Joshua Study - 2026-08-05

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

All right, so today we're going to be in Joshua chapter 23 and 24.

I was just joking with Chris because I decided to do two chapters tonight

because 23 was a little shorter and then John Kratz, I guess, had already

prepared for Judges chapter one.

So he's two weeks from now.

So anyway, sorry, John, if you're watching this or you go back and listen to this.

But, uh, all in good fun.

It's pays to not be prepared sometimes two weeks in advance, but well, Jesse's

going to go, or no, no, John is going to, is John going to switch with Jesse?

I haven't seen Fred.

So we might get a switch, but yeah, there you go.

Cool.

So tonight we're going to do Joshua 23 and 24 and I have three main points

that I want to share with this, uh, section of scripture and they're all

going to be centered around covenant because so much of what we see in this

text is relating to God's covenant with Israel and therefore it relates

to God's covenant with us and so we walk in the new covenant and Israel

is walking in the, um, covenant with Adam and Abraham and Moses.

And so then there, then there was one other major covenant in there.

You guys probably know what it is.

The starts with the D before Christ, the Davidic covenant, and then we have

the new covenant, which is what all the believers in Jesus, as Christ says,

the Messiah are walking in today.

But so much of the themes within scripture as a whole and within

here center around covenant.

So we're going to talk about three main things.

Number one is covenantal cling.

Number two is covenant, covenantal catechism and then covenantal choosing.

So let's pray and then we'll jump into the text.

So Lord, we thank you so much for this evening.

Lord, we just pray that you would just give us a spirit of wisdom and

revelation as we look at this text, that whether we're looking at it for

the first time or for the 50th, you would give us fresh revelation.

Just breathe on your words, Lord, help us to just get to know you better

and that we would walk away knowing and loving you more.

Jesus' name.

All right.

So verse one, Joshua was charged to Israel's leaders 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.

So you guys remember that the context of this is the Israelites had

been battling the people in the land and the Lord had been blessing

them with victory after victory because he had promised them this land.

And they're not fully eradicated the people of Canaan, which is modern

day Israel, but they have basically effectively subdued them and

they've subdued the surrounding peoples.

But as we see when we flip forward to judges, they don't completely

eradicate them or push them out of the land.

And the ramifications for that are that they begin to adopt the

practices of the pagan people in the land, which will eventually

draw the people's hearts away from God and draw their hearts to the

demons or the pagan Gods, which basically in the Old Testament, it's the same.

So Joshua, now he's old and well-advanced in years.

And Joshua was the disciple of Moses, if you don't remember.

And Moses was the guy who brought everybody out of Egypt.

If you've never seen the movie.

And Joshua summoned all Israel to all 12 tribes, its elders, heads, 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 Jordan to the great sea in the West.

So that would be the Mediterranean Sea.

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.

So we see here, it's, there's still a little bit of work to be done

in clearing the area of the pagan inhabitants, but the battle

has been effectively won as we see scripture before this has been

talking about the fact that, you know, the Lord has given Joshua and

the Israelites victory over the people of the land.

So it's, it's effectively done, but there's still a little bit of

work that they need to do.

So, um, that's what's going on there.

And he says, um, therefore be very strong to keep and to 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 the names of their Gods

or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall

cling, there's that word cling to the Lord your God, just as you

have done to this day.

And so few weeks ago when I was teaching, I think it was maybe

Joshua 15, somewhere nestled in the middle of Joshua, there was all

these place names and you could see within these place names within

the region of Canaan, or today it's like modern day Israel and the

West bank and Gaza, but within these areas, it had the names of

pagan Gods peppered in there all throughout there.

And so people would build a city and they would name it after a

pagan deity.

And so the land was just permeate permeated with so much, uh,

pagan ideas and philosophies and worship that the Lord is

worried that even saying the names of these pagan Gods will

lead the people to begin to want to go after these pagan deities.

Bless you.

So basically here is the first point, covenantal cling.

Okay.

Do not mix or cling versus six through eight.

Joshua starts to really charge the leaders of Israel and all

the people, and he uses this language cling, which the word

cling is also the same word used in Genesis chapter two for

when Adam and Eve were clinging together as husband and

wife, or you can add a famous expression, um, you will be

husband and wife and the husband will cleave or you

will leave the, or the verse about leaving the mother and

the father and cleaving or clinging same word there to

your husband or wife together.

So this idea that you will cleave together, that you

become one, there's two people becoming one and underneath

the covenant of marriage, this same idea is being used

with Israel and Joshua is using the same language that

become one with the Lord your God and cling to him in

covenant because he has rescued you from Egypt.

He has rescued you from the hands of all the attackers

along the way from Egypt to the promised land.

And within the promised land, he has rescued you and

he's been faithful, uh, to do what he's promised to put

you into the promised land.

And so the, the Lord is wanting to use this covenant

of language with us.

And this has really big implications for us too,

because the new covenant today is also a covenant of

marriage.

We can see this all throughout the new Testament.

Paul speaks about the deep mystery that is Christ

and the bride.

And he says, this is a profound, deep mystery that

we will one day as, as a corporate body be wed to

Christ and we are ought to, we ought to cleave to

him in covenant.

We ought to be attached to him and seek to seek

union with him.

And, and then therefore, as we will see in verse 12,

we are not to cling to the world, but we are

to cling to the Lord.

Let's just keep reading onto there and then we'll,

we'll continue on this idea.

So verse nine says for the Lord has driven out

before you great and strong nations.

So Joshua is kind of giving them some proof here

saying cling to the Lord because he's been good,

because this is his testimony that he has done

these things for you.

And as for you, no man has been able to stand

before you to this day.

One man of you puts to flight a thousand since it

is the Lord your God who fights for you just as

he promised.

This means like, if you're good at math, a

thousand people can put a million people to

flight.

10,000 people can put 10 million people to

flight.

How many millions would it take to put our

nation at flight?

Let's do the math.

What, like maybe 400,000?

Ken's good at math.

Yeah, there you go.

Exactly.

Right.

So, so this is an amazing, this is an amazing

thing.

And I think the Lord, it's probably a

ancient Near East idiom, but the idea is that

the Lord is with them in battle and that he

is supporting them in battle.

And that the reason they're winning all these

battles is because the Lord is behind them.

And we see this in Leviticus 26 verse seven

and eight and Deuteronomy 32 verse 30 that the

Lord promises this specifically as one of the

blessings that will follow the Israelites if

they maintain faithfulness in the covenant to

the Lord, if they uphold their end of the

bargain.

So we see that the Lord is basically saying,

hey, look, I promised you this and I delivered

this.

So verse 11, be 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.

So with the Lord, what we see here is he wants

all of the Israelites.

He wants the Israelites entire love.

He wants all of their love.

What's the famous verse that the Jewish

people still pray today, three times a day?

Do you guys know?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your mind, with all your soul, with

all your strength.

And the Jewish people still pray this today,

three times a day.

And we see that even Old Testament saints

were praying it like Daniel was even

praying it three times a day in Babylon.

It's one of the reasons why he got thrown

in the lines then.

But the Lord is saying, I want you to love

me with your whole heart.

And that is something all throughout

scripture as well, that the Lord is jealous

for us.

We'll see this in the next chapter, that

the Lord is, he gets jealous.

And also like when I was in Turkey, I served

in Turkey as a missionary for a while.

And then I got married and Sarah and I,

my wife, we were serving there together

for two years.

But Turkish people are notoriously jealous

people when it comes to relationships.

It might just be maybe a Middle Eastern

thing, I don't know.

But American people, generally, we're

just so like chill.

And but like Turkish people, if they even

like at a gathering, like if they see

their, their boyfriend or girlfriend, even

just like chatting nonchalantly or passing

by another person of the opposite gender,

they immediately start to look and they

start to get kind of stressed out.

And they're like, Oh, what's she doing?

And then they maybe get mad at her, him.

And then they're always wanting to know

like what their significant other is doing.

The Turkish joke is that don't ever date

a Turkish girl because then don't want

to know where you are at all times.

And even if you're in the bathroom,

they're going to want to know what

you're doing, right?

But I'll say that in our culture,

we're way more relaxed about like those

kind of things with guys in girls'

relationships.

It's I think it's good.

I think we have a higher level of trust

in general with people because I think

basically that's rooted in mistrust.

But what we see is that they're,

they are jealous over who their

significant other is talking to and

what they're doing.

And the Lord is jealous with us about

what we are doing with our hearts.

He's jealous with us as to what

we are, what we are looking at.

He's jealous with us about our speech.

And he and the whole purpose or the

gravity of his jealousy is to bring

us back into him in order to cling

and to cleave to him rather than

clinging and cleaving to the things

of this world or to or to any thing

or person that we would put in front

of the Lord.

So we see in verse 12 that Joshua

is telling the Israelites for if you

turn back, well, first of all, in

verse 11, he says, be very careful

and intentional, right?

Sometimes we use that word today

in modern dating times, like we're

being intentional, right?

Be very careful and intentional

therefore to love the Lord your God.

For if you turn back and cling to

the remnant of the nations, then

they will basically he's saying

they will lead your heart astray.

And and I think that's really

the Lord's heart throughout all

of scripture is that he desires

a people to be holy and to be

completely abandoned.

To himself to be completely

dedicated to himself, and he

desires our hearts to be

completely abandoned and

dedicated to him.

Because when you make a covenant

with somebody, like if you're

married and you get married and

you make a covenant with them,

it's a serious thing.

It is something that's not easily

broken.

That's kind of the point of

being married, is that it's hard

to get out of, right?

And the Lord is the same way.

The Lord made a covenant with us

and he's saying I'm seriously

wanting you to make a covenant

with me, but I need you also to

be serious and I need you to

love me with your whole heart

because he's loving us with his

whole heart guys.

One of the quickest ways to

become passionate and really

just to become passionate about

the Lord or become passionate in

love for for Jesus is to focus

on how much passion and how

much love God actually has for

us.

God loves us so much and he wants

us to love him so much.

We can never love like God

loves, but he wants that love

back and he wants that

reciprocated and he wants us to

cling to him.

And it's just so crazy to me

and this is why Paul calls it a

deep mystery that the church or

the people of God would marry

Christ at the end of the age,

the marriage of the supper of

the land.

And and yeah, it is really just

a mystery how this is going to

happen.

I don't know, but it has to do

with union with the Lord and

we'll have new bodies which will

be completely incorruptible and

and holy and somehow, you know,

will be one with the Lord in

eternity.

But the Lord desires us.

He desires us one to cling to

himself and two to not cling to

anything else.

Because think about it.

The way the Lord sees a divided

heart or the way the Lord sees

a heart that is not fully

devoted to him is adultery.

He sees it as basically his

people cheating on him and and

when that when that happens,

the covenant is is has the

opportunity to be broken if

it's not mended, if there's not

repentance there.

So anyway, the Lord desires that

we cling to him.

And Joshua is basically

charging the nation of

Israel saying, cling to the

Lord, be very careful that you

love him with his with your

whole heart and that you cling

to him and that you don't cling

to the nations.

And when we enter his, I think

it's just good to say, but we

enter this covenantal love with

grace by grace through faith.

And it's not like we have to

make ourselves beautiful before

God.

The Lord makes us beautiful before

him by his grace.

But we will see that in the

third section, there is a

choosing that we have to do and

there is something there and

that's also a mystery.

But I just wanted to mention and

I think it's good to say every

time that all this is by his

grace, there's no striving or

there's no working here.

Actually, that will just make

it that will make us fall into

more sin if we think we can

actually achieve union or

covenant with God on our own

strength.

But the Lord gives us that as a

gift.

But then after that, there are

things that we need to we need

to do and we need to we need to

follow.

So that's the first point.

Cling to God, cling to him and

cling covenantally, covenantal

clinging.

And it's if you've never thought

about this, that your relationship

with God is like a marriage or if

you want to be very exact and

precise, it's like being

engaged.

We're contracted or we're

covenanted on some level.

There's been a transfer.

There's been consideration.

So it can be a real contract.

There's a down payment.

We have the Holy Spirit, but

we're still awaiting Christ.

If that's too deep for you,

then you can just think of it

as we are currently in some kind

of covenant with with the Lord.

And but it's it's like a it's

like a betrothal covenant.

If you've never thought about

that, I just encourage you just

take time this week and think

about it.

Just ponder the deep mystery that

is God making a covenant with us.

And it's really amazing.

You think, why would he want

to make a covenant with me?

I don't know.

He loves us.

That's who he is.

But it is worthy of meditation.

OK, second second point.

Oh, I guess we'll keep reading.

So we are on verse 14.

And now I am about this is

Joshua speaking.

And 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.

So this is also referencing

the above verses in verse 10

talking about one man puts a

thousand the flight and verse

nine for the Lord God has

driven out before you great and

strong nations.

Verse 15.

But just as all 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 the Lord 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.

And so this echoes

Deuteronomy chapter 28 and 29

and we're not going to read all

of it.

But in Deuteronomy 28 and 29

at the end of the Mosaic

covenant the Lord lays out

blessings for disobedience

and curses for disobedience.

And actually it's very

interesting.

There's a there's a cool book

if you want to dig into more

Old Testament context in history.

It's called the Epic of Eden.

It's a really easy read but it

basically details a lot of the

different covenants that were in

existence at the time of Israel

and the time of Moses.

And this covenant followed one of

those very specific templates of

where a king and a nation a

strong nation made a covenant

with a small nation.

And they basically the king would

give blessings for the faithfulness

of the covenant to the small

nation.

And as long as the small nation

was faithful they would receive

the blessings of the king of the

suzerain.

That's the technical historical

term for it.

But and then I think the vassal

the vassal state and the

suzerain state but they would

have yeah they would have a

covenant in agreement.

But then they said OK if you

violate the terms of this

covenant if you're unfaithful

then we're going to keep these

curses on you.

So this follows the template of

one of the what do you call it

covenants of that era.

So the Lord is using this

template to communicate to

Israel that hey I am your king

and hold fast to me.

You don't need to hold fast to

any other nations because I

will protect you.

And so within the whole

covenantal framework of the

Mosaic covenant that's a little

bit too.

We're not going to go any

further in that because it's a

little bit beyond the scope of

what we're talking about today.

But this would have been

something that was common in

the ancient world.

And I find that interesting as

well.

All right we're going to talk

a little bit about that later

too.

But all right let's keep going.

Chapter 24 verse 1 Joshua

gathered all the tribes of

Israel to Shechem and summon

the leaders or the elders the

heads the judges and the

officers of Israel and they

presented themselves before God.

And Joshua said to all the

people that says the Lord the

God of Israel long ago your

fathers lived beyond the

Euphrates.

Tara 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 seer

to possess but Jacob and his

children went down to Egypt and

I sent Moses and Aaron and

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 to

the Lord he put darkness

between you and the Egyptians

and made the sea come upon

them and cover 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 Zippur king of Moab arose

and fought against Israel and

he sent and invited Balaam 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 to the

Jordan and came to Jericho and

the leaders of Jericho fought

against you and also the

Amorites the parasites the

Canaanites the Hittites the

gurgishites the Hivites 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 and cities

that you had not built and you

dwell in them you eat the

fruit of the vineyards and all

of orchards that you did not

plant.

So this brings us to our

second point and I call this

the covenantal catechism you

could also just call it I

wanted to use a C you could

also just call it the

covenantal gospel or the

covenantal chronicle so this

is the way that they would

preserve the good news of

salvation to the Israelites as

they would they would repeat

the story and we see many

times if you read Leviticus and

Numbers and you read through

some of the probably more

classically boring sections of

Scripture what you'll see in

there is you'll see and it's

not boring if you actually dig a

little bit but on the surface

is boring but what you'll see

in there is remember me the

Lord your God who brought you

out of Egypt and all the things

that they would do in these

feasts and the Passover and

with Pentecost and all the

different Jewish feasts would

be to reenact a certain part of

their history and their future

and it basically they would kind

of reenact these things but one

of the main themes that they

had to reenact was during the

Passover feast they would

remember that the Lord their

God brought them out of

Egypt and delivered them out of

slavery and into freedom and

this is one of the key themes

that the Lord does in our

life too he takes us out of

the slavery and the bondage of

and he brings us into freedom

in Christ and this was this was

the good news and this was the

fate the story of the

faithfulness of God back there

for the believers of this time

and the ancient people the

people in the ancient near east

they were storytellers they

would tell their stories and

with their stories it would

have a have a meaning and a

message in it even we see this

in the New Testament when

Steven is getting stoned we've

been studying acts but right

before Steven gets stoned the

gospel that he preaches is

literally to start with Abraham

and then go basically

scene by scene what's recorded

for us there is quite a lot

but he may have gone into more

detail but he's basically

saying our father was Abraham

and God gave the promise of

the land and the messiah to

Abraham and then Abraham had

Isaac and Isaac had Jacob

and he goes all the way down

the line and this was what

they would tell their children

and one other thing is

genealogies were very

important to the ancient

people and so those genealogies

that we find boring if you

were a Jewish person at that

time the genealogy would be

one of the more exciting

pieces where you would try to

go and you would find your

ancestor you would say oh this

is my ancestor and that was

his father and his father and

his father and so the line or

the continuity of this good

news of the gospel was something

that was catechized amongst the

Jewish people you wouldn't

and catechize just it means

like to teach or to kind of

like repeat or say it back

I'm not exactly sure if

that's the official term of

catechism but I grew up

performed so you know

Westminster catechism and all

that so yeah it was

something that they would

teach to people and the people

coming out the people coming

out of Egypt and into the

Promised Land it's a metaphor

of coming out of sin and

being free of of your sin

and receiving salvation and

then walking in the new life

in Christ coming into the

Promised Land and for us as

well it's helpful to just

meditate on those themes and

those ideas that the Lord is

faithful and that he does save

and bring us out of Egypt and

into the Promised Land and one

other thing even here people

say oh well the Old Testament

doesn't have have much grace

in it you can look at verse

twelve and it says after 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 and I

gave you a land on which you

had not labored and cities

that you had not built and

you dwell in them you eat the

fruit of the vineyards and

the olive orchards orchards

that you did not plant and

the Lord is just providing for

them time after time after

time and he's letting his

hand go before them and this

really is a picture of the

gospel it's a picture of what

Christ does for us is that he

goes before us he's preparing a

room for us he's preparing a

place for us John 14 Christ

says I'm going away and I'm

going to prepare a room for

for you and he's building

us a house in the Jewish

sense he's building a house

for his bride the Jewish

people would do that back in

the day so this this section

speaks of the covenantal gospel

that God is a faithful covenant

keeper and that he is the one

who will provide and supply

all of their needs and all of

their the things that they

need yeah so all right let's

keep going

verse 14 now therefore fear the

Lord and serve him in

sincerity and in faithfulness

put away the Gods that your

fathers served beyond the

river and in Egypt and serve

the Lord and if it is evil in

your eyes to serve the Lord

choose this day whom you will

serve whether the Gods your

fathers 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 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 in our fathers up from the

land of Egypt out of the house

of slavery and who did these

great signs in our site and

preserved us in all the way

that we went and among all

the peoples through whom we

passed and the Lord drove out

before us all the peoples of

the Amorites who lived in the

land therefore we will also

serve the Lord for he is our

God but Joshua said to the

people you are not able to

serve the Lord for he is 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 then he

will turn and do you harm and

consume you after having done

you good and the people said

to Joshua no but we will

serve the Lord and 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 rules and

statutes for them at Shechem

and Joshua wrote these words

in the book of the law of

God and he took a large stone

and set it up there under the

Terribinth 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 it has

heard all the words of the

Lord that he has 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

so here the third point is

covenantal choosing

we have a choice put put

before us the Lord does not

force us to serve him

Joshua and this is Joshua's

bit reenacting the

Moses Joshua was Moses's

disciple and so Joshua saw

Moses do this where Moses

charged the people of Israel

after the repeating of the

law which is that's what

Deuteronomy means after the

law was repeated to Israel

at the end of the book of

Deuteronomy

Moses sets the same choice

in front of Israel and he

says I've set before you today

life and death and this is

specifically if you want to

look it up Deuteronomy 30

verse 11 through 20 and

Moses is basically saying the

same thing and Joshua is

just repeating what Moses is

saying he's charging the

people of Israel to choose

the Lord and there's

choosing is is also a mystery

because you know we know that

the Lord is sovereign this is

the age-old debate of you

know is which one is right

Calvinism or Armenianism

right if you're familiar with

those terms I'm sorry for you

if you're thanks for the joke

thanks for the laugh appreciate

that but if you aren't

familiar with those terms

basically it has it's the

debate that has to do with

the free will of God right

a free will of man and the

sovereignty of God how much

of it is God how much of

it is us does the Lord mark

us and predestinate us for

heaven and hell before the end

of time or are we do we

somehow play a part in

in that right that whole

discussion which I'm not

going to get into but no

matter which side you fall

into which can't you fall

into I grew up reformed it

was a good reform church

uh reformed

Charismatics that's not

something you come across

every day it's kind of like

a gay republican I guess

now it's getting more common

but basically what they

taught us was that you know

the Lord is the one who

chooses whether or not

you go to you know

or he's whether or not

you go to heaven or hell

depends on the Lord but also

um they were really good at

teaching us about how

our choice mattered so

yeah this is this is a bit of a

deeper topic which

you can get into just a little

bit but no matter which side

you believe in both sides

believe that you have to

choose and philosophers

debate over different words

if you go and try to read

Jonathan Edwards book I think

it's called like the free will

of of man or something

the volition of man

I don't know it's a long book

you know that one Chris

you have to read that in

somewhere seminary or something

but anyhow

basically the first like

20 pages he's just defining

what he means by free will

and what he what he defines

by choice

so basically philosophers

say there's a difference

between free will and choice

but no matter which side

you come down on

if you're on the reform side

and you believe you know

God is sovereign

and that he basically

is willing everything

that's happening in the earth

in that camp

you still have to choose

the Lord

whether it's you doing it

or the Lord doing it

you have to choose

that's what we see in scripture

but if you are come

from more of the other side

where you think

there's more of man's free will

and it's still by God's grace

you don't save yourself

in either camp

you still have to choose the Lord

does it make sense?

so there's a difference

in what I see as

free will and choice

and so

I'm gonna debate that later

if you disagree

but my point in general

is just trying to say that

we all have to choose

your theology

doesn't get you out of choosing

doesn't get you out of

actually performing

and so I asked my pastor

at that time I was like

well why do we preach the gospel

because we were more

in the sovereignty camp

and why do we pray

and why do we do all these things

and he answered me very bluntly

he just said

because the Bible commands us

the Bible commands us

to do these things

and so yeah

in our church we're not

we're not reformed

and I think Calvary Chapel

doesn't necessarily

take a position on it

is that correct?

yeah but

what we see is that

no matter what you believe

you have to choose

you have to obey

Jesus says that

if you obey me

then that's proof

that you love me

and so what Joshua here is saying

is basically choose life

choose life

don't get caught up in

the high level philosophical arguments

you have to obey

you have to choose God

and it's do you actually love him

do you want to serve him or not

because he says as for me

in my house

we will serve the Lord

and so I think

I really appreciate

the Protestant

and reformed tradition

for all the scholarship

and all the books

and all the thinking

that it's brought

but I think sometimes

we should take that

but then we just

take the Bible simply

and just do it

and don't think too deeply

about everything

that is being commanded for us

we can think deeply

and thinking honor is the Lord

and doing good theology

and scholarship

definitely honors the Lord

but there's a doing

and a choosing

that is required

of the faithful

and those who want to be

covenantally clinging to the Lord

we have to choose him

covenantally

and so the question is

are you gonna

are we choosing the Lord or not

and many of us

we're believers

we're in the Lord

we're faithfully serving him

but still every day

there's a choosing that happens

we choose to do the right thing

we choose to love the Lord

we choose to pray

we choose to come to Bible study

we choose to read our Bible

we choose to love our spouses

we choose to love our kids

we choose to serve in our communities

and all of this choosing

it doesn't

and doing

it doesn't take away

from the grace of God

but James says

if you have faith

but no works

you actually don't have faith

and so the choosing

and the actually the doing

and the works

proves that we actually have love

and everybody knows this

right like if you say

I love my wife

or I love my you know

girlfriend

but you don't treat them

well the people in your life

and your wife

girlfriend

boyfriend

husband

they know

they know that your actions

and your words

aren't lining up

and the world

the world loves this criticism

like the biggest criticism

in my opinion

that the world has

for the church

is that we're all talk

that we're hypocrites

and they just

they just love to point that out

well also not realizing

that they're judging us

by our standard

which is another topic

but let's be

let's choose the Lord

let's be covenantal doers

and let's choose

to love the Lord

and serve him all of our days

I love that verse

that says

as for me in my house

we will serve the Lord

right that's a famous one

a lot of

you maybe have it in your house

I know

I think my parents have it

in their house

but as for me

and my family

we will serve the Lord

and this is just a good reminder

that

it doesn't matter

what other people

are doing necessarily

we should pray

for other people

we should

try to reach them

with the gospel

but what are you doing

what are we doing

with our

with our love for God

are we choosing God

are we growing closer

in covenant

in covenant love for him

or are we are we drifting

a little bit

from the Lord

and every day

we have to wake up

and make that

make that decision

and it I think

it's just really cool

what Joshua does

he just charges them again

and it's almost like a renewal

of the vowels

the vows

not the vows

the vows

of covenant marriage

right

some people do that

after years and years

they renew their vows

and they do it

with witnesses

and it's a beautiful thing

and that's a picture

of what Israel is doing here

is they're renewing

their covenant vows

to the Lord

and just to wrap up

verse 29

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 Serah

which is in the hill country

of Ephraim

north of the mountain of Gosh

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

so I think that's so cool

verse 31

it says that

everybody there

who said yes

we will serve the Lord

that Joshua charged

all of those people

at least it says

yeah

says all the elders

at least

who outlived Joshua

and all the people

who were

but essentially there

the leaders of Israel

they all stayed faithful

to the Lord

throughout that period of time

I think that's just so

so amazing

and I wonder if

if they made that

like a ceremony

or something

each whatever

a couple years

or whatnot

if the people of Israel

would have actually

stayed more faithful

to the Lord

because what we see

if this is the pinnacle

of the story

up until that point

of the Israelites

taking the promised land

and Moses

passing the torch

to Joshua

and Joshua

giving the charge

what we see

after Joshua

passes away

is we see

the downward trajectory

of Israel

basically all the way

until the prophet Samuel

so Judges is just a mess

you guys

probably heard of

the cycle of sin

in Judges

and it's

it's rebellion

it's punishment

it's God raises up a judge

and it just goes over

and over again

and then there's some sort of

kind of effort

for revival

but it just

goes around

and around and around

and we see this

all throughout Judges

and you guys are faithful attendees

so we will go through it together

but one thing I wonder

and this is just to close

but this is not really a point

but it's more of just

something I've thought about

over the years

is like why

why did Judges

follow Joshua

and I noticed that

Moses

he specifically was investing

in Joshua

to raise him up

but I don't see

and that's not to

put it all on Joshua

because maybe he was

but I don't see a person

that Joshua

was investing in

to raise up

necessarily

as like a leader of Israel

and maybe he was discipling

or he was teaching the elders

and to his credit

there was faithfulness

until all the elders

passed away

faithfulness to the Lord

but whatever happened

the link between Moses

and Joshua

because if you look at

Joshua's life

there's not that many verses

that talk about Joshua

but Joshua was basically

in the tent

of meeting night and day

he was a worshiper

and he loved the Lord

so much that

he wouldn't depart

from the tent

so he really loved the Lord

and he took that seriously

and he learned from Moses

and so I just wonder

who was Joshua teaching?

Who was Joshua discipling?

And I don't know

I'm not gonna blame him

because I'll meet him someday

you know

but there's some kind of breakdown

between Joshua and Judges

there's some kind of breakdown

and maybe it had to do with

they were very centralized

and Moses was the top dog

and then he discipled Joshua

and they were still pretty centralized

and then everybody kind of spread out

in their camp

and they had the different tribes

and settlements

and they you know

it was more of like

an eldership clan type of thing

I don't know

all the details

but one thing is that

was it a discipleship failure?

Was there a failure to

not disciple the people of Israel

in the correct way

to continue to repeat

the covenantal gospel

or to repeat the call

to cling to the Lord

and not cling to the other nations

and to not put the choice

in front of people

because we don't see

we don't see that much

in all of Judges

and even throughout

the Old Testament

at one point

they lose the book

they lose the law

and then they find it again

and then they weep because

this is much later

but they weep because

they haven't been

putting it into practice

and so I don't know

maybe there just wasn't a culture of

discipleship

or a culture of

really passing down

the story and the legacy

and yeah in our

in our day

and in our lives

let it not be said

that we don't pass the torch on

to the next generation

and I'm not specifically

making that point here

but I've just always thought about that

since I started studying

the Bible seriously

of what caused the downfall

of Israel

and the Lord does say

my people suffer

because of a lack of knowledge

and it could possibly be that

oh yeah vision

a vision from the

from the scriptures

but yeah let's pray

and then I have a few questions

if you guys

are up for hanging around

Lord thank you so much

we just pray that

you would just do something

with this word

Lord we pray that

you would just transform us

transform us into your image

we want to become like you Lord

and we want to walk in a manner

that's worthy of the calling

that you've given us

and Lord we thank you for this

and bless

rest of the night

Jesus Amen

Thanks for joining us

at Lansdale Life Church

as we praise God

and discuss His word

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at 10 a.m. eastern on YouTube

be blessed

and have a great day