I have a question for all of you this morning: What would you say to a close friend if you knew it would be the last time you would speak to them? I read a story this past week about a man named Herman Lange. Mr. Lange was a Christian in Germany during the time of World War II. Adolf Hitler and his regime, of course, were anti-Christian. Therefore, Herman Lange was ordered to be executed by the Nazis. In his cell on the night before he was to be killed, Lange wrote a note to his parents. He said two feelings occupied his mind: "I am, first, in a joyous mood, and second filled with great anticipation." Then he made this beautiful affirmation: "In Christ I have put my faith, and precisely today I have faith in Him more firmly than ever." Finally he urged his parents to read the New Testament for comfort. He wrote, "Look where you will, everywhere you will find jubilation over the grace that makes us children of God. What can befall a child of God? Of what should I be afraid? On the contrary, rejoice!" These are powerful words coming from a man who knows that he is about to be martyred, and yet he doesn’t have any fear, because like Job, he knows that his Redeemer lives. This was what one man chose to be his last words to his loved ones. So what would yours be? This was a question that I was contemplating in the earlier part of the week as I was getting ready for this morning’s sermon. I knew that it would be my last sermon here at Springfield Church of the Brethren, and so I was seeking the Lord’s will as to what my "last words" should be. I flipped through the Bible for some guidance, and finally I came to the last words of Joshua. Here was a man who had led the Israelites following the death of Moses. He had brought them a great military victory in Jericho and had led them into the land of Canaan, but now he was nearing the end of his life. So, he gathered everyone around him and gave his final speech. His great and final speech extends over three chapters, but I thought I’d be nice today and only talk about one of them, so I’ll be going through chapter 23 today. There are four main points that Joshua drives home in this chapter.
The first point that Joshua makes is to remind them of how God has blessed them in the past. (read vv. 1-3) He reminds the Israelites that it has been God who fought their battles and gave them the victory over their enemies. Likewise, as Christians, God has fought our battles and given us the victory. Except that Ephesians reminds us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil." You see, before Christ came along, we were lost - we were dead in our sin. We were on the broad road to hell, without power to change our course. But then Christ came and died for our sins on the cross and saved us from our sins and changed our destiny from hell to heaven. This transformation is outlined beautifully in Titus 3:3-5. Listen to this... (read) Christ died for our sins. This expression finds its roots in the Old Testament, where it speaks of the effects of sacrifices. The death of Christ is like a sacrifice in that it takes away sin and cancels sin’s effects. Christ’s death served as a perfect sin offering for the sins of others because Christ himself was sinless. In the Old Testament, sacrifices for sins were made repeatedly, but Christ died once for all. Christ’s death is all that is necessary to provide spiritual salvation, because the ultimate purpose of His death was to bring us to God, tobridge that great gap that our sin had placed between us and God. (Joshua 23:9) Just as the Lord drove out the nations that opposed Israel, so He has also driven out the sin that opposes us. This is the past blessing that we are to remember.
The second thing that Joshua does is to remind the Israelites of the future blessings that had been promised to them by the Lord. (Joshua 23:5) The Lord promised Israel that He would deliver them from their enemies. The Lord has also promised to deliver us as Christians from our enemies. He will deliver us from Satan. James 4:7 reminds us that when we submit ourselves to God, we will be able to resist the devil so that he will flee from us. God has also promised to deliver us from the world. 1 John 2:17 reminds us that "the world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." Everything about this world - the money we make, the houses we live in, the jobs we work at, the stress and illnesses we deal with - all of these things are temporary, they will pass away. But you and I can avoid that trap of the world. When we are doing and living in the will of God, we will live forever. Finally, we have been promised victory over our sin-filled lives. Romans 6:14 tells us that "sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." It is by this grace alone that we are able to have confidence in victory over sin.
After this, Joshua stops talking about what God has done and starts talking about what we must do. (Joshua 23:6) This was nothing new for Joshua to be saying. At the very beginning of this book, he had told the Israelites, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Did you catch that? By paying special attention to God’s word, we will make ourselves prosperous and successful. This doesn’t necessarily apply to our worldly investments, but as far as our treasures are concerned, we will be rich indeed. Joshua then commands his people to avoid idolatry. (verse 7) Idol worshipping was a very common practice in Joshua’s time. Unfortunately, it is also very common in today’s society. I’m not talking about worshipping golden cows or bronze snakes. No, our idols take on different forms. One thing that many people worship is their material wealth. There’s an old fable about a miserable rich man who went to visit a rabbi. The rabbi took the rich man by the hand and led him to a window. "Look out there," he said. The rich man looked into the street. "What do you see?" asked the rabbi. "I see men, women, and children," answered the rich man. Again the rabbi took him by the hand and this time led him to a mirror. "Now what do you see?" "Now I see myself," the rich man replied. Then the rabbi said, "Behold, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver, and no sooner is the silfver added than you cease to see others, but you see only yourself. When we start to look at our silver, our possessions, we stop seeing others, and we also stop seeing God. We can only see ourselves. Another form of idolatry that plagues our society today is that of dead and meaningless religion. There are too many people out there that are simply playing the church game. Pretending to be right with God. They’re only putting on a show. THey’re talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Mohandas Gandhi encountered such a group of Christians. Earlier in his life, he was actually considering becoming one. He was attracted by the life and teachings of Jesus. Gandhi attended the services of a church in Pretoria, South Africa. He later wrote, "The congregation did not strike me as being particularly religious; they were not an assembly of devout souls, but appeared rather to be worldly-minded people going to church for recreation and in conformity to custom." Christianity, he concluded, could not add anything of value to Hinduism. So he turned away from Jesus, to his own loss, and to the loss of many who followed after him. Are we like those churchgoers in Pretoria? Is our adherence to Christianity merely a matter of custom, a nice way of enjoying social relationships? Would a stranger who is sincerely seeking a relationship with God be attracted or turned off by the quality of our worship and personal devotion to Christ? Do we live out the Christianity we profess? Do we practice what we preach? We must avoid this form of idolatry if we are to survive. Another responsibility that Joshua reminds the Israelites of is to be wholly devoted to the Lord. (Joshua 23:8-11) One of my favorite hymns is "Be Thou My Vision", because it illustrates this principle that Joshua is talking about. Sometimes as we’re singing these hymns, we tend to focus more on the music than the actual words, so I’m going to read a couple verses of that song to you right now. (at this point I read verses 1 and 4 of this hymn) These words have always been a powerful reminder to me to keep my eyes on things above and not to worry about the things of this earth.
Finally, the fourth thing Joshua does in this section of his final speech is to warn the Israelites of the danger of ignoring God’s commands. (Joshua 23:15-16) I heard a story that illustrates the danger of ignoring warnings. During the Revolutionary War, a loyalist spy appeared at the headquarters of a British colonel, carrying an urgent message. General George Washington and his Continental army had secretly crossed the Delaware River that morning and were advancing on Trenton, New Jersey where that troop of British soldiers were encamped. The spy was denied an audience with the commander and instead wrote his message on a pice of paper. A porter took the note to the colonel, but because the colonel was involved in a plker game he stuffed the unread note into his pocket. When the guards at the camp began firing their muskets in a futile attempt to stop Washington’s army, the colonel was still playing cards. Without time to organize, the army was captured. The battle occured the day after Christmas, 1776, giving the colonists a late present -- their first major victory of the war. The British colonel ignored the warning, and was captured. From reading on in the Old Testament, we know that the Jews ultimately ignored Joshua’s words, and they were eventually forced into exile. If we do no better than they did, our fate will be no better than theirs was.
These were Joshua’s last words to the Israelites. And I have chosen these words to be my last sermon here at Springfield. I pray that God will use them to both encourage and challenge all of you. In His Name, Amen.
