Well, I invite you to turn tonight to the book of Joshua. After some time, we also conclude our series in the book of Joshua. And I think you'll see how this dovetails so nicely with the end of Hebrews this morning. We're going to have a little bit longer of a reading tonight. We're looking at Joshua 23 and 24. That's found on page 233 as we're considering those two chapters tonight to conclude this study. let's give our attention tonight to the living word of the lord a long time afterward when the lord had given rest to israel from all their surrounding enemies and joshua was old and well advanced in years joshua summoned all of israel its elders and heads its judges and officers and said to them i am now old and well advanced in years and you have seen all that the lord your god has done to all these nations for your sake for it is the lord your god who has fought for you behold i have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain along with all the nations that i have already cut off from the jordan to the great sea in the west the lord your god will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight and you shall possess their land just as the lord your god promised you therefore be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it, neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you, or make mention of their names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. But you shall cling to the Lord your God, just as you've done to this day. For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations and as for you no man has been able to stand before you this day one man of you puts to to fight a thousand since it is the lord your god who fights for you just as he promised you be very careful therefore to love the lord your god for if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them so that you associate with them and they with you know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you but they shall be a snare and a trap for you a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you now I am about to go the way of all the earth and you know in your hearts and souls all of you that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you all have come to pass for you not one of them has failed but just as the good things that the lord your god promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you so the lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the lord your god has given you if you transgress the covenant of your god which he commanded you and go and serve other gods and bow down to them then the anger of the lord will be kindled against you and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given you joshua gathered all the tribes of israel to shechem and summon the elders the heads the judges and the officers of israel and they presented themselves before god and joshua said to all the people thus says the lord the god of israel long ago your fathers lived beyond the euphrates terah the father of abraham and of nahor and they served other gods then i took your father abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of canaan and made his offspring many I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt, and I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea, and when they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and covered them and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt and you lived in the wilderness a long time then I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan they fought with you and I gave them into your hand and you took possession of their land and I destroyed them before you then Balak the son of Zippor king of Moab arose and fought against Israel and he sent invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand and you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho and the leaders of Jericho fought against you and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand and I sent the hornet before you which drove them out before you. The two kings of the Amorites, it was not by your sword or by your bow, I gave you a land on which you had not labored in cities that you had not built and you dwell in them you eat of the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant now therefore fear the lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in egypt and serve the lord and if it's evil in your eyes to serve the lord choose this day whom you will serve whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord then the people answered far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery and who did these great signs in our side and preserved us in all the way that he went and among us all the peoples through whom we passed and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples the amorites who lived in the land therefore we also will serve the lord for he is our god joshua said to the people you're not able to serve the lord for he's a holy god he is a jealous god he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins if you forsake the lord and serve foreign gods and he will turn and do you harm and consume you after you've having done you good and the people said to joshua no but we will serve the lord then joshua said to the people you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the lord to serve him and they said we are witnesses he said then put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the lord the god of israel and the people said to joshua the lord our god we will serve and his voice we will obey so joshua made a covenant with the people that day and put in place statutes and rules for them at shechem and joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of god he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the lord and joshua said to all the people behold this stone shall be a witness against us for he's heard all the words for it has heard all the words of the lord that he spoke to us therefore it shall be a witness against you lest you deal falsely with your god so joshua sent the people away every man to his inheritance after these things joshua the son of nun the servant of the lord died being 110 years old and they buried him in his own inheritance at timnath sarah which is in the hill country of ephraim north of the mountain of gaash israel served the lord all the days of joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived joshua and had known all the work that the lord did for Israel and as for the bones of Joseph which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt they buried them at Shechem in the piece of land that Jacob brought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money it became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph and Eleazar the son of Aaron died and they buried him at Gibeah the town of Phinehas his son which had been given him in the hill country of ephraim there ends the reading of god's word and the end of the book of joshua well tonight we conclude this study uh in joshua and this has been um a wonderful study to see god uh fulfilling his promise and fulfilling his word to give israel the land that's really the heart of this book of god's covenant faithfulness to do what he promised that he would do and give them the land and you know by now you know by studying hebrews you know that if joshua had given them rest they would not have sought for a rest to come so this was only a type this land this was only a type of the true heavenly land that is held out for us at the end And we're learning something about that. The arrangement, however, as you notice tonight, is somewhat peculiar to us, isn't it? Because it belonged to the Old Covenant. It belonged to the Old Covenant. I'm hoping by now that you have seen some very pointed differences between living in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And I hope you're all saying, I am so glad that we live in the times of the New Covenant. It's that wonderful. we have studied joshua and we've looked at hebrews side by side and you should be seeing some fundamental differences by now you should have heard them tonight as i read this passage there was always the threat in the old covenant that israel could be uprooted from the land if they violated the covenant that's because the temporal land which was a type of the heavenly land was dependent the temporal land was dependent you'll notice remaining in that land upon israel's obedience to the covenant so we heard tonight and this was so not with regard to the eternal land but the temporal land the land of israel that land today and israel's been scattered we can talk about 1947 later it hasn't really bore a lot of fruit has it we're not looking for that land hebrews said we're looking for the land that abraham looked for the city that he looked for The city that has as a builder and founder God Himself. The securing of that land that we're looking for is fulfilled by the true Son of Israel. And that's Jesus Christ. That's the true Son of Israel who earned the right for us to eat freely of the tree of life. who earned for us the right to receive the land. It's the whole New Testament's message. And it's a beautiful message. But I think tonight it's important because we need to see when we come to chapters like this, there is a crucial difference between the Old and the New Covenant. And we've got to spend just a moment understanding it, but also taking serious the terms of this covenant since those terms are not thrown out in the New Covenant. They're fulfilled by another. There's a great problem in this text. Did you see it? Did you hear it when I was reading it tonight? It should have stood out to you. You should have caught it. It's a startling verse. It's verse 19 of chapter 24. Here it is. But Joshua said to all the people, you are not able to serve the Lord your God, for He's a holy God. He will not forgive your transgressions of your sins. Now did you just stop? Let that set in for a minute. The people said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We will serve him. Joshua said, you're not able. Well, these are the terms of the covenant. so one of you came up to me last week and said you know it's really fascinating i'll come to this in a minute as judges opens they broke the whole thing that's the next chapter that's the next book the next page you can turn over and see and that would lead to what their failure to remain in the land they they broke the covenant they were kicked out of the land well that's a long history to go through all that what did hebrews say this morning that was so different in the new covenant to you as we ended that book a book that dealt with all the types and shadows pointing us to jesus who is the fulfillment of all of these things how did that book end tonight what did the end of that book say did it end by saying you cannot keep the covenant i won't forgive your sins didn't say that did it what it said was you'll remember this morning because of christ you have a good shepherd and you have a good shepherd who will do what for you well not only is he going to give you the land but he will equip you with everything good that you may do what is well pleasing in his sight That's fundamentally different than what we just read at the end of Joshua. And if you miss this old covenant, new covenant distinction, you really will not see the continuity of Scripture and seeing what Jesus does to fulfill and what the intention of the old covenant was to teach us about sin and misery. We have a mediator. Israel took on the terms of the covenant. We have a mediator who stood in our place who took on the terms of the covenant. so israel becomes a really important teaching tool for us on this point this is what paul does in romans chapter 2 when he says listen if you're studying israel correctly here's the effect it should stop up the mouth of the whole world in its own righteousness you need a righteousness of another to receive the land and anyone in both covenants let me make clear father abraham which was referenced here in both covenants who looked to christ by faith as abraham did could never be removed from the eternal land never so that's the issue tonight that we're looking at i think you have to put this together somewhat that israel would fail and we're going to look tonight at the true meaning of all of this by seeing it in the lens of the new covenant so i want to end joshua by looking at these chapters by considering here the call of the covenant and the renewal of the covenant and the choice of the covenant. You could look at it that way, or you might break it down a little bit different and say what we have are sort of three scenes here. The first scene is Joshua instructing the elders and giving the call of the covenant, and then Joshua instructing the people, and then we have the response. That's how these two chapters can be sort of broken down. We begin with this first scene here notice it says after a long time a long time has passed joshua gathers together first seen all the elders joshua and leaders of israel joshua is old and he has advanced in years in fact the last chapter records his death so that these are his last words to israel it's a beautiful section um but a challenging section so he gathers together all the leaders of israel he's concerned about the leadership this is where the book began this was how renewal came it starts always with the leadership and notice what what remember what happens here is that he begins to rehearse all that the lord had done for them he's concerned about the fact that he's about to die when a good leader in israel dies that is a big loss next generations you know this is this just happened in um in the pca you know this past this couple weeks ago um over in in birmingham one of their great pastors in the pca 75 years old in a church of 4 000 gets in a car accident and dies harry reader big loss how's the next generation going to go forward well this is the sort of situation that we're in here the next generations he's concerned about will they keep the covenant he essentially says three things here god will continue to drive out the nations before you but here's your responsibility number one verse six therefore be very strong and keep what is written in the book of the law of moses the mosaic covenant don't turn aside to the right hand or to the left undergirding this entire sort of closing speech by joshua is the great concern over and over and over and over of what what's sin idolatry idolatry this is a big big concern i think it was tim keller who said years ago he could talk about sin in general but the way he in new york he got to people was to talk about the concept of idolatry it seemed to resonate idolatry don't mix with these nations don't make mention of their gods do not serve them or bow down to them he rehearses the second commandment here important commandment keep the covenant and he says something powerful and cling to the lord your god cling to him do this all day long the lord has been fighting for you no man has stood against you And I'm concerned that you will instead cling to these nations. I'm concerned that you're going to cling to their idols. And then they're going to become this huge snare and this huge trap to you and your children. Be careful to love. Notice this. The Lord your God. These three imperatives. Shine here. Cling to the Lord. Keep His covenant. Love the Lord. There you go. keep cling love keep the law cling to the lord flee from idolatry love him as your god the warning comes in verse 14 i'm about to die god has not failed to do anything he said he was going to do for you but this is a big but if you transgress the covenant of the lord your god and you serve other gods and you bow down to them you will kinder kindle his wrath and listen you will perish off this land does anyone know here the history of israel is exactly what happened so there was this threat if they didn't keep if they didn't cling if they didn't love they'd be removed from the land on the one hand it's an important section that you can't say has no application to us oh it has a big application to us you know none of this call to obedience changes in the new testament god's will and law doesn't change terms question of fulfillment is the issue but the law doesn't change an important teaching section for the leadership of the church isn't it because that's what he's concerned about up front we looked at this last time we faced this ever-present danger maybe not sort of overtly moving away from the worship of the lord but as jesus said serving god and mammon it's crucial to joshua that if there is to be any effect in the life of a congregation if there's to be any reform in the church any renewal that matters it always begins with the pastors it always begins with the elders it always begins with the deacons and the leadership in the church always always across the board you have men who aren't very committed and aren't loving the sheep and going after the sheep there's going to be consequences it's a trembling matter for the church to grow and the church to be safeguarded and from departure in the life of the congregation it always begins with the leadership this is the point he's making here a church is only as strong as its leadership it's only as strong as its commitment from the leaders you know we have sheep wandering and struggling one of the ways to combat this problem is that they'd see from us a sincere love for God's word for his will for his covenant of grace that we would love him that we would love him which is the summary of the law isn't it what was threatened here is if these things were void in the life of the leadership and if it ever became filled in a church and you can just see this in the trajectory of american christianity if it ever became filled with leaders who were not committed to the lord and who were justifying sin and never disciplining and letting everything go and all all because you know the pressures all sorts of problems would come all sorts of problems have come and this is a very important point tonight as we look at this that we consider here the call of the leadership to to fear the lord and to love the lord and to follow after him he rehearses many different things here doesn't he you'll notice here that he then moves to the people remember what the lord did gathers the people together remember what the lord did for you dear people he took your father abraham from beyond the river and he led him through canaan and he made a covenant and he had offspring that he promised to him and he makes sure when he says this to the people don't ever think that any good thing you have was ever anything you ever merited you were idolaters you were gentiles you are not special people outside of this covenant of grace you are those who've received something from the lord your fathers your father of the faith was a pagan moon god worshiper Abraham that's a really important point it doesn't matter if you're Jew or Gentile this is where we all began this is the very point Paul makes in Ephesians chapter 2 remember when he said listen um all of us at one time were alienated from God and we worshiped and served other gods it was the whole point of Ephesians when he makes that point so he starts to rehearse with the people now rehearsing to remember leadership priorities and then the people to remember the Lord's deliverance to them. Your fathers, remember the deliverance of what I did for you. Your fathers I brought through the sea when the Egyptians came with their chariots and their horses. Your fathers cried to me and I put darkness between them and I made the sea come upon them and your fathers saw the deliverance. And I brought you into the good land. All these inhabitants. and they had all kinds of problems. Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam cursed you, but the Lord delivered you. The Lord did all these wonderful things for you, and you have seen with your eyes that I've driven out all the inhabitants of the land. I sent a hornet before you. Imagine that. I sent hornets before you. Drove out the Amorites. You didn't do it. It wasn't your strength. It wasn't your bow. I gave you vineyards and orchards and you have enjoyed a plentiful life. Remember your history. Remember your past. Remember your history. And then he says, remember your purpose. So they had three sort of responsibilities in the leadership. Three responsibilities here. Remember, remember, remember. Your purpose is, verse 14, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. So I think you can see here the importance of this with leadership. When it comes back to leadership, when they departed from the Lord, what began to happen? All the other nations began to plague them. You could draw this case today that when you see a church of people not caring about the worship of the Lord and His commands and idolatry comes in, and then you see the holy people not taking marriage seriously, and justifying our children living in sin and in other marriages. You see all this stuff happens and then it unravels everything. Nothing goes well. This is true in the family. There's a vital connection to the health of the family and the father's commitment to Christ and how that spills over in the family. See, the Lord's concerned about all these things. This is what Joshua's rehearsing. The call of the covenant of Joshua but to the leadership and to the people was honor this covenant that the Lord has put in place for you. And so then all the people are gathered together. Verse 15, a great statement is made. If it's evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, if it is evil, choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, in the verse we all love, but as for me and my household, says Joshua, we will serve the Lord. Now there's points in Scripture where lines are drawn. Moses did this. Joshua does it right now. Who are you really serving? It's choice time. It's choice time. Are you and your household serving the Lord or are you justifying all kinds of idolatry? See, this is the effect of this. Such an important section, isn't it? This is exactly the deliverance that we've received, beloved. All of this was a type of the deliverance that we talk about. God has delivered us with a much greater deliverance. The very type of Israel's deliverance in Egypt is exactly what was done by Christ on the cross to set us free. By His power, Christ is raised from the dead. He suffered in our place to bring us a great inheritance. See what all this pointed to. And the Bible comes to us and at moments it gives this great call. It's a serious moment. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Choose you this day whom you will serve. To all the fathers here, have you, and you say that, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. That affects your children. That affects your children. The calling is the same. Okay. There it is. Covenant terms have been renewed, been explained. Leadership has been corrected. their responsibilities. I could spend hours and sermons on this. I know this is a jet tour. People are gathered, covenants set in front of them. And now we come to the response. And the people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For it is the Lord our God who brought us up out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who did all these great signs for us. And through among all the peoples, we passed through the land. We were given the land. The Lord has delivered us. Therefore, we will serve the Lord for He is our God. Sounds great. This is exactly what we all should be saying. I have no doubt in the church today, we all say this as I started this sermon I pointed out a problem in this text pointed out a big problem in this text it's the stunning words of Joshua in response to this solemn oath this is sort of a witness stand moment but he said you are not able to serve the Lord your God for he's holy have you let that set in you don't have the ability to fulfill this covenant you don't have the ability to keep it and he will not forgive your transgressions that's a stunning verse it's it's one of those verses that maybe you've read through the bible and it's just never set in like it should set in. That is a stunning verse. Joshua reads all the covenant words of the Lord and he says, you're not able. And then he says, for he will consume you after you have done good. With hearing that, they said, no. But we will. Joshua says, okay. You're all witnesses. We are witnesses of what you have just chosen to serve the Lord. Yes, we are all witnesses. Then put away the foreign gods. They were still there. And incline your heart to the Lord your God. And they say, the Lord is God. We will serve Him. so joshua renews the covenant makes covenant the same vein as the mosaic covenant and all the book of the law is set before them and they set up a large stone as a witness and a solemn oath is sworn by the people what's the problem do you see a fundamental difference between the old and the new covenant yet one very important thing hasn't changed the lord's standard the lord demands this of you are we listening to the lord's law the lord demands complete covenant fidelity he demands no idolatry in your lives he demands complete devotion he commands that you and your households put him first and do not sin this is not just do your best kind of stuff we will serve him then that means there's no idols in your lives what's the difference did you notice here you cannot do this and if you do do this you will be kicked out of the land well how far do we need to go chapter 2 of judges now the angel of the lord went up from gilgal to bochim and he said i brought you up from egypt here we go and i brought you into the land that i swore to give to your fathers i said i will never break my covenant with you which covenant are we talking about here and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land you shall break down their altars but prosecution time you have not obeyed my voice what is this you've done so now i say i will not drive them out from before you but they shall become thorns in your sides and their god shall become a snare to you as soon as the angel of the lord spoke these words to all the people of israel the people lifted up their voices and wept and they called the name of that place bochim and they sacrificed there to the lord joshua dies see it's sandwiched here to show the continuity verse 11 and the people of israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord and they served the Baals and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Asherah. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he gave them over to plunders who plundered them and he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of The Lord was against them for harm. As the Lord had warned. And as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. They broke it. They broke the covenant. Now, what was the new covenant promise? In the new covenant promise, I will make a covenant of what? Did we hear this morning? Peace. And I'll put my law on their minds and I'll write it on their hearts. And I shall be their God and they shall be my people. No more. And I, as he said, will I hold their sins against them? I will forgive their iniquity and their sins. I will remember no more. Why? we need circumcised hearts to love the Lord first off. It's the one thing Israel didn't grasp. We need washed hearts. That's what Deuteronomy promised God would do, that we would love the Lord. But do you see the difference tonight? This is why Christ had to come. This is what all this teaches us. we on our own could never achieve eternal life. We on our own could never achieve the inheritance. This is a type to teach us this. This is why Christ had to come. We would be in the same predicament forever as Israel if Christ had not come. The problem of idolatry doesn't go away. now you understand how beautiful the covenant of redemption is played out in history in the covenant of grace that was made to abraham that everlasting covenant that we talked about between the father and the son when the son said i'll go and i'll merit the land for them and i'll give them freely eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god that tree that was lost at creation. Those terms are met, beloved. Those terms are met by the true Israel, who is Jesus. And now the Lord doesn't speak to you this way in the new covenant. As if you are the ones to fulfill the covenant to receive eternal life. It's a tragedy in Reformed circles. We still have people putting people back under the law this way. I don't get up and preach, I will not forgive your iniquity. Maybe we've heard it so much we take it for granted. That's another issue. But I say, He has forgiven your iniquity. He's cast your sins off. As far as the east is from the west. And He's given you regenerate hearts. Sure, this was prevalent in the Old Testament in those who live by faith. The same faith as Abraham. And this day, you do choose the one whom you will serve. Who equips you, Hebrews 13. And enables you to do what is what? Well-pleasing in His sight. That's the good news of the new covenant. All praise goes to Him for the indescribable gift. And that's why this ends so differently in Joshua from how we ended this morning in Hebrews. Joshua dies and Joshua is buried and Joshua was not raised from the dead. But your Joshua was whom this foreshadowed. Our true Joshua, the name means to say God up out of the grave for you. And because of that resurrection, we have an inheritance unfading, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by what? Your power? kept by the power of god so much so that in the new covenant jesus would say to his flock do not fear little flock it's the father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom it's a gift it's a gift through the work of his son so that we might be a people of praise and the sacrifice of lips now we might be a people who actually by the power of the spirit in sincerity begin in this life in gratitude to put away the idols and do it for real little john remember what first john said little children put away the idols in the power of the spirit we can say now as for me and my household we will serve the lord because a land has been given to us a land has been earned for us salvation has been fully merited by the true israel of god and that kind of response today demands and deserves in sincerity thank you oh lord that i'm a recipient because someone came and stood in my place to fulfill the terms of the covenant so that I might have by right as an adopted son and daughter eternal life. That's when you see the whole picture, it's beautiful. This is God's plan for you. So let us be a people of faith who embrace the Son and respond by beginning to taste in this life what it is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Anticipating in glory, doing that in perfection. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for tonight instructing us in Your will. Indeed, O Lord, it does begin with leadership who fears the Lord, who understands the Gospel, who understands the marvelous gift in Your people, who understand what all of this pointed to and then to see how rich a gift has been given to us by the son of god that we might live and not die having this promise of eternal life through an everlasting covenant which we can never be removed from the land that is the best news ever so may we be a people of praise and may we indeed put away the idols and may we in our homes and our households choose us this day whom we will serve and say with Joshua as for me and my household we will serve the Lord no more justifying sin no more supporting sin but fearing you thank you for the good gift of the land that is received by faith alone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.