old. And he came before the people whom he had been leading, whom he led out into the promised land with God as his commander. And after they had subdued the land and begun to take possession of the different parts of the land for the tribes, Joshua came before the people in chapter 23. In his farewell address, he told them why They love God. And last week we considered four reasons why we love God. The essence of Joshua's farewell address in chapter 23. And we saw there four wonderful things which are so applicable, relevant, and pressing for us today. They apply to us just as they did to those people back then under Joshua. We love God for all that He has done. We love God for all that He will do. We love God for all that He has said, and most of all, we love God for all that He is. Now, as I mentioned last week, we would be taking up the second part of Joshua's farewell address, or another occasion, if you will, in which he addressed the people. And this is the address found in chapter 24. There are lots of differences between the address in chapter 24 and chapter 23, and the main one is that this is a solemn ceremony that Joshua is engaging in in chapter 24. Chapter 24 is one of those important chapters in the New Testament because it shows us the people's relationship to God in terms of a covenant. Do you ever think yourself, as a 21st century Christian, that what binds you to God is the covenant? I remember our dear brother Bill Finnegan, how he used to say from time to time, he used to say, you know, we don't talk enough about the covenant. And a church with the name Covenant Baptist Church certainly should not be guilty of an oversight like that. But as Christians, we need to understand the structure of the covenant in the Old Testament. It's not my purpose tonight to go into what the covenant is and what this covenant relationship is composed of, but only to show you what Joshua did as his last address to the people in terms of their relationship to him. And he's showing them, essentially, building on the chapter 23 address, if you love God, commit to Him. And that, of course, applies to us as well. In our culture, where people don't commit to things as much as they should, It is easy for Christians to have that same kind of mentality. So this is an important message for us as well in modern day. If you love God, commit to Him. Now let me once again read chapter 24. And as I read it again tonight, I'm going to ask you to try to imagine. Try to imagine what was happening here. This is an amazing event. We talked about restraint in the Gospels. Remember in Sunday School? How the Gospel writers show a lot of restraint in reporting things. There's a lot that they don't say. Well, there's a tremendous amount of restraint in the reporting of this incident. This was a great, massive, assembly of people. Now, we're not told anything about all the preparations involved coming from their different parts of the land where they live. We're not told anything about that, how much preparation they had to do to heed Joshua's call to come so that he could address them. You know, it's one thing for a small group of Christians, such as we have here, to come to the gathering and be addressed on the Lord's Day by a pastor. A massive, massive gathering of people. We're not told anything about the setting, the circumstances. Was it on a plane? Was it on the side of a mountain? We're not told how it was that they could all hear Joshua's voice. being so many of them. I was thinking about the incident there in Nehemiah, you don't need to turn there, when it talks about Ezra. It talks about the people gathering as one man at the square in front of the water gate. And there's a little more detail in Nehemiah's account of that gathering. They came in front of the water gate. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly. And he read it before the square, which was in front of the water gate. And he stood at a wooden podium, which they had made for this purpose. Interesting. You don't see any of that in Joshua chapter 24, so follow as I read it. Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and their judges, and their officers. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, from ancient times your fathers lived beyond the river, namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through the land of Canaan, or led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau, I gave Mount Seir to possess it. But Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst. And afterward I brought you out, I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And you came to the sea, and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them. And your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. and you lived in the wilderness for a long time. Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. But I was unwilling to listen to Balaam, so he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand. You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the Hittite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Thus I gave them into your hand. Then I sent the hornet before you and drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before you, but not by your own sword or bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them. You are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. Now Joshua speaking now, he had previously been telling them what the Lord had done for them. Now Joshua says, Therefore, fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight, and preserved us through all the way in which we went, and of all the people through whom midst we passed. The Lord, this is the people speaking, the Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites, who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is God." Now, if I may pause there for a minute and ask you, do you think Joshua was impressed with this response? This is a vigorous response to what Joshua said. Well, the answer comes in verse 19. It would appear that Joshua was not so very impressed. He said, You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgression or your sins if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods. Then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good for you. And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua said to the people, The sense of this is that Joshua said to the people, okay then, if it is as you say, then you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord to serve Him. And they said, we are witnesses. Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are in your midst and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. The people said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord our God, we will obey His voice. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the yoke that was at the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, look, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. Thus it shall be for a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God." Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance. Oh, I wish we could have been there. I wish we could have more information. I wish we could have some kind of a DVD or something and see it. It was an amazing event. Recounting the goodness of the Lord, what God had done in mighty power. Miracle after miracle after miracle. And then the charge coming to the people. The people saying, yes, yes, yes, we agree, we will. And Joshua saying, no, you won't. And they saying, yes, we will. And Joshua conceding and saying, okay, if you will, then you are witnesses against yourself. That's pretty solemn. That's pretty serious. So let's ask the Lord to help us to understand all of this tonight. Dear Heavenly Father, Your works of all are great. Lord, the events have found in your words stir us up, Lord, to inquiry as to the meaning of your acts. And Lord, we pray that as we would try to understand a little bit this covenant ceremony that was taking place here in Shechem, that you would help us not only to understand the event, but also to see just how it may apply to us today. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, just a survey of this chapter tonight under three points. The first thing you notice here is a convocation to charge God's people. We all know what a convocation is. It's some kind of ceremony, like a graduation or something like that, where a special time when people are ready to move forward and they are charged, they are given a charge or an inspiring message of some kind. And this is a convocation to charge the people. And you see that's in verses 1 through 20. The second thing I'll point out to you, and I'll just give you it all up front, and then we'll look at each point. The second thing is that you see a commitment from the people, starting at verse 16. A commitment from the people. And thirdly, there is a covenant renewal ceremony taking place here. That's verses 25 through 28. So my purpose tonight is just to outline the section and just help you to have an overview of what's happening and what it means. We want to think first of all about this convocation to charge God's people. The convocation is stated in verse 1, where Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. There's some question as to whether all the tribes of Israel were present at the previous address, which may have taken place in another city, perhaps Shiloh. But in Shechem is where the sanctuary of the Lord had been set up temporarily. And it seems that the first address in chapter 23 may have been primarily for the leaders of the people. And the leaders would disseminate Joshua's words to all the people. But now this is it. This is the big day. Joshua wants all the people. This is Joshua's big church. You heard about mega churches? This is Joshua's big church. Joshua is the pastor of this church. And he says, now come to church, come to Shechem, all of you, with all of your leaders. It's like a call to worship. You say, Pastor, are you sure that's what this is? Well, notice at the end of verse 24, he says, gives the reason why they came. They came to present themselves before God. Now, as you think about how these Old Testament events apply to New Testament believers, have you ever considered that when you go to church, it's to present yourself before God in heaven? That's what we're doing. We're presenting ourselves before God. Now there, the sanctuary or the church building was nature. And Joshua even took that stone and said, now this stone is a witness. Sounds strange to us how they could have that kind of a view. They're not pantheists, but how they say, this stone has heard your words and it will bear witness against you. Well, in Old Testament times, that simply meant that God is present in all of His creation, and that stone was the place where the covenant was made. So you see the convocation in verse 1, and then the charge begins in verse 2. Just a summary, in verse 2, Joshua is the spokesman for the Lord. Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord. So again, in verse 2, Joshua is speaking the words of the Lord. In verse 14, Joshua is speaking his own words. He's speaking as the pastor or the leader of the nation, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. So Joshua is the spokesman for the Lord. And what did he say to the people? What was God saying to the people in verses 2-13? Well, as I read it, you noted that God was saying, look, this is all that I did for you. And He just recounts it one thing after the other, every step along the way. This is everything that I had done for you. It's like counting your blessings, naming them one by one. Well, that's what the Lord was telling them. at that time. Before He drew them to commit themselves in His covenant renewal ceremony, He reminded them of all the things that He had done for them. The history of the dealings of the great King with the nation of Israel. It's beautiful. And I think I pointed out this morning when I was telling you about tonight's message, this chapter has the form of the ancient covenants that great kings made with their subject people. And the covenant that God made with Israel under Moses, and as revealed in the book of Exodus and Deuteronomy, has this form. And here it is. The people gather to hear the words of the great king. The great king recounts all of his mighty acts and benevolent acts toward the people. Then the great king lays out all the stipulations of his new relationship with the people. Then the great king says, now if you keep your part of the arrangement, then you will be blessed. But if you fail to measure up to your part of this covenant, you will be cursed. And that's what you see in verses 2-13. In the section starting at verse 14, Joshua says, if you forsake the Lord, He will turn against you. He will curse you. And then after the history of the great king, and after he lays out the stipulations, this is in treaties of nations and great kings of that time period, then comes, the ceremony in which the people agree to be subject to this great King. And that's exactly what you see here in the book of Joshua chapter 24. You have Joshua speaking for the Lord, bringing all the people together. The Lord is the great King. Jehovah, Yahweh has done great things for the people and He counts them one by one. Joshua then charges the people in verses 14 through 15 Serve the Lord. And if that seems distasteful or disagreeable to you, then make your choice right now. And as far as I'm concerned, he's saying, I've been your leader. Whatever you do is up to you. But as far as I'm concerned, I and my house, we will serve the Lord. So he's setting them up before them as an example. This is what you should do. Do what I do. And then come the curses of the covenant in verses 19-20. So this is the convocation that you see here to charge God's people. The second thing we notice is the commitment from the people. The commitment from the people is found in verses 16-18, the first part, where the people said, No, no, no, no, no, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord is our God. And so on. And then, after being challenged by Joshua, They say in verses 21-24, once again, no, no, no, no, no, we will serve the Lord, Joshua. And then Joshua says, okay, okay. Now let me point out three things about this commitment from the people. First thing that we want to notice about this commitment or response from the people is that they are witnesses against themselves. Now, that's kind of frightening language. Now, to be a witness is something good. You are witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. That's a wonderful thing. You are witnesses of Christ's incarnation. You were with Him. You handled Him. You touched Him. You spoke with Him. You heard Him. The apostles had that blessing also. So it's one thing to be called a witness. You and I are witnesses for the Lord. The Lord has worked in our hearts. He's enlightened our minds. He saved our guilt-laden, sinful souls. And we go out and we proclaim, this is what God has done for me. That's a good thing. But when Joshua says, you are witnesses against yourselves, that's another story, a whole different matter. You are witnesses against yourself. You say, Joshua, what's wrong with you? Are you just so old and crotchety and just so doubtful about the people here that you can't respond positively to what they're saying? What's wrong with you, Joshua? Are you just cynical? Are you just unbelieving? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. But the first thing again that I point out to you is that they are witnesses against themselves. If you say, if you respond to a challenge like this and you say, no, no, I will, I will, I will, I really mean it, then you're a witness against yourself. So they are witnesses. Secondly, they are willing. They express a willingness. Now that's a good thing. They express a willingness. We don't want to forsake the Lord. He brought us up out of the land. We recognize that and we're going to serve Him. Verse 18. Verse 21. Again, we will. We will serve the Lord. Verse 24. We will serve the Lord. So they're saying this repeatedly. So they're very willing. But here's the rub. They are weak. And that's what Joshua knows. They are weak and wayward. They are weak and wayward. And when Joshua says to them in verse 19, you will not be able to serve the Lord. He's not speaking as a doubter. He's not speaking as a cynic. He's speaking as a realist. He knows their history. He knows what's going to happen. He knows the pull of these idol worshipers in the land. He knows exactly what's going to happen. And you know what? He was right. He was right. They are weak. They are wayward. And that's why he says to them in verse 15, he calls them to choose today, now, choose now. This is not a choice that you have some time to reflect about. You have to choose now, and be firm about it now, because unless you make a choice today, and this certainly is true for us about a lot of things, unless we finally decide that we're going to follow the Lord in certain matters, we may be years and years and years and years debating with God about a particular matter that he is so clear about in his word. That's kind of what's behind this. If you want to say the psychology behind what Joshua is doing here, psychology in a good sense, in a biblical sense. He understands the principle that if you tell the people, now go home and think about it, that it's probably not going to end up very well. So he says today, you have to choose today whom you will serve. You have to leave this moment where God has been coming to you and You know, we talked about this morning about God teaching us, being taught by God, where God puts the stamp and He makes it efficacious. Well, what Joshua is saying here is very efficacious. All the people in unison are saying, no, we're going to serve the Lord. And there's Joshua saying, no, you're not going to serve the Lord. You can't serve the Lord. So that's why he's telling them to choose today. So committing to the Lord is something that we shouldn't take our time about. We don't take time with the God of the universe. If any of us have this idea that we can barter with God, that we can look at His Word and respond to something that He tells us to do in His Word and do it in our own good time, then we are bartering with the King of the universe. Which one of us would dare to barter with the King of the universe and buy our time and say, Lord, I'm not ready to do what You tell me to do in Your Word. That's dangerous business, my friend. Very dangerous. So, he's looking for a commitment from the people. And finally, you see the covenant renewal ceremony in verses 25 through 28. So, Joshua made a covenant with the people that day. Now, this language, to make a covenant, is actually in the Hebrew language, to cut a covenant. It's the Hebrew word to cut, and that's what it says there in Hebrew. Joshua cut a covenant with the people. And the cutting of the covenant goes back to the ceremony in Genesis chapter 15, remember, where the Lord split the animal in pieces, and it was night, and it was a solemn ceremony, and there was a torch and a fire, and they walked through, they passed through between the midst of the parts. Remember Abraham did? a solemn, solemn covenant ceremony where God made certain promises to Abraham. And Abraham received those promises. And the basis of those promises was the shedding of blood. So cutting a covenant. Verse 25, Joshua cut a covenant with the people. And then However, what this really is, is a renewal of the covenant. The covenant had already been cut in Genesis chapter 15. The covenant had already been solidified under Moses. So what Joshua is doing here, really, is he is recommitting the people, or re-covenanting with the people. The people are renewing their covenant vows to the Lord. Now in verse 20, you notice that the curses of the covenant are recited. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn to you and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you. How sad that is. After the Lord has done so much good for you, He has to turn around and consume you? Wouldn't that be sad if that was true of us? After all that the Lord has done for us? Well, there are lots of differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and we can't get into all of that tonight. But in the New Covenant, there are warnings about our relationship to God. We can't play fast and loose with God under the New Covenant either. So Joshua renewed the covenant with the people. The curses of the covenant were recited. You see this if you want to go back to Deuteronomy 27 and 28. You remember how the curses and the blessings of the covenant were spoken on the two sides of the mountain there in Samaria, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim. Solemn covenant assembly there. And the continuity of the covenant is found in the writing of the words in the Book of the Law, verse 26. This was part of the ancient treaties that great kings made with their subject peoples. After laying out the stipulations, charging the people to enter into the covenant relationship, stating the curses and the blessings of disobedience or obedience, then they would provide for the continuity of the covenant so that it could be passed on to future generations in what is called the covenant document. In this case, the covenant document is the word of God. Verse 26, Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. And we assume that that's the book that we have here called Joshua, that it was written by Joshua. We can't know that for certain, but it seems, of course, very likely that we know that Moses wrote the first five books. It seems that Joshua wrote this book. as part of the provision of the covenant. So that basically is what's happening here in this chapter, dear brothers and sisters. A convocation to charge God's people. A commitment from the people. The people, although expressing their willingness, are weak and wayward. And then the covenant renewal ceremony in which the people are charged to commit themselves or recommit themselves to the Lord by making a choice that moment to follow the Lord fully. Now what does this tell us for ourselves today? Well, all I really wanted to say in closing tonight is that it tells us something about God, doesn't it? This tells us something about God. It tells us that God is a great King. We should not position ourselves ever to be in control of God. He is the great King. We are dealing with a great King here, of whom the Bible says fire goes up before Him. And if we really believe the Bible, and if we really respect His Word, as I believe Mr. X preached on Isaiah recently, that it is to this one I will look, to Him who trembles at my Word. Why would you tremble at God's Word? Well, because it's the Word of the great King. And what does it mean to tremble at God's Word? It means that when I read the Bible, God is speaking to me. The Great King is speaking to me. And therefore, He requires and demands my subject obedience to Him. And woe betide me if I enter into a posture of debating or bartering or arguing with God about anything that I see in His Word. So it tells us something about God. It tells us something about salvation too, doesn't it? It tells us that salvation is all about entering into a covenant relationship with God. A covenant relationship is a solemn relationship. It's like we have the illustration of marriage. Marriage is a solemn relationship because when a man and a woman marry, they commit their whole life and future and estate and well-being to that other person. It's a serious choice. And that's just a dim reflection of what salvation is. Salvation is entering into a covenant relationship with God, in which God, the great King, it's actually called a unilateral covenant, a one-way covenant, in which God promises to do everything for us. However, Salvation does require certain things of us. It's all by grace. Christ does it all for us. But when we find that when we enter into this covenant relationship with Christ, just as in all covenant situation, requires certain things of us. So that everything you read in the New Testament that we might call a duty, something that God tells us to do in the church or as Christians, these are all part of the covenant relationship that we have with Him. when the Israelites were recommitting themselves to the covenant, you see, Joshua told them the things that they had to do, and the things that they had to forego, and the things that they had to change, and the things that they had to decide, and the choices that they had to make. And he demanded, he demanded that they make that choice now, today, he said, knowing As I said before, that if you wait, if you procrastinate, you never know what the state of your heart is going to be down the road. And that's what it means in Hebrews when it says today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Procrastinating, waiting, arguing, debating, rationalizing, equivocating, all of these things are forms of hardening our hearts. But a soft heart to the Lord says, Behold, your servant is listening. What would you have me to do, Lord? As Paul said to the exalted Christ. So it tells us something about God, it tells us something about salvation, and it tells us something about faith. It tells us that faith is a covenant commitment to the Lord. That when we believe in Christ, it's not just so that we can have that eternal life insurance, that we can have that assurance that all will be well with us. These things are certainly true. But faith is entering into a covenant commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. We commit to Christ. We commit to the whole Christ. The Christ who is even the head of His church. So we commit to Christ. We commit to His people. We commit to everything that there is about our salvation. And what we mean by commitment to Christ is that there are certain vows that we take. There are certain warnings that we fear. The book of Hebrews especially and Revelation chapters 2-3 have these warnings. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life. Well, what about to the one who doesn't overcome? Well, I don't want to be in that group. Because the promise is made to the one who overcomes. He will eat of the tree of life. And in Hebrews it says, take care, brethren. The writer of Hebrews said, take care, brethren. Make sure that there's not an evil, unbelieving heart in you and departing from the living God. You say, he must be talking to unconverted people there. But you know what? He's not talking to unconverted people there. He's talking like an Old Testament prophet. He's talking like Joshua. He's talking like Moses. He's talking like those who tried to impress the old covenant upon the people. And yet it's the new covenant. He's speaking in the same way. Beware. that there be any root of bitterness in you. Beware that there be an evil, unbelieving heart. You say, can a Christian have an evil, unbelieving heart? Sure. Sure he could. Peter did. Peter had to be rebuked. Satan was working in Peter at one point. So these things are true of us. There are warnings in the Christian life. The Christianity that is floating around today, that is a part and parcel of so much of what is big in modern day Christianity, they don't talk about that. I don't want people to hear about any warnings. The Gospel is all good and grace and glory, and it's all of that for sure. But you see, just like under the Old Covenant, there are vows that are taken, there are warnings that we try to heed, and there are blessings too. There are blessings for obedience. And that's what was part and parcel of the communication of the covenant. So the bottom line is, as the title of this message went, if you love God, then commit to Him. So, Pastor Practically, what should I do? Well, I would suggest tonight that you just, when you read these last two chapters of Joshua, just ask the Lord to teach you the seriousness of having a relationship with the living God. And that's all. Ask the Lord to show you just how wonderful and how serious it all is. Not so that you will be driven away and say, well, I can't take serious things. My life is hard enough as it is. No, because you see there's tremendous blessing and safety to being right with the living God. Ask the Lord to help you to be right with Him. Ask the Lord to help you to be right with His Word. Ask the Lord to help you not to be like the people of Israel who are all very willing to jump on the bandwagon of Christianity, but not very realistic about just how weak and wayward they were. So ask the Lord to help you as I ask Him to help me. The Bible says that you shouldn't take a vow rashly. And then after you take the vow, say, what did I just say now? What did I do? I forget what proverb that is, but we're not to take vows rashly. And the Bible also says that we're to fulfill our vows to the Lord. Unfortunately, modern day Christianity doesn't say anything about vows to the Lord. And yet, it's a prominent Old Testament teaching that applies to us today. When we become Christians, that's the very first vow that we take. It's the vow of discipleship. Lord, I will follow you and go wherever you go. And of course, there are vows that we take along the way. So there are vows, there are warnings, and there are blessings for obedience. May the Lord help us all to be aware of these things and to live in the light of them. Let's pray.