Joshua 5, starting in verse 10. While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, no. But I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Romans 8, 31 through 39. Very familiar passage, Romans 8, 31 through 39, which assures God's people that God is for them. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written. For your sake, we are being killed all the day long, and we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we pray now that the word that we have read from Old Testament and new, the Psalm that we have sung would be attended by your Holy Spirit's convicting and urging and teaching power to sustain us in our walk with you, to convert the lost, and to encourage those who are struggling. In Jesus' name, amen. So we have these five verses, and verse 10 is the first one, which says that the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal. From last week, that is the place where they endured circumcision at God's command. And now it says, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. So we will begin with that verse. There is no evidence that Israel kept the Passover except once since the time they left Egypt. So 40 years. have passed, and there's only been one Passover, and that's recorded in Numbers 9, one through three, where it says there, and the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. On the 14th day of this month at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time according to all its statutes and its rules, you shall keep it. So I guess they did. in the second year after they came out, but there's no evidence of any other keeping of the Passover after that. I'm not sure what their excuses were, but God always gives his people visible things, touchable things, tangible things that we call sacraments. He always does. In any phase of redemptive history, he always gives his people something like this. And we should not neglect these things because we are spiritual, yes, but we're also physical. And our spiritual and our physical are integrated because that's what a human being is. A human being is a whole physical and spiritual entity. And we need God to minister to all of us as human beings. And our larger, no, our shorter catechism, actually, has this beautiful answer. It says, what are the outward and ordinary means by which God blesses and helps His people? And the answer is, the outward, that means physical, and ordinary, that means He's ordained them. The outward and ordinary means whereby God communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, and then there's a list, especially the word, sacraments, we just talked about that, and prayer, all of which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. Now I've been asked at times by people who are inquiring about this church, what are your programs? What are your ministries? And we may and do have several things that we do at various times. You hear them in our announcements. But the main thing we do here, the main thing we do here is word and sacraments and gathered worship, which in Acts is called the prayers. There it says in Acts 2.42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, that's the word, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, that's sacraments, and to the prayers, that is a liturgical form of worship, a set form of ways of doing things, of praying to God publicly and corporately. God always gives his people these things, and he's given them to us as well. Are you devoted? to the outward and ordinary means of grace. Are they your mainstay? They are available here every Sunday, Lord's Day. They're not available at home. Nope, they're not. They're not available at sporting events. They're not available at sightseeing venues and many other such weekend getaways. If you must be away, go to a faithful church where you are, and God will meet you there and speak to you and feed you and encourage you, because that's what he says he would do. His outward and ordinary means are available in the gathered worship of his people. I was away in the late summer. I went away for two and a half weeks to Florida. The session blessed me with this opportunity, and I took it. And I was on a beautiful island. I hope to go back there someday. It's on the West Coast, just south of Tampa Bay. It's called Anna Maria Island. Beautiful water, beautiful sand, just gorgeous. I was provided a condominium to stay in, provided by a charitable foundation, which provides lodgings for ministers and missionaries who get tired sometimes. And it was just lovely. I was refreshed and was restful. And then the first Sunday rolled around. What about church? Hmm. No one will know if I don't go. I could just stay home in the condo and pray. Sure, I'll pray and read a little scripture. No one would blame me if I stayed away from church. S. Sessions is not gonna ask me where I went. Okay, they will ask me, but I didn't know that. I figured I could get away with it, no. And besides that, the nearest clearly cut faithful church, the OPC in Bradenton, was 30 minutes away, 30 minutes, you know. And then I thought to myself, come on, Ed, practice what you preach. So I got in the car and I went. And I want to tell you, I was so encouraged by the worship and the fellowship, the word, the prayers, the sacraments. God met me there at Providence Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Bradenton. And looking at the whole two and a half weeks, which was wonderful, the single best things that happened to me were those two Lord's Days at Providence, where I met some friends and worshiped with God's people and was instructed. I don't get instructed very much, unless I listen to sermons online or whatever, but I was actually instructed by a live preacher, and it was wonderful. There's nothing better for you than worship on the Lord's day with the Lord's gathered church. Nothing. God meets his people there and here. And so please, take heed. And that's what they were doing here in Joshua 5, 10. The Passover was a resetting of their consecration. A reenactment of the Exodus night 40 years earlier. It seemed that Israelites had not celebrated this except once. I already said that. And now they were to celebrate their deliverance again in this holy meal, in the land that God had promised so long ago. And that's why we sang Psalm 23, because it fits many contexts, but none better than the first Passover and the second Passover here. when in verse five, you prepare a table before me. in the presence of my enemies." There's Jericho. It's three miles away from where they're camped. That's about the distance between here and Route 5 over there or Route 235 the other way. Three miles in the presence of my enemies. And they celebrated God's covenant mercies, His love for them, His promises to them. Their men and boys were still sore. because that was done on the 10th, and this is the 14th, just a few days. But now they were bearing the mark of a cleansed people. Now they were consecrated and ready. And this Passover was, at the same time, God's promised deliverance and their obedient response of commemoration and participation in the lamb that was slain for them. One commentator says, by partaking of the Passover, Israel was to relive their deliverance out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb. But as with circumcision, this too was related to the land. As observing the Passover in Egypt protected them from the destroying angel, it also assured them of two more things. that just as crossing the Red Sea would be followed by the destruction of the Egyptians, so likewise crossing the Jordan would be followed by the defeat of the Canaanites. So they were remembering the past and they became clear in their understanding of God's being with them in the preparation for the future. And then we see one more sign that happened to them in verse 11. It says in the day after Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. There was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. What was the manna? It was an everyday, except Sabbath, supernatural manifestation of God's provision, which was collected every morning, except Sabbath. It's recorded for us in Exodus 16. And it began at the precise time that God had led them out of the wilderness, and it was God's supernatural provision for them. This generation of Israel had, through that manna, that daily manna, had learned dependence on God in the wilderness. They had had water from the rock. When we went through Exodus, you remember all those instances where the rock was found, wherever they were, there was this rock, and they would get water from the rock. And they also experienced daily manna They collected it and made it into cakes and boiled it and ate it. Various recipes, I'm sure, were passed around by the ladies of Israel. How do you make something out of this, you know? Can you get a little garlic in it sometimes? And their shoes didn't wear out all that time, too. And this generation had no desire to go back to Egypt that had been rolled away from them. They were eager for Canaan, eager for the promised land. That was their orientation. One commentator says, eating of the produce of the land with the ceasing of manna, observing the Passover stood for God's deliverance out of Egypt and from judgment of the destroying angel. But for God's covenant people, deliverance from Egypt included the promise that they would inherit the land. A land of abundance, a land of wheat and barley and fig trees and olive oil and honey, as it's recorded in Deuteronomy 8. This spoke of their new beginning. Of their new life as the people of God delivered from judgment. And entering into a place of blessing. Passover not only looked back, but it looked forward to their new life in the land enjoyment. Abundance, blessing by the power of God. And so eating of this produce that day, the parched grain, it doesn't sound real good, but maybe it was, was an act of confirmation of God's blessing. No more manna, now we have the produce of the land. So divine help for the helpless. They were helpless all those years in the wilderness, but God provided. And now they have this token of God's promise. And we get to verse 13. When Joshua was by Jericho, so he's not at Gilgal, he's moved over, he's actually probably right in sight of Jericho. And he lifted up his eyes and beheld a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand." Again, the Israelites were three miles away, west of Jericho, and Joshua was evidently alone, and he's surveying the situation. Jericho, as we've said, was a walled city. It was one of the places where you could cross the Jordan if it wasn't at the wrong time of the year, and so a lot of people would cross the Jordan, and they had to have a very well-fortified city to keep these foreigners from coming in and taking over. It was a well-defended city. It had armies, it had soldiers, it had police force, which we read about earlier in Joshua. And these people were on red alert, with weapons in hand, They had heard the reports of God's people crossing the Jordan by a miracle. And they had heard the reports of what happened to other tribes that they encountered earlier. But what were you going to do against this walled city? How was Joshua going to take this fortress? He didn't know. Israel was a nomadic people all these years. They had some experience in war, but few battle resources. They had no ladders to scale the wall, no battering rams to knock it down, no catapults to throw big rocks into it. All they had were swords and arrows and slings and spears, which naturally would seem very inadequate for the task before them. So how would Joshua prepare his army, and how should they go about taking this city He must have felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. But Joshua was a man of faith. We've learned that about him. Faith is great, but how are you gonna do the job? How would God do this job if you have faith? And I paused there in my studies to ask myself some questions. I know that I want to know, I know that I want to know how God will accomplish what he has promised. The salvation of the nations of the earth seems far off and unlikely from a human perspective. And this particular nation at this time, the United States of America is hell-bent, it seems. The de-churched, that's people who used to go to church that don't go anymore, and the nones, the people who identify themselves as no religion, none, are on the rise, according to studies. The atheists and secular humanists have effectively taken control of our laws and our institutions, haven't they? And faithful churches that actually preach the apostolic Christian faith and its morals are under threat. And even our own congregation seems pretty sparse sometimes. But I am convinced that God will work out his plan for the nation, for the world, and even for us here, because God supplies what God commands. A hymn came to mind that's in the old Inner Varsity hymnal. One of the stanzas says, I cannot tell how he will win the nations, how he will claim his earthly heritage, but this I know, all flesh shall see his glory. He shall reap the harvest he has sown, and some glad day his son shall shine in splendor when he, the conquering savior of the world, is known. So now we pick up the story in the second half of verse 13. And Joshua went to him, the man with the drawn sword. He went to him and said to him, are you for us? or for our adversaries. With Joshua's mind engaged about the task before him and feeling the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, he looked up and saw a man standing with a drawn sword. What would you think? Standing with a weapon drawn is a military stance. Someone ready to fight. And we learn from this account that the man was an angel or a physical form of God. It is significant that the term for man here is not the normal Hebrew term for man, which is adam, but the term ish, which can refer to other than human beings. And there are examples of that in Exodus 15.3, the Lord is a man, ish, of war, the Lord is his name. That's from the song of praise after going through the Red Sea. Isaiah 42 verse 13, the Lord goes out like a mighty man ish, like a man of war. He serves up his zeal. He cries out and shouts aloud. He shows himself mighty against his foes. That's. The same imagery of an angel with a drawn sword is also found in the book of Numbers 22, where it says, then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and he bowed down and fell on his face. What's the captain's answer in verse 14? What did he answer to Joshua's inquiry? Are you for us or are you for them? He said, no. But I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. The answer given to Joshua is not. I'm for you or I'm for them, but rather I come as the captain of the hosts, the armies of the Lord. I'm not just someone to fight on your side as a mere human soldier, but I come to command the armies of heaven for you. The application is this, so important and lays down two principles that are foundational for all of life and our warfare against the forces of the world and Satan. The first principle is this. It is not for Joshua to claim God's allegiance for his cause, no matter how right or holy it may be. Rather, the need was for Joshua to acknowledge God's claim over Joshua for God's purposes. It's different, isn't it? We tend to approach our battles and our causes backwards. We turn things around and try to marshal God to support us rather than to submit and follow him. Joshua, as well as you, must be following the Lord, submitting to his authority, taking your orders from him, and resting the battle in his hands. It really is his battle, you see, as the captain and supreme commander. The second principle, as the one who had come to take charge, the Lord was also reminding Joshua and you of both God's personal presence and his powerful provision, his provision of the vast host. There was Joshua and his army, but there also were the myriads of God's angelic forces who always stand ready to do God's bidding and to serve the saints. We see pictures of that elsewhere in the Old Testament. In 2 Kings 6, when Elisha was at Dothan with his young servant, he found himself surrounded by the army of Ben-Hadad, a pagan, who during the night had marched out and surrounded the city of Dothan. The next morning, when Elisha's servant went out to draw water, he saw the vast army surrounding the city. Being fearful and greatly distressed, he cried out to Elisha. He said, alas, my master, what shall we do? Elisha, man of faith, responded, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed a very interesting prayer. He said, oh Lord, I pray, open the eyes of my servant that he may see. Then we read that the Lord opened the eyes of the servant and he saw what he see. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha, the armies of God. They were not alone with them, the fight was. with God's armies supporting them. The angelic forces soon struck the armies of the king of Syria with blindness, and Israel won the battle. There's a second example in Matthew 26, with the disciples still not understanding that Jesus had to go to the cross for our salvation. Peter drew a sword out and struck the high priest's slave, cutting off his ear. And Jesus said, put your sword back into its place. For all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you not think that I can appeal to my father? And listen, and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels. God has his angels ready to roll, battle ready. And there's a final example which I want to tell you about. It's in the book of Hebrews, chapter one, where Paul, I think it is, is talking about angels and he's telling them what the angel's job is and what the angel's job isn't and who they are and all that. And he says about angels, he says, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? There are angels all around and they are sent out as ministering spirits To you who inherit salvation, there are angels on our side, folks. He, the captain, was assuring Joshua of God's provision through his mighty angelic armies. Joshua's response to this, second half of verse 14, and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? Now, if there was any doubt about who this was, is it a man? Is it an angel? What is it? We now see very clearly, theologically, we see because no one gets worshiped in the Bible except God. Never. No mere man or mere angel ever would accept worship in the Bible. So we know this is Christ pre-incarnate because he accepts the worship of Joshua. Indomitable fortress or foe stands before you today, brothers and sisters, children. What sin or long ingrained pattern of sin, what temptation stands before you as an indomitable foe? What fear of the future? Well, the armies of heaven are here today. And they're standing by ready to fight for you, for holiness, for discipline, for love, for mercy, to defend you against the devil and all his minions. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? Yes, they are. And so we get to the final verse here, verse 15, the commander's final word. And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you were standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Removing your sandals is a sign of servitude and a sign of respect and submission. And Joshua, no doubt, had been told long ago by Moses about how God met Moses in Midian, and there was that burning bush that wouldn't go out, you know. And then he was sent to tell Pharaoh, the king, the emperor of Egypt, let my people go. This was absolute confirmation to Joshua of Joshua's commission to lead God's people to victory in Canaan. God, you see, is the holy one in our redemption, and he is the holy one in our warfare through our victorious savior, the captain of the armies of the Lord. To put a cap on this, if you are facing foes without or within, Maybe no one knows about your foes. Without or within, you need to trust in the captain who's there for you. The captain entered the battle for you as a baby born to Mary. The captain willingly put himself forward in battle, forward exposed, attracting all the fury of hell and deflecting it for you. The captain, has conquered death and hell for all who shelter in him by faith. Life is a battle. Spiritual warfare. Don't expect God to be on your side, but come over to God's side and follow the captain. Amen. Lord, we thank you for these narratives of your wonderful and powerful and redemptive dealing with your people long ago. And we know that you are the same yesterday, today and forever, Lord Jesus Christ. So help us to trust in you. And to come over to your side. And find strength and victory. Amen.