The sermon titled 'The Challenge of Serving a Holy and Jealous God' explores the profound difficulty and necessity of serving a God who is both holy and jealous. It draws from Joshua 24, where Joshua, near the end of his life, addresses the Israelites in Shechem, a land with historical significance tied to God's promises to Abraham and Jacob. Joshua recounts God's faithfulness over 500 years and challenges the Israelites to serve the Lord with sincerity and truth, rejecting foreign gods. The people respond affirmatively, acknowledging God's past faithfulness and committing to serve Him. Joshua, however, warns them of the difficulty of serving such a God due to His holiness and jealousy, emphasizing that God will not tolerate divided loyalties. The sermon connects this to New Testament teachings, highlighting the radical demands of the Gospel and the need for genuine commitment and repentance. It underscores God's unwavering holiness and the impossibility of serving Him without divine aid, while also stressing the importance of heart inclination over mere external obedience. The sermon concludes with an exhortation to recognize and remove any foreign gods in one's life, emphasizing God's mercy and the importance of inclining one's heart toward Him.

I'll be reading verses 14 through 28, chapter 24. 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." And 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 side and preserved us in all the way that we went and 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. And 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 and his voice we will obey.

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And then Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the 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. And so Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.

Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is The Challenge of Serving a Holy and Jealous God. Because the Lord Jesus has been so good and merciful with us because He's so patient with us. It's easy to lose sight of this huge problem. Well, what problem is that?

That God is holy, that God is jealous, that it's hard to conceive of how a people like us could have anything to do with a God like that. It's really the problem of scripture that Jesus solves. So it is a great challenge and Joshua brings the people and by extension brings us face to face with this great problem, this great, holy, jealous God. How could a people like us have anything to do with Him? How could we be His servants?

That gets answered in our text. Last week's title was One Final Sacred assembly. Joshua has called together the people one last time. He's near death. He dies at 110 years old, so he's probably either that age or very close to that.

He calls the people to Shechem. We studied how consequential this plot of land is. It starts with Abraham and God's first promises to Abraham that to him and his descendants would be this land. So that's where Joshua summons the people to. And then Jacob.

So it's historic land for the people. And Joshua begins the sermon that we're right midstream of. So this week is simply a continuation. We needed a week in between, but he didn't need a week in between. It's part of all one discourse or sermon from Joshua.

So we're picking up midstream. He began with recounting more than 500 years of faithfulness, the faithfulness of God to this family and now this family is so multiplied according to God's promises that they've become a nation and God has been faithful to them for more than 500 years. So Joshua starts there and then he tells the people in verse 14 to serve the Lord. So you have to keep that in mind. We're coming to where he says you can't serve the Lord.

But he started in his sermon by saying, serve the Lord, serve him in sincerity, serve him in truth. I'm going to serve the Lord. My family's going to serve the Lord. And now he's going to tell the people of Israel you can't serve the Lord. And so this is where we are in the sermon.

Joshua has just told them, if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, then find a non-god to serve and go serve that non-god, either the ones of your distant past, or the ones from Egypt, or the ones in the land, where the people who you displaced have been serving, but as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. God, I thank you for this final discourse, and I thank you that it brings us face to face with this great problem of how people like us could ever possibly have anything to do with a perfectly holy, jealous God as you reveal yourself to be. So I thank you for this text and I pray that you would use it in our lives to make us love the Lord Jesus more than we ever have. Please help us in Jesus name. Amen.

So the first major heading this week, I'm actually not going to break the text into subsections. I'm just going to start with the first major heading being a brief explanation. So if you're taking notes on the handout, you can just scribble explanation into that blank and then there will be a lot to say about this text. But Relatively speaking, it's a brief explanation. Verses 16 through 18, the people respond.

Joshua has just said, if you think it's evil to serve the Lord, Then pick your non-god, pick your false god to serve. But I'm going to serve the Lord, and my family's going to serve the Lord. And now the people respond to that. And it's actually hard to imagine a better response. If you were going to try to craft a response that's better than the one that people give, what would you add to it?

How would you enhance what they say? They say, it's unimaginable that we would forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Unthinkable. And then they acknowledge God's history of faithfulness to their family now nation. They do just what Joshua did.

They affirm. So he's just given them a 500 plus year history lesson, and they acknowledge and affirm it. Yes, everything that you say is true. God really has been faithful to our family now nation for more than 500 years and they even use God's own language from the prologue to the Ten Commandments. Listen to Exodus 20, just listen.

Exodus 20 is where the Ten Commandments are found. Exodus 20 verses 1-3. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." And then that's the first commandment, then nine others follow it. Now look back in Joshua chapter 24 verse 17, the first part of verse 17.

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. They're pulling the language from the preface to the Ten Commandments. They're using the exact phrases that God used in giving them the Ten Commandments, in giving them the covenant of the Law of Moses. They are pulling from His language to affirm it and embrace it. And they conclude by telling Joshua, we're with you.

He's just said, choose, but as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. They say, we're with you. Verse 18, we also will serve the Lord. You said you'll serve the Lord? Us too.

You said your family will serve the Lord? We will too. We also will serve the Lord for he is our God." So this is a dream response for Joshua. I can't conceive how they could do any better in their response. Now, we have a couple of salesmen in the room, at least two, and it really is probably more than two.

So salesmen in the room, I can tell you what the number one rule in sales is, and that's this, never sell past the close. Okay, what does that mean? Never sell past the close means once the customer says, yes, I'll buy it, Shut up and take the order. Don't say another word. When they say, yes, I'll buy it, that's the close.

They say, yes, I'll buy it. You close your mouth and hand them a pen to sign the order. Because if you keep talking, you'll stimulate questions that they hadn't thought of and You'll prolong it and many a sale has fallen through. After they said they would buy it just because the salesman didn't have the good sense to, shut up and hand them a pen to sign the order. Apparently Joshua's never been to sales training.

Look at verse 19. So they've just said, I'll buy, we'll buy what you're selling. Here's what Joshua says, 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. Why in the world would Joshua say that? He just got the dream response! Because this God is real. And because that is true, it must be that this God will not be trifled with.

If this is the God who is, and if he is revealed himself to be as the Bible says, then he is no God to be trifled with. Only a fool would trifle with the God of Scripture. The self-revelation of God teaches that God is almighty and all-knowing, even into your thoughts and your motives, and all-present, and that he is perfectly good and can only stand good. Paul says that he dwells in unapproachable light. 1 Timothy 6, 16.

This God has revealed Himself to be a God who dwells in unapproachable light. Almighty, all-knowing, all-present, perfectly good, eternally perfectly good. Only standing good. Anything that's not good must be banished. There is no one like him.

There is no one to compare himself to. That's how he's revealed himself to be. Think of how many times he says, there is none like me. He is holy. And the self-revelation of God teaches that God cannot and will not tolerate rivals in the hearts of his people.

He will not tolerate competitors for the first place of affection loved most in the hearts of his people. When the Old Testament speaks of idolatry, of worshipping false gods, it uses the language of adultery. Do you understand that? The prophets when speaking of worshipping false gods uses the language of violation of human marriage adultery. A cheating spouse, that's what adultery is.

Taking the affection away from the God of worthy, the God who is worthy of all of your affections, it to any unworthy thing, lawful or unlawful, is like cheating on a spouse. He is jealous. Human jealousy can be so ugly. God's jealousy is not ugly at all. It's not inappropriate at all.

It's the good jealousy that a spouse has for the affections of the beloved. God is jealous because he loves his people. And must have the place of affection in their heart too. He is jealous. He is not a God who stands aloof.

This self-revelation of God says that He is not a God who stands aloof, who really doesn't care whether you love him or not. No, he cares. And so when your love is diverted to something that is unworthy, he speaks of that as if you cheated on your spouse. Because He is the spouse of his people. He actually cares.

He actually loves. And that is both wonderful and terrifying. It's terrifying. It's wonderful to know that you're the object of affection of this perfectly God that there's no one to compare to. It's terrifying if you know that you have a heart that's prone to wander.

It's terrifying if you know that he makes two kinds of promises, like we've been seeing. Promises for those who will love him and cling to him, to bless them, help them, sustain them, care for them. But also promises to those who forsake him. Promises to withdraw from them, harm them. Of course, we need to be careful not to take verse 19 in isolation.

Why? Because it wasn't spoken or written in isolation. If we take verse 19 in isolation, we end up with a God who is not forgiving. Just read it. If this was the only verse in the Bible, here's what we would have.

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. Period. It leaves you in a hopeless place. But Joshua didn't speak it all by itself.

It hasn't been written all by itself and we're not studying it all by itself. Look at verse 20. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods then he will turn you, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done you good." That is the context for God not forgiving and rejecting. The people reply again in verse 21, and the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. They will not back off.

Praise the Lord. It's sort of easy to see this through the lens of the future history of Israel. And really their inability to serve the Lord or unwillingness to serve the Lord and to sort of impute that to this generation. But it's not right to do that. Scripture actually says this generation who is here hearing these things and making these commitments actually did serve the Lord in their generation.

There are things that we could fault this generation for, but not following through on this is not one of them. Joshua commands the people to rid themselves of any and all foreign gods, and the people pledge themselves to serve the Lord their God exclusively and to obey Him. And look at what Joshua says to the people in verse 23. Put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. This is so critical.

Put away the foreign gods and do what? Do all the worship stuff. Do all the external stuff. No! Incline your hearts to the Lord God of Israel.

Joshua goes to the heart. He picks right back, He picks up right where he left off last week. Love God, cling to God, incline your heart to God. Are there external things which God wants us to obey? Yes, of course, but don't skip to them.

It starts in the heart. Those external things are meant to be a display of a heart inclined towards God. Joshua comes back to the heart. Incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. Now look what Joshua does.

Two things. One, he sets their commitment in stone by putting in writing. Let's make a covenant in writing. And two, he sets their commitment in stone by setting up a stone. Let's make another monument.

It's the seventh one. The book of Joshua. Look at verses 25 and the beginning of 26. Joshua 24 starting in verse 25. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem to put in writing the things that they've been saying.

Then Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law. Now look at verses starting there and reading through 27. Next, what did he do? So they put it in writing, next, and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. I don't love sanctuary of the Lord because it makes us think of a building.

It literally means holy place. It's responsibly translated in many other places in the Old Testament as sanctuary, but it literally means holy place or sacred place. My guess is they had brought the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle to be here. And that's what it's referencing, but that's not, that's my speculation. In any way, there is a holy place under the oak where they set up this pillar.

And Joshua said to all the people, behold this stone shall be a witness for us for it is 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." As long as this generation will live in the lives of their children and their children, there would be the stone under the terebinth tree, under the oak tree in Shechem. Standing as a reminder that they made this commitment and put it in writing that they would forsake foreign gods and serve God. Incline their hearts to God. This stone is the seventh and final physical monument.

They've been doing it all along the way. They cross the Jordan. A representative from each of the twelve tribes is instructed to get a stone out of the midst of the Jordan and they take it and where they spend the first night they make a monument of those twelve stones. And there have been five others between that one and this one to remind them of God's goodness and faithfulness to them. To set up talking points for the future generation.

To understand what God has done for them and what God wants from them. Finally, Joshua dismisses the people. Look at verse 28. So Joshua, let the people depart, each to his own inheritance. Here's what David Howard, the commentator, says with this.

With a short statement, the main storyline of the book of Joshua is concluded. There are no more lands to be taken, no more territorial distributions to be made, no more speeches to be given, no more covenants to be entered into. Everyone was able to return to his inheritance, which was the goal from the beginning of the book. This is a book about God fulfilling his promises to give the people the promises land and now they go all the promises have been fulfilled and they've entered into a covenant with God. Major heading number two.

The best commentary on this passage of scripture, other passages of scripture. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, other passages in scripture fill in the blanks. What's the best commentary on this passage of scripture? Dale Davis? No, though he was good.

Matthew Henry, no, though he's always good. Almost always good. No, other passages of scripture are always the best commentary. So, I do love to quote Dale Davis, at least in Joshua, and Matthew Henry, and I love the Gospel of John because there was a lot of rile to quote. But we always spend more time quoting other passages of scripture to throw light on the passage that we're studying and may it ever be.

As long as Sovereign Redeemer has a pulpit, may we always quote more scripture than we quote Dale Davis or Matthew Henry. I knew I'd get an amen out of that. Multiple. I'm going to give you five texts of scripture that I think throw light on this passage and help us understand it in its fullness. The first is Luke 14.

Please turn to Luke 14. Luke 14, Jesus says shocking things. You're reading Luke 14 verses 25 to 33. Now great multitudes went with him, And he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, He cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10, 000 to meet him who comes against him with 20, 000. Or else while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple. Joshua might not have been to sales training, but he's been to Jesus' preaching school.

Joshua and Joshua 24 is sounding just like Jesus in Luke 14. This isn't Jesus to his twelve disciples, all the inner circle, the ones who will turn the world upside down. This is Jesus to the multitudes. Please satisfy yourself on this point. Look at verse 25.

Look at verse 25. Now great multitudes went with him, and he turned and said to them. Just a normal people who want to follow Jesus. Are you sure? If you follow him, he'll have to be more precious to you than your most precious relationship.

Father, mother, spouse, children, best friend, they'll have to be way in the back then to follow Jesus. Otherwise, you can't be his disciple. How different are so many preachers and evangelists? They have been to sales training class, but they haven't been to Jesus' preaching academy. Listen to what Dale Davis says, we must retain Joshua's paradox.

Paradox is something that seems puzzling, seems like it doesn't fit together but it really does. We must retain Joshua's paradox must constantly stand between his serve Yahweh of verse 14 and his you cannot serve Yahweh of verse 19. His purpose is not to drive us from Yahweh but to Him. Only we must not make our commitment easily, lightly, flippantly, casually, but cautiously and fearfully. To put it in Jesus' language, it's from Luke 14.

Count the cost. If you start but don't finish, they walk by and laugh. They mock. So as we receive the gospel, take the name of Jesus to ourselves. It is not to be done easily, lightly, flippantly, casually, but we're to count the cost.

In one way it costs you nothing. Jesus does all the work. In another way, it costs you everything. You cannot have these other loves above Jesus. He will not have it.

He doesn't suffer rivals in your heart. And as we offer the Gospel, we must always keep in mind that we are ambassadors of a great king, not beggars. We come not in our own name, but in the name of this holy, jealous God. They need to be warned about Jesus and offered Jesus at the same time. We should be so gentle, as gentle as the message will allow us to be.

So humble, but never lose sight. You're ambassadors of the great king, not beggars. Number two. Listen to Exodus chapter 20 verse 7. Just listen.

This is the third commandment of the Ten Commandments. This is the third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." God is holy, so his name is holy. People who have no interest in holiness, people who have no interest in pursuing holiness, should leave his name alone. If you have no interest in holiness, if you have no interest in pursuing holiness, leave His name out of it.

Why? Because when you say, I am a Christian, you're saying I am a follower of Christ. That's literally what it means. I follow Christ. But if you don't intend to follow him, if you don't pursue following after him, leave his name out of it.

You only make his name a laughing stock in the world by taking his name, when you have no appetite for holiness. Number three, Matthew 19. Turn to Matthew 19. Turn to Matthew 19. I'll be reading Matthew 19 23 through 26.

Matthew 19, 23 through 26. And Jesus said to the disciples, Assuredly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. When his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished saying, Who then can be saved?

Let me just pause here and say, why would the disciples say that? Why would the disciples say that? Who then can be saved? I think for two reasons. The text doesn't say, but I think it's for two reasons.

Just try this on for size. One, we often view financial blessings as a sign of the blessings of God on people's lives. If we see people with resources, we assume that God gave them the resources so that they're living under God's blessing. Secondly, outwardly speaking, oftentimes rich people appear to have their act together. It's been the disciplines of their life often that have led to it.

So we assume if anyone can be saved, it's the people who have their act together. Jesus said it's actually really hard for rich people to be saved. The disciples say, if rich people can't be saved, who can be saved? If the people who we thought were living under the blessing of God and who from everything that you can see have their act together, can't be saved, who can be saved? Look at what Jesus says in verse 26.

Jesus looked at them and said, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. In other words, If you left a man to himself, left a woman to herself, left a boy to himself, left a girl to herself, It would be impossible for that person to be saved. You could predict the outcome with absolute 100% certainty. They would run themselves headlong into destruction. With no exceptions, from the beginning of human history to the end of human history, it is impossible.

Because of what happened to our nature in Genesis chapter 3. And how inclined we've become away from the things that God loves. And inclined towards things that offend him. So if you just left people alone, no one would be saved. Jesus is teaching that here.

This is both about the radical claims of the Gospel. Oh, it's easy to be a Christian. Oh, you don't have to have any change in your life if you're a Christian. No! The Gospel makes radical claims on you.

We just heard Jesus say in Luke 14. So it's both about the radical claims of the gospel and the complete inability of the natural man to undertake spiritual things. People as they're born, all people as they're born, are completely unable to undertake spiritual things. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 2.14. It's one of the verses that you absolutely ought to know from memory.

1 Corinthians 2, 14, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. People who are spiritually dead can't discern spiritual things. They cannot undertake spiritual things. So a natural man can play at spiritual things. I know that's true.

You've seen that's true. They can play at them. But a natural man can never genuinely persevere in the faith. Never, never, never, never. With man it's impossible.

You must be born again. You cannot bring yourself into the faith. It's impossible. God must bring you into the faith. You cannot keep yourself in the faith.

It's impossible. God must keep you in the faith. If God left you to your own strength, you would wander away and you'd never come back. Number four, 2 Timothy 2. So Jesus just said, it's impossible with man, it's possible with God.

Now Think about what Joshua was saying. You can't serve the Lord. He's too holy. He's too jealous. That is true.

You must have God. You must have God. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2.

We're reading verses 11 through 13. 2 Timothy 2, 11 through 13. Paul writes, This is a faithful saying, for if we died with Him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Let's just work through these statements. If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him." This is talking about being united with Jesus by faith. You are joined to Him in His death, and so you are also through your union with Christ by faith, you are joined to Him in life.

Spiritual life comes from that. Then if you endure, we shall also reign with Him. A mark of union with Christ is keeping going. Your faith continues. Christianity isn't about a good week or month or year.

Christianity is about a new heart and God entering in and pledging Himself to carry you to the finish. Endurance is a mark that God has undertaken that work. And you endure, you reign with him. If you deny him, he will also deny you. If we deny him, he will also deny us.

Joshua was saying that. If you forsake God, He'll turn and harm you after He had done good to you. Then, look at verse 13. If we are faithless, Have you ever been faithless? Is a believer ever faithless?

He remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Union with Christ causes Christ to be faithful to you forever because he is faithful to himself and you are joined to him. So, the denying him spoken of here must be more than just being faithless. I'm so comforted.

I'm so glad Paul didn't end this at the end of verse 12. Because I'd be left wondering, did I deny Him? In many ways, in a sense, I've denied Him many times. Is that what it's speaking of? Is He now going to deny me?

Oh no, joined with Christ. Even when I'm faithless, he remains faithful. He can't deny himself. His people are joined to him. He is the head of his people, his body.

Psalm 103. A Psalm of David. Listen to what David says in Psalm 103 verses 13 and 14. This is as David is describing the long suffering and mercy of God towards His people. He says, As a Father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.

For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. He knows our frame, he knows that we are dust. He pities us as a father pities his children. Yes, passage number five, Ezra chapter six.

Turn to Ezra chapter six. It's shortly before the Psalms. Ezra Nehemiah, Esther Job Psalms. So Ezra. Not long before Psalms.

I'll be reading Ezra chapter 6, verses 19-21. Ezra chapter 6, verses 19-21. This is right after, so the first wave of captives has come back from captivity in Babylon. And Over a period of time they've rebuilt the temple. They just rededicated the temple and now for the first time after the temple has been rededicated They celebrate the Passover.

This is this is where we pick it up as her chapter 6 verses 19 through 21 And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves, all of them were ritually clean. And they slaughtered the Passover lambs for all the descendants of the captivity, for their brethren the priests, and for themselves." Look at verse 21. Then the children of Israel who returned from the captivity, ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel." The Jews of pure Jewish genealogy gathered together to celebrate the Passover, but they joined together with people who were not genealogically pure, who had intermarried, they had been in the land for the 70 years that had been in captivity. Jews had been intermarrying with people who had been brought in to repopulate the land by these foreign kings.

But you could still participate if you separated yourself from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord God of Israel. All and only those who separated themselves from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord God of Israel were welcome. So all were welcome. If you'll separate from the filth of the nations in order to seek the Lord God of Israel, you're welcome, but only, but only them. Friends, this is repentance of faith.

This is turning from, turning from what? The filth of the nations. Turning towards, towards what? In order to seek the Lord God of Israel. This is repentance, repentance of faith, Old Testament style.

This is what Joshua was calling the people to. Forsake those other gods. Separate yourselves from the filth of the nations. This is the calling of the gospel today. Separate yourselves from the filth of the nations.

This is the calling of the gospel today. Separate yourselves from the filth of the nations. In order to seek the Lord God of Israel. Applications, let me give you three. Number one, be a bold ambassador of the King of Kings.

God isn't lonely, and He doesn't need followers, But he is commanding all men everywhere to repent. He is offering to save sinners. Be bold! Centers. Be bold.

If you were the ambassador of the king of all kings, would you beg? I don't want to be misunderstood. We should plead. I'm making a distinction. We should plead with people.

But our king is not a beggar, so don't leave them misunderstanding. Don't leave them thinking God has a hole in his heart that they can fill. Number two. Never forget that God is holy and jealous so His name is never to be trifled with. Don't ever forget that.

God is holy. There's no one like Him. He's almighty, He's all-knowing, He's all-present. He's perfectly good. And He can only stand what's perfectly good.

This leaves us with no hope except for Jesus. Unless you think you're perfectly good. Pro tip, You haven't been perfectly good since you've been sitting here. That's true. His name is never to be trifled with.

Here's a question. Are you trifling with the name of God? Are the choices you make, the things that you think, the things that you say, the things that you do. Are you trifling with His name? You have no interest in holiness, You have no interest in pursuing holiness, but you say, I belong to this holy God.

Don't trifle with his name. He will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Beware. Number three. Beware!

Number three. We'll just let Joshua do it himself. Verse 23, now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. Friends, put away the foreign gods that are among you. Put them away.

This time they've been living in the land for decades and he knows there's the presence among this two million people, three million people, there is the presence of foreign gods among them. I preached to people today and I'm pretty sure there are foreign gods among us. Put them away. Incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. He is merciful.

He bids us to come. He'll do good to you. He'll do good for you. He'll do good with you. God, I thank You for the book of Joshua.

Thank you that Joshua was such a man that up until his 110th year, you would give him another year of life, you would bring the people together one more time, to impart all that He could. Praise You for being such a kind God to raise up your people to do this, to encourage and exhort, to rebuke, to speak truth. I pray that you would help us now as we consider these things to identify the foreign gods that are among us. To incline our hearts towards you. You are worthy of all of our affection.

I pray that you would have it. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.