Farewell to Israel’s Leaders (Part B)

God orders the Jew to not live and let live when it comes to false gods in their land.

We have the same orders with this difference. When we are told to preach the gospel, we are to give no mercy to false ideas. We're not to say to the other person, well, I'll give you that. We aren't giving them anything. They're wrong. And we need to let them know that. If they come up with an argument, we can say, you know what, I'll get back to you later. But just remember, you're wrong. And the difference is, is you're going to hell for that wrong.

You don't like it, but you know it. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with today's message called Farewell to Israel's Leaders as he teaches through Joshua chapter 23. How easily irritated and offended and potentially mean we can be. God still uses us. That makes us near invincible from hell's perspective. God's prerogative, his prerogative, is to judge the nations because he is God.

If he can judge these nations, he can do whatever he wants to do. And if he says he can love me, then who's going to stop him? Psalm 44, the psalmist reflecting on these events, many centuries, ladies, as we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days, in days of old. Have you ever said, you helped Daniel out, why won't you help me?

You said in your word that you'd never leave or forsake, how come I can't find you? And then he goes on to the psalmist, you drove out the nations with your hand, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples and cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arms save them, but it was your right hand, your arm, in the light of your countenance, because you favored them. See that psalmist knew God's love. He looked at the scriptures.

He saw Joshua's record. He saw that God had given them the land. Jesus, he talks about his right to judge the nations. That means to judge the planet, because he owns it. And he says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, see when they were looking at him when he spoke those words, he was in his humanity.

The only time his glory really flashed visibly was at the transfiguration and then of course at the resurrection. The Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, and he's going to be crowded, and he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. So Joshua is saying the nations, they have been judged because it is the God that judges them that loves you, that separates the sheep from the goats, and you have to take it by faith at many points in your life as a believer. Those are the rules.

You can't change them. You have to take what God says by faith, not by experience. Thus Job says, though he slay me, I will trust him. Who would say such a thing except the man of faith? A faithless one would never say that. A faithless one says, seeing is believing. Faith will say, believing is seeing.

We have eyes not in the back of our head. We have eyes in eternity. Verse 5, and Yahweh your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight so you shall possess their land as Yahweh your God has promised you. He's hitting these promises. He's saying, lads, God is going to fulfill his word.

Be part of it. And you say, well, they never did really lay hold of these promises. What would have been the story had they not gotten so much that they did get?

It would have been worse. Of course, after a while, they began to think because Messiah was coming from them, they were exempt from judgment. They were wrong. God said, I can still bring Messiah from you and not wipe you out and make you pay.

And that's exactly what happened. Well, Joshua 24 is one of many places in the book of Joshua where he names these people because none of these original people remain in the land. They're all gone. You will not meet a Girgashite.

And if you do, he's lying. The Amorites, the Pezorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, but I delivered them into your hand. They're gone.

Promise fulfilled. It wasn't as choreographed as we would like it. The Bible is not that way. We want a clean cut to jagged edges all over the place, but the cuts are made nonetheless.

I've had some big trees I've been cutting up in my yard that fell in the storm and some of my cuts, they're not clean, but they're cuts and that wood is almost gone. And that's the story. What is the objective? To get to heaven and hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. All of us will look in back of ourselves at least one time when we get to heaven. When he says that, when he says good and faithful, who are you talking about?

I've heard of this before, but he's got to be talking about somebody else. So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. Wickedness was greatly reduced by the efforts of this generation. Had they not made such an impact on the land that they did, looking at the glass half full rather than half empty, if they did not make such an impact, then the future generations would have had no chance. There would have been no Samson and no Shamgar. That's a wonderful name.

Sounds like a superhero. Kill the hundred with an ox go, Shamgar. Anyway, Psalm 37 verse 11, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. This is exalted to a large degree, but it's gonna end and the meek shall inherit the earth. The ones that put Christ first, them second, at least in their heart because the flesh of course is just a vicious, savage, invasive prickly vine, noxious to the core.

Doesn't die a natural death and resurrects daily, but the time will come when it will no longer be there. Verse 6, 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. He says, follow the word of God or else you're gonna get out of the lane. You're gonna crash. You're gonna take veer off, go somewhere you don't belong.

You're going to trespass. Stay with the word of God. And we become Christians and we say, yes, that's what I want to do. And there's the fight. Forces pushing us, pulling us away.

Alignment ruined, all sorts of problems. And God is just saying, I need you to just stick with me. And we're saying, I need you to take these problems away. And well, whose will will be done? God is not, he doesn't have the same view that we have. It's ours that's more emotional. Who would want to follow a God that let the Bethlehem children be slaughtered? Those who see beyond the grave, that's who. Very simple answer.

Those children could have been spared more than we would ever know. Tough stuff. No way around it.

If you got a better idea, I'd like to not hear it because I've heard enough of them to know there's no better way. Peter said, where else are we going to go? This is it. We've heard the Gentiles, what they believe. We've heard what the rabbis say. We've heard what you say.

This is right. Not everybody agreed with Peter. Many of them left. They couldn't get past that sermon. Happens often. I don't whine anymore to God about that.

It's pointless. Anyway, it takes God-given courage to live up to the Christian life. It's a hard life. Make no mistake. The Christian life is not, you know, what's that song? Dancing, walking through the tulips, the Tiny Tim song. I'm glad I can't remember it. No, don't say it.

Tiptoe through the tulips. I said it. Have to cleanse the pulpit tomorrow. It's not the Christian life or anybody else's life. Acts, chapter 14, Paul was careful to let his congregation know you're going to suffer. As Christians, it's going to be hard. Surprise. Acts, chapter 14, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lyriconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.

Make a nice bumper sticker. Understatement from a man who was shipwrecked, beaten, hounded, chased, vilified by those he loved. We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God, but we enter, and there we inherit the most beautiful things ever. Sometimes in my low points, I feel the devil saying, why preach the gospel?

To have a Christian life like you, you have to suffer these things because it's worth it. Because at the end is more than a pot of gold. The streets of gold.

Everything is wonderful and painless. Well, he says, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses. They are the people of the book. Jesus said it this way, teaching them to observe all things, all things that I have taught you or commanded you, he actually says, the imperative.

And then he says, lo, he must have said it this way, I am with you always, because he went low. All right, anyway, Ephesians chapter 2 answers a big question. Why am I suffering and the center of God's love?

If he loves me, I shouldn't be suffering. Well, there's work to be done, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That is a very profound statement. The good works, the Greek is poema. We get our English word, poem. We are the poetry of God. We are an expression that is not a boring expression. It is an expression on another level. It is an expression that invites memory to memorize the expression for future use. Isn't that not what poetry is?

Isn't it more noble to suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune? I mean, when we listen to Shakespeare we say, boy, I wish I could talk like that. I bet you he didn't talk like that. But he wrote like that.

And he's not the only one. Lest you turn aside to the right hand of the left. Colossians 1, if indeed you continue in the faith. If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven of which I, Paul, became a minister. Paul throws in a little, I've been preaching this to everybody.

Anybody sharing my GPS gets the gospel. Of course, not walking down the street surviving in the sea, he's not preaching the gospel. But it's a hyperbole. It's a justifiable hyperbole. He's throwing it out there.

The gospel is preached. You know, we see Satan trying to shut down our voices, censor us. It's not new. It's happened. It's happened to the Jews. It's happened to other people. It's happening to us now. In the book of Revelation, an angel will be a messenger, will be dispatched with the everlasting gospel because God will not be silenced.

He owns everything. And that's what Paul is trying to say. The gospel goes out. It's preached to everyone who will hear it. First Samuel chapter 12, that great, here's the Samuel quote I was talking about earlier, and do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. It's so concise, Samuel. He doesn't, I would say something like, do not turn against those stupid, idiotic, dumb, moronic, demonic, and just go on his rant and lose the point.

The preaching covered up the preacher's points. Samuel just gets right to the point. He says, don't go after empty things. They're nothing. Right to the point.

Profound. Verse 7, unless 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.

Joshua means business here. These are capital crimes he's talking about. And he's just sort of just speaking it out. God orders the Jew to not live and let live when it comes to false gods in their land.

We have the same orders with this difference. When we are told to preach the gospel, we are to give no mercy to false ideas. We're not to say to the other person, well, I'll give you that. We aren't giving them anything. They're wrong.

And we need to let them know that. If they come up with an argument, we can say, you know what, I'll get back to you later. But just remember, you're wrong. And the difference is, is you're going to hell for that wrong. You don't like it, but you know it.

Because it's built into you. God has put eternity in man's heart. There is a concern about what happens after this life.

In time, he can build up enough callous to have his conscience seared with a hot iron. But before they get to that place, may we intercept them. Deuteronomy 12, and you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, burn their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. And you shall run over their pagan idols with your car.

And you just, it just kind of goes on. Exodus 23 brings it out also. Exodus 23, verse 13. And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect, be careful, and make no mention of the name of their gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. It's not cute, God says. I don't want to hear it.

They're fake, demonic renderings, not interested. Show no honor to them. Give them no sense of identity or tolerance.

The very thing the world hates. They're supposed to tolerate this, tolerate this. They want to pick and choose what you can tolerate and what you cannot tolerate. Show no honor to what these people believe. That's why they're being judged.

They are wrong, and they want to remain wrong. There was nothing broad-minded about becoming familiar with demonic things. David picks up on this, and one of the special things about David, though he committed moral sins, he never committed spiritual sins. Unlike Solomon, David wrote, their sorrow shall be multiplied who hasten after another god, which is a violation of the first commandment. Their fake offering of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips.

I won't even say it. He refused to recognize fake gods as existing, except, of course, in the minds of those sinning. Total intolerance to the notion, to the idea, Psalm 119, through your precepts I get understanding.

Therefore, I hate every false way. This was David's life, how he struggled, how he struggled. The sweet psalmist of Israel tripped up a couple of times, but he was always loving the Lord, and when he didn't, he says, my bones, my bones, I could feel it in my bones. Conflict between God's Word and Satan's world is standard.

We are to expect it, and there are no exceptions. Zechariah 9, for I have bent Judah my bow, fitted the bow of Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man. There is a conflict. It's irreconcilable when it comes to who Jesus Christ is. For the Jew, it was who Yahweh was.

We know that Jesus is Yahweh of the Old Testament. There is no reconciliation. You are either a saint or you ain't. There is nothing in between. Now, if there is, it's not our concern. That's God's business.

That's not our area. We are to follow our orders. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. How they come through him, that's up to him. But we know what we're supposed to be preaching, and we're not to give any mercy to false ideas. And we can do this politely.

We don't have to be vicious. You get it worked up in the pulpit. It's the pulpit's fault. It emits gases or something, off gases, and gets us excited.

Happens all the time. Isaiah, I love, you know, I've been, I've had so many quotes in here from Isaiah. I say, well, you know, I haven't been in Isaiah in probably a year. Through the whole book, I know I read it recently, about a year ago, and just getting so much, I'm getting, I need to get back to Isaiah.

There's so much fruit in here. But here in chapter 2, he just goes off. He says, Now I shall come to pass in latter days that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on the top of the mountains. I don't want to read all that part because it's good, but that's, oh, house of Jacob, verse 5, Isaiah 2.

And let us walk in the light of Yahweh, for you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with eastern ways. They are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners. Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land is also full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots. In other words, he's saying, oh, they're doing well economically, but they're demonic.

That's what the prophet is saying. Their land is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. People pout down, and each man humbles himself. Therefore, do not forgive them.

Fierce. That just makes him a prophet of God, totally intolerant of anything that mocks the Creator. And when we come across those who are doing it ignorantly, then we are to light candles in the dark for them. That's why Jesus said, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world. Idolatry would, unfortunately, despite Joshua's pleas and warnings about idolatry, it will become the greatest problem in the land.

And it will persist, resulting in the collapse of the nation, or the kingdom by that time. Verse 8, we'll come back to that. We're only, we got to get rolling here. You're holding me up.

It's better, the Bible says somewhere, I'm sure it's better to blame others than yourself. We wish. No, we don't.

The flesh does. Okay, this is a siliquy we're having up here, aren't we? Whether it is noble or in the mind. But you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day. You see, he warns them and he says, but you, you've been doing it right. You've been getting this right.

You've been walking the walk. I love that encouragement. Isn't it not wonderful to encourage people? I don't mean blame encouragement. I mean genuine encouragement. It's nice to do that. To focus on the victories and what is propelling us, moving us forward and not all the junk.

Sometimes you have to. God protects the souls that are saved because he saved them and he protects us. And that's what Peter tried to communicate to us. Joshua says, you shall hold fast, cleave to the Lord as you've done.

God is doing that for you. Peter says, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved for you in heaven. You've got your parking spaces just waiting in heaven. There's a place at the table for you.

It'd be kind of bad. You get to heaven, all those saved souls you got to drive around looking for parking. Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Why are they kept by God? Because man can't do it. That's why.

Here's a simple answer. Devotion. It is an endangered attribute in all of us. Satan targets our devotion.

He throws distractions our way. Fun things. It's why we have to try to pay attention to duty. Get the things done. You know, find a routine and a rhythm.

That will help. If you have a routine and rhythm, you get committed to that. The assembly, the routine assemblies of the church are designed to create a rhythm and it works. Imagine, well you don't have to imagine. You can look at nations where it doesn't exist. How's the church in Afghanistan doing these days? Yeah, that's the point. It's not.

And there are efforts to get it to, but it hasn't been going very well. To fix our gaze on eternity, we've got to have things that are fun and exciting. I mean, it's not all, you know, the stoic approach to Christianity, the songs, you know. But if you put too much weight into songs, what happens when you go to church and you don't like any of the songs?

I mean, you've created a condition that you have no right to create. Songs are a bonus. They are not, and many will be offended by this. They're not essential.

They are very good, though. That's why the Psalms, we have them, we're given to them, but the emphasis is not on singing. You can rejoice without singing. Do you know? Nowhere in the Bible are we told angels sing? That doesn't mean they don't.

But it's kind of interesting that that's kind of held back. One man, verse 9, for the Lord has driven out before you the great and strong nations, but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you this day. This is thrice emphasized in this chapter, verse 5, 9, and 13. He emphasizes no one can stand because God did this for you.

Verse 10, one man of you shall chase a thousand, for Yahweh your God is He who fights for you as He promised. What about Paul? Paul was sent to Caesar, got to preach to Caesar. God promised that. I don't have to read, and Paul spoke to Nero, because I have to read, all I have to read is God said to him, you shall stand before Caesar.

Done. And then Paul was eventually killed. I thought no man could stand before him.

God just put up another one. It's not Paul, just another servant comes up, and this has been the story of the church. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua right here on Cross Reference Radio.