The sermon, titled 'As Long as I Am in This Tent,' draws from Joshua chapter 23, where Joshua, advanced in age, calls the Israelites to remember all that God has done for them. Joshua emphasizes God's faithfulness and the need for Israel to remain obedient and courageous in following His commands. He warns against turning to other nations and their gods, urging the Israelites to cling to the Lord. The speaker highlights the importance of leaders in modeling obedience and faithfulness, as their influence can help maintain the nation's devotion to God. The sermon underscores the need for self-examination and vigilance against idolatry, emphasizing that love for God should be at the center of their lives. Drawing parallels with other biblical leaders, the speaker illustrates how God's chosen leaders have consistently reminded their people of essential truths as they neared the end of their lives, focusing on the importance of maintaining a close, loving relationship with God.

Our sermon text this morning is Joshua chapter 23. Please follow along as I read it. Now, it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua was old, advanced in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, I am old, advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you.

For the Lord your God is he who has fought for you. See I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the great sea westward. And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight, so you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, those who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them.

You shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations, but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God, or else if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them and go into them and they to you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you, but they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you and all have come to pass for you not one word of them has failed therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things until He has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you." Let's pray. Oh Father, Strong words here. Open our hearts and minds. Speak clearly through your servant Jason and let there be open ears and softened hearts to receive what you have for us today. We commit this time to you in the name of Jesus, who is Christ.

Amen. Peter writes, For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as the Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. This is Peter speaking of his own death in 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 12 through 15.

So that's why the sermon title is what it is. As long as I am in this tent, you won't always be in your tent. Peter knew that. He knew the day was coming that he would die, and he wanted to remind the Lord's people of all these precious truths. So he writes them a couple of letters.

The truth is, men who God has raised up to lead his people have often had a pressing compulsion in their hearts to remind their brethren of important truths as they see the finish line. See the finish line. Jacob did. You can find it in Genesis 49. Moses did.

You can find it in Deuteronomy 32 and 33. David did. You can find it in 2 Samuel chapter 23. Jesus did. You can find it in the upper room discourse, John 13-17.

Paul did, you can find it in Acts 20. And Peter did, you can find it in 2 Peter 1. It's just six men aside from Joshua that God raised up to lead his people who had this internal compulsion, seeing the finish line coming to the end of their race, wanting to remind the Lord's people of the precious truths of the faith. And that is what Joshua is doing here in our text. So you should pay careful attention to words of the men of God, leaders of God's people, as they come to the finish line because they get focused like a laser beam on the most important, most precious truths of our faith.

God, I do thank you for raising up men in every generation to serve their generation, men like Joshua in some ways. And I thank you for the repetition in your word of seeing these men have a compulsion, pressing on them to focus in on the most important and the most precious truths of the faith and to just press those onto your people, making sure that they give attention to these most important truths. So as we sit at the feet of this man today, I pray that we would drink deeply out of the well and gain such benefit. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well we'll be subdividing the text today, I believe, into four parts, beginning in Joshua chapter 23, verses 1 through 5.

So I do want to re-read as we go to just sort of focus in on the different subsections. So hopefully you have a finger still in Joshua chapter 23, re-read with me verses 1 through 5. Now it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about. Joshua was old, advanced in age. Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, I am old advanced in age.

You've seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he who has fought for you. See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward. And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you." In these verses Joshua calls for and charges the nation.

If you're filling in blanks, if you're taking notes on the handout, by filling in blanks, charges fills in the blank. Joshua calls for, he summons them, and charges the nation. Chapter 23 begins with a time marker. It's not specific, it doesn't give us a year, but it tells us that it's been a long time since the Lord has given rest to the people. So we went through a long time, the period of chapters in the book of Joshua, when they were fighting their enemies.

It's been a long time since then. It's been a long time since they've been fighting their enemies. They divided up the land by lot, and Joshua sent them to dwell in their inheritances. And that's what they've been doing for a long time, says the text. Several commentators point out that if Joshua is roughly the same age as Caleb, Now we don't know that he is, but this is just food for thought.

If he's roughly the same age of Caleb, then the people have been living, dwelling in their inheritances for something like 25 years. Because at the time of the dividing up of the land, Caleb was about 85 years old. The text told us that. And chapter 24 is going to tell us that Joshua dies at 110 years old. So if those men are similar in age, then it has been a period of decades that the people have been dwelling in the land.

Now Joshua calls the people together. In any event, it has been plenty long to enjoy and appreciate peace in the land of milk and honey. So at least take that away. They've been enjoying peace in the land of milk and honey for a long time when Joshua calls them together in chapter 23. Joshua summons the nation to where the text doesn't say.

He's going to summon them again in chapter 24. We'll start that next week and it'll tell us where it is at Shechem, but this week we're not told and so it doesn't matter so we shouldn't care. Joshua is old, and he wants to charge the nation to cling to God. So if I get to pick one phrase to summarize why Joshua has summoned all the whole nation together. It is to exhort them earnestly to cling to God.

Matthew Henry says this, he, Joshua, had grown old in their service and had spent himself for their good and therefore was to be the more regarded by them. Amen to that. Exertations aren't all created equal, isn't that true? It sort of depends on who's doing the exhorting. But who in this nation could do anything but come when Joshua summoned them to come?

Who among this nation could do anything but listen carefully when it was Joshua who was giving the exhortation, a man who had grown old in their service and spent himself for their good and no one could deny it. And So when he summons they come and when he speaks they listen. You can believe that. So the nation assembles and Joshua addresses them, and especially the leaders. It says that He summoned all Israel, but then the text lists specifically their elders, their heads, their judges, their officers.

Joshua wants the nation to cling to God, and so he wants the leaders to lead in clinging to God. So that's what's happening here. He's exhorting the nation, cling to the God who is, the God of Israel, the God who brought you out of Egypt, cling to him and he's specifically exhorting the leaders of the people to lead in clinging to God. He wants them to model it and he wants them to insist on it. That's what's happening in our text.

Again, Matthew Henry, and he's getting quoted disproportionately this week. I really did read other people, but he's the most quotable so you get him. Matthew Henry says, if they, the leaders, would be prevailed upon to serve God and cleave to Him, they, by their influence on the common people, would keep them faithful. If great men be good men, they will help to make many good." That really is true. If leaders pattern clinging to God, following God, and they insist on it.

It raises the level of the faithfulness among the people that they lead. There is certainly no denying that. We're going to find out in three weeks, in the text that James will be preaching on three weeks from now, that Joshua's exhortations were heeded by these leaders. Listen to Joshua 24 verse 31. It's right at the end of the book of Joshua.

Joshua 24 verse 31, 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." So what Joshua is calling the leaders to, the leaders actually follow him to, and the people as a consequence serve the Lord all the days of Joshua, and when he dies, all the days of these leaders that he's exhorting in our text. It's wonderful to see. May God give us that and more. Joshua calls witnesses. What are his witnesses?

Their eyes. He calls their eyes as witnesses. He says, you've seen God fought for you and you saw it with your own eyes. Because God fought for you, I have divided the land among you for your inheritance. Even the land of the nations that still remain.

Know that God will expel those nations too, and drive them out of your sight just as he promised. By the way, if we go back and we look at the promises that God made. He promised them that He wouldn't do it all at once. Now He's defeated the main body of their enemies, but as we've seen all along, there are unbelieving Gentiles who still remain in the land God said that would be true He said in his promises that he wouldn't drive them all out at once But that he would continue to give them the ability to drive the remaining people out of the land as they Multiplied and gained in strength, then they would be able to continue to dispossess the remaining unbelievers. So this isn't inconsistent with the promises.

This was actually part of the promises. God said that would be true, and it has been true. And Because God has already accomplished the big things before their eyes, He can call their eyes as witnesses, there is no reason for them to doubt that He will continue to accomplish the small things. So that's the argument being made in verses 1-5. You saw the big things get accomplished among you.

So have no doubt about the small things, these weaker, remaining, unbelieving Gentiles. You'll be able to displace them because God will continue to be with you and he will continue to fulfill his promises. So Joshua begins in praise to God because God is so worthy of it and to put the people in a frame of mind of thankfulness he starts with a review of what their eyes had seen. He calls their eyes as witnesses to God's goodness and his faithfulness to them. So Joshua has this internal compulsion as he sees the finish line of his life and he knows the race is coming to an end to call the people together and to review God's faithfulness and to call their eyes as witnesses that they've seen God after a long period where they have enjoyed peace in the land flowing with milk and honey.

So these are people coming out of their homes that they didn't build, with wells they didn't dig, and cities they didn't build, with vineyards that they didn't plant. They've been enjoying this abundance and now that's the context for God calling them together. Let's move on to the next subsection. We'll look at verses 6 through 10. Follow along as I re-read Joshua 23, 6-10.

Therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations, but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as he promised you." In these verses we have what should be the result.

Obedience. So obedience fills in the blank. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in the blanks. What should be the result? Obedience.

This section and the next section both begin with the word, Therefore, as a consequence of what was just said, this should be the result of all that was just said. Because God fought for you and gave you this land, and because God pledges to continue to drive out your enemies before you, something should result from that. Well, what should result from God being faithfulness to drive out these great and mighty nations and His pledge to continue to do so? Be full of courage to obey Him and cling to Him. That's what should result from God's faithfulness and giving them victory of their enemies.

They should be full of courage to do what? To obey God and to cling to Him. Now, we're not new to exhortations to obey God and cling to God. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound like every sermon ever preached?

Obey God, cling to God. That's not new. What we are perhaps new to is the concept of courage being required to obey God and cling to God. Why would you need courage to obey God and cling to God because so many things, big things, mighty things, are pulling in exactly the opposite direction. You don't float with the current into obedience to God and into steadfastness and holding to God.

That's not where the current takes you. The current takes you in exactly the opposite direction. If you just go with the flow, if you just float on the current, you don't end up in obedience, you end up in disobedience, you don't end up clinging to God, you end up drifting away from God. Obeying God and clinging to God have many enemies, and they are mighty enemies. The big three are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world, not just planet Earth, but unbelieving planet Earth. Most of the population of planet Earth is unbelieving, and they have a system that they function comfortably within. It's perfectly compatible with their unbelief. The world stands against you obeying God and clinging to God. But if you didn't have a single unbeliever, if you didn't have any systems rigged for the comfort of unbelievers, you would still have your own corruptions.

The truth is you don't need anything at all outside of yourself to draw you from obedience and clinging to God. You have all that you need right in your own heart. The remaining corruptions of your own heart. And it will be that way until you die and go to heaven. And then we'll be free from those remaining corruptions, but not a day sooner.

Not a minute sooner. Not a second sooner. You have your flesh, which is at war with a resurrected spirit. This is the reality of the believer. The spirit raised to life but the flesh, the old man dragging against, pulling in the other direction.

And the devil, he's like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. His demonic forces are always, always, Always trying to pull you into disobedience and to forsake your God. To turn loose of God. Obeying God and clinging to God in verse 8 is called holding fast to God. It is a straight and narrow road.

And straying just a little to the right, straying just a little to the left is taking on enormous risks. We are among nations with other gods and those gods clamor for our attention. They want our affections and they want us to serve them. God is the only one worthy of our love and loyalty, but the other gods are clamoring for both. They're clamoring for our love.

All day, every day, the other gods out there, the other gods of the nations, the gods of the unbelieving world that has systems rigged for their comfort are clamoring for your affections. To pull your affections away from the God who is worthy of them to these other things that are unworthy of them and your loyalty. They want your service and your loyalty. They want your love and your service and your loyalty. Look at the progression that Joshua outlines in the second half of verse 7.

So go to verse 7 and then go to about the halfway point, the start of the new sentence. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them. What you have here is an escalation of unfaithfulness. Do you see that?

It's unfaithfulness ramping up. It starts with making mention of their God. Just taking up their Gods on your lips. Having it in your consciousness and articulating. And then those Gods want to be used in your oaths.

The world wants you to make commitments and they want you to name their gods in the commitments that you make. To swear by those gods and then the end of the escalation of unfaithfulness is bowing down and serving them. It never starts with bowing down and serving them. It never starts with bowing down and serving them. It always starts with just giving them a little mind share.

A little share of your mind. Just taking up the names of those gods on your lips. If you're not careful, you're a little to the right or a little to the left, and you'll start making them part of your commitments, and then you'll drift further away and you never mapped out a path to bow down and serve these other gods, but you'll find yourself bowing down and serving these other gods. Joshua is calling for a radical separation. Not only that you not bow down and serve them, but that you go way upstream from bowing down and serving those gods and purge it from your conscience and not take them on your lips.

These other things that clamor for our affection and our service, our worship, be purged even from your vocabulary. Two common sayings come to mind. Nip it in the bud and slippery slope. What does nip it in the bud mean? It means you snip it at the first sign.

You don't let it continue to grow. No, no, no. When it's just a bud, it hasn't bloomed, it hasn't even started to bloom yet, but you see the bud and you know what will happen if you let it go. So you snip it off at the very first sign. It's nipping it in the bud.

Joshua was calling for that. Don't even take the names of those gods up on your lips. Nip it in the bud. Slippery slope. What does that mean?

Well, just imagine a hill that's been greased. Now, you might think, well, I'll just step right on the edge of the hill. You can't step on the edge of a greased hill. Where will you end up if you step on the edge of a greased hill? At the bottom of the hill.

And then how will you get up? How will you climb back to where you started? How will you get back to square one when you're at the bottom of the greased hill? Joshua is calling for nipping in the bud at the very first sign of idolatry. When that thing has just started to get its hooks into you, clamoring for your affection and your service, to cut it off then.

Before you end up at the bottom of a greased hill with no foreseeable way to get back to where you started. Why should we be so precise that we would even purge these things from our vocabulary? Why so uptight, believers? Why you gotta be so uptight? Your relatives ever say that to you?

Your neighbors ever say that to you? Your friends ever say that to you? Here's why we should be so precise. Because our God has given us many impossible victories apart from His grace. Many many impossible victories apart from His grace.

In other words, if it's not for the undeserved favor of an almighty God who can do what no one else can do, these things would be impossible. That's God's work in your life. Look at verses 9 and 10. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. That was impossible, apart from His grace.

But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. That was impossible apart from His grace. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as He promised you. One putting a thousand to flight is impossible apart from His grace. That's why the people of God should be precise.

That's why we should be so careful to honor and so careful not to dishonor this God of grace who has done the impossible for us. The Apostle Paul says it this way, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." In other words, in view, in the shadow of the mercies of God, the impossible victories, but by His grace, given to you, one after the other after the other, and in the shadow of those mercies, offering yourself as a living sacrifice is just a reasonable service. It's just the natural conclusion. It's really the only conclusion to be drawn. If God would be this kind to someone like me, just offering myself back up as a living sacrifice is simply a reasonable service.

God has done so much for His people. Obedience ought to be what results from this goodness of God towards us. And by the way, the language of verse 10 doesn't have to be figurative language. This is one putting a thousand to flight. When God fights for you, one can literally put a thousand to flight.

If you don't believe me, go to Judges 15 and read about Samuel with nothing but the jawbone of a donkey killing a thousand men. There's nothing in me that believes that's mythology. I think a literal man with a literal name picked up a literal jawbone and literally killed a thousand men. Well that's impossible. Apart from the grace of God, that's impossible.

But God fights for his people. Next section, verses 11-13. Joshua 23, 11-13. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God. Or else, if indeed you go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go into them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you.

That they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you." These verses we have what should be the result, love. In the last section it was what should be the result, obedience. Now it's what should be the result, love. Again the section begins with therefore, because the Lord has driven out great and strong nations, And because the Lord pledges to make you so that one can put a thousand to flight, be careful to love Him. Because those things are true, believers should be careful to love him.

This is the second consecutive chapter where love for God has been the centerpiece. I remember when Joshua dismissed the eastern tribes, he told them this. Look back at 22 verse 5. He's dismissing the Eastern tribes. He says, But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, And to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

This is last week's text. And I made the argument, I think the very biblical argument, that love for God is the centerpiece from that and then all those other things, holding fast to Him, etc., etc., there are four other things, are the fruit of loving God. They're the evidence that your love for God is genuine. Because love for God actually produces things in your life, though. That's all that it's saying.

It's not setting up anything in comparison with love for God. Love for God is the great commandment. Listen to David Howard, the commentator. He says, at the heart of this speech, almost exactly midway through it, Joshua challenged the people to love the Lord their God, which was the heart of their duties as His people. Everything else, including the important exhortations to obey everything in the law and to avoid pagan entanglements, was a means to an end.

Everything else is a means to an end, which was that Israel should have a close, close and loving relationship with its God. The constant exhortations to Israel to be faithful to God were not given in a sterile or harshly demanding environment. Rather, they were issued in service of the larger principle that God wanted a loving relationship with His people. Amen, and amen, and amen. All of these other things are in service to this, that God wants a close and loving relationship with His people.

And so His commandments guard the close loving relationship that He wants with his people. If you skip past the close loving relationship that God wants with you, just to the do's and don'ts, oh heaven help you, you end up with a crushing burden that can never be borne, and it chokes all of the life out of your religious life. It's no religious life at all. What God is really after is the close loving relationship with His people and the commands guard it. So to discard the sweetness of the closeness and loving relationship with God to just the safeguards is such a tragedy.

May God keep us from that. Now, what would it mean to take careful heed to yourself regarding loving God? It is a matter of ongoing self-examination for genuine affection. In other words, you're always, you're consistently, You're repeatedly looking inside to discern, like have I gone past the close loving relationship and to where I'm just focused on the safeguards now? Have I taken my eyes off of love, which is at the center, the great commandment, and now I'm only on these other peripheral commandments that are only supposed to safeguard the main thing.

I'm not looking at the main thing anymore, I'm looking at the peripheral things that were just a means to that end. It's a matter of ongoing self-examination for genuine affection. Is this real affection that I'm living out of, or has it become something else over time? This happens by degrees. The frog gets boiled in the pot one degree at a time.

And this is how it happens, where genuine affection from God cools over time. And even becomes, not even the emphasis anymore, not even the center anymore, one degree at a time. So we need to take careful heed to ourselves. Ongoing self-examination for genuine affection and hunting for idols. What is it that John Calvin said?

The human heart is a factory of idols. No sooner have you smashed one than another is coming off the conveyor belt. You're never done with your heart creating idols. You always need to be standing there with a bat ready to smash the next one that comes off the conveyor belt, because there was always a next one to come off the conveyor belt. So ongoing self-examination for genuine affection, but also hunting for idols, standing at the end of the conveyor belt with the bat, ready to smash the next idol that comes off hunting for those idols, those things that are clamoring for your affection and to be served by you but they're not worthy of it.

Matthew Henry says this I warned you. We must always stand upon our guard for many a precious soul is lost and ruined through carelessness. So right. So often has love for God ceased to be at the center of things just over carelessness. Not meaning to abandon the love of God, but just being thoughtless and careless and drifting and not perceiving that you're drifting.

Oh friends, listen to Joshua and don't go back. Don't go back to your old loves. Don't go back to your old habits. Don't go back to your old relationships. What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?

What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them.

I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you. And you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

That's the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 1.