Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 32 – May 1982

Who Will You Serve

Sermon by Rev. H.P. Phillips, B.D. on Joshua 24 (esp. vss 14,15)

Scripture Readings: Mark 9: 14-29; Joshua 24:1-33

Psalter Hymnal: 48:1,4,5; 327; 213; 160; 26:1,2,3; 250:2,3

(Suitable: Preparation Lord's Supper)

Congregation of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

There are a number of dramatic moments in the Bible – Consider Elijah before the prophets of Baal.  They prayed all day to their God.  They cried, they cut them- selves and all to no good.  The wood on their altar remained untouched by fire.  Then comes the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah repairs the altar of the Lord, he prepares the sacrifice and then calls on those present to pour water over everything until all is absolutely soaked.  Then, in the hush which follows, one man's voice is lifted in prayer.  What a contrast!  And what dramatic results!  Fire falls and consumes everything – including the stones of the altar!!

Or, imagine you were there on that day when the disciples found it impossible to heal the boy possessed of a demon.  What a sight!  The boy, thrashing about one moment, and his father almost beside himself because he was asked to exercise a faith he wasn't even sure he had.  The Lord Jesus stands calmly until he commands the spirit to leave.  There are the terrible convulsions and the shriek of the spirit and the boy lying as if dead.  Wouldn't you also have been aware of the drama of the moment as Jesus reaches out his hand and raises the boy – cured – from the ground?

But in the midst of such dramatic moments it is easy to overlook the drama of our text a drama that is repeated every time we face the question Joshua put to the people.  And, as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, it is good to remember that self-examination requires us to ask it (of ourselves) once again.  May the drama of our text remind you of the importance of that question.

I.  The Man:

This section contains the last act of one of the two survivors of the Exodus.  The man is one who, above all others in the country, knew Moses, and the way the Lord had used him in bringing the people out of bondage.  And this man stood for uncompromising adherence to the Law of God.  He'd led them faithfully throughout many campaigns and must have gained the respect of the people.  Now, at the ripe age of 110, the Lord is about to call him home.

Yet for this man, as for his master and Lord (who is to follow him many centuries later), there is something more important than the sadness of parting.  There is work yet to be done and the need to remind those left behind of that work and prepare them for it.  Jesus did it by the exposition of the Bible and issuing the Great Commission, Joshua by reminding of the need to honour God and serve Him.  And yet, there is still a similarity in the final leave-taking for all that.  The God we are to honour is clearly revealed in the Bible and Jesus' Bible study was to show the disciples all things in the Scripture pertaining to Himself.  And the service we are to render to the Lord is spelt out for us in the words: "Make disciples, baptising them and teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you."  Yes, as we should expect, the leave-taking of the Lord Jesus is more full than that of Joshua but it contains the same elements.  Honour for God and service.  And to Joshua these are so important that he calls the children of Israel together to remind them of it.

Nor is it inconsistent with his whole life – “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" – has almost been his watch word.  When Israel feared to go up to possess the land of promise from Kadesh-barneah who was it who counselled courage?  Joshua!  After the defeat at Ai, what was Joshua's major concern?  The honour of God's name!  And now, at the close of his life we find him again willing (if necessary) to stand against all the company in serving his Lord.  Joshua's consistency stands as a mark against all those who waver and wander from the word of God.  As a living reminder of God's grace he stands and calls us to decide once again who will you serve?  The God who has blessed us all our lives or will you desert for an idol?

You know people find it difficult to live peacefully with men like Joshua.  Their very consistency becomes a stumbling block.  You'd imagine he'd be quite happy to hear the response of the people: “We also will serve the Lord for he is our God."  You'd expect him to be encouraging to them, but instead he has to go and point out how great will be the difficulties they'll experience.  And, also how high is the standard that God requires of his servants, "You won't be able to" he says, “For God is holy and won't forgive your transgressions....!”  He'll do you good alright, but if "you forsake him and serve foreign Gods he'll do you harm and consume you after he's done good to you."

But even then, when the people insist that they WILL serve the Lord, he has to point out the fact that God will hold them accountable since they'll bear witness against themselves.  In our day when it's fashionable to welcome someone into the Church as quickly as we can assuming they're Christians as soon as they show the slightest interest in Church - Joshua's actions seem incomprehensible.

But idolatry is engrained deep into the heart of man and soul-searching is necessary for our health.  So, once again look at the requirements of the form for the Lord's Supper and search your heart... are you 'minded to show true thankfulness to God in your whole life... to walk sincerely before Hi face?'  Joshua was and called his generation to a similar dedication.  We need the same dedication today and the Lord's standards have not changed at all.

II.  The History:

But, true though all the above data is concerned, this does not do anything like justice to the text.  For Joshua calls the people to serve the Lord on the basis of something a little more solid than his own example - worthy though that might have been.  And here is seen the drama of the situation.

The Children of Israel had begun to take possession of the land of promise.  And there was the danger – a danger of which Moses had warned – of forgetting it was the Lord who had brought them out of slavery and given them the land.

And there were two forces at work to lead them astray to follow after strange Gods.  The first of these was the influence of tradition.  Your fathers served idols across the river (probably the Euphrates), says Joshua, and in Egypt.  So put these away and serve the Lord.  And the same is true today.  One of the forces which acts upon the folk who have come from "across the water" to New Zealand is the force of tradition.

Now there are some good traditions and some bad.  The concern for a Biblical Church speaking with one voice on matters of faith and practice – the voice of the Bible – is something we needed with our fragmented view of the Church and our "well, MY minister still preaches the truth" approach.  And the idea of a systematic exposition of the doctrines of the faith (as summarised in our creeds) is also a good tradition, especially in a country where so many are ignorant of Systematic Theology.

And, as with all good things, there are dangers to be avoided because it is so easy to make our traditions as important as the actual teaching of the Bible, or worse still, to substitute them for Bible doctrine.  How many wise men came to see Jesus? – for example; were Mary & Joseph still in the stable when they saw Jesus (in a manger?); how many of each kind of animal went with Noah into the Ark and did Cain have any sisters?

Check the answers as they spring to mind CAREFULLY with the Bible and you'll be amazed how many things we take as 'fact' which are traditions superimposed on the Bible.  And to add our traditions to the Bible is idolatry as real as the worship of the false Gods of Babylon or Egypt.

But there's a second force at work to lead Israel astray from the worship of the one true God.  There is the pressure to compromise.  We hear this force at work every time one of our children comes home from a friend's birthday party don't we!  You know how it goes!  They leave home a perfectly normal child but in the course of the afternoon they get an attack of the "I wants" and you can hear the minute they walk in the door.  "Mum, Dad, I want a...!" and the force we're thinking about rears its head the minute you answer, "No."  "But...!" in a voice of injured self-esteem, "everyone else has one."  Or the same when your teenager is told he (or she) has to be in at midnight... "But no-one else has to do that...!”

And, congregation, every time we give in to that kind of pressure against the clear commandments of God (or against that which may be deduced therefrom by good and necessary consequence) we commit idolatry.  And the idolatry is the same in both cases – it’s putting our thoughts and desires in the place of God's will and commands.  It's failing to honour Him and serve Him in sincerity and truth.

And the worst part of this form of idolatry is that it attempts to negate the redemption won for us by God.  Joshua reminds the people that God redeemed them from bondage, in Babylon, and in Egypt, he protected them when Balak sought to curse them, when Balaam tried to lead them astray, when the kings of the various cities tried to destroy them and he says, "therefore" (on that basis) serve the Lord.

And so it is for us – Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for you and I to be saved; He it is who protects us on the roads, He intercedes for us; He gives us His Spirit so that we might grow – and for that reason alone we ought to honour God and serve Him.  It is not to earn our salvation but because we ARE saved!

Joshua calls the people to look for their salvation in God alone!  And as we prepare for the Lord's Supper we're required to search to be sure that we look to the same God for our salvation and that we look to His grace and mercy alone.

III.  The issue:

But the real drama is in the issues at stake.  Joshua spent so much time with the children of Israel, because he knew that eternal damnation was their danger.  And how often we forget.  Secure in the good favour of God we imagine all is well with us.  We're like the man who had a good harvest and built bigger barns not realising that that night he was to die.

And how shocking the fall of the Church member into Hell!  The shock of the skater as the "supposed" thick ice gives way is multiplied a million-fold and, remember, there is no way to get out!  O my dear friends be sure!  Put away all foreign gods from among you and serve the Lord alone for He alone is able to save from Hell.

And yet there is a greater issue at stake.  We so often think only of ourselves and our needs that we sometimes forget that the glory of God is the real purpose of all history.  In Joshua's address to the people of Israel we see God's use of a single man to turn his people back to himself.  For we read that the Israelites "served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua and had known the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel."

And this should stand as a goad to all of us.  When we look at the situation and say, “Oh, but it's hopeless, what can I do, I'm only one person?”  Let the call of Joshua resound in your ears.  "Choose today..." whom will you serve?  Will it be the Gods of your fathers, the Gods of those about you, or the Lord our God.  And may the Lord grant that we will see many come to say, "We also will serve the Lord our God" and insist on the right to do so even though they are warned of the consequences.

AMEN