Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Joshua. Chapter 24, the last chapter, the final chapter of the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 24. In verse 14. Joshua chapter 24 verse 14. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And our subject this morning is a sincere salvation. A sincere salvation. Will we come this morning to these words before us? At the very end of the book of Joshua, Joshua, as some of you will know, was the successor or the one appointed of God to take over from Moses. And most of us, of course, will know who Moses was. He was the one who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and gave the nation the 10 commandments, gave the nation the law of God. He was the lawgiver. That's how Moses is very often known and referred to. Moses was the lawgiver and he was the leader of the nation until he died, of course. But when he died, well, who took his place? It was Joshua. Joshua took the place of Moses at the head of the nation, and he was the one who was appointed of God to do so. But we come to the end of this Book of Joshua and in fact, we're quite near the end of Joshua's life Joshua himself, of course died around 1400 BC the events that we're going to look at are around 1400 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and well we read in verse 29 of chapter 24 about the death of Joshua 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 but just before he died we read in this chapter that there is a meeting a gathering of all the tribes of Israel to present themselves to the Lord. That's what we read in 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. All the tribes of Israel, the nation. Israel, of course, were God's covenant people. the ones whom God had chosen out of all the nations of the world to belong to Him, to be set apart from the rest of the world, to be blessed of God, to know the Lord's peace, to know the Lord's help. to know the Lord's security. And so in this chapter, Joshua is urging the people to pledge themselves afresh to the Lord, to the God who has done so much for them. And he brings to them the very word of God, as we read in verse two. And Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Well, we often say it, This is what the prophets of old did, Joshua and all the others, Noah, Moses, Isaiah and so on, Ezekiel. When they spoke to the people, they didn't give their own opinions. They didn't give their own religious ideas or their own agendas. It was always, thus saith the Lord God. This is what the Lord wants you to hear. This is what the Lord is speaking to you. And this is very important because this is a doctrine that's being erased and undermined in the modern time. The prophets, this is not the word of men. This is the word of God. So this is how Joshua starts. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. And essentially, well, Joshua, I won't go through all the things that are spoken of here, but the Lord God is reminding Israel of all that he has done for them. He speaks about Abraham in verse three. I took your father, Abraham, from the other side of the flood, that is the river Euphrates, that's not Noah's flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. That was the beginning of the nation, the beginning of the Israelite nation. Abraham is the father of the nation, the father of faith, of course. And God promised that he would have a great seed, Isaac, even in his old age. And Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah. And from Isaac would come that great nation, which was, of course, the nation of Israel. And verse 5, Moses is mentioned. I sent Moses also, and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt. Well, of course, we know all about the 10 plagues upon Egypt, and the children of Israel brought out, and the Egyptians pursuing them to the Red Sea. But then verse 7, well, the Red Sea covered them. And the Lord delivered them. The Lord delivered the nation so many times. Verse 11. Well, the Lord brings them into the promised land. You went over Jordan and came on to Jericho and the men of Jericho fought against you. The Amorites and the Parisites and the Canaanites and so on. The nation of Israel had so many enemies. They went to the promised land, but the promised land was already inhabited by other people. And so they were going to fight for their land. The Israelites had so many enemies, but the Lord defeated them all for them. I delivered them into your hand. So the Lord God is reminding them of all the things that He has done for them. He has helped them, He has blessed them so many times. And verse 13, And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them, of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not. Do ye eat? And how is the nation to respond? Verse 14. Now therefore, fear the Lord. and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And these are the words that really I would just like to spend a bit of time upon this morning, but we'll look at various other things in this chapter. It's a very interesting chapter, which some of you will have noticed as we read through it, many things that the Lord says to the people of Israel, But this is what we have here in verse 14, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Well, the Israelites, as I've just said, they've been given a great reminder of their history. And of how God has helped them every step of the way. Every step of their history, every phase of their history, God has helped them. But you know, we can apply that just as equally to us. That is not just applicable to the history of ancient Israel, but to the history of every single one of us. And we mention this very often. Whether you are a believer or not, this God, The God of Israel is the most fundamental part of your history, the most fundamental part of your life. Whether you acknowledge it or not, it doesn't matter. This God, the God of Israel, he has played an integral part in the history of your life. He has kept you. He has watched over you. He has protected you. You may not have acknowledged him in any of this, But this is the God of Israel. This is the God who has created all things. This is the God who gives us life. You would not have life at all if it were not for the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. He is the creator, the only creator. There is no other creator, no other creator God, no other source of life. So if you are alive today, well the only reason you're alive and the only reason you've lived as long as you have lived is because of the God of Israel. This God, our creator God. And well, you think back upon your life. Just think upon your life. Some of you haven't lived very long. I understand that. You're still in your teenage years. Some of us have lived a bit longer. But no matter how long you've lived, well, you look back on your life. Think of all the times when something terrible could have happened to you. some great calamity that you feared, or some great crisis that was looming upon you, but it didn't happen. The Lord delivered you out of that. It was the Lord, it's not by chance. Some great thing that you feared, you thought, how am I ever going to get through this? And yet it passed, it didn't happen. It's the Lord who did that, not just in Israel. Israel knew this, of course, but it's for all of us. Some great sickness perhaps that we have had. Perhaps some of us maybe have been almost very close to death. And yet we're here. We're still here. That is the Lord who has kept us. It's a miracle that any of us are still here. Anything could have happened to us at all, but the Lord, he has been watching over us. He is the one who keeps us and blesses us and protects us. And of course, well, all of the good things that you have. Think of all the times of great joy, the times of great successes, the unexpected joys in your life, joys that you never thought you would have. Who is that down to? It's the Lord. It's the Lord who has done all these things. So again, you may not acknowledge all of this, but when you look back at your life and you think of all the things that could have happened to you and they didn't, and the things you never expected and they did come, it's the Lord you have to give thanks to. And well, this is what Joshua is saying. Now therefore fear the Lord. In other words, put the Lord first. Put him above all other things. That's what it means to fear God. You know how important he is. You know that he has given you everything. Everything that you are, everything that you have, it's because of him. And so you have to worship him. You wouldn't dare put him second. You wouldn't dare put him at the bottom of your list. No, you have a fear of God. I'm gonna put God at the very top. That's what the fear of God means. You don't dare put him last in your life and loads of other things ahead of him. No, I have a fear of God. I'm going to put him at the top. I'm going to reverence him. I'm going to worship him. I'm going to love him. I'm going to follow him because he's the one who's given me my life. My very life I owe to him. So therefore, I will fear the Lord. That's what Joshua says. Now therefore, fear the Lord. And this is, well, this is how we have to start this morning, thinking about these very basic things that God has given us all things. Well, we put all things underneath him and we put him above all things. But then Joshua says, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. We must serve him in sincerity and in truth. Now this is very important for all of us. A follower of God must be sincere. Must be sincere, not insincere followers of God. We must be sincere. We must be true followers. Sincerity and truth. Sadly, we see it in the world now. There are so many people who say they are Christians. And yet it appears that they are not sincere. And they do not truly love the Lord. And so we must examine ourselves this morning. What does it mean to be a sincere believer? Let us just look at a few things that present themselves to us in this passage. What does it mean to be a sincere believer? Well, first of all, you must choose the Lord. You must choose the Lord for yourself. Verse 15, this is what Joshua says to the people. And if it seemed 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. We must choose God. It is a choice. You know, the Christian faith cannot be forced upon anybody. It cannot be forced. If anybody is a forced Christian against their will, they're not a true Christian. Because a true Christian always chooses. chooses Christ for themselves. It has to be a personal choice, otherwise it's meaningless. Otherwise it's just, you're a Christian just in name only. You must choose the Lord, you must hear the gospel, you must consider it, and you choose it. You see the beauty of the gospel, you hear these words of life, You choose it. This, by the way, is why we don't baptize babies in this church, because the Bible says that we have to choose the Lord, and babies, they cannot choose. Of course not. They don't know what's going on if they're getting baptized. They have no ability to choose. The scriptures say we must choose. That is so important. As individuals, choosing to serve God, we must be able to choose. Now, of course, many people do not choose the Lord. Many people think it is an evil thing to choose the Lord. As Joshua has stated here, if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, well, that is what we see nowadays. Many people They don't want anything to do with God, anything to do with Christ. They say, I'd never be a Christian because to be a Christian, oh, that's evil for me. Christianity is full of intolerance, full of bigotry. It's misogynistic. It's this, it's that. I'm never gonna be a Christian. It's an evil thing. That's what people say nowadays. To be a Christian, that's so immoral. It seems an evil thing for us to serve God. Even to preach from the Bible is hateful. It's hate speech. But here's the thing, and this is what Joshua brings out. If you don't serve the true and living God, you will only serve other gods. Other gods that are not worthy to be served. You see, this is the great deception that people have, or the great delusion. People say to themselves, oh, I won't be a Christian and I'll be free. But no, if you don't serve the true God, you only serve something else. And that something else is not worthy to be worshipped. There are so many things that people worship nowadays, man-made things. You see again, well, we're running out of time, but the nations around Israel, what were their gods like? They were man-made gods. Gods of wood and stone, idols. But it's no different today. People worship man-made gods, manufactured things. Manufactured people, almost. Celebrities, pop stars, who are manufactured. People worship them and their songs. Manufactured film stars, they worship them and their films. Football teams, that's what I used to worship, going up and down the country, spending money, expending all energy. We worship the football team, man-made things. You see, this is what happens when you turn away from the true and living God, you will worship man-made things and there will only be disappointment, dear friends. Disappointment. You put your trust and your hope in other things, you will only be sorely disappointed. That's a bad choice. People make promises, governments make promises, people put their trust in them, and then those promises are broken, and people are disappointed. And you see that in all different spheres of life. Dear friends, nothing else is worthy to be worshipped. It's only the Lord. Fear Him and serve Him in sincerity and truth. He will never break His promise. He has promised joy and peace for you. He has promised true happiness, everlasting life, spiritual life. He has promised to forgive you all your sin. He won't break the promise, not like these other idols that we worship. Dear friends, we must go to him. We must sincerely seek the Lord. But then there are other things that I wanted to look at here because there are some unusual things that we read in this passage because, well, the people, look at how the people answered Joshua. He said to them that they must choose the Lord and that he and his house will serve the Lord. The people answered verse 16. They said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Well, that's good. For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So they recognize that. And verse 18, And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land. Therefore will we also serve the Lord, for He is our God. All of this sounds very good. The people seem to want to serve the Lord. But look at what Joshua says in verse 19, and this may trouble some of us. Joshua said unto the people, You cannot serve the Lord. For He is an holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. Well now this sounds quite troubling. The people, they seem to be saying, yes we believe in God and we acknowledge all that God has done. But Joshua says, you cannot serve the Lord. He will not forgive your transgressions. What is going on here? Well, this is what is happening. Joshua is simply saying, it's not a light thing to come to the Lord. It's not a light thing to come to the Lord. You know, some people think that it is a light thing to become a Christian. They say to me sometimes, I want to be a Christian, what do I have to do? Do I have to sign anything or do I just have to say some words? And I try to say to them, it's far more complicated than that. Do you fully realize what you are doing? All the other religions, you see, this is why the Christian faith is very different. It's very easy to join all the other religions If you want to be a Hindu, that's relatively easy. I could be a Hindu tomorrow if I wanted, which I don't. Or you could be a Muslim. You can go and say the Shahada and you're Muslim. Lo and behold, it's very easy for the other religions. But Christianity is different. Even just to believe in God, you're not a Christian. If you believe that God exists, well yes, that's good. That's not enough. Or you might believe that God has helped you all your life, and that's true, but that's not enough. Joshua is talking here, what about God's holiness? God is a holy God, a holy God, and you're a sinner. You're a sinner, you're a sinful people. How do you think you can reconcile yourself to a holy God? That's the great problem. This is the great problem that we see in the gospel. God is holy. We are sinners. Yes, you may believe in God. And yes, you may see God's hand in your life. But how can I be right with God? How can I be right with God? That's the key. And while Christ has given us The way to God, hasn't he? He is the way, the truth and the life. God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we may be made right with God. We are sinners, yes. And God cannot receive sinners, unholy sinners, but Christ has come and he has taken upon himself our sins. He has suffered and died. He has made full atonement. And so now we can be made right with God. We can be reconciled to God. And so this is how we take these words. We must trust in Christ. We must know that He is the way to God. He is the one who has suffered and died in my place for my sins. It's not enough just to believe in God, God exists. Do I know? that Christ has suffered for me. That's so important. God cannot forgive us just for the sake of forgiving us. That's what it means here. God forgives us only through Christ. Only through Christ. Do you trust in him? That's the key. And so these words, they should not trouble us. They really only point to Christ. And true faith and repentance. Repentance is mentioned here in verse 23. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you. All the things that you used to worship, you put them away. Repentance must be there. And incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. Well, this will be my last point, but true religion, is that which engages the heart. You love the Lord. You love the Lord because He has loved you. You have sinned greatly, enormously. And yet Christ, out of divine love, has stood in your place and suffered the wrath of God. He loved you so much. Your own heart is stirred. Your heart is inclined, not just your body, So many people sometimes come to churches, as long as they're physically present, that's all right for them. But your heart must be engaged. You love the Lord because he has loved you. And you know that and you understand that. And you know that he has made full atonement for your sin. You incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. Dear friends, how is it with you? Do you trust in the Lord? Not just simply believe in God and his goodness towards you, but you believe in what Christ has done for your soul. God is a holy God. You are a sinner, but Christ paid the price for your sin. Do you believe that? Otherwise, it's meaningless. Your religion is meaningless, that's what Joshua is saying. It's meaningless unless you believe in these things. And so we must. And this is what we preach week in, week out. Choose you this day whom you will serve. So many of us, all of us, we have made terrible decisions in the past. But today we have the opportunity to make the right choice, the right decision, and to be eternally blessed in Christ Jesus. May the Lord bless these things to us.