“The Stone Witness”
[Joshua
24:19-28]
November 12, 2017, Second Reformed
Church
Joshua is one hundred and ten as he
speaks to the people of Israel. He is
about to die.
The people of Israel were freed from
slavery in Egypt three generations prior; the people have been in the land of
Canaan – Israel – for three generations.
The adults Joshua speaks to are the grandchildren of the children who
came out of the wilderness into the Promised Land. And Israel is a peace with her neighbors and
free from all enemies at this point.
In chapter 23 of Joshua, he explains
that God will fight for Israel – He will continue to fight for Israel – if they
obey God, if they don’t intermarry with non-Israelites, and if they don’t
worship false gods. If they keep the Covenant
God made with them, all will be well, but if they do not, God promises to bring
every form of evil down upon them until they all die.
Then Joshua reminds the people of
all that God has done for them: God
delivered them from slavery in Egypt, brought them through the wilderness into
the Promised Land, and saw that every king that opposed them was put to death. God is faithful and showered blessings down
upon Israel.
Now, Joshua calls upon the people to
make a decision – today, and tomorrow, and for each day henceforth: will they serve the Lord their God – the One
True God Who has proven Himself to them for generations in faithfulness – or
will they serve the false gods of their pagan forbearers and the nations around
them?
Here, we have the famous quote from
Joshua, “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” (Joshua 24:14-15, ESV).
And all the people respond together: “We will never forsake the Lord! Look at all the good things He has done for
us.”
That brings us to this morning’s
text. And as we consider it, let us take
our place in the people of Israel before Joshua.
First, we see, God requires
holiness.
“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.’”
The people answer quickly – and as a
man. They put no real thought into their
answer. They had not considered their
history, or the inclination of fallen human beings.
“Will you serve the Lord or false
gods?”
“Of course we will serve the
Lord! It wouldn’t make sense for us to
deny the One True God Who has blessed us with all the blessings we know from
our history and even to this day. Of course,
we will serve the Lord. We will never
turn away again. We will never sin
again. From this day forth, all is well,
God has nothing to worry about.”
In most churches in America, if the
people all responded like Israel did that day, the pastor would lead them all
in joyful prayer, and then they would all go to the church coffee bar and
sports lounge and enjoy the afterglow.
But Joshua understands humans better
than that. Joshua understands his
people, Israel, better than that. He
understands that they have just answered the most profound question flippantly
– with hardly a thought – as though it were something easy.
Joshua tells them, “You are not
thinking this through. Are you able to
serve the Holy God? The God Who requires
holiness from each one of His people?
Are you able to instantly make yourself holy and never sin again? Don’t you think – as you look back just over
the past three generations – that following God completely in holiness is an
impossible act for fallen humans? Don’t
you understand that if you commit yourself to God and you sin against Him – if
you sin against the Holy God – the fullness of His Wrath will come down upon
you? Do you understand the magnitude of
one sin against the Holy God? Do you
really think you can make this covenant with God based on your own ability to
be holy?”
And all Israel responds, “No
problem, we will serve the Lord.”
Do we remember Isaiah’s encounter
with God?
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe
filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the
whole earth is full of his glory!’
“And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with
smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am
lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’” (Isaiah
6:1-5, ESV).
Over the past six weeks, we looked
at the “solas” of the Reformation and saw that we have nothing to add to our salvation
– we have nothing and no ability to make ourselves right with God. Our right response is that of Isaiah’s, “Woe
is me! For I am lost.” The only hope is God intervening on our
behalf, which He is under no obligation to do.
And yet, God has intervened on our
behalf. He sent His Son to accomplish salvation
for us – all by Himself – completely His own work – His own merit. As Paul writes:
“For while we were still weak, at
the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a
righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to
die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much
more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that
we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation” (Romans 5:6-11, ESV).
Not that the Law has been abolished
– no: the author of Hebrews writes, “Strive
for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the
Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, ESV).
We, Christians, are told that unless
we are holy – without sin and having fulfilled all of the Law – we will not see
the Lord – we will not be received into the Kingdom.
If you feel something in the pit of your
stomach, that’s alright. We cannot be
holy, as God calls us to be. We are to strive
towards it in this life, but we will not be 100% holy in this life. However, as we have seen in Paul’s words above
and in the recent Reformation series of sermons – through Christ – we are
holy. Through Christ – and through
Christ alone – we are holy.
So, you can breathe now.
Israel in that day still thought
they could do well enough on their own.
They didn’t understand the seriousness and the impossibility of our
fulfilling the call to holiness.
So, God requires us to be holy, and
we are to strive to be holy – not sinning and keeping all of the Law of God –
and we are holy in Christ and through Him alone.
Second, the worship of God must be
pure.
“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.”
Joshua tells the people, “OK, then,
you will be witnesses against yourselves if you do sin and fail to keep God’s
Law.”
And the people say, “No problem.”
So, Joshua tells them to start with
the first commandment: “Put all the
foreign gods away from you and worship the Lord alone.”
And the people say, “Sure, we will
serve and obey Him alone.”
Then Joshua reads the covenant to
them – at least the book of Deuteronomy – perhaps Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and Deuteronomy.
And the people vow to worship God in
the way He commands and to live their lives as He commands.
But they didn’t and we haven’t
either, have we?
The first commandment is “You shall
have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3, ESV).
Why not, what’s the big deal?
If we worship false gods – if we try
to worship them alongside of the One True God – we are giving glory to
something other than God – and we remember that all glory is to be given to God
alone.
Even with good intentions, we go
beyond what God allows – “to bring people in” – “to make worship more
accessible.”
R. C. Sproul writes, “Over and over
again God invited the people, ‘Come near to Me.’ But that invitation was
balanced by what God said following the deaths of Nadab and Abihu: ‘By those
who come near Me I must be regarded as holy.’ We are commanded by God to come
into His presence—to come near to Him. Not only that, we may come boldly into
His presence, as Hebrews 4:16 makes clear. But there is a difference between
coming boldly into the presence of God and coming arrogantly. When we come
boldly into His presence and draw near to Him, we must always remember that we
are to regard Him as holy.
“We also must remember that we have
no right to come into God’s presence on our own. No amount of preparation that
we can do is enough to make us fit” (http://www.ligonier.org/blog/preparing-your-heart-worship/).
Each day – each hour – we’re tempted
by false gods – by idols – by anything we put in God’s place by sinning and not
doing what God has commanded.
How would our husband or wife react
to our saying, “You don’t understand. I
had an affair to show me how to be a better husband or wife for you.”
How do you think that would go over?
It is the same thing in coming
before God – any moment of the day – in private prayer – in corporate prayer –
we say we will worship in holiness – and then we make exceptions for this
reason and that reason – for idolatry.
We must not take God’s Word about
life and worship lightly. Rather than
hear the Word of God and say, “OK, no problem.”
Let consider our hearts and the ways in which the evil one will seek to
tempt us to sin.
And so the people would be witnesses
against themselves if they were not holy – if they did not worship God purely.
Yet, the Word of God calls for two
or three witnesses to prove a case, so a second witness is set to come forward
against the people – and us.
Third, the stones witness our
faithfulness or faithlessness.
“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
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 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.”
Joshua writes down the rash response
of Israel in the Word of God, and then he sets up a large stone underneath a
pistachio tree near the sanctuary of the Lord.
And Joshua tells the people that the stone would also be a witness
against them, because it heard the vows made by Israel.
Joshua was not saying that stones
are alive. He was not indicating that
there was an animal in the stone that could hear them.
On the other hand, God causes Balaam’s
donkey to speak to Balaam (Numbers 22:30), and Jesus says that if His followers
do not proclaim Who He is, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40).
What Joshua is impressing upon
Israel is that God is not ignorant – God knows everything that is done and not
done. He knows what each one of us does
and neglects to do. And though it is not
necessary for Him to do so, He could call on the Creation to give an account
against us.
No, the stones don’t really have
ears to hear what we have vowed and how we have actually lived, but do we have
ears? Do we hear the Word of God and
seek – with the help of God, the Holy Spirit – to do it, or do we figure we’ll
do the best we can – and that will be that?
After all, Jesus died to pay the debt for our sins and gave us His righteousness,
so does it really matter what we do?
That is the question of the
unbeliever – one whose fruit betrays him.
The Christian will ask for help to
steward every moment of every day and each gift and blessing that God has
poured upon him. He will ask God, the
Holy Spirit, to strengthen him and guide him, and apply the merits of Christ to
him, even when he strives after holiness and purity and fails – failing into sin.
The Christian recognizes the amazing
grace and mercy God has shown him, and he is greatly pained and repents when he
sins and fails, because He knows what it cost Jesus Christ to secure his
salvation.
As Paul writes: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans
12:1-2, ESV).
Have you received salvation through
Jesus Christ Alone? Do you believe that
He has paid the debt for your sin and given you His righteousness? Then let us come to the Father in prayer and
in worship, rightly trembling because our God is the Holy God, and yet boldly,
because He is our loving Father, Who has adopted us and made us co-heirs with
Jesus, asking that He would say of us – through the merits of Christ:
“Well done, good and faithful servant. You
have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy
of your master” (Matthew 25:23, ESV).
What happened after Joshua died?
We read:
“And all that generation also were
gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who
did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.
“And the people of Israel did what was
evil in the sight of the LORD and 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” (Judges 2:10-12,
ESV).
Let us pray:
Almighty God and Father, it is so easy to
say that we will be faithful. It is so
easy to say that we will do all that You have commanded and not sin. But we still have the sin nature within us,
and we still turn away from You and give into temptation and choose to
sin. Lord, we are witnesses against
ourselves. The walls of this sanctuary
are witnesses against us. The Creation
that did nothing wrong, but was plunged into futility for our sake, witnesses
against us. Forgive us for our sin. Forgive us for taking all of these things
that You have said lightly. Forgive us
for thinking it doesn’t really matter what we do, because we are forgiven
through Christ Alone. Lord, soften our
hearts, make us more sensitive to sin, and send the Holy Spirit to stir up the
fires within us that we would strive with every ounce of life that we have to
live in a way that is pleasing to You, because You sent Your Son to save
us. And it is in Jesus’ Name we pray,
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment