Verse 1, when all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan. Now that's what we dealt with last week. Adam Hebner took us through that chapter 3, that great event. Now we're moving on to a new event. The Lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them saying, take 12 stones from out of the midst of the Jordan from the very place where the priest's feet stood firmly and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodged tonight. Verse 6, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off so that these stones shall be to the people a memorial forever." Now, go to chapter 5 and verse 13. Chapter 5, verse 13. When Joshua was by Jericho, sort of a secret mission he was on all alone, he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, a man was standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, no, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worship and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the army, Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Why don't you personally ask the Lord to open your heart and mind this morning as we expound this marvelous story. You do that personally. Amen. You may be seated. Now, we have a very exciting message this morning, but let me begin with the 82nd review of what we've just learned for those who are new here this morning. We are studying the book of Joshua, the first book of the historical books. You end with the five books of Moses, the law, and then you start historical books with Joshua. Now, exactly 40 years before this event, the children of Israel left Egypt. We call that the Exodus. And if you'll see on our screen, the Exodus was in 1446 BC. Moses led the nation out of slavery in Egypt and he was leading them to the promised land. You remember? There's a parallel event to our event here, the crossing of the Red Sea where God parted the sea, hardened the soil, and allowed two million people to cross. They then went to Mount Sinai. They spent about a year at Mount Sinai where Moses received the law. They united as a nation. They set up the tabernacle, the priesthood. They got organized for their march into the promised land. However, There was a failure at this point. In fact, Joshua 5, 6 says, they did not obey the voice of the Lord. As they were leaving to go to the promised land, they just complained and complained and rebelled and rebelled. They even set up a golden calf to lead them back to Egypt. They even wanted a brand new leader. They wanted to get rid of Moses. They tried to stone Moses. They complained endlessly about Moses. They even said, you've tried to dominate us. May I say to you that complaining is a particular sin the Lord does not like. You think of how many people right here in this congregation have so much in comparison to the world. You have beautiful homes and cars, you have jobs, you have nice clothes I can see, you all eat well. And yet, how often, how often when you're with one another, it's just this complaining, oh, I wish I had a better house. Oh, our vacation, we had rain on our vacation. I wish I could eat at nicer restaurants. We are complainers at heart." And the children of Israel complained and complained, and to the point where the Lord said, you will not enter the land. Now, there was one particular complaint that really troubled the Lord, and it was this. They said, you, Moses, and they say it twice, brought us out into the wilderness to kill our children. Twice they say this. Now, why would they think? He brought them out into the wilderness to kill their children. Well, rebellion, complaining is irrational. There's no sense to this. So here's what God said. All of you who are over 20 will not enter my land, the land of promise. That is the judgment. But all of those who are under 20, they will enter the land. God punished them. Now, even though God punished them, it was a very harsh punishment. Remember, during those 40 years, God provided for them. He even says, your sandals didn't wear out, your clothes didn't wear out, and they had their families and their cattle. And so there was life there in the wilderness. But they would not enter the land. God was going to refine them. Now, 40 years later, 40 years later, they are now on the verge of entering the promised land. That old generation will not enter the land, but the new generation, they enter the land. So their complaint was answered by God. Only their children will enter. Now this brings us to Roman numeral one, a new land, the promise of new land. And you notice that's 1406, 40 years exactly after, and in Joshua 4, 1 it says this, Now, this is considered in the Old Testament one of the great events of Israel's history. It is parallel to the event that we all know from the movie Moses and Charleston Heston who took the children of Israel across the Red Sea. This is the same kind of thing. It was in the spring. The river was overflowing. It was like the Platte back in June. We were all warned, the police warned us, do not go into the Platte. Can you imagine the children of Israel, two million people, trying to cross the plat, and God stops it, dries up the soil, and two million people cross over. That's why it's such a great event. Also, let me remind you, they waited 500 years for this crossing. 500 years. The first promise came to Abraham. So when they crossed that Jordan, it was as if they were born again. Everything is new. It's a new generation. It's a brand new start. It's a new chapter in Israel's history, and that's what you need to see. All things start new for these people. That brings us to Roman numeral number two this week, a new memorial. Now, after the nation crossed the river, the Lord allowed the river to flow again. So they were sort of trapped. Behind them was a raging river. And remember, they have, this is 2 million people with many of them children. And they have sheep and cattle. They just can't go back over that river. Six miles in front of them is a fortified city called Jericho with the Amorites who were extremely warlike. fierce people with chariots and horses. They're a professional military. The children of Israel just sort of herdsmen, family men. They don't have chariots and horses. They don't have tanks and guns or anything like that. It's an unfair war. God immediately prescribes for them a memorial. So look at verse three again. And Joshua commanded them saying, take 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the very place where the priest's feet stood firmly. They should have sunk in about two feet of mud. And bringing them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. So this was God's method of commemorating this enormous event in Israel's history. Now, we want to ask this question, why did God ask them to commemorate this and make this memorial? Well, look at verse 7. These stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. Notice the word forever. Now, in human history, memorials have always been important. This is not something new. As humans, we want to remember things. And there are things so significant, so important, they must not be forgotten. And in order for the future generations to remember the great acts of God or the great acts of human history, we make memorials. And that's why the text says, a memorial forever. They must never forget this. Verse 6 says, a sign among you, a sign points to something. Look back at what God did for this nation. Now, in America, we have marvelous memorials. Where would you go to see the most memorials? Washington, D.C. You have the mall with many different memorials. You have the Washington Memorial. You have the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it's called The Wall. You have the fabulous Lincoln Memorial. You can go to New York City, though, and there you have now the Freedom Tower. And they've actually left, Meryl and I were there just last year, they left the whole Of both twin towers, the basement, they've left it where water pours into it. And then there's the new freedom tower. And literally millions of people go there to see this solemn site. And then you can go to Europe. There are very important memorials in Europe, particularly to World War II. You can go to Auschwitz to remember 6 million Jews slaughtered. Now, why do we need these memorials? There are two basic reasons. Memorials are a forget-me-not tool, a forget-me-not tool. The fact is this, we are forgetters. We forget the great events of human history that must never be forgotten. So, if you were to go to Washington, D.C. now, you can visit the Vietnam Memorial. It's called The Wall. Now, I've been there, I think, twice. And for baby boomers, the wall is very important because that's our war. World War II is not our war. The Korean War is not our war. But the Vietnam War is our war. And it was a war despised. And I can tell you this, when you go there, it's a beautiful monument, by the way. praise for what he did. The thing that will strike you is that you're in a holy place. It is absolutely quiet. And you will see this. You will see people, as you see on the screen back of me, and they'll have their fingers on a name or they'll inscribe something with the name. And they are usually people remembering their children or a spouse. But the thing that will strike you is how quiet it is. And the wall says this. Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget. Remember the Vietnam war would have been easily forgotten because it was so despised, but 60,000 young men and women died. And then you have in Washington, DC, the famous Lincoln memorial. Uh, also when you go to the Lincoln memorial, people aren't playing football there. They're not praying Frisbee. There's a solemnity to it, a solemnness to it, and you can just sense it. You actually can feel the awesomeness of this statue, and it is awesome. It reminds us of the great civil war in which over 500,000 Americans died. It was an ugly, cruel, wicked war, and that the nation was not lost. We're not two nations today, but one. And this memorial says the same thing. Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget. These great events in our history, it's so natural to forget. It's 150 years ago. And then in Washington, D.C., one of the things that will strike you most is the Holocaust Museum. It's very interesting how they designed it. You know, they picked the greatest architects to do this work. When you go to the Holocaust Museum, You go into the elevators on the first floor, and they're shaped like furnaces, ovens that the Jews had to go into. You get into this oven, and you go up to about the fifth floor. And you get up there, everyone's talking in the elevator, everyone's laughing, they're all having a good time, and they're saying, we're looking forward to see some. Everyone's chit-chatting away, and you start at the fifth floor, and if you've ever been there, you work your way down. You'll see a room full of hair. You'll see a room full of shoes. You'll see films that have been captured from the Nazis where they experiment, live experiments with the Jewish people. You can hardly look at them. And then they start giving you the statistics and what they actually did in loading people into boxcars naked and then gassing them. When you get down to the first floor where you entered, No one is talking. No one is laughing. Absolute silence. After five floors, you're done. It takes about three hours. The Jews are very smart people. They knew without these memorials, and there's one in Washington, there's one in New York, of course, Israel, and Europe. The Jews are very smart. They know if we don't have memorials, this will be forgotten. Do you know there are people today who deny the Holocaust? I can't think of anything more defiant than to say it didn't happen. Do you know there are other terrible tragedies that are hardly ever remembered? How about the 35 million Chinese killed during the revolution, the cultural revolution in China? No one even talks about it. Why? There's not many memorials. Memorials are very important. They say, don't forget, remember. Now, God does the same thing. God wants a memorial. And so, he says to Joshua and the children of Israel, now, after you cross this, take out 12 stones, and you are to put them in Gilgal where you will lodge this evening so that we will not forget. Now, the reason God does this is he knows, and we'll see some verses in just a moment, that his children are forgetters. It's so natural to forget because we get preoccupied with self, We're so busy. We have so many things to do. We're not really interested in history anyway, and we forget. How many of you remember the worst war of the last century, only 15 years ago? Who remembers the worst, the longest war of the last century? I bet there are three people who remember the longest war of the last century. It's only 30 years ago, Iraq-Iranian War. It lasted eight years. Well over a million people were killed. Whole villages were gassed. The Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein. There are pictures of that, but very few people remember it. One of the great TV personalities, Jay Leno, if you remember this, he would have a skit where he would take a microphone, he'd go out in the streets, and he would ask people simple, Historical questions. I mean, like, fifth grade, simple historical questions. And I saw this myself. It was the 4th of July, and he was out on the streets, of course, California, we expect that. And he's asking people, it's the 4th of July, the 4th, what does the 4th of July mean? Did you know that most people could not answer? They didn't want to answer, and when he'd force them, they'd say, well, the beginning of summer, the Civil War. One person said, Lincoln's birthday. Of course, everyone knows that. We're forgetters. And may I say to you, when it comes to spiritual things, we are really forgetters. We cannot seem to remember the great acts of God on our behalf. It seems as if the devil just blinds our eyes. In fact, it actually says that in 2 Corinthians 4, the God of this world has blinded their eyes. Notice Jeremiah 2.32, one of the most famous verses of this subject, Jeremiah says, can a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Can you imagine a bride forgetting her bridal dress? Now, I have to admit to you, my wife forgot her shoes on our wedding day, but we raced back and got them, but she didn't forget her dress. Can a bride forget her dress? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number." Psalm 106.13, but they soon, notice that, soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel. Psalm 78.11, they forgot his works and wonders which he had shown them. Now, that's only a few verses out of maybe 50 that tell us Israel consistently forgot the things of God. In the book of Deuteronomy, Just before the book of Joshua, God repeatedly says, don't forget, don't forget. You're going to get in the land. You're going to be prosperous. Uh, you're going to have plenty of fruits and vegetables, uh, the land of milk and honey and your children and all of this. Don't forget. Don't forget. What did they do? They forgot the wonders of God and the miracles of God. And they said, Hmm, we like that gold calf. These be thy gods. Oh, Israel, which led the out of Egypt. Did the gold calf lead them out of Egypt, or did the Lord God lead them out of Egypt? They forgot. Now, there's a second reason for memorials. Memorials are a physical object lesson to teach the future generations. Memorials are a physical object lesson to teach the future generations. Now, I want you to see something really interesting here. In chapter 4, verse 21, if you want to look at it, in chapter 4, verse 21, he says this, When your children ask their fathers in times to come, what do these stones mean? Now, did you see that? All right, so it's a teaching lesson for your children, and the children will see these stones, and they'll ask dad, dad, what do these stones mean? And the dad is to explain the history and what it means. We'll look at that in just a second. But there's something really interesting. Go back to verse six. And in verse 6, it says this, what do these stones mean to you? You see the difference? What do these stones mean to you? Let me illustrate this. We have today a memorial. It's called the Lord's Supper, the bread and the cup. That's a memorial. Christ gave it. Do this in remembrance of me. So I bring my children. I brought all four of our children to the Lord's Supper. Thankfully, all my grandchildren come now to the Lord's supper and I can explain to them the Lord's supper. There is the cup, there is the bread, the cup stands for the new covenant in my blood, which symbolizes the forgiveness of all our sins. And the bread symbolizes the incarnation and the coming of Christ and in his body taking the sin. And then it also prefigures the coming of Christ until he comes. I can even give him the Greek words for that. I can give them the five times it's mentioned in the New Testament. I can give them some pretty awesome details. So I tell them what it means, and that's important. But did you see what that other verse said? What does it mean to you? I taught for almost eight years at what was then Rockmont College, now Colorado Christian University. And one of my sterling students is Tom Sorensen, right over here, top-notch student. And Kristen, were you a student of me too or you didn't have me as a teacher? Oh, that was beautiful. She came to my classes. Isn't that wonderful? Tom said to me something 25 years later. He said, what I remember about you as a teacher, is your passion for the church. And you said, unlike any other teacher, when I can get rid of this job and the church will pay me, I'm going to be going to the church to serve full-time, not be a professor here. 25 years later, he does not remember all the beautiful data I gave him and the facts I gave him. He doesn't even remember the second heiress. What does he remember? What I had a passion for. That's what he remembered. What convictions I had. So notice what he's saying here. When you talk to your children, tell them what it means to you. That's a big difference from telling them the historical facts. But what does it mean to me personally? Because that's what children remember. probably can't remember the facts five minutes after you tell them. But they see your passion. They see your convictions. And so... When I say to my children, this is the most important thing I do all week is to come and remember Christ. We do this in obedience to Christ. They see my passion for it. They see that we're always here. They see even on my birthday, I said, my dad said, why don't you go away on your birthday, which was a Sunday. I said, oh no, I'm going to be at the Lord's table with my brothers and sisters. That's the best way to celebrate. It was a special birthday. I think I was 40. Oh Lord, the old days, just after the civil war that was, What does it mean to you? So dads and moms, you can give them the facts about the Bible, but what they will remember is what you're passionate about. What's your deepest conviction? And if it's to get right to lunch after church as soon as you can, make sure you're home rested and you're in your easy chair to watch the Broncos. They know that's what your passion is. That's what they're going to remember. So he says in verse six, what do these stones mean to you? How does it grip you? What are your values? Verse 22, chapter four, then you shall let your children know Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground for the Lord your God, notice your God is repeated four times, the Lord your God, This is really the story of God. The Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea. Notice the parallel events, which he dried up for us until we passed over. So that all the people of the earth, notice this, may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that you may fear the Lord your God forever. So the emphasis, the emphasis in this text and these two chapters is on children. teaching the children. Because this generation is not going to forget. They watched that wall of water. That wall of water. And they walked on dry ground. They saw the Ark of the Covenant. They saw the priest stand. They saw the fabulous miracle. They saw it. But the next generation didn't see it. They didn't see it with their eyeballs. They didn't hear that rushing wind. They didn't sense the moment. They're going to forget. So the emphasis in this whole passage, the big emphasis on your children, let them know the mighty deeds of God and what he has done for you. In other words, you've got to tell them the meaning of this. Now, it's very interesting in the Old Testament, and the Jews are still the same today. Education is very important to Jewish people. That's why often they're very, very successful. But at the very beginning of the Bible, In the book of Deuteronomy, we have what's called the Shema Israel. The Shema is the Hebrew word for hear. Hear, O Israel, Shema Israel. Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. Isn't it interesting? The Shema of Israel is not keep this rule, keep this rule, keep this rule, but love God. Isn't that interesting? Right at the beginning, love God. What happens when you love God? You keep his rules. You don't love God, you love the little, Golden calf, you're not going to keep God's rules. Don't forget that. It wasn't just a rule book. It was a love relationship. Now, listen to this. And these words that I commend you today shall be on your heart, your passion. Now, right at the beginning of the Bible, you shall teach them diligently to your children. You got a responsibility, parent. Teach the things of God diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house. You shall walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up." In other words, in every area of life, at all times of life, you're teaching, teaching, teaching. Be a teaching parent. Be a teaching parent. Never spank a child. Never discipline a child without explaining to them exactly what you're doing. Ask them their opinion about it. Be a teaching parent. What is the lesson here? Constantly, day, night, in the car, out of the car, when they go to bed at night, When they're eating supper, be teaching, teaching, teaching all the time. Be a teaching parent in all times, day and night. That's God's way. The greatest teachers are not in university. The greatest teachers are in the home because the first five years are where you learn your language, you learn your values, you learn who you are, you get shaped in those first five years. No teacher, no professor has you at that age. So don't fail your children. Teach them. Teach them the meaning of these rocks. Now, I want to recommend that you do take your children at certain age to Washington, D.C., and see these great monuments of your history, your American history. They're actually phenomenal. They're phenomenal. You will really learn something. But when you go there to Washington, D.C., don't just do what so many do. They go around. Taking picture. Oh, that's a good picture. That's a good picture. Now, some of the things you'll see, like, for example, if you see the Lincoln Memorial, it's literally mesmerizing, mesmerizing. And the architecture and the sculpture, it's just almost incomprehensible. And you go and you say, oh, that's magnificent. I wonder how the people made that. Is that good enough? You can answer me. Is that good enough? Tell them the meaning. Stand there with them. Ask them questions. What do you think all this means? A lot of money went into this. A lot of work went in. What does it mean? That's what's important. That's your job. Teach your children. What it means is it's a monument to our freedom. It's a monument that all men and women are created equal and color does not matter. Race does not matter. Gender does not matter. People died for this. They died for these great ideas. It's justice and unity, kept the nation together. Stand there with your children and explain this to them. It's interesting. When a child sees it, and I did see it as a young person, but I've seen it as an older person, when you're older, it almost chokes you up. You're just on the verge of weeping all the time. Now, the child doesn't understand that because he doesn't understand the meaning. It's your job, parent, to tell them the meaning of this monument. And then if you go to the Holocaust Museum, of course, kids all love the Holocaust Museum. You see all those shoes, all the hair, you know, all the brutality. They love the FBI building. That's the best one. They take the machine gun out and shoot it all around. That's about all kids remember. But that's okay. They're only children, but they're getting something, let me assure you. You tell the children, this can happen again. It has happened again. The Cambodian killing fields, Bosnia-Herzegovina, it happened again. The Iraq-Iranian War happened again. Man's a killer and you go over this with your children. Now, the memorial of the 12 stones. 12 stones. Now, it's interesting that it's very, very simple. We could call this the Gilgal Memorial to God. The Gilgal Memorial to God. 12 stones in the city of Gilgal and very simple. Now, they were not to carve Joshua's face on these stones. They were not to make glorious pyramids or proud temples out of this like the Egyptians would have done. They're not to glorify the army or to glorify Joshua. There was no likeness of the divine being to be inscribed on these objects. They were not to be worshipped. They were simply lessons, very simple lessons. And the children would ask, you know what children are, Adam said it so well last week, the why stage, why, why, why? And we get worn out. Try not to get worn out. It's a very important stage of life. Try to answer their questions. It's your job as a parent to be long-suffering with your children. Why, why, why? So the children see these stones, they've heard about them at Gilgal, nothing real special about them, and they say, why? It's your job now to say, oh, kids, we're in a hurry. Oh, man, we're never going to get there in time. Let's go. We'll go back later. No, no, you stop. You say, all right, kids, very important event right here. You're on holy ground. Joshua was right here. Jesus Christ, in a pre-incarnate visit, was right here on this ground. That whole river dried up. Two million of our family members crossed this river. And then you sit down, and maybe you get some snacks out of your backpack, and you sit down, and you explain the story, and then tell them what it means to you. Kids, I don't ever want to forget this. This is our history. This is what our God is like. Now, what will they learn from this memorial? Well, I've listed three things they're going to learn. One is the unity of the nation. Notice 12 stones. They are united. When they come across there, they were not united before, but now they are. Now, they have enemies to face. Fierce enemies, professional warriors. They cannot do it unless they're united. It's amazing when people are united, what they can accomplish. You know, in World War II, during the bombing of England, Hitler thought he'd break the English people by bombing their most sacred objects and right into London, bombing them. You know what happened? The English people got so united, there are statements where they said, anything the government wants, we will have. Our lives and the English people drew together as one voice under Winston Churchill. They were not going to give up. They were not going to give up. They were not going to give up. Keep the bombing. We are not going to give up. They were united. That's what Israel was, united to face the enemy. And that's true of a church. If a church is united, it's amazing what it can accomplish. When a church is divided, it can't do anything. It just fights all the time. It teaches the awesome, miraculous power of the true God. Notice verse 24, so that all the people of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty. You don't stop rivers. You don't drive the ground in seconds. You don't move 2 million people across this and then to face fierce foes and win. It's all the Lord. It's all the Lord. We're remembering the Lord, His mighty power. Our God is not like the gods of the Canaanites who are not gods. They're stones and wood, sun and moon. And third, it teaches, and this is probably the most important lesson, it memorializes God's faithfulness to a covenant promises. Chapter 5, verse 9 says, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt. It means this, when the children of Israel did not go right into the promised land, they waited 40 years wandering around the desert, the Egyptians were making fun of them, your God's not that great, you're not in the land. But when they got into the land, he rolled back that reproach and he came in the same way they left, crossing a sea, a great miraculous power. So the main point of these 12 stones is to say, Our God kept His promise. Our God is a covenant keeper. He is faithful to us. We can trust Him. We can rely. His promises are sure. Now, we're the ones who keep breaking our promises. That is what our God is like. He is a faithful covenant-keeping God. We proclaim that every week here at the Lord's Supper, that He will forgive us our sins. He will guarantee to us eternal life. He guarantees it by giving us His Holy Spirit. Now, there's two purposes here. Verse 24 says that all the peoples of the earth may know. In other words, evangelistic purpose. He wants all the nations to know his great, awesome might. And then the second purpose is in verse 24, that Israel may fear the Lord, your God, forever. In other words, worship and obey him. This is called awesome reverence. When Israel sees this, Israel will be at awe with its God. Your God has done this. Your God has done this, four times it says. Now, that's the meaning of this, and this is what you are not to fail your children. You are to sit down. Children are very impressionable, and you are to say to your children, children, our God is faithful. He made promises. He kept every one of them. We have been unfaithful. You can trust him. You can rely on him. What he says will come to pass. Now, I want to just comment briefly here that we have a memorial. It's not the Lincoln Memorial, as beautiful as it is. It's not the 12 stones of Gilgal. It's not Auschwitz. It's not the Holocaust Museum. It is the bread and the cup. That's directly from our Joshua. Jesus is the great Joshua. They have the same name, by the way. And Jesus, as he was preparing to die at a Passover feast, said to these men, Do this in remembrance of me." Do this. He didn't say a lot of things. He didn't give him 615 commandments like he gave Israel. He said a very simple thing, do this in remembrance of me. Now, I can tell my children all the ins and outs, the technical meaning of this. I can tell them all the different views of this. But they know what I live. They know what my passion is. They know what I value. And that's what they will live someday. They will not live just my words. They will live my life, what I'm passionate about. And so, when they see that the Lord's Supper is one of the most important things I do in a week, in complete obedience to Jesus Christ, one of the few things He asked me to do, it's interesting that the families have done this. Their children are doing it today. They're carrying it on because that's the way it's to be. Our children are to follow in our footsteps in this way. Now, I got a letter this week from Dr. Bentley Tate. He's rather emotional about all this. And he says, I want you to talk to our people. He says, you know, our people love Christmas. Oh, they love. They show up. We packed this auditorium twice for Christmas. People standing room only. And they can't wait to get home and open their gifts. And then look at those credit cards in January. They're passionate about Christmas. But when we come to the Passion Week, we come to Good Friday. Oh, I can hardly remember it. What's this week? That's a memorial. That's a special time. And Dr. Bentley said to tell you on Good Friday, which we had last year, be here to remember Christ in his passion for you. We remember through these two simple elements, the greatest act of human history, God becoming flesh to take on our sin and our judgment, and our curse, and to free us, deliver us, justify us, reconcile us, making us children of God. There's nothing more important than to come back and remember again and again and again the death of Christ. You notice he didn't say, remember my birth, remember all my great miracles. I did some spectacular miracles. I like to walk in on water one. No, don't remember my miracles. Remember my death, my death. Now, I know a lot of parents say, they say this, well, children aren't learning anything. I was in Croatia three years ago, and I was in a home of a missionary. Now, the male missionary, he was German, and the woman, she was Dutch. They had three children, ages 8 to 13. All three children spoke German. They all spoke Dutch in the home. They all knew Croatian from that's what they learned in school, in the street, in the church, and they all were studying English and spoke to me in perfect English. Four languages, four languages, eight-year-old, 10-year-old, and 13-year-old. Now, who's smarter, them or you? Children, even if they're lying on the floor coloring, they are learning something. A lot is going on in that little head. Don't say they can't learn. They can't understand these things. What are you going to wait till they're 25? It's too late, way too late. No. They're learning something. First of all, they're watching you. They're seeing what you're passionate about. All right, a new spiritual start, a new spiritual start for the nation. Now, what you want to see in this passage is that everything is new. It's like they're born again. It's like God says, all right, you failed the first time, but now it's all going to start again. And we're going to rehearse a lot of things you failed at, but hopefully you learned, you were refined in the wilderness. So, a new start for Israel. Now, there's just two points on this, I'll just touch them quickly. Renewed obedience and commitment to God, the new generation circumcised in the promised land. And then, the second point, if you look at the second one, a new generation celebrates the first Passover in the Promised Land. So, they get into the land, the river closes behind them, six miles in front of them is the fortified city of Jericho with fierce warriors who do not like the children of Israel and will basically war with them and try to kill them. First thing they do, they cross the river. You would think a good strategy, a military strategy would be attack now. Don't give them a chance. Chapter five, verse one says, the Amorites and the Canaanites were frightened. They were scared, attack immediately. No, God says, now we're gonna rest a little bit, guys. First thing we're gonna do is circumcise all you men with a flint knife. They had low technology in those days. And then we're gonna have a nice Passover feast. And then the manna will end, and you will eat the fruit of the land." So, everything's new. Now, the big question is, why didn't they do this in the wilderness? We actually don't know. The text doesn't say. I feel it's related to the judgment. When God judged that older generation, he stopped many things. Now, the new generation, the ones who the people said, you're trying to kill, they're getting the land, and now they sort of started new. Circumcision was the sign that you belong to the covenant people of God. It had a deeper meaning. We know that in the New Testament. And then the Passover was a memorial feast, remembering the past, the great deliverance from Egypt. And the point of Passover is don't go forward till you go backward. Unless you understand your history, you don't understand the future. So these two things must take place before they go to war, which tells me this. Relationship with God, obedience to God is more important than the war. When they're right with God, they've obeyed the rights of the Lord, the commands of the Lord, only then are they ready to go and conquer the land. They're not ready yet. So they must perform these two rights. And now, in God's eyes, you are prepared. You are in right relationship with me. And by being in right relationship with me, you can now go to war. We have here a new vision of the Lord for Joshua, and that's chapter 5, verses 13 to 15. Now, I read this to you before, so I will not read it again. Joshua goes out, and it appears like this. It's just a short sentence. Joshua knows they have to face the enemy. He's got a whole group of disabled men here, and they've got to do the feast. And he's wondering, how are we going to do this? You know, we're basically herdsmen. We're cattlemen. We're sheepmen. We're not professional warriors. Although they have 40,000 from the other two and a half tribes ready to go to war, but they're not equipped really against the people they're going up against. So it appears that Joshua goes out alone on a reconnaissance mission and eyes balls the city of Jericho to see, how are we going to do this? Run right in with the army and attack? They got fortified, large cities, large gates, large walls. How are we going to do this? We don't even have any real equipment for this. While he's out there all alone, he's alone now, he doesn't have people around him, he sees a man with a sword drawn and immediately says, well, are you with us or with the enemy? Now, the man says something that doesn't even make sense until you realize Joshua asked the wrong question. He says, no, to either question. I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now, who is this? And what's this army that he's talking about? He is talking here, I am the commander of the army of the Lord, now I have come. This is going to make all the difference. Joshua is wondering how they're going to do this. Now he finds out how. The Lord will be with him. This is Jesus Christ. This is called a theophany. All Bible expositors agree it's a theophany. Jesus appearing in the Old Testament in a temporary body, a temporary manifestation, not an incarnation which happened in the version birth. So there are these, what we call the angel of the Lord appearances. A theophany appearance. There's only a few in the Old Testament. This is one. So this is Jesus Christ appearing as a warrior with his sword drawn, and he says, I'm the commander of the heavenly hosts. Countless angels. Hey, that little fort, that is nothing. The walls are all going to fall down anyway. You have nothing to fear. And so Joshua responds by falling down and he worships him. So he knows he's not just dealing with a regular soldier. And then the Lord says, you better take off your sandals, you're on holy ground. This is Joshua's burning bush experience. And so what happens here is that Joshua gets a fresh vision. They're in the land, everything is new. It's a brand new start. What he needs is a new vision. And he gets that, I am with you. I am the commander of the armies of the Lord. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus was in front of Pilate and Pilate sort of threatening him and big deal, Pilate, you know, Jesus is, my kingdom's really not of this world, Pilate, I'm sorry. If I were to ask my father, he would send 12 legions of angels. He'd send about 72,000 angels. Can your Roman army stand up to 72,000 angels? Well, now, Lord says here, I'm the commander of that army, which is not 72,000 angels. It's probably countless angels from the book of Revelation, myriads upon myriads. Does Joshua need to fear? He does not need to fear. Does he need to worry about strategy? No. The Lord, in the next chapter, will give him his strategy, and it's a crazy one. But the walls come tumbling down. There's no protection for these people because ultimately, it's the Lord's battle. My friends, I just want to say one quick thing about this vision. When we read our Bibles, when we have our quiet time and devotion times, we do get fresh visions for the Lord from the scriptures, fresh encouragement, relief from life, hope. As you read the Bible, there should be times when you just get a fresh vision of the Lord in your life as your encourager, as your helper, as your hope, as your rewarder, as your protector, as your guide. You get fresh visions as you read the life of Christ, as you read the life. I have been so encouraged this week with 2 Corinthians, and Paul, facing endless problems, says, we're victorious in Christ. We're victorious. I don't lose heart. And then he talks about the heavenly home and the heavenly vision, the temporary world and the unseen world. Oh, it's a magnificent passage, 2 Corinthians 4. I got fresh visions just this week, and I've been sharing it with all our people in the church here who are facing death situations and sharing these visions with the Lord. So we get fresh, new, clear visions of Christ as we read the word and ask from the Lord. Now Joshua is ready to go forward. Now I'd like to just skip since our time is done, and I'll come back when I'm up again to deal with the person Joshua. Look at Romans 5, the doctrine of new beginnings. This is a new beginning, a new history. It's all new. Everything is new. It's as if God says, you failed the first time, but I'm giving you a magnificent second chance, a new beginning in the chapter of your history. And that's what this memorial is for, remind you, a new start, and it's all of God. Now, if you'll notice, God made a physical world with new beginnings, 24-hour days, seven-day weeks, 30-day month, one year. I really believe in New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We need fresh starts, fresh beginnings. It's a fresh day. This day doesn't work. Hey, tomorrow is a new day. Start differently. Got a new week. Tomorrow is a new week. Actually, today is a new week. God gives us new beginnings. And Israel's history gave them all these feasts. These feasts were new beginnings. This is a wonderful doctrine. God gives sinners new beginnings. God gives people who fail and fall and do terrible things, horrible things, He gives them new beginnings because of His grace. He can forgive and He can re-strengthen. I can tell you stories of missionaries on the field today who 30 years ago wrecked their life, wrecked their life, destroyed a marriage, And God has given them brand new beginnings. It's a wonderful doctrine. But I want you to notice, and two, God made a moral and spiritual world of new beginnings. That's far more important. One of the greatest statements Jesus made was this. To a professional religious man who should have known better, Nicodemus, Jesus said, Nicodemus, I want to tell you about the doctrine. It's in the book of Ezekiel. You must be born anew. You must be born again. You had a physical birth, and you're a sinner. And you've goofed up a lot, and you've done a lot of sins. We're not nominal sinners, my friends. We're out-and-out lawbreakers. We don't love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And he says, I'll give you a new start. I will give you my Holy Spirit and you will become a new creation in Christ. All things have passed away. All things have become new. Is that not one of the greatest teachings in all the New Testament? Born again. I was born again at 11 years of age, I never heard the gospel before, never heard it before. And I went to a Bible camp and I heard Christ died for your sins, you need to be a new birth, a new beginning, a new chapter in your life, and I will forgive all your sins, and I will give you my Holy Spirit, and you'll be my child now, and you will start new. And throughout life, there's still many failures, even as a born-again child, and we sin, we do some really, really dumb, sinful things. We're very sorry for it. God says, my blood will cover that. Get up and get going again. Get up and get going again. There's only one direction to head, forward. God gives no one a rear-view mirror to live life. There's only one direction. Look through the front windshield of your car and go forward. When the children of Israel were stuck, the Red Sea in front of them, two mountains on each side, the Egyptian army coming at them, professional soldiers with tanks, they cried out to God. Moses cried out, what are we going to do? You know what God said to them? Go forward. Stop complaining, go forward, and all of a sudden the seed parted. In life, you will have failures, big ones. Some of you will be very shamed of. Don't even tell other people. Just go forward. Claim the blood of Christ and go forward. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the new birth and the new beginnings and the new start. May we be assured of this in our own lives that we are born of the Spirit, we are on the road to heaven, that we are new creatures in Christ, and that the old has passed and the new is before us. May we understand victory. May we understand pressing forward. May we understand that you are with us. The commander of the armies of heaven is with us at all times. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins. May we have fresh visions of Christ. New thoughts of Christ, new challenges, new beginnings, new days, new weeks, new months, new years. May we not look behind, but look ahead and go forward. In the power and the strength of our Lord, the commander of the army of the hosts of heaven, in Christ's name, amen.