People of God, we have seen the visible Word. Now we want to hear the inspired Word, the Word written, the inscripturated Word from Joshua. Chapter 24 this evening, if you turn in your Bibles to Joshua 24, God speaking to us, the preached Word this evening from Joshua 24, page 368 in your pew Bibles. Every now and again, I enjoy Looking back at family history, it's interesting to read what the family members did so many years ago, interesting to read past names of genealogies like Vobachina, Yika, and such things that are in my family's past. It's interesting to think about how we've come, of all the changes, all of the differences, change in names, change in Occupations. Yet seeing God's faithfulness, it's humbling to see how God weaves us into that history. How He shows His covenant faithfulness day after day. And humbling to think about being at this place in covenant history. After the cross, looking back to the Lord Jesus Christ, but also looking ahead to His coming again. I wonder at times how the families who follow will think of these past hundreds of years. should the Lord tarry, if Christ has not yet returned, to think about what God is doing and how He is working. Also, in this country's history, as we remember that this weekend, it's a time to reflect, to think upon God's blessings to this land. Indeed, we see the challenges and the struggles and the sin before us, but we do marvel and we do give thanks, at least we ought to, for that heritage that we've had here according to His grace and mercy. Tonight, we see another generation Another generation before us. And we think about the history of God and His people. We think about the covenant mercies that He has shown to His people and continues to show to them how He will be their God and how we are to respond then as His people. We belong to Him. I've just read that all covenants contain two parts. We've read that in the form. The call to new obedience. The call to cleave to God. to forsake the world, to crucify our old nature, and to live a godly life. Keith and Rebecca, you promised to instruct Eli and Austin, the fear of the Lord, to give them direction from the Word of God, promising to show them what it means to serve, that as for you and your house, you will serve the Lord, keeping the Word before you. Well, Joshua is doing that here as he comes toward the end of his life, the book of Joshua, Joshua 24. He gathers the people at Shechem for a covenant renewal to remind them of whose they are and how they were to live. Let's listen then to the reading of God's Word from Joshua 24. Starting at verse 1. Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, the leaders, judges, and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Long ago your forefathers including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the river and worshipped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the river and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians." And you lived in the desert for a long time. I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. When Balak, son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam, son of Beor, to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam. So he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand." And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. But I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you also, the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil, and cities you did not build, and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. Now, fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Then the people answered, far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. It was the Lord our God Himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt from that land of slavery and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord because He is our God. Joshua said to the people, You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you after He has been good to you." But the people said to Joshua, no, we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord. Yes, we are witnesses, they replied. Now then, said Joshua, throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord, our God, and obey him. On that day, Joshua made a covenant for the people. There at Shechem, he drew up for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the book of the law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord. See, he said to all the people, this stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God. And Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance. So far the reading of God's own holy word. May he write it upon our hearts. May it bear fruit in our lives. Dear people of God, this is the third sermon, if you will, of Joshua in as many chapters. One commentator writes, it's a significant feature of these sermons, although they're spoken to different groups of people and contain somewhat different material, they all have essentially the same point, the need of the people to be faithful to and fervently obey God. Joshua's chief burden there is in verses 14 and 15. Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods. Serve the Lord. For me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Well, before he gets to this point, however, Joshua reviews the family's history. The emphasis there in verses 3-13, I trust you heard it, was an emphasis upon God doing the delivering. I have delivered you. I took your father Abraham from beyond the river. I sent Moses and Aaron and I afflicted the Egyptians. I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan, delivering you from their hands. I was with you when you crossed over unto Jericho. I gave them into your hands. God is the one who goes before us. Joshua recounts that to the people. He goes back as he's talking with the Israelites to their patriarch, to the beginning of the family, the person whom Israel saw as the father of the nation, Abraham, one who was larger than life in their history. And what does he say? What does he say about Abraham? Did you notice that? This one that they look back to, this one that they prize highly as one who was this great patriarch from the beginning of their nation. He was an idol worshipper. Calvin writes, the Jews, to give a false dignity to their race, relate that Abraham became an exile from his country because he refused to acknowledge the gods of his fathers. But if we attend to the words of the inspired writer, we shall see that he is no more exempted from the guilt of idolatry than Terah and Nahor." Oh, how we like to build up our ancestors, don't we? Larger than life. Calvin goes on, why is it that the fathers of the people serve strange gods? And that Abraham was rescued from the country if not to highlight the free mercy of God on display in the election of Israel as his people. There's the source of our salvation. There's the source of the salvation of God's people. It is God's free mercy. It is His grace. James Boyce writes, Abraham is not mentioned to remind the people of their supposed illustrious ancestry, but rather to remind them of their humble and utterly pagan beginnings. The point is that long ago, your forefathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, worshipped other gods. That is how God found them. That is how God finds all people, dead in sin, worshipping other gods, worshipping themselves, You see, grace extends back to the beginning, to the beginning of Israel. But even beyond that, does it not? The very beginning of human history. From the beginning, God graciously calls a people to Himself. God did not select Abraham because he was so pure. In fact, He chose him in spite of his impurity, in accordance with his good pleasure. He chooses us in spite of ourselves. He shows us rich mercy. We bring our children to Him because He tells us that the covenant sign is for us and our children. In faithfulness to His covenant, He extends promise to us and our children. In baptism, He reminds us of the need to be purified, to be cleansed. His grace is necessary or we would certainly be under condemnation for our sin. We need an atoning sacrifice that is without stain, namely Jesus Christ to give Himself for us. It's not being part of the right biological family. It's about being adopted, as we heard in the forum tonight, into the family of God. Not by blood or human decision, but by the will of our Heavenly Father. Joshua told the people that it was God's gracious initiative which was the source of their call, and that's true for us. Parents, do not neglect to tell your children of the powerful grace of God. Do not neglect to keep that central as you speak to them of loving obedience, as you speak to them of how they are to serve the Lord, what it looks like. Do not neglect to tell them of God's great grace. These things are recorded that we might learn how God has worked in the past. We might not lose heart in the present. All these records, all this account throughout the Old Testament, looking forward to that coming Savior. Looking to the One who is greater than Joshua, Moses, all the patriarchs. His powerful grace is seen in the delivering of His people from the Egyptians. We see in verse 5, from the Amorites. Verse 8, from the residents of Jericho. Verses 11 and 12. God's delivering grace is there on display. Were it not for Him, the people would have been consumed. His protecting grace is seen as He protected Israel from Balak, from the Moabites, from Balaam as He desired to curse them. What a picture for the church today as it hears about how the world wants to bring curses upon the church. How the world attacks the church continually with her words, with her deeds. But God continues to protect the church. He strengthens her through these times. He leads us to look to Him when we feel weak, when we are seemingly small in the eyes of those around us. Remember, too, what happened in that instance when Balaam could not curse the Israelites. What did he do? Later on, he gave advice to the surrounding nations to come in among them and to lead them astray. The church is continually under attack. If the world cannot attack from the outside, Satan and his schemes will try to attack from within to seduce the people of God, to bring the wrath of God against them. We saw how they intermarried later on. We saw how they turned away. from God because of that, to beware of such subtle attacks on the truth. It is a point that we want to make to young people as you're dating children, as you're considering what is being put in your minds through television elsewhere. It may seem safe if it's out there, but there will be other means by which the devil will try to seduce and to attack the truth. Then we read that loaded clause there at the end of verse 7, then you lived in the desert for a long time, covering a vast portion of Old Testament Scripture provided for these people for 40 years in the wilderness. One writer states it this way, this was nothing less than one long miracle. Before the challenge, before the command is given, the motivation for obedience is before you. God has shown you A marvelous grace. A miraculous work. A gracious love. Look at the good news. The Gospel seen in seed form here in the Old Testament. How God is continually delivering. Only to look forward to that day when He will deliver once for all. When all enemies of God will be destroyed and the new heavens and new earth will be established. There's that motivation for obedience, the gospel. Consider what God has done. Consider God's love in Jesus Christ. The family's past blessing, or the family's present living, then learning from the past, we can think clearly in the present. At least it helps to direct us. It is not our power that delivers us, it is God's. We want to think that we've won with our battles or that we've developed greater weapons. We've sharpened our weapons so that they will be more effective. But God says, I must go with you. I went before you. Verse 12, you did not do it with your own sword and bow. You did not do it with your numbers. Think of how he tells that again and again and again through the book of Judges, which follows right on the heels of this book. After Joshua dies, the people turn away. One prime example in Gideon. All of these men to come behind him that they might stand against the Midianites. And what does God do? He brings them down to 300 to make the point that I will deliver you. I must go with you. We live in a state of dependence even as Eli is dependent upon his parents. Do you think about this? How is it Monday through Saturday as you consider the challenges before you? Controlling your emotions, considering your sins. Do you see the graciousness of God? Do you see the importance of repenting, coming to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ? What we need is the faith of a child to see God going before us each day by telling ourselves this truth and teaching it to the next generation. God goes before us, and our loving response should be a desire to serve. As God leads, He does it in such a way that you might be shaped for service, and so that you might be shaping others to serve. We are, of course, dependent upon God's work for that, a regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. But this does not leave us inactive. Listen to Joshua's words in verse 15. I and my household will serve the Lord. It's an individual choice, but it's also a corporate challenge. Is that your focus as you lead your children? As you talk to each other? Will they see God in small things? Will they see Him in the larger things? Will you teach them to look for Him everywhere? I found Jacobus Kuhlman's book, The Duties of Parents, to be a valuable resource. When thinking through what it means to be a Christian parent, how you instruct, how you prepare for the growing up of children, how you instruct them along the way, I commend it to you. Jacobus Kuhlman's book, The Duties of Parents. Children, this baby that was just baptized doesn't understand what he sees. He develops his sight as he gets older. As he gets older, he begins to interact with people, with things around him. Someday he'll be old enough to ask those questions. What is life all about? Why am I here? Some of you are asking those questions, perhaps. You're created for, and you're here to bring glory to God. He is pleased when you obey your parents, those in authority over you. He's pleased when you sing praises to Him. He's pleased when you show brothers or sisters or friends what it means to serve God, to challenge them to do so. And people, He's pleased when you turn from sinful movies and fashion and lifestyle. You see, we think it's sometimes out there that the world is attacking from outside, and we'll identify it long before it comes. And yet Satan can deceive and he can distort the truth when we bring these things into our own homes. When we willingly go to watch such movies or to read such things. You know I say encourage each other in the faith. Spend time encouraging each other in the faith. I've heard of some of the young men in this congregation texting scripture verses to each other during the week to encourage each other. in the faith. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful thing to encourage each other in the faith. Men and women, please, talk about God's Word. Encourage each other. Use this technology for God-glorifying means. Joshua's challenge is a challenge to continual lifetime service. We see that we are shaped to serve, that we are shaping others to serve. We see that we are continuing to serve. The tense that Joshua used implies more than a once-for-all choosing, as if one can make a choice and then be done with it from there on, and it's smooth sailing. No, indeed, there will be tumult, as we'll sing about in a few moments. Jesus calls us over the tumult of the challenges in life. We must persevere by the grace of God. The word used here is a verb tense of continuous action. It's as if Joshua has said, I have chosen to serve the Lord. I'm choosing that same path of service now, and I will go on choosing to serve God to the end. It's a challenge to serve God today and every day. Whenever you put off service to God, however, remember this. If you are thinking that tomorrow is another day, another day in which to serve Him, there'll be time for it then, you are rejecting Him today. Or you're refusing those opportunities today. With God's help, then identify what idols are turning you from Him. whether they be long-held idols, those from the past as we see here, from ancient history or from long ago, or something more present, something around you perhaps, a relationship or particular activity. What is it that's keeping you from serving God? The Israelites were apparently holding on to past idols, something seemingly harmless, and yet it was breaking their love for God. It was not an exclusive love for God. Further, when you take idolatry, when you take an idol, anything before you that you can shape, that you can mold, that you believe yourself to be in control of, you are then thinking, you are considering this, that God can be shaped. You can make God in whatever image you would make Him. Whenever this present practice is happening, the future doesn't look bright. Well, then we hear the people, as they respond to Joshua's words, they respond by saying, far be it from us to forsake the Lord. We will serve the Lord. He is our God. These are the words that we want to hear. We know our hearts too well, don't we? Joshua's response is very strong and revealing. You are not able to serve the Lord. He is holy and jealous. We'll not go on forgiving your rebellion and your sins. If you desert Him, He will consume you. If you turn from Him, if you do not believe that you need Him, the future is not bright. Their practice did not follow their words as we see in the book of Judges, just a few pages over and just a few chapters later. The book of Judges, Judges 2, we read. Verse 7, the people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Then verse 10 of Judges 2, after that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel. And the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them up out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoke the Lord to anger. You see how important it is then to instruct that next generation. How important it is to keep the truth before that next generation. People of God, we must pray that God would graciously keep us strong. Not only in confession, but also in living. That He would keep us ever aware of our own sins. That we would be confessing. that we would be finding our hope and our confidence in Jesus Christ. And our hope must then be not in our faithfulness, but in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope for future glory for the family of God is not in our faithfulness, but in God's grace in Jesus Christ and His law-keeping. Covenants mean so little today. We see it in the breakdown of marriage, These oaths that are taken seem so flippant, so lightly taken. You see it in the weakness of parental instruction of children in the faith. All those words, those were just words that I had to adhere to. Or that I had to say, rather. Our past and present tell us that if our future is going to be different, we need the Lord. And we need to seek after him. We need to submit ourselves to his word. We read that Joshua set up a large stone to bear witness to the words of the people, something enduring to take note of their commitment. Keith, tonight, we give ear to your covenant promise, but more importantly, God does, to Rebecca as well. God takes note of this commitment He promises that as you look to Him, He will give you sufficient grace to instruct, to point your children to Him, to point your home to Him, with Christ as the center. We do not look to the performance, however, for assurance of God's favor. No, indeed, we look to another rock, to Calvary, where the Son of God was lifted up on the cross, lifted up to die for your sins, for mine, for all of our sins. rock which witnesses the answer of God for man's sin. There Jesus bled and died to take away our sins, to wash us. There a rock was rolled away to show His victory over death, His victory over that last enemy which is coming for all of His children. The family of God is a future glory not because we are so consistent in worship or so faithful in prayer, though these disciplines are called for and necessary. but only as we look to Jesus Christ in faith, trusting Him for the forgiveness of our sins, looking to the cross to find assurance of salvation. No one here has the power to make another believe in Jesus any more than Joshua could with the people of Israel, to declare, to make them, to lead them to declare that they will serve the Lord, to change a heart. But we must set before one another the only right path to eternal life, actively, prayerfully, trusting God's promises, pointing each other to faith in Jesus Christ who is the Savior, to all who believe in Him. He is the one who washes away our sins. He is the one who gives us confidence of future glory and of inheritance. He is the one who blesses our homes, that we might say with confidence, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, leading us then to that place. of inheritance. Listen to those final words. Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance. God was faithful in giving them their inheritance, their earthly inheritance. How much more will he not be faithful in giving us our heavenly one through Jesus Christ? To him then belongs the glory and the praise. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your Son, Who is that One who is greater than Joshua, greater than Moses, greater than Abraham, greater than Jacob, greater than all the fathers, the patriarchs? That One who is your beloved Son. When you declare, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Him I love. Listen to Him. Lord, as Your Word has been opened, as Your Word has been set before us, may we see once again the covenant and its establishment through Christ's blood, and the call then, the obligation to us as we consider the gospel, consider that joyous deliverance, that grace greater than all our sins. May it lead us then to go forth with thanksgiving and praise, depending upon you for every good thing, depending upon you to establish a family for yourself. Receive our thanks and our praise through Jesus Christ, the head of the church, our Lord and Savior.