SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith
How to Walk with the Lord Your God
SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk
Introduction: I think it was a couple of years ago when I realized for the first time that Billy Graham wasn’t going to be around forever. He has been such a part of the American landscape but also the whole world for almost 50 years, that I must have just assumed that he would always be here. But over the last couple of years Billy has slowed down considerably and his body is showing the wear and tear of 78 years.
Imagine if Graham announced that he was going to make his final public appearance where he will share his thoughts on how to minister for Christ. What if you were invited to go? What do you think you would hear from Billy? I imagine him telling us to be faithful to preach the gospel, making it as accessible as possible. He would exhort us to do ministry with integrity. He would encourage us not to let denominational differences work against the preaching of the gospel. He would tell us to not let our political affiliation get in the way of the gospel. That has been the message he has lived.
In Chapters 23 and 24 of Joshua, we have a similar scene. In these two chapters we have the final words of a seasoned and godly leader. Turn to chapter 23 with me. Joshua is close to 110 years old (24:29) and has gathered the leaders of Israel together to offer a final message. It is a message marked by perspective, experience and wisdom. You have been invited this morning to listen in. We get to hear Joshua’s thoughts on how to walk with God.
Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp,giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits[a] between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”
Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.
And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”
Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Did you notice how often Joshua used the phrase “the Lord your God”? Thirteen times! This is the only chapter in which this phrase is used in the whole book of Joshua. His message is pretty simple. It is a reflection of his life. It is a message of exhortation for God’s people to walk in a covenant relationship with their God. This morning, I want us to look more closely at four big ideas that are weaved throughout Joshua’s thoughts.
Joshua’s first big idea is that …
Walking with your God means always starting from a point of grace.
We get this sense in the first 5 verses. Look again at verse 3: “You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.”
Joshua is reminding them of what they already know. God has fought for them, not because they have been particularly appealing to him, or loyal, or sophisticated, or talented. In fact, they have been exactly the opposite. They have been stiff-necked, whining, and disobedient. God has fought for them against the backdrop of their sin, rebellion, and their clenched fist toward heaven. They are in now in the land only because of grace. And Joshua says, “You yourselves have seen what the Lord your God has done.”
Not only that, but verse 5 adds, “The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.” The grace will continue just as before.
Our relationship with God begins every day at a point of grace. We cannot speak of grace without considering the context of our sin. As one author has said, “the grace of God … always comes to us with blood on it.”[i] We are very stubborn in our sin, but God’s grace, as He has demonstrated it in Jesus’ death and resurrection, is even more stubborn. Every day our walking with our God begins with Jesus, the cross and the tomb, at the point of grace. It is there where we no longer have to spend the rest of our lives scratching and clawing into the approval of God.
Joshua’s next two big ideas follow this same theme.
Walking with your God means taking a narrow path. (6-11)
To Joshua three things define the narrow path that God’s people must take in a relationship with Him. It begins in verse 6 where he strongly encourages …
1. Obedience to all that is written in the Book. (6) The guide for God’s people at the time of Joshua, was recorded in the five books of Moses. Even then God was speaking through the written words of the prophets. And Joshua is telling the people that walking with your God means aligning your life with the truth found in this book.
It is the still the same for us today. The first two verses to the book of Hebrews says this: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”
Let me make some observations about how we confuse grace and obedience. First, some people think that obedience is the way to gain God’s favor. In other words, if I do all the right things, then God will love me. Now this is how it may have worked in the home where you grew up or in the home in which you live now, but this is not the way it works in the family of God.
Second, some people think that since God loves me and will forgive me anyway, then obedience to God is an option I can choose to ignore. This person doesn’t understand grace because obedience in both the OT and the NT is always viewed as the only appropriate response to the grace of God.
Third, some people seem to think obedience is something they can put off until they feel right. Bill Hull has written quite powerfully:
“The majority of Christians … stand at the edge of the path of obedience, waiting for more information. ‘God, if you would give me more details about my future or what is out there for me, I would take a step of faith: I would be ready to go.’ God answers that request simply, ‘You don’t get more information until you start walking down the path of obedience….’ The Word of God is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet. It provides enough light to walk and see where you are going in the next step. If you could see the future, had all the information, you wouldn’t go … You have only one way to live the obedient Christian life: Walk by faith, step out in living obedience, regardless of FEARS or FEELINGS. If you do, God promises to love you in wonderful ways that you can experience by no other means.”[ii]
Is fear keeping you from sharing your faith? Are you disrespecting your parents because you don’t feel like they deserve it? Are you not sacrificially loving your wife because you don’t feel that she appreciates it when you do?
Joshua also defines the narrow path as …
2. Clinging to the Lord. (8) Joshua highlights this in verse 8 when he says, “But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.” The words “hold fast” are translated as “cling” or “cleave” in other translations. The same Hebrew word is used in Genesis 2:24 to describe the uniting of a man and a woman in marriage. It means to be bonded or glued together in such a way that you cannot be pulled apart. We are to cleave to God in the same way a man and woman glue themselves together in marriage. Joshua knows that doing so will be of great benefit to the people of God. Look at verse 9, “The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised.”
The reason that one person can rout a thousand is because of the One that person is clinging to. When we cling and cleave ourselves to God, we become the little kid who is holding the leg of his father, telling the bully down the street, “You don’t scare me!”
The last way to take the narrow path according to Joshua is by …
3. Loving the Lord. (11) In verse 11 Joshua writes, “So be very careful to LOVE the LORD your God.” God’s desire has always been for his people to love him. In both the Old and New Testaments, we are called to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.” (Deut. 6:4-5; Mk 12:29-31)
Covenant relationships are always two-way relationships. You would think that a groom was an idiot if during the wedding ceremony, only he shared his vows. We would think that man was taking a huge risk. How do you know that she will come through? Jesus took a huge risk. He died on the cross to demonstrate His love for humanity with no guarantee that anybody would respond. He is like the foolish groom. He reaches out his hand and offers amazing grace in the hopes that we humbly accept it and say “I do” to Him.
God wants a two-way relationship. And he wants our heart. I was 18 when I first heard a clear explanation of the gospel of grace. And I was a foolish bride. I walked away from the groom. Undeservedly, I got a second chance to hear the vows of love from God. Walking now with God means taking a narrow path of obedience and love.
But there is also a path to be avoided now. Joshua says that …
Walking with your God means avoiding a broad path. (7, 12-13)
The people of Israel had an ongoing reality in their lives. Though they had begun to experience the blessings of their inheritance, the land they occupied still contained remnants of the nations that were there previously, little factions that would still need to be driven out, factions that if they were not careful would influence them. Look at verse 7: “Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them.
This idea is repeated in verse 12 when Joshua warns them not to “ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations.” Joshua is saying, “do not cleave or cling to the people or practices of the surviving nations.” Joshua’s concern is that by making alliances with people from these nations, God’s people would lose their distinctiveness as God’s people.
1. Do not lose your distinctiveness as God’s people. (7, 12) The Israelites needed to be cautious of reverse evangelism, whereby the priorities and values of these remnant nations would become the values of the people of God.
This is no less a danger today. I believe we must be very careful of the financial and working partnerships we establish with people who do not walk with God. It is inevitable that at some point your values will conflict with those of your partner. And the temptation will be to compromise your integrity.
We must also be diligent in guarding against the values of a culture that does not know God. America values power, prestige, personal rights, sex, affluence, and youthfulness. They are around us like the pagan peoples in the Promised land. Walking in a covenant relationship with the Living God means that we ruthlessly keep ourselves from making alliances with these values.
2. Do not worship their gods. (7) Joshua does this by repetition of the same theme: don’t call on, swear by, serve, or bow down to the gods of these nations. God is an exclusive God. The first of the 10 commandments says: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Exodus 20:1-6)
In the history of God’s people, complete rejection of God has been rare. What is most common is the blending of true religion with elements of false religion. The technical name for this is “syncretism.” It occurs because God’s people become lazy thinkers, failing to critically examine or understand the disunity between Biblical Christianity and other forms of belief.
For example, in Haiti, Christianity has been blended with voodoo. In Tatarstan a professor of chemistry at Kazan University says she has Jesus and Mohammed in her heart. In Venezuela, Catholics pray to dead ancestors and believe that they can affect their present circumstances. In each case, people are orienting their lives to some false understanding of God that is different than the one that God has revealed about himself in the Bible.
Now this kind of blending is not relegated to uneducated developing nations. This is happening right now in America. Quite possibly in your life. Biblical Christianity and The Psychic Friends Network are incompatible. Biblical Christianity and Deepak Chopra’s, The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success, are incompatible. Biblical Christianity and Betty Eadie’s, Embraced by the Light are incompatible. And this goes for angel worship, crystals, pyramids, tarot cards, and palm readers. These popular forms of spirituality cannot be syncretized with Biblical Christianity because at some point each views Jesus, human sin, and salvation differently than the Bible. We cannot cling to the living God and simultaneously cling to some other God. God does not allow us to have an affair with a spiritual mistress. He doesn’t want us sleeping around with other gods.
3. Do not become unequally yoked. (12). The Bible does not prohibit interracial marriages. In fact, Aquila and Priscilla, two of the apostle Paul’s co-laborers, had an interracial marriage. The Bible does not prohibit transcultural marriages. I have a number of friends who have intercultural marriages. But the Bible is very clear in its prohibition against the marriage between believers and unbelievers. God does not want his people marrying outside the family.
As of 1990 48% of the American adult population was made up of single adults over the age of 18. Approximately 58 percent of the single adult population have never married, 21 percent are divorced, and 20 percent are widowed.[iii] As a church, we have one the largest ministries to single adults in St. Louis. Let me commend those of you who are single. By choosing not to date or marry a person who is not a committed follower of Jesus, you have narrowed your prospects considerably. According to Hebrews 11:16, God is proud to be called your God because of your faith and obedience. And we as a body commend you for it too. You are not an anomaly; you are not less a person under God or in this Church. And I want to encourage you to continue in the direction of obedience.
Joshua has one final big idea in this chapter. After laying out the path to pursue and the path to avoid, Joshua says that …
Walking with your God means accepting the consequences of your actions. (13, 14-16)
Our relationship with God works on a pretty simple premise. God lays out his expectations for a covenant relationship.
1. Following the covenant continues the blessing. (5) Joshua says in verse 5, that even though there are pockets of resistance fighters still in the land, “The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.” In other words, the plan is for grace to continue. God is planning to keep on doing what He has been doing.
2. Violating the covenant forfeits the blessing. (13,14-16) Look at verse 14:
“Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”
We saw three weeks ago that God is a promise keeper. When God makes a promise, there is nothing that will keep it from failing. But just as he keeps his promises to bless, he also keeps his promises to withhold blessing. Even more than this, verse 12 seems to imply that when we disobey the covenant, the things we think will bring us life in fact turn out to make our lives miserable. Look at verse 12 again.
“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.”
If Israel violates their end of the covenant, believing that making alliances with these people will offer them something God can’t provide, that which they expect to be a blessing will come back to be a thorn in their flesh.
When I look at my life before Christ and after Christ, the reality of this truth is plainly evident. But even now when I live disobediently, that which I think will bring me life ends up being the very thing that zaps all the grace out of life. I do not want to make things overly simplistic, but I wonder how much of what ails us is simply because we are receiving the consequences for our choices.
Conclusions: A 110-year-old man. Bent over. Holding on to a staff for support. A man who has walked with Moses. A man who has been called by God for special service has shared what he thinks is important. Walk with your God in a covenant relationship. Walk in it by taking the narrow path of obedience and loving God with everything you have. Stay away from blending your faith with faith in gods that don’t work or accommodating your values so that there is nothing distinctive left in you. Know that there are consequences for both kinds of living. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Gal 6:7-8)
Is the living God your God? If he is, walk with him in a covenant relationship and grace will continue.
Prayer. Father, you have done so much for us through the Truth found just in this book of Joshua. We are so grateful that you have spoken. We do not know where we would be if you hadn’t. Even though the times in which we are living are complicated, we are sorry for making walking with you so complicated. Thanks for pursuing us with grace, we want to pursue you with love shown by our obedience and our dependence on you. Father, help us to be discerning so that we won’t be losing out on all the grace that you have for us due to being uncritical in the way we are living in our world. For the glory of your Son’s name, we pray. Amen.
DATE: August 11, 1996
Tags:
Grace
Obedience
Loving God
Syncretism
Singleness
Covenant
[i] Alvin Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, 199.
[ii] Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Pastor, 6.
[iii] Koons and Anthony, Single Adult Passages, 51,59.