Joyfully Enslaved by the Merciful God- Joshua 24: 14-33

We come to the end of Joshua chapter 24 and it is here that I'm bringing you

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

into a story that you have not been hearing week after week. Though I have

been immersed in Joshua this past season you have not been. So I have to bring you

up to speed a little bit. I want to start this morning by asking you a question.

Is there a such thing as a happy slave? Is there a such thing as a happy slave?

It seems like a oxymoron that you would say that there could be a happy slave.

When I think of slavery I think of just a couple of different periods in history.

I think of the Egyptians enslaving God's people and I think of them using

an entire population of people for their physical labor with no pay. I think of

Roman slavery and how people were treated as property and just like you

would eat an apple and then throw it away. So also would you use a slave and

then cast them aside. I think of the horrible American history that we have

with chattel slavery in the transatlantic slave trade. Horrible times. And then I

think also of the modern slave trafficking movement in the world where

there are institutions that claim that slavery is actually at its peak now in

our time. And yet we live in a free country and are pretty much unaware of a

lot of these things that are happening all across our world. Is there such a

thing as a happy slave? One of the most despicable things I think I've ever

read is Frederick Douglass commenting on what is now called the myth of the happy

slave. And the myth of the happy slave is a story that white plantation owners in

the South would use to justify their enslavement of Africans. They would say

when they're in the fields and they're working they would be singing. Right? We

know those songs. We call them spirituals. You heard that before. They would be in

the field singing. And so the white plantation owners would say these slaves

are lucky to be in my keeping. Look how happy they are. Frederick Douglass calls

this despicable. And in one of his quotes about the situation he says of it,

they sang when they were most unhappy. And that was the true grace. Now I agree. Is

there such a thing as a happy slave? My goal this morning is to convince you to

fear the merciful God and joyfully serve him in sincerity and faithfulness. Let me

repeat that again for those of you who like to write stuff down. My goal is to

convince you to fear the merciful God and joyfully serve him in sincerity and

faithfulness. The title of my message this morning is Joyfully Enslaved by

the Merciful God. And I want all of us to recognize and to remember this morning

that there is no better way to be happy, to be joyful in this world than to be a

slave of Jesus Christ. I do think that there is such a thing as a happy slave.

And as we look today in Joshua 24, we may see this together. I just want to

summarize where we are in the book of Joshua. If you remember God has brought

the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt. He has brought them through the

wilderness through many trials. He has brought them across the river Jordan and

they have begun a conquest of the land. At this period in the book Joshua, the

leader of Israel who has trusted in the commander of the Lord's army to fight

his battles for many, many years is at the end of his life. As he says he is

about to go the way of all the earth. That means he's real old. So this is

where we are at the end of the book of Joshua. The conquest is done. Not

everything is finished in the land but the conquest at least is done. And it is

here at the end that Joshua gathers all of the people of Israel. Look at me in

the beginning of Joshua chapter 24. Joshua gathered all the tribes of

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

Israel to shek'em. Now if you're paying attention and you're a good Bible reader

you may think I think I've heard of this place before and you have. It's in the

beginning of what you would do if you're reading the Bible in a year. You

hit this pretty soon in the early part of the year. Genesis chapter 12. God promises

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Abraham as he is passing through the land of Canaan that he is going to give

his descendants a land. And it is here at the very same place that God promised

Abraham that now Joshua gathers the people of God. And it is here that he

summons the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel and they

present themselves before God. Now let me tell you here, presenting themselves

before God, you may not catch that very quickly but that means that they are

set up before the Ark of the Covenant. They're set up before where the Lord's

presence was physically present in the world. This is where they are. They're

in shek'em, they're before the Ark of the Covenant, and then verse 2, Joshua said

to all the people, thus says the Lord. He employs a prophetic tone. He's talking

on behalf of God. And if you just kind of glance through the rest of the verses

there between the second part of verse 2 all the way through verse 13, this is a

recounting of what we see in the Pentateuch. We see an overview of the

book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, even Numbers, and then Deuteronomy. And he does

it in very short words. That doesn't mean that you can skip all the stuff before

this, but this is a summary of all that happened before. And it is after this

recounting of history that we get to verse, let's see, chapter 13, or verse 13,

sorry, 24 verse 13, I gave you a land on which you had not labored in cities that

you had not built and you dwelt in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and

olive orchards that you did not plant. Israel has gotten a very great gift. It

is the Lord bringing them out of the bondage of slavery and into a land of

freedom. Let's see what Joshua has to say. Now therefore, now that you're here,

this is the end of my life. Look at all the Lord has done. Think about our history.

Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him. Wait, I really thought Joshua that the

Lord had brought us out that we might not be under oppression any longer. We left

slavery only to end up here where you're calling us to fear another master

and serve Him and not only to do that but to do that with some level of

sincerity and faithfulness. That's exactly what he's calling them to do. How does

he call them to do it? Let's continue. He says, put away the gods that your father

served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And then we have this

that may be on a billboard that you pass on the highway and the end of this is

something that may be on a pillow in your house. Right? And if it is able to in

your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve. I've seen that

on a billboard on the highway. Whether the gods of your father served in the

region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now

dwell. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. I just want to point out

some interesting things here. Look at verse 15 and look very carefully. You

have an if then phrase there and if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord,

choose. So if it's evil to serve, it's evil in your eyes to serve the Lord,

choose. And what are they choosing between? Maybe you've never considered this

before. Look carefully at your text. Choose this day whom you will serve.

Whether the false gods that your fathers served across the river or the gods of

the Amorites in whose land you now dwell. He's saying if you don't want to serve

the Lord, if you don't want to serve this master in sincerity and faithfulness,

then you can take your pick of the burning gods that I've left in your wake.

Out of Egypt is a destruction of Egyptian gods. The tin plagues that rained fire

down on Egypt destroyed the very idea that Egypt had any gods worth

worshiping. And then as they are coming through the wilderness now to the land

that God has promised them, they encounter the Amorites and they have gods too.

And yet just like Jericho, they are burning. They're on fire. So God says if

you're not going to serve me, you can choose your pile of rebel that you want

to serve. Choose which one do you want? Which burning pile of idols appeals to

you the most? This is the question that Joshua puts to the people. Fits evil. If

you do what's right in your own eyes, if y'all are going to judges in the summer,

that will be incredibly important for you moving forward. It starts out almost

everyone and the people did what was right in their own eyes. And the Lord

bring judgment on them. So this is what Joshua says. If it is evil, if you look

at the good God and you call that evil, then you can take your pick of all of

the worldly idols that you can choose from. And so he puts this choice to them.

Which false gods are you going to serve? Verse 16, the people answer. I want you to

listen to their response. For be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to

serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up

from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery and who did those great

signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all

the peoples through whom we passed and the Lord drove out before us all the

peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the

Lord for he is our God. Hmm. That sounds like a really great Sunday school answer.

Ah, so good, right? Everything they said is true. This is what they responded to

Joshua with. I'm going to paint the picture for you. There's an old man. He's a

part of the old guard. He's been in his home and he's getting old. Maybe he's

senile. Maybe he's less respected. Maybe there are new leaders emerging in Israel

that are more favorable. Everybody likes them because they're relevant. They're

saying messages that the people really like, but you got this old guy and we

like him because he helped us conquer the land. But he's standing before us and

he's calling us to make a choice between two piles of rubbish or the one true

and living God. And what do they do? They give him exactly the answer that he

wants from them. They think that by saying all of the right things that they

are off the hook. Look at his response. This is how you know that this is true.

But Joshua said to the people, you are not able to serve the Lord. Wow. What a

what a stark contrast, right? Verse 14, serve him in sincerity and faithfulness.

And then verse 19, Joshua says to the people, you are not able to serve the

Lord. He's calling their bluff. They've said we'll serve the Lord. We'll do what

you've asked us to do. Old man. And then Joshua responds, you're not able to serve

the Lord for he and these are our problems today. For he is a holy God, a

jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. Think if the

gospel ended there, folks. Think about what despair we would be in if the

gospel ended there. You are not able to serve the Lord. He's a holy God. He's a

jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. Then he

continues in verse 20, if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he

will turn and he'll do you harm and consume you after having done you good.

It makes me think of the parable of the tenets that Jesus says in the New

Testament. Jesus talks about a beautiful vineyard and the Lord puts

servants in charge of the vineyard and he goes away for a time and then after a

time he calls from the servants to provide him with the fruit of the land

and he sends a servant to collect it. And what do they do? They beat the

servant and they send him away and the Lord keeps sending over and over again

all of these servants. Some they beat, some they kill. And finally the master

sends his son. This is that picture right there. If, if you forsake the Lord and

serve foreign gods, he will turn and he'll do you harm and consume you after

having done you good. And so the people respond to this sharp rebuke from

Joshua and the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. They

double down on their promise. They double down. Then verse 22, Joshua said to the

people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord

and serve him. What's a witness? A witness is the other party that has to sign a

document that is between two people. If you are writing a will, you have to have

a witness to sign it, witness what you have done. And if it's ever called into

question, that witness will be called forward to give a testimony about what

actually happened. And Joshua says, you people are witnesses against yourselves

that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. And they say, we are witnesses.

They're not doubling down. They're tripling down. And so Joshua again, verse 23, he

said, then put away the foreign gods that are among you. He calls them on the

carpet. There's idols in your house. I know what's set up in the city center of

your little town. I know what's there. I know that you have taken the false gods

from these people that we have conquered. You have pulled from the rubble these

idols and they're in your homes. Put away the foreign gods that are among you

and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel. And verse 24, the people

said to Joshua, the Lord our God, we will serve and his voice he will obey.

They're not doubling down. They're not tripling down. They are quadrupling down

on their promise. So Joshua ratifies the covenant based upon their word. Verse 25,

so Joshua made a covenant or a legal agreement with the people that day and

put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem, this place where the Lord had

promised this land to them. And they knew at this very place that if they

forsake the Lord they would lose the land that the Lord had given them. And

Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. He took a large stone and

set it there under the terabinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. Maybe

even the same tree is the oak from Genesis chapter 12 that God spoke to

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Abraham under. When Joshua said to all the people, behold, this stone should be a

witness against us. You see the change up until this point it's been Joshua versus

the people of Israel. And now Joshua takes responsibility for what his people

have decided to do. This stone will be a witness against us. For it is heard all

of the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore, it shall be a witness

against you lest you deal falsely with your God. So Joshua sent the people away,

every man to his inheritance. This is quite a story.

There was a time, I was at youth camp speaking of youth retreat. I was at

youth camp in Daytona Beach, Florida. And I remembered the theme. It was called

Mosaic. And my youth pastor brought these little concrete molds. And one evening

he told us that he gave us all these little like shards of stained glass. It's

what it looked like. And he said, I want you to make a promise to the Lord that

you're going to change when you get back from camp this week. And so he handed

us all one of these little shards of glass. And he said, this is your reminder

that you're going to keep to the promise that you hold. And so I remember

sitting on the beach that evening with my group leader. His name was Nick. And I

remember calling out to the Lord that I was never going to do the thing that I

was currently struggling with. I remember. I remember what it was. And I remember

holding on to that piece of glass. And I remember the next night going into the

youth rally and then going up and putting my little piece of glass in the

concrete, fresh concrete. And that was it. That's like this, like, yeah, I'm not

going to do it anymore. And I got home and I think the first day I had already

broken my promise. Making promises to the Lord is a weighty, heavy thing. And

here we see Israel making a promise that they cannot surely keep. Joshua was

right. In verse 19, you cannot serve the Lord. What do we do with this? What do we

do with this story today? In the New Testament earlier, Alex read for us

Romans chapter six. And in Romans chapter six, there are two alternative

slaveries that we can submit ourselves to. One is slavery to sin, which leads to

death. And two, slavery to righteousness or slavery to Christ, which leads to

eternal life, right? For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is

eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Today, a similar thing stands

before us and Joshua calls us to think about it. Choose this day whom you will

serve. Will you serve your sin, your idols, your own desires or will you serve

the true and living God who died on a cross and rose from the grave? Joshua

to presents a problem for us, though. And that is the problem that Joshua says

in verse 19, you cannot serve the Lord. Why? Because he is a holy God. He is a

jealous God. He will not forgive your sins. So what do we do with this? If you'll

hold your finger in Joshua chapter 24, but turn over to Romans chapter 12. If

Joshua 24 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention

you know anything about the book of Romans, the book of Romans is a building

argument all the way through and everything in Romans chapter one through

Romans chapter 11 leads up to this declaration at the beginning of Romans

Romans 11 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. And you probably know it well. This is how Christ has dealt with our

sin problem that separates us from God. It says, I appeal to you therefore,

brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living

sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not

be conformed to this world. Don't be enslaved to this world, but be transformed

by the renewing of your mind by testing. You may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect. What does presenting your bodies as a

living sacrifice do before God? It makes you holy. The requirement that keeps us

away from God. God is holy. Do you remember Isaiah standing before the

presence of the Lord in Isaiah chapter six? He stands before and he sees the

holiness of God and he says, Whoa is me. I am undone. I don't belong here. You

see all this stuff around me. I am unclean and I dwell in the midst of a

people with uncleanness. Holiness stands between us and God. And what does

Jesus do for us? He makes us holy and acceptable. You see the bad news of

Joshua chapter 24 verse 19, he will not forgive your sins. That is undone in the

Joshua 24:19

person and work of Jesus Christ because he lived perfectly on our behalf. So

that we might have the righteousness of God. So if you are not a Christian here

today, I would like to share with you that there are two things that stand

between you and God. One is that he is holy and you are not. He is holy and

you are not. Now you may not understand all that that has to do with anything,

but here's the truth. You cannot as a sinner remain in the presence of God a

sinner. You don't belong there. His holiness would burn you away. Holiness

stands between you and God and two. Your sin separates you from God utterly.

Ericasm is far too wide to be bridged by any good works. Anything that you can

do with your hands, anything that you can make promises to. And this is why

Joshua is so cautious in letting Israel make this covenant. He's not trying to

trip them up because he doesn't love them. He's trying to get them to be honest

with themselves about who they are before God. And all they're trying to do is

make a promise that they can never keep. Friend, if you are here today and you

are feeling like, man, I need to trust in Christ. The danger is far too great.

The other reality is far too bad. If I just become a Christian, everything

will be easier. That is also untrue. At the end of Hebrews chapter 11, the part

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

that very few people read, it says, And what more shall I say for time would

fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel and

the prophets? And y'all will get to most of those in judges who through faith

conquer kingdoms and force justice, obtain promises, stop the mouths of

lions, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword were made strong

out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women

received back their dead by resurrection and then the tone changes. Some were

tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better

life. Others suffered, suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and

imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn into, they were killed with the

sword. They went about off in sheeps, skins of sheep and goats and were

destitute, afflicted, mistreated of whom the world was not worthy, wandering

about in the deserts and mountains and in the dims and caves of the earth.

Christian life is not all roses.

But following Jesus meant that you got sawn into one day.

This is no easy task to be enslaved to God.

But it is the best reality.

The reason that this is good news today and the reason that I would stand

before you to preach this sermon is because I do believe that we do not

serve a God who does not forgive sins.

There would be no reason for me to stand before you today and just declare to

you bad news.

The title of my sermon today is joyfully enslaved to the merciful God by the

merciful God.

He is merciful to sinners because of Jesus Christ.

These Israelites did not have any understanding of what God was going to

provide for them, but all of them, if they trusted by faith in the promises of

God that would one day be fulfilled by Jesus Christ would have been saved from

their sins.

These Israelites could have been saved the same way that you and I were.

The only way to be saved is trusting in the promises of God, fulfilled in the

person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross and in his resurrection.

And this is the good news that is offered to them if they would have only turned

and served the Lord if they had believed that he was merciful.

They say it with their mouths here, but as y'all will find in the book of

judges, they did not believe it.

They turned from God and they served idols and they were punished and tested.

God is merciful in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone.

He is not a vengeful master like the devil.

He does not hate you.

He loves you and he's calling you to serve him.

He is provided away through his own work and by no work that you must do to

provide away for you to serve him all the days of your life with joy.

What does it look like to serve the Lord in joy?

Two things here coming from our text, sincerity and faithfulness.

Verse 14.

What does it mean to be sincere?

To be sincere is to serve the Lord with all of you.

That word carries the sense of wholeness.

In fact, you might think back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 where the Lord says,

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

you will love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and strength.

New Testament adds mind in there in places as well.

So serve the Lord with all of you.

There is no part of you that the Lord does not want in his service.

All of you is required to serve the Lord.

He will not share any part of you with any worldly pleasure or idea ever.

Sincere.

This is the posture of the heart before the Lord.

Lord, you can have all of me.

Do you remember Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6?

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Lord says, who will go for us?

And he says, here I am, send.

Not part of me, me.

Send me all of me.

So sincerity is to serve the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, strength.

And then the second one is faithfulness.

Faithfulness.

Faithfulness.

What does it mean to be faithful to a spouse?

But to love them alone all the days of your life until death shall do you part.

Right?

It is the vow that I made to my wife many years ago that I would cling to her alone and no other.

Faithfulness is serving the Lord alone.

And who is Israel flirting with?

Burning piles of idols.

Things that the Lord had already defeated.

And yet these are the two requirements for serving the Lord with joy.

Serve him with all of you and be faithful to him alone.

You cannot serve two masters.

You cannot serve both your sin and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be faithful to him alone.

Serve him alone.

Serve him alone.

Now if I went to your house today I doubt that I would find idols sitting in a little sanctuary within your home.

Our problem is not that we have little trinkets that we worship.

Our problem is that we have a priority problem.

That we put anything and everything before the Lord Jesus Christ.

If your heart is a throne then there is war happening for that seat on the throne of your heart every single day.

There is a battle going on.

And there are lots of good things in this world that would seek to be a part of sitting on the throne of your heart.

Maybe it's your spouse.

Maybe it's your family.

Maybe it's your job.

Maybe it's the wealth in your bank account.

There are many different idols that vie for the throne of your heart.

And Joshua says none of them compare.

They are all burning piles of rubbish in comparison to serving the Lord.

So does it look like to be joyful in serving the Lord?

We serve him with sincerity and faithfulness.

The last thing that I'd like for us to see this morning is this witnessing rock.

At the very end of the text.

It's kind of strange that it's thrown in there.

The witnessing rock is a reminder to Israel of the promise that they've made.

But really it's a reminder because they're so forgetful.

That rock stands as a testimony that the Lord is omniscient in those all things.

He will never forget this promise that they made him on this day.

That rock stands to remind forgetful human beings of the omniscience of Almighty God.

That stone stands there to remind them that God is going to hold them to this promise that he's made.

And he will be faithful to the covenant that he has made with them.

If you do all that I have commanded you to do, long will you live in the land.

If you fail to serve me and you go after other gods, I will remove you from your land.

I will turn on you and I will harm you.

This rock reminds us that God's omnipotence, omniscience, is not some far off idea.

But it is close to all of us.

There is nothing that you do that the Lord does not say.

That day on the beach where I promised the Lord that I was going to do something.

I'll be responsible for breaking that when I got home.

But thanks be to God that Christ stands before my sin.

I can live a joyful life and not this life ridden by guilt because God has set me free from the power of sin.

And I can joyfully serve him with all that I am because he has paid the penalty for my sin.

No longer is there guilt between me and my God, I can serve my master though imperfectly and he will rescue me from the power of sin and darkness and death.

This is what it means to joyfully serve the merciful God as a slave.

Throughout the book of Joshua there's this theme that runs of households.

In the raising of Jericho, Rahab, the Gentile prostitute and her household, they're all saved alive because of her faith.

In the initial defeat at AI everybody realized that somebody had sinned.

And there was a man who had pulled a burning idol out of the wreckage and he'd hidden it in his tent.

And he and all of his household were stoned and burned with fire.

And then we get to the end here, Joshua, the leader of Israel, old man at this point.

He says, as for me and my house, my household, we will serve the Lord.

The question today stands for you. Who will you serve?

Will you remain in your sin, trusting in your own works, trusting in these burning piles of rubbish to save you?

Or will you trust in the merciful God?

Bind yourself to him and love him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Let's pray together.