Remember Yahweh

Pastor Seth Adams with us today to bring us God's Word.

Some of you know that I serve on our Presbyteries committee that

does the examinations of men being ordained into our

presbytery, and it was just a delight to have Seth come

through that process. He did a fantastic job.

It was enjoyable, probably not for him but but for us and

getting to know him better. But just also seeing how the

Lord has been at work in his life, equipping him to be God's

man on the campus of North Dakota State as the PCA pastor

there to pursue young people to come to faith in Christ and be

equipped with the gospel. Seth, come and bring us God's

Word. Well, before we read Joshua 4

together, let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we

thank you for your word, which is given for our instruction and

encouragement. We pray that as we think about

it together, You would delight us to hear truth.

May our hearts soar with joy to hear of your magnificent works,

that may they be molded and fashioned in order that we may

be useful for your purposes. And may we be humbled at the

revelation of your power and your kindness toward us in

Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

And if you would turn to our sermon text for this morning,

Joshua Chapter 4. Joshua Chapter 4 When all the

Joshua 4 · chapter mention Joshua 4 · chapter mention

nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to

Joshua, Take 12 men from the people from each tribe a man,

and command them, saying, Take 12 Stones from here out of the

midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests

feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you, and lay them

down in the place where you lodge tonight.

And Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel whom

he had appointed, a man from each tribe.

And Joshua said to them, Pass on before the ark of the Lord your

God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you

a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the

tribes of the people of Israel. 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 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 these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial

forever. And the people of Israel did

just as Joshua commanded. They took up 12 Stones out of

the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the

tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua,

And they carried them over with them to the place where they

lodged and laid them down. There Joshua set up 12 Stones in

the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the

priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood, and they are

there to this day. For the priests bearing the ark

stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished.

That the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people.

According to all that Moses had commanded Joshua, the people

passed over in haste. When all the people had finished

passing over the ark of the Lord, and the priests passed

over before the people, the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, and

the half tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the

people of Israel, as Moses had told them about 40,000 ready for

war, passed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of

Jericho. On that day the Lord exalted

Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of

him, just as they had stood in awe of Moses all the days of his

life. And the Lord said to Joshua,

command the priest bearing the ark of the testimony to come up

out of the Jordan. So Joshua commanded the priests

come up out of the Jordan. And when the priest bearing the

ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the

Jordan, and the soles of the priest's feet were lifted up on

dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place

and overflowed all its banks. As before, the people came up

out of the Jordan. On the 10th day of the first

month they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

And those 12 Stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua

set up a Gilgal. And he said to the people of

Israel, When your children ask their fathers in time to come,

what do these stones mean, then you shall let your children

know. Israel passed over the Jordan on

dry ground, for 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, which he dried up for us, until we passed over,

so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of

the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.

This is God's holy word. When I was a boy, I loved

history, particularly World War 2 history.

I devoured entire books about the landings on Normandy and

June 6th. I read about the Battle of

Bastone, the heroics of General Pat, and I was less interested

in Civil War history, which is a shame because I grew up in

upstate New York, relative short distance from many of the places

where famous battles were fought.

My dad struggled to get me to be more interested in the history

that took place there rather than the rubber band guns

available in various gift shops. One trip that I do remember

though was to a place called Gettysburg, a place where 50,000

men lost their lives and the Union very nearly lost the war.

The fighting lasted 3 full days when, in the heat of the final

day in July, Major General George Pickett of the

Confederacy LED a massive assault straight up the middle

of the Union lines in a maneuver that later became known as

Pickett's Charge. Pickett gathered all the troops

that he could muster and they marched across nearly a mile of

open territory while Union fire and artillery rained down on

them such that by the time Pickett's Charge reached

Cemetery Ridge, the place where the Union were encamped, their

numbers were severely dwindled and they were forced to

surrender shortly after that. Today, Gettysburg is dotted with

tons of monuments, statues. Perhaps the most unassuming but

significant one is placed at the very top of Cemetery Ridge.

It's a memorial to pickets charge.

It represents something fascinating.

It represents the very furthest point that any Confederate

soldier made it on that fateful assault.

Fittingly, this monument is known now known as the high

watermark of the Confederacy. It's the closest that the nation

came to losing the Civil War on July 3rd, 1863, as memorialized

by this statue so that all future generations could

remember, the Confederacy was turned around and their assault

denied. The monuments are powerful

things. They mark battles.

They stand for significant historical events.

They represent the incredible lives of powerful people who had

tremendous impact on the world around them.

Their three-dimensional history lessons.

When I visited Gettysburg as a boy, the textbooks that I had

read, the maps that I had studied, came to life.

I could see the open land across which Picket marked the Ridge

high above. I could feel the artillery fire

in my chest. And when we reached the monument

on top, I suspect I looked at my dad and said, Dad, what does

that monument mean? As we open our Bibles, we find

the occasional monument if we are reading closely enough.

The one we find here in Joshua for memorializes something far

more significant than than Pickett's Charge.

It's about something much more important than the life of a

great man or a great historical event.

At Gilgal, West of the Jordan River, Israel builds a monument

to the greatness of Yahweh, the king of creation, who has

delivered them from their wandering and brought them to

the land of promise, just like he told them he would.

We're going to look at that text now by considering two things,

firstly, what this memorial is and 2nd, why it is necessary.

First, what it is, it's a sign and it's necessary because

Israel forgets just like we do. So first it's a sign Joshua 4

begins as the nation is finishing their river crossing.

Verse 2 says Joshua was commanded, was commanded by the

Lord to take 12 men from the people, one person from each

tribe, and to command them to take 12 Stones from here out of

the midst of the Jordan, from the very police place where the

priests feet stood firmly, and to bring them over with you and

to lay them in the place where you lodge tonight.

This wasn't Joshua's idea. This was God's idea, wasn't

Joshua's wise institution or intuition that recognized the

goodness of this memorial. God commanded them to make it,

which teaches us something about God's awareness of who we are.

God knows his people, He knows their hearts, their weaknesses,

the frailty of their faith. And so for their own good, He

charges Joshua with this order and Joshua carries it out,

calling a man from each tribe, and they return to the river,

they gather a stone that this may be a sign among you.

Verse 6 says we have to skip to the end of the chapter to see

what becomes of these stones. Verse 20 says those 12 Stones

which they took out of the Jordan Joshua set up at Gilgal.

He erected something there to set up, to build, to establish.

It's a monument. They erect this monument here

their very first night West of the Jordan River after decades

of wandering in the wilderness, to commemorate God's

faithfulness to them. And what is it a sign of?

Verse 7. We see that these 12 Stones are

to cause Israel to remember that the waters of the Jordan were

cut off from before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that

when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were

cut off. We see in this verse several

things that this monument is to be a sign of.

First, these stones. This monument is assigned to

Israel and to us as the power of Yahweh in the world in which we

live. Few things have as much power as

water. Floods, mud slides, tidal waves,

even the smallest of leaks in your sump pump room have the

power to totally upend our lives.

Without rain, millions of people risk starvation.

With too much rain, millions more suffer the potential danger

of many worse things. Moving water has a tremendous

power, and controlling where water goes is 1 of mankind's

greatest challenges. We build dams, we construct

aqueducts, but every year countries all around the globe

are swamped by the power of surging storms against which

they have no power, and yet the waters of the earth bow to their

Maker. The Lord makes this point to Job

in many ways in Job chapters 38 through 42.

Job 38 · chapter mention

Sort of God's answer to all these potential criticisms.

Job 38 force is this, who shut in the sea with doors when it

burst forth from the womb, when it made clouds its garment, and

thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for

it, and bars and doors, and said, said, thus far you shall

come, and no further here shall your proud waves be stayed.

As a matter of fact, in Job 38 through 42, chaotic waters which

serve at the pleasure of Yahweh are mentioned no fewer than 11

times. 11 times water is used to demonstrate God's sovereignty,

His power, and and, and chapter 41, which is all about a

mythological sea creature called Leviathan.

God uses this entire chapter to demonstrate His authority, His

unrivaled authority over water. Water, which represents the

uncontrollable power of nature. The forces of nature,

particularly water, do not submit to us.

And yet when the feet of the priests bearing the Ark of the

Covenant settle in the sandy banks of the Jordan, what

happens? It's it's flow is entirely

ceased, backed up miles upstream, as Joshua 3 tells us,

it's waters pile up in one giant heap.

Who is like our God, mighty in power.

But these stones are not just a sign of God's power, they're

also a sign of the certainty of His promises.

Think with me for a moment about the history of Israel.

In First King 6. We read that Solomon began

constructing the temple in the 480th year after Israel came out

of Egypt. Historians have used this data

from First Kings to work backwards to an approximate date

of Joshua 4, and they've come to about 14106 BC Israel left in

left Egypt about 40 years before that.

Without getting too deep into assigning A precise date for

exactly when Abraham lived, scholars estimate that he lived

about 600 years before that. I say all this to make this

point. Abraham was the first to receive

this promise of an earthly land a full 600 years before Israel

takes its first steps across the river. 600 years.

The promise has gone through many generations.

It was given first to Abraham in Genesis 12, then Isaac in

Genesis 26, Jacob 2 chapters later, Moses in Exodus 3, and

finally to Joshua in Joshua chapter one.

I've hard enough time keeping promises that I made yesterday,

Kids. You do too, don't you?

Kids are great at this, Mom. I promise I will never take my

brother's truck away again. And 5 minutes later, they're

screaming from another room because the older brother forgot

the promise that he made only moments ago.

But our God is a promise keeping God.

And in fact, he's the only one who can keep his promises

because so many of the promises that we make are contingent on

something. Think about this.

You say to your children, We're going to go to the park on

Saturday. I promise.

And then sure enough, Saturday, 8:00, your phone rings and you

have something at work that you forgot to do that you have to

get done. We make promises that are

contingent. You know, assuming everything

goes the right way, then we will do this.

But to God, nothing is contingent.

And so he alone can keep his promises, and he alone does.

And Israel gathers these stones in order to stand for them as a

monument forever, not only as a sign that God can keep his

promises, but that over the generations, the hundreds of

years after Abraham, God has not forgotten and he keeps them.

One more thing. These rocks are to be a sign of.

They're meant to be a sign of his preceding.

I probably could have found a better word, but it starts with

P promises, power and preceding. What I mean by that is his going

before, right? God goes before the waters of of

the Jordan were cut off, before the ark of the Covenant.

Of the Lord. In chapter 3, Israel is

commanded to follow the ark at a distance some half a mile or so.

2000 cubits worked out to be about .6 miles and behind, while

the priests who carry the ark walk into the water.

And the ark, as the Scripture makes clear, is a sort of throne

for God Himself, right? The golden mercy seat which sits

on top of or rests on top of the ark in the book of Exodus.

God says from there, from the mercy seat, I will talk with you

and it ends up being placed. The ark does ends up being

placed in the holy of Holies, the holiest part of the

Tabernacle. This is a throne for God

himself. Therefore when the ark enters

these waters, it is as though the Lord himself is walking

before Israel preceding going before his people.

Now God didn't make these promises over many hundreds of

years only to left leave Israel to figure out how to bring them

to pass by themselves. God goes before them into the

land. And in the many chapters of

Joshua to come, we will see God himself go before them into

battle. Right?

Just like King David didn't usually sit in Jerusalem while

his mighty men, his armies go out and fight the nation's wars,

so also Yahweh goes before Israel into the land I

mentioned. God knows the weaknesses of his

people. Earlier, God certainly could

have brought His promises to pass however He chose, but here

his kindness to Israel is made clear.

They need to see God going ahead of them because they're afraid.

I spent a lot of time hiking in the Adirondack Mountains in

upstate New York when I was a boy, and I'd love to be in

front. Partly because I wasn't carrying

anything, my dad was carrying all of it, but partly because I

was impatient and I wanted to see what was around every

corner. I was always excited to see what

the next clearing would bring until I saw a bridge.

Wasn't a big fan of bridges, particularly in the mountains.

Bridges are pretty rickety things.

You come up to them and you're not terribly sure which of these

boards is rotted, which of them will carry me.

And so I would get around to bend, and then I would sit and I

would wait. And I would look back and when

my dad came around the corner, he would know based on the

facial expression I was giving him, I needed him to go 1st.

And he would. And he would walk around the

corner. And if it was a pile of rocks we

had to traverse or a rickety old bridge, he would step first to

show me the way that I should go, to show me that it was safe

for me to go, to demonstrate how I should go.

That's what's going on here. Israel is.

Weak. They're outnumbered.

They're quick to doubt the goodness of the Lord, to doubt

His promises, and so God goes before them.

Lastly, the last P. This memorial.

Has a great deal to teach us about the provision of the Lord.

Most obviously, Yahweh's provision is made clear through

the miracle itself. Israel has no clear means of

getting across the river. They are the people who

construct boats. Sure, particularly strong

swimmers could make the trip, but for the average Israelite,

this raging river is a daunting thing to consider swimming

across, right? It's not just the warriors of

Israel that are going across. It's all of them.

It's men, women and children and all of their provisions.

It was God's work here that allows for the whole nation to

walk across on dry ground rather than having to arrange a way for

weak swimmers and the young and the old in the nation to get

across. God knows, and He provides for

the needs of His own. Consider also.

The way the gathering of the stones is presented to the 12

men chosen to fetch them. When your children ask in time

to come, what do these stones mean to you?

Implied in. This command is that they will

have children that they will have time to come.

That they have. Future.

It's easy to gloss. Over details like this.

But let's not miss miss this fact that on this side of the

Jordan River are years and years of fierce combat about which

surely many Israelites are anxious about.

It was this fear of this combat that caused Israel to doubt

God's goodness only a few decades ago, and their

faithlessness caused God to turn them around and send them back

into the wilderness. They're afraid.

Everyone in this land is huge. We are tiny.

We're outnumbered. But the promise.

Included here in this command itself is that they will

succeed, that their people not only will survive but grow, that

their warfare, though fierce, will not result in defeat but

victory. I'm not sure about.

This illustration, but I'm going to make it.

I'm not sure how many of. You are Marvel fans, but it's

been several years since the last two films came out, so you

should know the general flow of them, I suppose.

But in the last two films, the superheroes are battling an evil

villain named Thanos, and there's one hero whose name is

Doctor Strange. He can see the future.

Not only can he see the future, he can actually see all possible

futures, right? In other words, depending on the

circumstances, which way this could possibly go, he can see

all possible ways that this battle against Thanos is going

to go. And he makes eye contact with

Iron Man in the second to last film, I believe.

And he and he tells Iron Man, he says, I've seen the millions of

possible ways this could go, and we're only going to win one of

them. In the last.

Film Iron Man is battling Thanos one-on-one and Iron Man is

losing, and he happens to see Doctor Strange from across the

field and Doctor Strange holds up one finger to him,

illustrating. This is the.

One circumstance up until that point, Iron Man is getting

destroyed. It's not even close.

But seeing that sign from his friend, he rebuilds his courage,

takes the decisive action, keeps fighting, and he wins.

Because he knows. What will happen?

Because. Yahweh is faithful to Israel

because he provides for their needs, because time and time

again He is merciful to them. Israel is reassured.

Now. This text has a lot to teach us,

specifically as we consider those four things, His power,

his promises, his proceeding, and His provision.

First, let's let's think about each of them first with his

power. I'm reminded here.

Of that wonderful story captured in Mark two of the paralytic who

is lowered through the roof in front of Jesus.

He's he's sitting and teaching in a relatively full house.

Hence the four men carrying the paralytic go up to the roof

instead of the front door. The man is lowered in front of

Jesus, and Jesus then pronounces that this man sins are forgiven

him to the incredulous stairs of the scribes sitting around the

table. They say in their.

Hearts, Mark 27 says. They say in their hearts.

Why does he speak like that? He's.

Blaspheming Who can forgive sins but God alone and Jesus knowings

their hearts says why do you question these things in your

hearts? Which one is easier to say to

this man? Your sins are forgiven or.

Rise Pick. Up your bed and go home.

Anybody can. Say your sins are forgiven.

There's no objective way to demonstrate that.

But if I take a paralyzed man. And pronounced.

That he is healed and he stands up, that's objective evidence

for everyone in the room. Which is easier?

To say your sins are forgiven or to say rise, take up your bed

and walk. But I I say so that so that the

son of excuse me, let me start that over.

It's a very important quote, but.

So that you. May know that the Son of Man has

authority on earth to forgive sins.

And he turns to the paralytic and says, rise, pick up your bed

and go home. So that you.

May know that the Son of Man has this greater authority.

I will exercise a lesser authority.

No one sitting. There can restore health to this

man. And so by doing this, Jesus

teaches us that the greater authority, the forgiveness of

sins, is his to wield. Jesus is.

Able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God

through Him. And we are so.

Often prone to doubt, to self condemnation, to think God

doesn't want to have anything to do with me right now, I'm too

sinful. Let me.

Go do a. Few good things to make up for

what I've done wrong. And then, and then I'll repent

once I've cleaned up my ACT. So many of us struggle to

believe that God can forgive our sins, or that he even wants to.

We doubt the. Mighty arm of the Lord, which is

able to deliver us from sin and transfer us into the Kingdom of

His beloved Son, in whom there is redemption.

The Lord is. Mighty to save, Mighty to

deliver. There's no tribulation or

distress, persecution or famine or nakedness or sword or danger

or ruler or power, height or depth or anything else in all

creation that can separate you from His love.

No one is able to snatch out of God's hand what He has picked

up. Our God is not so weak as we

faithlessly imagine Him to be often times.

Accordingly. You can also trust God's

promises, the certainty of God's promises.

This is the. Will of him who sent me, Jesus

said that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but

raise it up on the last day. My sheep.

Hear my voice, John 10 And I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no

one will snatch them out of my hand.

Do you believe that? Do you believe?

In the certainty of God's promises.

Do you believe that they. Are sure because of him who made

them, to whom nothing on earth is contingent.

And indeed also. In that verse we recognize his

proceeding. We trust in God's proceeding,

for just as we read the sheep follow the shepherd, the

shepherd goes first. Christ is the Good Shepherd who

has entered into the eternal rest promised for promise to

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by faith.

And we have that as a sure and steadfast anchor of the whole.

Excuse me, of the soul. A hope that enters into the

inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a

forerunner on our behalf. Because Jesus is seated right

now at the hand of the throne of God.

The Saints believing in Christ and trusting Him, trusting in

Him, know that we shall be accepted into glory by his

blood. And lastly, friends, we are

called to trust in the provision of God.

Of of the. Four.

I think this is probably the hardest for me.

To do, I think there's two. Ways that we need to rest in the

Lord's provision, first for the earthly, temporal things and

secondly for the spiritual, the eternal things.

Let's think about the physical things.

We need to trust in God's provision for our health, for

our finances. For.

All those things which concern our bodies.

And we are called. Not to be anxious about our

lives, as Jesus says in Matthew 6.

Not to be concerned about what you will eat or what you will

drink or about your body, what you will put on.

Look at the birds. Of the air.

They don't sow. Reap.

Gather into. Barns.

Yet your heavenly. Father feeds them.

Aren't you more valuable than they?

Consider the. Flowers of the field.

They don't toil. Or spin.

And yet not even Solomon and all his glory is arrayed like one of

these. If God so cares for the grass

which is today alive and tomorrow thrown into the fire,

won't he care for you, O you of little faith?

That doesn't mean. We don't pray for things if we

don't make wise decisions as best we can.

Of course it means we should be wise in how we steward our

bodies, our finances, our children.

And yet we are called ultimately to put our trust in the Lord to

provide for all that we need. God has.

Given us wise doctors an incredible medicine to trust,

excuse me, to heal all manner of disease and to remedy countless

physical ailments. He's given the.

Church generous Saints and faithful deacons to steward the

finances of the Church well in order to help those who need.

He's given us. Faithful and godly parents and

family members and friends to shape our hearts, raising our

children in the instruction of the Lord so that when they are

old they will not depart from Him.

And often. Times The means of God's

provision is often one another. We are used by God to meet the

needs of the Saints, and so often we are instruments of His

mercy toward each other. But here's why it's.

Difficult. We see a lot.

Of suffering, our hearts say, What if my health is taken away?

What if we? Lose a child?

What if my? Son or my daughter walks away

from the faith when they grow up.

See, we know. What suffering is like?

What it is to? Cry in the dark, asking for a

miracle, asking for mercy, and we know what it is to hear the

answer. No, it's a hard.

Thing. Sorrowful thing.

It's not a light thing or a trivial thing.

Suffering is a pain, often unbearable, for people whose

Bibles have not heard the longings of their hearts.

In these times. In particular, we need to both

keep a clear eyed vision of God's provision for us as well

as to soak in it, trusting that as He has been faithful, so He

will continue to be. And even if.

The answers are no to our prayers, especially then we

cannot charge God with wrong, for He has done no wrong.

God is not. At fault for our sin, not at

fault for the brokenness of this world we are.

When we went through. Marriage counseling.

One of the parting pieces of advice that our pastor gave us,

Pastor Tom Winger was a wonderful man.

He said don't ever say. I know I just said don't ever.

But he said never say you never do this or you always do this.

And his idea was we exaggerate. My wife does not always do this.

Sometimes I do not always fail to do that.

Sometimes I do. But we exaggerate and we turn

our spouse into someone who always neglects to do this one

thing or always does this thing that bothers me.

And we say things like that. My children are not yet

teenagers. But when they.

Are if they're anything like their father.

I suspect one day I will hear you always or you never to me.

And the foolishness of that, they don't know it.

Yet. But every.

Single night for the first year, 18 months of their lives.

We woke up to feed them, to change them, to comfort them.

And every minute since then has been about providing for them,

loving them, teaching them, showing them you have a child,

your life changes, you have a great responsibility.

And when my child at 13 years old turns to me and says you

always or you never. It will be much.

More obvious to me than it is now how foolish that is.

And. Yet we do that.

How could you not? Give me this, Scott.

Why would you let that happen? And our sufferings are real,

right? They're they're hard, they're

painful, but God has been faithfully providing for you

every. Minute.

Of your life. He has been.

Faithfully caring for you every minute of your life, The breath

in your lungs is a testimony to God's kindness.

Let us not. Charge God with wrong.

But even in. The dark times when it feels as

though sorrow does not lift. Remember Joshua, for the Lord

has provided for us, often in ways that we don't understand,

and His Providence often leads many broken hearted sons and

daughters to glory. Consider.

God's spiritual provision for you.

Pastor Harper did a tremendous job.

Of setting up. This whole sermon to be about

this idea. We have been blessed.

In Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

in Christ, we have already obtained an inheritance, having

been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all

things according to the counsel of His will.

We have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the

guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of

it to the praise of His glory. His divine power has granted to

us all things, all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Who can be? Against us?

Paul asks. He did not spare His own Son,

but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him

graciously give us all things? Has God justified you by faith,

made you right in His sight by faith?

Then will He remove that gracious promise from you,

undoing His own gracious covenant, rejecting the Son's

work on your behalf that He once accepted?

Or are God? 'S promises, sure, because the

one who made them is faithful. He is provided.

For you not only the blood of His only begotten Son, but His

Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to convict us of sin, encourage our

faintness, strengthen our weakness, humble our arrogance,

and to bring to completion the work He has already begun, the.

Problem isn't that. We don't know all these things.

Problem is not that we don't understand these things.

We have God's word in our hands. We have another copy in our

pockets. We have paintings and signs in

our homes with scripture on them.

We spend our whole lives reading, surrounded by God's

word, and we know what it says. The problem is not that we don't

know enough. It's this.

We forget it. Israel is told.

To gather these stones, because in a short time, just like when

they departed Egypt, they will forget.

They will forget God's power, His promises He's proceeding,

and His provision. They forget that.

God is mighty that His promises are sure that He is leading them

to eternal life, having secured everything necessary.

That's what Joshua Ford is calling us to be on guard

against. Israel is given this sign

because they forget. OK, So what?

The sign is now why it's necessary.

I appreciate that. We read all of Deuteronomy 8.

Earlier it's a. Whole chapter devoted to this

one idea, as Joshua Ford largely is, Do not forget the Lord.

Says this. You shall remember the whole way

the Lord your God has LED you these 40 years in the

wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to see what is

in your heart. God reminds.

His people, He gives them a history lesson.

I delivered you from slavery. I fed you not with, you know, I

didn't provide wild game on the ground for you to hunt.

I made it rain food from heaven every day.

I brought water. Out of a rock.

Your clothing. Exposed to the elements 24 hours

a day didn't wear out. The soles of.

Your shoes didn't develop holes. It's meant to teach Israel to

have a great humility as well as a great certainty.

God has been caring for them constantly despite their

backsliddings, and because He has established a track record

of providing for them. So you can trust in the

certainty of His future provision.

Consider also the 10 Commandments, which begin with

another history lesson. I am the Lord your God, who

brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of

slavery. Here's who I am.

Here's what I have done. That's why you should obey me.

That's why you should trust me. It's a statement.

Of historical reality, this foundational fact of the nation

that God delivered them from slavery.

From the beginning of the Israelite nation to the end, the

call is the same. Remember the Lord, remember who

He is and what He has done for you.

Now I think we have a. Lot of enemies to our faith, but

chief among them, I think, is this.

It's forgetfulness. I think we.

Sin in large part because we forget we lust because we forget

that God alone can satisfy us. We.

Steal because we forget that God provides for us.

We covet because we forget His incredible generosity and giving

to us what we have. We're bitter and we hold grudges

because we forget his incredible mercy and forgiveness toward us.

We lie because we forget that God's approval is what we yearn

for. We sin because we forget God,

who he is and what he has done. Take care, Deuteronomy 811 says.

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his

commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command

you today, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have

built good houses and live in them, then your heart be lifted

up, and you forget the Lord your God.

Forgetting is the. Enemy.

One of the really cool things about Joshua 4 is how Israel is

prompted to remember all this stuff.

In verse 6 and 21, Joshua says to Israel, when your children

ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you?

Kids need no excuse to ask questions.

They love to ask questions. And why not?

They have a ton to learn about nearly everything.

They especially have a lot of questions.

There are a lot of things they need to learn about God and

about His Word. And how are they supposed to

learn about the faithfulness of the Lord apart from asking you,

asking a pastor, unless they hear about it week after week

from this pulpit? How are they supposed to learn

about God's kindness and mercy apart from questions?

So how beautiful are the feet of parents and pastors and friends

and family who bring them the good news?

2 points of application here. First, parents, teach your

children. You have this.

Extraordinary responsibility. If you remember here.

Or another Reformed Church. You took this vow when you

baptized them to raise them in the nurture and admonition of

the Lord. Do not neglect this calling on

your life. Being a parent is indeed a high

calling. Teach them how.

To read their Bible, shape their worldview according to its

teaching, and encourage them to meditate on it day and night.

That they may be careful to do according to all that is written

in it. And part of this means you have

to know the answers yourself to understand it well.

Great students, excuse me, great teachers, start off off as great

students. To become a faithful student of

God's Word, devote yourself to its reading, its memorization,

to understanding its theology as much as you have time for, and

then retain it. Learn how to retain it by

teaching others. For these are the.

Words of eternal life. There's nothing in the world

more important to your children than to hear these truths. 2nd.

Kids, ask your parents questions.

Ask them about names, places, dates, about the life of Jesus.

Ask them why we baptize children.

Ask them why we take the Lord's Supper.

Ask them what the bread means, what the wine means.

Why do we pray before bed? Why do we pray before meals?

Ask them anything. And if the answer is I don't

know, that's OK. We are all.

Students of God's Word, there are things we do not understand

or know perfectly. Maybe that's an opportunity for

you to go and try and find the answer yourself.

This is the call. Of Joshua 4.

We need to be a. People who remembers.

And in so doing, we imitate God himself, because God doesn't

forget. I've compiled.

An extremely long list of verses that teach us that.

I'll only read some of them. I will remember my covenant that

is between me and you. And every living creature in the

waters shall never again become a flood.

Genesis 915. God heard their groaning and

remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus 224. I have remembered my covenant,

Exodus 65. I will remember my covenant,

Leviticus 2642. I will remember the covenant,

Exodus 2645. You will not be forgotten by me,

Isaiah. Isaiah 4421.

I will remember my covenant with you, Ezekiel 1660.

It's all over the place, God remembers.

So even though we. Are faithless, he remains

faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Yeah, but for the. World, this is a dangerous thing

because God doesn't forget sins either.

So what do we do with that? Well, God can't.

Forget things because his mind is not like your mind.

Our minds are finite in capacity.

I can only remember a certain number of quotes from the office

before I start dumping old ones. I can only.

Remember a certain number of historical facts about the Civil

War to recite them in front of you before my mind starts

letting go of them. But God is.

Not like that. His mind does.

Not lose things. He doesn't have to search

through the halls of his mind to to find answers to questions.

God doesn't forget things. How does God, how does the Word

of God talk about our sin then? Hebrews 8.

Quoting Jeremiah 3134 says this. I will be merciful toward their

iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

It's not forgetting, It's not remembering.

It doesn't slip his mind. Our sins don't slip God's mind.

They are banished from God's mind.

You won't have to worry. Walking through the halls of the

Celestial City that God may look up and remember that one sin he

forgot about. He doesn't forget your sins.

They're banished. From his mind forever.

Why? Why can God do this?

How can God do this? Because judgement for that sin

is already remembered. Sin requires judgement.

It's a natural pairing. Right wine.

And cheese, while sin and judgement.

Sin has to be judged. But once it.

Is judged. There no longer remains A

sacrifice that is necessary. And here Paul gives us this

great wisdom of instruction. Second Timothy 28 Remember Jesus

Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David.

If we have died with him, we also will live with him.

I don't know if you. Noticed this back in verse 9,

but there's actually 2 sets of 12 Stones.

Verse 9 says. This Joshua set up 12 Stones in

the midst of the Jordan. Where the feet?

Of the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant had stood.

It's the second set of stones, a second memorial.

A miracle worth duplicating. Perhaps so.

There's one set. Being carted off to be stacked

at Gilgal in these 12 which Joshua sets up by himself on the

river. Why does he do that?

Well, consider what the Jordan River represents.

The Jordan River. Represents A barrier, the last

barrier between the wilderness. And the promised.

Land. This.

This is the last barrier between this life, this one life and the

next, between Exodus and the consummation of God's promised

deliverance. That's why so many people have

come to view the Jordan as a picture of death itself, a

barrier between this life and the life to come.

One such. Man.

Named John. Bunyan, author of Pilgrims

Progress, wrote about the Jordan River this way.

Between the pilgrims and the gate was a river, but there was

no bridge. The river was.

Very deep and at its sight the pilgrims were stunned.

But the men that went with him said you must go through.

There's no way. Around you have to go through.

So they enter the. Water and Christian exclaims, My

friend, the sorrows of death have encompassed me about.

I will not see the land that flows with milk and honey.

And a great darkness fell about him.

Joshua sets up the second monument in the midst of the

river, where it is deepest, where the building waters miles

upstream are gathering, waiting to be released by the one who

made them. And when the priests bearing the

ark come out out of the midst of the Jordan, the soles of their

feet are lifted onto dry ground. The waters of the Jordan

returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as

before, returned as perhaps the softest way that could have been

written. They thundered.

They. Crashed.

Down. And they covered.

This second memorial. Why does God?

Not remember your sin. Why is he cast them as far as

the east is from the West? Because the judgment waters have

been poured out upon Christ in your place.

The one who knew no sin became sin for you.

So that we might. Become the righteousness of God

in Him. As surely as.

We see in our mind is the floodwaters of the Jordan

cascade over this second memorial.

So clearly do we see the cup of the Lord's wrath poured out upon

Christ and drained to the last drop, so that our feet will pass

this river on dry ground. This memorial.

Stands forever as a sign of who God is and what He has done.

Let us take care to remember it. Let's pray, Father, we thank

you. For your Word, for demonstrating

for us your steadfast love and the fulfillment of Your promises

to us in Christ. We pray that you.

Would cause us to be a people who long for this city, whose

designer and builder is God, and who remember Jesus Christ, that

we may not stumble, but run the race set before us with great

endurance. All these things we pray in

Christ's name, Amen.