Joshua Part 18 - The Grace That Claims You

Gavin Wright concludes Immanuel Church's study of the book of Joshua.

This sermon's Bible reference is Joshua 24, and was preached on Sunday 1st March 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Help. And so as we embark upon this final chapter of the story of Joshua, I'm going to read from Joshua chapter 24 and verse 1. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before gods. And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel Long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, 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 Sair to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt, and I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterwards 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 covered 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 lands, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and invited Balaam the son of Baor 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 the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you. And also the Amorites, the Perizites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Gergeshites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I gave them into your hand, and I sent the hornet before you, which uh 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 laboured, and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. 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 and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight, 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, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God. But 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 transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and for 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. 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. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a large stone and set it up there again 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. After these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten 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 Gash. 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. As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem in the place of land, sorry, in the piece of land that Jacob brought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. And Eliezer, the son of Aaron, died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phineas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord stands forever. A place of special significance. I do. I could take you to the exact spot on the exact wall in Prague where I was sitting when I decided I wanted Jessica to be my wife. Or two years ago, on the 20th anniversary of my mum's death, and my family got together in Thorndon Park at the place that my mum and dad used to picnic when they were dating to remember her and to pray. Some of you will have special places, places where you received important news, or maybe even where you became a Christian. Our passage today, Joshua's last sermon, it happens in a special place. Verse 1 Shechem. And Shechem is a place loaded with spiritual significance. It was in the valley below Mount Ebal. You might remember the place from chapter 8, where Joshua gathered all the peace people and built an altar and read all the words of God's law. So it's a special place for the people in those days. But if you remember Israel's history, you might remember that Shechem was the place that God appeared to Abraham in Genesis 12 and promised to give his descendants this very land. And there Abraham built an altar under the oak tree, under the terebinth at Shechem. And now here they all are. The descendants, the offspring of Abraham, standing on that same spot, gathered at Shechem, having finally taken possession of the promised land. This was a place where you could feel the weight of God's words coming true. Or you may remember Genesis 35 as well, Abraham's grandson Jacob. He called his twelve sons together, who would give their names to each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and demanded that they put away all their foreign gods that are among you. And now Joshua has brought the twelve tribes back, and he again is going to tell them to put away their false gods and to love the true God alone. It was a special place. And the place that Joseph was promised he could be buried. And at the end of this chapter, this is where his bones finally rest. It is a special place. And in that atmosphere, evoked by the history of this place, Joshua, well, he takes the opportunity to talk to God's people and to retell Israel's story to them. Which really is, friends, telling the story of grace. That's our first point this morning. He was telling them the story of grace. So have a look at those first 13 verses. And that's where Joshua gives them the story of grace. Now, grace isn't a word we see in the passage, but I think it's the right words to describe how God has loved them. We're going to see that in a few ways. We're going to see a few things about God's grace to them. Three things. Here's the first of those things, and that is that his grace is sovereign. It is a sovereign grace. And you see the sovereign grace of God when you realize who has acted in Israel's history. The principal actor in these 13 verses is not Abraham or Joshua or Israel. But Abraham, Joshua, and Israel's great God. So just look at verse 2. It's a striking start. Verse 2, Joshua speaks of Abraham and his family. And we think of Abraham, don't we, as this hero of faith, as this model believer. And we can get the impression that there was something sort of about Abraham that was abnormally special, that he had this inherent goodness, this righteousness that made God choose him and love him. But look at verse 2. We read about that family, Tera, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods. They worshipped other gods. Abraham was an unholy, pagan, idol-worshipping sinner. Abraham was not naturally lovely to gods, but rather was an enemy of God, worshipping fake gods. Abraham was doing the very things that Joshua had to keep warning Israel about. But this is the story of sovereign grace. And verse three, God says, Then I took your father Abraham. Abraham did nothing. God took this idolater and made a covenant with him. He took this idolater and made promises to him. He took this idolater and gave him a land. He took this idolater and gave him countless descendants. He took this idolater and made him into a hero of faith. He took this idolater. God chose him and changed him and loved him. God is the principal actor in Israel's history. And if that example isn't enough, if you don't believe me, just skim with me through that passage, verse 3. I took your father Abraham. I gave him Isaac. Verse 5, I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt. Verse 6, I brought your fathers out of Egypt. Verse 7, your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, verse 8, then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, and I gave them into your hand. I destroyed them before you. Verse 10, I delivered you. Verse 11, I sent the hornet before you. Verse 13, I gave you a land on which you have not labored. I did this, says the Lord. The story of Israel is the story of sovereign grace, everything accomplished by God. Now let me ask you, when you look back over your own story, the way that you would retell it, is your history mainly what you have done, a story of what you've done, of your accomplishments, of your tragedies and triumphs, your sorrows and successes, the ups and the downs of your family? Or are you able to trace in it all the hand of sovereign grace? If you are a Christian, your biography, every detail in it, is about so much more than what you have done and said. It is a story of unexpected wonder over the intervention of God who breaks in and he made you his child, and he took away your heart of stone, and he gave you a heart of flesh, and united you to Jesus, and gave you the gift of saving faith, and adopted you into his family, and filled you with his spirit, and set your faith at your feet on a path through which he will lead you until he leads you home. Christian people, ours is the story of sovereign grace. But that grace is also mysterious, it is a mysterious grace. See that in one little detail here. Look at verse 4. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. Now, if you remember what about Israel's history, but Esau is not the heir. He's not the one through whom the covenant promises would be fulfilled. Jacob is the heir, but here Israel, Esau for a while, seems to live in the inheritance. And what do the people get? Well, they get sent to Egypt, where they will get slavery and bondage. This is their story. And it sort of feels counterintuitive at points, doesn't it? But maybe that is something we can learn from. God's grace in the life of his people is often mysterious. It is often unexpected. And we need to come to terms, perhaps, with the fact that we don't often see God's gracious providence in our lives correctly as it's playing out, as it's happening. Don't we often wonder what God is doing? Why isn't he blessing us? Or it looks and feels like he isn't. Why is he apparently turning a deaf ear to our cries? What purpose we find ourselves asking could this sorrow, this heartache, this loss possibly serve? But God's grace is not only sovereign, it is mysterious. Isaiah 55. God says, My thoughts are not like your thoughts. My ways, they are not like your ways, says the Lord. Sometimes we can't work out what God is doing. Grace is mysterious, and some of you know very well right now what it is like to desperately wish you knew what God is up to. Where is he? What is he doing? I don't understand. And yet, by the grace of God, perhaps you will learn to say with someone else who struggled with the mysterious grace of God, with Job in the Old Testament through faith that he knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. Grace is sovereign and often mysterious, yet faith learns to rest in it, knowing that God is good and merciful and is always working his purposes out. It is sovereign grace, it is a mysterious grace, and lastly, it is a free grace. It is free. There is so much more that could be said about Joshua's account of God's grace, but but one more thing before we move on. Grace is free. So look down at the end of that section, verses 12 and 13. 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 vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. You didn't win the war by your own swords. Yet you had the victory. You didn't secure the lands by your own work or dwell in cities that you had built and yet you live in them. And you don't eat from vineyards that you planted, and yet you do eat from them. I gave it to you all for free, for free. You can take none of the credit for this. I did it, says the Lord. And what they are enjoying is actually the great note of hope that rings through the whole Bible, isn't it? It is not that you did enough, earned enough, secured the privilege to be called the children of God. No, today, if you are a Christian, it was all by grace. Free, mysterious, sovereign grace. By grace you've been saved, Paul writes in Ephesians. Through faith. And that not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Joshua tells the story of God's grace. And when things go wrong for us, I wonder if you'd agree with me that perhaps some of our discouragement in our own Christian lives lies actually in our failure to do the same thing as Joshua, to tell the story of God's grace. We need to remember God's gracious dealings with us. And our failure to do that actually, in some part, is even more tragic when you consider that Joshua only has part of the story. We have the whole thing. We see the story having reached its glorious center in the incarnation and the obedient life and the sacrificial death and the glorious resurrection and the ascension and heavenly reign of the Lord Jesus, in whom grace upon grace has been lavished upon everyone who believes in him. Maybe we live too much in our daily disappointments when what we ought to be doing is telling the story of grace, brothers and sisters, telling ourselves, perhaps, telling each other, perhaps, the old, old story of Jesus, the story of grace. We look back and we see the story of grace. But friends, believing people also look forward, and we see how grace has laid now a claim on our lives. How grace means that from this point on everything changes. We have a future shaped by grace. That's our next little section. A future that's shaped by grace. Like with Abraham, it costs you nothing to receive the promises of God in one sense. But it is also true to say that in another sense it costs you everything. See what I mean in verse 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Now, therefore. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul, he spends 11 chapters essentially telling the story of grace. But then in chapter 12, he says the very same thing that we hear in Joshua's mouth here in our passage. He says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy. And acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. These are the claims of grace. Now, in view of God's mercy, in light of all that he has done, since he has lavished grace upon grace upon grace on you, here are the implications. Now, therefore, here is how you should live. It is the only fitting answer to sovereign, mysterious, free grace. You cannot stay the same. You will not be the same if grace has truly broken into your life. The grace that makes you free calls you to serve the one who has freed you. It is why you are saved. Now, therefore, in view of God's mercy, in one sense, there really is no choice. Holiness is a necessary consequence of grace. In a minute, we'll be singing. Love so amazing, so divine, demands what? My soul, my life, my all. Understand what you're singing when you sing those words. That is Joshua's point to the people of Israel. Do not excuse your sin or your half-heartedness by an appeal to grace. Grace changes you. The evidence of grace at work is that when you hear the now therefore of the Bible, you run to love and obey the one who has loved you and saved you. And you run to love and obey him alone. Look at what Joshua tells them. He says to them, 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 father 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. We said this last week. God won't share you with anyone. That is what Joshua is saying to them. He won't share you. Is that unreasonable? Is that restrictive? Ask yourself, perhaps, how you would feel in a marriage. If a husband or wife was indifferent about whether you remained faithful? Imagine a moment of sinful temptation, and you were caught flirting with someone outside of your marriage. And as wrong and as wicked as that would be, wouldn't it also indicate something terribly wrong if your husband or your or your wife simply shrugged and said, Well, do what you like. I don't care. Just come back to me when you're done. Friends, true love is exclusive. Do you take this woman to be your wedded wife? And do you promise to keep, love, and cherish her, forsaking all others? That is the claim that love always makes. It is the claim that God makes upon each of us in the gospel. Jesus says, No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. That was what Jesus was talking about. And we are being called here, each of us, today to face our own idols. Whether it is the love of money, which is the idol that Jesus highlights, or sex or power, or influence, or reputation, or pride, or control, or comfort, or family or friendship, we are being called to face our idols, and in repentance, actually to smash those idols so that we might set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts once more. The old hymn writer William Cooper wrote in one of his hymns this The dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. And before we move on from this point, don't miss Joshua's example in this. Verse 15. Joshua says, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And Joshua makes a commitment, but not just for himself alone. He actually makes a commitment for his household also. Dads and mums and particularly dads, this morning. There is no use in saying you want your children to follow Jesus if you are half-hearted yourself. You cannot, for instance, say you are resolved to give your heart exclusively to Christ whilst also being happy to let sleep or sport or holidays or whatever it is that entertains you to stop you gathering with God's people to worship Him at church. Yet never forget that you are always discipling your children, always. You're always catechizing them. What are you teaching them? Not just by your words, but by your example. What are you teaching your children really to believe? That you can be a Christian just fine while giving Jesus the dregs of your time and your attention and your love? Are you teaching that the Lord will never really call you to sacrifice your comfort or your money or your time or your priorities? Wonderfully. We have had loads of baptisms at Emmanuel in the last year. And so, in the light of that, let me remind young parents in the congregation when you baptized your children, you were saying with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Is that truly the commitment of your heart? He claims exclusive rights to the entirety of your life and your children and your marriage and your finances and your time and every decision. He is Lord, and His grace claims your exclusive love. But that future that is shaped by grace, it is also a costly one. As Joshua challenges the people to renewed commitment, the way that they respond is sort of a pastor's dream. Verses 16 to 18, they all sort of say, We're all in Joshua. No holes barred, sign me up. That's what they say. And I suppose were we in Joshua's position, we might sort of leap for joy at that response. But Joshua does, he does test the waters, and he uses sort of this sort of rhetorical technique to encourage and to motivate and to affirm their commitment. Verse 19 starts, you're not able to serve the Lord. Those words sound sort of strange, but I think what he's kind of doing is kind of like when you say to your children, you'll never be able to tidy your room in five minutes. And of course they become absolutely determined. I can and I will. Depending how old your children are. And that's how Israel responds to. We will, no, we will serve the Lord. Now Joshua's using serious words there. God is jealous, and he wants you to live for him alone, and there are deadly consequences if you turn from him. But Israel is ready and raring to go for it. No, but we will serve the Lord, verse 21. And Joshua essentially says, okay, if that is what you're going to say, it is a deal, and God will hold you to that promise. When we declare our faith, when we confess our sins, when we sign our church membership vows, when we make promises to God, it isn't a game. It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside. God knows your heart. He knows, and so hear Joshua's warning. Count the cost of discipleship carefully. That is part of Joshua's message to them. That is part of the way, the reason that he speaks to them the way he does. Understand what you're signing up for. But the people, well, they listened and they are undeterred, and that is a good thing. I'm not trying to put you off committing yourselves to Jesus. And so Joshua makes a covenant with them. And in verse 27, he erects this stone to be a witness against them, should they ever break the covenant, and then he sends them all away. And it sort of feels like this should be the end of the book of Joshua. What an extraordinary scene it's all been. All the people gathered. Joshua has preached his last sermon. They've responded with great voice and fervency and recommitted themselves to the Lord. What a meeting, what a worship service. What a revival is on the cards. And now they all turn as the sun sets and the music plays and the end credits begin to roll. But like in every Marvel movie, there is a post-credit scene. Just very briefly, the last few verses. Just when you think it's all over, verse 29, the screen lights up again, and the camera pans across three gravestones. And the name on the first is Joshua. The name on the second is Joseph. The name of the third is Eliezer the high priest. And we're sort of scratching our heads a little bit as this scene unfolds. What an odd way to end the book. Why not end in a high note instead of on these three funerals? And right in the middle of it all, do you notice? There is a little note about Israel's obedience, verse 31. They did serve the Lord. Those who stood there and made that commitment, they did what they promised. Although it comes with perhaps just a hint of something ready to go wrong. While Joshua was alive, we are told, they obeyed. While the generation that saw what God did during the conquest was alive, they obeyed. But if you were to read on to just to turn the page over to the book of Judges, you would see that things did not stay good for much longer. Within a generation, the people began to turn from the ways of the Lord, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. From national commitment to national disaster. But that's actually where these three tombstones can help us. Joshua was Israel's great leader. Joseph was the one who saved his brothers during the famine in Egypt. Eliezer was the high priest. And yet, for all of their influence, all of their power, all of their significance, and the way that God used them, none of them could change the hearts of a people in a way that would last. And when they passed, things went wrong. Within a generation, as the book of Judges gets underway, they've gone back to their idols. Joshua couldn't do it. Joseph couldn't do it. The high priest couldn't do it. They've died. And the dark hints of coming failure prove to be true. And so as you gaze over these graves, what is the message as we finish the book? Isn't the message that we need another leader greater than them? A leader who combines and surpasses them all. A leader who won't die to see his people go their own way again. Who is Israel's great leader and their true and final savior and their perfect high priest? It is Jesus to whom we may turn and say, you know, Joshua is right. We are not able to serve the Lord. But Jesus, you are able. You have perfectly obeyed. And by your resurrection power, you are able to give us new hearts so that trusting in your grace, now we are more and more able to love and serve and follow you. The Lord Jesus, friends, is the one your heart urgently needs today. And he stands as God's great redeemer, king, savior, high priest, who has triumphed over the grave to give grace to all who call upon him. So hear Joshua's call this morning. Choose this day whom you will serve. And may the Lord give you grace to say with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will run to Jesus. And there, finding grace, we will serve him. Let me pray for us. Father God, please renew in us again this morning a commitment to wholehearted devotion to you and to your son. Lord, we are so deeply grateful for the grace that you have shown us. We are so deeply undeserving of it, and yet you have loved us. You've given your son for us and made us yours. Please help us this morning to serve him. Help us to love him. Please help us to smash our idols. That he might be honored in our lives and loved and glorified. Amen.