Well, I invite you to turn tonight to the book of Joshua, the book of Joshua chapter 22. If you're visiting, we have been working through this book. We're nearing the end of this study and we are in Joshua chapter 22 tonight, which is found in those Bibles in front of you on page 231, 231. We'll be giving our attention to this interesting and fascinating chapter. This is Joshua chapter 22. Let's hear the wonderful word of the Lord. At that time, Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh and said to them, you have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. You've not forsaken your brothers these many days down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers as he promised them. Therefore, turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of the Jordan. Only be careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and keep his commandments and to cling to him and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them, sent them away, and they went to their tents. Now, to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a possession in Bashan. But to the other half, Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, he said to them, Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers. so the people of reuben and the people of gad and the half tribe of manasseh returned home parting from the people of israel shiloh which is in the land of canaan to go to the land of gilead their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the lord through moses and when they came to the region of the jordan that is in the land of canaan the people of reuben and the people of gad and the half tribe manasseh built an altar there balter by the jordan an altar of imposing size and the people of israel heard it and said behold the people of reuben the people of gad and the half tribe of nasa built the altar at the frontier of the land of canaan in the region about the jordan on the side that belongs to the people of israel and when the people of israel heard it the whole assembly of the people of israel gathered at shiloh to make war against them then the people of israel sent to the people of reuben and the people of gad and the half tribe manasseh in the land of gilead then he asked the son of elazar the priest and with him ten chiefs one from each of the tribal families of israel every each every one of them the head of a family among the clans of israel and they came to the people of reuben the people of gad the half tribe manasseh in the land of gilead and they said to them thus is the whole congregation of the lord what is this breach of faith that you've committed against the lord against the god of israel and turning away this day from following the lord by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the lord have we not had enough of the sin of peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the lord that you too must turn away this day from following the Lord. And if you too rebel against the Lord today, then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. But now if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the Lord's land where the Lord's tabernacle stands and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the Lord or make us rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God? Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, break faith in the matter of the devoted things? And wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And did he not perish alone for his iniquity? And the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, the half-tribe of Manasseh, said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, the mighty one, God the Lord, the mighty one, God the Lord, he knows. And let Israel itself know if it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the lord do not spare us today for building an altar to turn away from following the lord or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it may the lord himself take vengeance no but we did hear from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children what have you to do with the lord the god of israel for the lord has made the jordan a boundary between us and you you people of reuben and people of gad you have no portion in the lord so your children might make our children cease to worship the lord therefore we said let us now build an altar not for burnt offering not for sacrifice but to be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us that we do perform the service of the lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings so your children will not say to our children in time to come you have no portion in the lord and we thought if this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come we should say behold the copy of the altar of the lord which our fathers made not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice but to be a witness between us and you far be it from us that we should rebel against the lord and turn away this day from following the lord by building an altar for burnt offering grain offering or sacrifice other than the altar of the lord our god that stands before his tabernacle and phineas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation the heads of the families of israel were with him heard the words that the people of reuben and the people of gad and the people of manasseh spoke it was good in their eyes and phineas the son of eleazar the priest said to the people of reuben and the people of gad and the people of vanassa today we know that the lord is in our midst because you've not committed this breach of faith against the lord now you have delivered the people of israel from the hand of the lord then phinehas the son of eleazar the priests and the chiefs returned from the people of rub and the people of gad in the land of gilead to the land of canaan to the people of israel and brought back word to them and the report was good in the eyes of the people of israel and the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled. The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar witness. For they said, it is a witness between us that the Lord is God. There ends the reading of God's word. Well, we come to a fascinating section tonight that makes for a bit of a challenge in understanding whether what happened here was right or not. Whether what happened here was right or not. And I think when we come to passages like this, it's important that we work carefully through the text to consider what happened and to consider what lessons that can be learned from this very fascinating chapter. this is not so easy you could go in many different directions with a sermon like this and i think you caught the narrator really doesn't it tells us what happened here but it doesn't really tell us whether it was right or whether it was wrong and that makes for a challenge for a pastor to make a determination on a passage like this the issue seems to be very plain for us here i struggled to get my head around in this particular text was building building an altar okay seemed to lead to the peace of israel the reubenites the gadites the half tribe of manasseh build this altar that was not commanded by the lord i think you see the dilemma that kind of thing in israel's history caused all kinds of problems it caused all kinds of idolatry it caused a lot of problems which the people of israel recognized and this passage while turning out well at least for now causes us to think through intentions of people intentions of people intentions when it comes to wanting to worship the lord intentions when it comes to wanting to serve the lord and often the complexities of living in this life when people do many things that are indeed intended well but may have awful consequences in the life of God's people. And so as we look at this tonight, that's what I want us to sort of wrestle with is this dilemma that the passage seems to present and leave somewhat open ended aside from the outcome that is achieved here. As simple as the story goes, I don't think coming to a conclusion on what was done is as easy at first glance on this particular section i want to consider with you this chapter that joshua devotes so much attention to as i quoted from second timothy three all scriptures given by inspiration from god and is profitable for teaching and reproof and correction and training and righteousness and that is no less true with joshua chapter 22 so what we have before us tonight is a a somewhat simple outline but simple um passage that in terms of looking at the structure of it that is before us you have a command of the covenant that's given you have a conflict that follows and then you have a conclusion that is reached and hopefully we can learn something tonight about what it means to follow the lord with a whole heart which i think is the aim of this the scene before us is loaded with suggestive things the text is suggestive of what it means to worship the lord faithfully does it even matter can we do whatever we want in chapter 23 we have joshua gathering the reubenites and the gadites and the half tribe manasseh these were the tribes that had already received their land on the other side of the jordan on the eastern side of the dead sea they had been given the land but when the tribes of the other side were receiving their land of the jordan remember they were summoned to fulfill the oath that they had made to moses the oath that was made that they would come and fight with their brothers and be an integral part of the conquest of canaan when they were done they would be released and the warriors from those tribes would go back to the eastern side of the jordan the border of the jordan was obviously this big boundary that posed somewhat a problem for the unity of the people but the passage begins tonight with joshua releasing them from their obligation to now go to their appointed inheritance off they go but before they go great emphasis is given on the command of the covenant in verse 3 joshua gathers them and he expressed how they were honored as they fulfilled their vow and they fought with israel and they kept the command of the lord so that they would now be released but in verse 5 he gives this important command take careful heed to do the commandment of the law of moses the servant of the lord here's this crucial command the heart of the summary of the law to love the lord your god and walk in his ways and keep his commandments to hold fast to him and to serve him with your whole soul and so joshua blesses them and joshua sends them off so after this they come to the jordan It's important to reflect a moment on that command. Remember the Mosaic covenant, the arrangement here that was given, came with a strict command to love the Lord. And when that command was broken, there would be severe curses that would follow. That's what happened in Israel. This is why in Israel's days, something like rain would be withheld when the covenant was broken. and then ultimately that they would be threatened to be removed from the land if they broke the covenant. The curses of the covenant were severe, and there was always that threat. If they turned from the Lord and they served the bells and they served other gods, they would be removed. All of that, of course, Paul said in Romans is a teaching tool for us. It's meant to be a help to us to understand that the problem of the human heart is idolatry. One of the great problems of the human heart is idolatry. That we have this ever-present tendency to want to worship the Lord our way. And to do things our way. And the longest history of Israel was they fell right into Baal worship doing this stuff. And syncretized it with Yahweh's worship. So this was always the great threat that was in front of us. So the scene is sort of set up with it. will they love the lord their god with all their heart will they worship him and him alone will they take him serious in his holiness or will they play games with him well the tribes return and the covenant commands have been restated now we have something that's challenging i admit it's challenging um you'll notice here that we read in verse 10 that when the tribes came to the other side of the jordan reuben and gad the half tribe manasseh built an altar there did you notice the emphasis where it says this they built an altar our um one translation says a great and impressive altar our translation says an altar of imposing size now that's an interesting way for the author to sort of you know what did i say a little provocative maybe is that okay i think he's he's pressing us to ask that is that okay an altar a great impressive altar was built and we see in a minute we'll see in a minute why they did this but here they were concerned with something legitimate the the barrier of the jordan they were afraid about their children they were worried about their children they were afraid that future generations of israel on the one side of the jordan would forget about the children on the other side of the jordan and because the tabernacle set on one side there was only one altar that they could come to. So how do we solve that dilemma? Well, they did. They built a big and imposing altar. I just, I found that, you can't read that and not just get stuck for a minute. Here's the problem of the text. Here's the problem of the text tonight. The law was clear. Deuteronomy 12. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods. On the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree, you shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their ashram with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall seek the place, listen to this carefully, you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all of your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go. And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices. take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any other place that you see but at the place that the lord will choose in one of your tribes there you shall offer burnt offerings and there you shall do all that i am commanding you so all those nations all the nations of israel all the tribes excuse me even those on the other side of the jordan were commanded there you shall go there you shall go i trust you see the dilemma no altar should be built no worship can take place on any other altar other than the one that god strictly commanded well what was the reason for that you should prevent idolatry and as we'll see in a minute there was a specific intention as we looked at in hebrews this morning we talked about an altar didn't we so here what has happened in verse 11 a report comes back to the children of israel on the other side of the jordan and remember they built it on that side so that they could they could come these tribes built the altar we read that when the children of israel heard it the whole congregation of the children of israel gathered together at shiloh to go to war with them civil war is ready to break out right at the outset of receiving the land no i don't know if you let that set in you know you we had a civil war in our country before you know sometimes you hear rumblings that would we have another civil war think about this civil war is happening swords are out they've all gathered was this okay there's a few important points to observe here first is this so what i like to think about up front notice how much zeal there is in the new generation to worship the lord only and follow his commandments on the one hand this is really impressive you know they're willing to go to war against their brothers and sisters over this altar i don't know if you can miss the zeal and the passion of this reformed people to be very cautious and to go after stamping out any idolatry. They gather for war against their brethren. Notice verse 16. What treachery is this that you've committed against the God of Israel to turn away this day from following the Lord in that you have built for yourselves an altar that you might rebel this day against the Lord. Don't you remember Peor? Don't you remember the plague that came on us for messing around with God's worship? Remember the Baal worship we did? Do you remember Achan, at least, who stole just that Babylonian garment, and he stole what was not commanded, and he put it in his tent, and God's wrath came on the congregation for this? Don't you remember that? You're going to get us all in trouble here. it's really a fascinating section this renewed people deeply care and have great and profound conviction what do we have profound conviction about today profound conviction about the lord's worship it's remarkable isn't it when you see a renewed people you see a conscious fear and a conscious conviction to stamp out idolatry right away they don't want the generations falling into this again they learned a lesson i think that's really important tonight you know it's important because it kind of shows what happens in communities it's a starting point isn't it what is the path what is the trajectory today what have we seen sort of in denominations what have we seen in mainline denominations from where they started what do what do we see is just and this is just so self-evident what is the typical trajectory of people over time well whenever there's a great reformation of the church what do we see we see up front a lot of zeal we see a lot of passion we see a lot of conviction to honor the word of the lord and to protect his worship that was what the protestant reformation was all about up front it was it wasn't and they all talked about this it was the recovery of true worship but what happens well when the reformation happened there was a great concern to worship the lord and honor his will you can see this in nehemiah's day when when the people were back reformed and the remnant came back the first thing they did is what we talked about this morning was they confessed their sins they started taking sin seriously again and they confessed sins and they wept over sin and then then ezra pronounced the gospel the joy of the lord's strength in every working of his spirit history when you've ever seen the renewal of the church what you've first seen is god's people weeping over their sin taking idolatry serious and turning from it that's that's just the history of what we see so notice what's happened here the trajectory is kind of predictable and they're worried about it you begin as a church with great conviction and you're you're concerned because you've seen what can happen when those convictions are thrown away and then the pressures come and new generations come who maybe don't share in those convictions and so we begin to strip away convictions we begin to strip away particulars and in order to fit in think about it with American evangelicalism those convictions slowly erode away and we become more broad and we we become more tolerant and we become more welcoming all in the name of love until we become a sort of mainline church with little conviction i don't need to go through the numbers tonight they're dying they're dying do people see it's conviction that builds a church you know it's conviction that keeps the people the struggle that we have today has always been the problem for all people beginning about again with strong convictions as soon as we are assimilated back into the idolatries of the culture doctrinal conviction erodes away into idolatry and beloved this has just been the history of the church it's been the history of the church i mean this is this is this is not really refutable it's just it's so evident why i say this is you can't help but being impressed with a people willing to go over war over perceived idolatry do we have this kind of zeal for the lord's worship or are we generations later who have lost that conviction i always think of the end of first john his last words the most tender words of first john are little children keep yourself from idols it's that big of an issue i still haven't answered the question was this wrong do you know yet here's the answer from reuben gad manasseh the lord of gods the lord god of gods the lord god of gods he knows so let israel know if we've rebelled you're right to bring a war but if we have built an altar this altar to turn away from the lord our god we did it then you can come and war against us but we did this because of our descendants there's a big jordan here and your children are going to say to our children come on you don't have a right to our altar so verse 26 they built this big and imposing altar and they said well wait you guys are all out of sorts here we're not going to burn anything on it we're not going to burn anything on it we're not going to sacrifice on it we don't want future generations to say we have no part what a situation what a situation right what is the answer here um the altar is not commanded but they just wanted to stand there as a witness put it in these terms let's say the temple was in san diego the temple was in san diego and you all said you know our kids they're not going to be able to drive over there but we're going to build this we're going to build this big beautiful building this big imposing building but we're not going to worship in it we're not going to worship in it it's going to be a great and impressive church though it'll stand as a witness do you think the next generation might come along and say you know why wouldn't we worship in it why wouldn't we worship in it it's only a witness the problem is the reason god commanded worship at the appointed place had a very important reason didn't it it was precisely because of the problem of idolatry well this is a really a better place to worship because this altar you get the human heart what what is what did calvin say about the human heart it's an idol factory this altar is much more impressive than that altar jerusalem really now in this case the law did caution about rash judgments didn't it Deuteronomy 13, if you heard it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in that, that troublemakers have risen up among you, have led the people of the town astray, saying, let us go and worship other gods, gods you've not known, then you must inquire, probe, and investigate it thoroughly. And if it's true, and it's been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock. you are to gather all the plunder of that town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town in all its plunder as the whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt. Well, this is only a replica altar. This is only a copy altar. In verse 29, not at all rebelling against the Lord, The conclusion comes by Phineas and the men. When they heard this explained to them, it pleased them and they determined no treachery was intended. And the event ends with them designating this only as an altar of witness. I think you see, if I just preach it that way, I guess you could go in many different directions tonight. But who's been absent from this discussion? Who sought the Lord? I think it has a lot to do with intentions tonight. I believe their intentions were pure up front. I believe that the half-tribe, Manasseh and Reuben and Gad, they had no ill intention to do anything wrong here. But I can't help but to think that there's nothing that demonstrates any word from the Lord of approval in this. They all seem to come to the conclusion God was with them in this decision. And in this case, it turned out, well, here's the problem. As I see it, here's the problem. What did happen later? Well, it was this. Jeroboam thought to himself, the kingdom likely will revert to the house of David. If these people go up and offer sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to the Lord, Rehoboam, king of Judah. They're going to kill me. After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, is it too much for you to go up to Jerusalem? It's just too much, isn't it? Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. One he set up in Bethel and the other in Dan and this thing became a sin the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other Jeroboam built shrines and high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people even though they were not Levites he instituted a festival on the 15th day of the 8th month like the festival held at Judah and here it is offered sacrifices on the altar their intentions may have been good what happens down the road when you have people who aren't very convicted what does this passage challenge us with tonight is is what i'm asking why did the lord want one altar set up that's the question why did the lord want one altar set up why even the avoidance of other altars why did he want to keep the people coming to jerusalem to one place in the old covenant even if they were just a shrine even if this was just a witness even this just was an empty altar an impressive empty altar that they never sacrificed on sure god commanded stones what about this because on that altar there he appointed the one sacrifice think about this we've been studying that would be proclaimed to all of israel the sacrifice of the lord jesus christ and that that one place was designated to teach them all their life about the need for one sacrifice and that we can go no other place to receive the forgiveness of our sins that's a big deal that's a big deal god would make atonement for sin on that altar that we've been talking about And notice today he tells us not to go to any other altar, but to one, to Golgotha, to the cross. For that's where the blood was shed for us. He wants us singularly focused on worshiping Christ alone. And even though intentions are good, I don't have to say this, intentions can be wonderful in the worship of the Lord. as Calvin says it does not mean novelties are right it's not mean novelties are okay nor does it mean that this is good for future generations what we do we always have to think about what we're doing in this case it was true that this became only an altar of witness like the stones at Gilgal but God wants us to remember the altar he set up is sufficient that's why he protects his worship that's why he guards his worship that's why he wants us worshiping in spirit and in truth as he commanded us to protect us so that we're not setting up idols everywhere else jesus is the altar that we come to and here's the beauty of this in the new covenant we can come to that one altar wherever we are didn't he plan to solve this problem from the beginning for when we come to him this is what psalm 87 saying we are born of god in zion you're born again from zion when you come to christ you are coming to the one altar you're coming to the one place that you can receive favor with god we have an altar that unites all the people of god all the nations of the earth all the peoples wherever the boundaries are together as one and that's why beloved we should recognize that god's altar in christ is sufficient so let us worship there and let us see what unites the nations together as a witness through the blood of his son and let us be satisfied in what he put in place for that altar has and always will be the great altar that unites the holy people of god as one wherever we are and hopefully that helps us tonight a bit joshua 22 let's pray heavenly father thank you for helping us and to understand and think through a complex passage surely intentions can be good we can be thankful for good outcomes but we also need to remember that you lord appoint things for our good to keep us in the truth to keep us from idolatry and so we should first and foremost seek your word and seek your face in whatever we do that we might do it in a way that pleases you as we talked about this morning sacrifices that please the lord our god and that we might worship the lord jesus christ in true faith in spirit and in truth we are so thankful the lord that you've given us this place not this building not that building but that wherever we call on the name of the Lord there. Our generation and future generations are in the presence of the Lord to receive that one sacrifice made for sins. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.