And it's this passage that we will look at this morning. What's the context of this passage? Well, probably you know it reasonably well. God has delivered the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. He's delivered them through those plagues that he sent. The 10 plagues. Pharaoh refused to let the people go time and time again. The people of Israel were slaves to him. a valuable commodity. They were building huge cities for him. And eventually it came to that point where Pharaoh was a broken man. It was the death of his first born child that caused him to say enough, go, leave Egypt. It wasn't long, however, until he chased the people dying. He sent his chariots out to pursue after them. And the people of Israel had this test of faith before them. Would God keep his word? We have tests of faith ourselves. We face struggles in our lives. We come to a new situation. Will God be faithful to us in this? Perhaps you become sick and you say, will God be faithful to me in this sickness? That's what Israel had as they stood with the Red Sea before them. And as they could hear and see the chariots pursuing behind them, what happened? God was faithful. God kept his word. He allowed the Red Sea to be parted. The people crossed over in dry land. And when Pharaoh's chariots came in, the waters tumbled down on top of them, destroying them, drowning them. And as the people of Israel go on through the wilderness, they're met with more instances where the question comes to them, will God provide for us? Will God be faithful to us? They get thirsty. Will God be faithful to provide water for us? They get hungry. Will God be faithful to provide food for us? And this happens throughout the 40 years that they're in the wilderness. Sometimes they have faith that God will provide. Other times they completely fail. And it's that grumbling and that moaning that the people of Israel have towards God that leads to this 40 years in the wilderness. Remember how the 12 spies were sent in to look at that land, and as we've read already today, it was a land flowing with milk and honey. There was no better land in the whole world than this, flowing with milk and honey. It was the perfect land. And yet 10 of the spies came and said, it's too big. The people are too big. We will not be able to take it. We will not be able to destroy their cities. Our armies are not strong enough. Whereas two spies came back saying, God is faithful. God will give us this land. By his grace and by his strength, we will win this battle. You see, it was another test. Another test before the people of Israel. Would they believe that God was faithful? Would they trust in him? Or would they doubt? And of course they doubted. Forty long years later, the next generation has to learn from the mistakes of the former. As we come to Joshua 4, the people of Israel have already conquered the land on the east side of the Jordan. They've already destroyed those kings. But now it's time to cross that Jordan and destroy all the kings on the west side. They need to cross this Jordan. And perhaps it's another test of faith for them. Will God allow us to cross this Jordan River? And it's no surprise to us, knowing the whole story of scripture, that God is faithful to his people. God is with them. And God doesn't just allow them to build a bridge. God doesn't allow them to build a dam and to allow them to cross over this river in dry land. God doesn't cause them to build a series of boats to help them float across. No, God does something remarkable because he's showing here that it is he himself who is causing this river to part. Did you notice that it was when the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the river that symbol of the presence of God with his people. It was when that symbol stepped into the river, when God arose, the waters were parted. The land became dry and the people were able to cross over. It was an unusual thing. especially given the fact of what Joshua 3 tells us. Joshua 3 verse 14. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priests, bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And as those who bore the Ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the Ark dipped in the edge of the water, and listen to this, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of the harvest. time when the Jordan overflowed, that the waters, verse 16, which came down from upstream, stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretah. So the waters that went down into the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. When I was a child hearing this story, I assumed that it was like the crossing of the Red Sea, that there was a wall of water at this side and a wall of water at that side. But when you read the text, that's not what happened this time. There was a huge heap of water upstream. It piled up in a heap, higher and higher and higher. And the rest of the water flowed away downstream. And so the people were able to cross over quite a wide distance and getting wider and wider as the water flowed on down the stream. They were able to cross over, hurry over and get to the other side. You imagine they're looking over to that side and they're seeing this heap of water getting higher and higher and higher. A test of faith for them. What does this show us? It shows us that our God is a powerful God. Normally, he lets things run out in this world according to means. A river normally flows from its spring out. It normally goes in a certain direction. And you and I would be very surprised if we were to see a river going a different direction. and we would see it reverse direction. And how much more surprised would we be to see a pile of water heaping up higher and higher and higher without a dam there to hold it in. It would be extraordinary. And yet in this God shows that he is sovereign, that he can use means and that he can work in spite of means. Our God is not limited by what we call the laws of nature. Of course, they are his laws of nature. Those are his ordinary ways of working. He's not limited by those. God can do as and what he likes. No one here gets wet. Everyone passes over safe and sound. They arrive at the other side. Now such A large event, such a momentous event has to be marked. God's great victories in scripture are often marked. You think back to the Red Sea and how when the people crossed over there in dry land, that event was marked. It was marked by the song of Moses that was composed for that time, the song that extolled God for his greatness, for his majesty, for his grace and mercy. It was marked by that song. Or think back further to the deliverance out of Egypt itself, for how God destroyed the firstborn in all the houses of Egypt, how he killed even the firstborn son of Pharaoh, and yet no one in Israel was touched. how that blood that speaks to us of the blood of Christ, how that blood marked them as safe, and the angel of the Lord passed over. How was that marked? Well, every year that feast was repeated, that Passover feast. And you think, in the psyche of these Israelites, year by year, as they keep the Passover, they're remembering that great deliverance. as they do something simple as eating that lamb. They're thinking about how a lamb had to be killed so that firstborn son sitting at the table could have been saved. Or think about other ways in which tremendous events are memorialised. Sometimes it's the name of the place that is changed. No longer is that old name good enough It has to have a new name. Think of a place like Bethel. What does Bethel mean? House of God. That place used to be an ordinary place. Now it's marked as being house of God. In Judges 2, the name of the place that Israel was became known as Bochim, a place of weeping. Why was that? It was because the angel of the Lord came and confronted the people of Israel. and convicted them of their sin so that the people wept. And such a great weeping obviously had never happened to this extent so that the name of that place became Boheme. These memorials show us the importance of places and events and times. And it's no different here. There used to be a memorial There's to be something that sets this apart as an important event that is never to be forgotten. Twelve men, one from each tribe is to lift up out of that jordan a stone. It's not a pebble, it's not a tiny pebble that they're lifting up. It's a large stone. They're to put it up on their shoulders. These are to be substantial stones, because when they're set out as a monument, they're to be worthy of people asking, what are those for? They're striking, they're imposing, substantial stones. And we don't know how they were set out. We don't know if they're standing stones, like Calanish. We don't know if they're laying out flat, or if they're like your peat, the ruins, your peat stacked up. on top of each other. We don't know how they were stacked or if they were, but yet these stones were to have a sense of importance to them, that people would look at them and say, what's the story behind those? They were to be a lasting memorial. As it says in verses six and seven, It's giving us the purpose of these. It's for the children who are to come. It's that when the children ask, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them, verse seven, 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 for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. They're not little pebbles. that when little boys come down, they pick them up and they throw them around and they get moved and forgotten about. They're substantial stones. It's to be a memorial forever that God has done something great at Gilgal. It's that when the children in the future ask, what is the point of those stones? Then the answer would come, God himself acted. God acted. The same reason is given at the end of the chapter, in verses 21 to 23. Then he, that's Joshua, 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. There's the assumption here, of course, that children will ask, that children will be interested in these stories. But who of you here who has had children of your own, or who knows children, don't children ask questions? Aren't young children especially always asking questions? Aren't they asking questions almost until you're fed up answering the questions? They ask, what's that for? Why is that there? What's the purpose of this? How does it work? Children have this natural curiosity inside them. They're always asking. They want to know the answers. And so these children of Israel, as they're going for a walk along Gilgal, would obviously see this memorial. It would be striking and imposing. And they'd say, Mom, Dad, what are those for? And God commands the people of Israel to have the answer ready. To be able to give a reason for those stones. To say that the Lord led us across the Jordan. The Lord brought us across in dry land. You can imagine, perhaps, the discussion in the future, several generations down the line, how a child would say, what are those for? And a parent would say, well, when our great, great, great grandfathers crossed over this Jordan, it was the Lord who went before them. It was the Lord, as he went into the midst of the Jordan, in that symbol of the Ark of the Covenant, that the waters piled up in a huge heap up the stream. What does this show you? It shows you that God is faithful to us. It shows us that God loves us. It shows us that God cares for us, that he's gracious to us, that he never forgets us. And this is the God who doesn't change. If that is how God acted when our fathers came into the land, will he not do the same today? Will he not continue to be faithful to us? Will he not continue to help us? And so something as simple as stones in Gilgal became an object lesson, especially for the parents, to their children, that they could talk about the character of God. What a great object lesson these were. They weren't meaningless stones. They weren't pointless. They didn't get there by chance. They were placed there for a reason. And that reason all revolves around God. who is faithful to his people. And you see, of course, how this answer would work. You see how this very simple object lesson would imbibe into the lives, hearts, and souls of those children a sense of piety. They can't just run around and play and have fun and think of whatever they like. No, when they ask that question, they hear about the faithfulness of God. and it causes them to think. This is their God, faithful, merciful, loving, powerful, sovereign. In these stones, they got a whole lesson of theology. Matthew Henry says, note, in all the instructions and information parents give their children, they should have this chiefly in their eye, to teach and engage them to fear God forever. Serious godliness is the best learning. If you had godly parents, I'm sure they taught you many things. I'm sure they taught you how to do more things than you even think they taught you to do. And yet, if they were godly parents, don't you look back and say it was a serious godliness they taught me. That is the most valuable thing. That is the thing I would not exchange for anything else, for any learning in the world. That is what I want to keep. Of course this passage applies to all of us. Not all of us here is parents. Not all of us here have children. And yet this passage shows us that we are all to have the answer ready for children. There are children in your congregation. They may ask questions to any one of us here, not just to their parents. Will we have the answer ready? Are we able not just to commend them to the Lord in prayer, are we able to commend the Lord to them as we answer their questions? Are we able to point them to the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we able to teach them of the faithfulness of God? Are we able to use object lessons in our own lives to point out the faithfulness of God to them? You see, we don't live near the Jordan River. We don't live near Gilgal. We don't have these stones sitting somewhere for us to see. But there are other memorials for us of God's faithfulness. Isn't the fact that you're a Christian a memorial in and of itself? Isn't that transformation in your life a memorial to the children? There are certain things you do that you didn't used to do. And there are certain things you don't do that you used to do. What a testimony that is to the next generation. Or think, Think about our nation. Think about the memorials that we have. Think about the first and the second Reformation heroes. Think about how God worked in this nation. How he converted people. How he set this country on a course towards godliness and piety. Aren't those stories something that we can pass on to the coming generations? Think about the Covenanters. Think about the persecution that they suffered for their faith. Consider them, and how God was faithful to them in trial, and how he carried them on to that martyr's cry. God was faithful. Or think locally. Think about your revivals up here in Lewis. Think about how that is something that you can command to the coming generations, of how the Spirit of God moved in this island. How he converted people. how he saved people, how he sanctified people, how he changed lives. God is powerful and he's faithful. If we forget these things, whether locally or nationally, we're just like, we'd just be like people who forgot about these stones at Gilgal, who would forget to commend to our children that God was the one that led them over the River Jordan. And there are other memorials. There are more general memorials, ones that apply to all of us. Wherever we live in the world, you think about how we're living in God's created world, how we're living in the beauty of his creation. We go for a walk and we can't help but see there is beauty everywhere. What does that give you an opportunity to do? Doesn't it give an opportunity to teach the next generation that we have an almighty creator God? an intelligent designer who sets everything out in an orderly fashion. Writers of the Hebrew says, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Faith comes by hearing, and children need to hear that these things were created by God. Or think about other ways that we can have memorials. Think about God's providence to you. Think about how there is not a day where there is not food set on your table before you. Where does that come from? It comes from God. You've never starved, you've never lacked, truly, the way many people in the world do. But doesn't that remind us that every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven? We live in a world of sickness, pain and illness. But can't we remind the coming generation, no matter how old we are, whether we're their parents or not, can't we remind them that even those evils that come upon our bodies, that God still loves us. It's for our good. All things work together for good, for those that love God and are called according to his purpose. And that's a special way in which those of you who are older here can help those younger. Because those who are younger haven't gone through perhaps much sickness or illness in their lives. They've never gone through old age. They don't know the burdens that you've suffered. They don't know the trials that have come your way. They've not yet had that opportunity to learn to that degree the faithfulness of God. And yet if you've gone through those trials, don't you have the perfect opportunity to instruct them in the faithfulness of God. Don't keep quiet about it. God has taken you through those trials so that you can help others, that you can command others to the Lord. Perhaps the more fundamental problem for all of us is that we need to reteach ourselves all of these things. We can quite easily go through this world and we can compartmentalize our faith into certain parts. We come to God and worship him on the Sabbath day. We worship him in our homes. We read our Bibles and pray individually. And yet the rest of our lives, we can think abstractly. We can forget about God. In our world today, and especially in our land, there's a general sense of godliness, godlessness that's pervading. People forget about God, and many people purposefully so. There are those who would try to distract us from God, who would try to take children from the earliest age and to instruct them, not in serious godliness, but to instruct them in the ways of the world. We have all the enemies against us. We have the world. We have the temptations of sin. We have the old man. We have non-Christians all around us. We've got the media. All these things are coming against us, conspiring against us to distract us from God. Think about your life. Think about the last week. Think about all the things that you've done. Did your mind always go to God? Or were there times in which very clearly God was active in the world and we forgot about it? We missed it. God is everywhere. We need to remember God's faithfulness ourselves. We need to have this sense of piety imbibed in our hearts. Because only then that we can convey that to the next generation. Good thing I don't have to come in to use testimonies. It's good to share testimonies with each other. I'm thankful that this is a church that does bear testimony of how God has acted in each of our lives. These ways show the next generation and they show those outside the faith that God is our faithful God. Or think about the Lord's Supper. You've just had that joy before you of the Lord's Supper. But it's a time in which we are to instruct the next generation of the significance of each of those things. Just like the people of Israel, when they came to partake of that Passover meal, they were to expect their children to ask, what's the point of this meal? Why are we doing this again? Why are we doing this? We only just did it last year. What is the purpose of this feast? Well, it's because the Lord delivered us from Egypt. And it's the same with the Lord's Supper. I remember very, and especially, and very precious to me, times when my father took me aside on the Lord's Day morning, and we were going to have the Lord's Supper. As a young boy, he took me and my brother aside, and he said, just watch out. I've maybe told you this before. Watch out. There's gonna be bread, there's gonna be wine. The bread represents the body of Christ. The wine represents the blood of Christ. Watch what's done. Watch the solemnity of it. Watch the joy in people's faces. This is real faith, real piety. Israel was to have these answers ready for their children. They were to be able to say the Lord has been faithful to us and he will continue to be faithful to us. There's a second purpose, not just for the children. It's not just to the next generation, but a cut short in verse 24, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. You don't all have children, although some of you maybe have grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors or friends that are children, but you do all have people living around you who are from this world. And the second purpose of these stones is that all the peoples of the world might know God. They might know that the hand of God is a mighty hand and that they might come to fear the Lord. You see these stones in Gilgal were not just for the covenant community, they were for all the nations round about. To those people, who aren't Christians around us, do they hear from us, both in the ways we live our lives and in the words that we use, do they hear from us that the Lord is a mighty God? Do they know God? Do we live our lives in such a way that they are so keenly and acutely aware of the presence of God that it bears upon them, it weighs upon them? In thinking about this, in Erudre we had our evangelistic services, And Reverend Quigley had to spend quite a bit of time impressing upon people that God is real. He wasn't trying to prove it to them, he was declaring it to them. The sense of the godliness of God, a sense of his existence, that he's real, that he's holy. And we could feel it. We could feel it in the room, the sense of God. But we're living in a culture where this sense of the existence of God is being eroded away. Down in Airdrie, it's nonexistent. You walk down the street, no godliness. Here you still have it to an extent, but it's being eroded away. I don't need to tell you that. How do we remedy that? We have to have that weighing upon our own hearts. We have to believe in God ourselves. We have to have that sense of him in ourselves. Because when we do, all the peoples of the earth might look at us as a memorial stone ourselves, and they will say, the Lord is mighty. He is real. He's to be feared. When they see it in your lives, when they hear it from your words, when they see that you don't choose sin, but that you choose righteousness, all these are opportunities for the nations of the world to fear the Lord. And you see how it says there again at the end of verse 24, forever. Just as in verse seven, forever. These stones were to be there forever. Always being a memorial to this God, this great and awesome God who's to be feared. So too, there are to be memorials forever. How much a greater thing is it? Salvation in Christ. Salvation by that substitutionary death of Christ. Life in him as he was raised from the dead and sits at the right hand of God. How much greater is that than crossing over a river? I don't want to minimalize how great it was that this Jordan River was parted, but think about it for a minute. We cross rivers every day, perhaps. It was an awesome thing God did. It was a terrifying thing that God did, and yet, It's salvation in Christ that's far more awe-inspiring. How much more should we be willing to talk about it, to be a memorial to that precious blood of Christ which speaks a better word than that available? But what actually happened? What actually happened in Israel's history? Well, I want you to turn with me to a few different passages, Judges chapter three, These stones at Gilgal were to be a memorial forever to the faithfulness of God. Each generation of children were to pass by these stones and say, what are those for? And the answer would come, our God is faithful. Our God is just. Our God is mighty and powerful, omnipotent and sovereign. In Judges chapter 3, verse 19, this is in the story of Ehud Verse 19 says, but he, that's Ehud himself, turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal. And he went on to speak to Eglon. What did Ehud see? Stone images at Gilgal. Perhaps these were idols that were separate from the stones of Joshua 4. Or perhaps these were the stones of Joshua 4. The place that was meant to be a memorial to the faithfulness of God was now a place of idolatry, a terrible place, a place of wickedness. Hosea, chapter 9. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea. This is in the midst of a passage where God is condemning the apostasy of Israel and of all their backslidings into sin. He's declaring his judgment to them. Hosea 9 verse 15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal. For there I hated them because of the evil of their deeds. I will drive them from my house. I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious. It was at Gilgal. I hated them at Gilgal. There's a significance there to that place. It's where these stones stood. The stones testified. They were meant to testify to the people that God was faithful. Now they were testifying against the people. They were testifying against them in judgment. All their iniquity and sin. And then finally, Amos. Hosea, Joel, Amos, chapter 4. Amos 4, verse 4. Come to Bethel. Remember, that means house of God, a special place. Come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal. Multiply transgression. Come to these holy places, sin and multiply your sin. And then just forward one chapter into chapter five, verse five. But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. is a powerful word to us. These places that had tremendous privilege, they had these testimonies to God's faithfulness, day by day were standing there before them. You couldn't ignore them, you couldn't miss them, they were there. And yet, it was these places with much privilege that incurred the greatest condemnation. You see why it's important for us to command to the next generation and to command to the nations of this world the faithfulness of our awesome and fearful God. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we ask that our place here in Scotland, the nation, would not become like Gilgal, a place that bore testimony to your faithfulness, and yet that led the way forward into idolatry. Father, cause us to take this seriously. Cause us to look to you in all areas of our lives. Cause us to have this sense of God in everything that we do. Forgive us for those times where we forget you, or where we don't commend you to others. Help us to bring this word to the next generation, and to the generation after it, that a generation yet unborn might praise and magnify the Lord. Father, these things are serious. These things can terrify us as we think about our children and the next generation. But Father, we know that you're a faithful God who has made covenant promises. And so while there is fear in us, we are reminded of your love and mercy, and we commit our children to you. We ask that you would work in their lives, that you would bring them to yourself, that you would keep the promises that you have made. We thank you, Father, that the promises were not just to us, but to us and to our children. Father, we rejoice in this love of yours. In Jesus' name, amen. In closing, we'll sing from Psalm 78. Psalm 78. Attend my people to my law, thereto give thou an ear. The words that from my mouth proceed attentively do hear. My mouth shall speak a parable, and sayings dark of old, the same which we have heard and known, and us our fathers told. And this idea, this piety the fathers are telling the children. We also will them not conceal from their posterity. Them to the generation to come declare will we. the praises of the Lord our God, and His almighty strength, the wondrous works that He hath done, we will show forth at length. We're just saying to verse four there, when we're saying this, we are pledging ourselves by the Lord's grace, not to conceal these great truths from our children and the coming generation, but to bring it to them, that they might sing the praises of God. We'll sing verses one to four, let's stand and praise God. Again, my people, do I know that you will never hear the words that from thy word proceed. and shall bring you near. My mind shall speak about the good, and say it shall come home. ♪ The same ways we have heard and known ♪ ♪ And thus our fathers told ♪ ♪ We also will then be told ♪ seen from their own setting, then to that generation to come, deliver, win. The praises of the Lord are gone, and His almighty strength the world has heard. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would take us now away from here with your blessing. You would help us especially to keep the rest of this day holy unto you, knowing that this is your day. We ask that you would bless us in our times of fellowship together. Everything that we say to each other would be good for us and edifying to us that they would glorify your holy name. We thank you for being with us in our service of worship. We ask that you would continue to be with us in this day. In Jesus' name, amen.