Well good morning to everyone. Pleasure to have the bosses with us today. I have a special place in my heart for the people of Sweden because I spent so much time guiding those guys from 2007 up until COVID. We had 6 to 12 guys every winter fall bow hunting. So I got to know some guys from Sweden and kind of about the culture there and how difficult it is to witness to those people. So we appreciate the work that John and Chris have done for so many years. He told me this morning 37 years they've been in Sweden and we've had a relationship with them supporting them for over 20 years John said. So tremendous we appreciate it.

Well, the time change is kind of a bummer. I went out to milk the cows this morning in the dark and they're like what are you doing here you know it's a little bit early. So we got through that. Now we're going to be studying Joshua 4 this morning and this chapter is the crossing of the Jordan the setting up of memorial stones. When I first began to study these words I thought to myself what are these stones all about? It seems a strange thing to do to set up stones to take rocks out of the river carry them several miles and leave them in the place they camp that night. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this is a very common thing for men to do to make a memorial to commemorate some great event. 

We see memorials all over our land statues plaques different artistic configurations and many people travel to Washington D.C. or other places around the country just to see these memorials that men have set up. And even in the word of God this is something that we see that God has commanded men to do. Even in the New Testament we see Jesus command some important memorials ordinances meant to have us remember pivotal events what God has done for us. So this is not a strange thing rather it's an important thing and the key point here the message from our text this morning is that God wants us to remember.

He wants us to remember what he has done and this is why we see repeatedly God remind the people how he brought them out of the land of Egypt how he parted the waters of the Red Sea how he did signs and wonders delivering them from the hand of Pharaoh. And what was the problem for Israel wandering in the wilderness? They forgot they chose not to remember to renew their minds to the truth of who God is and what he has done and thus they began to mistrust to doubt to fail to believe God and their unbelief led to their demise in the wilderness.

Now Joshua is leading Israel across the Jordan and into the promised land and God again is doing a marvelous work and giving them signs and wonders drying up the Jordan so that all may cross on dry land and soon he will topple the walls of Jericho and begin to give them victory over the inhabitants of the land. And he commands Joshua to take up stones twelve stones and have one man from each of the tribes take a stone to the place they would camp that night. And we also see that Joshua arranges twelve stones in the bed of the river on the dry land where the men stand with the ark. 

And we see clearly that these memorials are meant to have us remember remember what God has done so that we might believe God in the future trust him that he will do what he says and that his mighty hand will deliver. And we see also that this is done so that all the world may know the mighty hand of the Lord. We will see in the New Testament in this new covenant life we are encouraged continually to remember what God has done in Christ at the cross in his death burial and resurrection and in salvation what God has done in transforming us and delivering us from sin and death and hell and God has given us a couple of piles of stones as well in the Lord's Supper and baptism signs in order that we might remember the mighty hand of God and what he has done.

It's vital that we do not forget that we do not go astray that we do not become distracted to begin to doubt and fear we must remember remember who God is and what he has done and who we are and what we have in him we must remember our first love we must be continually renewing our minds to the truths of the promises in the word of God based in the work of Christ on the cross it's vital that we remember. 

Let's look at our text. Joshua 4 says, "And it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, 'Take for yourselves 12 men from the people, one man from every tribe and command them saying, 'Take for yourself 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priest's feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight.'"

Then Joshua called the 12 men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe and Joshua said to them, "Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying 'What do these stones mean to you?' then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever." 

And the children of Israel did so just as Joshua commanded and took up 12 stones from the midst of the Jordan as the Lord had spoken to Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. Then Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood and they are there to this day. 

So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua and the people hurried and crossed over. Then it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people and the men of Reuben the men of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the children of Israel as Moses had spoken to them about 40,000 prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of Jericho.

On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they feared him as they had feared Moses all the days of his life. Then the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, "Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan." 

Joshua therefore commanded the priests saying, "Come up from the Jordan." And it came to pass when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come from the midst of the Jordan and the souls of the priests' feet touched the dry land that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before. 

Now the people came up from the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan Joshua set up in Gilgal. Then he spoke to the children of Israel saying, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, 'What are these stones?' then you shall let your children know saying, 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea which he dried up before us until we had crossed over that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord that is mighty that you may fear the Lord your God forever.'"

I'll have five points for you on your outline. First, crossing over; second, an act of faith; third, justification and regeneration; fourth, memorial stones; and fifth, that all the world may know.

Well first in our text we see crossing over. I'd like to just take a little time in order to remind us of the importance of the crossing over of the Jordan by the children of Israel and what it represents. As we talked about last time this crossing over is not a culmination of our faith representative of going to heaven as we so often hear in hymns and so forth. Canaan is no heaven and there are many battles yet to be won by the children of Israel. Rather, this represents the beginning of faith and I'd like for you to turn to Hebrews 3 again, a passage that gives us clear instruction about this event. 

Hebrews 3 beginning at verse 7, "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me tried me and saw my works 40 years. Therefore I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. While it is said today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. 

For who having heard rebelled indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? Now with whom was he angry 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who did not obey? And then verse 19 says, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." 

Chapter 4 verse 1, "Therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest." We see so clearly in these words that the issue, the reason that Israel could not enter into the promised land, that they all died in the wilderness, was because of unbelief, the fact that the message preached to them was not mixed with faith, and thus they could not enter in.

And so what we see when we see the children of Israel crossing the Jordan is an act of faith. This crossing over is a monumental event we see it over and over in our text: crossing over, cross over, when you have crossed over. This represents an act of faith. If they could not enter in because of unbelief then they did enter in by faith they crossed over by faith in the promise of God. So this represents not glorification, I think, but justification. This is the beginning of the journey and justification is a final entering in those whom he justifies he also glorifies. When they chose to enter in by faith they entered into the rest of God and that they were justified they were made right with God coming into a right relationship with God. 

And we see God make the way, the Jordan dries up and they enter in and then the river closes behind them, no turning back. Now they have begun the journey of the life of faith, and that's the typology that I see here, the representation of crossing over, this act of faith, the battle of the daily life of faith walking by faith has just begun. And we will see those struggles in the life of Israel after crossing over. So this crossing over is representative of an act of faith and justification.

Next we see that in these stones, in these memorials, there's also a representation of regeneration at the point of justification by faith. And I think this is interesting. God tells Joshua to have 12 of the men pick up stones on their shoulders and take them to Gilgal to place them there as a memorial for what God has done this day for the expressed purpose that subsequent generations would ask and their children might be taught about the mighty hand of God. 

He says something really significant at the end here: and that all the world may know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty. In Joshua 4:5 it says, "Joshua said to them, 'Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of the Jordan. Each one of you take up a stone.' And they were to carry it to Gilgal, and it says this would be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' a time of teaching to tell them what God has done for them to remind them." 

So they obeyed; they took the stones to where they camped that night. But notice verse 9, "Then Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day." After this it says after Joshua did all that the Lord commanded him it seems that the Lord commanded not only the 12 stones to be carried up to Gilgal but also that Joshua arranged 12 stones in the bed of the river and it says here that those stones are still there to this day meaning of the time of the writing of this book. 

I wonder if Joshua later in life when the waters were lower might have waited out into that Jordan to these stones he placed there years before remembering or if somehow he knew they were there. But the point is God had Joshua place a pile of stones on the bottom of the river and then the waters came back over them. 

I wondered about this as I studied these words, this event. You know it's interesting to teach through a book like Joshua in the Old Testament in general. I love to teach Paul. You know to be in Romans if you can be in Romans or Galatians for the rest of my life that'd be good maybe Hebrews but it's a plus b equals c it's very linear. Here's the argument, here's the flow of thought, here's the intent. I love to teach that and I come to this and I feel a little unsure because I feel like, well, I could go this way, guys, it's too much of me. I'm not constrained as much by the words.

But I wondered about this as I studied these words, this event. I understand the 12 stones, the memorial at Gilgal, so that the children of Israel might remember, so that all the nations might see and be told about the mighty hand of the Lord and what happened this day. But why put these 12 rocks on the bottom of the river where no one can see them? Why this memorial and what does it represent? 

I think it's interesting that Joshua knows and that God knows that those stones are there. And those stones are buried there on the bottom of the river under the waters. It seems to me that we have a picture here of regeneration, perhaps even death and resurrection to new life. The stones were set on the river bottom and the waters came over them, consumed and covered them. They are buried there in the bottom of the river. And then there's this new memorial, this pile of stones up in Gilgal representing new life, entering into rest by faith, rising up from the river and the wilderness and that old life entering into the promise of God and the land. 

We have these two piles of stones: one on the bottom of the river that only Joshua and God know about, and one standing tall in Gilgal as a sign and memorial for all the world to see for remembrance of the mighty hand of God. We see this in the new covenant life in Christ as well, these memorial stones. Jesus has given to us in this New Testament, this new covenant time in the church age, two memorials, two ordinances, our piles of stones.

Turn it over to Luke 22 with me, please. Luke 22 at verse 14. Tremendous text here. Says, "When the hour had come, Jesus, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. Then he said to them, 'With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.' Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, 'Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.' And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, 'This is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.' Likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.'"

In 1 Corinthians 11:25 we see these words as well. He says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." What is the purpose of this most important memorial that Jesus has given to us that he's commanded us to celebrate often? It's to remember. To remember and to proclaim. This is no different than the pile of stones in Gilgal, meant to be a memorial to remember the mighty hand of the Lord and what he has done and to proclaim it to the world that all the world may know the Lord and his mighty hand to save.

How significant is this memorial that we celebrate in obedience to the command of Christ for us and we do that the last Sunday of the month here at Living Hope Church? It's for us to remember and to encourage us and to reaffirm and strengthen our faith as we proclaim his death, that glorious death, burial, and resurrection, the work of Christ on the cross until he comes. 

And we also have a second ordinance given to us by God to remember. I think it's important to note that these memorials, these ordinances, they are not sacraments. The way that churches define the sacraments, those who call them that, is that they somehow impart grace through the act as a ritual and that they are expiatory or propitiatory for our sins. In other words, when the Roman Catholic Church celebrates communion, the sacrifice of the mass, they believe that they are re-sacrificing Jesus. The doctrine says that at the beck and call of the priest, Jesus comes from the right hand of God to represent himself in an unbloody manner for the expiation of our sins. 

And that it's a true and real sacrifice where the holy victim is immolated, that means killed, because his sacrifice on the cross was insufficient to pay for our sins. My brothers and sisters, Jesus was no victim. This doctrine is blasphemy. No one took his life. He gave it up of his own will and volition. He was victor, not victim. But in their system, when the faithful partake of his literal body and eat his flesh and drink his blood literally, this is a saving act. Their sins are forgiven through the sacrifice, the sacrament of the mass, and this is called transubstantiation. 

The Roman Catholic Church has seven such sacraments. They are not memorials, they are not ordinances, but they are the means by which salvation is obtained. And it's not much different in the Lutheran Church, where they have two sacraments rather than seven, and they teach consubstantiation, where there's not the literal flesh and blood of Jesus, but that Christ is truly present in the elements and grace is imparted and this act is necessary for salvation. Baptism begins their salvation, is the basis for it, as a sacrament, and the Lord's Supper maintains their salvation, imparting grace to the one who partakes. You can read about that in the Augsburg Confession written by Martin Luther, Article 2, Article 6, make that clear.

So sacraments are very different from what Jesus is talking about when He gives us the memorial, the symbols, in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. It is to remember what God has accomplished at the cross in Jesus' one-time death in our place for our sins, and His subsequent burial and resurrection from the dead to new life, fully victorious over sin and death and hell. It's not a means of obtaining the saving grace of God piecemeal through religious ritual. Our salvation is accomplished, it's finished at the cross. Jesus was not a holy victim, He was no victim at all, He gave His life willingly and no one took it from Him. 

And God raised Him from the dead with power, Romans 1:4 says, showing that He was fully satisfied by the payment for the sins of the world at the cross. Jesus does not die again and again, He died once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God. So we have the ordinance, the memorial of the Lord's Supper. 

And we also have the ordinance, the memorial of baptism. And what is baptism? Where a man is immersed under the water and raised up to newness of life. It's a symbol, it's a representation of what happened when we believed Jesus. Paul says in Romans 6 that we died with Christ, that we were buried with Christ, that we were raised with Christ to a new kind of life. We were fully united in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection when we believed. 

And this is symbolized, it's memorialized in baptism. And I believe that that pile of stones on the bottom of the River Jordan represents the old life, the life in the wilderness, the old man, as it were, buried in the waters. This is a picture of regeneration, the new birth to come and the new covenant. 

Let's look at Romans 6:5 please. Romans 6:5, Paul gives this unbelievable truth in Romans 6, 1 to 11 especially. In verse 5 it says, "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man, that old man is the man in Adam, every man in the world is born into Adam, and he's dominated and controlled by the sin that dwells in him. That's what Paul means by the old man. Our old man was crucified with Him, why? In order that the body of sin, that means this physical body controlled by indwelling sin, the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

In baptism we see a symbol, the representation of what happened at the point of faith when we were crucified with Christ, when we died with Him, were buried with Him and were raised to newness of life. We are new men with quickened spirits and the Holy Spirit living in us. And John 14 says, "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have come to make their home in us." A pile of stones under the water, that old man; a pile of stones up on the land for every man, all the world to see the new man, the resurrected, regenerated man as a witness to the mighty, powerful, transforming hand of God.

And the ordinance of baptism is our pile of stones to represent what God has done, to remember His mighty, saving hand and as a witness to the world as we proclaim the gospel and our faith in Him to the watching world. And that's our last point that we see in our text this morning, that all the world may know. 

Joshua 4:21 says, "Then He spoke to the children of Israel saying, 'When your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, what are these stones, then you shall let your children know saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea which he dried up before us until we had crossed over that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord that is mighty that you may fear the Lord your God forever.'"

That all the world may know. It's so interesting that we see here at the end of Joshua 4, right after they cross the Jordan and God is about to use Israel to exact judgment on the wicked nations, full judgment, no mercy, that He sets this pile of stones as a memorial of who He is and what He has done in Israel. Why? So the children of Israel would know, yes, and remember. But also so all the nations would know. So that men from every nation might understand that Jehovah is the only true God and come to faith in Him. 

It's always been God's intention to bring salvation to every man, to Jew and Gentile, and we see that here, way back in the book of Joshua. He put a memorial so that all the world may know. In the New Covenant time, in the church age in which we live, we know that this is the will of God, that every man come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. 

And because Israel failed in this intent for them to be a light to the world, a city on the hill, to draw the nations to God, and because they as a nation rejected their Messiah, God has cut a new channel of blessing to the nations to bring them to Himself. And how does He do this? By the word and the witness of the new man in Christ, the regenerated man. 

Peter says, "Living such a good life among the pagans" as a witness of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and preaching the good news of salvation through faith in Him alone and what He accomplished on the cross. God will fulfill His promises to Israel; we've been studying that in Romans 9 to 11. But in this time, we see out of Hebrews 8, that covenant made with Judah, with Israel, that the church is blessed out of that covenant, that those blessings are now in effect in this church age: regeneration, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

The new man, the regenerate man with the Holy Spirit living in Him, with Christ Himself in you, working out His will, living His life through you as you abide in Him by faith. This is a powerful testimony. And it's a memorial to what God has done at the cross when we believed and were fully united to Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. 

I'd like for you to turn with me to John 17, Jesus' High Priestly prayer, praying to the Father. John 17, beginning in verse 11, Jesus said, "'Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to You, Holy Father, keep them through Your name, those whom You have given Me that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me, I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 

And I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes, I sanctify Myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth.' 

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me." 

Jesus prays for us, not only for the disciples, but for all that will believe through their word, their testimony, and He leaves us in the world, why? So that the world may know that He is the Christ. So that the world may know that the Father sent Him to save us from the wrath to come. Amen. 

We are, in this world, like that pile of stones in Gilgal, a witness, a testimony, a memorial to what Jesus has done. And we preach Christ crucified. We trust in the power of the gospel preached as we walk day by day as ambassadors for Christ imploring men to believe Him and to pass from death unto life. To submit themselves to the mighty hand of God and receive His gift of salvation by faith alone in Jesus alone. 

My brothers and sisters, what a privilege to know Him, especially in this time. And what a privilege to make Him known in this world. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful. So thankful for Your Word, Your truth. We're thankful for this place, the people that You bring here every week that are so eager to hear the Word of God, to receive it, to obey it, Lord, help us to believe You, help us to trust You, help us to keep our focus on Christ, abide in Him, believe Him and do what He told us: preach the gospel to every creature. And we trust in You for all the details. And we trust in You and Your power, the power of Your gospel to bring men to faith, to save them forever, just as we experienced when faithful witnesses came into our lives, Lord. 

Thank You that You're our Father, that You love us, that we can trust You and depend on You to do what's best for us, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.