Well, I invite you to turn this morning to Joshua chapter 5. That's found on page 213 in your Bibles. And this sort of marks after today, the end of the introductory resetting of Israel, if you will, recovery of Israel in this book. And we'll look at the whole Joshua chapter 5 this morning. And then next time is the fall of Jericho and a lot of wonderful things coming. Let's give our attention this morning to Joshua chapter 5. This is the word of the Lord. As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel at that time the Lord said to Joshua make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time so Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath Haaroloth and this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them all the males of the people who came out of Egypt all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of egypt though all the people who came out had been circumcised yet the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of egypt had not been circumcised for the people of israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation the men of war who came out of egypt perished because they did not obey the voice of the lord the lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children whom he raised up in their place that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. And there ends the reading of God's word. Well, this chapter this morning concludes the recovery of Israel. what we were anticipating in fulfillment, what we sang out in Psalm 80, is we have a glimpse of that here in this section of the first five chapters of the book of Joshua. Everything now is put in place to begin the conquest of Canaan after this chapter. But we come to one of the most powerful chapters so far in the book to emphasize the revival of Israel what needed to occur because God has one more big issue to address with the nation one more big one that's before us today before they will face off with the Canaanites and this is a really important chapter because it says something about what we can expect when the kingdom advances what it will look like what we can understand that's what we're all wanting today in the church is to see advancement and movement because we feel stuck we might be surprised even though we've looked everywhere to sort of advance the church and make the church appealing where the answer truly is this is one of our great challenges that we have struggled with where is the lord is he advancing his church is anything happening we're all good at complaining about the state of things we're all good in whatever side we're ever on on anything of complaining even about the church is he advancing the church i think um it's been sort of fascinating as we've worked through joshua and i pressed home this question with joshua what does renewal in the covenant community look like what do we see when that's happening and when the Lord decides to advance his kingdom and do things that are surprising in the midst of such opposition. Because that's what's in front of them. Great opposition. Well, lo and behold, again, it all has to do with our children. Wow, that's the hot button topic, isn't it? It's what everyone is worried about in the church today. It's what everyone's talking about. what we give our energies for in the church everything's about the kids everything's about the children well when we open up joshua chapter 5 the spiritual statement we have this sort of summary that we could work with here and say that the spiritual state of the covenant people will be most witnessed in a good place when they've embraced the covenant when they've embraced his covenant that God made with Abraham and his children. It seems to be a basic working thesis of this particular chapter here as we begin it today and something that I want to sort of show you that's interwoven throughout this. Even though covenant's not mentioned here, all the substance of it is all the way through. And today the last piece of the puzzle, if you will, is put together for us to drive home the importance of the covenant people's response to what he's doing yes response yes obedience he is not doing all of this bringing them out of the land for simply no reason he has a great purpose in this and i think you saw it in the last chapter the very last words of the last chapter in chapter four he said it i am bringing you into the land and I am giving you all this so that you, Israel, might fear the Lord. And the effect of that would be that the nations, when they saw the fear of Israel fearing the Lord, the effect of the nations would be they would witness His powerful hand. So what is before us today is a really simple sort of breakdown. The covenant is commanded and then the covenant is renewed and then the covenant lord is revealed and those are the three sort of the the path we're walking through this passage to understand this we're going to look at these themes here beginning with the covenant commanded in in chapter um five in verse one what we read is as soon as the kings of the amorites were beyond the jordan you'll notice it says who were beyond the jordan to the west and all the kings of the canaanites who were by the sea heard that the lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they crossed over their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel what a exciting moment and really this you have to understand the excitement of this for the nation they had just crossed over the Jordan and with with a foot of the priest touch touching the water the waters push back in a giant heap some 20 miles far back to Adam right in front of Jericho so that they're looking at this whole thing and they're all talking about this as the nation, millions, pass over the Jordan and come to Gilgal. All the kings of the region have heard. You think in our circles, news travels fast. It's amazing how things get to Michigan and Iowa. I've never understood it. this went out to the whole land all the kings are talking they knew of israel's god they had all heard of israel's god remember they had their own gods that they bowed down to baal was for them the powerful god that they gave their attention to but they had never had a god or heard of a god plundering the mightiest kingdom of the day with mighty signs and wonders. Let me just say up front that this was holy fear of the Lord by the nations. An evidence that He was with them. That terrified them. I mean, the ark was going. Everybody knew. I think it's an important point that what is lost today often and one of the things that we have to recognize in the church and the reason why Christianity has become a laughingstock in our day. One of the reasons right now is because there's little fear of God in the church. And there seems to be little recognition of Him that He's holy, which we're going to swing around to by the end of this. And you can't stop asking if the disregard by the world and the culture right now is a result of the fact that Israel has turned away from her covenant God. Whenever you see the church flourishing in the world, whenever you see great respect for Christians, the only reason we've ever seen it in history is because people feared the Lord. I mean, this is what happened in Acts. We would never think this is a good church growth strategy, but when the Spirit struck down Ananias and Sapphira, the first thing that happened was, the next breath was, great fear came upon all the people and no one dared to join them because they had to really think about, what am I getting involved with? This is no game. You see, everyone respected them. Everyone feared. That's out in the culture right now. You have to ask, why? That seems to be a logical question. Why? They had wandered in the wilderness 40 years. But now God's renewing them. There's a profound sense of respect of this people. There's a profound sense of honor for this people. Because it's known that the Lord God is with them and their spirits melted. Who were we to stand against Him? The point of this is to say, what a moment for Israel. We're here. We have arrived. 40,000 foot soldiers with knives have stood up to the front. Everything seems to be going well. Yeshua is at the front. And probably this will, they thought, what an easy battle this is going to be. We're going to march right in and God's just going to knock them all over for us. It would be no problem for him. But the whole thing stops. Suddenly. They're not going anywhere. Why? Because hearts aren't ready. What have we seen recovered so far? We've seen in Joshua the word of promise being proclaimed in chapter 1. The promises were given. I'm with you wheresoever you go. The people were believing. Again, leadership has become emboldened. And finally stepping up to shepherd the flock, the little ones, to protect them, to love them. We have witnessed God's power with them. Memorial stones have been set up. But now we have not really given thought to the greatest problem in Israel so far. That had to be remedied before anything was going to happen. What was it? Verse 2. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath Haraloth. And you should stop and say, what? There's a serious problem in Israel. There's a serious problem in Israel. They've not been circumcised. This is where it gets a little awkward, you know. Mom and dad, what circumcision? You guys can explain all that when you get home, okay? Do it a second time. That's not saying that this is a re-circumcision. What that's saying is, the whole thing had to be re-instituted. It's as if the entire practice had been forgotten and disregarded. Which tells you that there was something aversive about the very act of circumcision to the people of Israel in circumcising infants. why was it dumped he tells us and this is the reason why joshua circumcised them all the males of the people who came up out of egypt all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they'd come out of egypt though all the people who came out had been circumcised yet all the people who were born along the way in the wilderness after they had come out of egypt had not been circumcised so that means most of the people standing here think about this this new all the children of israel had never received the covenant sign for the people walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation the men of war came out of egypt perished because they did not obey the voice of the lord the lord swore to them that would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey they didn't obey you know we've always um wondered how to explain that so many came up out of Egypt and were consumed in the wilderness in Deuteronomy I think it's two and the time from our leaving of Kadesh Barney until we crossed the brook Zered was 38 years until the entire generation that is the men of war had perished from the camp as the Lord had sworn to them for indeed the hand of the lord was against them to destroy them from the camp until they had perished why did they perish when we say unbelief hebrews says that the root of it we've looked at sloth but how did that take shape i think this is the most significant issue with the lord a complete disregard of the covenant of grace that God made with Abraham and his children remember what he said to Abraham this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you every male among you shall be circumcised you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised listen to this any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from the people he has broken my covenant who has the infant and the parent who didn't do it it's two important points i think here whenever you see covenant disregard among the people of the lord there's serious consequences to follow and i think that's what's been played out with israel i think the second point should be we we shouldn't expect to go anywhere in the christian life by way of inheriting the promises until we've embraced the covenant promises and that is seen in the care that we give to the signs of the covenant what was circumcision what was the cutting away of the foreskin a bloody sign right where procreation happens to teach us about that and about the coming seed what did that sign say the lord told them what did it mean the outward sign pointed to and called them to have their hearts circumcised to love the Lord their God. That's why the Lord was saying the whole time, you know what I'm going to do for you? The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants and your children so that you will love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and live, he said. What it pointed to was the need for new hearts. Because of sin. The reproach of Egypt. That we would be motivated by love for him. A God who would choose us and our children to dwell with and give us eternal life. That's what the sign declared. And you know what they said? Nope. there was no faith there was no love for the Lord obedience to the sign was the fruit of faith that deeply embraced the Lord of the covenant what's amazing here is Moses learned the same lesson and at the lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought him to put him to death this is Moses then Zipporah took a flint knife and cut her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it said surely you're a bridegroom of blood to me so he let him alone it was then that she said a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision total disregard of the covenant there was no investment in it there was no heart in it and they said why in the world would we ever give that to our covenant children god's taking them nowhere until it's addressed i'm really astonished how did an entire generation refuse to do this i think you see the challenge for the church today i don't know how we can miss it um in him you were in jesus you were circumcised in the putting off of what your old sinful nature with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. And having been buried with him, he makes the direct connection to baptism. Having been buried with him in baptism, you were raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. Translate. Well, that's what being born from above, what Jesus said Nicodemus is all about. You got to be born again, born from above. You need a new heart. What is our greatest need is to have the old sinful nature and our sin put to death. The old Adam, our heart circumcised by Christ to be buried with him in baptism, to be raised up to brand new life. It has to be inside of us. The sign signified that. we need the Lord to wash away all our hearts in purity. What's that a sign? What sign do we use to declare that? Baptism. They said we are not interested in giving that to our children. They had no regard for his covenant. Now, I don't know how else to apply that, but then to say either we believe that infant baptism is a sign that belongs to them or we don't. Someone may be ignorant on that point. There may be ignorance on that point. There's a lot of that. That's a fair question. But how serious does God take open understanding and rejection of it? That's the question. Is it a take it or leave it thing? Does it belong to them or not? Are your children included? Does God have a plan for them? Or are you letting them on their own? And the consequence could be, what does a disregard say to him? We're not interested in being in covenant with you? The church needs to wrestle with this. Of course it does. Do we want the church to advance? It won't happen apart from deep commitment in our hearts to Christ and his covenant. By faith. And the value of the signs he puts in place to signify all that. And they're not oppressive signs. They're signs of inclusion. They're signs that say your children are mine. I'm going to recover them. It's my work to change their hearts. You have to trust me with your children. There's signs of us being washed. Signs of identity. A sign of identity. a sign of belonging, a sign of faith, a sign of belief, a sign of the inward washing of Christ's blood. The other sign speaks of in the Lord's Supper as the Passover is celebrated here. Notice that's recovered. It was not being practiced. It's a sign of renewal, of God strengthening His sheep and feeding His sheep. What a wonderful God. Who's at fault? here who's recovering here we want to recover our children do you so notice what happens a giant hill of foreskins and he incapacitated all of them if you will and made him sit there weakness to learn a lesson. They called it the hill of foreskins. The covenant blood was renewed right then and there, and we read that Joshua took flint knives. It's the second point here, and it'll go quick. And they were circumcised. And as soon as that happened, notice what the Lord says in verse 9. And the Lord said to Joshua, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Gilgal meant to roll away. We kind of looked at that last time. I've rolled away your shame of belonging and behaving like those who are of the world. I've rolled it all away from you. This day. You're my people. I'm your God. That's my purpose, is what he's saying. Take away your shame. Take away your guilt. Take away your sin. And I want you to enjoy this. So let's feast. And so they encamped at Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the twilight on the plains of Jericho. In direct providence of timing, by the way, they celebrate on the same day as the original Passover. A celebration breaks out in the land. They made it to the land and now they're feasting in the land. They're eating and drinking anew in the kingdom. I really wondered if Jesus was anticipating and paralleling off this when he used that language. It's wonderful. What a glorious day. God's people have been revived in his love and his gospel and now they've entered the kingdom and through the sign of circumcision and now the celebration of the Passover, they're in celebration right now that God is not against them in judgment but that he's forgiven them i mean this is just wonderful gets better then we read they ate the produce of the land on that day of the passover unleavened bread parched grain on the very same day the manna ceased and they ate the produce of the land in canaan there's something i think of a picture here for us held out to us on the last day when the clouds are actually rolled away and we are taken into our eternal rest and we feast forever anew in the kingdom with the reproach of egypt gone forever this world gone forever the wicked gone forever sin gone forever and enjoying the banquet feast with god enjoying your lord the supper that we celebrate anticipates that is it there's no coincidence beloved in the whole history of the church we've had these two sacraments that have been practiced and practiced and practiced i think the challenge for us today is before we move forward is to ask a very serious internal question have me have me my family have we embraced the covenant lord but it's even so important to ask the covenant Lord who is presented at the end of this Joshua makes his way to Jericho all of a sudden a warrior steps out out of nowhere a man comes out with a drawn sword he must have been awesome to behold a warrior a divine warrior Joshua doesn't know what to make of this so he asks are you for us or for our adversaries who are you against I can't tell who are you fighting he says no but for the commander of the army of the Lord I have now come whoa wrong question you are Joshua under my command I'm not bound either to destroy all Canaanites as one pastor said nor to deliver all Israelites I have come Joshua as commander of an army that's all around me right now that you can't see. And my sword is drawn. Isn't that amazing? The whole heavenly army was right there under the command of this figure, heading out before them into the land. Unseen. They're all around. The question, I think in this chapter is very clear. The question, Israel, is whether you're going to follow your covenant, Lord. The circumcision, the Passover, had to be mixed with faith in Jesus who just appeared that day ready for battle. The battle has always been the Lord's. And they must go forth following Him. And the only legitimate response to prove whether one has submitted to this gracious covenant is witness in Joshua's response. What is Joshua's response? He fell on his face and worshipped him. Don't do that, did he say? We're just like you angels. We're created beings. Oh no. it was clear who was in front of him. Joshua falls to his face and worships, and what does the Lord say? Take off your shoes, Joshua. You're on holy ground. Everything has come full circle from when Moses was called. Moses rejected circumcision. Moses leads them out. We've passed back in reverse the whole way. It's complete. There's an entire reversal here. The Lord of the covenant has just come down. And just as with Moses at the burning bush, he's leading the army. And what Israel needed to recognize most was his holiness. And as the last chapter said, the fear of the Lord again. Awe, reverence, obedience, trust, faith. It's the ultimate response. When God graciously comes to us and makes a promise to us and our children and would even care to do this, beloved, we should recognize we're the most blessed people on the earth. And that should lead us to what God said he intended to accomplish that all the world may know my power and that you oh israel may fear the lord your god forever what an opening to the book of joshua it's all in place the word is being heard the leadership has stood up memorials have been established the covenant has been renewed the children are back and collected and recovered by the god of israel the lord of the covenant who has now come down again to dwell with them and to advance his church when these truths are appreciated beloved then you will see what psalm 80 celebrates and you'll understand psalm 80 listen to it let your hand be on the man of your right hand the son of man whom you've made strong for yourself then we shall not turn back from you give us life and we will call upon your name we and our children restore us oh Lord God of hosts let your face shine upon us that we may be saved what an important message for the church today let's pray Heavenly Father, thank you for this glorious passage and for being so committed to your covenant promises and keeping us in them. Restore us and our children, remove away dead hearts and revive them. May they not be like the chaff that the wind drives away, but would you take hard hearts and soften them to love you and to respond to the covenant Lord who is leading the way and will deliver us and give us eternal life. In you we will put our trust. Let your face shine upon us that we, O Lord, may be saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.