Let's read this last section beginning at verse 30. This is after the victory at the city of Ai. Joshua 8 verse 30, Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool had been used. On it, they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. There in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he, that is Moses, had written. All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials, and judges, were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, facing those who carried it, the priests who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel. Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, just as it is written in the book of the law, There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the aliens who lived among them. Now, this final part of Joshua chapter eight records for us the proper actions of the people of God after the victory that the Lord had accomplished for them. Now, we read of the victories of the armies of Israel, but just as Paul said with regard to us, thanks be to God who gives us the victory, the real victory in anything. that we might count ourselves victorious. It was not us who won the victory. That is, it was not by our strength, by our doing, that the victory was won. It was won by God, and then He gives us that victory. And that was what was done here. It was first done there at Jericho, then at Ai. And what is the proper response to the victory which has been given to us. Well, it's this act of worship. Now we see in this story the nature and incentive for worship. True worship is from a heart of thanksgiving. It's done not to gain something from the Lord, It's done in response to what we have already received from the Lord. Now I realize that there are forms of worship, and the Bible would call them worship. In fact, I know this is true in the New Testament, I'm not sure in the Old Testament, but in the Greek of the New Testament, the word for worship, there's more than one, but one of them simply means to bow down in front of. In fact, it pictures the way, if you've got a good dog anyway, if you've got a good dog and you come up to that dog, it'll be so happy, it'll have its front down on the ground and its back up in the air and its tail wagging and everything like that. And that word for worship is actually the word that means to or in favor of, that kind of thing, and then the word for dog. So the way a dog is toward its master, so is worship. But you can tell by the attitude of a dog, you know, that, I mean, you know, when a dog is in that position, it truly is a position of submission, but it's also a position of joy and happiness at seeing the master. Now, we can't say there's no worship without that. There is a kind of worship, even of the unbelieving world, when they take notice of the things of God. It's not the kind of worship that God is looking for. According to the Lord Jesus Christ, God seeks those who worship Him in spirit. That means it comes from the heart. It's something that's prompted by the Spirit of God and then flows from the heart of someone who's been born again by the Spirit of God. It comes from the heart. It's true. And that can mean, again, there's two applications of that, and both of them are true. And I can't say for sure just which one the Lord was referring to, but it can mean they worship sincerely. It's not, you know, now it's Sunday, I guess we've got to go to worship. You know, I better go to church because people are going to notice if I'm not there and then they're going to wonder where I was and look sideways at me. That kind of worship, God's not interested in that. You're worshiping men when you do that. He wants something honest and from the heart. That's why I've made the remark. It's kind of broad, I guess, and needs some qualification, but if you don't want to come to church, don't. Now, I mean by that, if your presence at church is simply out of a feeling of responsibility or a feeling that if I go to church regularly, God will be pleased with me, I'm sorry, that's not worship from the heart. That's merely working your job. Worship is that which flows from the heart, it's sincere, or, when the Lord said He worshipped in spirit and truth, means you worship according to the truth. Which would, in general, mean that you're worshipping God through Christ. You're worshipping God on the basis of what Christ has done. Now, true worship is from a heart of thanksgiving. We don't worship to gain something, we worship because of what we have already gotten from God. We offer what the Bible calls in Hebrews 13 verse 5, and it wouldn't hurt to turn over there if you want, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15. Hebrews 13 verse 15 says, Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name. Now, what is His name? Well, for us, His name is Jesus. And what does that name mean? Well, it says, You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. The name Jesus is a combination of the name Jehovah and the word for salvation in Hebrew. So Jehovah saves. That is our God. And that's the reason we worship Him. That's the reason we worship Him in that name. If He didn't save, I wouldn't say we don't have a reason to worship Him. He's God. That's reason enough to worship Him, isn't it? He's God. That makes Him worthy of worship. But certainly, worshiping Him would be of no value to us were it not that He is our God and He's revealed Himself to us in that name, Jesus, Jehovah saves. Therefore, we've got something to give Him thanks for. were we to try to worship Him through law? It would be like we said in last week's Sunday message, you know, there in the book of Hebrews, it says, you've not come to a mountain that can be touched, where there's darkness and storm and lightning and all that. What happens if you try to worship God through the law? Well, right there, God had told Moses, you tell them, if anything touches this mountain, whether it's a human being or an animal or whatever, kill it! And anyone who attempts to approach God through that mountain dies. But we don't worship God through law. We worship God through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is embodied all of the grace and mercy of God towards his elect. Through him, says Peter, do we believe in God. Now the devils believe in God through law. Not the law at Mount Sinai, I understand that. But I mean, they believe, James says, they believe there's a God. So if you believe there's a God, you have risen to the level of demonic theology. Because they believe there's a God. And they tremble. They tremble at the thought of Him. But does He delight in their worship? No. Will their worship gain them access into His blessedness? No. They tremble at the thought of Him because they know that they are in rebellion against Him. They rebelled, they sinned, and there's nothing they can do about it. You know, for them, no Savior was made. You know, people that don't like election, don't like it that God chose some people and not others. Why didn't He choose them? Well, I can give you thousands of reasons why He didn't choose some people. What surprises me is He chose anybody. But it's funny that they get upset that God chose some humans and not other humans, but they're not at all upset that God didn't choose any of the fallen angels, did not provide a Redeemer for any of them. But they have no reason to worship God like you and I do. All the elements of worship have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. All the things that we read there in Joshua that show how they approached God in worship, all of them picture Christ. He is our altar. In Hebrews it says, we have an altar. whereof they have no right to eat, who serve in the tabernacle or the temple. All those of the old covenant, and remember when I say of the old covenant, I mean that they are trying to secure the blessings of God by obedience to that old covenant. Do you realize that believers honest believers, and there's always been a remnant according to the election of grace. But when you read Jewish histories in the Bible, don't think that you're reading the historical account of a nation made of people most of whom believed God. No, Israel was just like broad Christendom is this day. It was full of people who said they worshiped Jehovah, but their worship was, as one person put it, from the teeth out. That's all there was to it. It was in what they said. It was in their outward action. There was nothing of the heart. But that remnant who actually did believe, do you realize they were believers in the same sense you and I are? They were believers in the same sense Abraham was. Remember, it was written, Abraham believed God, and God credited it to him unto righteousness, which is a long way of saying God justified him through faith. No one's ever been justified any other way except our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our Lord Jesus and his humanity did believe God. But he was justified, he's the only one who could ever be justified because he actually did what was right all the time, perfectly. Therefore, God could declare him righteous by looking right at him. You and me, not so much. But when we believe God, we're looking to Christ. We're looking to God and His promises. And that's what Abraham was doing. Abraham heard the promises of God. He was looking forward to a time when they would be fulfilled. You and I, we've heard the promises of God. We've got a record of how they were fulfilled. But we're looking at the same thing Abraham was. We're just looking with clearer eyes than he did. Same thing with all the believing Jews. And here's the point all of that was leading up to. Believing Jews were not under the law any more than you and I in New Testament days. Because to be under the law means to have your blessedness before God determined by how well you obey the law. And seeing that God only has two standards, pass, fail. And past means perfection. Anything short of perfection is a failure. That's why everyone under the law is under a curse. Because nobody's past. And when Paul says, you are no longer under law but under grace, he's pointing out you can't be under both at the same time. And if you're under law, you'll die. If you're under grace, you live. Consequently, we must conclude that even those who lived in old covenant times and were outwardly responsible to fulfilling the laws that were written, moral, civil, ceremonial, all of that, yet their blessedness in the presence of God was not determined by their obedience to it. But, our Lord Jesus is the altar. Only believers have a right, Paul says, to eat at that altar. Why did he say that? Well, see, priests ate the meat that was left over from sacrifices. So they ate from the altar. We, believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, What do they say of Him in heaven? Blessed art thou, for thou hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation, and made us a kingdom and priests unto our God. Now once I got in trouble, I was arguing with, I say got in trouble, had to qualify my remarks. I said, there are no priests in the church. And someone brought that up, you know, we're all priests. I said, okay, there's no special priest class in the church. We are all priests. Isn't that good to know? There's nobody on earth through whom you must go to approach God. Nobody. I think one of the dangers, you know, I was raised up in free willism, and they had those invitations at their, well, every Sunday. Every time they preached, there was an invitation of some sort at the end. People would come down front, and we had what was called a visitation minister, but he was also, you know, considered kind of a, oh, he was a fisherman of the church. He was the one that they wanted to go out and get converts, you know, and fill up the church. So he would come down front and stand there. They'd tell you to come down front. Well, in all practical reality, what you're doing, you're coming down to this man. And when someone would come down, and he had all the subtlety of a tornado, you know, like that, and he was doing that to someone in the congregation who had been kind of appointed to, you know, a personal worker, they call it, and they go off into a side room. Brother Scott Richardson used to say, come to Christ, but don't move a muscle. Worshipping God, coming to Christ, these are spiritual things. They're not done in the flesh. We don't come to God through anyone walking the earth today. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. All worship is through Him. and Him alone. Christ is the ark of the covenant. He is the priest, the high priest, and He is the sacrifice. He is the subject and object of worship. Worshiping God is not about fun or feelings. It is about giving God the honor that is due His name. because of what great things he has done in grace and mercy toward his people. That's why we worship him. That's our motivation in worship, and certainly that makes him worthy above all other gods claimed by men to be worshipped. But the prophets say, who is a pardoning God like you? Now, exactly when these events happened, we don't know. Bible histories are not necessarily written in chronological order because they were not designed to satisfy our historical curiosity. They were written in what I call a spiritual order. That is, the various stories that make up the histories, they were put where they were because the point that that story teaches, it was important that it be taught right there. So why is this act of worship, which actually was conducted far to the north of where the Israelites came in to the land of Israel, and quite a bit farther north than where this battle they had just fought? Except people debate, well, this was right after they came into the land. Well, it's surprising it wasn't mentioned then. And some Jews say, well, this was seven years later. Well, there's five. Doesn't matter. The reason it was recorded right here is because they had, you think of the events that have just happened. They'd gone in, they'd taken Jericho, it had gone off without a hitch. They went to take AI and got defeated. found out it was because someone within the camp had, with high-handed rebellion against God, taken something that belonged especially to the Lord. That issue was taken care of. Then they went back to A.I., and they approached A.I., exactly as the Lord told them, and once again, everything went off without a hitch. Now, lesson learned, what should we do? Give thanks to God. We came into the land, and if you remember, they came into the land just like Gentiles. Remember the first thing they did when they got on the other side? Circumcised all the men. Because they hadn't been doing that for that whole time, wandering in the wilderness. So they came in without any indication or mark that they were the people of God. They came in by way of the Ark of the Covenant right there in the midst of the river, holding back the waters. They came in, they celebrated the Passover, several things there. Everything seems to be going well. Attack Jericho, good. Attack Aon, whoops. And you can imagine, once they found out what had happened, they were thinking, there's no way to come back from this. We have offended the Lord who was good to us. The Lord said, deal with it. Deal with what's happened. And they did. They utterly purged. Symbolically, the sin in the camp. Achan's family, his household, everything he owned, everybody, destroyed. No longer a part of Israel. Just as the Lord, through Christ Jesus, has destroyed our sin. It's gone. Go to Ai, and they win Ai with as little effort as they won Jericho. Therefore, what an occasion for thanksgiving. How many times, friends, have you thought that you have sinned yourself out of the grace of God? How often have we done something that makes us feel utterly unworthy of any of God's goodness? And not just, you know, in that we understand that theologically we've sinned against God, but I mean, we just, we think, okay, I know God's gracious, but I mean, this is, this goes on and on and on. And I find myself to be still such a rebel. No way he's gonna keep, I have surely worn out his patience. And we find, no. That Paul was right when he said, where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Well, how often does that happen with you, preacher? Well, at least every week. Because I always think, why in the world am I in this pulpit? Even if I can accept, okay, I haven't lost my salvation, so to speak, but surely God will not bless my preaching, me being the kind of person I am. Well, thanks be to God. Here's I can tell He does bless the preaching. The first thing to be noted about this worship, it's according, it's done in obedience to the command of God. He had told them back in Deuteronomy, through Moses, that once they entered the land, he said, thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal. Now, true worship, all true worship, to be pleasing to God, it must be voluntary. It must be done gladly. In the Psalms it says, serve, which, now this is in the King James. It's where most of my Bible memorization is. Serve the Lord with gladness. But that word serve meant worship. That's what he's talking about, worshiping God. Worship the Lord with gladness. Now, there are many things I like about gathering here for worship. I was thinking about this before the service. This congregation, it's my family. You know, I'm not from here. I don't have any natural roots here. And our natural fruits went back down south. Our children aren't here. Bonnie and me. So natural connections. We don't have any, and being that I'm a pastor of a congregation, I've not really established natural friendships in this area, because everybody else is pretty well already networked into their church and family. That's okay, I'm not saying that to complain, I'm just saying there hasn't been a basis. to establish what we consider common friendships. You all are it. So sure, I love coming here on Sundays because I get to see the people who are part of my group, or the group that I am a part of. But I don't think I would enjoy it so much if it were not that we are gathering here to worship the Lord. I enjoy visiting everybody in this church. I enjoy time with them. But these gatherings, aren't they wonderful? When the Lord is pleased to open up, well, to speak and then unstop these ears so that we hear what he has to say and believe it in our heart. We're glad to be here. Worship is loving obedience from a thankful heart. It's not the service of a slave who fears what the master will say if he doesn't do it. It is the activity of sons who love to be in their father's household. Now the specifics of this altar represent Christ and the fact that the work of salvation and therefore the praise for salvation belongs only to Him. This altar that was made according to the command of God was made an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted up any iron. They weren't, you know, used nice squared off stones, just however they came out of the ground, just stack them up. What's that about? Nothing of us, nothing of our efforts, nothing of our will, nothing of our goodness, righteousness, nothing has anything to do with this altar. You know, that is the most difficult aspect of the gospel, I believe, for people to comprehend. And even we believers wrestle with it, don't we? Here we are gathered together and I, as the one who does 95% of the preaching and teaching here or whatever, yes, I should study, I should prepare, I shouldn't just go up here and wing it. But I also know this, it will not be my preparation, my prayers or anything else that does you any good. Whatever is accomplished here, it's whole stones stacked up It's all the work of the Lord. His work was done entirely by Him. It says in the Old Testament, I have tread in the winepress of the wrath of God alone. In the scriptures, when our Lord gave this command about an altar made of stones, he says, if you lift up any tool upon it, you have polluted it. That's exactly why Paul said, if you be circumcised, Christ profits you nothing. That would be to lift up a tool upon what God does. This altar is a place for sacrifice. Note that the sacrifices to be made were a sin offering and a fellowship or peace offering as it's traditionally known. And the order is good to note. Sin offering first. Then, fellowship offering. Why? There can be no worship, no contact, no fellowship or peace between sinners and God until the sin issue has been handled. And you know, that's true objectively. God cannot bless us. He's a just God. He cannot bless us unless the sin issue is taken care of. God can't bless us, God cannot approach us, and we dare not approach Him until the sin issue is settled. And also, subjectively, and by this I mean in our own experience, we cannot truly enter into worship of God until the sin issue has been cleared up in our minds. Now don't get me wrong, if you feel guilt upon your conscience, you come here for worship, and what will likely happen, if you're the Lord's, He's going to take something from the Scriptures and settle that sin issue in your heart, and you'll be able to open your heart in worship and thanksgiving to Him. But understand this, God, is not acceptably worshipped on any other foundation than this, that though I am a sinner, Christ has taken away my sin, and I stand approved, accepted, loved, and blessed by God, because in Christ, I have no sin. That's the foundation of worship. I do want to get this done, so give me just a couple minutes here. The way this is pictured, it's between Mount Ebel and Mount Gerizim. Mount Ebel, some say it means bald, and what's interesting, and that's where the curses were supposed to come from, and Golgotha, of the things it can mean. The Bible says it means the skull, but some said it also could refer to the bald. And so Mount Gerizim, where the curses were, corresponds to Calvary. And what happened at Calvary? Well, as they put that crown of thorns on Him, what do thorns represent? That's the curse. Instead of fruitful plants, Thorns and thistles will grow out of the ground. So the curse was laid on Christ. He was made a curse for us. And so the curse on Mount Ebal. Gerizim means cut off. Messiah will be cut off. So you have actually in both of those mountains, you have a picture of Calvary. The curse laid on Christ. Then over here, Christ cut off because of the curse. But Mount Gerizim is where the blessings were to be given. Here's the interesting thing. In Deuteronomy, when that was first mentioned, the only thing that was mentioned was the curses. The curses. But now, in between those two valleys, stands Joshua. And that law has been written on plastered stones, not the stones the altar was made of. This was another stack of stones that had been plastered and the law was written on it. Joshua, whose name is the same as Jesus. Joshua the Savior. Joshua's there. The Ark of the Covenant's there in the middle. The law's there. People. Six tribes on each side. And I thought this was interesting. Both the citizens and the aliens. Who's that? That's us. The non-Jews. See how even in the Old Testament, there was the foreshadowing of the ingathering of the Gentiles? And through their ingathering, according to Romans 11, all Israel shall be saved. Because not all who are of natural Israel are of spiritual Israel. So the Gentiles were represented. And then he says, and the women and the children. In Christ there is neither male nor female, young or old. All there. And Joshua read everything that was in the law. You know, when we say that we're not under the law, those who for some reason are attracted to that law like a moth to a flame, they claim that we're promoting lasciviousness. We're not. One thing is they don't understand that law. And when we say we're under the law, we don't mean that we don't have law. The New Covenant has some law. And it's far better law than was ever written in the Old Covenant. But when it says the law, it's not just talking about the Ten Commandments. It's talking about everything that was said in that entire covenant. And when it talks, you know, the Bible says, I meditate on my law day and night. Are we to take it that that fellow just ran through the Ten Commandments all that, you know? No. Oh, how I love thy law. I don't have a problem with the Ten Commandments in terms of thinking it's bad law or anything like that. But if you look at the entirety of the law, not only its commandments, but especially all of its worship laws, they point to Christ. Why did the psalmist say, I love thy law? Because he saw He was a man of faith. He saw this isn't about me keeping the law. It's proof that I can't do that. But then a sacrifice has been made in my behalf that clears me from all my failures. And they understood that that lamb didn't do it. They knew it was one to come, the son of David, the seed of the woman, Messiah. The believing Jew under the Old Covenant was looking at exactly the same thing you and I are looking. He couldn't see it as clear, but he was looking at the same thing. He was looking forward, and we're looking backward. And both of us are looking at exactly what God looks at in order to justify sinners. Our Lord Jesus Christ. There's Joshua right in the middle of it all. There are curses from the law, and there are blessings. Revealed in the law, not given by the law, but revealed in the law. Revealed in shadowy forms, but it's there if the Lord gives you eyes to see it. But we live where God has caused the light to shine, as bright as it ever will until he comes. Because we've not only seen the law written in the scriptures, We have a record of it being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Everything promised in the law has been fulfilled. And we're the beneficiaries of that fulfillment. We've got one minute.