God's 12 Signs

As you well know, God's feasts are just around the corner. And there's great anticipation, as there should be. The first prayer request that God established in His Word, Jesus Christ gave the prayer, was, thy kingdom come. That's the most encouraging part of prayer, just thinking that there's going to be a time when all this earth is going to be straightened out, all injustices are going to be righted, all the suffering is going to end. And we just look forward to that coming kingdom with such great anticipation. And every year God gives us an invitation, what He said is an appointment with Him to come to the fees of tabernacles and celebrate that coming kingdom of God. And so we should rightfully anticipate what is coming. God tells us to faithfully save 10% during the year to be able to go to these feasts, to go to these appointments that He has established. And it's always fascinating to me to read the account of the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan River. Now, of course, the other account, the crossing of the Red Sea, is much more well known. Maybe we don't focus too much on this other account of when they crossed the Jordan River to be able to make it to the Promised Land. After 40 long years. And I'd like to just share with you some insights into these two chapters in Joshua chapter 3 and 4 by way of an introduction to this message and why it fascinates me so much. Let's go to Joshua chapter 3. We begin verse 1.

Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan.

Who knows? Acacia Grove, Garden Grove, might have been inspired here. And came to the Jordan.

He and all the children of Israel enlarged there before they crossed over.

So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp, they commanded the people, saying, When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. A cubit is about half a yard. So you can imagine it would be like a thousand yards.

Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people.

And the Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you. The Canaanites and the Hittites, all these tribes that were there.

And behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe, and it shall come to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests who bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, and as those who bore the Ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the Ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest.

So let's imagine that picture. Here you've got maybe a million and a half to two million Israelites, and you have the priests, and you have the Jordan River. Now a lot of you who have been able to travel through Israel, I saw the Jordan River, and it's a pretty mighty river. It's not a little creek at all in a very fast-moving water. It serpentines all the way from the lake of Galilee, and eventually it just drops off into the Dead Sea. And this was the springtime. This was a time when they had the melting of the snows, and so it says here that the Jordan River actually overflowed.

And can you imagine these priests carrying that Ark of the Covenant on their backs with the rods, and they had a little tray to raise it on? Now that takes faith to go into these churning waters, and it says that their skirts, that they had their tunics, that the edge of their tunics touched the water. So they could have drowned if God had not intervened in that moment.

Now it would have been easier if God would have stopped the Jordan a while back, and they said, oh okay, God stopped. Okay, boys, are you ready? Let's go. But no, they had to go and into the Jordan. And you can imagine the Jordan at that time is just this rushing and turbulent river, like going down these rapids. And you see, faith has to be accompanied by works.

God has to see the results. And so they trusted that God was going to carry it through. And notice it says, verse 16, that the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan, which is about 20 miles away.

So the waters that went down into the sea of the Arab, the salt sea, failed and were cut off.

And the people crossed over opposite Jericho. So God held up the rivers, and it was just like somebody had a hand pushing that water, and no water was getting out. And it was just heaped up, and they could see the water trying to come down. And there was kind of an invisible wall completely stopping the river, and then all the water eventually drained off into the dead sea until it became completely dry. And then it goes on to say, then the priests. It says here, so the waters that went down into the sea of the Arab, the salt sea failed and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. So there's no way that this could have been just some natural phenomena. This wasn't, okay, well, maybe they had an earthquake. No, because this was something that happened when the priests' garments touched the water. And as soon as everybody had crossed, then the waters flowed again. This was a great miracle. Continuing on in chapter 4, it says, and it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, take for yourself 12 men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them, saying, take for yourselves 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priests' feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodged tonight. Then Joshua called the 12 men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man for every tribe. Probably got a very hefty man, a strong man that could pick up a very large rock. And these rocks would have one special characteristic. What do you think that characteristic would be that would make these rocks?

Special. They were all rounded because they'd been in the river for such a long time.

It wouldn't be like a typical rock that you would see on the ground. These rocks had been weathered, and they had eroded, and they were very large, and they were rounded. And so these men picked up one stone each, and it says here, and Joshua said to them, cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. Notice it says, take a stone on your shoulder. It wasn't just a small rock that you could take in your hands. This was something you had to pick up, and you had to lug over, so probably might have weighed a hundred pounds, and just a mighty and completely rolled stone. But notice what the significance of this is. It says, one stone according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for you a memorial to the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priest who bore the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day. So this is an example, what we call an editorial device, to understand that whoever wrote the book of Joshua, or edited it because Joshua most probably wrote a great part of it, but then scribes as God led them, added these little remarks that, guess what? How much time had passed? We don't know. But the thing is, he says, you can still go there and see those stones today inside the Jordan. And they would be different, because they would not have been rounded quite as much as the ones who had been there, maybe for hundreds of years.

Verse 10, so the priest who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished, that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua and the people hurried and crossed over. Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ark of the Lord and the priest crossed over in the presence of the people. So God goes before the people, and He comes also behind the people. God is protecting our flanks, He's protecting us forward, He's protecting us behind.

It says in verse 12, and the men of Reuben, the men of Gad, the half-tribe of Manasseh, crossed over arm before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them. About 40,000 prepared for war, crossed 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 feared him, as they had feared Moses all the days of his life. Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priest, saying, Come up from the Jordan, came to pass, when the priest who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, had come from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priest's feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and overflowed all the banks as before.

So out comes this rushing of water again, just as soon as the souls of their feet had touched the dry land. So we can see this wasn't something accidental. It was coordinated to the very second.

Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east board of Jericho, and those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. And then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children asked their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty that you may fear the Lord your God forever. Such a wonderful account, very inspiring. And these twelve stones are what are called memorial stones. Also, many times they can be called pillar stones, because throughout the Middle East you'll see people that will put stones upon stones, and it's a monument to something. Well, God set one up in the midst of the Jordan River, and also in Gilgal to show something physical of what He had done. And to me it's a beautiful analogy. It's symbolic of God's twelve signs in the Bible. Just as He had twelve stones to remind the people of Israel of His great exploits. So we have twelve signs throughout the Bible that we should remember, that we should honor, because those are the signs that God has given mankind. And unfortunately, they don't recognize them. Just like if a Gentile went through and saw those stones, they wouldn't know. But everybody in Israel knew it had meaning. It had significance. It made God real to them, as it should to us. So I want to go over the twelve signs in the Bible that should help us to be encouraged. And we should ask ourselves, too, are we honoring those twelve signs that God left for mankind? Now I have a little prop here.

I have twelve stones. Just little ones, not the type that Joshua had, but I have twelve stones here. When I brought this to the frontier room, the first thing a lady says is, are you planning to throw stones at us? Well, at least she didn't say, I'm not planning to give these so you can throw stones at me, either. And this is a sermon about casting the first stone. It's not about stoning. It's not about people that live in glass houses, all of these things that have to do with stones. This has to do with twelve stones, memorial stones, signs for God's people. So you don't have to worry about me doing something nutty here with these stones. But as we go through each sign, I want to get out here and just place this and see which is the first stone, the first sign in the Bible that God leaves for mankind as a memorial stone, something that He wants to be remembered by, the great achievements that He has carried out. Now when you go to Washington, DC, there's the Washington Monument, and people come to it and they see this huge column and monument and it looks like one of those Egyptian great pillars that they had.

But that's the Washington Monument, and so they tell you the story of why Washington is honored that way. Then you go to the Lincoln Memorial, and there is all the information about Lincoln.

Well, this stone is about God, God's memorial stone that He has left in the Bible for us to honor and to recognize. So I'm going to put it here, and what is that first memorial stone? Let's go to Genesis chapter 2 verse 3. Genesis chapter 2 verse 3. It says, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. So God blessed a certain day, and He sanctified it. Sanctified in the Bible means separate for holy purpose, something that He makes holy. So the seventh day is different from the other six days of the week. Not the fifth day, not the sixth day, not the first day. The seventh day is God's first memorial stone. Of course, it's to honor Him as the Creator, the Creator of everything we see and our Creator as well. A lot of people don't believe God created them. I believe they're accidents of nature. They just arose through evolutionary processes, blind and people intelligent say, well yes, I actually came from an amoeba. Well, the typical question is, do we have amoebas today? Yes, we do. Now, are they evolving into something else?

No. They've been trying, they've been shooting radiation for at least 50 years into all of these bacteria and amoebas and nothing. They just die, they mutate, they become monsters and they don't survive. So if we are part of the amoeba and also all these algaes, well, we should see that type of evolution happening today, even in a minor way. But I'd like to see it actually improving, creating novelty, novel features, nothing like that.

So I don't want to get into there. I'll never get to a second sign.

Let's go to Exodus 31 verse 13. Exodus chapter 31 verse 13 to see how just as God had mentioned that those memorial stones were a sign, so is the Sabbath a sign between His people and Him.

Exodus chapter 31 starting in verse 13.

It says, It says, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely, my Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

So He sanctified the Sabbath, and He says He sanctifies those who keep the Sabbath.

That God blesses. He helps people that are faithful to God, because it says here, the Lord who sanctifies you. So it's almost like you're dirty, that you're not clean before God, and you come on the Sabbath day, and God says, guess what? You honor me with this first sign?

I'm going to make you clean. I'm going to sanctify you. Now, there's a whole process, of course. It takes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and everything else. But the Sabbath is one sign that God sees in a person if they want to be sanctified. They want to be used by Him and for the person to honor God. What is the second sign? Of course, the first sign, the Sabbath has to be the memorial to creation and to our Creator. I wanted to emphasize that again. The second sign, Genesis 9, verse 12. Genesis 9, verse 12.

We read, and God said, speaking to Noah and his family, This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. It shall be that when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh. The water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh on the earth. So here's the second memorial stone, the rainbow that God established as a covenant, that he would never again flood the entire earth, that he would destroy the earth as he did previously. And it's very interesting that the rainbow is made through a double refraction of light, hitting a raindrop. And the raindrop acts as a prism, but actually the light doesn't go through the drop. The drop acts like a mirror. And so, first of all, you have the light going through the lens that the raindrop makes. That's the first refraction. It hits the back of the raindrop, and then it bounces back. Of course, when it goes through the raindrop, the light, just like in a prism, is broken up in all the colors. And then the light hits the back, which is a screen that refracts or bounces, and then it goes through the raindrop again, which amplifies it. And once the light comes out of the raindrop, it actually is even more amplified. So you can see that God worked quite a miracle when he did that, to use every little raindrop as a prism, to be able to remind him and to remind human beings that there would never be another flood upon the earth.

Are you happy with that second sign? Boy, I am. I'm very thankful that God is still faithful, that he will never again have a flood come upon the earth. I'm sure he's had some second thoughts when he's seen mankind and what's going on, but that's a covenant that he has made.

Now the third sign is in Genesis 17 verses 10 through 14.

He's talking to Abraham here. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight years, eight days old among you, shall be circumcised. Every male child in your generations, he who was born in your house or bought with money from any stranger who is not your descendant. So of course everything was your property. You were responsible for it.

It says, he who was born in your house and he who was bought with your money must be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. So this is the third sign. So here we have another memorial stone that God establishes in the Bible. Now this stone is based on being a physical descendant of Abraham, and it said that Abraham and his descendants, we know later on that in the New Testament, and it always has been a symbol of a receptive and obedient heart. In the New Testament, it is no longer necessary. Gentiles were called into the church. They weren't physical descendants of Abraham, and no longer was it a national symbol of the Israelites. And of course, baptism would replace it in the New Testament. Although still for hygienic reasons, many people circumcised their male child. I was intrigued and at the same time a bit upset when I read an Orange County Register article about two weeks ago where it had on the heading, circumcision does not help. And it said with the AIDS, and I'm thinking, well that goes against what I had learned, and I found out that it was talking about gay men, that circumcision doesn't help gay men not contracting AIDS.

But everybody else is benefited through circumcision. And so this article was completely distorted. They could have put down circumcision does not aid gay men from having AIDS, but everybody else does. In Africa, they have found that circumcision cuts dramatically the incidence of AIDS, but in Africa there are not as many gay people. So of course, that deals with a different sexual practice than gay people. Gay people have different practices that circumcision doesn't help. And so I just, and it was interesting that in that article it actually said the benefits that it had for heterosexual males to be circumcised and how it avoided all of these diseases. In the United States, 80% are still, of the males born, are still circumcised.

And like I said, mostly for hygienic reasons. It's not something necessary because it, the Bible says that baptism does replace it, but at the same time there are hygienic advantages to having it, besides quite a number of others. So that is the third sign. Let's go to the fourth sign. We find it in Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 3, Leviticus 23 verse 1.

It says here, they are part of God's memorial stones. They are part of His signs as He will bring up the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.

These are my feasts. So they are holy, again sanctified by God. When we get together here, this is a sanctified meeting. Not because we're so great, it's because of what God is doing.

He's sanctified this day. He guides and inspires what is carried out, as long as there are converted people speaking and listening, which of course it's never going to be 100 percent.

But it is a holy convocation. And then He says in verse 3, the first sign that we already talked about six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

That was the first sign. But now we're talking about the fourth sign, which is the first feast, and it is found in verse 4. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. God has an appointment with us.

He wants to see if we're going to be sanctified, if we are going to be there when He appoints and assigns us. As you know, when you work, you better be there when the boss or the company establishes it. It's something that's very serious if you come an hour late. Well, here's God's appointed time on the Sabbath day and on the feast. Verse 5, on the 14th day of the first month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. So this is the fourth sign, the fourth memorial stone. So here's the sign, that rock that God spiritually places in the Bible for us to honor and to remember Him.

And of course, the Passover is a pillar stone that commemorates God's great intervention in the Old and in the New Testament. He was able to liberate the children of Israel from Egypt on the Passover. And in the New Testament, Jesus was able to liberate us from sin, dying for us on that very same day, the Passover. That wasn't a coincidence. That is one of God's memorial stones. God always does everything on time. And He set up these appointed days, and He's going to fulfill each one of these meetings. Continuing on, the fifth sign that God has established, I mean, where am I at? The fifth sign, yes, is the following verse, verse 6, And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord.

Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation.

You shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. Of course, the offerings and sacrifices have been superseded by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have to keep everything else of this day. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. So this is the way we honor God, and this is the fifth stone that we are going to place, just like they placed 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan, and they placed 12 stones at Gilgal that they took from the Jordan. So we also have, spiritually, these signs and stones that are set up for us to remind us to honor them, and that they are signs between God and us. Let's go on to the next sign, Leviticus 23 verse 15. It says, And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you were brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count 50 days.

That's where our word Pentecost comes from. It means to count 50, and that's why Pentecost in the Greek is the equivalent to the Hebrew term here. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. And it says here, the verse 21, And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation, something that God has sanctified, has set apart from holy purpose. That's not our day. That is God's day.

That's something that we have to honor and we have to sanctify in the sense of God sanctifies it. But we honor God. We realize it is holy. We enter it with that mind and with that will to do His willy. Then that's the Pentecost, which is the sixth stone. So I'm going to put here a sixth stone.

I'm building something. You'll see. And then we are going into the seventh sign, which is the fourth feast day, Leviticus 23 verse 24.

God says, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Again, it's a sanctified day by God. He has set it apart for holy use, it is something that shouldn't be used for anything else, but to honor God with it.

You shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

And of course, we also go before God with an offering as a thanksgiving offering. It's not a sacrifice, but it's a thanksgiving offering. This is what we're going to be observing next Sabbath, the Feast of Trumpets. And it is the seventh sign that God has established.

So I'm going to put here the seventh stone. Let's go to the eighth sign, which is the Day of Atonement. Notice in Leviticus 23 verse 27, it says, Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of Atonement. You see how we have not invented any days? You can't find Christmas in the Bible. You can't find all of these Halloween. You can't find even the term Easter, which in the King James used to enact, mention Easter, and it's actually Passover. And it was a mistranslation that these people put Easter, but actually Easter does not exist. It's the term pasha in the Greek, which means the Passover. But here we see the Day of Atonement is one of God's feasts. It shall be a holy convocation to you, so God has set it apart also. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, and you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement. To make Atonement for you before the Lord your God, for any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. So we honor God by keeping this eighth sign, which is the Day of Atonement, which is coming up after trumpets. It's only on the tenth day of the seventh month, so we just have a little over a week before we observe the Day of Atonement. It's a fast day, as he says here, you shall afflict your souls and you shall do no work on that same day. And it's a good preparation spiritually for the Feast of Tabernacles, when we need to be closer to God, a good time to fast and to draw closer to Him. So that is the eighth day, the eighth sign. Let's go on to the ninth Leviticus 23 verse 34.

To speak to the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.

Again, this is a holy day set apart for holy use, not a day to work, to do our chores. It's a day to honor God.

You shall do no customary work on it.

And then it says here, for seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. So you actually keep it.

You dwell in temporary dwellings. Of course, in the Old Testament they didn't have much choice.

They had to build some temporary things. We now are able to have places that are either cabins or all kinds of nice units, but away from our houses. That's the lesson that God wants us to learn, is to leave our common and our familiar sightings and work and go to a place, because He's going to teach us for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles.

So that is the ninth stone, the ninth sign in the Bible that we have.

That takes us to the tenth sign. We find it in the same chapter, verse 36.

It says, the second part of the verse, it says, on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly. So again, for holy use, this is what we call the last great day, as it's mentioned in the Epistle of John, and you shall do no customary work on it. Continuing on, it says, these are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And it says here, verse 38, besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides your vows, and besides all your free will offerings which you give to the Lord.

So that is the tenth sign. So I'm going to put it up here.

That is the tenth sign that God has given us in the Bible to honor Him, to remember these as feast days that He has established, as well as the other signs. Now the last two signs are found in the New Testament. These were given after these ten signs in the Old Testament.

What is the eleventh sign? Let's go to Acts 2.

Acts 2, starting in verse 37.

This was a sign that wasn't exactly known in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ established it, although there was a type of purification, but it was a different ceremony. Acts 2, verse 37.

This was after Christ had been resurrected, and the church had received the Holy Spirit.

Peter giving the first sermon, verse 37, it says, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

What do we need? What is the sign to associate with you, to be part of your people?

Peter didn't say circumcision. They were all circumcised anyways. But this was a deeper and more important type of circumcision. Verse 38, Then Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promises to you and to your children to all who are afar off as many as the Lord our God will call. So the eleventh sign is the baptism and laying on the hands ceremony. Baptism and the laying on of hands ceremony.

They go together. They can be summarized as baptism and receiving God's Holy Spirit as it is here, but it is one sign before God. When a person is going to be baptized, he's baptized, and the laying on of hands ceremony is immediately after baptism. That is the eleventh sign.

What does it mean? Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21.

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So the eleventh sign is the sealing of the person with the Holy Spirit in him. And of course that is through baptism and the laying on of hands. You are sealed by God. It is a sign between you and God, baptism and the receiving of God's Spirit. In Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, it says here verse 9, Romans chapter 8 verse 9, but you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. So this is a very important sign. This is something that distinguishes us from the rest of the world.

Having received God's Spirit, he gives us the discernment. We can understand the scriptures, not by our intelligence, not because we're better, but because God has placed his Holy Spirit in us and opens our mind to these wonderful spiritual truths. So that is the eleventh sign.

And we only have one more sign. And I'm sure that you can come up with different configurations in the Bible. It's not like they're numbered in the Bible, but these are the twelve that I came up with, which are the main signs that you have. It's another sign given by Jesus Christ, the twelfth sign. Let's go to John chapter 13 verse 34. John chapter 13 verse 34. Jesus is talking to his disciples during the Passover, and he said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. So that is the twelfth sign, the one given by Jesus Christ, that we are going to love the brethren. We're going to help each other. Notice here, because some people say, well, this means you have to love everybody in the world, and you have to do everything for everyone else. That's not what Jesus Christ said. Now granted, we do have the scripture there in Galatians 6, which says that we should do good to all people, but especially to the household of faith. So the household of faith is first, and then to the rest of the world. That's why we have outreach programs. That's why we want to help our community and the world at large. But what did Jesus Christ said here? He says that you love one another. In other words, among the brethren.

That's what he's referring to, that there's going to be consideration, that there's going to be care for one another. And that he said, if people came to the church and they looked around and studied the church, they would see fruits. That we love one another, that we consider each other, that we are learning to love each other more, then have more patience with one another, and that we love God's way of life and the keeping of his commandments. And that is what unites all of us. Walking together toward that promised land to be able to one day cross the Jordan River and be able to make it into the kingdom of God. So that is a sign. That's a tough one because some of the other ones, once you accept it, you can apply it in your life. You can honor it.

But loving one another as Jesus Christ did us, that is a very high bar that has been established.

But he says that is a sign. And it's not just a sort of a sentimental type of love, where people are nice and then you see they stab you in the back later on, or they're doing all kinds of different things. It's a love, an outgoing concern for others. And of course, we learn that people are not to abuse that outgoing concern. Paul sometimes had to be quite strict, and he said one of the brethren was taking advantage of others. And he said, look, if that man doesn't work, then he shouldn't eat. He should go out there and get a job and not be living off of others. But we recognize there are all kinds of limits. There are people that can get jobs that are in difficult situations, and we are to extend our hand. We are to help, and we should show that love to one another. That, brethren, is the last sign. And what have I built here? It's a little mound, a little mound of stones. Of course, if you multiply it maybe a hundred times, you'd have a huge mound, like the one that they had in Gilgal, and that they had in the midst of the Jordan River. That you could go there, and you said, yes, God intervened. And these are memorial stones to know what kind of God we have, a God of miracles, that for Him nothing is difficult or impossible. But it takes faith. It takes sometimes to get to that border of that rushing Jordan, and to have the edge of our tunics get wet before God parts, and He intervenes. And He wants to see if our faith is accompanied with results, with obedience, with yielding to Him, and carrying out His will. So we have a wonderful feast coming up, like Sabbath, the Feast of Trumpets, one of these memorial stones that we should honor and remember. So a question that we should all ask is, are we honoring all of God's 12 signs that are memorial stones between God and us?