Let me add my welcome to Winston's. I don't think anybody's wished
these fathers happy Father's Day, so happy Father's Day, fathers.
Glad for all y'all being out today to hear the word of the
Lord. If you will, turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter four. I'm going to look at the last
five verses of this chapter today. The title of the message is Remembering
How and Why. The last message I preached from
Joshua here was remembering when you got here. Here being for
national Israel, here. into possession of the promised
land. They just crossed the Jordan River into the promised land.
And here for spiritual Israel, of course, national Israel is
a type, in many places and ways, a type of the church. Here for
spiritual Israel is here to this great salvation that God purposed
in Christ and gave a people in Christ before the world began.
So, remembering when you got here, that was our last lesson.
And today we're going to be looking at two things, remembering how
you got here, same here, and remembering why you are here.
Why are you in this great salvation? How did you get to this great?
How did you become a partaker of this great salvation? And
why are you here? Why am I here? Those are the
two things we'll look at. Look at Joshua chapter four in
verse 20 to begin our message. Well, let me just tell you what
these 12 stones are before we get there. You know, God held back the Jordan
River. He sent the priest into the Jordan
River carrying the Ark of the Covenant. And the Jordan River
was piled up in a heap, and they walked in on dry land. And He
commanded Joshua to let every tribe choose a man. and gather
each one a man, a stone, and take it over to the other side
of the Jordan. So there are 12 stones here, so that's what he's
talking about here in Joshua 4.20. And those 12 stones which
they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. He put them
in some kind of arrangement. I don't know whether he stacked
them up on top of each other or kind of put them together,
but he made some kind of a monument or memorial so that when someone
looked at them, they would wonder about them and think about what
those stones actually meant. He made a reminder of the event
of Israel crossing this Jordan River on dry land. They entered
into the promised land and they began to take possession of what
was rightfully theirs, what God had already given them. Look
on to verse 21. And Joshua spoke to the children
of Israel saying, when your children shall ask their fathers in time
to come saying, what mean these stones? This memorial that Joshua
built here out of these stones was designed to remind Israel
of this event and to provoke the children or others to ask,
what are these stones? Why are they here? Why are they
12? Where did they come from? What
do they mean? Those kind of things. Israel's
entry into the land of promise was nothing short of miraculous. As I already told you, God held
back the Jordan River, so it was a great miracle they witnessed
here. These stones were to be a reminder
to them of what God had done through Joshua to bring them
into this land by his efforts. Their efforts totally excluded. Look at Joshua 4 in verse 22
and 23 now. Here's what the children are to hear. Then you shall let
your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry
land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from
before you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the
Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone
over. Now in verse 23 here, Joshua
connects two separate events in the history of Israel. Not
unrelated, but separate. Moses had told them already that
God brought them out of Egypt in order that he might bring
them into Canaan. Listen to Deuteronomy 6.21 here. When your sons ask you, why do
we have all these rules and regulations? Here's what you tell them, Moses
wrote here in Deuteronomy. Then thou shalt say unto thy
son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought
us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And he brought us out from
thence, brought us out of Egypt, that he might bring us in to
give us the land that he sware unto our fathers. He brought
us out of bondage, Moses is telling them, that he might bring us
into rest. Out of bondage, into rest. Israel's
deliverance from Egypt was deliverance from a physical bondage. They
were actually slaves in Egypt. They had to make stones for the
Egyptians. They had to work hard in Egypt. And God delivered them from that
bondage by judging Egypt and passing over Israel in that judgment. Deliverance from bondage in Egypt
is a picture of God passing over his elect, those that are in
Christ, when he pours out his wrath on the unbelieving world.
You remember how Egypt was delivered by the blood of the Lamb. When
I see the blood, God said, I'll pass over you. In like manner,
the blood of Christ is spiritual Israel's only defense against
God's final judgment. God has sworn the land of Canaan
to the fathers of these that are now entered in. In other
words, he had given Canaan to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob
in a promise years before. God giving this generation of
Israel possession of the land which He swore to their fathers
is the equivalent of Him giving them their rightful inheritance.
It was an inheritance to them because God had already given
the land to their fathers in a promise. And you remember what
an inheritance is by definition. It's not something that we deserve
or anything we work to obtain. The benefactor earned it. He
made whatever it is, or it's his, and he bequeaths it or wills
it to whoever he wants to. We don't do anything as an heir
to deserve it or get anything to obtain it. So the stones we're
talking about here in Joshua 4, the stones Joshua pitched
in Gilgal were to remind Israel how they got here. how they got
to be heirs of this land. This memorial was to provoke
their children to ask them how they became possessors of this
rich and fruitful land. This was one of the richest,
probably the richest land there was in that part of the world.
It was, no doubt, on the banks of this Jordan River. So let's
consider for a few moments here, how did Israel get here? That's
the first point of this message. How did you get here? How did
Israel get here? Did they climb a mountain? Did
they fight a war? Did they engage an enemy? How
did they get here? Look at Joshua 4 there at a verse
we've already studied in verse 7. He said, when your children ask
you, what mean ye by these stones? He said, then you shall answer
them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of
the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over Jordan, the
waters of Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be a memorial
unto the children of Israel forever. This was to be the answer to
the children of later generation who would see this memorial and
ask. This is what Joshua said you to tell them. We walked in
on dry land over what was once a flowing river. The ark of the
covenant of the Lord cleared away all the obstacles. God himself
brought us into possession of this land. God himself gave us
a land we did nothing to deserve and nothing to obtain. God himself
overcame the one thing that was stopping Israel from possessing
this land. He overcame in this generation,
this generation that entered in, He overcame in this generation
of Israelites the one thing that had prevented their fathers from
possessing this land. One thing stood in the way of
their fathers. You remember what that one thing was that prevented
the fathers of this generation, those immediate fathers that
caused them to wander 40 years in the wilderness? There was
one thing that kept them from entering in. Now, their fathers
claimed it was the giants in the land. They said, they're
giants in there. We can't stand up to these people. Their father
said it was the walled cities. They're fortified. They're planning
on staying here for a long time. Their father said our wives and
children will become a prey. That's the reasons they gave
for not entering in. But what did God say? He said
it was unbelief. Listen to Hebrews chapter 3 and
verses 18 and 19. to whom swear God that they should not enter
into his rest, but to them that believe not. So you see they
could not enter in because of unbelief. What was it that the immediate
fathers of this generation failed or refused to believe? They couldn't
enter in because of unbelief. What is it they didn't believe?
They failed to believe that God had given Israel this land, and
they refused to just enter in and possess it. Now Caleb told
them, he said, if the Lord delight in us, He's given us this land,
all we have to do is just go in and possess it. But they refused
to do so. No matter that it was presently
occupied by nations stronger and mightier than Israel was.
No matter that these nations would no doubt defend what they
believed to be theirs with all the might they had. No matter
that they were entrenched in walled cities. Nevertheless,
God had given this land to Israel and all Israel had to do, all
Israel was commanded to do was just go in and possess what was
already theirs. So how did this generation of
Israel become the possessors of the promised land? How did
they get here? Look back at that verse in Joshua
4, 7. This is how God did it. He eliminated from them everything
that would cause them to look back on this day and boast in
themselves. He eliminated that in this generation
of Israel. And he set before them that which
would cause them to look back on this day and consider the
miraculous work of God. He showed them that just as He
had provided for them in His delivery from their bondage in
Egypt, and just as He had provided for them during their 40 years
of wandering in the wilderness, He would continue to provide
for them. That's what those priests and the Ark of the Covenant holding
back that Jordan, they were showing Israel, look, your entry here
is God's work. You're taking over possession
of this land, that's God's work. It's not in your hands, it's
in God's hands. Nothing could stop Israel from...
I'm a little bit ahead of myself here. God did for this generation what
he had not done for those unbelieving fathers. He delivered them from
a bondage that they did not even know they were under. He overcame
their unbelief. Bill made this statement back
in the back. Salvation is bigger than we are. That's what God
has to bring us to. Because by nature, we think there's
something we can do, see, to obtain salvation. We think there's
some contribution we can make, some requirement we can meet.
But God has to show us, look, Salvation by just God and Savior
is bigger than you are. It requires the work of God on
your behalf. It requires the work of Christ
paying your sin debt and bringing in a righteousness you can't
produce. The worst opposition, the fiercest enemies of these
national Israelites were not the ones in Canaan. They were
fierce and they were there, but that's not the worst one they
had. The worst enemy they had was the one in their own minds.
Their fiercest enemy was their own unbelief. Nothing could stop
Israel from possessing the land that was already theirs. As we'll
see more clearly in that second point in this lesson, God's glory
is at stake in this matter. Israel's possession of Canaan
was the fulfillment of a promise God made to Abraham 470 years
earlier, and nothing could stop it. God's glory is on the line.
His glory as a God faithful to fulfill His promise is on the
line, and nothing could stop it. The picture here is that
Israel's possession had nothing to do with their efforts, everything
to do with God's efforts. God removed the one obstacle
that was keeping national Israel from possessing the land that
was already theirs. Nothing. Not even their natural
unbelief could stand in the way of this generation of Israel
enjoying the land that God had prepared for them. Now God is
known by the way he delivers his people. He's known by how
he saves his people, how he does it. He's known by how they get
here. how Israel got to be possessors
of this land, how we get to be possessors of the eternal salvation
God has worked out in Christ. In other words, how sinners get
out from under His wrath, how they get into His favor, how
they come to rest in Christ alone, how God does these things is
what identifies Him and distinguishes Him from the idols of our imaginations. Look at Isaiah 45 in verse 21.
Isaiah 45 in verse 21. In the middle of verse 21 it
says, See, In our minds, we don't know anything
about a just God and Savior. In our religion, before God brings
us to the gospel, we never even considered whether God was honored
in the way He saved us or whether He wasn't. Whether He did it
by Christ's effort alone, or Christ's effort plus our effort,
or our effort entirely, we never considered God's glory in this
matter of how He can be just and justifier. How did you get here? How did
I get here? How does a sinner, a sinner by
nature and Adam, a sinner by practice and dead works and evil
deeds, how does such a sinner become the possessor of the eternal
salvation that God has provided for his people in Christ? How
does a sinner come to rest all of his or her salvation in Christ
alone? Well, if you're truly in God's
rest, if you're truly a partaker of God's salvation, you're here
because God made you willing in the day of His power. You're
here because God made you willing to find your hope, all your hope,
in Christ and in Christ alone. If you have truly believed on
the Savior God has provided for His people, it's because God
Himself caused you to do so. He caused you to believe. Listen
to John chapter 6, verses 28 and 29. These are some questioning our
Lord here as he walked on this earth. Then they said unto him,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus
answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that
you believe on him whom God has sent. It's not enough just to
claim to believe. Many claim to believe. The question
is, are you believing on Him whom God has sent? You are if
God has taught you of Him in the gospel. You are if God has
persuaded you that your only hope is to be found in Him. You
are if God has exposed and overcome your unbelief of Him. Don't leave
out this part on this issue, the part about God exposing and
overcoming your unbelief, because He has to do that. There's no
salvation apart from it. If you're truly a partaker of
God's salvation, you're here because God has overcome your
unbelief of Christ. You're here because God delivered
you from finding any hope of salvation in your efforts at
obedience. This unbelief, this not believing
on him whom God has sent is the first issue the Spirit addresses
in the new birth. Look over at John chapter 16
and verse 7. The Lord is talking in this passage
here about him going to the cross and then sending the comforter
to those of his choosing. John 16 and verse 7. He said, Nevertheless, I tell
you the truth. He's talking to his disciples.
It is expedient. It's necessary for you that I
go away. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they
believe not on me. The Spirit has to be sent to
reprove us of sin, to convince us of sin, to convict us of sin. Not sin in general, that stealing
is wrong or lying is wrong, but unbelief of Christ. See, we don't
know. We didn't know in our former...
I didn't know for however many years I was in a religion in
my former place. that I thought I was named in
the name of Christ. I thought I was trusted in Christ.
What I didn't know was it wasn't the Christ God sent. It wasn't
the one who had put away the sin of every sinner he died for.
It wasn't the one who established the one righteousness by which
God is just to justify an ungodly sinner. According to these verses
in John 16, where does the Spirit of God find every sinner whom
he regenerates? He has to be sent, and he has
to do a work. Where does He find us? He finds
us in unbelief. He finds us not believing on
Him whom God has sent. All must be convinced. They must
be convicted. They must be reproved on this
issue. And according to this verse, that's the first matter
the Spirit addresses in converting a sinner. That's the first matter
the Spirit of God addresses in bringing a sinner from spiritual
death and unbelief to spiritual life and true faith. And this
is such a vital issue in the matter of salvation that without
it, without the Spirit of God exposing and overcoming your
unbelief, there's no evidence of life, no evidence of regeneration,
no evidence that you've entered into God's salvation. I know
you have an idea of salvation in your mind. But it's not God's
salvation unless He's brought you to the Christ He sent and
overcome your unbelief. So let's wrap up this first point.
How did national Israel get here? God gave them possession of a
land they did nothing to deserve and nothing to obtain. And He
gave it to them for their father's sake. He gave it to them in fulfillment
of a promise made 470 years earlier to Abraham. He gave it to them
not because they did something, but because He did everything.
Their possession of this land is His glory. Their failure to
possess it would be to his shame. How does spiritual Israel get
here? How do we become the possessors
of that salvation in Christ alone? God gives us possession of a
salvation we do nothing to deserve and nothing to obtain. He gives
us a salvation for Christ's sake. Christ put away our sin, and
we're delivered from God's eternal wrath because of it. Christ brought
in everlasting righteousness, and His people stand eternally
justified because of that righteousness imputed. In time, in each generation,
God brings His people, His chosen people, those He chose in Christ
before the world began, those that Christ redeemed by His death
on the cross. He brings those people to the
gospel here. where the gospel is preached.
And then he brings them to rest in the Savior that he has sent.
In time, the Spirit of God overcomes their unbelief and brings them
to true faith. Their possession of that eternal
salvation that God has provided is Christ's glory. their failure
to be brought here, to this salvation, to come to rest in Christ alone,
would be to Christ's shame. That's why Christ said in John
6, 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And in John
10, 16, he said, another sheep I have which are not of this
fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Why shall all who
are given to Christ, that means those, before the world began,
God the Father entrusted a multitude of sinners to the salvation of
Christ alone, into Christ's hands. He entrusted the salvation of
those sinners into the hands of Christ. He gave them to Christ.
That's what that means. And they're all going to come
to Him in time. He said, I must bring all of them. Those that
are of this Jewish fold, those that are not of this Jewish fold.
I must bring them. Why? Because God's glory is on
the line. They've got to come. They've got to come to know this
Savior that He's provided. This Savior that has bought them
with His own blood. There's one question for you
and me here in wrapping up this point. Has God given you true
faith in Him whom God has sent? And if so, has that faith exposed
your previous unbelief of Him? All start out in unbelief. That unbelief has not been overcome
until we believe on Him whom God has sent. Remembering how
you got here, how was that? God overcame your unbelief. All right, the second point of
the lesson, remembering why you are here. God didn't just give
Israel this land just so they'd have a place to live. just so
they'd have nice homes and vineyards already planted and wells already
dug and good cattle land to raise their cattle. He didn't just
do that so that they'd be well off in this world. They were
well off because God did provide for them in a physical way. But
God did all this in order that he would be worshipped, revered,
respected, that he would be feared. Look at Joshua 4 and verse 24. Here's why God says he's done
the things he's did here for national Israel and for spiritual
Israel. That all the people of the earth
might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you might
fear the Lord your God forever. Now Joshua writes that God brought
this generation of national Israel into possession of the promised
land in order that all would know his might That's one thing. All would know that, the might
of the Lord. He held back a river. He parted
the Red Sea. All knew the might, the power
of the Lord. And then the second thing is
that some might fear Him forever. That's a different thing. By
nature, men can see the might of God. All the people of the
earth, it says in this verse, can see that God is wise and
powerful and faithful in two different ways. We can see that
he's mighty in creation. The scriptures say the heavens
declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Anybody can observe the trees,
the clouds, the earth, the seasons, and we can know that it's the
hand of God. Man can't do what is done just
in this creation. We can look at these bodies we've
been given and just how miraculous they are that we can grip and
pick up and run and stop and all the things that we can do.
It's the work of God. We can see the mighty hand of
God in His creation. And we know it's the might of
God. We know man didn't do that. And the second way, we can see
the might of God in providence. God causes some to prosper and
some to totally fail. Why is that? I mean, is it because
of the goodness of the people who prosper and the wickedness
of the people who fail? Not always. Not always. God sends a tornado and it devastates
a whole city block, except for one house. One family is spared. Why is that? We don't know. It's the providence of God. He
sent the tornado, and He spared the one house. It's His providence,
and men can see that. You know, you've probably made
this statement maybe in years before you knew God as a just
God and Savior. You said, boy, the Lord spared
me from that, didn't He? I dodged a bullet there, didn't
I? having come through some catastrophic incident, accident, or something
like that. Well, God did. God does cause
men to fare well, to be safe in accidents. It's the hand of
God if we're healthy. It's the hand of God if we're
safe. It's the good providence of God, but He makes the rain
to fall and the sun to rise on the just as well as the unjust.
He does that for all men. And men can see His hand in creation
and in providence and recognize that it's the work of God. But
most have never seen just how mighty the hand of God really
is. That's because His real might,
the might that identifies Him and distinguishes Him from idols,
the might that identifies Him as a just God and Savior, His
real might, it's only seen in salvation. Sinners are commanded
to look to a just God and Savior. I didn't tell you to hold your
place in Isaiah, but I'll just re-read that verse there in Isaiah
45, 21. There is no God else beside me,
a just God and Savior. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I
am God, and there is none else. God is known, He's identified
and distinguished by how He saves His people. He shows mercy to
sinners. He saves sinners in a way that
does not infringe upon His justice, but in a way that honors, magnifies
His justice. He saves them through Christ
alone to the exclusion of any contribution on the sinner's
part. And His people are saved and
they know they're saved, not because they did something to
get here. They're saved because Christ did everything, not just
to get them here, but to keep them here in this glorious salvation
that God has provided. So God is known by how He saves
His people. And so His people are known.
His people are identified and distinguished by their worship
of Him, by their reverence of Him. The problem is that by nature
none know a just God and Savior. Until God brings us to the gospel,
like I already said, we never even considered a just God and
Savior. The indictment against fallen humanity, you can be turning
to Romans chapter 3. The indictment against fallen
humanity, one and all, is that none seek this God. Men seek after a God. But it's
not a just God and Savior. It's a God of our imagination
by nature. Romans 3 and verse 10 says, as
it is written, there is none righteous, no not one, there's
none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. Not a God, but the God, the one
God, a just God and Savior. Men are religious. Verse 15,
their feet are swift to shed blood. In other words, they're
eager and ready and willing to sacrifice. Men are religious.
We're all religious by nature. But despite men's natural religiosity,
the bottom line indictment against fallen humanity is that none
fear. None regard, none reverence the
true and living God. Look at verse 18 of Romans 3.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. There is no reverential
respect for the honor of God's salvation and redemption. That's
what that no fear of God means. By nature, none have this fear.
None have this reverence for a just God and Savior. So if
none by nature fear God, How do we begin to fear Him?
How does a sinner go from no fear to fear? How does a sinner
go from legal fear to reverential fear? Because, you know, by nature,
we're not without fear. Fear causes sinners to go about
to establish a righteousness of their own. Fear causes a sinner
to try to do something to put yourself in the favor of God,
to not be under the wrath of God. That's what we do by nature.
That's a legal fear. We all have that by nature. But
God said Christ came in Hebrews chapter 2 to deliver them who
through fear of death, fear of punishment, that's that legal
fear, deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. How does a sinner go from that
legal fear to this reverential fear that Joshua says here that
these Israelites should have of God forever? Well, God has
to bring us there. He has to bring us to this place.
He must deliver us from our legal fear and bring us to this reverential
fear. God brought Israel out of bondage
in Egypt. He protected them, He provided
for them through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness,
He brought them to the promised land, and He brought them into
possession of that land. In all this, Israel is a picture,
it's a type of the church, the elect of God out of every kindred,
tribe, and nation. God brought His elect out of,
brings His elect out of legal bondage. He brought them out
by the death of their surety and substitute to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That took place at the cross. All were delivered. All
of God's elect were delivered from the punishment we deserved
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He protects and provides
His elect through their wanderings in this wilderness of false religion.
All the way up to the time where He sits us down under the gospel,
we're in false religion. We're in unbelief till then.
And God provides for us and He protects us till then. In time,
He brings us to the knowledge of His salvation and of His Savior. And in regeneration, He brings
us into possession of the salvation that he's already provided. The
salvation Christ has already worked out by his obedience unto
death. This is tantamount to God bringing
a sinner from legal fear to a reverential fear. He turns on the light.
See, we're in darkness by nature. God has to turn on the light.
And there's a familiar verse. You can either turn to it or
I'll just read it to you. It's 2 Corinthians 4, 6. You
probably can quote it as I could. It says, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. God has to bring us to the gospel. He has to teach us of Christ,
and then he has to turn on that light, because without that light,
all men are in darkness. That light is the knowledge of
what Christ has done that enables God to be just when he justifies
an ungodly sinner. The Ark of the Covenant. Christ
is what's pictured in that Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the
Covenant held back the Jordan River, and this generation of
national Israel walked into the Promised Land on dry land. They became the possessors of
that which God had promised and provided for them. He overcame
their unbelief and enabled them to fear Him as a God faithful
to fulfill His promises. Under the gospel, the Spirit
of God overcomes the unbelief of sinners and enables them to
enter into the salvation promised to them in Christ, given them
in Christ before the world began, and provided for them by His
obedience unto death. They're delivered from the bondage
of legal fear and brought to worship the God who justifies
the ungodly on the basis of Christ's work alone. The hand of the Lord
is mighty. How mighty is it? It's mighty
enough to overcome the one thing, the only thing that keeps sinners
from entering into Canaan. It's mighty enough to overcome
our unbelief. It's mighty enough to bring sinners
to fear a just God and a Savior. Have you felt the mighty, the
might of the Lord's hand? No one's excluded from God's
salvation who will find their hope, who will rest their complete
salvation in Him whom God has sent.