We turn this evening to the book of Joshua chapter 5 and verse 2. Joshua chapter 5, I'll read verse 2. At that time, the Lord said unto Joshua, make thee sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And this chapter, perhaps we could summarize as surprising steps on the road to war. This may puzzle us to read here a number of verses describing the circumcision of the Jewish males who had been brought through the wilderness and had now entered into the land of Canaan. But all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and this chapter is no different. There is so much here to teach us and to instruct and challenge us. Let me set the scene before we look from this chapter at three surprising steps on that road to the battles that lay ahead for the Israelites and what those steps teach us. We've already noted that Canaan is a type of heaven in that it is the promised inheritance of God's people. It illustrated, it depicted the end of that wilderness journey. The people of God finally coming into possession of their inheritance. And yet at the same time, Canaan is not a perfect type of heaven because It had to be conquered. And in that respect, Canaan, the promised land, is not a type of heaven, but of the Christian warfare. How can it be both? Well, we've already seen how it's a type of heaven. But think of it like this. And these are not my thoughts, really. This is the old view of how you understand. the lessons of Joshua. Salvation, in a sense, brings us into heaven, even now. The believer is no longer a citizen of earth. The believer, the true Christian, is a citizen of heaven. And even now, in this life, there is a sense in which we know something of heaven upon earth. We know the presence of God. We know something of the pure worship of God. Yes, it's tainted by sin. The Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians and said, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Death for the believer is already vanquished. Our judgment has already taken place because Christ took that punishment in our place. So that's the first stage that we have to understand. The second is that Canaan represents what we might call resurrection ground. What had happened? typically to the children of Israel. They had passed through the waters of Jordan, typical of judgment, and they had been landed safe in that new life on Canaan's side. So they were beginning a new experience. And it's a picture, intentionally so, that God has left in the Old Testament of what God does for his people in a spiritual sense. Conversion brings us away from the darkness of sin. It brings us into a new relationship with God. We know newness of life. We enjoy a kind of heaven upon earth and yet clearly not the fullness of heaven because in this life we have to fight. We have to do battle with our old sinful nature that still resides within. The new nature is there. That heavenly life has begun and yet the old nature must be mortified. Isn't that like Canaan of old? The children of Israel had arrived in the land of promise. It was to them the land of rest. and yet they had to do battle with the old enemies, the Amorites, the Canaanites that dwelt in the land. The believer in this life knows something of heaven and yet they are called to fight in that spiritual warfare. All that oppose the God of Israel had to be put out of the land of Canaan. And all that opposes the reign of Christ in our life is to be resisted and with the help of God overcome. More than that, there is gospel work to do. The church is called, whilst knowing something of being a colony of heaven upon earth, the church is also a conquering force for the gospel. I hope that those pictures together haven't confused you. But that's really the background, the context to understanding how Joshua, numbers, To a certain extent, Deuteronomy and Judges, they all have spiritual applications for the people of God. So what are the lessons of chapter five with that key in the back of our minds? We'll just look at verse one. This really stands on its own. Some say that chapter five would have been better starting at verse two. But in verse one, we are told that when the children of Israel had all passed over the dried up waters of Jordan, the king's hearts melted. There was no spirit in them anymore." What a remarkable thought. Rahab had already told the spies that people's hearts fail for fear. But Matthew Henry says, the kings perhaps at that time still exercised defiance in their mind. They did not fear the Israelites. They knew that the physical defense, namely the River Jordan, was still there to protect them. And then there would be the walls of the cities that would preserve them. And so they felt no alarm. But now, God has displayed his power by a mighty miracle. And in a matter of hours, all the children of Israel have passed over the flooded Jordan. If God can bring his people over that seemingly impossible obstacle, then what are the walls of our cities in defence against such a mighty God? The people often appear confident in their own safety whilst logic or the logic of carnal reason says I'll be fine. But once we realize that we are as sinners in the hands of an angry God who is able to do miracles in order to thwart our purposes then their hearts melt. That's what we must pray for, friends. There are so many, perhaps in our own families, perhaps even one or two amongst us here this evening, and certainly in this neighbourhood of Bulldock, people who, like these old kings, They are defiant. They see no reason to fear the God of Israel. They do not tremble at the thought of his judgment. But when it begins to dawn on us that we cannot escape his power, when the force of God's justice, and that's what it was here, as it would be poured out upon the people of of the Canaanites when they realized that God was irresistible, then their hearts melted. They would find no mercy. What a blessing if we can pray and people's hearts melt today when they realize their great need of God's mercy in the face of his judgment. But that's not really what I want to focus upon. this evening. We come to verse 2 and this reference to circumcision. This is a very strange step for Joshua to be directed to perform at this juncture. Imagine the scene. They've passed over the River Jordan. They are now on enemy territory. They have already stirred the wrath of the king of Jericho. And here they are in the plains of Jericho and Joshua is told by the Lord, circumcise all of the men. And it would seem that all of the men under 38 years of age who had come out, who had been born in the wilderness, in other words, almost the whole host, are now going to be circumcised. When it says the second time, it doesn't mean that individuals who had already been circumcised were going to be circumcised again. It means that there hadn't been a kind of collective circumcision since the days of Egypt. when the Lord called the people then, on one occasion, to put right what they had neglected. But here is a very strange thing. Here are people under the very guise of defiant enemies, and Joshua is told, in a sense, compromise their ability to defend themselves. They will be sore. They had to wait here until they were whole, healed from this surgery. Why on earth would you do such a thing? It's against all military wisdom. And yet Joshua, in obedience to the Lord, undertakes this step. And so first of all, this was a test of faith and submission to the Lord. Sometimes, when it comes to the work of the Lord, we are called to go against what we may say human reason and human logic. Well, the best way to win the world and to conquer is to do this and this and this, but not that. And here Joshua knows that he is about to lead the people into ferocious battles. And yet he's told first to circumcise them. They're going to be weakened. It would be a test of submission too for the vast hosts of Israel to submit to this right At this juncture, when they knew that they were vulnerable, it would prove, do you trust the Lord to be with you, to protect you, to prosper you? Are you willing to submit to the Lord's ordinances rather than pursue the call of human logic and reason? That's what we have to learn as believers. There are times when we follow the Lord in obedience to him when human logic, human reason says that's not the right way to success. And it's always been a difficulty for some. Think of the way we approach evangelism. There would be many people today who would say, human reason would say, the last thing you want to do is invite people to hear preaching. Preaching is out of date. What you need is sound bites, multimedia, drama, puppet shows. Anything that will be interesting. You might be able to communicate something if you use those means, but not preaching. That's a most ineffective tool. Avoid unpopular doctrines. You're shooting yourself in the foot. You're making yourself vulnerable to ridicule. You talk about a day of judgment. You speak about how you believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, that there really was a global flood. You speak about a God of absolute, eternal judgment. These things are most unpalatable. You're never going to win the war if you follow these things. What do we do? Do we trust the Lord? Do we submit to his evangelistic blueprints? Or do we follow human reason? Many would say, well, we follow human reason. If you do those things, you make yourself weak. You're never going to succeed. But Joshua had to learn here And he would lead the people to remarkable, miraculous success against the Canaanites. The people had to learn with him, you submit to the Lord's ordinances. Even when you feel that it makes you vulnerable and ineffective as a fighting force, you trust the Lord to keep you. You trust him to be with you. And we can apply that to many practical situations in our personal life. Do we trust the Lord? Or do we say, no, I've got to be, I've got to stand strong. I've got to be effective. I can't possibly leave myself weak or vulnerable. Now, why did Joshua, why was Joshua told, circumcise the people at this particular juncture? Notice verse two, it begins, at that time, the Lord said. But why? Well, you could argue that they had to learn that spiritual lesson. Obey, trust and obey. There's no other way. Right at the beginning, before they embark upon their first battle. And they're going to have to trust the Lord's policies when they encircle Jericho. There probably would have been many, at least if they were liberal rationals that say, Joshua, you're not gonna bring the walls down, just going round and round the outside. You need to engage in a far more forceful manner if you think you're ever going to penetrate Jericho. But they had to learn that. But there's another reason why the Lord guides his people to take this right of circumcision at this point. because this is to be a type or a picture of the Christian life. The Israelites have come over the Jordan. They've begun now a new life. And circumcision is something that typifies what takes place at the very beginning of the Christian warfare. Well let me explain firstly why at this point from Israel's point of view. They had not observed this ceremony, we're told in this chapter, this rite, since the days when they came out of Egypt. Why was that? There was a whole generation here that had neglected this audience. Well, some say it was disobedience. The people became stiff-necked and hardened, and although God commanded it, they had just batted away this responsibility in their families. Others say, well, it was a case of practicality. They were a wandering people. They didn't know from one day to the next when the pillar of cloud and fire would lift and move, and they would have to up their tents and move. And if there were those who were circumcised and saw, it wouldn't be practical. But that doesn't really carry much weight. because, as Paul said, he was circumcised the eighth day. You carry little babies even if they are subject to pain. Matthew Henry probably hits the nail on the head when he says this, that the right of circumcision had been withheld. since the early days of the wilderness journey. You remember how in the first two years they had sent spies into the land of Canaan and those spies, including Joshua and Caleb, had come back and they'd said, there's giants in the land. We've got to stay in the wilderness. We cannot go into the land of promise. It's a good land, but we don't believe God will give us deliverance. Only Caleb and Joshua followed the Lord fully and said, we'll be well able. God will bless us. and the people were filled with unbelief. They didn't trust the Lord and the Lord had great displeasure with the children of Israel. And he said, you will spend 40 years in the wilderness. The whole generation who refused to follow the Lord and trust the Lord and go forward into Canaan will die in the wilderness. Hebrews 3 speaks of their carcasses. falling in the wilderness. Numbers 14. Perhaps we should just turn to Numbers 14. I don't want to get too far behind this evening, but Numbers 14 is quite helpful. So first of all, in verses 6 to 10, you see how Caleb and Joshua speak against the other 10 spies and say we should go up. But verse 10 tells us, all the congregation bade stone them with stones. They didn't like the message of bold faith that Joshua and Caleb brought. And then, look at verse 11, the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me? for all the signs which I have showed among them. The Lord is greatly displeased. Then look at verse 32. As for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms. And whoredoms there probably means their spiritual unfaithfulness. to God. Forty years, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness, after the number of the days in which you search the land, even forty days each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise. A.W. Pink says that breach of promise, it refers to the fact that God, in one sense, withheld his covenant promises. He promised, I will put you into the land of Canaan. That will be your land. But he's withholding that promise. He breaks that promise in a sense, or they had. And so it's suggested by Matthew Henry, I think he's right. that the people were not permitted the sign of circumcision for those years in the wilderness because in one sense they were outside covenant privileges. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant given to Abraham that God would bless his family. Now of course in the wilderness the Lord in his mercy still provided for them the manna miraculously. They still had the guiding hand of the Lord through the pillar and cloud. They were not without favour but they forfeited the instrumentality, the privilege of instrumentality of going into the land of Canaan. and conquering it in the name of the Lord. There's a warning there for the Lord's people. If we don't believe his promise that he will be with us in the preaching of the gospel, in the evangelizing of our communities and just say, well, it's not the right time. We cannot do this. the forces of unbelief and the forces of the anti-God culture in which we live are too strong we've just got to wait we're the same as the Israelites and they forfeited the promises but now a new generation has been born and God in kindness has brought them over the Jordan they've arrived in the land of Canaan And God renews or confirms all the blessings of the covenant with them. So the rite of circumcision here was a great encouragement to their faith. You can have the token back. You can observe this rite. You are now the true children of Abraham in every sense. And God is going to be with you as you enter the land of Canaan to do battle. But how does that apply to us? Circumcision. Are we circumcised? Paul says that every Christian is circumcised. Did you know that? This old ancient picture was used by the prophets, by Moses, by Jeremiah, and then by the apostle Paul to illustrate mortification of sin. A new heart, a new life. Let me read you some verses and then perhaps we can see the significance here in this passage. Deuteronomy 10 verse 16. Circumcised therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff necked. What is God saying to Israel there? They understood that physical circumcision was the cutting and the removing of something. It was a painful experience. But now the Lord says, I'm more interested in your heart being circumcised. You cut away that which pollutes, that which is offensive to me. It's a picture of inward surgery, mortification of sin, not just for Israel, but for every New Testament believer. Jeremiah 4, verse 4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings. Was the Lord speaking about something physical there through Jeremiah? No. He was talking about the corruption of their heart that needed to be addressed. Jeremiah 4 verse 14, a little later on, this gives us the sense. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? And so circumcision becomes a picture of the cutting away, the removing of the pollution of sin from the heart. What did Stephen say when he preached Acts 7 verse 51? He turns to the Pharisees, the Jews. the Sanhedrin, and he says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear, you always resist the Lord as your fathers did, so do you. They knew full well what he meant. And Stephen, doubtless, used that phrase to point out to the fact that even though they were such a self-righteous bunch, they needed to do what God told their forefathers to do, to remove the sin from their hearts. A.W. Pink says that circumcision pictures the putting away of sin in three ways. Very helpful, really. Firstly, he says It's something that the Lord does in a legal sense. It's done by Christ. And so the true believer positionally is a circumcised person. Turn to Colossians chapter 2. This is perhaps challenging doctrine for us but hopefully If I can be clear in my exposition, hopefully we will understand some of these New Testament passages better, as well as seeing the significance of Joshua. So Colossians chapter 2, verse 10, Paul here says, you are complete in him, in Christ, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also You are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. What does Paul mean? Elsewhere he speaks of the washing away of sin. He speaks of the putting to death of the old man. But here, he uses a different illustration. He says, Christ has circumcised us. What does he mean? He means that in his death, in one sense, he is the head, verse 10, he is the representative of all his people. And when Christ came and when he suffered, And when he died, he put away sin. And there is a sense in which he put off on behalf of all his people that great body of the sins of the flesh. Body there doesn't mean our physical bodies. Circumcision clearly doesn't mean a physical circumcision. It's something made without hands. It's not physical surgery. It's something in a spiritual sense that Christ has done on our behalf. He's taken away not just the guilt of our sin, but by the power of his precious blood. And through his death, he's taken away from our very heart and life that defiling nature that once we had. It's a work of Christ. We're circumcised people. The pain was his. He is the head. He suffered on our behalf. But secondly, circumcision is something not just that happened that Christ has done for us so that before God we are like circumcised people, sin removed. But secondly, it's in our experience. We've experienced a kind of spiritual circumcision. So Deuteronomy 30. Verse eight says this, the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. It's a picture of the conversion, the work of the Holy Spirit in, it's a kind of circumcision. God cuts away. the old nature and the old heart, such that we can love him freely. What did Charles Wesley say? Take away the love of sinning. That's circumcision in our experience. There was a time when I loved sin, when I delighted in sinful things, they didn't trouble me, but now the love of sin is gone. It grieves me every time I fall into the least sin. Circumcision has happened. A powerful surgery has taken place in the soul. Romans chapter two, verse 28. Paul says, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, a real spiritual Jew, Paul means, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, in the outward word, whose praise is not of men, but of God. That's circumcision. Have we known it? Has God performed a powerful surgery within our soul so that the love of sin has been taken away? Thirdly, circumcision is something in the life of God's people that they have to put into practice. Jeremiah 4, circumcise your heart. take away, mortify the flesh. Romans 6 verse 11 we read, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. In other words keep following that work of circumcision over and over and over again. Put away sin. When it grows back, put away sin. That's the picture. Christ positionally has made you and I to be in the sight of God consecrated. We're circumcised. The Holy Spirit has done that work in our heart. but the believer is called to live out what Christ and the Holy Spirit have already done. I hope you're not lost. It's quite a profound truth, but we see it illustrated here, Colossians, Romans, and elsewhere in the New Testament, as well as the Old. So how does that relate to Joshua, if we go back to the book of Joshua? Well, the children of Israel here Before they go forward into battle, they are called to prepare themselves. Not by a fitness regime, not by learning to use all the physical weapons of war, but they have to be circumcised. That's more important, to be consecrated to the Lord. When they pass over Jordan, They enter the new life in which now they have got to do battle with the enemies, the Canaanites. Mortification of sin must begin. If you and I are going to truly live the Christian life and engage in the Christian warfare and be useful in gospel warfare, we must mortify sin. comes more important than anything else. The new believer that says, well, I want to just preach Christ and I want to be a witness for him, that's all very well and good. But the first thing you must do is make sure you're practicing in a spiritual sense the removal of sin from your heart, from your life. The Lord wouldn't use these people They couldn't fight their first battle until this had done. But let's move on. The second step, and these other two I'll just touch on briefly. The second step here is the observing of the Passover. Verse 10, the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover. on the 14th day of the month. Some think that they had not kept this Passover since the first anniversary in the early, the first year in the wilderness. They kept the Passover then, they commemorated their deliverance from Egypt, but perhaps it had fallen into disrepute, rather like circumcision, because the Israelites had broken the covenant. But now they enter the land of promise and the Lord ensures that they keep the Passover. Again, we may look at this. You imagine the people of Jericho. They see this vast crowd of the children of Israel that they fear. What are they doing? They're observing some religious feast. That would seem strange. Is that how you win the war? You circumcise yourself in obedience to God and then you observe the Passover in obedience to God. Obedience is more important than anything else in the Christian warfare. It's not about being in one sense from a human standpoint articulate and wise and industrious What's above everything else is you obey the Lord. It was their obedience that prepared them to be of service to the Lord in the land of Canaan. Then we come to the third step here, verse 13. It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua didn't know who this man was. He has to ask, are you for us or against us? But you think about it. Here's Joshua, perhaps he's gone on a recce mission He's gone to look round the outskirts of Jericho, and he comes across this man, a man of war, with a sword in his hand, and he goes forward to him. Would you have done that? Or would you have started backwards and thought, whoa, hang on, I didn't expect to meet you? This is a test of Joshua's valor. Does he believe? that the Lord will keep him, that the Lord will be with him, as he's promised in chapter one. It's a test of his faith, his confidence in the Lord. He goes forward. Well, who are you? And then the Lord rewards his faith and valour. And he says, I am captain of the host of the Lord. This is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ appearing in the flesh. Here is the reassurance that Joshua didn't ask for and yet he's given. Here is the captain of an unseen army that will be alongside Joshua and with the children of Israel as they begin these battles. The Lord, the captain of the Lord of hosts. And then he's told in verse 15, Incidentally, he worships and he's not rebuked. That tells us this is a theophany. This is the Almighty, the second person of the Godhead, appearing in human form. But verse 15, the Lord says to him, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. Who else had had that instruction given to them? Moses. But if the Lord said to Joshua, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee, what happens here? Joshua has a very similar experience. As if the Lord would say to him, the same God that appeared in the burning bush and reassured Moses, now stands before you a different appearance, He's standing with a sword. Why? Joshua is called to lead the people into battle. Moses never had that as a particular part of his ministry. But here, Joshua is given that reassurance. And Joshua did so. So what reassurance? Here are three steps that Israel had to go through before the first battle. Mortification of sin, if you like. obedience, observing the Passover, and that Passover of course was feasting upon Christ, remembering that God was their Redeemer. That's what we have to do. And then thirdly here, this reassurance that God would be with them. They simply trusted Him, obey Him. And it's the same for the Church of Christ today. We trust the Lord, we believe His promise that He will help and be with us, and we obey Him. It may seem to be against human reason, but we follow his commands because they are his commands. May the Lord bless his word to us. We close our worship with him. 450. O for a heart to praise my God. A heart from sin set free. 450.