SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith
Choose You This Day!
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: Life is saturated with choices. I would suppose that in any given day the average human being must make hundreds, if not thousands, of conscious choices. Most of them are undoubtedly inconsequential, but some of them may affect our lives permanently from that moment on.
No decision is more momentous than the question of whom we will serve—the Lord God or some other god. For some this may be a salvation decision, for others a Lordship decision, but either way it is significant and momentous. By a salvation decision I am referring to the choice that every person must make as to whether he wants to risk going before God’s judgment on his own or wants Jesus Christ to be His advocate, his defender. It has been said that the one who serves as his own attorney has a fool for a client. So also, the one who chooses to argue his own case before God rather than placing his trust in the shed blood of Christ is a fool.
Undoubtedly most of you here this morning have made that salvation decision as to whom you will serve. You have renounced the kingdom of Satan and have received Jesus as your Savior through a conscious choice. But somewhere in most Christians’ lives there comes that other watershed decision regarding whether we will serve the Lord God half‑heartedly or wholeheartedly. I think it is conceivable that some who have never acknowledged Jesus as the Lord of their lives may still have eternal life, though I am convinced that they can never have abundant life.
The company of believers, from the time of the ancient Israelites to this very day, has always struggled with this question of “Who is the Lord of my life? Whom will I serve?”
At the very end of the book of Joshua, as the fearless leader for which this exciting historical account is named speaks his last words on earth, he addresses this issue of ultimate choice, demanding that God’s people quit trying to “walk the fence” and instead choose whom they will serve. Four truths stand out to me in this passage, the first of which is this:
A choice has been laid before us. (14-15)
The key words of our text are these: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” The first factor I see is that the choice is ours.
The choice is ours. “Choose for yourselves.” That is a fact both satisfying and frightening. It is satisfying in that it confirms that we are not automatons; we are not pawns in the hands of a capricious God; nor does He coerce our wills. Whatever the doctrine of predestination or election may mean (and I believe in these doctrines and find great comfort in them), they cannot mean that a person has no choice but to believe or respond to God, for here, and in many other places in the Scripture, are very plain words indicating personal responsibility, “Choose for yourselves whom you will serve.”
But there is also something frightening about ultimate choices. We cannot blame someone else if we choose wrongly. We are responsible. Like it or not, the choice is ours. Secondly…,
The choice is time-critical. “Choose for yourselves this day.” This is not a decision that should or even can be put off until tomorrow. We are serving some god or gods right now—every human being is. The longer we serve, the more our lives are molded by that god. Frequently in Scripture we hear exhortations like this: “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2). God knows it is our nature to procrastinate, but He also knows that many procrastinate until the opportunity is lost. We have all heard evangelists tell of individuals who postponed the decision to accept Christ and then died an untimely death. But there are thousands more who have postponed the decision to serve Christ and have died an untimely death. This too is tragic.
The choice has a rational basis. Joshua doesn’t ask the Israelites, nor does God ask us, to choose whom we will serve on the basis of some emotional response. He doesn’t whip his people into some kind of emotional frenzy and then ask for a commitment. Instead, he begins with a calm recitation of the facts that should help them make a rational choice in favor of serving the Lord. Here’s what he says in verse 14: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.”
The word “now” here is the Hebrew word for “therefore,” and it looks back to the first 13 verses in which Joshua has given them a brief history lesson. Let’s look again at the first part of chapter 24 with emphasis just on the “I‑phrases,” in which the Lord reminds them of what He has done. You might want to underline these phrases in your Bible: verse (3) I took, (4) I gave, I assigned, (5) I sent, I plagued, I did, I brought, (6) I brought, (7) I did, (8) I brought, I gave, I destroyed, (10) I delivered, (11) I gave, (12) I sent, (13) I gave. “Now, therefore . . .”
Get the point? If God has worked so marvelously on behalf of Israel in the past, then there is good and sufficient reason for Israel to fear Him and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and to put away all the false gods. Worshiping other gods is really almost as dumb as it is wicked. It’s just plain irrational. Since the Lord has mentioned the idolatry of Abraham’s parents in verse 2, perhaps it would be appropriate to tell a little apocryphal story about Abraham.
According to this story Abraham’s father was an idol‑maker back in Ur of the Chaldees. One day, after a confrontation with God, Abraham destroyed every image in his father’s shop except a lovely little deity seated on a pedestal. In the hands of this cute god Abraham placed the hammer with which he had destroyed the others. When his infuriated father demanded to know who had destroyed his gods, Abraham pointed to the little god. “Ask him. He’s got the hammer.” When his father replied that a god like that could never do such a thing, Abraham drove the point home. “If he couldn’t do that, then why worship him?”
We, of course, don’t worship idols of wood, metal, or stone today, unless they might be houses, cars, or diamonds. But we do have other gods concerning which we must make rational decisions—whether to serve these gods or serve the Lord. Among them are:
the god of materialism
the god of popularity
the god of intellect and education
the god of power
the god of beauty
the god of pleasure
the god of sports
the god of amusements
the god of ego
the god of sex
the god of tolerance
the god of pluralism
even the god of religion.
When we rationally consider whether these gods can do anything of eternal value for us, whether they even have the power to lift a hammer in our behalf, we are forced to conclude that fearing the Lord and serving Him is the only course of action which makes any sense.
The fourth factor we must take into account is that …
The Choice is unavoidable. There are some choices which can be averted. If you’re trying to decide whether to buy a pair of brown shoes or black shoes, that is not a forced choice, because you can escape the decision by buying both, or neither, or a pair that’s blue.
But there are some choices that are mandatory. One must choose to either get up in the morning or stay in bed. One must choose to either get married or stay single. One must choose to either eat or go hungry. There are no other options. The one action automatically precludes the other, and choosing not to do one automatically results in doing the other.
That’s the way it is with the choice Joshua has set before his people—either they serve the Lord or they serve other gods. There are no other options. Not serving the Lord means that we are serving some other god—ourselves, if no other. We can’t even postpone the decision, for postponement itself is a choice against serving God.
The final factor I notice about the choice that is laid before us is that …
The choice lies principally (though not exclusively) with the head of the household. Joshua declares at the end of verse 15, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” I am well aware of the fact that God holds every individual accountable for his or her own choices, and I also know that a parent can’t believe for a child. But when the head of a household (who should be the husband and father in two‑parent homes), takes a stand and makes the choice to fear the Lord and serve Him, there is an enormous influence for good in the lives of the rest of that family.
But don’t overlook the phrase, “with all faithfulness,” in verse 14. In the KJV that phrase is translated, “in sincerity and truth.” An insincere, hypocritical claim to serve God will not produce anything good in the lives of one’s children—rather it may turn them off completely to spiritual things. Furthermore, our service must be in accord with truth, i.e., with the Word of God. The head of the household who never cracks his Bible between Sundays is not going to set an example of service for God before his or her family.
So, a choice has been laid before us. It is ours, it is time-critical, it has a rational basis, it is unavoidable, and it lies principally with the head of the household.
The second major truth which our text presses home to our hearts is this:
The choice is relatively easy to verbalize, but difficult to execute. (16‑22)
In verses 16‑22 a remarkable dialogue takes place between Joshua and the people. Having been challenged to choose to serve the Lord, the people respond in verse 16, “far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” It’s as though they’re offended: “Joshua, we can’t believe you would even think we might forsake the Lord.” But Joshua knew well several problem areas that inevitably interfere with the carrying out of a decision to fear and serve God. First, there is …
The problem of human nature (19). Because he knew the fickleness of the human heart, he responded in verse 19, “You are not able to serve the Lord.” We have an enormous tendency to magnify those things that are tangible, temporary, and visible, while minimizing that which is intangible and invisible, but eternal. We will put more faith in financial security, which so very often has proved to be a tragic error, than we will in God, who has never failed once in His good promises. We will put more faith in friends. We will put more faith in our own ability. We will put more faith in doctors.
A second problem which makes it much easier to verbalize a decision to serve the Lord than to carry it out is …
The problem of God’s character. (19-20). If our nature is very weak, and it is, God’s character is very demanding. Versess 19-20 read, “Joshua said to the people, ‘You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
God’s holiness is perfect and complete, and sin cannot enter His presence. He is also a jealous God. He will not play second fiddle to anyone. The claim that He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins must be understood in context. The next verse makes it clear that he’s referring to those who forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods. I think he’s possibly talking about those who once professed faith and then fell into apostasy.
The point is that God’s requirements are so high that it ill behooves anyone to make hasty verbal commitments which they are not committed to carrying out.
The problem of overconfidence. (16, 21) Despite our weak human nature and the high demands of God’s character, we still seem to suffer the constant temptation to overconfidence. When Joshua first challenged the people to choose to serve the Lord, they responded, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” Then when he questioned their ability to carry through with their verbal commitment, they responded, “No! We will serve the Lord.” Then when he again pressed the issue home by saying they were witnesses against themselves, they accepted the challenge, saying, “Yes, we are witnesses.”
It’s good when we know where we stand and know what we believe. But it’s dangerous when confidence becomes overconfidence. In 1 Cor. 10 the Apostle Paul recites a number of spiritual privileges enjoyed by the ancient Israelites during their wilderness wanderings, but then he lists a number of high spiritual crimes and misdemeanors the same people committed. He concludes in this fashion: “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” The problem of overconfidence is a common one and a dangerous one.
Because of these three problems the choice to serve the living God rather than idols is easy to make, but hard to keep.
Now the third major truth our text yields to us is this:
The choice to serve the Lord is easier to execute than it is to pass on to the next generation. (Judges 2:6‑15)
As difficult as it is to carry out a decision to serve God rather than idols, it is easier to do that than it is to bequeath it to the next generation. All of us know dedicated believers who have failed to pass on the reality of their faith to their children. Turn over two pages to Judges, chapter 2, and listen to what happened to the Israelites after Joshua’s death, as recorded beginning in verse 6:
“After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.
Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers (i.e., they died), another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.”
This sequence of events should be of great concern to us, for God has placed upon us the responsibility of not only serving Him ourselves, but also living by faith in such a way that our faith will become the inheritance of our children.
Why is it that so frequently it doesn’t turn out that way? Why is the homeland of the Reformation one of the darkest continents on the earth today? Why are nearly all the great evangelical seminaries of the 17th and 18th centuries now hotbeds of liberalism and unbelief? Why are the children of so many pastors, Christian lay leaders, and missionaries apathetic to the truth, if not downright antagonistic toward it?
There are probably many reasons. But surely among them is the fact that life is so much easier today. Until I was seven years old, I lived in a tenement on Washington Avenue between Sarah and Vandeventer in the Central West End of St. Louis. We were so poor we wouldn’t have reached the bottom of today’s poverty scale. My parents literally taught us to pray for our daily bread because at times we didn’t know where the next meal was coming from. My sons have never experienced that, as I could easily pay for our next 1,000 meals in advance.
We who are reaching middle age, and especially those few who went through the Depression, may continue to believe strongly in God’s activity in our lives because we remember how He provided when we were very needy, but what will generate that sort of faith in our children or their children? The answer, I think, is that we parents need to be sure that the reality of God is experienced by our children, through prayer, through the way we handle problems, and through the sincerity of our faith. Nothing will destroy faith faster in children than the perception that their parents are just playing church. Do our children hear enough from us about how God met our needs in the past, and do they see us depending upon Him in the present?
I think of the mission trips Bruce and Deb took dozens of our teenagers on this summer, and of the ministry experiences a number of others had in far-flung parts of the world or even in neighborhood Five-Day Clubs. These experiences can be of monumental importance in the lives of kids to teach them things about their relationship with God that are very difficult for them to grasp in the wealth and ease of normal life in West St. Louis County.
The fourth and final truth we want to examine this morning is that …
The Choice must be followed up by commitment, action, and reminder. (23‑28)
Returning to Joshua 24 we find that Joshua not only urged the people to choose the Lord over other gods, but He also made them follow it up by a public commitment, by action, and by reminder. A modern evangelist might well have been satisfied with their initial response (v. 16), counted the hands, and chalked up another successful campaign. But not Joshua.
The action really comes first. In v. 23 he said, “Now, then, throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” Put your money where your mouth is! If you have so glibly proclaimed your decision to serve the Lord rather than idols, then put away the idols. Get rid of them. Don’t keep them around in case you change your mind, for if you do, you may indeed change your mind.
Now, the images of the Israelites were little images, not totem poles. They could be put away in a closet or hidden in a drawer, but Joshua said, “No, get rid of them completely so you will never be tempted by them again.” Could it be that we have some little gods that we no longer serve but we have them in storage just in case? It could be pornography, it could be certain kinds of music, it could be trashy videos, it could be romance novels that are worse than junk.
Then Joshua calls for a public covenant with the people. Verse 25 reads, “On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God.” Did your grandparents have a family Bible? If so, that’s where they probably kept things they didn’t want to lose—family records, birth certificates, baptismal certificates, etc. It’s as though Joshua took the national Bible out of the sanctuary and wrote this covenant in the flyleaf of it.
And finally, he set up a reminder for the people. He took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary and he proclaimed that stone as a witness to them, lest they deny God. Every time they came to the Sanctuary and saw that stone, they would be reminded of the fact that they had made a covenant with the Lord.
Now I’m a firm believer that when God recorded such OT accounts as this one at the close of the book of Joshua, He did so that we might respond in a similar manner. In other words, I believe I would be remiss today if I did not challenge all of us as Joshua did, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve.” At the same time, I realize that easy verbal commitments aren’t worth the breath it takes to make them.
I remember going to camp in the 6th grade—Arcadia Valley Bible Camp down near Ironton, Mo. Pastor Jesse Ford of the Lindell Blvd. Bible Church (now South County Bible) was the speaker and he stirred up our emotions with stories of his career as a professional boxer and big‑league baseball player and submarine captain (all of which turned out later to be untrue, and for which he was fired). But we were impressed by his great exploits for Christ and were moved to commit our lives to full‑time service for the Lord at the Friday night campfire service. I think every kid in camp but two went forward that night.
About a week later at home my mom heard from another camper’s mom about my commitment and said to me, “Why didn’t you tell me about the special thing that happened at camp?” I said, “You mean throwing the girls in the river after they had dressed up for the evening banquet? I didn’t think you’d be so pleased.” “No,” she said, “I heard that you dedicated your life to full‑time service.” “Oh, yeah, I guess I did.” I had forgotten about it already and it meant absolutely nothing to me. I am not interested in an emotional response to this message.
I don’t want any situation where people feel forced to take a stand, fearing that if they don’t, they’ll appear unspiritual. But I do want to call every person and every family here today to make a conscious choice to serve the Lord with all your heart. I call the heads of the households—fathers and single mothers—to inform your families that that is your intention. If the head of the household won’t do it or can’t do it, then I call upon the other members of the family to do it for yourselves.
I suggest that you follow up that choice with a written commitment. That might be done by writing it in the flyleaf of your Bible and dating it. It might be by putting a plaque by your front door, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” It might be just a sign placed upon the refrigerator.
I also urge you to take any action that may be necessary to demonstrate Christ’s Lordship. Trash the gods that may have been interfering with the Lordship of Christ. Change the habits that have interfered with your service to him. Set new priorities and new goals that will put flesh to your choice.
Conclusion: Five hundred years after Joshua’s day, the prophet Elijah stood before a nation which was wracked with corrupt leadership, open immorality, materialism, idolatry and spiritual apathy. And his message to them was this, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him!”
We might change it slightly today. “If the almighty dollar is God, then follow it. Or if popularity, then follow it, or health and beauty, or power, or position, or sports. But if the Lord is God, follow Him!” We desperately need families sold out to God, who are willing to speak and then live these words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
DATE: August 18, 1996
Tags:
Idolatry
Overconfidence