First Things First

0:57And in this third chapter on that principle, he advocates an approach to life where the most important things get the first and the best of our energy and our efforts. But a lot of people don't live that way. I want you to consider Covey's observation in that chapter. Take a look. He says, We've painstakingly climbed the ladder of success, rung by rung, the diploma, the late nights, the promotions. Only to discover as we reach the top rung that the latter is leaning against the wrong wall.

1:38In other words, many people have failed to decide what's most important in life and then to order their lives around that thing. Today, in Joshua chapter 5, the Israelites are going to be faced with a choice that we all face on a constant basis: the choice to give our best energy and effort and to do what seems urgent and important, or to put first things first and to do what really matters and to focus on what's truly important in life.

2:16Chapter 5 begins with this report from our narrator on how the people of the land reacted to Israel's miraculous crossing of the Jordan River. And in short, it scared them to death. When they heard that God dried up the waters of the Jordan River so that Israel could cross over, if you look at the end of verse 1, take a look there, it says, Their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

2:47So, if you remember back in chapter 2, Rahab told the spies that everyone in the land was absolutely terrified of Israel because they had heard of what God did at the Red Sea in parting the waters. What he did in drowning and defeating the Egyptian army, the greatest army in the world at the time. What they did to the other Amorite kings, Og and Sihon, they were terrified of Israel. But the crossing of the Jordan took that fear to an entirely new level.

3:19They were even more scared because they thought that the Jordan River at flood stage would at least slow Israel down a bit so that they could prepare for war, if not stop them entirely for weeks or months. But of course, the Jordan didn't stop them, it didn't even slow them down. God parted the waters of the Jordan, and so by implication, the exact same fate that met the Egyptian army was awaiting the army of Jericho and all of the other Amorite kings as well.

3:51Now, any military commander, any boxer, any mixed martial arts fighter, will tell you that in combat or in a fight of some kind, if you get an advantage over your opponent or your enemy, you press that advantage. You don't let up, you keep after it. And history is filled with examples of military commanders that failed to press an advantage that they had, and as a result, they did not take advantage of that opportunity. So, a great example is during the Civil War.

4:31Union General McClellan could have pressed the attack at Antietam and probably captured most of the troops of the Confederate Army and forced a surrender, ending the Civil War in 18 months instead of four years. But he didn't. He didn't press the attack, and so the war raged on for two and a half more years. So a lot of examples like that. And I think the lesson is simple: strike first, strike hard, no mercy, Cobra Kai. So the people of the land are scared to death. Israel has all the momentum on their side, and surely the young men in the Israelite army are ready to take out 40 years of frustration on Jericho. And I think that David Firth captures the situation well. Take a look at what he wrote.

5:23One can well imagine the officers urging Joshua to go forward and take the land. The argument would be simple. Yahweh has promised the land. He has brought us across the Jordan, and he has created the context in which taking the land will be straightforward. It might almost seem a denial of faith not to go forward. But to our astonishment, Joshua doesn't move the troops forward. He doesn't press the attack. He doesn't take advantage of this incredible opportunity. And that's because in verse 2, God comes to him and commands him to. Circumcise all the sons of Israel. Now we need to pause here for a minute and think about circumcision, what it is, and what it means. The word circumcision comes from the Latin. It means cutting around. And so, what it is, is a cutting off of the foreskin of the male organ. And biblically speaking, God instituted this with his covenant to Abraham in Genesis 17. Let's take a look on the screen. God says 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. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.

7:15So through Moses and the prophets, we come to understand the meaning of circumcision. The cutting off of the foreskin was to represent a cutting off of the old life and beginning a new life of. Of faith with God. It was to represent the permanent covenant that God made, the everlasting covenant that God made with his people in this permanent act done once for all. So every male in Israel, whether you were born into Israel or whether you came into Israel from the outside through faith, every male had to be circumcised. But as you can see, we have a problem here in Joshua chapter 5. To no one's surprise, we learn in verses 4 through 7 that the unfaithful generation who died out in the wilderness over the course of the last 40 years, they were not faithful to keep God's command and did not circumcise their sons.

8:11So you have an entire generation, little boys, teenagers, grown men who were nearly 40, who had not been circumcised. If ever you were tempted to break the fifth commandment and curse your father and mother, this is the time. But according to God in Genesis chapter 17, unless you're circumcised, you are not included in the covenant and its promises. You know, like inheriting the land. So before they do anything else, every male in Israel is going to have to be circumcised except for Joshua and Caleb. That's a huge deal when you're 18 or 28 or 38. It's not a big deal if you're eight days old, but if you're older, it is a big deal. And what it was going to mean. Is that every man in Israel was going to be completely out of commission, unable to walk for about a week?

9:09Now, to help you understand how potentially dangerous that situation is, all we have to do is go back in our minds to Genesis chapter 34. And if you're familiar with the story of Dinah, then you know that what happens in that story is there's this man named Hamor, and he has a son named Shechem. And Shechem defiles Dinah and then decides that he wants to marry her. Well, the thing that Shechem had done was sinful, and what he wants is forbidden. Every one of the Hivites was uncircumcised. These are people from another tribe that does not worship or follow God at all. So Dinah's brothers, especially Simeon and Levi, are just beyond themselves with anger. And so they go over there and they tell Shechem and Hamor that they will not allow Shechem to marry Dinah or marry anyone else from their tribe unless all of them, all of the Hivite people, are circumcised. So we pick up in Genesis 34, 25, take a look at what happens. On the third day when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.

10:27So you think that Joshua and all the people in Israel? Israel don't know this story. They've been wandering around the wilderness for 40 years with nothing to do but tell stories. Everybody knew this story. Everybody knew what happened when the males were circumcised and then they got attacked. So imagine the reaction when Joshua, the new leader in Israel, tells you, We're not going to press the attack. Instead, we're going to perform surgery on every male in the nation and render them unable to walk for a week.

11:01They've got hostile armies in front of them, and they've got the Jordan River returned to flood stage behind them. There's nowhere to run, they just have to sit there. How much faith did it require to obey God's command to circumcise all of the males and put the nation at risk right when they cross into the promised land? But, church, this is what God's people are called to do. We are called to obey God when it seems to make no sense, when it seems like it puts our careers, our relationships, our futures, even our lives at risk. We are called to obey God.

11:47Every one of us is faced with these kinds of decisions on a regular basis, almost a daily basis. And we have to decide whether we're going to put God first or whether we're going to put someone or something else in our lives. First, instead, take a look at what Jesus said in Luke chapter 9. As they were going along the road, someone said to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

12:22To another, he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

12:54In your Bible, that passage is probably titled something like the cost of following Jesus or the cost of discipleship. And I think you have to stop for a minute and think about that concept, cost. What does it mean to say that something is costly? It means that you're going to have to give up something to get it. You're going to have to give up time or money or resources. You're going to have to give up something to get that thing.

13:32Following Jesus is costly, but I think there's so many professing Christians in America who either were never taught that or who just choose to dismiss that idea. They're under the impression that as long as you say that you believe a few things about Jesus, you get to go to heaven when you die. That there's no cost, there's no risk, there's just 100% benefit. But, friends, it's critical to understand that Jesus never, ever talked about discipleship that way.

14:06He said, and the entire testimony of Scripture says, if you are going to follow Jesus, if you want to live a godly life, if you want to inherit eternal life, it will be costly. You have to pick up your cross and follow Jesus. You have to lose your life in order to find it. The entire testimony of Scripture is that the Christian life will cost you. For some, it will cost you everything, but for everyone, it will cost something.

14:38So, friends, if your Christian life has not cost you anything, then you might have to ask the question: am I really a Christian? This was a pivotal moment for Joshua and for Israel. They were going to have to decide right after they crossed over into the Promised Land. What kind of a foundation were they going to lay? Would they, right from the start, put God first? Or would they do what made the most sense to them? Would they walk by sight rather than faith and do what any other people, any other army would have done in the same exact situation?

15:23Well, thankfully, Joshua leads the people to walk by faith. So we see in verse 8, every male is circumcised, and they wait until everyone is healed. And then in verse 9, this follows immediately after that. Take a look. 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. So we were told in the last chapters that they took those stones out of the river, they went to Gilgal and they built that memorial. But we weren't told anything about that name.

16:06And the name Gilgal, it sounds like the Hebrew verb to roll. It sounds like the Hebrew noun for wheel. And so the idea here, it's interpreted for us, is that God has rolled away the reproach of Egypt from us. And that's not interpreted beyond that. We don't really know exactly what that means. What does it mean that God rolled away the reproach? Reproach of Egypt from them. But it's almost like although the people have been out of Egypt for 40 years, Egypt wasn't out of them until right now.

16:45Because you see, everything in the wilderness was filled with unbelief, it was filled with delayed obedience. And now this new generation has crossed over into the promised land. God speaks, and the people say, We will obey, and we will obey now. And God rewards and blesses them for that. That old generation is gone. This new generation has crossed over. And unlike their parents, they are starting everything off with faith, with faith in action. And God rewards them for it. He says, The reproach of Egypt is gone. There is a new day that's dawning for Israel.

17:25Let's pick up now in verse 10. 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. So back in chapter 4, we learned that Israel crossed over the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month. And the 10th day of the first month is the day of preparation for the Passover. So that's significant. And now it's four days later. The 14th day of the first month is the day that the Passover. Passover is celebrated. So it's no coincidence that Israel crossed over on the day of preparation, and that now, when they are settling into the promised land, that now it's the day of Passover. Because at the first Passover, God was bringing Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery, and now at this first Passover that they've celebrated since Mount Sinai, this first Passover, they have crossed into the Promised Land and crossed into this new life of freedom. God is setting up a parallel between those two things.

18:34And so now we see another reason why circumcision is so important. Because they're crossing over right at the time that they need to celebrate the Passover. Take a look at Exodus chapter 12 on the screen. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it, that is, the Passover. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.

19:17So no uncircumcised person is allowed to keep the Passover meal. And that makes sense when you think about what circumcision is and what it represented. It was the sign of God's Covenant to his people. It was the sign that you belonged to him and to his people and would therefore receive his promises. You see, only God's people could celebrate God's saving work on their behalf, which is what the Passover commemorates. All of the people of Israel took the spotless lamb, shed its blood, and spread the blood on the doorposts of the house. And so those people, the people of the covenant, are the one who can celebrate God's saving work and his delivery from slavery to sin.

20:06So if you've ever wondered when we're celebrating the Lord's Supper why our pastors say the Lord's Supper is for any baptized believer, now you can see the connection. In the Old Covenant, circumcision was the sign performed once at the beginning of life that marked you as one of God's people. And in the New Covenant, baptism is the sign performed once right at the beginning of your new life that marks you as one of God's people. It signifies that you will receive his promises. So baptism replaces circumcision in the new covenant.

20:46And in the old covenant, the Passover was the meal celebrated regularly by God's people that commemorated their delivery from slavery to Egypt. And in the New Covenant, the Lord. Supper is the meal observed regularly by God's people that commemorates our delivery from slavery to sin. The Lord's Supper replaces Passover as that meal. And so, when we read about all of these things in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant, remember last week we were talking about the memorial stones? What was the purpose of those things?

21:26It was so the children of Israel and other people would see that sign and they would ask, what does this mean? And God said that the Passover was supposed to do the same thing. The Lord's Supper should do the same thing. When we take the Lord's Supper, hopefully, children and our friends and others who are not yet believers who come to worship on Sunday, they will observe us taking the Lord's Supper and they will say, what does this mean?

21:53So you as a parent or you as one who works with the children will have the opportunity to say, when we take the Lord's Supper, the broken bread represents Jesus' body that was broken for us. The wine represents Jesus' blood poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. And through faith, we receive those promises. It's an opportunity to call them to faith in Jesus Christ and then to take for themselves the sign of belonging to God's people, which is baptism. And so we should take advantage of those opportunities just As Israel took advantage of the opportunity of these signs to talk about what God had done for them.

22:39So on the 14th day of the month, Israel keeps the Passover and remembers what God did. No doubt that strengthens their faith for what is to come. And that brings us to verse 11. Let's pick up there. 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.

23:14So you may recall that before they ever left Egypt, God had promised them to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. But during the wilderness years, because of their disobedience, they are wandering in a desert for 40 years. And so all that time, God is providing miraculously manna from heaven. This bread-like substance from heaven that is reminding them that they don't live on bread alone. They live on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

23:48So that is happening for 40 years, and they cross over the River Jordan. They are now in the promised land. They obey God. And immediately after they obey God and celebrate the Passover, Passover, the text says in verse 11, look at those words, on that very day, the next day after they did it, the manna stopped coming from heaven. Why? Because God had fulfilled his promises to his people. He had fulfilled his promises to his people. His people had been obedient to his word, and now God would continue to provide for them, but he would do so as they cultivated the fruit of the land.

24:33And so, friends, this is just a great reminder that God will take care of us. We all love stories of God's miraculous provision, and rightly so. Probably all of us have stories that would be like, you know, I didn't know where the money was going to come from. I didn't know where the food was going to come from this particular week, but God provided for me. And those are wonderful, but it's important to remember that we thank God for our daily bread because whether it comes from heaven or from HEB, it comes from the hand of God.

25:08He is the one that's providing for us. God took care of Israel all those years in the wilderness, and now that they're in the promised land, he would continue to care for them just through more ordinary means. New life, this chapter is a challenge to us to put first things first. And I think it's a great opportunity for us to take stock of our lives and ask the question: what really has first place in my life?

25:45What really has first place in my life? I'm not asking you what should have first place in your life. I think most of us know and would answer that God should have first place in our life. I'm also not asking you what used to have first place in your life because probably most of us would say that there was a time when we were kids or teenagers or when we started college or when we started our marriage or when we started our family that God had first place in our life.

26:21I'm not asking that. I'm asking you, what has first place in your life today? Is it your career? Is it your grades? Is it a boy or a girl? Is it your kids? Is it your kids' sports and activities? For some of you, when you reflect on your life, it will become clear that God doesn't have first place in your life because God has never had first place in your life. There's never been a time where you put him first by acknowledging that he should be first, that he is God and creator of heaven and earth, that he is Lord of all things, including you. There never was a time where you acknowledged your sin for not putting him first and turned to him in repentance and faith.

27:25And, friends, if that's you today, I want to urge you to turn away from whatever it is or whatever things that there are that you have put first in your life and turn to Christ, who alone can forgive you, who alone can adopt you into God's family, who alone can give you a hope and a future. I hope that some of you will come to faith in Christ today, and that today would be the day that you put God first, and that soon after today, we'll all be able to rejoice and celebrate with you as you take on the sign of becoming part of God's people by being baptized.

28:09And for others of you, those of you who are already following Christ, maybe there is someone or something who is challenging for first place in your life. It's critical to remember that in the Christian life, we don't repent once for all. The Christian life Life is a life of continual repentance, where day after day we are turning from sin, day after day we are turning from all of the things that want to be first in our life, and we are choosing to put God first each and every day.

28:46Friends, that's so important to our gospel witness because, at least in this country, most unbelievers are used to professing Christians who say that God is first in their life when it is obvious to everyone that He's not first. So, let's encourage one another to do what Joshua and the Israelites did and put first things first, giving Christ the preeminence in our lives. Let's pray, Father, who among us can say that they have always kept you first?

29:51Abraham didn't always keep you first. Moses didn't always keep you first, David didn't always keep you first. And so we humble ourselves and we acknowledge that at various times and maybe even today you have not held first place in our hearts and minds. And we pray that you would give us grace, that you would empower us through your Holy Spirit to see reality for what it is, to turn from our sin and every false idol that's vying for first place, and that we would give you the honor, the position, the preeminence that you deserve.

30:48We pray that it would be obvious, especially to our non-Christian friends and family members and co-workers and classmates, that you are first. And everything else comes after that. We pray that our gospel witness would be strengthened because of our worshipful lives. Thank you, God, for the example of Joshua and the Israelites. We pray that you would give us the same faith and obedience. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College. Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.