All right, Joshua chapters three
and four is the text that we're going to be looking at. Just
by way of summary, Joshua chapter three is the historical record
that God gave to the one who wrote this, the human
writer who wrote this. It's the historical record of
Israel's preparation for crossing the Jordan River and entering
into the Promised Land. That's what Joshua 3, they're
preparing as you go through and read that chapter. And then Joshua
4 is the historical record of the completion and the commemoration
of their crossing Jordan. This was a great event. You know,
this probably compares to Israel crossing the Red Sea. That's
how monumental this thing was because This is where God showed
himself as he had done many times, but proved himself to be a faithful
and a powerful God who keeps his promises because their crossing
into the promised land was due to a promise that God had made
to Abraham over 400 years before this. And so the promise is fulfilled
in time as God had planned it. And you can read about that in
the book of Genesis. I've got those scriptures related.
But now in this, in chapter three and chapter four of Joshua, in
this preparation and the crossing of the Jordan River, there are
four prominent entities here that we need to notice. And number
one is Joshua himself. Now Joshua leading the nation,
you know Moses couldn't go in, but through Moses, because of
what God told him, he appointed Joshua to be the leader of the
nation. And Joshua leading the nation
into this physical land of promise is a prominent picture of our
Joshua, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
always remember the Hebrew name Joshua, the equivalent Greek
name for Joshua is Jesus. And so he's prominent as a picture
of our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, leading all of his people,
God's elect, both Jew and Gentile, spiritual Israel, into the promised
land of what I call the promised land of eternal salvation, eternal
life and glory. Look at Joshua chapter three
and verse seven. Now Joshua has the prominence
here, he says in verse seven of Joshua three, and the Lord
said unto Joshua, this day will I begin to magnify thee in the
sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses,
so I will be with thee. And then look across the page
in chapter four, in verse 14, he says on that day, now this
is when they crossed, Chapter three is before the crossing.
God says, I'm gonna magnify Joshua to show the people that I'm with
you, just like I was with Moses. And then after the crossing in
Joshua 4.14, it says, on that day, the Lord magnified Joshua
in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him and they feared
Moses all the days of his life. And over in the book of Hebrews,
chapter four, There's a spiritual application made to that using
the name Jesus, but he's talking about Joshua. Look at Hebrews
4 and verse 8. And it says here, for if Jesus
had given them rest. Now he's talking about Joshua
there. The name Jesus is Joshua of the Old Testament. But they're
the same name. You know what Joshua means? If
you want to be what they call correct in pronouncing it, a
lot of people say Yeshua. And that's okay, I don't care.
But Joshua's fine with me. Same person. And here Jesus in
verse eight of Hebrews four is Jesus the Joshua of the Old Testament. And what he's talking about Joshua
leading them over into the promised land and giving them rest. Rest
from their wilderness wanderings. And so he says for if Jesus or
Joshua had given them rest. Now here he's talking about the
eternal rest that comes in salvation. When Joshua led the people of
Israel over into the promised land, he gave them physical rest
from their wanderings in the wilderness, but he didn't give
them spiritual and eternal rest. And it says here in Hebrews,
for if Joshua had given them that spiritual eternal rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? Joshua
himself was prophetic. And if you read the book of Joshua,
you can see that in particular passages. But Joshua spoke of
a day of the coming of the Messiah. And that's what every true prophet
of God spoke of, ultimately. They had other things they spoke
of, but their ultimate message was to the people of Israel to
look for the day of the coming Messiah for salvation, for eternal
rest, for forgiveness of sins, for righteousness established.
And Joshua spoke of that day. So if Joshua had given them eternal
peace, eternal rest, eternal salvation, he wouldn't have spoken
of another day to come. And he says, then would he have
after not spoken of another day, verse nine of Hebrews, for there
remaineth therefore a rest. Now the word rest there is a
Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a Sabbath to the people of God.
Well, what is that rest that remains for the people of God?
What is that Sabbath? Well, verse 10 tells us. For
he that entered into his rest. Now he's talking about Christ.
When did Christ enter into his rest? When the work was finished. Just like God, when he created
the world. When he finished that creation,
he entered into a rest, it's called. Not because he got tired
and had to recharge like we do, but because he'd finished the
work. So for he that is entered into his rest, that's Christ,
he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Just like God did at creation
when he finished, Christ did when he finished the work of
redemption. You remember what he said in John 19.30? It is
finished. See, our salvation is based upon
a finished work. We find rest and peace in the
finished work of Christ. Righteousness complete. Think
about that. That's what's imputed to us.
Righteousness complete. And when the Holy Spirit gives
us a knowledge of that, we have peace within, the peace of God
that passes understanding. We rest in Christ. He is our
eternal Sabbath. When I'm back here in Joshua
3 and 4, that's what Joshua represents. Their possession of that physical
land of promise was all due to Joshua, what God did, rather,
through Joshua. Well, our spiritual possession
of all the benefits and all the blessings of salvation is because
of God working through one man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Joshua was the only, there
weren't many leaders, see. There was one person, Joshua.
Well, in our salvation, there's one leader, there's one savior,
there's one person. There's no plurality here of
false religion, that there are many ways to God. You know, people,
I'll tell you what, false prophets, they'll try to tweak that. I
heard somebody say, well, there's some TV personality was asking
this false preacher, is Jesus the only way? And he said, yes,
but he said there are many ways to Jesus. No. There's one way and there's one
method, one ground, and we'll see that in the next prominent
thing here. There's not many gods. There's not many Jesuses. There's
not many ways to heaven. That's a lie spawned by Satan. through unregenerate false preachers,
and just as God appointed and equipped Joshua for the task
that he'd given him to lead this physical nation into the promised
land, God appointed and equipped his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
to lead his people, the people, all that the Father giveth him,
that's what he said, will come to him. And he leads us into
the promise. How did the Father equip him?
Well, in Hebrews chapter 10, you can read about it, he said,
a body hast thou prepared me. The human body of Christ, that's
what equipped him. His human body was created in
the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. And he's God, man,
that's what equipped him to do for us what we need to be done.
And that's why we talk about the righteousness of God. So
Joshua is a prominent. The second prominent entity is
the Ark of the Covenant. Going before the nation, and
that Ark of the Covenant, now you remember the Ark of the Covenant,
it was that box made of chitim wood and overlaid with gold.
And then you had the solid gold mercy seat on top. And the high
priest would come in one time a year in the day of atonement
and sprinkle the blood of the lamb from off the brazen altar
on the mercy seat. And all of that represented propitiation
through Christ, the blood of the lamb. Christ is our lamb,
he's our high priest, he's our mercy seat. And that represented
the finished work. There's only one person and one
work. And that's the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's what the Ark represents. But look at Joshua chapter 3
verse 1. It says, And Joshua rose early
in the morning, and they removed from Shittim and came to Jordan,
he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they
passed. And it came to pass after three days that the officers
went through the host, And 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, you shall remove from your
place and go after it. In other words, you should get
up and go after, follow them. Verse four, yet there shall be
a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits by measure. Somebody
said that's probably about half a mile. In other words, they
were not to go up and touch the ark. They were not to go up and
walk with them. They were to follow it from behind. And if you want to see a spiritual
application, that's like we follow Christ. And he's separate from
us, but he's one with us. And it says that you may know
the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this
way heretofore. You've not gone this way before.
In verse five, Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves,
set yourselves apart, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among
you. You're gonna cross the Jordan River. And Joshua spoke unto
the priests, saying, take up the ark of the covenant, pass
over before the people. And they took up the ark of the
covenant and went before the people. Now the Ark of the Covenant,
prominent picture. That physical ark, that actual
historical piece of furniture, you might say, was a token and
an assurance of God's presence and power with the people. And
God worked through that ark, showing the people his glory.
And of course, that's a picture. A picture of God's glory in the
face of Jesus Christ, who is our ark, who is our mercy seat,
by whose blood we enter into the promised land. That ark represented
how God ceremonially, temporally accepted the people. Over in
the book of Hebrews chapter 9 and 13, you remember it says, for
if the blood of bulls and goats sanctified the people, purifying
the flesh, Well, that was all symbolic. The blood of bulls
and goats could never take away sin, the Bible tells us that.
There was no eternal salvation in that physical ark, or that
physical mercy seat, that physical priesthood, or that physical
blood. It was all a picture. someone
and something better and greater who could bring forth eternal
salvation. Real forgiveness of sins. Hebrews
9 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ offered by the
Spirit cleanse us from all sin. And so that Ark of the Covenant
was a picture. of the finished work of Christ
to establish righteousness for his people. It's a picture of
the assurance of God's presence and power eternally with all
of his people in Christ. And he never leaves us. You know,
the Ark, you know, there's a lot of mythology and a lot of fantasy
that grows up around things like that, you know. Everybody thinks
of Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark and all that, and all that's,
you know, that's entertaining, But it's not real, and it's not
true. But there was, you know, the
power of the ark was manifested several times against the enemies
of Israel. When the priest carrying the
ark, when they stepped into the Jordan River, the water stopped
flowing. And the Israelites were able
to cross. That's the third entity, but
hold on. All of that was showing how our
ark is Christ, our mercy seat is Christ. We're forgiven of
all our sins by his blood and justified before God based upon
his righteousness imputed to us. and were given spiritual
life by the power of God unto salvation. Christ who conquered
death and rose up again from the dead as our surety, our substitute,
and our redeemer. So there's the Ark of the Covenant.
Now the third prominent entity is the Jordan River itself. The Jordan River is prominent
to show without doubt this fact, that their crossing into the
promised land was all a work of God and not of themselves. That's what the Jordan River
represents. You know, the Jordan River over time became to be
a picture of death. Think about it. This is what
separated the people from the promised land. Now, when the
people following Joshua, when they arrived at the Jordan River,
That river was at flood stage. Transforming it from, usually
it was like a hundred foot width, and transforming it to a mile
wide. And this actually happens at
the Jordan River. Raging river. And so what the
picture is here is that because of the Jordan River between the
people and the promised land, their entrance was blocked. And
there was nothing they could do about it. Well, you know what
that is. That's a picture of our sinfulness. Our unrighteousness. What blocks
us from entering into the spiritual promised land of eternal salvation
and life? Our sin. The lack of righteousness. There's none righteous, no, not
one. None good, no, not one. The law of God that condemns
us based upon our best works blocks our way into the promised
land. And so as soon as the priest
dipped their feet in the river's edge, the priest carrying the
ark now, God stopped that water, the flow of water, and the people
crossed on dry ground. That's why I entitled this lesson
Dry Ground and 12 Stones. We'll look at the 12 stones in
a minute. Look at verse 14 of Joshua 3. It says, And it came to pass,
when the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan,
and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,
and as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the
feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped into the
brim of the water, for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all
the time of the harvest. When the harvest came, that's
when the Jordan River would would increase. And it says in verse
16, that the waters which come down from above and rose up upon
and heaped very far from the city, from the city Adam, that
is beside Zaretan, and those that came down toward the sea
of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off, and
the people passed over right against Jordan. And look at verse
17, and the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant, the
Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and
all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people
were passed over clean. Clean, over Jordan. Kind of reminds
you of the Red Sea experience, that the waters parted and the
people went over dry shot, it says. Dry ground. Well, what does that tell us?
The priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant, they stood in the
middle of the riverbed until the whole nation passed over
on dry land. And God drying it up is a picture
of Christ removing every obstacle, every last one. They didn't cross
over on a muddy ground as if only part of the water had been
removed. I mean, it was dry ground, folks.
And that's Christ who went before us as our surety, having our
sins charged to His account. Our substitute, our Redeemer,
He crossed the river of death on the cross and He removed everything
that would hinder our entrance into salvation. We crossed over
spiritually on dry ground, the finished work of Christ. Our
sins that would stand against us were not for the grace of
God in the person and work of Christ, were totally removed,
not just part of them, all of them, dry ground, see? And all righteousness by Christ
was established by His work on the cross, His obedience unto
death. Nothing left for us to do as
to the ground of salvation. Dry ground, that's what that
represents. A clear way where every obstacle
is removed and where everything that we need is provided for
us to go over safely because of Christ and Him crucified. Because of those priests and
the Ark of the Covenant who represented Christ. Isn't that something? And just as the people, it was
all conditioned on Christ. And he fulfilled those conditions.
I've got an article in the bulletin dealing with that about another
gospel. And I'm gonna bring it up in
the message today on beware of false prophets. And I'll repeat
this because we need to repeat it. I need to repeat it. and
to show that every false gospel, there's a lot of things that
we could say about false gospels, what they deny, what they add. I mean, we could write books
and books about it. But I got to thinking about every
false gospel has at least two things in common, just by way
of the truth that we believe. And that is number one, they
all at some stage, in some way, to some degree, condition salvation
on sinners. And that's like trying to cross
the Jordan on a muddy bed. Every obstacle's not removed.
There's something you've got to do in order to attain or maintain
salvation. Somebody said, well, they had
to walk a cross. Yeah, they did have to walk a cross, but they
walked a cross by the power of God. It was God's providence
that brought them there and took them a cross. And so they always
condition, the true gospel conditions all of salvation on Christ who
fulfilled those conditions, all of them, to ensure the salvation
of all for whom he died was buried in a rose again. And the second
thing is this, all false gospels, all false gospels view righteousness
on a sliding scale. Some are more righteous than
others, some are less righteousness than others, I'm getting better,
all that. But see, the true gospel measures
righteousness by the perfection of the law that's found in Jesus
Christ. And so what does that do for
us? It shows us that no matter what stage of growth or what
stage of maturity I'm in, I still have one righteousness before
God, that's the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's the dry ground. And that's how God brings it.
He brought them over by faith. They followed Joshua. Well, he
brings us over into the spiritual land of promise by God-given
faith. You say, well, we have to believe.
Yes, but it's God who gives us the faith to believe. And he
does it by a work of the Holy Spirit whereby he convinces us
of things that we're not convinced of before, and once you're convinced,
what do we say? You can't deny it, you can't
ignore it, and you cannot leave it. You cannot help but cross
the River Jordan. We look back, and he's given
us the wisdom of the gospel, and we know what the alternative
is. It's eternal damnation. Well, they crossed over on dry
ground, and that's what we do. Christ moved back the waters
of death, of sin, of judgment, and provided the way, and he
brings us across, just like Joshua brought these people. Well, here's
the fourth entity, the 12 stones. Look at Joshua 4, verse 1. It says, it came to pass when
all the people were clean passed over Jordan, all of them clean
passed over. that the Lord spoke unto Joshua
saying, take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribe
of a man, each tribe would have one man, and command you them
saying, take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan. Now
don't get, all right, look at it. He says, out of the place
where the priest's feet stood firm, that's in the middle, 12
stones. Don't get them from the shore.
Say, get them from the middle of the river on that dry ground
where the priest stood. and you shall carry them over
with you and leave them in the lodging place where you shall
lodge this night.' And then Joshua called the twelve men whom he
had prepared of the children of Israel out of every tribe
of man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass
over before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of Jordan,
and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according
unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that
this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their
fathers in time to come, saying, what mean ye by these stones? What do these stones mean? Then
you shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off
before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over
Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off and these stones
shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever.
What do these 12 stones represent? Well, one man out of each tribe,
one stone each, 12 stones. That represents how God, by his
power, on the basis of the ark, God doing the work, he brought
every last single one of those Israelites over a cross. Not
one was left behind. You can talk about Moses, that's
a different situation. I'm talking about these people
here who are on the verge of going into the promised land.
There was not one of them who was left behind. Every single
one of God's chosen people under that old covenant passed over,
none accepted. Look down at Joshua 4 and verse
20. It says, and these 12 stones
which they took out of the Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal, when
they got over to the other side, and he spoke unto the children
of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers
in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then you shall
let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan
on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up
the waters of Jordan from before you. Who dried them up? the Lord
your God, until you were passed over as the Lord your God did
to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were
gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand
of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you might be, might fear
the Lord your God forever. They were all crossed over. Well, what does that picture?
Well, that picture's the, When it comes to eternal salvation
of God's spiritual children, His elect, both Jew and Gentile,
every one of them are going to be saved. Every one of them are
gonna cross over into the spiritual promised land by Jesus Christ. Not one of them will be left
behind. God's gonna save His people.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can't condemn us? It's Christ
that died. The land is dry, folks. There's
nothing that could hinder us from entering into the promised
land of salvation. You say, well, we're spiritually
dead. We've got to be made alive. That's part of the dry land,
too. And all 12 stones You know, 12, there are several
numbers. People sometimes get bogged down
in what we call biblical numerology. But I honestly believe these
numbers mean something. And 12 is one of the numbers
of perfection. Like you have some numbers that
are numbers of perfection. Like three is the number of the
perfection of God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Seven is the number of perfection
of a completed work. Christ is our seven. Man is a
six. He's incomplete. That's the six.
That's the six, six, six. That's false doctrine and false
religion. Death. Seven is the number of
a finished work. And so Christ is our Sabbath,
the seventh day. Well, 12 is the perfection of
God's government, God's people, Christ's church. 12 patriarchs,
12 apostles. You can go on and on. Over in
the book of Revelation, I've got down here in your lesson
how the number 12 can be found in 187 places in God's Word. Revelation alone has 22 occurrences
of the number and multiples of 12. Like, for example, have you
heard of the 144,000? Y'all ever heard that? That's a multiple
of 12, making up the tribes of Israel. That's not talking about
a literal 144,000 people. That's symbolic of the complete
population of every sinner whose name was written in the land's
book of life before the world began. All whom God chose, all
whom he justified, all whom he adopted, all whom Christ redeemed
on the cross, and all who will be brought to faith by the Spirit.
There'll be no vacancies in glory. That's what these 12 stones represent.
And why is that? Because of the dry land. because
Christ provided the way. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. But then he went on to say, or
he said before that, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And you remember there in the
last part of Joshua 4, these stones were to be remembered
and commemorated throughout their generations. Don't forget this. What does that tell you? Well,
that's what we're talking about today. That's why I don't mind
when people criticize me for preaching the gospel every time
I get up behind this pulpit. I'm commemorating these 12 stones
and that dry land. I'm preaching Christ and Him
crucified. Paul said, I strive not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
what we're doing. When somebody confesses Christ
in baptism, that's what they're doing. They're commemorating
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That's what we do
when we take the Lord's Supper. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. That's what we do when we worship.
We come together. We preach the scriptures. I've
mainly preached verse by verse. We deal with other subjects.
I'm going to deal with one today. But I'm not going to deal with
it without commemorating these stones and talking about that
dry land when I preach Christ, his blood, his righteousness,
his glorious person. Because that's what we're all
about. And when somebody, one of your children come to you
and say, what means these stones? Or what are you all talking about
in this gospel? And you tell them. That's what
we do. That's what it's all about. It's
a picture of how we continually preach and hear the gospel of
our salvation to remember this, that God is faithful to his promise. He's powerful. He's kept his
promises. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. Every day, his mercy. Great is
his faithfulness. Okay.