00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
tonight chapter 24 and I'm going
to read the first 15 verses these are Joshua's final words
to Israel he knows he has not long to live and he wants to
address them for this final time Joshua 24 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. And Joshua said unto
all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers
dwelt on the other side of the flood, he means the Euphrates,
in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham and the father of
Nechor, and they served other gods. And I took your father
Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout
all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau, and I gave unto Esau Mount
Seir, to possess it. But Jacob and his children went
down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and Aaron,
and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them.
And afterward I brought you out. And I brought your fathers out
of Egypt. And you came unto the sea, and
the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen
unto the Red Sea. And when they cried unto the
Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought
the sea upon them and covered them. And your eyes have seen
what I have done in Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness a
long season. And I brought you into the land
of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan. And
they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, that you
might possess their land. And I destroyed them from before
you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred
against Israel, and sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor,
to curse you. But I would not hearken unto
Balaam, therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you
out of his hand. And you went over Jordan and
came unto Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you,
the Ammonites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Gilgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I delivered
them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before
you, which strayed them out from before you, even the two kings
of the Ammonites, but not by sword nor with your bow. And
I have given you a land for which you did not labor. and cities
which you built not, and you dwell in them. Of the vineyards
and oliveyards which ye planted not, do ye eat. Now therefore
fear the Lord, and serve him with sincerity and in truth.
And put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side
of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it
seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom
you will serve. whether the gods which your father
served which were on the other side of the flood or the gods
of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell but as for me and my
house we will serve the Lord well this evening I invite your
attention to Joshua chapter 24 and the first The first thirteen verses. In
other words, I'm not really going to get to verses fourteen and
fifteen this evening. Leave them for a sermon next
time. So the first thirteen verses of Joshua chapter twenty-four. Remember I said, I think, in
Joshua twenty-three, this is really all one section, and it's
Joshua's last sermon and as an old man he's taking this last
opportunity to address Israel for he knows of course that Israel
after his death will largely fall into apostasy and fall away
from their true position which of course is what happened in
the book of Judges very quickly after Joshua's death and after
the death of that generation those leaders Israel went into
terrible corruption it says many times and several times in the
book of Judges there was no king in Israel every man did that
which was right in his own eyes and we see the terrible consequences
of that in the life of Israel There's nothing new under the
sun. I think we can see something of it in our own generation,
in our own times. Joshua, though, as he comes to
the end of his days, realizes that he must try and do something
before he dies. Whatever he can, however small
it might be, he wants to do something. I labored this last time to advance
the cause of God, if not that, at least to try and maintain
something of the truth of God and the ways of God in Israel.
And the only way he knows how to do it is to preach, to address
Israel with these words. Now, I don't remember if I said
this in chapter 23, but I was not, strictly speaking, I think,
preaching that night. Nor, I think, strictly speaking,
am I preaching tonight. Because I don't think actually
Joshua is preaching in these first 13 verses. I think the
preaching comes in verses 14 and 15. I'll just explain, I
may have done this last time, but I'll just explain again because
I think it's important. And I think today we suffer very
much from the fact that ministers do not know the difference between
giving a sort of a historical or a theological lecture and
actually preaching. Preaching is quite clear to me
as in verses 14 and 15. There's a very different tone
in 14 and 15 as compared to the earlier part of the chapter.
The earlier part of the chapter is mostly factual and it's just
dealing with the basic fundamentals, the points, the facts, the history
and the doctrine. Important, very important. He
builds his case there, he makes a case there. But it's when he
comes to 14 and 15 and he starts saying things like this, now
therefore, and we want a few nows in our preaching. We want
a few therefores. I don't know if I've mentioned
William Perkins to you before, but I'll mention him again if
I have. He was a famous Puritan, worked at Cambridge, 1600 or
something, you know, very early on. One of the early great formative
preachers in the Puritan era. And he laid down a marker, really,
which other Puritans followed. And one of his great markers,
he was a great intellectual, and the academics at Cambridge
heard him very profitably. But it's also said that the common
people flocked to hear him also, because he knew how to address
the common man. But one of his great sayings was, what's the
use of it? What's the use of it? In other
words, he lays out his doctrine, he lays out all the great truths
Now today, it seems to me, many preachers just stop there. Now I'm going to say now that
that's what I should be doing tonight, but I won't really be
preaching. I really think Perkins had the truth in him here. What's
the point of all this doctrine? What's the use of it? Now, therefore,
fear the Lord. A bit more commanding, you see.
In the first part it's, well God did this and you did that
and this was how this worked out. All very important. But
now we come to the imperatives. And that's preaching. Now therefore
fear the Lord. And serve him. And do this. And stop that. And then he comes
this. And if it seem evil, verse 15,
and you know this famous text, it's been used so many times.
Choose you this day whom you... Now those are preaching words. In the cowboy films you get that's
fighting words or fighting talk. Well yeah, in cowboys they want
a bit of fighting words, but in preaching we want a bit of
choosing words, a bit of imperative words, a bit of preaching words.
My friends, what we hear tonight is supposed to do something to
us and make us do something about it. I was just talking to John
before I came in, I remember a lady in Lowestock when we gave
out tracts and when I knocked on her door and asked how she
liked them, it was half a dozen tracts we'd given out over six
months, she said, I like them very much, I've got them here
and she had them on the shelf and she showed me and that delighted
me, I couldn't understand it then and I still can't understand
it. How come people like tracts and say tracts? You either love
them and do what they say or you hate them. I can't see how
you like tracts, Bible tracts, you know, How can you just like
sermons? You either hate it, my friends,
or you love it. You do it. And Joshua said, well,
I want you to do something. Now this poor man actually failed,
I think, ultimately, in large measure, judging by the history
of Israel, but he had a go. And I'd rather have a go and
fail than not have a go and succeed in not having a go. And I think
I'm glad Joshua had a try at it. choose you this day and perhaps
there have been one or two people maybe one or two thousand people
down the history of the church have chosen this day whom they
will serve and that's been the Lord God himself and maybe his
words may be not successful that day I don't know but maybe they've
been more successful after his death shall we say anyway so
I won't be preaching very much but you know me too well I will
stray into it I do ask you to forgive me that was said with
my tongue in my cheek Of course I'm here to preach. What have
I come up here for? That's my job. It's my privilege. If I wanted a lecture, I'd go
into a college and lecture, as they'd have me, but I want to
preach. I want us to do something. I wish it could be said of me,
it was said of Joseph Alain, you've heard about that man in
Taunton this week, can't be with the yoga thing, well there was
another minister in Taunton, another Church of England minister
a few hundred years ago, his name was Joseph Alain, he died
very young. And it was said of Joseph Alain that he was insatiably
greedy for the conversion of souls. I hope that dear man,
he sounded a good man to me, I hope he's got that about him
too, insatiably greedy, can't be satisfied, he never had enough
for the conversion of souls. Well, Joshua knows he's going
to die, and therefore he says, I must take this opportunity.
I'm reminded of another Puritan, Richard Baxter. I don't agree
with Mr. Baxter in lots of things, but I do like him on this. I
understand that towards the end of his life, maybe in his last
illness, he was very ill and it came to him. He said, if ever
I could preach again, you may have heard the saying, I'd be
sure to preach, he said, as a dying man to dying men. What does he
mean? I've got to die, I've got to
answer to God. They've got to die, and they've
got to answer to God. But I've got to answer for them
too. So when I preach, I'll remember. God can see me, and soon you'll
be asking me what I did on September the 2nd, 2007 at Pidley Chapel,
and he'll be asking you too. I'll be sure to preach, he says,
as a dying man to dying men. And one last little word of introduction.
I'm reminded of Paul. I may have quoted him before,
too, in Acts 20. This he did when he sent for
the elders of the church at Ephesus, when he said, I'll see your face
no more. And they wept because they would see his face no more,
and he said it. They knew it. They'd never see him again. Well,
my dear friends, I'll never see you again in this life, and you
will never see me. I'll preach the last time, and
that might be tonight. I don't know. Will you be excited?
I don't know. Does anybody know Peter Naylor?
No? Peter Naylor? Well I understand
he died very suddenly a week or ten days ago and his final
service was taken last Friday. He drove 136 miles each way to
a lock in Scotland, somewhere in Scotland, to see something.
On the one day and the next day he had a burst artery and he
was pronounced within a few days dead. By the way, that's four ministers
I know, four Reformed, strict Baptist ministers that I know
this year that have died. God may be doing something. And
I don't know my friend. So I'll try tonight to remember
that. Paul says, this is how I've laboured, I want to take
the last opportunity. I commend you to God, he said, as the word
of his grace, which is able to build you up. I know after I
die, he said, after I leave you, I know that what's going to happen
here. Now, that's what he said. So there's nothing in you I say
under the sun. Well, there's just three little
points I want to draw out from this section here. The first
one won't go down very well, I suppose, in many circles. I
don't know how well it will go down with you, but I see it here
and I'm very happy to speak on it. The first thing I want to
draw to your attention about this whole episode, these first
13 verses, and if you like put it with the chapter 23 before,
but I want you to notice how solemn, how solemn the whole
affair is. Now I don't suppose that will
go down very well in many chapels tonight. I'm not saying miserable,
I'm not saying just long-faced and, you know, no sense of any
humor in the nicest possible sense. God's got a sense of humor.
He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision. But, my friends, there is a solemnity
about this passage. Well, it's the only chapter in
the Bible where there is solemnity. Not at all, my friend. I don't
find it any chapter where there isn't solemnity. Just take what
I've just said to you. Did you like what I said? Do
you agree with Richard Baxter? If ever I get the chance to preach
again, he said, I'll remember. I'm a dying man, and my congregation
are dying men and women. And I'll preach to them with
that spirit. You don't come giggling when you know you're dying. Who was it says? Was it George
Johnson? It solemnizes a man wonderfully. I think that was his word or
something like it. It makes him solemn when he knows he's going
to be hanged within a week. That was his way of putting it.
And it certainly makes a man think, doesn't it? Now this is
the spirit that Joshua said, I'm going to die. He said, I'm
an old man. I don't know how his voice could carry. Maybe
it was very difficult. Maybe he had to be helped. They
got arthritis in those days, you know. Maybe he had to be
helped up on the podium. I don't know. Maybe he couldn't
stand for all service. I don't know what it was. But
the poor man is there and he's going to do what he can. I haven't
got time for jokes, he said. I haven't got time for amusing
you. This is a serious business. Israel is going to go to the
dogs when I finish and I want to do what I can to preserve
you. He says quite clearly in verse
1, and they presented themselves before God. Now I don't see,
if you really believe that, they presented themselves before God,
that you can say anything else, but this must be a very solemn
occasion. My friend, one day we are going to be presented
before God, and there'll be no jokes and giggles on that day,
I'll tell you. There might be on earth, but then I say we're
not presenting ourselves before God. We are dealing tonight with life
and death matters, eternal matters. That's what I believe when we
open the Bible. We're dealing with the most precious and most
wonderful things. And I'm not saying again that
there's no sense of humor in it, there's no sense of pleasure
in it, and delight in it, and all the other things. But my
friends, lightheartedness and superficiality, I just don't
see it going along with it, my friend. I've been in services
where it's just giggle after giggle after giggle. And I can't
see it myself. Perhaps you can, I don't know.
Well, we'll have to park company on it. We're in the presence
of God. I don't know how other ministers
open their meetings, but I always open with prayer. What a routine. No, my friend, I've got to come
before God. Before I take up my hymn book,
I want to know that I'm in the presence of God, so I seek God's
face first. I want to know His blessing upon
what I do. I'm opening the Word of God.
That is a very solemn matter indeed. And the people are gathered together
to present themselves before God. Now I hope they had the
spirit of Cornelius. Do you remember Cornelius who
sent for Peter because he was instructed by God to send for
him and he gathered his family together and a few friends and
more than a few it seems. In Acts chapter 10 he gathered
his company together and when Peter came in and he said why
have you sent for me? He said we are gathered here
to hear what God shall say for you are the words of God from
him. Perhaps we ought to get the very words, Acts chapter
10 verse 38. That's what he says to them,
we want to hear whatever God has said to you. Oh no, 1033, I can't believe
my own writing. Immediately therefore I sent to thee, and thou hast
well done that thou art here. Come, now therefore are we all
here presently for God to hear all things that are commanded
thee of God. For us, I think God will be over
every service. It's a wonderful privilege, if
that's true then. It's a wonderful privilege. So if anybody gave
me a ticket tonight and said, Mr. Browns is preaching and speaking
on the homeless and you're welcome to come and you can sit on the
platform, that's very good. I've got a better ticket, I'm
sorry I can't go. Why not? I've got a ticket to
go and hear the King of Kings. But Mr. Browns speaking, I've
got a ticket to go and hear the infallible Word of God read to
me. Ah, but the Queen's going to
be there. Ah, but I'm going to where the King's going to be,
you see. I got a prior engagement. We're so used to these little
chapels, but these are only meeting houses. To me, these meeting
houses mean nothing but by association. It's just a convenient place.
But when we've sat here like this and gathered like this and
the Bible's open, if I read it right, we are present before
God. And he took them to Shechem.
Now under the Old Covenant, verse 1, chapter 24, he took them to
Shechem. Now under the Old Covenant, places
meant more than they mean for us now. Acts 4, John 4, 24 and
so on, there's no special place now. Not in this mountain, nor
in Jerusalem. No, no, no. There's no special
place. But in these days there were
places that had very strong associations. Now why Shechem? Well you can
check it for yourself. You'll find it in Genesis chapter
12 verses 6 to 7 and you'll find it in Genesis chapter 35 and
verses 2 to 4. You can check it for yourself
if you want to when you go home. Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis
chapter 35 and you'll find Shechem is important there it was the
first landing place more or less when Abraham with his father
and they moved and when Abraham got to this promised land Shechem
really was the place where he started and Joshua knows this
association and he's taking the people back to where it started And Shechem also was the place
when Jacob, coming back with his wives, made them give up
their idols and he buried them under the oak at the tree, wherever
it was in Shechem. Put things right. And now says
Joshua, we're here before God and he's going to speak for God
and verse 2, he's going, if you like, to let God speak for himself. And this man chose to use words. He thought that was the most
important thing he could do. And I'm still a believer myself in
the power of the preached word. It is still the power of God
and the salvation. I know they found out better
ways today, but not to my mind. I know they've improved the taste
of this and the flavor of that. and the cars are better and the
computers are faster and the mobile telephone we've been talking
about it can do this and that and the other. But my friend,
funny enough in religion I'm very old fashioned. I'm two thousand years old fashioned. The Apostle said it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Until that's expunged
out of my Bible, I'm going to still believe it. I am sorry
to say that I cannot prove it by experience. I have seen just
a little of it, but by my experience I'm afraid I cannot verify it
as I wish I could have done. But I still believe it. And if a man doesn't see it soon
in England, there won't be much preaching left here, I'll tell
you. But if preaching won't work,
nothing will work in my opinion. That's what Joshua thinks. So
he says, I'm going to preach it and then I'm going to write
it down. And maybe our brother's recording and sending this to
other parts of the world. I understand he does. I'm very
pleased he does. If we won't at Piddly hear it,
maybe they'll hear it in Zimbabwe or wherever it gets to next.
That's a remarkable miracle, isn't it? I understand that people out
there are seeing more power than we are seeing in the preaching. Don't turn the camera around
and show us how poor we are, Obery. But we don't do it, my
friend, or say these things because we approved it and therefore
we know it's right. We believe it's right. And Joshua's
going to do it. So let's get on with it and see
what he says then. Now what's his material? Well, his material
is different to mine. My material really is scripture.
But this man didn't have scripture to go on, did he? Really, not
much. I mean, I don't know what was written in those days, I
don't think any, very little of it. So what he could draw
on is, if it was written, or if it was verbal, I don't know
how it was verbal, I suppose, transmitted in those days, but
it was the history of God's dealings with Israel. It was their experience
of God in his dealings with Israel. It was the doctrine of God, what
he knew of God, what God had proved to them down the centuries
about himself. Now this is very frequent in
the Old Testament, I'll just rattle off a few chapters. Deuteronomy
26, Psalm 78, Nehemiah 9, and even in the New Testament to
Acts 7, Stephen, you will find he gives a history talk to the
Jews. I remember 40 odd years ago,
50 years ago nearly now, a young Christian saying he wished he
had a short summary of the history of Israel, shall we say. Well, if you want a short history
of Israel then would you like to make a note of those chapters?
It won't take you many hours to read it. Deuteronomy 26, Psalm
78, Nehemiah 9, and Acts chapter 7. You'll have quite a lot of
the history of Israel there in those chapters. And what this man does is draw
upon this history. I have not proved that. If you
just glance down, you'll see Abrams mentioned, Aaron, Moses,
Egypt, Jordan, Jericho, all these towns, all these nations. It's
the history of God dealing with his people. And in some cases,
he's calling upon the experience which they or their fathers have
had and their fathers have told them. And some of them actually
experienced it. And I think when I address you,
my friends, although I base what I say upon Scripture, it is history,
isn't it? The other week, I might preach
it here one day, I was preaching on a subject from 1 John chapter
1. That which we have seen, that which we have heard, that which
we have touched, that which we have handled of the Word of Life.
What John is doing there in 1 John 1 is saying, we were there, we
saw Him. It's all fact. Peter says it. It's not cunningly devised fables. We saw Him with our eyes, we
heard Him with our ears. Very important point. Our religion
is based on history. Did you know that Julius Caesar
came to this country? Was it in 59 or whatever it was
and he conquered? Yes? How did you know that? Well
it says it in history books. I tell you this, there's more
authority and relevant history for Jesus Christ than anything
of Julius Caesar. It's about the most attested
fact in history I should think. It's well attested. I mustn't
digress unless another sermon. But the fact is, we've got history
to go on. And we've got experience too. I can draw on your experience,
my friend. If I want to, I can draw on your
experience. You've all had experiences of
God dealing with you, haven't you? I can draw upon that. Has not God done this for you?
Has God not answered prayer for you? Has God not defended you,
protected you, led you? Did mum and dad ever tell you
anything? Did auntie or uncle ever tell you anything? Did you
ever hear anything in a sermon that affected you? Any bells
ringing anywhere? I know I can draw upon it, my
friend. I know, I know I can. Some of you don't like it, perhaps.
Some of you say, no, well, I don't want it. Ah, but it's true, my
friend, isn't it? God has touched the cord once or twice, hasn't
he? I remember reading a William book. I used to read William
books. Remember William, the just William? And one of the things, just came
to me as I was speaking there, touching the cord. I remember
once he had a neighbor which annoyed him. And so he decided
to get his own back on this neighbor. And he discovered his mother
wanted to make him garden. But he hated gardening because
he had to please his mother. For once he tried to do a bit
of gardening. And it just so happened when he chose the garden,
when he was fiddling about there, he found he could look into the
next door's house there and he found the wires leading to all
the bells. Remember all the maids bells and all that sort of thing?
And so he said to mother, he said, I'd like to have this patch
of garden. She said, well William, there's no sun here. He doesn't
get any light here. I'd like to have this patch mother.
Would you sit here, please?" And so she sat in the garden
in the sun and watched him while he gardened. Of course, what
he was doing was poking his stick through and rattling the bell
so the man would run to the door, thinking the door was... but
there was nobody there, of course. He looked at William, but of
course William was with his mother and gardening. But the point
is, he touched the bell cords. My friend, I believe God has
touched the cords. Joshua could say to these people, God did
this and you know it because you were there. He brought you across
to Jordan, didn't he? Oh yeah, we saw it. Yeah, he
did. And he conquered Jericho for it. Oh yes, so he did, yes.
And then what? I mustn't get preached. Oh yes,
I will get preached. Now then, he said, what are you going to
do about it? If God be God, if he's your God, do you want him?
Then serve the Lord your God. If not, choose who I'm preaching
next week. But there you are, my friend, that's what he comes
to. And let's move on then. What's the subject here? Well,
I've been over it a little bit, but let me just briefly bring
it out with you. As I say, he's dealing with the history of Israel,
not really. It is the history of Israel,
but there's something much more important. Where does he start? Well, you
say he starts with Abraham. Look at verse 3 and verse 2.
The father of Abraham, and then verse 3, he starts with Abraham,
your father Abraham. And that's always a good place
to start in scripture, Abraham. Why? Well, because Abraham is
the father, he's the first, he's the great foremost one of the
faithful. He is the literal father of the
Israelite people. From Abraham came that great
nation that God so favoured and so used and so blessed. How did
he favour them? Well, not only in Joshua's time,
but my friend, down the centuries. Think how he favoured Israel.
To which nation did he give his law? And only which nation did
he give his law? He says it, I have given no other
nation this law, only you, he says, and it was Israel. To whom
did God send the prophets? 99.999% of what the prophets
said was said to Israel. Occasionally they did go outside.
Occasionally they looked over the fence and did speak. You'll
find in one or two prophets they do speak to the nations, but
usually speaking to Israel about the nations. And occasionally,
of course, like Jonah, they send, God does send the man outside.
Only just a little, but he does, but 99.9% is to Israel. And our Savior was an Israelite.
He was born of an Israelite. He lived under the law. He worshipped
at the temple and so on and so on and so on. Paul makes much
of it. Favored with God's promises,
with his law, with his prophets, with the sacrifice system and
many other things. And it all starts with Abraham. But Abraham is not only the father
of the literal Israel. He is the father of all the faithful. Romans chapter 9 tells us there
are two descendants from Abraham. There is a physical descent and
there is a spiritual descent. There are those who are literally
Abraham's children and there are those who have the same faith
as our father Abraham. Galatians 3 says the same. And
if you are a true believer tonight, your true father, spiritually
speaking, is Abraham. So it's always good to start
with Abraham. But I led you up the garden path, my friend, because
he didn't start with Abraham. He started with the God of Abraham.
Ah, you're playing Ubers. No, I'm not, my friend. Verse
3, and I took your father, Abraham. Abraham was a great man, but
he was a man. He was made a great man, but
he started off, verse 2, as an idolater on the other side of
the flood. He was born in an idolater's family. He lived beyond
the Euphrates, in Babylon, as we call it today, over there,
beyond Canaan. It was God who took him. Now,
my friend, here's the theme. This is what Joshua is telling
them. He's telling them of the electing God, the choosing God,
the sovereign God. Out of all nations, he said,
I made Israel, but out of all men I chose Abel. And you can
see what he's saying to them, what privilege, what honor, what
dignity he has placed upon this people. And therefore he's going
to say, when they get to the preaching, now therefore fear
the Lord. How can you think of going back
from this God? How can you think of turning
away from this God who's done so much for you? You could have
still lived and died with your father Abraham beyond the Euphrates. My friend, can I not say the
same to you? Some of you had a privilege I
didn't have. You were born into a family where mum and dad were
godly. My mum and dad were not. Some of you had that privilege.
But all of us, my friend, I take it all of us here, I know Mona's
different, but she's coming to this country. All of us, I think
most of us anyway, we have had a privilege of being born in
a land as favored as any nation upon the face of the earth. Oh,
we're not so wealthy as the Americans. We're not so numerous as the
Chinese. We don't have the resources, perhaps, of India. But we have
something in this land which I believe no other land has ever
known. We had such favor from God, such openings of His mercy
and preaching power as I think few nations have had. I don't
think it's all it was cracked up to be, I don't think, I'm
not trying to make it whiter than white, but I mean you can
only see, if you look in the libraries and see the heaving
commentaries that the Puritans and the sermons that they wrote,
I'm not saying it was all masterfully wonderful, but we have been favoured. Some of you have been favoured
very much in your own life, I remember we talked many times about early
days at War Boys. I mean, that's nothing compared
to what has happened in history, but compared to what we are having
now, well, it is something. But still, you have seen the
favor of God. I have seen it. I can hear Joshua saying to me,
as he said to Israel, how could you think possibly of going back
from this God? I could say to this nation, my
friend, if it would hear it. Why ever would we go back from a
nation that was prepared to translate the Bible and distribute it and
read it and preach it where there was such conflict to establish
free religion and we've had such favoured times and seasons of
refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Why would we go
to Islam? But we're going there. Why would
we go to New Age thinking? But we're going there. Why would
we go to the drivel that comes out of so many pulpits today?
But we're going there. Why? Of all people we must be
the most stupid. But then, we are the same as
Israel. Should we turn over? Not now,
but if we had time, should we turn over to Joshua? You know
what happens, don't you? Time after time, time after time,
time after time, what do they do? They go into declension and
to sin. They build their idols. Some of the things going on in
Judges you could hardly read in public. The thing is you can read them
in public today because I've seen times change. Things are happening
in public today that would never be dreamed of in my day, in my
youth. But not only had God chosen them,
you'll see again, I'm just being very brief, I'm not actually
expanding the scripture, but you'll see that time and again
He favoured them, He brought them through difficulties, He
delivered them from men who would harm them and pull them down.
He mentions Balaam and Balak, He talks about the kings who
came against them, rivers against them, floods against them, but
He brought them through and through and through again and again. My friend, if we came into the
New Testament, the equivalent would be such passages as Romans
8, 2 Timothy 1, Ephesians 1 and so on. If we came into the Old
Testament, it would be Ezekiel 16, Psalm 40. What passage am
I talking about? I drew you out of the miry pit.
I found you in the wilderness. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. And many, many such scriptures. Chosen before the foundation
of the world and so on. What a privilege, Christ dying for
sinners. You can see it for yourself,
it's not Abraham. How many times do you see the word I in this
chapter? I, I, I. And it's not Joshua, it's God. I took. That's
what you want in preachers, who give you a sense of God. I think
George Whitfield said, that man, he said, he prayed me into a
sense of God and then he prayed me out of it. I think people expect too much
from sermons. Ooh, that surprises you. I think one thing you should
expect, though, is the sense of God. That God is in it somewhere. God is speaking to us. Whatever
you get of this passage here, you will know that God is in
it. I did this, he said, and I did the other. So he tells them what they were.
He tells them what God has done. What you were, he said, were
idolaters, but I made you into a nation where I favored you
and blessed you and I protected you. But then we come to the preaching,
but not tonight. None of that's preaching. That's
just facts. But I'll just read it to you,
my friend, in case you won't be here next time. 14 and 15. Now therefore,
fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth, Put
away every other God. If it seems evil, choose you
this day whom you will serve. Choose which God it shall be.
And then he gives them at the end of verse 15, that most famous
of all statements, but as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord. When I come to it next time,
I shall, I think, make this point. I hope I will. We live in a time
when we so want to make everything so easy and so popular that we
won't do what Joshua does. Joshua says, you've got a choice. Either this God I have preached
to you is the God and the only God, or he is not. And you can't go on sitting on
the fence, he says. You've got to come out openly
and choose which way you will go. What I'm thinking of is the
book of Ruth when Naomi is going back and her two daughters-in-law
are going with her. And you remember that Naomi says
to her two daughters-in-law She says, now you go back to Moab.
You go back to your own people. If you come with me, she says,
I'll have no more sons. And anyway, if I did have a son
tonight, if I had sons tonight, you wouldn't wait for them. You wouldn't wait the 20 years.
You'd be older. No, no. You go back to your own people.
And you remember, Orpah went back. And you remember, she says,
Naomi says to Ruth, you follow her. You go back with her. to your people and your gods. Preachers of the day won't do
that. They won't put the stark choice
to sinners. But Joshua does it, Naomi does
it. And it's the only way to get
Ruth's answer. Ruth's answer comes down in the
history, the years of history, because Naomi put the choice
to her. And her answer comes out gloriously,
doesn't it? Go back, she says. Your people shall be my people. Your God shall be my God. Where
you die, I will die. Don't say any more, go back,
because I'm not going back. My friend, I can tell you, when
I labored, as I did for many years, several years, as an elder
in a church, I would love to hear sinners saying that to me.
In fact, I used to address them when they wanted to join the
church towards the end. I used to say to them, why do you want
to join this church? There's easier churches. I wanted to
hear them say, don't say that again. This is the church we
want. We will join. We will keep our
feasts. We will be at the prayer meeting.
We will attend. I was at a church this last Thursday
when the man openly said, in the prayer meeting, by the study
I was taking we get half the people here so I'm glad to get
half I'm not glad to get half my friend it's 100% for me Joshua wants it you choose he
said you don't have to choose the Lord you can have these other
gods if you want you can have these other religions if you
want if you want Islam go for Islam but if you want Christ then come out for him Let us
hear it. And you know the way to confess
Christ, my friend, don't you? Arise and be baptized. Tell us. Ask for me in my house. Perhaps we can go up the house,
because that's a bit Old Testament. Ask for me. I will serve the Lord. Don't you ever say again to me,
go back, because I'm never going back. Do you know what the phrase
burning your boats behind you means? I think the Romans did
it. When they landed on the shore
they burnt the boats. Why? They were telling the enemy we're
not going back. We either conquer here or we're
buried here. As for me, I'm going to serve
the Lord. Now, which way will it be for
you he says. But perhaps I'll try preaching
next time anyway.
Dying Man Preaches to Dying Men
| Sermon ID | 9414111895 |
| Duration | 43:35 |
| Date | |
| Category | Miscellaneous |
| Bible Text | Joshua 24:1-13 |
| Language | English |
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.