Title: The Worship of God at Ebal 
Text: Josh 8:30-35

I. Holiness of God V. 30-31a

God is personal, but also holy.

Friend:

John 15:14 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you. (NAS)

Abba Father:

Rom 8:15 "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" (NAS)

God is not an impersonal force nor higher power nor unseen ruler (mother nature) He is not something common or everyday. There is a growing trend to make him that way as a unigod rather than almighty God.

Alan Dershewitz criticism of the inaugural prayers as a violation of the constitution because to two ministers invoked the name of Jesus and God the Father. In our own legislature men are called to open in prayer and call on some unknown impersonal object rather than God.

Advice to Nephew - pray to God not the audience prayer is calling upon our God.

We are to have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. It is a loving and caring relationship.

High and lifted up:

At the same time we are to see Him as Isaiah saw Him.

Isa 6:1-7
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." (NIV)

We must recognize His holiness and our sinfulness.

II. Justice of God v. 31b

Wages of sin is death - Rom 6:23
spiritual and physical - because of the fall

There must be a sacrifice to satisfy God's law
Without the shedding of blood no forgiveness Heb 9:22

The sacrifice of Israel is only a temporary remedy 
Heb 10:1-4 
1 For the Law, since it has {only} a shadow of the good things to come {and} not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3 But in those {sacrifices} there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (NAS)

Reminder Substitution and Anticipation:  Reminder of the sins and seriousness of sin - it is against God; The sacrifice (without spot or blemish) like the altar show the holiness of God; Substitution - they are offered in place of the sinner; Anticipation or looking forward to the ultimate perfect substitution - Jesus Christ

Heb 10:9-10
9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (NAS)

III. Central Place of God in the Nation and in the People v. 32-33

Again this is symbolic of God's abiding presence. That's why the Ark rested in the middle of the nation, it was in the holy place inside the tent of meeting and in the inner area of the temple. The people have been warned about compromise. The very first of the 10 commandments speaks to the central place of the Lord God in the lives of the people.

There is no doubt we have become a diverse nation, but Christians can never compromise the true of God. We can never be true to the teaching of God if we affirm other belief systems and other religions as being equal. It just want work. That doesn't mean we persecute them but Jesus said He and He alone was the way to God. If that is not our message we have no message.

We see the results of such compromise in the Old Testament as Israel tries to accommodate the pagan gods of the Canaanite's and the results is never good.

    1. Authority of God's Word

Is demonstrated by it's being written on the stones of the Altar and by it's being read in the presence of the people.

Josh 1:7-8 7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (NAS)

Ps 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." (NAS)

Heb 4:12-13 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (NAS)

Col 3:16 "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (NAS)

The Word of God is the basis of Covenant relationship.  God made a covenant agreement with Abraham via the spoken word. He made a covenant agreement with Moses via the written word. He made a new covenant via the Living Word - Jesus Christ.

God's law was to be of central importance to them.

Jer 31:33 "'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the LORD, 'I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'" (NAS)

In the NT we talk about the Spirit of God within us an the word of God in our hearts.
    2. The Importance of knowing God's Word

All of Israel heard the full counsel of God - Good and Bad

The word of God is not invalidated because we have a new covenant through the blood of Christ, just the opposite it is strengthened. It is not a buffet where we pick and choose, keeping what we like and denying what we don't like. It is truth without any mixture of error.

Paul wrote 2 Tim 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NAS)

2 Pet 3:15-16

When Jesus faced temptation by Satan in the wilderness it was the word of God He used to resist and rebuke Satan.

Through out the New Testament the apostles and Paul preach the gospel of Christ as it is written Paul says time and again.

The purpose and importance of know the Word of God is doing the word of God.
James 1:22 "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." (NAS)

All of Israel everyone women children and strangers were to hear the word and be without excuse.

That's what we must recognize.  God is our deliverer He is our sustainer our fortress, He is in our midst He is Holy and He just. His word is true and authoritative we must hear it and we must obey it. We must allow  the Word of God to speak to our hearts.