of the people to cross the Jordan
over into the land of promise. In verse one, he brings them
to the verge of Jordan. Now, we know that this Jordan
pictures the death of the children of God in Christ. Now, it does
not represent, as people often think, our passage from this
life into the next, that is, when we die a natural death and
go to be with Christ. There may be some aspects of
it that are similar, but the, shall we say, the theological
truth being taught is our passage from spiritual death into spiritual
life. The scriptures say that the one
that believes on Christ has passed from death unto life. And this is the passage from
death to life that is being spoken of here and pictured here. It's
the beginning of the life of the elect in the realization
of the promise of God received by faith. Now this new beginning,
is indicated by the month of Nisan. It is said that, I think it's
over in the next chapter, it mentions that this happens in
the month Nisan. And this, according to the scriptures,
is the beginning of months for the Jews. So is their new year. Nisan means beginning. So this
crossing the Jordan during the month of Nisan indicates the
beginning of something new. This is sort of a picture, if
you will, of 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are become new. Now, until the Jews reached
this point, who was their leader? Moses, the representative of
the law. But they passed through the Jordan
under the leadership of Joshua. Now, that passage through the
Jordan River symbolizes fact that we died with Christ. Therefore, we are no longer the
persons that we were beforehand. We are new creations. The Israel that went into the
Jordan symbolically died there, and the Israel that came out
of the Jordan was a new Israel under the leadership of Joshua,
not under the leadership of the law, not under the leadership
of commandments and this do and live. Now, when we die in Christ,
that is when we experience that death through the work of regeneration,
when we experience that, we are taken out of any kind of covenantal
relationship with God based upon our works. Now, if we enter into
any covenant with God that is based in any way upon our performance
of His commands, we are dead, right? We are guilty. And so you might say, before God saved me, I was Guilty
Joe. That's the man I was. After the
Lord applied the work of Christ on the cross to me, I became
a new person, Righteous Joe. Now, I can tell you this, so
far as my flesh is concerned, nothing's changed. Right? I'm just the same person I always
have been. Spiritually, there's been a change.
But the fact of the matter is, when we look at things with the
eye of the flesh, with a natural understanding, all I am is the
same old guy. But in Christ, I'm something
new. Just as Christ When he raised
from the dead, we know that that was the same person, and yet
he had become part of the new creation. He was no longer a
man who could die. He rose again, and it says death
had no dominion, no lordship over him anymore. Well, in the
same way, even though who we are has not changed, so far as the law is concerned, so far
as God is concerned, the person we are after he saves us is not
the same person we were before he saves us. It has much the
sense of a true pardon. If a man is truly pardoned of
his crimes, he is, in the eyes of the law, not the man who did
those crimes. The law recognizes the crimes
were done, but the pardoned man is a new man in the eyes of the
law, and he's not the man who did those crimes. That's what
a pardon is. And so this passing across the
Jordan from the death that comes by the law unto a life that comes
by the gospel is experienced by us when, through the work
of the Spirit of God and the preaching of the gospel, we come
to confess our sins. We recognize, if I am judged
according to what I do, I am nothing other than a sinner worthy
of everlasting death. But through the work of Christ, I am a new person. I'm no longer
the man who did those things, even though I'm the same person.
And that's what this is picturing. Jewish historians claim that
when Moses died, the cloud that guided the people by day and
the fiery pillar that guided them by night was removed. The
things that determined their movement across the wilderness
and pointed the direction that they should go is no longer with
them. They will now be led by Joshua,
that which was their guide up to this point is now put away. Listen to these words from Galatians
chapter 3 verses 23 and 24. In fact, let's turn there. Galatians. It says in verse 23 of Galatians
chapter 3, before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the
law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put
in charge to lead us to Christ. Now we have made the point before
in our preaching and teaching That's not really an accurate
translation there. It says, so the law was put in
charge to lead us until Christ. It was put in charge to direct
the lives of the Jewish people until such time as Christ can
come that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has
come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. Now it's remarkable that people
can claim to believe Christ, and it seems that they certainly
do believe the gospel, but they still claim that we are under
the jurisdiction of the law to teach us how to live, and Paul
says clearly that's not the case. For if the law is yet our guide,
our supervisor, we are cursed. Does that mean that we think
that the things that the law said were sinful are now allowable? No, that's not what we mean by
that. We mean that we're no longer under such a guide as that which
says, do this and live, don't do it, you'll die. You see, even
if someone never heard the Ten Commandments, even if they were
not familiar at all with the God of the Jews, they are still
living in bondage to that law, to its curses, and until They are delivered
by Christ. Unless and until they are delivered
by Christ, they are under that deadly bondage. Now when it says
in Galatians, but before faith came, it's not speaking of our exercise of faith because Paul
is taking a more sweeping look at history. He's not talking
about us before we believed and us after we believed. He's talking
about the time from Mount Sinai until Christ and the full revelation
of the gospel in him. And so it says before faith came.
Faith here meaning those truths in Christ, which all believers
believe. The Bible talks about the faith
of God's elect, and among the things that that can mean is,
well, what do God's elect believe? And until the full revelation
of that, we were under the law. We were shut up. until the faith
which should afterward, after what? After the time of the law,
after the law had fulfilled its purpose. Afterwards, it should
be revealed. So the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ. Once Christ came, we are delivered
from that bondage over to Christ. and we are justified not by anything,
any works of righteousness which we have done, rather we are justified
on the basis of the righteous works that Christ did as they
are imputed to us even as our sin was imputed to him on Calvary. Now that makes us new creatures,
that's why I say. Before Christ fulfilled the law and
the prophets, we were dead, dead in trespasses
and sins. We were guilty people. After Christ died, so far as,
now this is looking at things from the viewpoint of heaven,
from the viewpoint of the throne of God. After Christ died, all
that were in him were delivered into a new reality in which they
are not the people that they were before. They are not considered
the guilty. They're considered the righteous. Now the Old Testament testifies
of Christ and points men to him who is promised. That cloud that
led them was but a shadow of the good things to come and it's
now gone. Now verses two through four,
we have a picture of the preaching of the gospel. where it says,
after three days, the officers went throughout the camp giving
orders to the people. When you see the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord your God and the priests who are Levites carrying
it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.
Now, this is the second time that
the officers have been sent among the people concerning the promise
of passing over Jordan and possessing the promised land. The first
time was to deliver the fact of the promise, that they would
pass over and possess it. That's in Joshua chapter 1. Now,
they, like gospel preachers, are going among the people instructing
them as to what to do in response to the promise that they would
enter the land. The instructions are simple.
When you see the ark, follow it. Isn't that what they said?
Verse 3, when you see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your
God and the priests who are Levites carrying it, you are to move
out from your positions and follow it. Now, they were not to do
anything until they saw the ark of the covenant of the Lord their
God. Now, until this point, They had
never seen that ark. Why? It had been in the Holy
of Holies. And even now, I'm sure that as the priests
took it across Jordan, it was covered, because that's the way
they would transport it. Nonetheless, they had never seen
it covered. only way they knew it existed
is that they had been told so, but now it will be visibly set
before them. Now what is the Ark of the Covenant? Well it represents two things. It represents God as sovereign
king, for it says of the Lord that he is enthroned between
the cherubim. Now the Ark had cherubim on that
I think were as near as I can tell. Some of the instructions
for building things are a little bit vague. But it seemed that
originally there were cherubim that were part and parcel of
the ark itself. And cherubim, I believe they're
fictional creatures. Maybe I should say symbolic.
But they symbolize the protection of a throne. And so as they thought about
that ark, the descriptions that were given there, you have those
cherubim on either side, and God was enthroned between them. So the Ark of the Covenant was
a symbol of the throne of God, his absolute sovereignty. Secondly, the Ark of the Covenant
was a picture of the fact that God is a covenantal God. It's
called the Ark of the Covenant. And the covenant under which
they were operating at that time, at least outwardly, was the Old
Covenant, and there was a copy of it inside. But it also had
another meaning. There was a lid over top of that
ark, because an ark, it's not the same Hebrew word that's used
of Noah's ark. This kind of ark just meant a
chest. And that's what it was, it was a box. Things were put
inside, and then there was a solid gold lid put on top of it. And
then once a year, the high priest went in there, and he poured
out the blood of atonement on that atonement cover, which is traditionally
called the mercy seat, poured it out there in the presence
of the sovereign God. So it is a picture of sovereign
grace and mercy. For the blood covered that covenant
of the law and all our sins that come by being a part of that
covenant. And it's blood because only blood
can make the atonement for the soul. It's poured out not in
the sight of the people, because it's not the people that need
to see that blood. It's God. Remember on Passover
night. The Lord said he would come through
Egypt in judgment, and he says, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. It doesn't say when you see the
blood, I'll pass over you. They couldn't see the blood.
They were inside the house. The blood was on the outside.
The blood was a testimony of God that judge, that is the blood
on the doorpost and the lintel was a testimony to God that judgment
had already passed on this house and judgment never comes to the
same place twice. That would be unjust, wouldn't
it? You can't punish someone twice for the same crime. So when God sees the blood, and
there he is enthroned symbolically over the Ark of the Covenant,
over the atonement cover, he sees the blood and all the sins
that the priest carried upon him, all the people for whom
he was the representative, their sins are forgiven. That's a great picture of the
gospel, is it not? That's exactly what happens in the gospel. It
says that Christ presented himself without spot to God. He didn't present himself to
us. So I tell people, you can't accept Jesus because he was never
offered to you. He was offered for his people. He offered himself to God. It's
up to God to accept or reject him. I know sometimes when people
talk about accepting Christ, they're just speaking inaccurately. Faith acknowledges Christ to
be who He is, but it's not as though Christ is seeking our
approval. He's not. He doesn't need our
approval. It's not as though Christ is
merely an offer to us. He is our priest according to
the decree of God, or he's not our priest. He offered himself
without spot to God for our sins, or he did not. And if he offered
himself without spot for our sins and offered them to God,
we have no sin in the sight of God. Because he was the proper
priest, he was the proper offering. And he was offered for us, and
God accepted the offering. And so, since he accepted the
offering in behalf of his elect, they have no sin in his sight. When you see the ark, the ark
was to go first, it was to be carried on the shoulders of the
priests. Our translation says, priests
who are Levites. I think it's King James says,
the priests and Levites. I didn't look it up to see if
there was a way to discern which one is more accurate. if indeed the one that says priests
and Levites is accurate, it's showing that there is a change
here. Now only people who are of the house of Levi were priests,
but only those who are of the lineage of, I can't think of
his name now, it begins with K, but anyway, they were assigned
the job of carrying the ark. I believe it was one branch of
Aaron's family. They carried the ark. No one
else was supposed to. But if it's priests and Levites, it indicates that, indeed, now
it's not just this specialized group that's carrying it. Other priests were involved as
well. Now, when it was carried on their
shoulders, that meant it was lifted up higher than the people. I mean, it was being carried
by some people on their shoulders, and therefore it was a little
higher. And therefore, in order for the people to see the Ark,
what did they have to do? Well, they couldn't look down. as it were, to the earth. Because
if they did, they wouldn't see the ark. They couldn't look at
the people around them. They couldn't take confidence
of success in crossing the Jordan safely to the other side. They
couldn't take any confidence in that by saying, I'm a member
of this covenant people. The only thing that gave them
confidence and direction as how to lay hold of the promise was
if they looked up, not to the ground, and beyond the people
and saw the ark itself, a picture of Christ and Him crucified and
the sovereign God who is satisfied by that offering. It's told also, told them that
they are to not draw near it, but stay at a distance. Now that
sounds like what was said at Mount Sinai, you know, don't
come near the mountain. But this is a different, there's
a different reason here. If the people were to have drawn
near to that ark and surrounded it, there are people that wouldn't
have been able to see it. He says, so stay back. It's just
a practical thing. stand back, and I think it was
about a half a mile. And that way, there was no obstruction
to the view of the ark by those who were intended to follow it. And he told them to sanctify
themselves, or as our translation says, consecrate yourselves,
for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." What
does it mean to sanctify or consecrate yourselves? Well, we don't have
time to turn, but if later you want to read it, 2 Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 14 through chapter 7 verse 1, Paul is addressing
the Corinthian church, saying that they are not to involve
themselves in any way in the worship of other gods. In particular, they were not
to go to their feasts. Even in so doing, they could
get a free meal. They were not to associate with
any other god. And then chapter 7, verse 1,
which I believe should have been included in chapter 6, it says,
having therefore these precious promises. It says, we should perfect. will bring sanctification to
perfection. In other words, sanctification
means to be set apart. Well, what are we setting ourselves
apart from? Well, most people want to emphasize
that we set ourselves apart from this sin or that sin and whatnot.
If I could do that, I wouldn't need to be sanctified in Christ.
However, It says here, in consecrating yourselves, remember the Jews
had been worshiping false gods in Egypt, and they had trouble
with idolatry and secret worship of false gods all the way across
the wilderness. What's Joshua saying? Consecrate
yourselves that your view will be upon that ark and only that
ark. And when we, by faith, trust
God, trust God in Christ, looking only to Christ and nowhere else,
we are consecrating or sanctifying ourselves, setting ourselves
apart to that hope, that promise, that God. All right, we'll pick
up there next week.