Well, we're back in Joshua. I'm going to be reading Joshua 5, verses 10 through 12. And while I read this, I just want you to be aware, for many of these Israelites, this is the first time they have been able to partake of the Passover in 38 years. This must have been an incredible time of joy as they were readmitted to this feast. I just can't imagine being barred from the Lord's table for 38 years. But in any case, let's read this together. Joshua 5, beginning at verse 10. Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho, and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover on leavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. Amen. Father, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that as we dig into this, that you would open our eyes to see the glories of what you have provided for us, the promise that we have in the Lord's table. And we pray this blessing upon your people through the grace and through the merits of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, before we dive into this passage, I want to at least briefly explain the relationship between circumcision and Passover in the Old Testament and baptism and the Lord's Table in the New Testament. The New Testament is quite clear that those Old Testament sacraments really are related very, very closely. They correspond to our two sacraments. Now, the last time I was preaching on this chapter, I was focused in on circumcision, showed how it paralleled New Covenant baptism on many ways. And today we're going to be looking at the second sacrament of the Old Testament, communion. Now, I will say that communion came in a number of different forms depending on the time of year that it was. There were weekly communion meals at the tabernacle as they would come to offer peace offerings and then they spoke of the fellowship meals that were afterwards. It was a kind of communion. And then there were yearly festivals where the communion meal was celebrated at those festivals as well, but the mother of all of these communion meals was Passover. All of the other communion meals float out of that, and theologians give a number of different scriptures to show that. You know, Jesus spoke of the Lord's table in the language of the Passover. So did the Apostle Paul. Now obviously, the bloody aspects of Passover passed away with the sacrifice of Christ, and so all that we're left with is the unleavened bread and the wine, and it's the same with circumcision. The bloody aspect that pointed to Jesus that was associated with the circumcision washing ceremony that they went through, that passed away, and the only thing that's left in the new covenant is the washing, the baptism. But the essence of both sacraments continues into the New Testament. But back to the Passover, 1 Corinthians 5, 7 through 8 says we continue to eat the Passover feast when we partake of the Lord's Table. And sometime read 1 Corinthians 10. It goes through all of the Old Testament communion meals and says that the essence of those meals is found in the Lord's Table. In fact, in that passage it goes through and it says that we can learn how to worthily partake of the Lord's Table by looking at how people either unworthily or worthily partook of the table in the Old Testament, okay? So that's what we're gonna do with the Passover today. Now, obviously, it doesn't say everything that could be said about Passover observation. It's just an introduction, but we're gonna find, I think, this introduction to be helpful. So first of all, there were conditions for partaking of the Passover meal. A stranger couldn't just walk up and start partaking without demonstrating to the Levites, who were the pastors in those days, that he met these conditions. My book on communion shows all of the different conditions that God gave. We're just gonna stick to the ones that are hinted at in verses two through nine. First of all, they got circumcised in verses two through nine. And it's not by accident that they had to get circumcised before they partook of the Passover. This was mandated in the law of God. No uncircumcised person could partake of Passover or any of the other communion meals. And you think about that, that means that these people Their whole lifetime, they have not been partaking of communion for many, many years, 38 to be precise for many of those people. Obviously, there were some youngsters or younger ones that were present here. But Exodus 12 verse 48 says, no uncircumcised person shall eat it. Numbers 9 and other passages indicate that there was a ritual cleansing that was also needed, what we call a baptism. It was an absolute rule. That was required before they partook. But second, we saw that there were a number of things that had to be in place before people could get circumcised. Well, if circumcision is a condition of Passover, and there is other conditions for circumcision, then these are preconditions for coming to the Lord's table as well. They had to repent of their sins. They had to put their faith in the coming Messiah. And this is why Romans 4, verse 11 speaks of the circumcision of Abraham as being a sign and a seal of the justification by faith that he had in the coming Christ. God had revealed to them, this is symbolizing what your future Messiah will go through. And because the covenant was made with not just believers, but also with their children, circumcision was applied to their children as well. Third, we saw that, circumcision had to be done under the authority of Levites, who were the pastors. Fourth, it was normally supposed to be done in a public ceremony. It was not to be a private event, and that's why the circumcision in verses 2 through 9 was public. I know it would have been embarrassing, but it was a public event that they went through. So last time we saw that all of this believing generation had just gotten circumcised by the pastors, the Levites, as a sign of their justification by faith alone, and Their children, their male children, were circumcised along with them. So I'm not gonna repeat what we went through on that sermon, and I'm not gonna get into the baptism side of things other than just to remind you that while all the males were circumcised, both the males and the females also were baptized, and that baptism was called a circumcision. If you wanna read it, Numbers 9, there's some passages in Leviticus that get into that. Well, in the same way, before anyone can partake of communion in the New Testament, he has to be baptized with water by an ordained minister of the gospel in a public ceremony. And we're willing to re-baptize people who did not have that happen to them. But let me talk a little bit more about the second prerequisite, that if there was church discipline, then the church discipline had to be reversed before people could come to communion. Now in verses 4 through 6, he gives just a brief rehearsal of what numbers in Deuteronomy go into great detail on, and that was that many years before, the adults had rebelled against God over and over and over again until finally God in His, I mean, He was very patient with them, but eventually He excommunicated them, basically, and because they were no longer members of the synagogues, they were not allowed to circumcise their children, because it's a sign of the covenant, and they did not have the privilege of the sacraments. So they were part of the nation. This is something many people get confused on. You could be a part of the nation without being circumcised, but you could not be a part of the church, okay? So they were part of the nation. but they were not members of the church. Now you might think that it's just not fair to allow the children to suffer for the sins of the parents and the neglect of the parents. This is the way God's covenant many times works. And so as those children became adults, many of them, and in this case, God moved upon their hearts, all of them made profession of faith. And God can do that. He brought the entire city of Nineveh to faith. And Jesus said it was a genuine faith. It was not just a formality that they went through. So they came to faith. Now I did mention that there was a believing remnant throughout that entire 40-year period who did have faith in God and who did come to the communion meals throughout that whole period of time, but the bulk of Israel did not. And so this ceremony was a reversal of that discipline. And the application that I make to this is that God guards his table very jealously, and he expects his ministers to guard it jealously as well, okay? We ask visitors to wait if they have not been baptized by a minister, if they have not made membership vows, you know, joined some evangelical church. Some people complain about waiting, but hey, these guys were made to wait for 38 years. Now, of course, other passages indicate that discipline couldn't be reversed without repentance. That's pretty obvious, right? These people were already believers, but there had been compromise in their lives, and you can see that hinted at in verse 9. It's very clear in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But if you take a look at verse 9, it says, Lord said to Joshua, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. They had been acting more like Egypt than like God's people, and they repented of that. Now, 40 years before, they had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them. And it was just now on this day that the reproach of Egypt was completely eliminated. This is an amazing statement. It didn't matter that they were believers. The reproach of Egypt was still clinging to them. It didn't matter that they had previously won some battles. By failing to be circumcised, they were still identifying with the world. And so before taking the conquest of Canaan, God wanted them to have a radical renunciation of the world and a commitment to his ways of doing things. Were they God's people? Yes. Were they prepared for the conflict? No. God wanted to make it unmistakably clear they were committed to Him until death, and so He reinstituted this very painful rite of circumcision, a painful operation to demonstrate their radical commitment to Him. Now, don't worry, we don't require circumcision. That's passed away in the New Testament, right? But we do require baptism. Next, by partaking of the Passover, they were renewing their vows of loyalty and devotion to God. Okay, so fellowship and worship are things that Satan fears. This fellowship, this restoration of fellowship with each other and of worship to God, God wanted in their lives before they took the conquest. Verse 10 says, So the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. This was a feast that highlighted both their walk with God and their walk with each other. both worship and fellowship. If Satan can break either of those in our lives, he has made major inroads into your life, okay? And this has happened with many of these Israelites over and over during the previous 40 years. Many years earlier, when King Balak hired Balaam, and he wasn't able to curse them, he blessed them instead, he finally asked Balaam, so how do I get at these people? And Balaam gave him advice. And he said, if you can get them to fornicate and or to marry with unbelievers, they're going to lose God's favor. And then if you can get them to worship other idols. And so, you know, breaking fellowship on a horizontal level and breaking the power of worship through idolatry was something that enabled Satan to gain a foothold in their lives. If you read 1 John, you will see how critical it is that we maintain fellowship, that we maintain our worship with God on a regular basis. And so these Israelites were bound to the Lord and they're bound to each other through these two sacraments. But this Passover meal also ties the entire conquest of the rest of the book to the future redemption of Jesus. And let me quickly explain what is meant by this lamb. Exodus 12 through 13 gives God's instructions on the Passover meal and requires that these instructions be passed on from generation to generation. So we can assume that the Levites, before they approved, because they had to inspect the lamb, before they approved the meal that they're gonna partake of, they're gonna explain what the law said they had to explain. They explain the meaning. Now I've included a chart on the back of your outlines that gives 20 ways in which Passover perfectly prefigured Jesus. I'm just gonna highlight four or five of those so you can get an idea of it. Point number one there shows that the Lamb itself represents Jesus, the Lamb of God slain for us. A verse I didn't include is 1 Corinthians 5, 7. It says, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. So Jesus is called the Passover Lamb. Point two gives the requirement that the Lamb be without any blemish. And I give a couple verses, and I give two New Testament verses that show that this pointed, that symbol pointed to the sinlessness of Jesus. Point four shows the Lamb set apart four days before Passover and brought for inspection by the Levites, had to be inspected by the pastors, and interestingly, On the very day that thousands of lambs are being herded through the streets of Jerusalem toward the temple to be inspected by the Levites, Jesus is going toward the temple in the midst of those lambs. He's going as the Lamb of God. Point five shows that the lamb was slain on exactly the same day Jesus was crucified on. And I won't take the time to go through all 20 points of comparison, but when you see how Passover was a sign and seal of Christ's redemption, you see how this was a perfect preparation for them going into the land of Canaan. Joshua himself was a type of Jesus advancing the gospel, but you don't have any gospel if there's no redemption. You know, liberals like to take the blood out. They say, that's gross, that's gory. No, you do not have any redemption without the slain blood of Jesus. So by partaking of this sacrament, these believing Israelites were acknowledging they could not take the conquest apart from Christ and his work. Now, he was still future to them, but they're looking in faith to him. Now, there's also some interesting stuff here related to timing. Since Joshua is a type of Christ, it should not surprise us that even his chronology parallels Christ's chronology in many ways. Let me give you several timing examples. In chapter 1, Joshua was commissioned to his new ministry in Canaan, which was different than in the wilderness. commissioned on New Year's Day. Abib 1 is New Year's Day. And actually, after the exile, Abib got changed as a name to Nisan. But Abib 1, Nisan 1, is a very significant date. For example, Michael Rood calculated that Abib 1 was when Jesus emerged from the desert, you know, his temptation to begin his public ministry. And on that day, John the Baptist announces him to everybody, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So it shouldn't be any surprise to us that there's other symbols related to this ministry. For example, the tabernacle was set up on Abib 1, Nisan 1. It opened its doors for ministry on that day because it too is a symbol of the Lord Jesus. But the key point here is that both Joshua and Jesus were commissioned to ministry on New Year's Day. Chapter 4, verse 19 says that Israel crossed the Jordan River on Abib 10. Well, that's the date of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In obedience to Exodus 12, verse 10 of our chapter says they kept the Passover on the 14th day of Abib. That's when Jesus, our Passover lamb, was crucified. But verse 11 says, they ate the produce of the land of Canaan the next day, eating unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Well, that's almost a direct quote from Leviticus, and most commentaries point to this. Leviticus 23, verse 14. Now let me quote that verse, because I think it's key to understanding this passage. And I'm going to quote it in context, because it gives instructions of what they should do when they entered into the land of Canaan, which is now, right? It says this. This is Leviticus 23, beginning at verse 10. Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest, which is what they did here, Then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it, and you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma, and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hen. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain, nor fresh grain, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings." Now, there have been a number of commentaries that are really confused, because it seems like Joshua is disobeying this. It was actually the early Jewish Karaite commentaries who were the first to calculate and recognize, and now Protestants followed them, but they recognized that the only way that Joshua 5 can be reconciled with these instructions here is if the Passover for that year landed on a Sabbath. That hint not only gives us a very precise chronology in these chapters, but it also shows how Israel was carefully following God's law to a T. And so we've got Passover immediately followed by the wave offering, followed by their eating grain from the land on the 15th. Now, if the last section of this chapter follows immediately after the 15th, then this theophany, in the last verses, 13 through 15, this theophany that meets with Joshua happened on the 16th, on Resurrection Day. Now, we can't be absolutely sure of that, but it would then prefigure Christ's resurrection power rather well. Now there are three additional things we can learn from the beautiful timing. I love chronology, I'm sorry that I inflict you with chronology, but I love it. But the fact that four, if you trace through all of the chronology in the first six chapters, there's four sabbatic structures, there's four cycles of seven, and even the marching seven times around Jericho. We won't get into that. The four sabbatic structures symbolize the fact that Jesus is our rest. We must first rest in him before we take our dominion work. After all, he gives us the strength to take dominion. Second, all of this shows that they were committed to obeying God's laws to the tiniest details. If God said it, they're gonna obey it. God blesses those who are loyal to His law. Third, doing both sacraments before rushing into the conquest shows a huge trust in God. And let me explain. From a human perspective, it would have been much more advantageous for them to immediately after they have crossed this Jordan, it was spectacular, and you know these walls, what did we say, 100 feet tall or something like that, the walls of water with the flood by the end of the day, it struck fear. Verse one says, it struck fear into the hearts of the Canaanites, And it would have been much more advantageous for Israel to take them by surprise. Nobody expected that anybody would be crossing this river anytime soon because it was in flood stage, right? It would have been much more advantageous for them to take the conquest immediately, take the advantage. So they had no time to prepare a counteroffensive, but God does two very unusual things. Right in front of Jericho, God has all of the men get circumcised. Wow, this makes them sitting ducks. They're going to be sore for a number of days, unable to fight, and yet they trust God. They say, okay, if God says it, we're going to do it. It says, second, God made them wait till after the Passover, one day, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted another seven days. This would have given plenty of time for the Canaanites to develop strategies of war to do their counter offensive. It removes all the advantage of surprise, but God wanted them to trust him. And my takeaway, and I always try to apply these passages, my takeaway is that devotion to God must precede service to God or our service becomes man-centered. Rather than rushing into battle, they worship. If you're a driven person, I think there's quite a number of driven people in here, this is my temptation too, I'm a driven person. If you're a driven person, it can be so tempting to dive into your busy, busy workday without devotions because, ah, today I just don't have time to take devotions. No, that's backwards. You don't have time not to take devotions. We've got to come to the Lord for strength, even if it's a short devotion. We've got to come to the Lord for strength if we're going to be efficient in the dominion that God has given to us to take. Notice next. that they celebrate Passover, it says, on the plains of Jericho. In other words, in the flat ground that was immediately in front of that great city. You could not get a more literal illustration of Psalm 23 verse five than this. That great Psalm says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Now let's think about that for a bit. 40 years before, to the day, exactly 40 years before, they celebrated the first Passover in Exodus chapter 12, and they celebrated that in the presence of their enemies. They're still in Egypt. in the presence of their enemies. And that first Passover meal, Exodus 12 says, is to be a joyous thanksgiving feast that God is about to provide judgment on Egypt and to provide delivery, freedom from slavery. Now they celebrated the victory before they even saw the victory. This too was a thanksgiving meal that God was sufficient for their conquest. Now they hadn't even started the conquest yet. had even started the conquest yet, but they're rejoicing in God's victory. Unlike the previous generation that was eventually barred from this meal here, these saints did not look at Canaan as being an impossible thing for God to take. They rejoiced that God was greater than their greatest enemies, and they were eating this thanksgiving meal in faith that if God was for them, who could be against them? And many commentators point out, you know, that this shows Joshua to be a second Moses who is leading them on a second exodus out of the wilderness. There's a lot of things we won't get into this morning, a lot of little lessons. But let me talk for a bit about the blessings promised in the Passover. This is so encouraging. Frequently, when I come to the Lord's table, I think about these blessings. The original Passover explicitly promised seven blessings. They're not promised in Exodus 12, they're promised in Exodus 23. And it was, after all, they're covenanting with the Lord who owns all things, who can provide all things, so we take these promises seriously. So let me list the promises in Exodus 23. God promised in connection with this meal, he promised to send his angel to protect them, verse 20. Second, God promised to protect them from enemy attack, verses 22 through 23. Third, he promised them success in conquest, verse 24. Fourth, he promised them protection from sickness, verse 25. Fifth, He promised them protection from miscarriage, verse 26. Sixth, God promised to dispossess their enemies, implying an inheritance, verses 27 through 31. Seventh, He explicitly promised that they would inherit the land in verses 30 through 31. Now, obviously, we don't have those promises listed in these verses. They are promised later on in the book of Joshua, but there are two things that we find in these three verses that symbolically show, no, God is good for all of His promises, And so I want to show you these two things. First is that God provided a down payment, as it were, by giving them their first Canaanite food totally free of charge. They didn't even have to fight for it. Verse 11, and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and part grain on the very same day. Where did they get that? They didn't plant any grain. All they'd been eating for the previous 40 years was manna. Well, verse 11 calls it the produce of the land. They're getting something from Canaan. And so commentators say what happened is the citizens in all of the farmland that was around Jericho were frightened when Israel came over and they dashed into Jericho, they're holed up in Jericho, And all the Israelites have to do is come in and start harvesting the fields. And actually some commentators say that the Hebrew word that's used for the produce may indicate that this has already been harvested. All they had to go to is these big granaries, open up the chutes and start shoveling it out for all of the Israelites to eat. This is amazing. God has provided for them a down payment of the plunder they're going to in the future be getting. All they had to do was scoop it out. Now, whichever way it was, whether they had to harvest it themselves or they scooped it out of granaries, either way, this is showing that the same pillage of the land that they're going to be enjoying in the future They're getting a first taste of that plunder. This is a down payment if they're inheriting the entire land. But the next phrase in verse 11 indicates that they were able to eat the produce of the land. It says the day after the Passover. It was a sign he would fulfill his promises. And they're actually gonna relax for the next seven days because the day after Passover begins the seven day feast of unleavened bread. And it mentions them eating unleavened bread, right? That's on purpose. Now, I've already showed the connection with Leviticus 23, 10 through 14 because of this quote that commentators, so it's implied that all of those promises are implied. But when they were willing to follow God's law, God poured out the blessings of provision for them. And in the same way, when we come to the Lord's table, we can come in faith rejoicing that God will indeed fulfill his promises to us and will provide everything that we need if we come in faith and in holiness. But moving on, since food was now plentiful, God's supernatural provision of manna was no longer needed. Verse 12 says, then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. Now, they had experienced God's miraculous provision of manna every single day for the last 40 years. Obviously, the Sabbaths were excluded. But they have experienced miracle after miracle, day after day, and yet an entire generation of unbelievers failed to appreciate that miracle. They continually grumbled. Yet here is a generation that has the daily miracles cease, yet they operate from faith, operating probably their most faith-driven generation ever. This illustrates that miracles do not always produce faith, and faith does not need miracles to faithfully serve God. We should not overemphasize the importance of miracles. Now, it's not as if miracles don't continue to happen in this book. They do, and we believe in miracles. We've seen miracles, but we shouldn't overemphasize it. Here's the point that I make by way of application. God will not miraculously provide for us when our diligence can provide what is needed. In other words, God's not interested in subsidizing our laziness and our irresponsibility. Don't expect miracles to cover for your laziness. A.W. Pink words it this way, the practical lesson which we are to draw therefrom is that we are not to expect extraordinary supplies when they can be had in an ordinary way. God works no unnecessary miracles. It is blessed to remember that the Lord had not discontinued the manna when the people despised it, Numbers 11, 6, nor even when he severed his covenant relationship with that evil generation, but had mercifully continued to give it for the sake of their children, who had now grown up and entered Canaan. And so he's answering a question that comes up. Why on earth did God extend so many miracles and so many mercies to an unbelieving generation? And Pink, I think rightly says, he did it for the sake of the elect who had not yet come into covenant with him. In other words, God supplied miracles for the parents for the sake of this generation who would come to faith. And in the same way, we should not get frustrated with God when we pray for His judgments to fall upon the enemies in America and He doesn't do it right away. It may very well be that He's holding off on judgment for the sake of some elect who are yet to come to faith. And by the way, God did that 40 years before with, they deserve judgment, right? 40 years before. God orchestrated in a way that the conquest would not take place because Rahab was going to come to faith and she hadn't even been born yet. And her family was going to come to faith. And the whole Gibeonite tribe was going to come to faith. Okay? So God knows what he is doing. Later he was going to use very, very, it would have been a mess if they had gone in 40 years earlier. And anyway, as to his blessing these believers, when they weren't being consistent, I'm so grateful that God deals with his elect gently. He puts up with a lot of inconsistencies in our lives. He doesn't just pound us, he's very, very gracious. Now there are just two other implied lessons that I wanna give. The first one is the need for flexibility, and you can see that actually in most of the chapters later on in this book. But verses 11 through 12 indicate the need to suddenly adapt to a new diet and a new way to trust the Lord. Now there are many of them who had trusted the Lord, not all of them, but many of them trusted the Lord for his miraculous provision in the wilderness. Now they're gonna be trusting God with ordinary means of survival and prospering. God is not like Many modern churches that refuse to kill programs even after those programs have long outlived their usefulness. Now God calls us to change, to be adapting, and we need to be willing to adapt. The last lesson I see here is that God called them to memorialize the past and to anticipate the future. We become imbalanced if we are so present-oriented that we fail to appreciate the past and we fail to be driven by the future. Exodus 12, 14 says of the Passover, so this day shall be to you a memorial. They were called to memorialize the great deeds that God had given for their deliverance from Egypt. But the Lord's Supper was also anticipating the future. It gave promises for their future good. Now obviously all of the other blessings that they received flowed from their future Messiah, who had not yet come yet, the Lord Jesus Christ. They're looking forward to that. 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So we look backward, we memorialize that. But here's the point, we should not forget that when the Lord's table signs and seals God's redemption to us, it signs and seals all of the blessings that flow from that redemption. We come to the table with expectation of more future blessings. Pink worded it this way. Passover sets forth the grand truth of redemption, which is the foundation blessing of believers, the fountain from which all other blessings flow. And the Passover was kept upon Israel's entrance into Canaan to signify that their possession of the inheritance, no less than their deliverance from Egypt, was owing to the merits of the blood of the Lamb. So yes, for us, the Lord's Table is a memorial of the past. We look back, we appreciate the past mercies, but we also look forward to His generosity in the future. I've already read the seven blessings listed in Exodus 23. Let me give you a few other blessings that God promises in the Lord's Table. Exodus 12 verse 24 promises covenant succession to many generations. And this is such an encouraging promise to claim, especially when our children are wandering from the faith. We ask God to be true to his word, and we come in faith, we come with rejoicing that God is going to do something. And we're saying, Lord, I don't know when you're gonna do it. My wandering children, I'm laying claim to what you're going to do. That's the way we need to approach this subject. Some people call Abraham's laugh the laugh of faith. And we can laugh in the face of Satan and tell Satan, when he's trying to discourage us and say, get out of here, I'm gonna believe God, when he has said that my labors in the Lord are not in vain. All of the things that I've invested in my children are not in vain. We're going to be looking for a harvest to come no matter what Satan throws in my face. Okay, that is resisting doubt. It's resisting by rejoicing. When you come to the Lord's table, claim that promise. Ezra 6 connects God's cultural blessings with the meal. In that chapter and other chapters speaks of the fruits of grace such as joy. Do you lack joy? Then say, Lord, one of the promises you give in the Lord's Table is that you will fill my heart with joy, and you can claim the other fruits of the Spirit. 2 Chronicles 30, tithes, answered prayers, and healing to the meal. Now, of course, that passage also, this is what people focus on. It mentions the sicknesses that those people had because they partook of the Lord's Table unworthily. And of course, Paul talks about those sicknesses too, right? Many are weak, some of you are weak, sick, some have even died as a result of coming to the Lord's table unworthily. And so people focus on that and they don't even wanna come to the Lord's table. But let me tell you, brothers and sisters, yes, this is a bad news for those who come unworthily, but it's intended to be good news. It's the gospel, it's good news when we come in faith to this table. So when you come to the Lord's table, and so the point is, you can claim healing. Now God's sovereign in His distribution, in His timing, in all of this. He can use means, He can work without means. Right now the Lord's been doing remarkable healing in my life through means. And I still give the credit to the Lord, even if they're placebos. I mean, God can use placebos to heal us, right? God uses means, He can heal without means, and the Lord's been doing some remarkable stuff in my life. But anyway, when you come to the Lord's table, rejoice for all that God has done in the past, and rejoice by faith in His sufficiency for your future. Romans 8, 32 says, he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? I love that word freely. Freely. He's so generous. Freely give us all things. The ordinary blessings found in the rest of this book are gifts God gave to those who were in covenant with Him. And so I would urge you, don't be like the previous generation of Jews who doubted and grumbled and refused to give thanks. Commit yourselves to rejoice by faith and to give thanks by faith when you come to the Lord's table. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your promises. Thank you for all of the pledges you gave in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And I pray that we would have our spirits lifted week by week as we come to the table knowing that if you are for us, who could be against us? Help us to see this table as a pledge that you are for us. Help us to not approach this table with doubts, with grumbling, with lack of faith, but help us to approach it with the knowledge that we are in Christ, your beloved, and you love us with the same love that you love your beloved. And Father, I pray that you would stir up within our hearts all of these promises, the graces of your Spirit of love, joy, patience, long-suffering, Faith, Father, fill us with the fruits of your Spirit. Touch us, even as Gary said earlier in his message, as he quoted from Calvin, that you made both body and soul. We are knit together in our mother's wombs. You're upholding every atom of our body. Help us to not come with doubt for the needs of our body and the needs of our soul. But Father, may we rejoice with the faith of Abraham who laughed in the face of impossibilities, knowing that nothing is impossible for you. Bless this, your people, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.