Farewell to Israel’s Leaders (Part C)

So obeying God is the first point. The second point is loving God.

They go together. Truth and love. Isaiah 48 verse 18. Oh that you had heeded my commandments.

Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Jesus says it this way, Mark chapter 4. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear. And then in Luke chapter 8 verse 18 he says, therefore take heed how you hear.

There's an emphasis. He's placing on what to do with what you hear. 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. Farewell to Israel's Leaders is the title of Pastor Rick's message today. He'll be teaching in Joshua chapter 23.

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 is 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 said, 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 Old 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 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 up, we've got to get rolling here. You're holding me up.

It's better, remember 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, you 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've 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. It'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. 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. And this is thrice emphasized in this chapter, verse 5, 9, and 13. He emphasized that 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. When the martyrs were being sent to the stake to be burned, I don't remember it was Ridley of the other one, he said, we're going to light a torch in England that won't go out. England's trying to kill that torch to this day. But there are still those preaching the gospel over there.

You'll have two of them in a few months. Verse 10, one man of you shall chase a thousand, for Yahweh your God is He who fights for you as He promised. I read that and I think of a thousand shall fall at my left, my side, a thousand shall fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, it shall not come near me.

Well there's been some pretty close calls. I don't know, Lord, some of these verses are almost debatable were it not for the whole almighty God thing. It's the sense that He is right. And no matter what I think I'm seeing, I know He is still right.

And it's not self-induced hallucination. It is based on truth. And so we can chase hordes with truth.

That's what he's saying. He said to these Jews at this time, one man of you shall chase a thousand. How do we the church do that? With truth. Hordes are chased away with truth. Truth is likened to a sword in Scripture. Ephesians 6, stand therefore having girded your waist with truth.

Now, well I'll couple that. Ephesians 6 17 he goes on, the sword of the spirit which is the word of the God, which is the word of God. And the word of God is the truth. Where he says having girded your waist, that's the belt. And that belt is not for holding up your trousers.

Oh it may do that too, you'll need that. It'd be kind of hard to fight when they're falling down all the time. That girding is to hold the sword, the scabbard, the sheath, the holster. It is a serious part of the armor to be girded with truth.

Solomon's men in the song, they all had their sword on their hips. That is to picture the church. We're supposed to have the word of God attached to us. A part of us, you could say. Our first defense is revealed truth. Truth from heaven. And without truth we're victims and we're subjected to doom.

It's serious stuff. And so when he talks about one man shall chase a thousand, the church, the New Testament church says, amen, with truth. Maybe not one individual, but the church collectively, with truth. Verse 11, therefore take careful heed to yourselves that you love Yahweh your God. So obeying God is the first point. The second point is loving God.

They go together. Truth and love. Isaiah 48 verse 18, oh that you had heeded my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Jesus says it this way, Mark chapter 4. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear. And then in Luke chapter 8 verse 18 he says, therefore take heed how you hear.

Is an emphasis. He's placing on what to do with what you hear to get to truth. Colossians 4, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it.

No guarantees, Archippus. If you don't work, if you don't pay attention, you mess it up. So take heed to it. And so there we have in Isaiah, oh that you heeded my commandments. And then in Mark, take heed to what you hear. And then in Luke, take heed how you hear. And then in Colossians, take heed to the ministry.

The commandments, how you take in the information, what you do with it. You who stand guard in the church in various ministries from the cafe to the chapel store to the children, whatever ministry you're in, you're taking heed to these things. You know that your labor is not in vain.

And if you think it is, you're listening to the wrong voice. There's no service in the house of God that is vain. And thus I'd rather be a doorman in God's house than live in the tents of iniquity.

Serious stuff. You either believe it or you don't. That you love the Lord your God, he says. That's the greatest commandment.

Listen Israel, the Shema, thou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. That sums up everything. There's nothing left of you after that. Verse 12, 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 to you. You catch that ominous or else. Just like that. Or else. If you cling to what's left over, the peoples you're supposed to put out.

You've got these little pockets here. You better watch how great a fire, how great a forest a little fire will kindle. It just takes a little match.

One strike and you can burn more acres than you can walk. Love God and not fall in love with the people who do not love God. Their views that is. Love God, do not fall in love with the views of the people you're trying, in our case, to reach with the gospel. That's how we get seduced. We start out trying to preach the gospel to someone and all of a sudden we begin to get too cozy. And the next thing you know we're beginning to say, I see your point. And the next thing you know we become broad-minded, not narrow is the way, straight is the gate, and few go in by it. We're now on Broadway trying to be a superstar.

Not going to make it. So the prohibition here against intermarriage with the surrounding Canaanites, which is explicitly stated throughout Moses' law, really hurt them, severely. When we get to Judges in a few weeks, Judges 3, and they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to be their sons and they served their gods. You see, that's the very thing God said would happen. So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Yahweh, they forgot Yahweh their God and served the bowels and the ashtoreths because of the permissions that the bowels and the ashtoreths get to give the people.

Yeah, you could do that, we don't have any ordinance like that, go ahead. I like your God. Yeah, made in hell just for your flesh. Well the Jews did not listen. Ezra 9 and 10, Nehemiah 13, 1 Kings 11, it's on and on and on. The Jews of Malachi, they just went disobeyed what Joshua said, they had proof right in their face and they just dismissed it. That was the life of Jeremiah. Jeremiah would point out all the things that stuff would happen and everybody just ignored him. Paul gets to the New Testament, he says stay away from, don't marry unbelievers.

How many Christians do anyway? You know you can correct a person who does wrong enough times till they begin to turn on you even though they're doing wrong. Proverbs 29, 1, he who is often rebukes and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

You didn't know there were that many syllables in remedy, did you? Well, the judges, the book of judges, the book of kings, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Seleucids, Rome, all of them got to abuse the Jews because they abused the truth by dismantling it and just guarding it, I should say. You can't, you can't get rid of the truth, it stays forever. Verse 13, know for certain that Yahweh 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 Yahweh your God has given you. I guess Joshua in his old age finally is in the land, he walks, what he's allowed, this is a beautiful place, I lived in Egypt, I've lived in the wilderness, I've seen other peoples, this is a good land, I love this land, he's telling them that.

And he's saying if you have these intermarriages, if you get, become, if you join yourself to the unbeliever, take these relationships, as Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven is the corruption, beware of the corruption. Well, he said God's promises are conditional and they'll be withdrawn from you, you've seen him fight your battles, he will stop doing this. Isaiah 42 verse 8, I am Yahweh, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praise to carved images. Jesus gets the glory of God, you read about Jesus in the New Testament, the only person that can receive such adoration is God, because God doesn't share it, so he is either God or he's false. And this is, you tell that to the Jehovah Witnesses, instead of them saying, you're right, well I'll be back tomorrow with an excuse.

Well, you damn in your soul with that kind of an approach, why don't you just look at the facts, never mind what they're telling you at snot tower. Anyway, I don't care, stakes are too high, I am Yahweh, Isaiah 40 now, to whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal says the Holy One. This is all supporting the deity of Jesus Christ, I have no equals, well Christ, what does Paul say, counting it not robbery to be equal with God. Let's finish this up, verse 14, 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 Yahweh your God spoke concerning you, all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. You've watched this, again, take away the initiatives of Satan, he's going to come and say you did not see, you did not meet Jesus, you were not born again, it was all wrong. The birds that come and try to pick the seeds up, Joshua with a preemptive strike is saying you saw this, don't lose it, and they didn't, that generation held to it.

It was the next one. You young Christians here, if you see your mom and dad as loving the Lord, you need to want some of that, in fact you need to want so much of that, that you surpass them. Instead of just taking the easy route, I'm going to disagree with mom and dad, because I want to be out on my own and do my own thing.

You'll get your chance, your kids will do the same thing to you. Hopefully you'll be able to ignite them with a fire and love for the Lord, it's a hard thing to do, but it's worth the effort. Verse 14, where he says he's going the way of all the earth, death is imminent for him, it's a reality. I love this, 2 Timothy, one of my favorite sections of the Bible is all of 2 Timothy, particularly chapter 4, but this is out of verse 3, he's speaking to Timothy, and he says you have followed my doctrine, you've been listening to my teachings, you've been a good student, my manner of life, you've put it to work, my purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. Out of them all the Lord delivered me. Paul, are you nuts?

What do you mean out of them all? You bear on your body the marks of Christ, and Paul would say so that I could preach Christ, and he just couldn't stop the guy. He's all beaten up, he's been caned, he's in jail, just singing away, you know, blessed be the name of the Lord, and he says what are you doing? What an amazing character, I've tried to be these men and I just can't, I just got five minutes out of the parking lot, and I'm nothing like Paul. I just, what would Paul do? He wouldn't get a chauffeur, he wouldn't put himself in this situation, he'd move across the street from the church so he wouldn't stumble. I could just hear him, no way I'm getting a car. Silas, you drive. You sit there and rebuke him for it. You have to love them Silas. I could hear Silas, you love them then Paul, you love them. Verse 15, I'm just, seriously, we all know this, driving is one of the greatest stumbling blocks known to the human race in all of the history of humanity.

What can be worse than the other guy? Some of you, I like to make this reminder, get turn signal fluid. We have it in the chapel store. It's called consideration. Therefore it shall come to pass, verse 15, that as all the good things have come upon you, which Yahweh your God promised you, so Yahweh will bring upon you all harmful things until he has destroyed you from this good land, which Yahweh your God has given you. Well the promises on Mount Ebal, the curses that were given from Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, they recited the blessings, Mount Ebal across, they would recite the curses.

They were not empty warnings. They were not theories or philosophies. It was God's word and it happened generations later. We're not machines, we're not beasts of instincts. We have instincts but we're not all instincts. We have a free will. We make choices and choices are subject to dynamics. There are forces that push on our choices. They're not empty.

They count. If you choose not to look both ways on a busy street, you may not get to look anyway anymore. Yet when I make the bad choices and it can go through seasons, long periods of time, grace covers our genuine weaknesses and follies. God knows who are those who are his and there's this bubble of grace available to us but it must be accompanied by a genuineness. Verse 16, when you have transgressed the covenant of Yahweh your God which he had commanded you and have gone and served other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of Yahweh will burn against you and you shall perish quickly from the good land which he has given you. So you see the emphasis is on the relationship with God. He's not bringing up, you know, moral sins, no he doesn't of course want that either.

But the main thing is if you get the relationship with God wrong, everything is wrong. 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.