Joshua chapter 4, we read God's Word. When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests stood, and to carry them over with you, and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, What do these stones mean? Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to their camp where they put them down. Joshua set up twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. Now the priests who carried the Ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. The men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed in front of the Israelites as Moses had directed them. About 40,000 armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war. That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Command the priest, carrying the ark of the testimony, to come up out of the Jordan. So Joshua commanded the priest, Come up out of the Jordan. The priest came up out of the river, carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground, and the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before. On the tenth day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones that they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, In the future, when your descendants ask their fathers what do these stones mean, tell them Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful, so that you might always fear the Lord your God. May the Lord bless this reading and our hearing of his word this morning. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the focus and interest of Joshua chapter 4, our passage this morning, seems rather, on the surface of things, obvious. It's a record, it's the account of how the Lord led His people Israel on dry ground through the Jordan into the Promised Land. But actually, if you read in the book of Joshua, both in chapters 3 and 4, you'll discover that not only is the event recorded twice, in a sense, but the real interest of Joshua 4, it seems to me, falls upon the provision, the trouble, that the Lord goes to to secure the building of a monument of remembrance. A monument of twelve stones that would, for that generation and generations coming, serve to keep alive in the remembrance of Israel and the generations following this great event. Now, if you think about that, the event itself being as great and grand as it was, you might ask this question, why would the Lord need to do that? If I was to ask the boys and girls or the young people here this morning, let's say you had seen the Ark of the Covenant going before your parents into the middle of that river at flood stage. And you had crossed over into the promised land. Why, you said to yourself, I wouldn't need anything to keep that alive in my memory. How could I forget? The event is so out of the ordinary, it's so central to God's redemptive accomplishments in the Old Covenant that you would say it speaks for itself and it will be indelibly printed upon the consciences of all of Israel's people so that they could not forget. And yet the Lord goes to some lengths to make sure that a monument be built lest they forget. Now, I suppose it's not a real good comparison, but it's striking how sometimes very important events in our lives can easily be forgotten unless we've got someone to help us remember. I don't know whether there are any husbands or wives this morning here who perhaps, God forbid, forgot your husband's or wife's birthday. It wouldn't exist if it wasn't for that day. You can't think of a day a lot more important than that one, and yet you forgot it. Sometimes as we get older, we forget our own birthdays. Sometimes conveniently and a bit of wishful thinking, perhaps. But what about married couples? No sin more serious or offensive, perhaps, than to only late in the day realize that this is the day of our wedding. And so we need, don't we, not only for birthdays but also for anniversaries and even momentous events in our life that you would say, how could anyone possibly forget it? We need a little marker on the calendar. We need some kind of piece of string around the finger. We need some sort of way of keeping alive the remembrance of this important event. And the striking thing in Joshua 4 is that the Lord knows this in the life of His people, and therefore He makes a particular provision for a sign of remembrance. As we look at this passage together this morning, I'd have us notice two things. Notice, first of all, what it was that God, the Lord, the covenant Lord of Israel, wanted His people to remember. What was it that He was fearful they might forget? And then secondly, notice what provision the Lord made that they wouldn't forget. Now, in respect to that first matter, what were they to remember? You might say, well, that's easy, that's obvious. That's the event of the crossing of the Jordan on dry land so that they might enter the promised land that the Lord had said He would give to them. We can go to point number two. Well, that's true, but what was it exactly about this event that makes it such a great and important event in the course of God's dealings with His people, the church in those days under Joshua, who don't forget is the Old Testament Jesus, a type of our Joshua who leads us into the promised land. And what was it that this event really signified? And I'd like to suggest that there were at least three threads in the context here of what the Lord was doing as He brings His people on dry land into the land of Canaan. The first thing is this, He is demonstrating His faithfulness. He is doing what He, of course, had promised Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of that generation's forefathers before them. He was keeping His vow, His covenant word, His promise that they would receive this land as their rightful inheritance. But the remarkable thing about that congregation is, if you look at it in the context of the Lord's dealings with Israel up to this point, you have to be rather amazed and marveling at how the Lord resolutely, how the Lord persists in the fulfillment of that promise. After all, Israel had given the Lord God every reason to go back on His promise. If you study the history intervening between the first giving of the promise and the event recorded in Joshua chapter 4, you know that Israel again and again had fallen into unbelief and had even at times in a remarkable way charged God with making promises that he was not about to keep. For example, just to give you a few instances of that, but it's rather characteristic of this history, remember how they had finally been brought up out of their slavery in Egypt? And how so soon as they've left the borders of Egypt and Pharaoh and all his hosts come after them, what do they say? It says they cried out to Moses, we read of this in Exodus 13, and they said to Moses, has the Lord brought us to this place that we might die in the desert? Were there not enough grave sites in Egypt that He brings us here for the purpose of having us die under the power of Pharaoh's host. And in spite of that, unlike any husband or wife whose promise might well fall to the ground empty about that point in our dealings with one another, the Lord, a faithful covenant husband to His people Israel, His bride, He destroys Pharaoh and all his hosts and brings Israel through the Red Sea. But that's not the only instance of that sort of thing. Remember how they finally get to the promised land, to the borders of Israel? Spies are sent out in advance to look the land over and check things out. They come back, give their report, speak of the Anakim and others who are in the land. And what do the people do? Once more they murmur against the Lord through Moses and they say, Has the Lord hated us so that He might bring us to this point and deliver us into the hands of our enemies? And so they wandered for 40 years in the desert until that generation had all but passed away before this great event. Now, I mention that history only in brief to remind you of what this event signifies in Joshua 4. Here the Lord is doing some hundreds of years later after all that water, so to speak, had gone over the dam and Israel again and again demonstrated her unworthiness as the recipient of God's promise. God persists. God does as He had promised. It's a theme, mind you, in the book of Joshua. In Joshua chapter 21, verse 45, it says, Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled. Congregation, you and I, as members of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, who live under the banner and in the service of our Joshua Jesus, We know better than Israel did that God is a God of His promise. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, all the promises of God have their yes and their amen in Christ Jesus. And that's a wonderful truth of the context of the world in which we live. Filled as it is, as the psalmist says in Psalm 116, all men are liars. Politicians make promises that they can neither keep nor do they intend to keep them. And to know that our God is true to His Word. And every promise that He's made us in Christ Jesus. We know this more than Israel knew it at the crossing of the Jordan. That He'll do what He has said. I ask you, do you believe God? Do you trust His promises? Do you marvel at His faithfulness in Christ? But it's not only God's faithfulness, it's also a demonstration, this crossing of the Jordan, of God's power. It says in verse 24, the Lord did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and that you might always fear the Lord your God. It's striking in chapter 3, it's particularly emphasized that the Lord does this at that season of the year when, as in verse 18 of this chapter also it's noted, the river Jordan is running at flood stage. The waters are coming down off of the mountains and as is true of rivers also in the southwest, sometimes they're but a trickle. Other times when the rains come, the snows melt, they become a torrent. Well, the river Jordan has at this point overspread its banks. Now don't forget that the gods of the Canaanites were the gods of the storm and of the rain. Baal was the god that brought fertility to the land. The gods of the Canaanites were thought to be the gods that brought blessing and prosperity in the earth. And the Lord, by bringing Israel at this season through the Jordan on dry land, is declaring to her, I am the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth. The cattle of a thousand hills are mine. The world and all that is in it is my possession, and I will give it to a people of my choosing. Wherein I will be the source of their life, blessing, and salvation. and they will look to My hand for food and for drink. You know, you might find it a bit, certainly in a politically correct age, people reading this passage would say to themselves, this is not fair. Maybe that thought occurred to you also. There were people living in the land of Canaan. Were there not? For generations. They had titles of the land. Maybe they had some kind of demonstrable proof that this was theirs. How could the Lord bring a people of His own choosing and dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan and deliver it over into their hands. Well, because the earth is the Lord's and the inhabitants of Canaan had exhausted the resources of God's patience with their wickedness and idolatries. And because the Lord was establishing a beachhead in creation, a land of promise, Canaan that would be a type of the new heavens and the new earth to which our Joshua is no doubt leading us by His Spirit and Word. In congregation, it's not only important for us as it was Israel to know that God is true to His Word. It's vitally important to know that our God is strong to save. And that one greater and more powerful than Joshua has gone through the waters of judgment in His crucifixion and has been raised victor, having the keys of life, of death, and of Hades. And by the same Spirit who granted Him life gives life to our mortal bodies also. I don't know how often you think of it that way, boys and girls, but our God is strong. He's powerful. He's not only true to His Word, there's nothing in all creation that can possibly stand in the way of His doing what He has promised. But there's one last thing here, one other thread. The Lord also demonstrates His grace. Notice verse 19. It was on the tenth day of the first month. Now, do you know what day the tenth day of the first month was? You haven't forgotten, have you? the tenth day of the first month? Not a Bible trivia question. I hope you're not going to say I'm a New Testament Christian, so I don't know what the tenth day of the first month represents. Why, it was on the tenth day of the first month that the Passover lamb was selected. And this is a remembrance also of the celebration of the Passover in conjunction with the Red Sea crossing. And the Lord is tying Israel's remembering of these events together and reminding them that it was by the blood of the Passover lamb that their deliverance was secured. His judgment was averted and they were saved with all of their houses. But we know that, don't we? Because our Joshua Jesus is our Passover lamb whose blood was shed that we might have life and salvation. That God's judgment would fall upon Him rather than upon us. That we might in Him be, by God's grace, saved from all our sins. And so this event was also for Israel a striking reminder not only of God's faithfulness, power, but also of His grace in Christ. But now we come to that second thing and it's this. What did the Lord do to help Israel remember? Very simply, gather 12 rocks, stones out of the Jordan and pile them in a heap on the bank of the Jordan representing the 12 tribes of Israel who had gone after the Ark of the Covenant upheld by 12 representatives of the 12 tribes. And when your children ask you, says the Lord, what's the meaning of this pile of stones? Why then, you fathers, you tell your children, remember what the Lord did in the days of Joshua for his people in bringing them on dry land into the land of promise, lest you forget. Now, congregation, maybe you say to yourself, well, that's a remarkable thing. It might be nice if we could have a little pile of rocks. We've got lots of them in the hills, I've noticed, more than in the Midwest. but maybe we could have a bit of a pile of rocks in the parking lot of our church and we could use that as some kind of an object lesson for the kids. But we don't have one, and so this is a quaint and rather interesting story. But that's the end of the matter. Well, our Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He knows His people well. He understands that we are weak and apt to forget. And so though He hasn't in His New Covenant church under Jesus set up a monument for us of 12 stones, He's given to us, hasn't He, signs of remembrance you haven't forgotten. One of them, strikingly, we don't often think of it that way, is the Lord's Day. Imagine what would be the strength and vitality of your remembering of God's great works in Christ were there no Lord's Day, where the minister is called, not to talk about himself or about you, first of all, but to declare in the midst of God's people that our God is great. He created the heavens and the earth by the word of His mouth. And He's a God great in grace. He came to us in the fullness of time in our Lord Jesus and outpoured His Spirit at Pentecost to recite in our presence on the Lord's Day all of the wonderful accomplishments, deeds, so that His people might gather up their praise and give it back to God. I know it's a bit of a trivial example, but I'm struck sometimes at a son as he was growing older who was a great student, unfortunately, not always of other things, but a great student of the sports section of the newspaper. And he knew just about everything that could be known about the Anaheim Angels when we lived in Ontario. Batting averages, home runs, statistics coming out both ears. And I'd often say to him, Son, would that you knew your catechism the way you know that sports page. Well, congregation, the Lord's Day and catechism and all of that sort of thing, but specifically the Lord's Day is a day the Lord has given us to stop, to rest, to come together, to hear of the great things that He's done for us through Jesus, so that as God's people, we stand in amazement. We marvel. We're open-eyed. We're like children in a candy store at the exploits of our God. Now, why do I call the Lord's Day a sign of remembrance? Because if you take the Lord's Day from God's people, if you misuse it, if you neglect it, Quite soon, the generations coming forget. It is forgotten. I know places in the world where some of us have come from. Where the church is, the only echo you hear is the echo of silence. A generation that once lived that knew the Lord has given rise to generations suffering spiritual amnesia. It's striking that during the period of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, one of the enemies of the Gospel, said that if you give me the Christian Lord's Day, you will see the end of the church within 100 years. And so parents, the Lord has given you this day to take your children to church so that they might be reminded of what God has done, lest they forget. But it's not just the Lord's day, it's the Lord's table. You come to it this evening, the Lord willing. Do this, says Jesus, of that table in remembrance of me. And some people have in the history of the church said, I don't need it. It's so simple and unadorned, a bit of bread and a bit of wine. Do I have to come to the table again and again to be reminded of things so elemental, things so simple, the little children, how could they forget Jesus and Him crucified? Well, God knows your heart better than you know it, congregation. He knows you will forget. You'll go to other things. you'll forget the magnificent sacrifice of our Jesus, Passover Lamb. I think there might be a bit of a case in that for a regular administration of the sacrament. Why are we so wise as not to be needing this table Christ has provided to give us, again and again, a live remembrance of His body given, His blood shed. But also, while I mention the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, what of your baptism? I think we don't do anything like what God would have us do with our baptism. You've got to be careful if you say baptism saves. Christ saves. Baptism is a sign and seal of that salvation. But it's not an empty, vacuous, impotent sign. It's a wonderful, lustrous. God called you out by name, your name. No one else's was called out when the waters of baptism were placed upon your head. And that's a reminder to you. Some of you may say, I don't remember my baptism. Well, of course not. But you should call it to remembrance. You should never forget it. I'm told in some Christian communions they put the baptismal font at the exit to remind people coming and going whose they are and to whom they belong. That they bear the sign of Christ upon them. They don't go out of church to forget Christ, but enlisted as they are into the army of Christ, embraced in His covenant love, they belong to Christ. I'm not my own. So that baptism should remind you the way a military uniform reminds a military person that he's on duty, he's under orders, and he has no freedom to go absent without leave in the field of battle. What I'm suggesting, congregation, is that the Lord in the New Covenant continues to provide His people signs. And what a pity if we don't lay hold of them and say, well, we're too strong, we won't forget, we'll keep it alive in our own way. No, the Lord says, use these signs so that when your children, parents, say to you, what is the meaning of this sign tonight, parents? Your children might ask you the question, You tell them about Joshua, about the crossing of the Jordan, about the great things God does for us. That they'll live to tell their children, and perhaps if the Lord tarries their children's children, that in this place and throughout the world, the story will continue to be told that our God is great and greatly to be praised. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this account of the way in which under Joshua you led your people Israel into the land of promise and provided for a means of remembrance lest they forget. We acknowledge, Father, that we live in a day when a greater than Joshua, our Lord Jesus, has come in whom all your promises are yes, in whom your power to save is undeniable. in whom Your great grace in His shed blood upon the cross has been portrayed before us. And yet we know our weakness. We know how soon we forget. How apt to be without remembrance of these things. So help us to use those signs and instruments that You give. the Lord's Day, the sacraments, the means of grace, in order that we might continue to tell and retell to ourselves and to our children all that which you have done. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.