Let us turn to Joshua 23, please, tonight. I want to try and cover the final two chapters in the book of Joshua under the title, Old Soldiers Never Die. Joshua 23, verse 1, And it came to pass a long time After that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, but Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel and for their elders and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers and said unto them, I am old and stricken in years. And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God, He shall expel them from before you, and shall drive them out of your sight, and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you." Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left, that ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them, but cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong, but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you, as He hath promised you. Take heed therefore unto yourselves that ye love the Lord your God. Else, if ye in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you, know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you. They shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. And behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth." That is the way all of us are going. We are going the way of all the earth, and we will go the way of all the earth if our Lord Jesus Christ be not come. And ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one good thing is filled of all the good things which the Lord your God speak concerning you. All are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath sealed her off. Therefore it shall come to pass that as all good things are come unto you, which the Lord your God hath promised you, so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until ye have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord hath given you, when ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you. and have gone and served other gods and bowed yourselves to them, then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given you.' Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for all the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God Joshua said unto all the people. In 23 he is addressing mostly the leadership. In 24 he is addressing the people. What is he doing in chapter 24? He is retracing their history. Verse 13, he says, The Lord is saying, I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them, of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not. Do ye eat? Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your father 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 ye this day whom ye will serve. whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Ammonites in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And then down to verse 26 or verse 25, the people have affirmed their willingness to serve the Lord. And verse 25 says, So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. The book of Joshua is filled with memorials. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which ye speak unto us. It shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. And it came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old, And they buried him on the border of his inheritance in Timnath Zerah, which is in Mount Ephraim on the north side of the hill Gaiash. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and which had not known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. Let's keep our Bibles open there at these two chapters. On the 18th of April, 1951, General Douglas MacArthur, having been recalled from Korea by President Harry Truman, addressed a joint session of the American Congress for the last time. In that address, he said some things that stayed and have stayed with the historians down through the years. He said this, Old soldiers never die. They just fade away. I'm going," he said, to close my military career and just fade away. An old soldier who tried to do his duty, and God gave him the sight to see that duty. Then he paused, and then he saluted the American Congress and said goodbye. Old soldiers never die. Old preachers never die. Now, I'm not talking about any of you because you're not old. And I'm certainly not talking about myself. I'm talking about Victor Maxwell and Jackie Hughes and George Bates and some of those old boys. Of course, old preachers do get old. I heard about an old preacher in his eighties who said, if I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. When folks start coming up to you and saying, My, you haven't changed a bit, what they really mean is, I'm surprised you're not dead yet. Some preachers grow old gracefully. Some change their hairstyles. I heard about one preacher growing old, and he decided to change his hairstyle. He decided to part his hair from ear to ear, combing it forward and backward. Someone asked him one day, Preacher, how do you like your new hairstyle? He said, Oh, I like it pretty good, but folks keep coming up and whispering in my nose. Preachers do get old, soldiers do get old, but all soldiers never die. That could be the theme of these closing chapters in the book of Joshua. Here's the old soldier Joshua, and he's getting ready to die. I mean, farewells are often touching moments. You remember the Bible records the last words of Joseph. commanding the children of Israel to take his bones out of Egypt and return them to the land of Canaan. Think of King David in his final moments encouraging Solomon and the people of Israel to follow on after the war. Paul's farewell speech to the Ephesian elders in the town of Bilitis is a message, a discourse that is filled with love and with concern. Last words seem to gather up in a few moments the life of the person who is speaking. Can you imagine being here for Joshua's farewell speech? He's now past ninety years of age. He's probably approaching a hundred, and he's just reminiscing, and he's reflecting on all that the Lord has done for him. The well-known psychoanalyst Eric Fromm wrote in his book Man for Himself, to die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable. My friends, Joshua, the son of man, had lived. His long life started in Egyptian bondage and ended in a worship service in the Promised Land. And in those intervening years, God used Joshua to defeat the enemy, to enter into the Promised Land, to allot the tribes their inheritance. But the great apostle is standing now on the edge of eternity, and he says this, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Joshua, is about to go the way of all the earth, the way that you and I will certainly go if our Lord Jesus Christ does not return. I wonder, can you picture this old soldier? His face is bronzed with exposure. His body is scarred with many battles. His countenance is wrinkled with years of leadership. He is an old soldier. He is on his journey home. He is on his way to glory. He is getting ready to die. Now, in our study of the book of Joshua, we have looked at Joshua from many different angles. We have seen Joshua the son. This is the first rule Joshua had in life. Joshua was the firstborn of none. Thus, on the night of the Passover, it was essential that Joshua would be covered. He was the firstborn and he had to be covered. He had to be protected by the blood of the Lamb. We have looked at Joshua the son. We have seen Joshua the slave, as a slave in Egypt, under the taskmaster's whip. We have seen Joshua the servant right throughout these early books, this Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses. Joshua is often described as Moses' servant, Moses' minister, the servant of Moses. We have looked at Joshua the spy. He is chosen as one of the twelve to spy out the land of Canaan. We have seen Joshua the successor. It takes time to be prepared for any kind of leadership responsibility. And through all of those wilderness journeying experiences, the Lord was preparing Joshua for his ministry as successor to Moses. But my dear friends, tonight it's not so much Joshua the son, or Joshua the slave, or Joshua the servant, or Joshua the spy, or Joshua the successor that you and I want to focus on. It's Joshua the soldier as he takes his leave of the nation of Israel and he passes the baton of responsibility to those behind him. Chapters 23 and 24 contain his farewell speeches. Some commentators have called this his valedictory. He first speaks to the leaders in Shiloh in chapter 23, and then he addresses all the people at Shechem. And as we seek to summarize the teaching of these two chapters tonight, I want you to simply notice that Joshua is looking in three different directions. First of all, Joshua looks forward with concern. Joshua looks forward with concern. You know, as Joshua was about to take his leave of the people, His greatest concern was not himself. His greatest concern was his people and their relationship with the Lord. Joshua is standing looking at the children of Israel, and they have now settled in the land, and he has given the tribes their inheritance, and they have settled in the land of Israel. And yet, as he looks at the children of Israel, there are some things that deeply concern him. I've just got this feeling – in fact, I'm sure it's a biblical one – that as Joshua looked at the people, there was this growing concern about this increasing complacency on the part of the Israelites. As he looks at the nation, he's deeply concerned by the increasing compromise with the Canaanite cult all around him. There's a constant danger that God's people in the midst of an ungodly world will accommodate themselves to the patterns and the principles of the culture around. That's why the Bible tells us that we must be very, very careful. We must never let up. We must be very careful never to go along with the temperature of the time. God doesn't want us as Christians to be thermometers registering the temperature of the times. He wants us to be thermostats changing the temperature of the times. And Joshua was looking out at the nation, and he's looking out with a measure of concern. Indeed, he presents the leaders of Israel with two scenarios. Here's the first one. Obey the Lord. The Lord will bless you. And you'll be allowed to remain in the land. Disobey the Lord, and the Lord will curse you, the Lord will judge you, and He'll remove you out of the land. There's a little phrase that you need to underline in verse 12. It says this, Joshua says, Else if ye in any wise go back. So easy to go back, isn't it? Joshua doesn't want them to go back. And so he speaks here about the prevention from backsliding. How could it be prevented? Well, he tells Israel that backsliding can be prevented in three ways. One, it can be prevented by exaltation. Look at verse 2. Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age. And ye have seen, O, that the Lord hath gone unto all those nations because of you. For the Lord your God is He that hath fought for you." Verse 5. And the Lord your God, He shall expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight, and ye shall possess their land as the Lord your God hath promised unto you. Joshua reminds the people that the day they left Egypt, the Lord had fought for them. The Lord had stood with them. The Lord had delivered them from their enemies. He further reminds them that the God who had helped them in the past would help them in the future. He would overcome their future enemies if they only looked to the Lord and worshipped. You see, when we praise the Lord, when we exalt the Lord, we are not likely to praise false gods. When we give due honour to the God of the Bible, we are not likely to forsake Him for false gods. If we stop giving proper honor to the Lord, our respect for God will decline and we'll give honor elsewhere. Hence, Joshua says to Israel, if you want to avoid apostasy, if you want to avoid backsliding, get your eye upon God, exalt God. Not only does he tell them, if they want to Go forward with the Lord and not go back. They can do it by exaltation, but He tells them they can do it by consecration. You know, it's one thing when you're fighting that you can stay focused. Fighting gives you a unifying goal. And here they were in the land of Canaan. They were fighting the battles of the Lord. But it's possible now, because the wars have ceased and the land is settled, it is possible to neglect your relationship with the Lord. Sure, they had to depend upon the Lord when their backs were against the wall, when the enemy was coming in like a flood. But now they were heading into a period of peace and prosperity. And there may be this in their heart. They feel they don't need God as much. And that's why Joshua directs their minds to the Word of God. You'll notice he repeats the sentiments which has been his guiding light. Look at verse 6. He says, Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside thereto, to the right hand or to the left. Joshua's message is very simple. He says, As I take my leave of you, adhere to the Word of God. My dear friends, it's so easy to go back when we neglect the Word of God. Can you not testify to that fact? I mean, how can you have victory in the Christian life apart from the Word of God? Is the Word central in your life? He directs their minds to the Word of God. Then look at verse 8. He directs their minds to the worship of God. He says, cleave unto the Lord your God as ye have done unto this day. Cleave means to be firmly attached to something, being glued together. It's the same word that's used in Genesis chapter 2, where it speaks of a husband and wife cleaving one to another, glued to each other. It's this total commitment to the Lord. And, my dear friends, if you and I are going to avoid personal backsliding, personal apostasy, we need to be glued to the Lord. We need to be totally committed to the Lord. Half-hearted, partial, incomplete consecration will never do. So, Joshua is saying, you want to go on with the law? You don't want to go back? Well, you can go forward by exaltation. You can go forward by consecration. And then look, if you will, at verse 7. You can go forward by separation. Separation. He says, Come not among these nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them. Neither serve them, nor bow yourselves to them. They were to consecrate themselves to the Lord. They were to separate themselves from the world. You'll notice the Joshua says, they were not to walk with the Canaanites. Come not among these nations that remain among you. Matthew Henry says the way of sin is downhill. And those who have fellowship with sinners cannot avoid having fellowship with sin. They were not to walk with the Canaanites. You'll notice from this passage, they were not to worship with the Canaanites. Verse 7, neither make mention of the name of their gods. Still again, they were not to wed the Canaanites. Joshua was simply echoing and giving and repeating the warning given by Moses. Moses said, neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto a son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. You remember Solomon? Marriage led him into apostasy. Led him into a departure from the true and the living God. Separation. Joshua says, you don't want to go back, you want to go forward. You'll go forward by exaltation. Bless the name of the Lord. You'll go forward by consecration. You'll go forward by separation. Separation is a biblical concept, but it's an unpopular truth. If there used to be a time when God's people were distinct, didn't there? Wasn't there a time when God's people were distinct and different from the world? However, a whole new ideology has been developed which tells us, if we want to win the world, we must become like the world. And there's so much of the world in the church, and there's so much of the church in the world, you can't tell the two apart. And as a result, many Christians tonight find themselves walking with the world, worshipping like the world, and being wedded to the world. Old Vance Havner said, we live in a day when there's anarchy in politics, apathy in the pulpit, and apostasy in the pew. A mother took a batch of homemade applesauce and a batch of homemade cottage cheese to a church social. As long as she was doing the dipping, everything was fine. The trouble started when she left the table and her little boy was now in charge. Of course, he used the same spoon for both. It wasn't long before there was so much applesauce and the cottage cheese, and so much cottage cheese in the applesauce, you couldn't tell which was which. My friends, the popular cry in most religious circles tonight is this, Get with it! Get with it! God says, Get out of it! Gullible Christians everywhere are unaware of Satan's strategy to squeeze them into the world's mold. No wonder the Apostle Paul says, Be not conformed to this world. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold. I wonder tonight, are you conforming to the practices, the patterns, the principles of this old world? And that's the cause tonight of your apathy. That's the cause of your indifference. That's the cause of your backsliding. Joshua sets before them the prevention from backsliding. And then look at the chapter again. He sets before them the punishment for backsliding. You see, if the matter of turning from God is not prevented, then it will be punished. In fact, Joshua lists here four specific punishments for Israel's disloyalty to God. Have a look at them very quickly. He says, if you turn from the Lord, there will be a loss of power. Look at verse 13. He says, know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you. Without God's help in driving out the enemy, Israel would not be victorious. Loss of power. They were completely dependent on the power of God. Do you remember Samson? A little call by God to judge Israel and endued with mighty power to accomplish that task. Samson ended up his life in captivity to the Philistines, and that captivity cost him his power. It cost him his strength. No longer was he the mighty Samson. He was now just like any other man. You remember that when he divulged to Delilah the secret of his strength, it was his hair. He was a Nazarite unto God from his mother's womb. And he says, Delilah, if you'll only cut the locks of my hair, I'll just be like any other man. He lost his strength. He lost his sight. He lost his service. One of the saddest verses in all the Bible is that Samson went out, and he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. Do you remember, my friend, when you were strong for God, when the goal was in your heart and you were an overcomer? I wonder, have you lost your strength, your power, because of self-indulgence, a loss of power? Look again, a loss of protection. With power gone to win battles, Israel would lose protection from the enemy. Look at verse 13. The Canaanites would harm them. The Lord says they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, used to say, God will never allow His children to sin successfully. Did you get that? God will never allow His children to sin successfully. God says, you sin and those sins will be ensnared to you. Those traps will ensnare you. Again, we are reminded of Samson. He lost his power because of drifting from God. He also lost his protection. Once his power was gone, the Philistines took him. He was just like any other man. They brought him down to Gaza and they put out his eyes. You see him in the prison as he grinds corn? Do you see the painful price that backsliding extracts? A loss of power, a loss of protection. Look at verse 13 again. A loss of possessions. Three times Joshua speaks of this aspect of the judgment of apostasy. He says, ye perish from off this good land. That's exactly what happened to Israel. In 930, the kingdom divided into two. Solomon's death, northern kingdom, southern kingdom. In 722 B.C., the northern kingdom went into Assyria. In 605, 598, 586, the southern kingdom went into Babylon. Judah went into Babylon. They had forsaken the Lord. They had worshipped idols. God says, You want idols? Okay, I'll give you idols. And God put them in the center of idolatry. Babylon was the center of idolatry. And you know something, my dear friends? That cured Israel from idolatry once and for all. After the Babylonian captivity of 70 years, the first thing that Israel did was to come back to the land of Judah and rebuild the temple and reestablish the worship of the one true and living God. And there has never been a problem in Israel with idols ever since. You see, whenever a nation or an individual forsakes the Lord, they will ultimately experience that verse that states, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. If you go back tonight into the world, there will be a loss of power. There will be a loss of protection. There will be a loss of possessions. And then look at verse 16. There will be a loss of peace. The anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. Israel will lose peace. in every area because of apostasy. Now, let me pause. You see, Joshua's concern for these people wasn't for their military well-being. It was for their moral well-being. It wasn't for their material well-being. It was for their spiritual well-being. My friends, is that not the key to Onision tonight? It's a nation's moral fiber that's so essential. It's a nation's spiritual life that's so vital. That's why we are in the mess that we are in tonight in the United Kingdom. That's why we have the problems and the troubles we have. We have turned away as a nation from God. Many Christians once served the Lord with a passion But the fire has gone out. And as a result of their backsliding, they've lost their power, they've lost their protection, they've lost their possessions, and they've lost their peace. Many have the mindset that they can go their own way, that they can do their own thing, that they can be their own person, that they can enjoy the rich blessings of God. They expect the living God to bless them, but they don't expect the living God to bless them. My friends, God is a jealous God. God is a just God. If we turn to Him, we'll experience His best for our lives. If we turn from Him, we'll experience His chastening hand. Here's an old soldier on the edge of eternity, and he's looking forward with concern. Notice, secondly, he's looking backward with confidence. As we come into chapter 24, I want you to see that the geographical setting has changed. Look at verse 1. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. Three geographical points were of vital importance to Israel during their years in the Promised Land. Gilgal was the military headquarters of the nation. Shechem seemed to be the spiritual center Or Shiloh seemed to be the spiritual center of the nation, and Shechem seemed to be the political gathering of the nation. You remember that it was at Shechem that God said to Abraham, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there Abraham built an altar unto the Lord. Jacob purchased land from the men of Shechem, and he also built an altar there. It was to Mount Gerizim and Ebal, very near to Shechem, that Joshua and Beneshin in chapter 8 renewed their covenant relationship with the Lord. And here's Joshua at Shechem for the last time, and the nation of Israel are before him. I mean, can you imagine the drama of this hour? Here's the old soldier Joshua. Here's the man who has led them into Canaan. He has settled them in the land. He has given the lots to the tribes. They're now dwelling in the land of Canaan. And now they're gathering for the very last time. And they're saying farewell to Joshua. And they're listening to his words of encouragement and admonition. Now, I want you to notice what Joshua does. He recalls their history. He recalls their history. That's always very important to do. Someone has said, those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. It's very important to review your history. And so, Joshua recites the history of the nation of Israel from the founding father, Abraham, right to that present moment. No less than 17 times we find God referring to His accomplishments on behalf of the nation. We hear God saying, I took, I gave, I plagued, I sent, I did, I brought, I have, I destroyed, I would, and I delivered. That's the only I I like to hear in the pulpit. You know, some preachers are full of I. Do you see what Joshua is doing? He is causing them to remember all that the Lord has done for them. Isn't it so easy to forget the Lord and to begin to think that we are responsible for our blessings and successes? Joshua is looking backward. And of this he is confident to the Lord, be the glory great things He has done. Now notice chapter 24. As he looks back, look very quickly, he recognizes God, Israel's God, as the God of election. The God of election. How odd of God to choose the Jews. Odd or not, He most certainly did so. You remember that God began with one man. His name was Abraham. He was the founding father of the Hebrew race. Abraham and his followers, Abraham and his fathers, were idolaters when God called them to leave Ur of the Chaldees and come into the land of Canaan. Was that not an act of God's grace? Look at verse 3, God speaking, He says, chapter 24, And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood. Was that not an act of God's grace? My dear friends, Abraham didn't seek the Lord and discover Him. It was God who sought Abraham. The Lord Jesus reminds his disciples of this same fact when he says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. The Bible says, according as he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Someone said, try to explain election and you may lose your mind. Try to explain election away and you may lose your soul. Charles Spurgeon said, it's a good thing that the Lord chose us before we were born, because He certainly wouldn't have chose us after we were born. Before the hills and orders stood, our earth received its frame. He knew me, blessed be His name and joy. She was looking back with confidence. And he says, God did it. There's the God of election. Ah, but look again. He's not only Israel's God, the God of election. Look at verse 6. He's the God of redemption. God says, I brought your fathers out of Egypt. God sent Joseph ahead in the providence of God to preserve the nation during the famine. And then he sent Moses and Aaron into Egypt to deliver the nation from bondage. You remember that God instructed His people to keep the Passover as an annual reminder of their redemption. Our God is the God of election. Our God is the God of redemption. Wasn't it John Newton, the slave of slaves, who had on his wall the text, Thou shalt remember that thou wast a born man in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. O joyous hour when God to me A vision gave of Calvary. He's the God of election. He chose me. I don't know why He chose me. There wasn't anything in you or me that He might set His love upon us, but in His sovereign counsel He chose us. He's the God of redemption. But don't stop there. Look at verse 8. He's the God of direction. He says, I brought you into the land of the Amorites. God brought Israel out that He might bring Israel in. The Bible says, And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night. When they got into the promised land, Israel marched behind the ark of the Lord, the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the Lord defeated their enemy. He is the God of direction. And as you and I look back tonight over our spiritual pilgrimage, we can say what the hymn writer, All the way my Saviour leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy? Who through life has been my guide? He's the God of election. He chose me. He's the God of redemption. He redeemed me. He's the God of direction. He guides me. But look at verse 13. He's the God of provision. He provides for me. Look at verse 13. The Lord says, I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, cities which ye built not, indeed well in them of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted, not do ye eat. God gave them the land. Do you see what Joshua was doing? He was doing what we were doing in our opening hymn. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. He's tracing the faithfulness of God. He's tracing the goodness of God. God providentially provided. This people, this nation called Israel were under the hand of God. Now look, he's an old man now. He's an old soldier now. But where's his perspective? Is his perspective on himself or God? Is his vision on his own achievements or God's achievements? Is he looking to steal the glory or give the glory? He's like the psalmist. He's looking back and he's saying, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory. Isn't it easy to forget tonight all that the Lord has done for us? My friends, as Christian believers, our lives tonight are in His hand. All that you have, and all that you are, and all that you do, it's because of the Lord. It's because of His grace. It's because of His work in your life. And Joshua is standing on the edge of eternity, and he's looking forward with concern, and he's looking backward with confidence, and he's saying, He's led me all the way. But there's a further look I want you to notice here. He's not only looking forward with concern. He's not only looking backward with confidence. You'll notice that he's looking homeward with composure. Look at verse 29, chapter 24. The old warrior is heading home. It came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died. Being 110 years old, he is going home. This is his swan song. He is laying before this nation in no uncertain terms their responsibility. And their responsibility is summed up in one word, service. Fifteen times. God is banging it out. God is hammering it home. Service. The word serve is used 15 times in this last section of the book. To serve the Lord is to fear the Lord. It's to obey the Lord. It's to honor the Lord. It's to worship the Lord. It's to love the Lord. It's to fix your heart upon the Lord. It's obeying the Lord because you want to, not because you have to. Now, notice verse 14. Joshua talks about the motive for service. Look at it very quickly. Verse 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. Notice the therefore. What's it there for? Now, therefore, fear the Lord. The challenge to fear God, the challenge to serve God, is built on the foundation of what God has already done. In essence, Joyce was saying, since the Lord has done so much for you in the past, since He has cared for you, since He has watched over you, since He has redeemed you, serve Him. That's not the argument that Paul uses in the New Testament. Of course it is. He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Surely what we have received from God should constrain us to give of our utmost to God. Like C.T. Stoddard, Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. The motive for service. Notice the method of service. How are we to serve the Lord? Very quickly. Verse 14, in sincerity and truth. The word sincerity means honesty. The word truth means with integrity. Joshua brings the people to the crossroads of decision. He presents them with a choice. He says, you can serve the false gods of the people, or you can serve the true God of power. Incidentally, they had clinged or were clinging to some of the gods of the Canaanites. Joshua says, you can serve the gods that your father served on the other side of the flood. You see, when you were back in Ur of the Chaldeans, you were serving gods there. You see, in Egypt, you were serving the Egyptian gods. You're serving some of the Canaanite gods. It's decision time. You can serve the gods of the people, or you can serve the God, the true God of power. He says, choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Francis Schaeffer, the philosopher, says that when Joshua uses the word choose you, he uses a special word that means a permanent choice, not a one-time choice. In other words, You need not only to choose, but you need to keep on choosing every day of your life to serve the Lord. Is that what's happening in your life? I remember there was a day in my life when I chose to accept Christ as my Savior. I was just a little boy of nine years of age when I knelt at my dad's knee And I trusted Christ simply as my Savior. And then I remember another day in my life's experience in the same home in Banbridge when I made a mental decision that I would acknowledge Christ as Lord and that I would go where He would want me to go and I would serve as He would want me to serve. Those two decisions, important as they are, do not negate the daily decision that you and I must make to go right on every day choosing to follow the law. Every day you are confronted with hundreds of choices, and every day you must continually choose to serve the law. You can see the motive for service and the method of service, and then look at the model in service. Joshua is the role model. He says, I don't care what anyone else does. I've made up my mind. See what he says in verse 15? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua, whose soldier are you? God's. Joshua, whose battles do you fight? Jehovah's. Joshua, what's your purpose in fighting those battles? To glorify the Lord! As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, notice it was a public declaration. Joshua standing before the nation, and he's making this public declaration before all Israel. Joshua was not a secret disciple. My dear friends, does Joshua's outspoken avowal not make you blush? Are you ashamed of the Lord Jesus? Will you run up His colors to the last head where every eye can see them? You'll notice it was a public declaration. Look at verse 15 again. It was a proven declaration. Joshua's statement was not hypocritical. Sometimes people speak like this, perhaps you and I, but it's more to impress. But not Joshua. The weight of an honest life, the weight of a pure life, the weight of a holy life is driving his words home. It was a public declaration. It was a proven declaration. It was a parental declaration. How wonderful it was that Joshua could say, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. His family was behind him. He says, Of all chosen to serve the Lord. It was a persuasive declaration. You see, Joshua's stand encouraged the Israelites to take their stand. Look at verse 16. He says, And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. All of us influence people. We may not influence a nation like Joshua, but we can influence the people around us. People, my dear friend, follow your example. What will they do spiritually tonight? Where will you lead them? Are you so living like Joshua that you'll be an example of godly living? Can you see, my dear friends, the motive for service? The goodness of God. Can you see the method of service and integrity and truth? Can you see the model and service? Joshua. Look at verse 25. Can you see the monument to service? Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them a statute and ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. Three times the people affirmed their willingness to serve the Lord. Joshua took them at their word. They wouldn't forget this solemn covenant with Jehovah. Joshua wrote it in the book of the law. And then he set up a large stone as a witness, as a testimony to their agreement. You could almost say that Joshua made them sign on the dotted line. You know something? There are many people who talk about serving the Lord, but when the time comes for words to be put into action, they fail the test. They talk about prayer, but they're never at a prayer meeting. They talk about giving. They're not even giving one-tenth. They talk about soul winning. But when the list goes up on the porch for going out into the community with the gospel tracts, They're not there. Are you willing to sign the dotted line? Are you willing to put your words into action? See how the chapter finishes. Look at verse 29. The memory after service came to pass after these things that Joyce, you're the son of none, the servant of the Lord, died. being a hundred and ten years old, and they buried him on the border of his inheritance in Timnath-sera, which is in Mount Ephraim on the north side of the hill of Dash. And Israel served the Lord, notice it, all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. Isn't that something? That's why old soldiers never die. That's why people, my dear friends who have been faithful to the Lord, never die. Joshua's influence went beyond his death. Oh, what an influence he had! Here was a man of God who kept Israel in the place of blessing. One man. unreservedly committed to the Lord and the Word of the Lord can make an enormous difference in the lives of God's people. Even tonight, you are thinking about godly men, perhaps women in this assembly, whose memory lives on. Why? Because they were faithful to God. Because they were faithful to the Word of God. Even my mind tonight is going back to my early days in Banbridge when I think of godly men who made an impression on my young life. Godly Sunday school preachers whose patience I tested every Sunday afternoon. But their memory lives on. because they were faithful to God and they were faithful to the Word of God. Will your life leave an impression of godliness? Will it have an impact after you've gone? Is it time for you to renew your covenant with the Lord to answer the question? Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Don't serve the false gods of this world. Make Christ first in your life. Steve Wagers tells the story that I was reading this week of the forty martyrs of Sebas in the famed twelfth legion of Roman's imperial army, there were forty soldiers who professed their faith in our Lord Jesus. One day their captain told them that the Emperor Licinius had sent out an edict commanding all soldiers to offer a sacrifice to pagan gods. These Christian warriors said, You can have our armor, you can even have our body. But our hearts' allegiance and loyalty is to Jesus Christ. Because of their uncompromising stand, they were marched on to a frozen lake in the midwinter of A.D. 320. They were stripped naked of all their clothes. At any time they could renounce Christ, be spurred from death. Instead, the forty of them huddled together as they sang their song of victory. forty martyrs for thee, O Christ, to win for thee the victory, and from thee the victors cry." That freezing night saw thirty-nine of them fall to their icy graves. When there was but one man left, he stumbled to the shore and renounced Christ. The officer in charge of all these men had secretly come to believe in Christ. He then replaced the man who had broken rank and walked out onto the ice, and he stripped himself of all his clothes, and he confessed his faith in Jesus Christ. And at sunrise, the Roman soldiers found forty men who gave their all for the cause of Jesus Christ. That's what this old soldier Joshua did. He gave his all for the cause of the Lord. Will you do that? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these studies in the Life and Times and Book of Joshua. We thank You, Lord, for this book being inspired of Thyself in the canon of Scripture. We thank You, Lord, for this man who was faithful unto death and left an impact even behind in the testimony that he left. Help us, our Father, to leave an impact for godliness. We remember that it was said of David that he served the Lord by the will of God in his own generation and then fell asleep. Father, we pray that we might serve Thee in Thy will and fall asleep in Jesus and leave an impression that will stand for many years to come. We thank You for Joshua. We thank You for this man who, along with Caleb, wholly followed the Lord. May we follow in their footsteps. We ask it for the Savior's sake. Amen.