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Moving Into Your
Destiny—A Summer Series in Joshua
Rev. Kevin Baker
July 17, 2005 Pentecost 9
19
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.
20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had
taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites,
"In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do
these stones mean?' 22 tell them, 'Israel crossed the
Jordan on dry ground.' 23 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 [b]
when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24
He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the
hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the
LORD your God."
INTRO
·
So
far in our series on the Book of Joshua, we have learned that
complete trust and obedience to the promises of God is the
groundwork for success in all we do.
·
We
have learned that receiving the promises of God hinges on following
God’s priests by faith as they lead us into the presence of God.
·
We
should prepare to enter into the promises of God by having a clean
heart, a focused mind on the things of God, obedience to God’s Word
and authority, and expecting a miracle from God—in their case, that
they would be able to Passover a river in flood stage.
·
This
leads us to learn about Gilgal—one of the most important and famous
places for the people of God under the Old Covenant. We are going
to spend 2 weeks in Gilgal!
·
Today, I put a little tour guide about Jericho into the bulletin to
give you some important background to Gilgal so you can better
understand:
THE SIX LESSONS
OF FAITH AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE WE LEARN AT GILGAL BEFORE WE CAN GO
TO JERICHO WHERE THE WALLS OF THE ENEMY’S STRONGHOLDS FALL DOWN
1.
GILGAL IS THE PLACE OF REMEMBRANCE—DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE…
·
In
Josh. 4:9, God commanded Joshua to take 12 stones out of
the river from the place where the feet of the priest stood firm
8
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
20
And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of
the Jordan.
·
Twelve stones, ONE FOR EACH TRIBE, were set up on the victory side
of Jordan as a perpetual memory of what God had done for them that
day.
·
Whenever Joshua and future generation Israelites returned from
occasional defeats or from mighty victories, there were always those
stones as a constant reminder that the feet of the priests had stood
firm until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to
speak unto the people.
·
It
was God’s plan for His people to always remember Gilgal—including us
today.
21He said to
the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their
fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22 tell them,
'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' 23 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 [b]
when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24
He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the
hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the
LORD your God." Joshua 4:21-24
·
The
remembrance of the Jordan is to remember that the powerful hand of
the Lord brought them of out the wilderness into the land promised
as an inheritance to their forefather Abraham—God’s Word is true and
is accomplished by His mighty power and outstretched arm.
·
East
of the Jordan, it looked impossible to cross over the rushing mighty
Jordan at flood stage into the promised land.
·
There are always challenges to believing the promises, faith teaches
us that God is able—God is able to keep His promises no matter what
the circumstances!
·
The
priests in the presence of God carrying the Ark lead the people
right into the impossible situation and that is where the powerful
hand of God does the miracle!
·
Not
only did the priests feet stand in the Jordan on dry ground, but the
feet of the people went down into the river too and by a miracle
crossed on dry ground just like at the Red Sea when the journey of
the previous generation began as they left Egypt.
·
All
of this is a beautiful and clear cut foreshadow of our personal
identification with Christ by faith and baptism.
·
The
Jordan River is where Israel crosses into the promised land through
baptism by faith! At this very spot, Jesus is baptized by John the
Baptist many years later.
·
The
Apostles teach us that it is with Christ’s baptism of death we all
die when we are baptized. What does this all mean?
·
As
God sees it, when Jesus died for sin, we believers died, too—to sin.
When you are baptized you enter into the death of Christ for sin
and into a new life dead to sin.
·
Listen to II Cor.
5:14, "if one died for all, then were all dead". Paul said
in
Gal. 2:20,
"I am crucified with
Christ".
·
In one sense, Jesus was not alone when he went to the cross· Every
believer was dying in him.
·
The
rock pile of remembrance said their only power was through God; and
the cross says your only strength and hope for victory is in the
power of Christ; not your own power.
·
As
Gilgal was the base camp for Israel in the promised land, and their
power base for taking the whole land for God, even so the cross is
your base camp, your power base.
·
As
Paul put it in Acts 17:28 "In him we live, and
move, and have our being."
·
He
also said in II Cor. 3:5, "Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is of God."
·
What
Joshua and the Greater Joshua Jesus Christ teach us is, “don't
forget where you came from, or where your strength lies.” It is in
the power of God that you died but now live.
·
If
you forget where your strength comes from, you'll end up like
Samson—a weakened compromised life with lost opportunities.
·
Gilgal says your strength is in the work God, in what Christ did for
you on the cross.
·
There, at the cross on Mt. Calvary, once and for all, the sin
question was settled. There is now no controversy between heaven and
earth on the issue of sin.
·
Heaven says it is settled once for all upon the strength of the
finished work of him whose feet stood firm: Christ, our rejected,
crucified, despised Redeemer.
·
However mild or gross a man's sins might be is no issue at all, for
at Calvary, the sin issue was forever settled for all who believe.
·
Christ died at Calvary, but the truth that is so personally glorious
for us is that we died with him.
2.
GILGAL IS THE PLACE OF RESURRECTION
Josh.
4:19
says, "and the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the
first month."
·
The
tenth day of the first month was exactly 40 years to the day since
they had taken the passover lamb aside in preparation for their
departure from Egypt, see Exodus. 12:3.
·
For
40 years they wandered in a wilderness of carnality, unbelief, and
disobedience. Now they have crossed Jordan. They as a people have
finally died to the sinful ways of Egypt, and are at Gilgal—the
place of resurrection and new life on the other side of passing
through the waters.
"Gilgal"
means "the reproach has been rolled away."
9
Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach
of Egypt from you." So the place has been called Gilgal [b]
to this day.
·
A
reproach is “an expression of rebuke or disapproval.” The reproach
of Egypt was their wilderness wandering for 40 years.
·
The
people who so long were in bondage and who walked so long in the
wilderness, are now to walk in a newness of life by the baptism of
crossing the Jordan into the abundant life! Praise God!
·
OH,
THIS IS A PICTURE OF OUR FINAL BAPTISM IN PHYISCAL DEATH WHEN WE
WILL CROSS OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE TO LIVE FOREVER IN THE PROMISED
LAND!
·
The
reproach of Egypt was the result of a carnal faith, a heart half
full of God and half full of sin, unbelief, and disobedience.
·
Now
they are going to mature in the faith as they enter the land of the
abundant life by crossing the Jordan in baptism, and God rolls away
the reproach. That is what we need!
·
The
teaching of the Church here s that of St. Paul from Romans 6: That
as we by faith went to the cross in death with Christ through the
waters of baptism, likewise, we rose with him in the resurrection to
newness of life.
1What
shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may
increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live
in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We
were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of
the Father, we too may live a new life. 5If we have
been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also
be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that
our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be
done away with,[a]
that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because
anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
·
Paul
thus said in II Cor. 5:17, "If any man be in Christ
Jesus, he is a new creature."
·
We,
who are heavenly citizens, and who have the supply of God for our
every need in victory, ought to live like the resurrected people we
are.
·
Baptism is a symbol or picture of our death, burial and resurrection
with Christ.
·
So,
literally, the crossing of the Jordan becomes a foreshadowing of
baptism; and the coming up out of the Jordan on to the victory side
at Gilgal is especially a good symbol of the newness of resurrection
life.
·
The
reproach of an old life of sin and failure is rolled away by the
victory we have through the resurrected Christ.
CONCLUSION
1.
Remember a few weeks ago, I talked about that if all of heaven
rejoices at the baptism of a new Christian, and the Father of the
Prodigal son throws a huge party when the lost come home to God, so
should we?
2.
Right now, I know of several people in our church community who are
ready to be baptized and have the reproach of Egypt rolled away so
you can fully enter into the abundant life!
3.
The
Book of Acts shows us that God’s covenant promises are for
believers, their children, and all in our family generations that
are still afar off.
38Peter
replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and
your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our
God will call."
·
In
Acts, believers and their while households were baptized.
14One
of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth
from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord
opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.15When
she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited
us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she
said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.
And
29The
jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul
and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs,
what must I do to be saved?" 31They replied, "Believe
in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all
the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the
jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and
all his family were baptized.
·
It
is God’s will for our families for generations to come to be
baptized, and for all who did not grow up in Christian homes who
come to faith to move into the promised land and your destiny in God
by the walking through the waters.
·
Today, I call for everyone who believes in God to also be baptized
so you can enter into the promised land where the full realization
of your destiny in God awaits you, and be ready for the spiritual
BATTLES THAT YOU MUST FIGHT TO LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND OF THE
ABUNDANT LIFE IN CHRIST +
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