Stones of Witness

Father, as we take the remainder of this evening to open Your Word, I do pray, Lord, that You'd open our hearts. I pray that the light of Your Word would shine into each and every heart that's here. There are people here this evening who don't know You, Father, and I pray that You would break up the fallowed ground and pour Your living water upon their hearts. As the Word goes forth as seed, may it land on good ground.

For those who do know You this evening, I pray that You would equip and encourage us, Father. Help us to see You high and lifted up. Help us to understand Your Word so that we can make application from it. I pray that our lives would be changed, that we would be renewed, and that we would be brought closer to You. Father, I thank You for every person who's here tonight, and I pray that You would bless each and every one of them. As Your Word says, You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. I pray that we would see that and walk in it. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

You can be seated and go ahead and open your Bibles to Joshua chapter 4. Can we have the fluorescence on? Thank you. Joshua, the fourth chapter. Last week, we saw how the children of Israel passed over the Jordan River and came into the promised land. As Joshua had told the children of Israel to sanctify themselves, he said, "For tomorrow we will pass over this Jordan." Notice that he didn't tell the children of Israel to build boats or prepare to build a bridge. No, in fact, he told them to sanctify themselves in chapter 3, for they were going to cross over the Jordan.

In like manner, in the book of Ephesians chapter 4, Paul said to the church at Ephesus that they should put off the former conversation, or their former conduct, the old man, which is corrupt according to its deceitful lusts. He urged them to be renewed in the spirit of their mind and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Just as Joshua instructed the children of Israel to sanctify themselves and cleanse themselves before passing over the Jordan River, the Lord has commanded us in the New Testament, the new covenant believers.

We are to put off our old man, the old flesh, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds. We are to put on the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness. We have been instructed to live a new life as children of God, and our lives should reflect that new title: Christian. The word "Christian," of course, means Christ-like or little Christ. Therefore, our lives should appear as Christ's did.

What did His life look like? We can look throughout the Gospels and see the way that Jesus lived. For God, it was easy to get the children of Israel out of Egypt, but it was a whole other story to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. It has been very simple for the Lord to get us out of the world. He has called us to put our faith in Him, as He died upon the cross for us and rose from the dead.

The work that He did, although we look at it and say that it seems like such a great thing, was a small thing to Him. As we looked at a few weeks ago in Luke chapter 24, His disciples asked, "Do you not even know what has happened here in these recent weeks?" He replied, "What things?" For the joy that was set before Him, the Lord endured the cross, despising the shame, and He died upon that cross for us. It was not a huge thing for Him to do that for us, and He has called us to put our faith in Him and to follow Him.

For the Lord to get us out of Egypt, out of the world, He has all the power. He is the mighty God and is able to do that. However, for Him to cleanse us and take Egypt, the world, out of us, sometimes it takes a period of time. As we have seen, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. That wilderness experience was God's working in their hearts to take Egypt out of them—the desires and lusts for the things of Egypt.

As we looked at last week in Exodus chapter 16, the children of Israel said to Moses, "We wish that we still had the flesh pots, the meat that we had down in Egypt." Often, our flesh says the very same things: "I wish that I had the things of the world." We long for and desire those things, but the Lord calls us to lay those things down. The wilderness is that preparation time where the Lord begins to separate us from those things and shows us the futility or emptiness of them. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." If you have walked with the Lord for any amount of time, you have begun to see that the things you once longed for and the things you once gave your life for have changed.

Become emptiness to you, and you no longer want them. But how do we lay those things down? How do we get rid of that? How do we put on this new man that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 and 24? He says that we're to take that old life, the former conversation, the former conduct, the old man, and we're to lay it aside. We're to take up the new man that's been created in true righteousness by God. We're to walk in this fullness of the Spirit, as he told the Galatians in chapter 5. If you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Yet we know the testimony of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7, where he said in verse 18, "For I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would to do, or the good that I would not to do, that I do; but the evil which I would not, or the evil which I desire to do, that I don't do." How many times have you been mixed up like that as well? The things that you want to do in Christ, you want to follow the Lord, you want to serve the Lord, but those are the things that you can't seem to attain to. You struggle and strive and fail over and over again.

That was the story of the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Yet the Lord brought them to the place by the Jordan and told them to sanctify yourselves, to clean yourselves up. Do your best, cleanse yourselves, for tomorrow we're going to pass over. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us that this is a picture of baptism. As they crossed through the Red Sea, they were leaving that old life of Egypt and coming into a new life, leaving the old life behind.

If you and I have been baptized, we've done the very same thing. We've left that old life behind down in the water. We have left that old life behind, and if you went down, you pictured the death, the burial, and then the resurrection, rising and walking in newness of life. But if you know the Gospels, you know that John the Baptist, in the early chapters of Matthew, said that there is another who is going to come, who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

So there is this water baptism, the baptism of John. Paul the Apostle went to the church at Ephesus in Acts chapter 19 and asked them if they had heard of the Holy Spirit. They said, "We don't know of this Holy Spirit." He asked them, "Well, what baptism have you been baptized with?" They replied, "Well, we were..."

Baptized with the baptism of John, he spoke of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the coming on of the Holy Spirit. The church at Ephesus was saying, "Well, we don't know what that is." You see, they still dwelled in the wilderness, experiencing the life of a believer who has come to the Lord but is still struggling with that old life, as described in Romans chapter 7. The good that I want to do, I don't do; the bad things I don't want to do, that I do. I find that in my flesh dwells no good thing.

I meet many Christians who have come to that point in their lives where they say, "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" I was told that the life of Christ was going to be a lot better, that things were going to be easier. An evangelist told me that if I came to Jesus, my life would turn around. However, that's not what's happened. In fact, I've faced trials, and the sun of trials has come up. It's begun to burn me, and I just don't know if I want to do this anymore.

I've heard the testimony of many. Josh Olson is one of them. Oswald Chambers also said that there came a point in his life where he thought, "If this is what Christianity is all about, then it's a farce." He was told he would have a victorious life, yet he saw none of that. Instead, he wandered in the wilderness and felt beaten down. Maybe you've experienced those bitter times as you come to the waters of Mara in Exodus chapter 15.

The children of Israel came out of Egypt. They were no longer there; they had crossed over the Red Sea. Yet, three days later, they encountered a bitter experience where they had no water. They came to an area and saw water in front of them, and the whole camp of Israel ran toward it, only to find that it was bitter and undrinkable. Perhaps you've been in that place.

Just a few short days later, the children of Israel walked into the wilderness of Sin in Exodus chapter 16. How many of you have been in the wilderness of Sin, wandering about, crying out, "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" You want to follow the Lord, but you keep falling and stumbling into various areas.

A couple of weeks after that, the children of Israel camped in Rephidim and battled with Amalek. They cried out against Moses because they didn't have any water. Amalek, in the Scriptures, is a picture of the flesh, and every single one of us has struggled with the flesh. This was what they went through for 40 years in the wilderness. Yet, the Lord still encouraged them daily and nightly. He led them by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and He fed them with manna for 40 years. He desired that Egypt, the desires for the old things, would be removed from them.

And that's what God is doing in our lives as well. He brings us to the very point of getting through challenges and passing on into a new life. For Paul, I'm sorry, for Jesus said in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, that you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. You'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Jesus told his disciples in the book of John, chapters 14 and 16, that it is good for him to go away. His disciples probably thought, "What are you talking about? It's good for you to leave us." He explained that if he didn't leave, the Holy Spirit couldn't come—the Comforter, the one who would lead and guide them, who would teach them all things. You see, Jesus could not be with every single one of his disciples all the time, everywhere they went. But the Holy Spirit can be with us everywhere, anytime.

It was expedient; it was good for Jesus to ascend into heaven so he could send the Spirit. He told his disciples to tarry in Jerusalem because the Spirit would come upon them. However, they were going through a period where God was showing them that they could not do it on their own, that they could not function in their own flesh.

Every single one of us who has walked with the Lord, even if it's only been for 20 minutes, 24 hours, or two years, has begun to see that we can't live this Christian life in our own strength. We can't be a witness to those people at work in our own strength. We can't do what God has called us to do. God has commanded us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. How many of us fail in that every day? We can't do it on our own.

In the book of Peter, it says, "Be holy, for the Lord your God is holy." How many of us are holy and perfect without blemish? Apart from Christ, we can't do that. Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, we can't do that.

But how do we obtain, how do we receive this power of the Holy Spirit? Last week, we saw how the children of Israel began to pass over the Jordan River. The Jordan River in the Scriptures is a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, coming into this new promised possession. There have been those who have written hymns suggesting that the picture of them going over the Jordan River represents the children of Israel dying and coming into heaven. But that's not the case, because we won't have battles in heaven. The children of Israel entered the promised land and first encountered all sorts of battles. So, it is a picture of the abundant life, the promised land.

The crossing over the Jordan River symbolizes our lives transitioning into a new life filled with the Holy Spirit, governed by Him. When we come to the Lord, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. The Greek word for this is "en," meaning "in." In John chapter 20, Jesus breathed upon His disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." At that moment, the Holy Spirit came into them. Later, He told them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. The Greek word for this is "epi," which means to be totally immersed and overflowing with the Holy Spirit. It signifies being baptized and submerged in the Holy Spirit of God, allowing Him to overflow and manifest through our lives.

In the book of John, during the Feast of the Tabernacles, Jesus proclaimed, "If any man drinks of Me, rivers of living water shall spring forth from him." This indicates that if someone is overflowing with the Holy Spirit, the river of life will flow from that person. This abundant life enables us to fulfill what God has called us to do. Will we still face battles? Absolutely. The children of Israel encountered battles when they entered the Promised Land, but they were victorious. They walked in victory because the Lord went before them.

This passage in Joshua chapters 3 and 4 is crucial for us as believers in the 21st century. Many in the church in America today lack the power of the Holy Spirit. There are those who continue to wander in the wilderness. Over the past several weeks, we have discussed the power of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11 states that all these things were written for our instruction and admonition upon whom the end of the ages has come. The events that occurred to the children of Israel serve as examples for us to learn how we are to walk and live.

Last week, we noted that the children of Israel rose early in the morning. Joshua led them down to the Jordan River, where the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them. The Lord was leading them, just as He leads us today. At that time of year, the Jordan River overflowed its banks due to the melting snow in the northern mountains, causing it to flood.

And it's very possible and very likely that the river was a mile wide during this time. It was flowing very fast, not something that they could cross on their own. But the Lord went before them. The Ark of the Covenant went before them, and the priests bore it upon their shoulders. As they stepped into the water, when their feet touched the very brim of the water, the waters were pushed back like a heap. The children of Israel crossed over on dry ground, and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood in the middle of the Jordan River.

As we come to Joshua chapter 4, verse 1, the very first five words are such an encouragement to me. If you read it together with me, we see, "And it came to pass." Underline that in your Bibles: "And it came to pass." You see, all the forty years before this, the wandering in the wilderness, it came to pass. When they cried out against Moses, saying, "We don't have any food," it came to pass. When they cried out against Moses and Aaron, saying, "We don't have any water," it came to pass. When the Amalekites were coming against them, it came to pass. When the Jordan River stood before them, it came to pass.

The trials that stand before you and the trials that face me every single day, they come to pass. The Lord uses those things to cleanse us and to show us the areas of our hearts that need to be rooted out by the Father. The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9, that the heart of man is deceitful; it is wicked above all things. Who can know it? You may think that you know your heart, but you don't. Only the Lord truly knows how wicked your heart is and how truly depraved you are. He uses trials to show us.

He puts us in situations where we get angry at someone. Maybe someone cuts you off on the freeway. Did that happen to anybody this week? Or perhaps you see one of those billboards for a casino, and you get upset or angry. Maybe there's a bit of longing, like, "I'd like to go to Barona." The little tests that the Lord puts in front of you and the tests that He puts in front of me are to show us that, whoa, there's lust in my heart. There's anger in my heart that I didn't realize was there. He puts those things in our path to allow us to see them so that we can give them over to Him.

The children of Israel had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, seeing the wickedness of their own hearts. The Lord had gotten rid of an entire generation of people who didn't fully trust in Him. The wilderness has a two-fold purpose: to cleanse us from the wickedness in our lives and to teach us to trust in the Lord, to lean upon Him.

For 40 years, their clothes did not wear out, and their shoes did not wear out. God provided food every single morning for them. When they didn't have water, God provided water out of rocks. They came to realize that the God they trust in is the God who provides shade for them every single day, this cloud that goes with them. He provides light for them at night, the pillar of fire. He gives them food and is the God who fought for them against Amalek and against Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites. He is the God who takes care of them.

However, they also learned that in their hearts is wickedness and a longing for the things of the world and the things of Egypt, because they would constantly cry out, "We want meat! Lord, we want this; we don't have this." The Lord would show them that this is wickedness and it needs to go. Yet, constantly, the Lord was reaching out to His people, longing for them to follow Him completely.

Now they have come to a point where the Lord says, "Sanctify yourselves and let's cross over." All of the things they went through and all the 40 years prior seemed to matter little when they stepped on the dry ground of the promised land.

I can point back to a time when I was struggling constantly in my Christian life to be a witness, to live rightly, and to do what God had called me to do. Does that mean that I'm perfect today? Absolutely not. I still stumble; I still fall. But I have victory like I never had before. I can point back to a specific time when the Lord helped me to cross over, over that Jordan River.

I established, as we will see here in chapter 4 tonight, what the children of Israel established: a monument to the Lord at that point in time. "Lord, you've baptized me in Your Holy Spirit, and You've brought me in." All of the trials I went through up until that point, I can look back and say, "What is all that stuff?" Because, as Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, I take all that stuff that I had gained to me.

All that wickedness in my life reminds me of Paul the Apostle. He was a murderer before he became a Christian, and he said, "I count that as trash. I count that as rubbish." He laid it aside and pressed on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The children of Israel, as they stepped foot into the promised land 40 years earlier, looked forward and saw nothing. That is what the Lord desires for you and me as well: that we would look forward, not back at all the things we left behind in Egypt or the wilderness. We should say, "Lord, this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and pressing on." We should seek to lay hold of Him, that we may lay hold of that for which He has laid hold of us.

This is what the children of Israel were doing. When all the people had cleanly passed over the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, "Take you twelve men, one from each tribe." He commanded them to take twelve stones from the place where the priests' feet stood firm in the Jordan and carry them over to the lodging place where they would stay that night.

Joshua called the twelve men he had prepared, and he said to them, "Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan and take up a stone upon your shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. This may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in the future, saying, 'What do these stones mean?' you shall say to 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 were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever."

The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded. They passed over, and all the children of Israel were clean as they crossed the Jordan—no mud on their feet. Joshua then went to the twelve men he had selected, one from each tribe, and said, "I want you to go down into the dry Jordan River and each take up a big stone from where the priests stood."

They're standing, putting it upon your shoulder and bringing it into the promised land. We are going to lay them down as a memorial in the place where we will lodge tonight, in the place where we will sleep tonight.

Do you have a time when you can look back at a memorial in your life, a moment when you crossed over into the new victorious life that God has apprehended for you? Can you say, "I was baptized with the Holy Spirit"? I no longer live; I've been crucified with Christ. The life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Can you look back to a time when you actually laid down the rights to yourself and took up the new life that Christ has given you? Or are you continuing to wander in the wilderness, struggling every single day to go out and think, "Oh, I've got to glean manna," or "I've got to read my Bible this morning"? I don't want to do this. Or are you feeding on the faithfulness of the Lord? Come into the promised land.

You see, the children of Israel had come out of the wilderness. They had that old experience, and now Joshua says, "We're going to build a memorial to remember that God has brought us out of that." We're no longer living in the wilderness; we're no longer wandering. We've come over into the promised possession that God has given us.

So they took up these stones and brought them over. The children of Israel, in verse 8, did just as Joshua had commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. They carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there.

Then, in verse 9, notice that Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant stood. They are there unto this day. The priests who bear the Ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded.

So these twelve men went down into the water, well, down into the dry riverbed, and they took up these stones and brought them into the promised land. But Joshua went down and took twelve rocks out of the promised land and placed them where the Jordan River would be flowing.

What are these two memorials? One memorial is set up in the promised land, and one memorial is set up where no one will ever see it but God, in the midst of the Jordan River. The one in the midst of the Jordan River represents our old life. It's our old life that is to be crucified with Christ.

Laid down in those new stones that were taken up out of the midst of the Jordan River and set up in the promised land, which only God could have opened up for the children of Israel, those stones are a picture of the new life that we have in Christ. We are to lay down the rights to ourselves. We are to take our old lives and cast them down to where we can never get to them again, to where the floodwaters will cover them all year round. We are to no longer go back to that stuff, where we no longer, as the psalmist says, are like a dog that returns to its vomit. Instead, we are to take up the new life.

Yes, we will struggle, but we don't continue in sin. We don't practice sin to try and get better at it. I think we're all pretty good at sinning. However, we need to take that old life, that old sinful flesh, and reckon it dead, as Romans teaches us. That's what Romans says: crucify it with Christ, as Galatians instructs. Lay it down, as Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians say. We are to take up the new life, as Romans chapter 13, Ephesians chapter 4, and Colossians chapter 1 tell us. God has called us to a new victorious Christian life, to a life of rest in Him, where we are no longer struggling and striving to try and get rid of that sin.

I'm not going to do that, Jesus; I'm going to stay away from that. I'm not going to touch this. Taste not, whatever. But we look upon the One who is pierced as we move forward towards the Lord and say, "Lord, because I love You and because I want to follow You, I don't want to do that stuff anymore." You see, if our eyes are fixed fully upon the Lord, our desires for the things of this world will fade away. The hymn is true: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory."

As we are fixed upon the Lord, our faces set towards Him, we no longer want the things of this world. The children of Israel, as they came into this promised land and looked at what God gave them, saw that all of Egypt was like, "Why would we want that? Look what the Lord has given to us." The same is true for us when we begin to walk and follow hard after the Lord. When we take up the life that only God can give and lay down our lives, we lay down the life that we once thought was important.

Jim Elliott said, "He is no fool who will give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." You're not a fool to give up this life, which is wickedness and will die at the end, falling apart and being left behind. You're not a fool to give up all the rights to yourself and take up the life of Christ, which He has given to you.

Jesus said that he who seeks to save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will gain it; he will truly gain that abundant life. But to gain that abundant life, we have to take the step of faith to walk across the Jordan River, which is a picture of laying down your old life, dying to yourself, crucifying yourself, and now walking into the new life that Christ has given—the promises of God.

I heard it said one time that somebody asked a lady, "What do you do with the promises of God?" She replied, "Well, I underline them in blue." If that's all you do with the promises of God—just underline them in your Bible with blue—what good are they? What good are they if they're just words on paper? But when you take the promises of God and begin to walk in them, you can say, "Lord, You have said that if I seek first the kingdom of God and Your righteousness, all these things that I have need of will be added unto me."

So, Lord, I'm no longer going to try to seek after getting food, clothing, and shelter. Instead, I'm going to begin to seek wholeheartedly after You. Then you begin to find that the Lord really does deliver on that promise. Or is it just words on paper? Is it just something you remembered from a Bible memory class years ago?

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Are they just words on paper when you read it in Psalms? In Psalm 37, the Lord says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Have you truly cast yourself upon the Lord, where you genuinely delight in Him and have seen Him provide the desires of your heart?

Are they just words when you read in Psalm 37 again, where it says, "Commit your way to the Lord, and He shall direct your path"? Or have you truly given everything over to the Lord and said, "Lord, I'm laying down the rights to myself. I'm going to take up the life that You've given"? For Jesus said in Luke 9, verse 23...

If anyone desires to follow me, let him take up his cross, deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Have we done that? Have I done that? Let me tell you, it's not a one-time thing. It's not just once, ten years ago, that I laid down the rights to myself and now I'm following God. No, it's every single day. The end of that verse in Luke 9:23 says "daily." Every single day, we need to reckon ourselves dead because the flesh wakes up first, and it wakes up with a vengeance. We have to wake up and say, "Lord, my rights to myself, I give them to you today." If you wait till noon to do that, you've lost the battle. I've lost the battle.

The children of Israel had crossed over the Jordan. They had crossed cleanly over the Jordan and took up these twelve stones to remember that every single time they would see them, they would remember that God brought us here. Joshua took twelve stones and stuck them down into the riverbed to remember that that's my old life. It's gone. I no longer live in that. I no longer walk in that.

For the priests, it says in verse 10 that they stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded. The people hastened to pass over. It came to pass when all the people were clean passed over that the ark of the Lord was broken. The ark of the Lord passed over with the priests and the presence of the people. The children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the children of Israel as Moses spoke unto them.

Remember, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were going to keep their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, but they were going to send some of their men over to help fight with the children of Israel, the rest of the twelve tribes. Notice that they came in fully armed for battle.

As I've already said, when you lay down the rights to yourself and put on the new man that God has created in true righteousness and holiness, you also put on the armor of God. I heard it said one time, someone asked at a retreat, "Have you put on the armor of God this morning?" "Yeah, I put it on." "Well, who told you to take it off in the first place?" It should always be on. We should always have the armor of God on at all times. And so these forty thousand men passed over the river armed for war.

They were armed for battle. You see, the life that God has called us to is a battle. It's not a battle against flesh and blood. For Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12 says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities, the rulers of the darkness of this age. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are powerful in God for the tearing down of strongholds.

We have a battle, a spiritual battle that's taking place even right now. If we could have our eyes opened up to the spiritual battle that is occurring in this room, I think every single one of us would probably be scared to death to see the spiritual hosts of wickedness that are in this place or just outside of it, along with the angels that are here protecting us. We might even be more afraid of the angels because they are not little fat chubby kids with wings. If you read what the Bible has to say about angels, they are pretty scary looking. In fact, I think if an angel were to appear in the middle of New York City at rush hour, everybody would be scared to death. Six wings—read the accounts of what the angels look like; they are pretty terrifying creatures.

But right now, there is a spiritual battle going on in this place, and the Lord is protecting us, His people. There are some here tonight who don't know the Lord, and the enemy is fighting for your soul right now. This is the battle that we're in. We need to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, every single day. We must put on the breastplate of righteousness, realizing that I am righteous only in Christ. The helmet of salvation reminds us that God is the one who has given me salvation. God is the one who has saved me from death; it protects me. We need the belt of truth and to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We must take up the shield of faith with which we will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, and we need the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, praying always.

Is that our life? If it's not, we will be defeated. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but ask yourself how many of you in the last couple of months have led a defeated life as a Christian. Those times come, and we need to fall upon our faces and say, "Lord, I need your help. Help me to fight."

Help me to do battle. You read the epistles of Paul, and you see that Paul equated our walk not as a casual, leisurely stroll through the park with Jesus, but as a race or a battle. They were running, pressing on with the Lord every single day, doing battle along the way. That's what God has called us to.

Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over, armed before the children of Israel. Moses spoke to them about 40,000 prepared for war, who passed over before the Lord unto battle to the plains of Jericho. On that day, the Lord magnified Joshua, as stated in verse 14, in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him. As they feared him, they also feared Moses all the days of his life.

The Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, "Command the priests that they bear the ark of the testimony that they come up out of the Jordan." Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, "Come up out of the Jordan." It came to pass when the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up out of the midst of the Jordan that the soles of the priests' feet lifted up onto dry land. The waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed over the banks as they did before.

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. They came up on the tenth day of the first month. In Exodus chapter 12, we see the significance of the tenth day of the first month at the very beginning. It was on this day that the children of Israel were commanded to go out into their flocks and find a firstling of the flocks, a lamb of the first year, a male. They were to take this lamb into their household and inspect it for three days. Then, on the fourteenth day, they were to slaughter this lamb and put the blood on the doorposts and the lentils of their household. This was the Passover lamb.

God had told the children of Israel, after they had refused to enter the land thirty-eight years before this, that they would be in the wilderness for forty years. He promised them this. Yet here they come into the promised land thirty-nine years and just five days before the forty-year mark. It has been thirty-nine years and just five days short of that forty-year mark, and they come in on the tenth day.

And they came into Gilgal. The word "Gilgal" means "rolling," the place of rolling. It is related to the word "commit" in Psalm 37, verse 5, where it says, "Commit your way unto the Lord." Gilgal is the place where we roll all of ourselves over to the Lord and say, "Lord, not my will, but Yours be done."

On the tenth day of the first month, the children of Israel entered the promised land and arrived at Gilgal. What was the first thing they did? Very likely, they went out into their flocks and gathered for themselves a firstling of the flock to celebrate the very first Passover in the promised land. Those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, were pitched at Gilgal by Joshua. He spoke to the children of Israel, saying, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What do these stones mean?' 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 the 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.' This is so that all the people of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that you might fear the Lord your God forever."

Joshua took the twelve stones and cast them down at Gilgal. He said these stones are a stone of remembrance, a stone of witness. In the years to come, when your children ask, "What are these stones? What is this all about?" the fathers can respond. Every father here has a son and a daughter; you have an obligation and a calling from God to teach your children. You are to tell them about the Lord, who God is, and the miracles He has brought about. That is your calling; that is what you have been commissioned to do.

There may be some men in this room tonight who say, "Well, I want to be a pastor. I want to teach the flock of God." Remember, you have a little flock in your household. If you are not teaching them first, then God is not going to call you to teach the rest of the flock. Think how important that calling is; it is probably much more significant than me standing up here teaching you. You are to raise your kids from the earliest age when they can first understand anything and tell them about the Lord throughout the ages.

The children of Israel had these different witnesses: the rocks, the Passover, and the feasts they went through. They were all for a specific purpose, so that the children would ask questions and say, "What is this all about, Dad?" The fathers would respond, explaining the significance of each event. This was their calling.

The children would ask questions like, "What are these stones all about?" The fathers were to tell them that the Lord dried up the Jordan River just like He did the Red Sea. Those rocks used to be down in the river, but not anymore. We used to be on the other side of the river, but not anymore, because God dried it up and we came across.

Why did God do that? Verse 24 says that all the people of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is mighty. God is incredibly powerful to be able to stop the river and say, "Alright, come across." He was also able to stop the Red Sea and say, "Alright, come across." In a couple of weeks, we're going to see how God stops the sun right where it is, giving them a long day. God is so incredibly powerful.

The children of Israel would set up these witnesses, these stones, every single time God performed a miracle. This was a miraculous thing so that their kids would ask, "Hey, what are these rocks all about, stacked over here?" The dads could then explain the significance of those stones.

Today, I was going through some stuff in my room and found a couple of tapes from our trip to Israel. I had recorded our tour guide telling all these stories. I was sitting in my office, listening to this Jewish guy with his thick Hebrew accent share the stories of his history. I thought, "Wow, this is really cool." I imagine he probably does the same at Passover when he tells his kids about the traditions.

Do we do that with our kids? Do we have communion with our kids? I don't have kids yet, but I will have communion with them one day. When I have kids, I will explain to them, "This is the bread; it's broken. His body was broken for us." It doesn't take much to explain it. You don't have to go to seminary to figure out that the bread represents His body and the juice represents His blood. He was broken for us, and He shed His blood for us.

Why did God do all of these things? Why did God perform all the miracles throughout Scripture? It was so that the world, that the people, might know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that they might fear the Lord, recognizing how powerful He is.

What was the result of this? In Chapter 5, verse 1, it says, "And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of the Jordan, this side of the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the kingdom of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we were passed over, that their heart melted; neither was their spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel."

I pray that this would be what the world thinks of when they hear the word "Christian." That their heart would melt within them, that they'd have nothing to say before those who are the carriers of the truth of God.

It says, "And at that time the Lord said unto Joshua, 'Make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.'" They had just come into the promised land; they had crossed the Jordan River. As they did, the hearts of the people melted within them. The enemies of the land were all scared to death that the children of Israel were here. They crossed over; the river was dried up before them. What are we going to do? We can't do anything.

God said, "Alright, Joshua, make sharp knives." Joshua was probably thinking, "That's right, let's go get these guys." But God said, "Circumcise again the children of Israel a second time." You see, we might think that this is the strategic time to go and get the people in the land; they're all afraid of us now that we've come in. But God said, "No, now is the time to pause and to be renewed."

God's ways are far above our ways. Isaiah Chapter 55 tells us that when we think it's time to strike, God would say, "No, it's time to stop; it's time to wait." So Joshua did make sharp knives, and in verse 3, he circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt, that were males. Even all the men of war had died in the wilderness by the way after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.

The children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord, unto whom the Lord swore that he would not show them the land.

Which the Lord swore unto their fathers that He would give us a land that floweth with milk and honey. The children, pardon me, and their children whom He raised up in their stead, them Joshua. Joshua was circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them by the way.

It came to pass when they had done the circumcising that all the people abode in their places in the camp till they were whole. The Lord said unto Joshua, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." Wherefore, the name of that place is called Gilgal unto this day.

So they came into the promised land, and just when we would tell you to think it's time to strike, God said no. It's time to clean yourselves up, and it's time to make right what was wrong. When they came out of the promised land, or out of Egypt, I'm sorry, all of those men who had come out, who were circumcised, who were committed completely over to the Lord—that's what it really means to be circumcised—was that you were wholeheartedly given to the Lord. It was an outward symbol of an inward heart change, just like baptism is.

Those men who came out of Egypt, who were committed wholly to the Lord, didn't do that for their children. They didn't look after their kids in that way. So now, when they came into the promised land, what was wrong needed to be made right. God said, "Before you can go and get rid of the inhabitants of this land because of their sin, your sin needs to be rolled away as well."

They waited for three days, and they were circumcised there at Gilgal. Their reproach, the reproach of Egypt, was rolled away as they committed themselves wholly unto the Lord. You see, the Lord is calling us; He’s calling every single one of us to commit ourselves wholly unto Him.

The Bible says that the circumcision that we have is not a circumcision of the flesh, of the foreskin, but it's a circumcision of the heart, where we cut away the old dead heart and give ourselves completely over to the Lord in consecration to Him. "Lord, I'm Yours. Take me, use me however You would."

We can say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ; I no longer live, but Christ lives within me." We lay down that old life and say, "Lord, I want to come into that life that You've given to me. I'm taking a step of faith."

The Bible says in Luke chapter 11, verse 13, that if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to him who asks, who takes that step of faith?

And says, "Lord, I need you to baptize me afresh with your Holy Spirit. I need you to come upon me powerfully so that I can walk in this new life, this dynamically powerful life that you have for me, that you've called me to live in. Lord, I want to separate myself unto you. I want to circumcise my heart and say, 'Lord, I'm yours.'"

Where Paul would say in Romans chapter 12, he calls us to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto the Lord, which is our reasonable service. You see, I have no doubt you can be a Christian and just wander in the wilderness for your whole life. Yes, you'll be in heaven, but there are going to be rewards given in heaven. I don't know what that's all about; the Bible speaks of it, and someday we're going to get there, and the Lord's going to show us what that means.

There were many who came out of Egypt, but they wandered in the wilderness and died there. Those who would experience the fullness of life here and now understand that eternal life starts the day you say, "Lord, I want to follow you." For this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. It's not when you die and get to heaven; that's not when eternal life starts. Eternal life starts now, and God desires that you and I would have the abundant eternal life here and now, today.

But that only comes when we say, "Lord, I'm giving up the rights to myself, and I want you to take control of me." Like Richard always talks about, a glove is absolutely useless if you just lay it down. But when the hand goes inside of the glove, then it can go wherever the hand goes. The Holy Spirit is that hand; we're just a glove. The Lord wants to fill us completely with His Holy Spirit, and He wants us to go where He wants us to go, do what He wants us to do, and say what He wants us to say.

But it only happens as we yield ourselves. When we lay down and say, "Alright, Lord, fill me. Take my life and let it be consecrated unto Thee," it's a daily process. The victorious Christian life, the life of rest in Christ, is a life where every single day I have to get up and say, "Lord, I give up the rights to myself today, and I'm giving myself to you. Use me however you would."

I assure you there are days when I don't do that, and those who are around me can tell. They know. But there are those days when I fall on my face early in the morning and say, "Lord, I just need you to take over today because I can't do it." When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things get taken care of.

All these other things that we're so worried about—how sad it is that so many people toil every single day, all day long, and all their life long just for vanity. What are you doing with your life? What am I doing with my life? Is it being lived for the Lord, 100% in the promised land, doing battle with the Lord? Or is it saying, "Oh, the giants are too big. There's too much sin in my life. I can't get rid of it"?

If you take the step of faith and say, "Lord, use me," and you set your face towards the Lord, He will get rid of the sin that's within you. In the book of Judges, there's a great story in Judges chapter 3 or chapter 4 about Eglon. He was the king of Moab. Some of you have heard about Eglon before; his name means calf-like or cow-like. This guy was fat. The Bible says in Joshua, I believe it's chapter 3, verse 17, that Eglon was a very fat man. In fact, some historians have said that his waist was a hundred inches around. Can you imagine that? That's huge! He truly was a big fat guy.

Moab in Scripture is a picture of the flesh, and it says in that story that the children of Israel year by year would take him tribute to make him happy. Now, what do you give to a big fat guy to make him happy? Food. But what happens to the big fat guy if you just keep feeding him? He gets bigger. The same is true with our flesh. If we continue to feed our flesh and give in to the cravings of our flesh, thinking, "Well, if I just appease it, if I just go a little bit further, then it will leave me alone," it just gets fatter and more powerful.

So year by year, Eglon just got fatter and more powerful until a guy by the name of Ehud came along and said, "No more of this." The Bible says that he fashioned for himself a two-edged sword, an 18-inch long dagger, and he fastened it on the inside of his right thigh because it says that his right hand was disformed; there was something wrong with his right hand. He was left-handed. So he went in to meet with Eglon, this cow-like guy, and after they had...

Brought him tribute after they had brought him food, he said, "Hey, I've got a secret message for you, King." Eglon replied, "Oh great!" He then instructed everyone to leave, saying, "You all have to go away," and he shut the place they were in. Eglon said, "Alright, tell me."

Ehud came over, took an 18-inch sword, and stuck it in. It says that when the sword went in, the dirt came out. He left the sword there and ran away. When you and I take the sword, the sword of the Spirit, the two-edged sword, and we stick it in, the dirt of our lives comes out. But we need to take the sword, drive it deep, and leave it there, and the dirt will come out.

Let's pray. Lord, some of us have just continued to feed our flesh, thinking that if we appease it a little bit more, then it will leave us alone. But it gets stronger and stronger every day. God, I pray that you would enable us to sharpen and fashion that two-edged sword every single day. Put it into our lives, allow it to cut deep, and let it go. Allow it to cut out the sin that is within. Lord, we need your help to do this, and I ask that you would help us.

I know that there are those here this evening who have been wandering in the wilderness, getting fat on the flesh and the things of this world for a period of time. But Lord, I just know you're stirring many people's hearts tonight to lay it down, to take those stones and cast them down into the bottom of the Jordan, and take them down to take up the new life.

Lord, you said in Luke chapter 11 that if we would just ask, you would give us the Holy Spirit. Tonight, if you need that, where you're at, ask, "Lord, I need you to fill me with your Holy Spirit," and receive by faith. You may wonder, "What's that mean?"

The children of Israel had to step into the Jordan River by faith, just trusting that God would part the river. You say, "Lord, I need you to fill me with your Holy Spirit," and you go out of here tonight trusting that God has done that work.

Then tomorrow, cut off the flesh with the sword of the Spirit. You have to take up the sword and begin to follow the Lord, and He'll show you what to do.

So, Father, I pray that you would do that work in our lives. Help us to take up the sword and know how to use it. God, teach us, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.