Joshua chapter 23, Joshua's farewell address. Now it came to pass, Joshua 23, now it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua was old, advanced in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, I am old, advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is He who has fought for you. see I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I've cut off as far as the great sea westward and the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight so you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left. And lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. Or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them and go into them, and they to you know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you, but they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land. which the Lord your God has given you therefore it shall come to pass it is all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things until he has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you his word to our hearts was prayed together And we thank you, O Lord, that these words sustain your people in that age, and they are written for our comfort and hope as well. Bless us as we study them. We pray that your word would run swiftly through the earth here and everywhere. that men whom you have called to preach the gospel would preach and teach only the scriptures, that we would not run unsent or with the message you have not given to us, but that you would feed your sheep with your precious word we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord fights for you. That's clearly, clearly the great hope of this passage of scripture. There's an outline on the back of your bulletin, verses one through five. Remember what the Lord has done. verses 6 through 10 obey him unconditionally and separate verses 11 through 13 love the Lord and don't turn back and verses 14 through 16 God is faithful don't break his covenant remember what the Lord has done verses 1 through 5 now obviously verses 1 and 2 these are Joshua's last words Nothing is more depressing, however, than an old unbeliever who has nothing meaningful to share before he stands before the Lord to be condemned. But a saint's parting words, especially a faithful old soldier of the cross who exhorts us in the Lord's name, that's an occasion for careful attention and rejoicing. Old age is coming to us, and by listening to last words, we are encouraged. to seek and serve the Lord so that when our time comes we will be ready to depart and be with Christ. These two chapters, 23 and 24, are the closing scenes in Joshua's life. Most people feel like these addresses were given at the same time, perhaps on the same day, that's very likely. Joshua's old, he's about 110, and so he called for the elders, notice there in verse 2, all of Israel, elders, heads, Judges, the shotarim, the officers, and he gives them a parting charge. They don't know it, but this is the last time for 400 years that they're going to be united under one national leader. And these words had to sustain the faithful for a long time. And Joshua's parting words, I think, also teach us how to die well. And that is exhorting the generation to come to serve the Lord. Now, what does he tell them? He has a one-point sermon. I'll try to work on that this year. Every sermon, a one-point sermon, okay? God fights for you. The Lord fights for you. You can't have missed that. All the victories you have enjoyed, verses 3 through 5, the Lord fought for you. The inheritance you now have, the Lord fought for you. A bright future, He says to them in verse 4, and especially verse 5, a bright future. He will expel them from the land, even the ones who are left, because He will keep His promises and He fights for you. That's another way of saying what? The Lord is our strength. Negatively, that means that we can't do anything without the help of God. We have no wisdom to think, or live righteously, or resist the devil, and sin, and the flesh, and despair, and discouragement, and worry, and anxiety. Positively, however, if the Lord fights for us, the largest giants in our lives and in the world can be progressively defeated. The Lord will defeat them. He will defeat them as we use the weapons that He has placed in our hands. because nothing can stand before His strength. Again, you know these verses, but I encourage you to take them to heart. Ephesians 6, because you can't beat the enemy of our day in your own strength, and neither can I. Listen to what the Apostle says about the Lord is our strength in Ephesians 6. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. But on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Young men, young women, old men, old women. Here's the Lord saying the same thing to Joshua in their day that he will say in our day. The Lord will fight for us. Now that doesn't mean easy victories. It doesn't mean no tears. And I'm sure people died while they were conquering the land. But the Lord has bound himself to us in covenant and therefore he'll fight for us. if we trust Him and fight as He commands us to. Because remember, those people had the same covenant, the same promises, the same Savior we do, except we now have the reality. And so this history is our history. Now how can I say that? Well, the Lord Jesus is now exalted to the right hand of the Father, where He exercises three things. Romans 5 says, being justified by His blood and being reconciled to God, we shall be saved by His life. And there's three things we know that He is doing right now at the right hand of the Father. He has universal dominion, He has an availing priesthood, and He has a prophetic word that runs swiftly through the earth, the sword of His mouth. And this is why we have the same confidence, and we must recover it in our day. In your own private temptations, your marriage, something comes up between husband and wife, and one of you's got to say, wait a minute, we can't talk our way through this, emote our way through this, scream our way through this, we need help. And there's only one Helper, and that's Jesus Christ, who is ascended to rule over us. So let's call upon Him as our King, and keep calling upon Him until He comes to our aid. He's praying for us that our faith fail not, and let's go to His Word. because His word is the sharp sword coming out of His mouth. So if Joshua could say to them, the Lord fights for you, he says the same thing to us much more pointedly, much more clearly. And this has got to control the way we think and our expectations for life. Without you, Lord, I can do nothing, John 15, 5. But in Christ, Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Him strengthening me. Is Jesus Christ your strength? Did you make Him your strength for everything? Family life? Personal piety? Your witness in the world? Societal faithfulness? Endurance of trials and persecution? Whether you're youth and vigor or old age and weakness? We should undertake nothing, nothing, and I mean nothing. And the reason you can't undertake the small things without calling upon Him is that if you don't call Him in the little things, you'll forget to call Him, own Him in the big things, and you'll be overwhelmed. So in everything, Lord, You are my shepherd. But sadly, most of us are like that sheep I saw years ago, one of the first times I was in, Ben Berenger's sheep pen, and he's calling the sheep, and they're walking up, and I see this sheep coming up, and I know I've told this before, but the sheep's got barbed wire rolled all around it, and he's carrying a fence post about 20 feet behind him, dragging through, and he's bleeding all over his face. And we try to go over there and he's headbutting us and kicking us while we're trying to help him. And dad had some choice words for that sheep and basically just said, that's you and me, son, okay? Because it is, we don't, I do it myself. Same thing when we're six months old, a year and a half, I do it myself. I do it my way. Our Savior taught us something different. And the Lord teaches us something different, that he is our strength. So if you want success, If you want success and for the Lord to overcome the sins in your life, and bring peace in your family, and strengthen you to endure and overcome like they did in the old days, the Roman beast, the Roman Empire, Pelagianism in the days of Augustine, and Athanasius, Romanism, Atheism, and the French, and all the Communists. Where do you think the church endured all? Because Christ is our strength. And He will do the same against secularism, and technocracy, and statism, and all the isms we have today. He is our strength, and the way we learn this is Monday morning, Lord Jesus, help me. Help me as I do this task. I've done it a hundred times, but I need your help. I need to do it unto you. I need to know you. I want to see your strength in this. I want to wash your feet by doing this little thing because without you, I can do nothing. Now along with the Lord, remembering what the Lord has done, he says, listen, you need to obey the Lord. Notice how he transitions. Therefore, verse six, in the light of everything I've done for you, the fact that I've thought for you, you be courageous to obey. Now he doesn't say find the courage in yourself. He didn't say find the courage in watching old movies about people who charged a thousand men with one sword. No, you be courageous to obey. By the way, how in the world were they going to keep that command? None of them had copies of the Bible. They had the copy and maybe another copy or two that scribes made. They were supposed to listen to it. That's one of the reasons why I read longer passages of Scripture at times. We're supposed to listen to it and remember it and meditate on it. He says, obey. Don't swerve to the right hand or to the left. Get the distractions out of your life. If your phone is a distraction, throw it out the window. If your television, if your computer is a distraction, you can't overcome it. There's an easy solution. Let's take an ax to it, okay? Well, I can't do that. Okay, well, yes, you can. Because the Lord here says, don't swerve. How many Christians, how many, you heard Boyd Miller here when he was here during the conference that we did and talking about all the churches that he passes by, you know, as he's traveling around, and they're dark. They're dark on Sunday evenings. Because God's people don't think enough about the Lord to want to come together and worship Him, and we need the Sabbath day, all of it, to worship. He says, don't swerve, don't turn to the left, don't turn to the right, stay away from distractions, stay away from the bright lights of this world, and you walk in obedience to Me. And then in verse 7, He gives four no's of separation. He says, hey listen, look there, don't go among the nations. He says, don't make mention of their gods, don't swear by Apple, don't swear by Microsoft, don't swear by Bill Gates, don't swear by our president. Don't take the name of the gods of your land into your lips. Don't swear by them, don't serve them, don't bow down to them. Now sometimes that will get you thrown in a fiery furnace. Don't bow down to the gods of science. We like science. Science tells us about God's world. We can learn a lot about what God has made if we look at this world and everything in it through the lens of scripture. But don't bow down to men and to their so-called findings when they make science the arbiter of truth, forgetting that the scientists are just men. And so their reading of everything is as fallible as dust is. Just said, don't bow down to them. Separate from the idols of the land. And then verse 8, he says, I want you to hold fast to the Lord. Hold fast to Him. Fear Him. He fights for you. Notice, go through these verses quickly. Why have you survived? You held fast to the Lord. Interesting here, the word cleave in verse 8 is the same word as in Genesis 2.24, where the Lord said to Adam, you're to cleave to your wife. You're to stick closely to the Lord. Wait a minute, that must mean the Lord's willing to be stuck too. That must mean, oh, His name is Emmanuel. We sing that this time of year. Emmanuel, He's come. We feel all good about it. What that means is the Holy Spirit of God has come upon us, and Jesus has baptized us with the Holy Spirit, and we have Emmanuel. We have God with us. So stick to Him. Develop a relationship with Him. Talk to Him. Get to know Him. Be in His Word. Hold fast. to the Lord. Why? Because verse 9, He's driven out the enemies. He'll drive out sin. How do you think, verse 10, one of you has chased a thousand? except the Lord your God fights for you as He promised you. You know, so much of our lives we try to, you know, maybe we spin our wheels too much instead of trusting the Lord and looking to Him and looking to His Word and clinging to that. Instead we cling to experts and doctors and philosophers and scientists and politicians and no wonder we get all confused. Listen, I need to do what the Lord says, and He will fight for me. Now, He makes this very personal in verses 11 through 13. He says, Therefore, take heed to yourself that you love the Lord your God. That's one of the most precious lines in the whole book of Joshua to me. shemar in Hebrew, guard yourself so that what, so that you love the Lord. Now think about what that means. Can you, husbands, if I said to you, guard yourself so that you love your wife, now what would you, okay, I need to be careful what I think about, I need to be careful, you know, what I look at, what I don't look at, I need to be careful about resolving issues quickly between husband and wife and not letting the sun go down upon my wrath. I need to guard this relationship. This was in the old covenant, supposedly the dark days. And God is saying, I love you. Now let me ask you a question. How much more does He say it now that He sent His Son down the cross for us? He says, you be careful. You guard this relationship of love. The Father loves us. He sent His Son as the gift of His love. The Son loves us. He gave His life on the cross. In Philippians 2 it even says we have communion with the Holy Spirit. Granted, that's a little bit hidden still, and perhaps we'll know more about that in the life to come, but guard. Young men, are you drifting at all? Young girls, are you drifting? Are you guarding your heart so that you love the Lord and so that you don't allow other loves to creep in? Now, he makes that way more specific in verse 12. He says, listen, if you're going to be careful to love, the reason you need to be careful to love the Lord is so that, verse 12, you don't go back. and cling to the world or make marriages with them. I'm telling you, we could go to the New Testament as well, and there's warnings in both testaments of young girls, young women, you know, if you're 30, 40, and you're not married, 20, whatever it is, well, wait a minute, it's better, better to be unmarried, okay, than it is to marry a man, and the same thing goes to men, or be interested, who does not absolutely love the living God for what he has done for us in his son. He says, don't do it. Don't intermarry with unbelievers. Don't look at them. Okay. In that way, don't develop romantic interest with them because what? If you do that, you're going to offend the Lord. And they're going to turn your heart. And of course, the most infamous example of this is Solomon. He says, they're going to turn your heart away from the Lord. And then what's the Lord going to do? Verse 13, I'm not going to drive them out anymore. I wonder how much of this applies today in the United States. I wonder how much we fudged in the church. Granted, we're not a holy nation politically like Israel was, but I wonder how much the church has fudged on this point, and therefore suddenly the Lord just lets us get inundated. Well, I think he's a Christian. Maybe she's a believer. She doesn't swear much, and if she does, she swears. You know, she takes Allah's name in vain, not God, so she must be good to go. I'm being facetious, but the point is somebody who loves the Lord, you know, somebody who loves Jesus Christ, they're not going to put up with your nonsense if you encourage them to sin against Almighty God and walk away from Him. And the Lord says, hey, if you do this, I'm not going to drive, I'm not going to fight, I'm not going to fight for you anymore. What a warning. Now, remember, Joshua is 110. I know there's probably young preachers in Gwinnett County in the prime of their lives at 35 who wouldn't say these things, scared to death. Here's Joshua at 110, and he is pouring out his heart, looking over all the people, their elders, their leaders, their officers. And then he says this in verses 14 through 16. He says, Hey, I'm going the way of all the earth. That means I'm going to die. And I want you to remember something. God is faithful. Not one word of anything, verse 14, that he has promised you has ever failed. to come to pass. Now you might think, I just don't know that God's been that faithful to me. You know, if we go over to the Gospel of John, if I can find it here real quickly at the end, I believe it's in John chapter 20. We've looked at this verse before, but it seems very appropriate here when we wonder, can the Lord really Can the Lord really keep His promises to me? John 19. Is He going to be faithful? I mean, if I devote myself to Him like this, what if it's years before I find a husband or a wife? What if I don't win the victory? What if in doing what's right, I lose my job? What if I suffer in my family for sharing the gospel? Let me encourage you to look to Christ, John 19, 28. You know what we would do with this? We would reverse this. We would be all thinking about, I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty, my needs, my needs, my needs, my wants, my wants, my wants. And Jesus was thinking, and He's our great example, remember, even on the cross. Everything that is written in God's Word has been fulfilled. I have brought in everlasting righteousness. I have provided atonement for the sins of my people. And only then Almost at the end, and it is at the end, would he allow himself to think of his own need. And his need was excruciating and horrible. And he says, I thirst. Now, why do I read this here? God is faithful. Do you doubt it? Look at Calvary. Look at the Lamb of God. Look at the Lord Jesus saying everything. I have followed my Father's Word meticulously. And I know and He knows. So when you find in areas of your life, dear believer, when you just, ah Lord, it's so hard. I don't know if I can continue. Are you really gonna fulfill this in my life? Are you gonna honor this? Is the stand really worth making? You just look at Jesus. Is it really worth, will God really keep His promises? Look. at the Lord Jesus and take your griefs and your sorrows and your anxieties to him and he knows how to give you that balm that will encourage you. Notice back in Joshua 23 at the end of verse 14 he says, not one word has failed. Now I ask you believers here tonight, have you ever asked God to forgive you and he said no? Have you ever asked Him to guide you in some major decision of your life? And He said, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm sorry, you're on your own, kid. We would have to give the same testimony. What about if we take a broader view of the church? You know, if we went back to, I don't know, 1789 in Europe in the French Revolution and everything, we're going to abolish Sunday and have a 10-day work week because we want to get rid of the Sabbath and fight against the very DNA of the universe. And we're going to cut off the heads of everybody who held anything traditional. And yet, Napoleon and Robespierre, they're all gone. and France and Europe has just suffered the ravages of turning away from John Calvin and the Huguenots and those who bore witness to God's truth but God's Word stands, it is gonna be fulfilled, it is going to be faithful it may be 500 years, it may be a thousand years but God is going to keep His Word And therefore, verse 15, we don't want to do this. He ends with a negative clause. I know he's very concerned. He's like, listen. And again, the verses perhaps are even inverted grammatically or logically. If you turn away from God's covenant, that all the good things that have come upon you, which the Lord has promised, then the Lord will bring harmful things until He has destroyed you from off this good land. You know, our confession has got some very interesting words about God's providence to his people. And these are not words that are necessarily easy to hear, but they are words that are very needed to hear. Listen to this. This is chapter five of Providence in the Westminster Confession of Faith. And this is I'll just read one paragraph, paragraph five. It's not very long. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled, and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Him, to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends." Why do I read this? You know, oftentimes we're like, if things start happening to us that are bad or negative, we start scratching our heads, you know, hey, what's going on? We can't always say, I mean, not all sickness is unto death and not all sickness, for example, is because somebody has sinned, but our confession's right, that God in His providence sometimes deeply chastens His people, sometimes for their former sins, sometimes to show them the root and the strength of the old man of sin so that we're not so presumptuous in the future and we don't depend upon ourselves at all. all and to humble us and to bring those past sins to remembrance even so that we bury them more completely in the wounds of Christ. Joshua here is telling us, he is saying, listen, if you don't keep covenant with God, He's not going to just sit there and say, oh well, you know, I tried. They wouldn't listen. No, He's going to bring difficulties. He's going to bring challenges. He's not going to fight for you. You're going to find yourself defeated. Again, why is he... Hey, Joshua, man, you're 110. Can you end on a positive note? Okay. But again, the positive is what? Keep covenant with God. He keeps His promises. You keep covenant. What does it mean to keep covenant with God? Well, that means that we recognize that He's a God who has bound Himself to us. with his promises of life and salvation in Christ. It means that we relate to him in terms of covenant. I'll tell you what that means. You're praying for your children, for example, or your grandchildren. And you're, Lord, you know, would you please give so-and-so a new heart? And then you remember, wait a minute, I don't just need to pray that like a Hallmark card American. Lord, remember your covenant. Remember your promises. I'll be a God to you and to your children after you down through your generations for an everlasting covenant. Father, I'm making this appeal to you because of your great love and because of your promises and because none of your words ever fail to come to pass. You brought my children, my grandchildren, the other children in the church. If you don't have any children, you brought them here because they're not children of this world. They're children who are hearing your gospel. Keep your promises or you're on the battlefield and you're struggling with lust. And you just, Lord, I'm defeated here. And then you remember, wait a minute, God is a covenant-keeping God. He wants to teach me first not to be so presumptuous and trust that I can overcome this in my own strength because I can't. but I can't wallow in my powerlessness. I have to go to my Savior. I have to remember, wait a minute, this is the Lord's will, even my sanctification, 1 Thessalonians 4, 3, that I know how to possess my body in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence and teeming desires like the Gentiles who do not Okay, that puts it very differently, Lord. I'm fighting with You. You're fighting for me in terms of Your covenant. And so I don't want to offend the Lord. I don't want to break covenant with Him. I don't want to turn away from His Word and start trusting myself. He says in verse 16, lest you transgress. How do we transgress the covenant? He tells us, we go and serve other gods. The American gods are very simple. It's self. It's what I want. It's what I feel. It's what I think. It's what the experts tell me. He says, that is how you transgress and sin against God's covenant, when you don't live by His promises, but instead you live by the words of man. And so Joshua warns them here at the end, covenant with God. Young people, I'll give you something very specifically that you can... How do you keep covenant with God? First of all, well, look in 1 Corinthians 7. What are you supposed to be doing right now to keep covenant with God? I know we've got to watch the time. Go to 1 Corinthians 7. We've got a lot of young folks here, so we need to know what does that mean? How do I walk in covenant with God? 1 Corinthians 7 verse 32. But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. Point number one, if you're unmarried, a young person from we'll say eight years old to unmarried, six years, I am supposed to be devoted to pleasing the Lord. And notice caring. for being concerned about the things of the Lord, not, it's time to go to church. What? Go to church? I don't want to learn. I don't want to sit there. How can I be concerned and care about the things of the Lord if in His house I don't have any interest? So that's number one right there. Notice, as he goes on down, what I would say second, make sure that when it comes time to select mate, you just know that if you're looking at an unbeliever, or nominal Christian, you're right there breaking covenant with God. Because he says that right there in Joshua chapter, you're breaking covenant with God. And by the way, that would also include marrying a Roman Catholic. If you look at our confession of faith, and rightly so, it says there in the chapter on marriage, we're only to marry in the Lord and not Roman Catholics and other idolaters. Because we're supposed to be dedicated to walking in the gospel of grace and what God has done for us through His Son. So I know we've been a little bit all over the place, but remember Joshua's got a lot to tell. He's 110 and he's running out of air. He's got one other thing to tell them in verse 24 when they renew that covenant. But what does he say? Let's summarize quickly. He says, remember, the Lord fights for you. Ask Him. Every one of you here tonight, in all of your battles, everybody's being sifted in one way or the other. I understand that. I am being sifted too. We hear things, we see struggles, we feel our weakness, ask Lord Jesus, I have no strength. You strengthen me and I'm going to ask for your help in everything I do. Second, he says cleave to the Lord. Stick to Him. stick to Him, please understand He has made you for Himself and your heart will be miserable and restless and your life will be empty unless you stick to Him in your work third, be careful to love Him and anything that diminishes your sense of God's great love for you or anything that makes your heart cold toward Him, get rid of it Okay, be careful to love the Lord, for He's your life. And lastly, walk in covenant with Him. Remember, He's bound Himself to you with promises, and He's sealed those with the blood of His Son. You don't have a happy-go-lucky, topsy-turvy relationship with God. You have a blood-sealed, bonded Father who has given His Son who loves you and sealed you with the Holy Spirit, and you cannot be lost in time or eternity, but you are Christ forever, and therefore you are bound. So walk in that covenant and in that confidence that your Heavenly Father has loved you and given His Son for you. Let's pray together. and we ask all or we thank you for Joshua's parting words what parting words to give for us, what you have done for us in your son, your covenant of grace, your purview, and to be careful to love you. Please, Lord, help us to get rid of, fight against, mortify the pride that quenches love, the anxiety that quenches faith, the despair, oh Lord, that shuts down our heart and makes us cold. Please work in us. Please invigorate us. Please help us, Lord Jesus, to see you on the cross, all things are fulfilled, everything is accomplished, not one word of all of God's promises can ever come to fail in our lives, you will provide for us, you will take care of us, you will guide us with your counsel and then you will receive us to glory and we will be forever with you we bless you and pray that the whole earth would be filled with the knowledge of your glory in Jesus name, amen