Covenant 10/25/2020

Well, it's great to be back together with you in person after a break last week, but they had a good time with the boys. I don't know if any of you guys caught our covenant at home service, but the had a good time returning the worship with Brayden and price and with the cat trapped in the garage and all that kind of stuff. So she wouldn't mess up the broadcast thing and it was fun to get to the Worship the Lord with them and see their eagerness to Worship in song and express their love for the Lord and all that. He has done. Well the title of my message this morning is Joshua and the conquest of Canaan and we're continuing our series entitled forerunners of the faith to look at a man who stands out in the biblical witness is one of great faith. a great wisdom and of great courage Joshua is we have learned so far was a remarkable man. He came on to the stage of history as the assistant of Moses an Egyptian slave. One of the Israelites slaves in Egypt. He would have watched as Moses and Aaron arrive from a far-off land to share the good news that God would bring about the Redemption of his people and the liberation of his people from their Egyptian bondage, but as they made their way out of Egypt it sometime along that way and sometime early in the process is selected Joshua to be his assistant to help him in the tax that God had given him and and Joshua did just that and he did that Faithfully. Joshua a company Moses up onto the Mount Mount Sinai is God provided the law and the Ten Commandments you remember that it was Joshua on the way down from the Mountain Dew was first to hear the noise in the Israelite Camp Moses. He said it must be a warrior a battle reply with it's not the sound of a fighting but the sound of singing of course, they discovered that Israel had turned its back on the Lord and not very short 40 day process. Will Moses was picked by I'm sorry, Josh. Joshua was picked by Moses not simply to be an assistant But ultimately to be his successor. It's clear that the Lord's hand was on Moses as he called Joshua to serve him and ultimately succeed him as the one who would lead Israel. Remember that it was Joshua and Caleb who were sent by Moses as spies into the land of Canaan. The first time Israel came through and they along with 12 others went throughout the land to basically get a sense of what it was like what the land provided and what the people were like of the fortifications that marked the different cities that made up the promised land in Joshua returned along with Caleb with one of the only positive reports of the 12 Spies who went we can take the land. Because of our own great strength, but because the Lord is with us and these men who live in the land will be no match for us yet tragically as we've learned the people of Israel did not listen to Joshua. They did not listen to Kayla but they proved faithless and that generation because of their faith listening is fell in the wilderness. 40 years passed and Moses went on to be with the Lord but not until the Lord called Joshua to serve as Moses's successor and is the last member of that faithless generation feliway the Lord once again called his people the children of that faithless generation to return to the borders of the promised land as he was going to welcome their men to the promise that he had made to Abraham some 450 years earlier. We talked about it a little bit last week with the boys, but it was God who was calling his people into this promised land and you made that very clear to them as he brought them to the very edge of the territory of Canaan Jordan River stood before him before then and the Lord in a miraculous act part of the waters. That is people might make their way through This time the Ark of the Covenant sat there in the middle of the Jordan as the waters held and the people past and God brought his people into the promised land to begin the conquest of Canaan. We learn from this is that God was with him. This was not simply a political Uprising or the the Battle of one nation against another it would not be the strength of men that would deliver the land into their hands, but it would be the presence and power of the Lord God Almighty the very God who had delivered them from the hand of pharaoh the greatest army the greatest leader that the world had ever seen would bring them into the promised land and established in there and the land that he had promised to give Moses so many centuries before and if they came into the land the people heard of it they heard that just as God had once parted the Red Sea as they exited Egypt this great mass of people who were marked by A Cloud by day and a pillar of Fire by night to walk the long side of a God who would conquered the greatest nation the greatest god the Pharaoh King that the world had ever. Known with entering into their land and Joshua chapter 2 verse 8, we here at the fear of the Lord fell upon all the people of the land of Canaan as the Israelites entered in Joshua to a tells this this it's the words of Rahab to the spies, but it's the understanding of all the people of Cana. I know that the Lord has given you this land and made a great fear of you has fallen on us so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to spy on an dog, the two kings of the amorites east of the Jordan whom you completely destroyed when we heard of it or Hearts melted In Fear And everyone's courage failed because of you For the Lord your God is in heaven above and on the earth below. The people of Canaan were aware that is the Israelites entered into their land. They did not enter with the strength of men but they entered as the people of the Lord God Almighty and the Canaanites were woefully fearful of what was to come. Joshua Sims 2 spies into Jericho the first fortified City that they come to we talked about this with the boys a little bit last week Joshua's plan. Apparently the plan that the Lord provided to him was to enter into the center of the nation of Israel the very middle portion to conquer the Fortified city of Jericho, which was one of its greatest stronghold been to move South through the countryside Conquering the people to the southern portion of the land and then finally to move north to take over the northern portion of the land. It wasn't simply a plan that Joshua came up with himself, but you recall from our steady last week even as Joshua in the scouts were scouting out Jericho for their first attack upon this Canaanite stronghold Joshua met a man there outside the walls of Jericho who the scriptures tell us was the commander of the Lord's army. I talked about this with the boys last week, but I want to return to it because it's important for us to understand this moment. We find it in Joshua chapter 5 verse 13 and it's a remarkable moment in all of scripture. It stands out. Here's what Joshua 5:13 recalls when Joshua was by Jericho. He lifted up his eyes and and looked and behold a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand and Joshua went to him and said to him are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said no, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come and Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and worshipped and said to him. What does my Lord say to his servant and the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is Holy in Joshua did so here is one of those remarkable Encounters in the pages of the Old Testament with the Lord himself. The theologians call it a christophany and appearance of the second person of the Trinity the Son of God Christ before his Incarnation before he took on the appeared here to Joshua and he had appeared prior to this in our Biblical accounts the ones that we've studied as well, we're told in Genesis that the Lord walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day each and every day God communed and related to them and who wasn't that commune with them it was the son who alone is the mediator between God and man in human form probably anticipating that nature he would take on as he became flesh and dwelt Among Us in the person of Jesus Christ. And even as God the Lord had spoken to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, so to he met with Abraham you work are the three visitors that came to Abraham's tent one of whom was The Lord himself and he shared with Abraham that he was about to bring great destruction on the people of Sodom you recall from that encounter. He asked why would I hide from my servant Abraham what I'm about to do and the two angels that would go and Destroy Sodom and God's judgment accompany the Lord those three visitors and spoke to Abraham in that exchange Israel or Jacob wrestle with a man of the Ford of the Jabbok River man who changed his name from Jacob to Israel. It was none other than the Lord himself and hearing before God's people enter in to take hold of the promised land the Lord meets with Joshua. The commander of the Lord's army if you join with us last week the boys and I read from Revelation 19 that final picture of this very Commander with White Horse Inn White hair and a sword in his hand coming back to bring God's judgement on the world that one on who spies and Scribe The Words king of kings and Lord of lords Jesus the Christ stands before Joshua and gives him a strategy to conquer the promised land and Joshua trees fully follows it but the strategy is not what we might expect. Joshua encounter Christ here in learns the strategy that the Lord would have him under take to overtake the Canaanites and he returns to the people of the Lord and he prepares them to go to Jericho. It would have been a great city with a mighty wall a high wall 30 40 50 feet in the air high enough that it could not easily have been overtaken you remember from the story of Rahab. It rahab's house was right up against the wall of the city and it was through the wall to the window of her home that she let the spies out over the walk to escape for their very lives. And so obviously that window was in low where anyone could enter in but high up on the side of the wall there in Jericho and so is the Israelites came to this fortified City. They came to see like they had not seen before. How would they overtake it would seems that the Lord and his encounter with Joshua outside the the city walls had given him a plan Joshua 6:1 tells us that even as the Israelites came toward Jericho the people of Jericho shut the city gates to protect themselves from the oncoming Army that Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel none went in and none came out. Now. You probably are aware that ancient cities were often fortified with high walls and Powerful Gates and places where soldiers could stand Atop The Walls in attack on coming armies many times. These cities would had Provisions in place that they could withstand a Siege of many months if not more than a year. If it was very possible that the people of Jericho simply plan to wait out. The people of Israel were told in the book of numbers that that's a Moses and Aaron had done a census The Men Who were prepared for battle in Israel. And the number was 600,000 Warriors now course. Generation passed away in the desert and yet they would have had sons and maybe even more than their own number. So the great Army that would have come up against Jericho would be 600004 habits of million strong and the city hunker down to try to endure in the face of this great attack. Joshua address the people he presented to them the plan that God had for them to attack attack this great Canaanite stronghold and and here's what he told them. It was a surprising plan in one that I'm certain caught many of these Warrior Men by surprise. If I didn't Joshua chapter 6 verse 2 and following and the Lord said to Joshua CIA giving you Jericho. I've given it into your hand with its king and Mighty Men of Valor you shall March around the city all the men of War going around the city once does Xiao you do for 6 days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the Ark on the seventh day. You shall March around the city seven times and the priest shall blow the trumpets and the wind they make a long blast with the Rams Horn when you hear the sound of the trumpet than all the people Shout Shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people shall go up everyone straight before him. This sounds like a kind of a strange plan for battle. Don't you think? I'm sure that the warriors were a little taken aback as they had certainly prepared themselves for a great conflict even his generals make plans soldiers certainly second-guess those plans and yet these men these Warriors who were prepared for batter for willing to obey and day-by-day this great army of the Lord marched around the walls of Jericho in silence. Can you imagine being one of the citizens of Jericho who saw this? Great Army coming against you who closed the gates and trusted and it security many other armies had, and you had withstood their forces. And so to this Army though. It was vath you very well would have thought that you would have prevailed against but you never would have seen any army with the strategy white vs. Army call. The other armies came and they fought and you were prepared to to repel them. And with with ladders are ropes. They tried to climb over the top of the wall, but this Army just outside the walls of the city and then began to March around the city once per day and then they left. And the next day came and perhaps the the citizens of Jericho believed it was just a ploy and and so very well, they might have started marking the Israelites over the course of the wall conquer the city with this type of a strategy and yet day to they marched around the city and then day 3 and day 4 and a v in utter silence this great hoard of Warriors marched around the city walls and of The Seventh-Day something unique happen and they made their way around the city. Once I can almost hear one Jericho citizen saying to another will have they made their March around are they leaving and hearing the other ones safe there marching around the second time? I'm sure all the people would have come up to the side of the wall to look over to figure out what was different about this date a second timer third time a fourth fifth sixth seventh time. They made their way around the walls of the city and then they stop It all live Jericho watched until suddenly the shout of a trumpet and the Cry of the people reverberated through the city and then suddenly the walls of that great City that had protected these people for countless Generations fell in a single blast.

the battle untested really Warriors of Israel made their way into the City and cut down the people of Jericho in that moment. Here's what we read at the seventh time Joshua 6:16 when the priest had blown the trumpets Joshua said to the people shout for the Lord has given you the city and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for Destruction. Only Rahab The Prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hit the messengers whom we sent but you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction remember that phrase. Less when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing of for Destruction and bring trouble upon it but all silver and gold and every best of the bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. I mean set apart for him. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. The people shouted in the trumpets were blown as soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet the people shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat for the people went into the city every man straight before him and they captured the city then they devoted all in the city to destruction both men and women young and old oxen sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword verse 24 and they burn the city with fire and everything in it only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and of iron they put into the treasure Street of the house of the Lord.

It's a striking moment in which God brings his people into land that he had promised Abraham 400 years before. But he hasn't simply bring them into a land to peacefully settles them. He brings them into into the land and in the very presence of Israel in the land the Lord is present and he uses his people to bring his judgment upon the Canaanites and those who live in the land. The language that the scriptures used to talk about this event is the fact that God had told the Israelites that they were to devote the Canaanites cities to destruction. If you were to take nothing with them and they were to leave no one alive. A man or a woman or a child or an animal not a single person on a single animal was to be left living after God's judgement fell upon this city is one of the great challenges of the Old Testament is scholars study and his people look at it. They ask question. How could the Lord God commands such a thing did did did Joshua misunderstand God's intent did they miss use the name of the Lord and in and taking harsh treatment against these people that they conquered? but offer this we come to the scriptures we come with their own presuppositions about who God is and what he can do and even in the course of this series I've challenged you that when you come to the scriptures come to the scriptures with your heart open and your mind open as well read and study carefully and prayerfully to understand who the Lord is Don't impress your own understanding or interpretation upon the scriptures, but let the scripture speak of the god that we serve if who he is.

This event was predicted long before if you recall the story of Abraham. Is he stood before the Lord in Genesis chapter? 15. God had told Abraham that 400 some years later. He would bring Abraham's descendants into this very land and that he would give the land to his descendants but not until the iniquity or the sin of the amorites had reached its full we find the account in Genesis chapter 15 verses 13 through 6. This was not a flip it off the cuff event. This was an act of God's Divine judgement against the Canaanites against the amorites that had been in place for over 400 years as God patiently waited for them to repent if they would here's what we read in Genesis chapter 15 verse 13 Then the Lord said to Abraham again, this is 400 years before this conquering of Jericho. Here's what God Said to Abram know for certain. Picture Offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not their own and it will be afflicted there a speaking here of Egypt for 400 years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions house for you. You shall go to your father's in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here speaking of the land of Canaan in the fourth generation. And here's what's interesting about what God told Abraham so many decades earlier for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet complete. Who were these amorites who were these Canaanites they were the descendants of ham one of the sons of Noah it if you remember the account of Noah, one of his sons after the Orchid found safe ground and they had emerged from the art delivered from God's judgement on the world had treated his father's shamefully. We don't exactly know the details, but it was such a shameful act that's been Noah cursed ham and his descendant. These were the very descendants of ham. And even had said the Lord had proclaimed a curse upon him from Noah's lips. The descendants of ham had set their faces against the Lord they worship false gods and they were completely hardened in heart for the things of the Lord recall what Rahab said to the people of God to the spies as they entered into her house. She said we knew exactly what the Lord had done with you that the Lord God had delivered you from Egypt. Parted the sea that he had conquered Fair Oaks by the power of His might we knew that he defeated the king of all can be shot on your way here and we knew that the Lord had parted the Jordan sea and brought you into our midst and our hearts melted within us. The people of the land the people of pain up knew that the presence of the Israelites in their land signified the presence of the Lord God Almighty. Evie descendants of Noah, these descendants of ham. They knew exactly who the Lord God was paid forsaken him and then turn their backs upon him and now the Lord was present in their match and he brought his judgment upon not only the city of Jericho but upon the whole nation through his people the people of Israel. It's a challenging story. So often as I read even very educated Scholars, but specifically especially secular Scholars, they come to this account and they say how could a good and loving God do such a thing? This is totally out of his character. This is an example of misusing biblical text or or or Joshua in the people of Israel distorting the commands of God, but I asked you As faithful student subscription. Why would it be that God would part the Waters of the Jordan? To call his people into the land that he would give them. Why would it be that Jesus Christ himself would stand and speak to Jericho and provide the strategy for Conquering the city if the people of Israel were acting against the will of God. No, this is the Judgment of God upon people who interned from him. God has the right to bring judgment upon men for the acts that they come in each and every day that we live. We live because of the grace of God. Every one of us has broken God's law all have fallen short of the glory of God. No one is righteous. Not even one. We all deserve God's judgment. We all will face it this way the one day unless we put our faith in Jesus Christ and so hear the righteous and true God the very God who in grace and mercy will ultimately send his son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of those that he calls here. He brings his judgment not eternally, but temporarily upon a very Wicked people see it before in the pages in scripture to it should not surprise us entirely. We saw it in the flood the very story of Hamm's father Noah that they experienced delivered from God's judgment upon the world. We saw it in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as those two angels brought God's judgment upon a very Wicked City whose wickedness had a reason to the heavens. Are we seeing here? Even if Israel enters into the promised land to take these cities, they're taken from a Godless people and God's judgement falls upon them in that very Act. On the one hand, we have an example of the grace of God poured out upon a people who did not deserve it upon the people of Israel who were not more numerous or greater or stronger or more righteous than any of the other people on the Earth, but simply those who God had called his own Israel is a people marked by God's grace and by God's mercy not not marked by any kind of self-righteousness that they possess that distinguishes them from others, but even is God's grace is present in the community of Israel God's judgement falls upon the land of Canaan. It's a stark contrast between the righteous Judgment of a just God and the merciful Grace that he can rightly extend because of what Christ would do on the cross to Sinners who just like the Canaanite would Canaanites would be guilty before him apart from the mercy that he had shown them. Too often we talked about the grace and Judgment of God in the New Testament scriptures through the lens of God's grace and his Mercy because and it sent this is a season of Grace or told in the New Testament that God wants none to perish but he shows great perseverance waiting for those to repent and to call upon his name, but here in the entry of God's people into the promised land God's grace and his judgment or set side-by-side and we cannot brush it under the rug or try to misinterpret scripture to deny what we see the Lord God is righteous and he is good. He is gracious but he is also just and all those events take place in the face of the conquest of Canaan. We see Jericho fall the walls of the city drop not because of battering rams or catapult projectiles. But by the very power of God and God's judgement falls upon the city and the fear of the Lord spreads across the entire land Joshua and the people of God overcome Jericho and made the entire city to destruction that they are to take nothing with them out of that City and get tragically we find one of the Israelites through faithless, even in that act of obedience the next couple of weeks past and Joshua sets his sights on the next great Canaanite City that needs to be taken in the city the city of AI to the land to assess it. They returned and they tell Joshua that it is not a great City like Jericho and so they will know Need to send many troops to overtaken not if the Lord does there and I like he did in Jericho and so they sent only a few thousand men to the city. They expect a great Victory not by their own my core strength, but because the Lord is with him and his promise to go with him and yet the men of the Lord that's the people that Joshua sent are struck down by the citizens of of AI they returned and they wonder why the Joshua comes before the Lord and calls upon the name of the Lord and ask the Lord why they failed in this conquest and God reveals that one of the Israelites had taken devoted things from the city of Jericho. Stolen from the Lord. Play Joshua Rings His Garment and he repents and he asked the Lord to demonstrate who that is and they cast lots between the tribes until eventually a man named. Aiken is identified Aiken confesses that he has in fact broke Faith with the Lord and taken what he was told not to take it to the Lord in judgment bring Akin and his family before the people of Israel and cause them to put a can in his family to death. these are hard stories and harsh realities God's command of obedience is definitive in the life of his people the people of Israel put a can in his family to death for betraying the Lord in the Act of Faith listening is an act that could have cost the entire nation its life and cost the lives of many of the soldiers Faithfully serve the Lord and went to fight against the men of AI but who died because God was not with them because of the sin of achan Now why is it that the Lord was being so explicit with his people in this season will certainly to teach them his way to teach them that he was wholly and that they were not and they needed to obey him with great diligence in the conquests that they would face in. This promised land is the people of the Lord entered into the land of pain and they entered into a land that was Rife with false cultic practices and the worship of false gods and their obedience in their ability to carry out God's judgment upon these Wicked people had to be faithful to the Lord in the midst of such a faithless culture was essential to their survival and it was essential to the conquest that God intended for them to experience. They repent Aiken and his family are put to death and the Lord's power and might return Joshua and the armies of God Head South and they conquered the kingdoms of the South and then they returned North to conquer the kingdoms of the north the city of macadamia lobna licorice guizar egged on Hebron debeer all were devoted to destruction. This is not simply a political act. But an act of God's judgement against the Godless people while at the same time being an active Grace to his people. In fact, we're told Joshua 11:19 how these events transpired. Here's what God's word tells us. There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the hivites the inhabitants of gibeon. They took them all in battle for it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle. In order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy, but be destroyed just as the Lord commanded Moses That language is familiar to us. It's similar to the language of the story of Moses and Pharaoh that unrepentant and unwilling to relent and turn to the Lord these cities head Harden their hearts, but not only had the citizens of these cities hardened their hearts with the Lord had hardened their hearts as well and active judgment underscoring their own Wayward ways and rejection of him. He hardened their hearts as he had hardened Pharaoh's heart that his judgment might befall them. The Book of Joshua is not an easy book to wrestle with but we certainly don't have to write two to brush it under the rug or reinterpreted in some strange lights to soften the realities it's a story of a gracious and merciful god who is called the people unto himself. So they certainly undeserving through whom he would ultimately send a savior to bring about the Redemption of all those that he would call by his name, but it's also a book in which the justice of God is on Full display. For 400 years the Lord had a weighted the repentance of the amorites in the Canaanites and they had rejected him generation upon generation upon generation and here they met with the judgment and Justice of the righteous God the lord of the heavens and earth The God Who is in heaven and who is above the Earth as Ray have recognized as she spoke to the spies only one city repented innocence and that sneakily and was redeemed with a group of men from Gibby and who came and pretending that they had come from a far-off land baby the Israelites to make a covenant. They took with the moldy food and Provisions and tattered clothes and the Israelites ask them who you might be from this land and God has called us to devote this entire land of the destruction and yet to give me I said no or from a far-off country and we have heard of the Lord and we have heard of what he's done with you and we want to make Covenant with you and with your God and so Israel made a covenant with the people of the city of gibeon and they were saved even as Rahab was but apart from Rahab and the gibeonites the Lord brought judgment upon the balance of the land of Canaan. Joshua is a remarkable man. He had a remarkable story. He saw the Deliverance of God from his people from Egypt the crossing of the the CEO of the Red Sea the crossing of the Jordan River the provision that God provided there in the wilderness the fire by Night the cloud by day the walls of Jericho fall to the ground by a mighty Act of God. We should never since been seen before in human history. He saw in each and every battle apart from the moments against AI in the sinfulness of Aiken the power of God, come on behalf of Israel that God might fulfill his promise to Abraham and plant his people in this Promised Land. I don't want to close our story of Joshua and our exploration of his life with his final words to the people of Israel and his final words to us as well at this point. Joshua is 110 years old. It's taken seven years to conquer the land of Canaan and the Lord has given them peace in the land not all of the land is Concord there still many areas that need to be overtaken tragically Israel would fail to do that. They would buying their lives or the lives of the wicked Pagan Canaanites and infect the people of God with god listen to faithless practices, but at this point great pieces falling upon the land and the people of Israel are at home and Joshua addresses them one last time as this seven-year Conquest comes to a close we find his closing words and Joshua chapter 23 The last VS1 it's very familiar to you. And this is how we'll close. Here's what Joshua said to the people of Israel. How long time afterward when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies and Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Joshua summoned. All Israel hits elders and heads its judges and office and sent to them. I am now old and well advanced in years and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake. For it is the Lord your God who is fought for you behold? I have a lot of to you and inheritance for your tribes those Nations that remain along with all the nations that I have already cut off from the Jordan to the Great Sea and the West the Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight and you shall possess their land just as Lord your God. God promised you therefore be very strong to keep in to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses turning aside from its neither to the right hand nor to the left that you may not mixed with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them. There's the theological weight of all of these interactions, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. The Lord is driven out before you great and strong Nations and asked for you. No man has been able to stand before you to this day one man of you. What's the flight a thousand since it is the Lord your God who fights for you just as he promised be very careful there for to love the Lord your God brings you turn back and clean to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them so that you associate with them and they with you know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you but they shall be a snare and a trap for you a whip on your side's and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you And now I am about to go the way of all the Earth and you know in your hearts and souls all of you but not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you all have come to pass for you. Not one of them has failed and then this famous statement that Joshua is so well known for you for and if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord. Choose this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me. And for my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua man who had seen remarkable things unseen God deliver his people from Egypt who had seen God as we read here in his final words to God's people powerfully ensure. It is people would inherit the promised land that he had promised to Abraham 450 years before And knowing every step of the way it was not by the strength or might of the people of Israel that these things came to pass and it was not because of their goodness or their righteousness, but it was because the Lord had shown them grace and mercy and that he went before them that they experienced their success and lived under their grace, even if they tried to Faithfully live out his law. you I wanted the children of God. One of the people that he has called that great commander who stood before Joshua at the wall of Jericho was named Jesus. Is that very name? Joshua Joshua came to Thousand Years Later Not Too Faced the Canaanites or the amorites or the Romans, but to face the very power of sin and death to redeem you not from the grip for grass with a pharaoh or a political ruler or a kingdom, but you redeem you from the very power of death itself. And in this generation the Lord is poured out his grace through you. Among the people admits to you live. Not that you would bring about his destruction that day will come but that you might being about a word of grace and mercy to those who know nothing of it to those who have simply heard of the god of Israel to those who simply heard of the God and Father of Jesus Christ into instead of ring swords to battle as Believers. We bring a profession of Faith a profession of hope and trust in The God Who will loan delivers and whose hand is mighty to save it. So even as God went with Joshua and the people of Israel in this day demonstrating his Justice and his grace at the very same time, so too he goes with you that you might hear the mercy and grace of God with anyone that he places before you. Let's finish our time of worship together with the song entitled king of kings that reflects on all that. God has accomplished in Jesus Christ on our behalf, but stand and Worship the Lord.