The sermon titled 'God’s Holy Faithfulness' focuses on the unwavering faithfulness of God as depicted in Joshua 24:14-33. It begins by exploring the Israelites' choice to serve God over other deities, demonstrating God's consistent support and miracles, such as leading them out of Egypt and giving them the Promised Land. The speaker highlights Joshua's warning about the consequences of forsaking God and the covenant made by the people to remain faithful. The sermon underscores God's holiness and the expectation of Israel's obedience. It also reflects on the deaths of Joshua, Joseph, and Eleazar, illustrating God's faithfulness through their lives. By emphasizing the importance of attending a house of mourning, the sermon suggests that such events provide an opportunity for reflection on eternal life and God's promises. The speaker cites various biblical passages, including Ecclesiastes 7:2 and Lamentations 3:22-23, to emphasize that God's word and faithfulness endure forever. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to trust in God's faithfulness, recognizing it as the foundation of hope and salvation.

Good morning. Reading Joshua 24 for the sermon text. The text is verse 29 to 33, but for context we'll start in verse 14. So Joshua 24, 14. Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, serve the Lord.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves to stay whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of 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.' So the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way, that we went in among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

But Joshua said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done you good. And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord.

So Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods, which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, the Lord our God, we will serve in his voice we will obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Then Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a large stone and he set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all his people, behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God. So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance. Verse 29.

Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died. Being 110 years old, They buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Sarah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gash. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, and a plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver, in which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph. In Eleazar, the son of Aaron died.

They buried him in a hill belonging to Phineas, his son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim. I'm getting set up a little insight into how I prepare my family, especially when I preach. I give them a word to listen to, listen for, and count, and give them a word or two. And that solves a couple things. One, help them focus on what I think's important, something to listen to, and to keep them engaged, and to help them stay engaged.

And the word today is faithful, faithfulness. All the derivations of that, because that's what this is about. This is about God's faithfulness. The whole book of Joshua has been about God's faithfulness to a people. And today ends the exposition, the formal exposition of Joshua.

Next week we'll have a summary message on the book of Joshua. Today's title is God's holy faithfulness. That's the focus here. Let's pray. Our God, You are faithful.

You can be no other. You're faithful. Thank you for being faithful to yourself, to your holiness. God please, as we look back at the lives of these three men, Would we see your faithfulness? Would it encourage us?

That you're the same faithful God for them as for us. You never change. So encourage us. Make us to know your faithfulness more when we leave today. Trust you more, love you more.

Extol your greatness more. Please bless this time. Amen. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 2. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart.

Better to go to the house of mourning, sadness, places where there's sadness. It can be a hospital, it can be extreme heartbreak in a home, but especially at funerals, people's deathbeds. And to go to the house of feasting, We love feasting. I'm not saying we don't love feasting. We love feasting.

But it's better to go to the house of mourning. For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart. Isaiah 40 verse 8, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." Godly leaders die, they fade, they go away. We see that all throughout Scripture. We've seen that all throughout history.

All of us are a vapor of a life and it will end soon. I don't care how young you are right now, at some point it'll seem like, wow, that was fast. And it will end soon. But thankfully, God is eternal. God gives eternal life.

He is holy, faithful. At a house of mourning, we've been to funerals, we've been to deathbeds, extreme sad situations. Why is a house of mourning better than a house of feasting for what God is saying here? Because people will tend to be willing to listen about eternal life, about God, about considering what's going to happen to them after they die. And they may be more humble and more willing to give more space, especially at a funeral.

They're going to give the preacher a little more space to tell about the Gospel, to tell about eternal life. They're going to be a little bit more prone to hear their need for salvation. It's not that we don't love the feasting. We love celebrating births. We love celebrating weddings.

We love celebrating all the different reasons why we would celebrate in our households. Those are great times and those should be times as well that we are talking about God's faithfulness. In my house when we have a great sales celebration because God has blessed us through a sale I've made, We're talking about God's faithfulness to provide that. So that is great. But at house of mourning, it's a little bit different.

People are going to consider, this isn't going to last. I need salvation. And my only hope is in a faithful God. That's my only hope. And they may be willing to hear if they don't think that, that I need that hope.

And I don't have that hope. So we take advantage of that at funerals. We should always take advantage of that at funerals and preach the need for salvation. At funerals we eulogize. We tell the history of that person.

We'll tell when they were born, when they died, who survived them, maybe some things that they did along the way. But at a Christian funeral, that should be said in a completely different way. That should all be under the heading of God's faithfulness. God faithfully gave me the gift in a wife, or a husband, or my children, or my work, or my church, or different activities I did. They should all point to God's faithfulness at a Christian funeral.

We should all talk about his faithfulness. In Deuteronomy 7, 9, therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God. The faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. A thousand generations! How long is that?

Any guesses how many generations have gone by since Adam till now? The best guesses are 10 to 15 percent of a thousand generations. But This isn't a literal thousand generations. We're to see that God's faithfulness goes on forever. But just think of this.

Just think of that. Of how long it's been. It hasn't been that long. A lot of things have happened and God's faithfulness continues. Lamentations 3, starting in verse 22.

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I hope in him. Why do we have any hope?

Your hope's not because of me or your parents or your job. Your hope is because of God's great faithfulness. That's our hope. That's our portion. Without His faithfulness we have nothing.

Without God being faithful to Himself, to His character, to His holy attributes. We have nothing. He is our eternal hope. Our faith is not a blind faith. It's not a faith where I'm just going to jump off this cliff and I hope there's something there for me.

Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. That's not the Christian faith when we talk of hope. It's not leaping off a cliff. When you read the Bible, the Bible is full, full of God's faithfulness. This is real history of God teaching you of his faithfulness.

Joshua, the book of Joshua covers about 35 years of God's faithfulness. Your life, every breath you take, you're gaining more knowledge of God's faithfulness with every single breath. Ours is not a blind faith. It's a faith rooted in God's faithfulness and seen it everywhere. The book of Joshua is about God and His faithfulness, specifically to provide the promised land that he had promised over 500 years earlier.

And today, we have three burials. And the goal is to focus on God's faithfulness. So let's look at the first one, verses 29 through 31, remembering God's faithfulness through Joshua's life. Turn back to Joshua 1. Turn back to Joshua 1.

Let's see where this started 35 years ago. Let's remember what God had promised. Was God faithful to all of this? As we consider Joshua's life, was God faithful to provide everything he promised in Joshua 1, verses 1 through 9? Listen for him.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you, nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you be strong and of good courage? Do not be afraid nor be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Great reading those.

God was faithfully with Joshua. He was faithfully with Joshua just as he was with Moses. God faithfully gave them the land. God faithfully had no one stand before Joshua and the Israelites. God faithfully did not leave them.

God faithfully did not forsake them. God faithfully gave them strength. God faithfully gave them courage. God faithfully made them prosperous and God faithfully gave them good success. God was faithful and is faithful.

And this God of theirs is your God. 2 Timothy 2.13 If we are faithless, how generous of Timothy towards us. If we are faithless, we are faithless. We have faithless times. If we are faithless, he remains faithful.

He cannot deny himself. He will not, he cannot, he will not. He is holy faithful. A.W. Pink, from his book, The Attributes of God, and the chapter of God's faithfulness, says this.

God is true. His word of promise is sure. In all his relations with his people, God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever trusted him in vain.

We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for his people need to know that Faithfulness is an essential part of the divine character. This is the basis of our confidence in him. But it is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as divine truth, it's quite another to act upon it. It's one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as divine truth, it is quite another to act upon it. Joshua accepted God's faithfulness as divine truth and acted upon it.

His works proved his faith in a faithful God. We first find Joshua in Exodus 17. Moses and Israel are about to fight the Amalekites. If you remember this story, you'll remember as we go along, about to fight the Amalekites. Moses turns to Joshua and says, I want you to lead this battle.

And this is the battle. You'll Remember the battle. They go to fight the Amalekites, and as long as Moses' arms are held up, it goes well for Israel. And his arms go down, so he gets tired. It goes well for the Amalekites.

And so Aaron and her, Aaron the high priest and her, come over, give Moses a stone to sit on, and hold up his arms. And God faithfully leads the people of Israel through Joshua to defeat the Amalekites. That's well on the other side of the Jordan. In Numbers 13, Joshua is one of only two spies out of twelve total to trust the faithfulness of God to give the land. God is giving us this land.

Those giants? Not a problem for our God. They are more numerous than us? Not a problem for our God. They are better strengthened for battle than us?

Not a problem for our God. They are better strengthened for battle than us? Not a problem for our God. They have big cities and walls? Not a problem.

Our God is faithful. He's going to give us this land. Him with Caleb, trust in the faithfulness of God. But your faithfulness, just because you trust a faithful God, doesn't mean sometimes you're not swept up in the discipline of God. He was faithful, but he still went through the 40 years of the desert wanderings because of the people's unfaithfulness.

But what did Joshua see during the forty years? God's faithfulness to provide time and time and time again. Mana. They never had to go get their own food. Provided water.

Their clothes never wore out. Just think of that for 40 years. Joshua saw that. God faithfully had Joshua lead the people across the Jordan at the worst possible time, flood stage. That was God's doing.

God faithfully had Joshua lead the conquering of Jericho with the worst human made battle plan, but it was God's battle plan. And with Joshua's leadership and his influence, and it's not, I'll get to Eleazar's, not forget Eleazar's, he has a role in this, in the spiritual leading of the people, he has to have a role here. People don't grumble, they do, they obey, and the walls come down. That was God's plan. We see God's faithfulness in Joshua's defeat at Ai.

God isn't just faithful. We can't proclaim that God is faithful just when things are going well for us. God is faithful to His holiness. God is faithful to His hatred of sin. He has to be.

That's part of His faithfulness. His discipline of us is part of His faithfulness. His fatherly care, his shepherding, his love. Psalm 119.75, I know O Lord that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Our afflictions have to do with God's faithfulness still.

Even if they're due to my own sin. That God would afflict me, would discipline me, would chase me to drive me back to his faithfulness and away from my self-dependency and my self-righteousness and what I think is right. That's a faithful God, even in defeat at AI. God faithfully gave Joshua and Israel victory over 31 kings. In chapter 24, God speaks through his prophet Joshua to remind us of God's 500, over 500 years of faithfulness going back to Abraham.

At the end of his life, after he dies, in verse 29 it says this, all these things have happened. Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died. After he dies, just like Moses in Joshua 1, after he died, then God gives him the title of servant of the Lord after his death. This is God saying, like Jesus in Matthew 5, well done my good and faithful servant. Joshua, taking from 2 Timothy 4, Joshua fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith.

Many start out very well. Many start out with lots of zeal, right? We've seen this and people start off with tons of zeal and that's fantastic. Love it. Once you start off with great joy that Christ has saved you, I'm redeemed.

Lots of joy, lots of zeal. You want everybody to know that is fantastic And we should always want everybody to know, but throughout your life, you're going to have highs like that. Throughout our life, we're going to have very big lows. It's going to happen. And as you go through these highs and lows, lots of People get worn down so much that they don't finish well.

Maybe most people don't finish well. I'm only talking about Christians right now. Joshua finished well. Joshua finished very well. Mr.

Pink, both of these remarkable men, Moses and Joshua, had lived a God-centered life. In fact, the Lord was the circumference as well as the center. He controlled the entire area of daily experiences. In language similar to that of the apostle Paul, both of them could have said, imitate me as I also imitate Christ. And in verse 31 we see that that happened.

Verse 31 we see that Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel. The effect of the godly care of these two men affected several generations. Generations of Moses, the generation of Joshua, the generation that came after Joshua, it affected them. They were led by godly leaders. Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Eleazar, other men, other elders, their leaders.

And God used Joshua to be a great example to these people. To proclaim God's faithfulness in the way he acted, in the way he spoke, everything he did that was recorded, he proclaimed the faithfulness of God. And the effect on the people was fantastic. Fantastic for a couple generations. They had a lot of joyful rest in that land.

Joshua, born a slave in Egypt, dies with peace in the promised land. Think of that. Psalm 36, 5, your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. He's buried in his inheritance. Think on that.

Just think on that. Born a slave, buried in his inheritance. He's born as a boy, his parents, we know nothing about his family other than his dad's name. But people may be probably hearing, God has a faithful place for us. And that's coming, that's coming, He has no idea that he is going to be buried in that inheritance that he's always been told about when he's back in Egypt.

So far in the book of Joshua, we've had seven memorials. I'm saying this is memorial number eight to God's faithfulness. Look at verse 32, remembering God's faithfulness through Joseph's life. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph. Joseph, annoying little brother, a teacher's pet of a son, his father had favoritism on him, sold into Egyptian slavery at 17, became a trusted servant of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, wrongly imprisoned for two years, freed when he interprets Pharaoh's dreams of the upcoming seven plentiful years, followed by seven famine years, elevated to second highest rank in Egypt, reunited with family during family years, brings family to Egypt to live.

That's one way to eulogize, but it's the wrong way to eulogize a Christian. It tells nothing of God's faithfulness. It only tells facts. That's not how we eulogize. So we'll get this right here in a moment.

Let's go back to Genesis 50. Turn to Genesis 50. End of Genesis 50, Jacob has died, and his brothers are now concerned that Joseph gets his chance for revenge. After all these years, now Joseph is going to come get us. Starting in verse 19.

Joseph said to them, said to his brothers, Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about, as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid, I will provide for you and your little ones.' And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household, and Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation.

The children of Machar, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here." So Joseph died being 110 years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. In Egypt. God faithfully matured Joseph from that annoying boy to this gracious and merciful man.

That was God's doing to mature him, to have him in this place where he is now bringing comfort and kindness to his brethren. Joseph's faithful God has sustained him. In verse 20, he says, God meant it for good. Joseph knows God is for his people's good. Do you know that?

Do you believe it in a way that you would act like that? Act upon it? That God is faithfully for your good? Josh read from Romans 8 this morning, 8.28, we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, do you know that all things work together for good?

We look around, we know there's evil. We know of sin. We know personally of the effects of sin on my own life. We know the world is full of heartbreaking brokenness. But God is faithfully working in and through this world in every circumstance, everywhere, and everyone all the time for His people's good.

It can be nothing else. We are called to act that way. I know it. I believe it. I can preach it.

I need to act that way. My gratitude towards God, my thankfulness for His faithfulness, His great faithfulness. Ephesians 1, 11. In Him, in Christ, also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Working all things according to the counsel of his will is him being faithfully good to you, as he was to Joseph, as he was to Joshua, as he was to Eliezer, as he was to and will be to all of his people.

All things according to his will and his will is to be faithfully good. That's a richness. Remember in Ephesians? This is right in the beginning of all the riches that we have in Christ. So now, let me redo this eulogy of Joseph.

Let's proclaim God's faithfulness. God faithfully worked good for Joseph. He was faithful to Joseph when he was thrown in that pit by his brothers. He was faithful to Joseph in thinking of his faithfulness, considering his faithfulness, his plans for his faithfulness for all of Israel hundreds of years from now when Joseph was sold into slavery from that pit. He was faithful to Joseph when he gave him favor with Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, to serve in Potiphar's household.

He was faithful to Joseph when he was persecuted for righteousness sake. Potiphar's wife lying about Joseph who was fleeing sin, fleeing temptation, running away, being honorable to his master. God was faithful to him when he was persecuted for righteousness sake and put in the prison. And God faithfully was working good for Joseph and Israel through Pharaoh's dreams, giving Joseph the ability to interpret those dreams that seven years of plenty were coming, followed by seven years of famine that God was bringing. And God faithfully then brought Joseph out of a prisoner, a prisoner, not even an Egyptian prisoner, a foreign land prisoner, a slave prisoner, and made him second in command of all of Egypt.

Only second to Pharaoh. And God faithfully provided good for Joseph and his family and many to come. When those years of plenty went very well, Egypt flourished. In the years of famine, Egypt had plenty. They became very powerful for that.

But then God faithfully used that to reunite Joseph with his family. That's God's faithfulness. That's God's faithfulness. Joseph couldn't make that happen. Jacob couldn't make that happen.

Couldn't plan any of that. That's God's faithfulness to Joseph, being good to Joseph, being good to his family, being good for all the generations of Israel to come, and being good to us that he would give us this, to learn of his faithfulness. In verse 25 of Genesis 50, Joseph has his brethren take an oath to bury him in the promised land. Take an oath, right? An oath is between you and another person before God.

A vow is just between you and God. An oath is between you and another person. Bring God to bear witness on that. It is strong. It is strong.

Read our confession on oaths and vows. Take those very seriously. Do not make rash oaths or rash vows. Very seriously. And he has them take an oath to bury him.

Joseph knows that God is bringing a day when he's going to give this land to his people. He's faithfully trusting the faithful God. This is going to happen so much that it's just, bury my bones there when you get there. Joseph doesn't know how long that is. He has an idea.

God told Abraham back in Genesis 15 that it would be 400 years. That his people would be in bondage. But Joseph doesn't know, right? He doesn't know how long that is. Maybe Abraham, trust me Abraham passed it down to Isaac, passed it down to Jacob, passed it down to his sons, and Joseph knows something of that.

But the clock hasn't even started yet. So he doesn't know how long, 400 years, it's a rolling clock at this point. He says 400 years out there, God's going to give you the promised land and bury my bones there. Why? It could be from sentimentalism, but I don't think so.

I think mainly what Joseph's desire was is that his casket, when they left Egypt, when they left Egypt, it says in Exodus 13, after the 10th plague, and Pharaoh says leave, and the people in the midst of people plundering Egypt, it says in Exodus 13 that they went and got the casket of Joseph. And so as they're leaving Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, wandering through the wilderness, the people are carrying this casket, crossing the Jordan, conquering the land, Jericho, dividing the land, everything that's happening, constant reminder of God's faithfulness for hundreds of years is happening. Psalm 89, 8, O Lord God of Hosts, who is mighty like you, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds you. Surrounds you.

His faithfulness surrounds him. Now I get something surrounding me. You can measure me, you can say what surrounds me. God isn't measurable. He says his faithfulness surrounds him.

That's faithfulness without bounds. God is boundless. His faithfulness surrounds him? This is your faithful God. We talk about unending grace, unending mercy, unending love, unending faithfulness surrounds Him.

Infinite faithfulness. Take all the faithfulness you can, Church, and He's not diminished. It's not a zero-sum game. If He's faithful to one, well, that's less faithfulness He can have. No.

Endless.