Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Joshua chapter 3 and verse
9. Joshua 3 and verse 9. And Joshua said unto the children
of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. Joshua 3 and verse 9. Before we come to three main
points, I want to make some five observations, especially of the
types that are set before us on this occasion. The first is
the ark itself, the ark that was to go before the children
of Israel, a distance of the 2,000 cubits, 3,500 feet, long
distance, in front of the children of Israel so that they could
see it. That was the whole idea, that
everyone could see it. You know if there's a crowd and
someone or something is very close to that crowd, you cannot
see it. But if you put it a great distance
away, then you can see it. Everyone can see it. And that
was the idea that is here. And not only that, really, we
think of as the ark of a type of Christ. The Old Testament
saints, they saw that blessing afar off. We see it afar off,
we look back to Christ, we read what He accomplished, what He
did. But when you and I come down
to death, then, then we shall see Him close up, then we shall
need Him, then we shall need to see Him in a way that we haven't
seen Him before. We have then the Ark, which is
a type of Christ, and we can see it, especially in those things
that it contained. We know it is a box, some two
and a half feet long, foot and a half or so high and square,
and carried upon the shoulders of the Levites, all overlaid
with gold inside and out, and the lid of it, the mercy seat
with the cherubims, the golden cherubims overlooking it, and
the Lord's promise that he'd meet with his people from over
the mercy seat between the cherubims. But inside the ark, and we are
told in Hebrews, a summary of those things that were put there,
there was first the unbroken tables of the law, that law that
was broken in Adam. We all have broken that
law, so clearly seen as the tables were thrust down from the Mount
by Moses, that those tables were broken because of the sins of
the people. The Lord angry with the people,
but then he provided the unbroken tables, the fulfilled law, not
by the people, but was to be by the Lord Jesus Christ. and
those completed tables they were put in the Ark. It is a very
clear, a simple message to us of where the law is fulfilled. Not in us, but in Christ. And there it is placed. You might
say, well, it would be hidden, wouldn't it? You wouldn't see
it normally in the Ark. And in fact, You wouldn't even
see the ark. You wouldn't see the gold. You'd
see the shape of it when they moved. But the veil of the temple
had to be put over the ark as it was moved. But they were to
understand where it was. And we might think, well, we
cannot see it either. It is hidden. It is hidden in
Christ. It is within the veil. Christ
is within the veil. but we understand, and we understand
through the Word of God where the law is fulfilled. Christ has fulfilled the law
and made it honourable. So the ark is a type of Christ
in that way. Also inside of the ark was the
pot of manna, the food from heaven that the children of Israel ate
all their wilderness through, that which the Lord spoke on
at length in John chapter 6, when they said to him that Moses
gave us that manna from heaven. And the Lord said, Moses gave
you not that manna, but my father giveth you the true manna. He said, except ye eat my flesh
and drink my blood, ye have no life in you. And he said this,
the words, that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they
are life. And we have it written in Deuteronomy,
in the Lord telling, resisting Satan in this, that man shall
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ,
my words, they're the manner Here in our text, come and hear
the words of the Lord. We have this in the ark, in Christ,
words of the gospel, words of life, words of food, words whereby
the people of God live and the children of Israel all their
journey through. The third thing that was in the
ark was Aaron's rod that budded. There'd been a rising up of those
that sought to usurp the authority that God had given to Aaron as
the high priest. And God said that he would decide
who was to be the high priest. And so they had to each man of
their tribes was to lay up their rods before the tabernacle. And in the morning, it was to
be the rod that budded was the rod. that was to be the one that
God had chosen. And with Aaron's rod, it was
not only budded, but it had blooms and it had fruit as well. It
had more almonds. And very clearly, the Lord pointed
to Aaron. Here is my high priest. Of course, Aaron was a type as
well. We come to Hebrews, and we have
our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that appears
in the presence of God for his people. And it is clearly said
of our Lord Jesus Christ, he appears in the presence of God
for us. So when we think of the ark that
is central here, that is going to be seen by all of the people
and is going to be passing through into Jordan, We must clearly
understand that this is pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ, the
fulfiller of the law of God, the life-giving words and manner
for the people of God, and the one whom God has given authority. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. Not given himself the authority,
given of his father. But then there is the name of
Joshua, Joshua that is mentioned here. Now really the names of
Joshua and Jesus are essentially the same. Both are English pronunciations
of the Hebrew and of the Greek, the names of our Lord. So it is in our King James Bible,
if we look in Acts 7 verse 45 or Hebrews chapter 4 verse 8,
we have Jesus spoken of, but it's very clear in the context
what is being referred to is Joshua, because it is translated
in that case using the New Testament name. The meaning of Joshua, the meaning
of Jesus, the Lord, is salvation. And why I mention this is because,
again, we have in our text, and Joshua said unto the children
of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord. When we
can look past Joshua and we can see the Lord Jesus Christ, we
can see again another time, the ark is a time, Joshua is a tithe. He is the one that is to lead
the people of God into heaven, into the promised land, not Moses. Moses, representing the law,
he must stay in the wilderness. He must stay not in the promised
land, We think of the Mount of Transfiguration, where the disciples,
they saw the vision of Moses and Elijah representing the law
and the prophets. And they were talking with Jesus,
and what were they talking of? His decease that he should accomplish
at Jerusalem, his death, his sufferings. Calvary, that's what
they were speaking of. When the cloud was lifted up
and they'd heard the voice, this is my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased. They saw no man but Jesus only. He is the fulfiller of the law. He is the fulfiller of prophecy. And it is then that in preaching
the gospel, we come to prophecy. We come to the law of God and
all of them, all of them will point to Christ. All of them
will be a message to us, to look unto Him and be saved till the
ends of the earth. As the Lord said, for I am God
and there is none else. We have in verse 15, the ark
going into Jordan. I want to say in this point of
Jordan as being a type of death, a river of death. We're told
in this verse that Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of
harvest. And we know our Lord told in
the parables that the harvest is the end of the world. Well,
the harvest is when the Lord is gathering his people, when
he is reaping them, when he is bringing them home to glory. Death also is set forth in this
way. The river of Jordan stood between
the wilderness journey and the promised land, and death stands
between us here below and heaven. There is no way that we can escape
that, either chains like Elijah was, and Enoch, or it shall be
we pass through death, or what is equivalent to that. We must
die, but the Lord has made a way. Here we have the ark, a picture
of our Lord going down into death, into Jordan, making a way for
his people to pass over. These are simple times, but they're
clear times, and I believe they need to be clear for us to really
simply clearly understand how the Lord has brought about salvation,
how he has overcome death, how he has made a way that sinners
might be brought to glory and to be with him. There's just
one more comment I'd made, and that is in verse 12, we have
the mention of 12 men to be taken. Now, therefore, take you 12 men
out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. Now,
in this chapter of the Bible, there's nothing more mentioned
about the 12 men. Later on, we know that they are
to take stones out of Jordan, they are to raise up a monument
outside of the river and also in the middle of the river as
a testimony to what the Lord had done. But really what is
pointed out here, these men were witnesses. These men were to
be witnesses that were the means of raising up a lasting monument
to what had been done in Jordan. And you cannot help seeing the
parallel that the Lord chose 12 apostles. And what made them
apostles was that they were witnesses of Christ's life and of his death. And when they had to choose the
one to take the place of Judas Iscariot, then it had to have,
that person had to have that mark. that they had been a witness,
they had been with Christ, they had seen what he had done, they
had seen his death, they had seen his rising again and appearing
to them after he rose from the dead. So we have these types,
these parallels that are not fanciful interpretations, may
we always remember this, These things are not that we just see
something, and sometimes we can see illustrations in nature,
and we might say, well, that is a beautiful way of illustrating
a biblical truth. And that is valid to do that
as an illustration. But when we come to types and
shadows, it is what God has chosen, put in his word, authoritatively
linked the two together, So that it's not just something that
the minister decides, well, this is a nice illustration, nice
time, I'll set it before the people. This is God setting it
before the people. He is giving a provision in gospel
days in the Old Testament of a rich gospel message to the
people of God. A message in our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Time to look, with the Lord's
help, at three points. Firstly, a message for God's
people. Our text says, And Joshua said
unto the children of Israel, And secondly, a place to hear
the words of the Lord our God. Joshua said unto the children
of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. And then thirdly, the words of
the Lord, which you'll find in the following three verses, or
two verses especially. So firstly, a message for God's
people. Israel that is here just passing
through the wilderness and to enter into the promised land
are again a type of God's people. He said of them that you only
have I known of all people upon the earth, a special people that
I have redeemed unto myself. He redeemed them out of Egypt. He had formed them a people for
himself. He had brought them to himself. He'd given them his law. He had guided them, gone before
them, and he had taken them to be his people. Later on, at the
end of this book of Joshua, when Joshua is about to die, Then
he says to the people, as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord. And he brought a promise from
the children of Israel as well, that the Lord would take them
for their God and that they would willingly come under his laws
and obey him and serve him. And we told those that outlived
Joshua, the children of Israel, while they lived, they continued.
walking in the ways of the Lord. The Lord had taken this people
as a special people unto himself. And they again are a type of
the people of God. They are a people of God from
Adam's day to the last one to be gathered, including all Israel,
those that are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, Those of whom the Lord said in John 10, Thine they were,
and Thou gavest them Me. They are a people that are spoken
of in Jeremiah 31 verse 3, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. It is a people
that are described in John 10 as God's sheep. My sheep, they
hear my voice. This message is for God's people. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. When the Lord will
have a message for His people, then He opens their ear. He causes
them to hear that message. He speaks to them. And so this
message is to Israel, a type of the people of God. And how
they are known is that they are hearing the Word of God. The
Word of God is sent to them. They have been given a hearing
ear. And we have seven times with
the seven churches in Asia, after each message to those churches,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches. We are not to think Well, we
might not be one of God's people. What if we are not one of His?
Then this message is not to us, and you might shut yourself out
from it. But the way the Scriptures pull
is if the Lord has given you an ear, then let Him hear. If the ear is opened, if there
is an appetite, we read in Acts 2, in that early church when
the Spirit was first given, Then they that gladly received the
word were baptized, and many that would not receive the word
of God. But the Lord said, he that receiveth
you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me. And God's people are known by
that mark. They hear the shepherd's voice. And the Lord then is very clear
in giving this description of the message and what it is. As
if he'd say, here's a message. If your ear is open to hear this
message, if this message is good news to you, which the gospel
is, then this is a true token of being the people of God. A message for God's people. It
is also an invitation to God's people Joshua said, unto the
children of Israel, come hither, an invitation to come nigh, brought
nigh by the blood of Christ, brought near by sin, by nature. We are far off from God, but
the Lord would have his people near unto him. The Lord says, no man can come
unto me, accept the Father which sent me, draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. And this is the work of God.
This is the desire. You think of the high priestly
prayer of our Lord in John 17, where he says, Father, I will
that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. And his desire is that they be
with him. that the separation be not eternal
separation but the Lord had devised means whereby his banished is
brought nigh unto him and this means is said before us here
and the invitation to the people of God is that they are brought
near so that they will hear and brought nigh Here is Joshua,
a beautiful type of Christ, type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come
unto me, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Ye shall find rest
unto your souls. The dear disciples, so many times,
even when the Lord had been publicly preaching, they came near, they
were brought near, and they had special audience with them, and
he spoke to them, and he opened up the parables to them, and
they delighted to hear his voice, they knew his voice, they resorted
unto him. England they were many times,
they needed the Lord to interpret the word and interpret the way,
but they had that secret, they had a God to go to, and a beautiful
invitation as here to come hither. And it was for this specific
purpose, come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. What a beautiful thing that the
Lord should say to his people that these words are not the
words just of God, but your God, your God. And when you receive
the words of God, when you hear them, the sweet Saviour of Christ,
when your heart burns like the two on the way to Emmaus, when
the heart is opened, then the Lord is saying, you're God. Dear Thomas, he said, my Lord
and my God. And it's a blessed thing when
we know that, Our text speaks here, Joshua said unto the children
of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. I want to look secondly at a place
to hear the words of the Lord our God. Joshua says, come hither. I want to look at this just in
a couple of ways. Firstly, where the Lord speaks
in the house of God. We know, of course, many of us
have been blessed in our homes. We have met the Lord in the closet
in secret prayer and we've heard the Lord's words there and we
would never never despise that we'd always look for the Lord's
visits there. I remember when the Lord first
called me by grace the Lord did bless me in my home many many
times and hadn't actually blessed me in the house of God and at
that time had a dear Dutch friend that visited later he lived with
me for several years in Australia and when I left his home one
night I said to him I said you know I think the Lord can bless
as as much in the home as in the house of God And just the
look on his face, it was a look of horror, what I'd said. And
I went home and thought, what have I said? And why is he so
shocked? And I thought, yeah, the reason
why you've said that is because you haven't been blessed in the
house of God, but you haven't been looking for it there. And
it really caused me, really, trouble of soul and exercise,
were they really blessings? And at that time, I was reading
services at Melbourne. I was a deacon. I was taking
the services there. And I cried and cried to the
Lord that he would favor me and bless me in the house of God.
Well, I can't even remember the sermon that I was reading. But
one day I was reading that sermon, and the Lord suddenly came in,
and in a short space of time, just in quick succession, he
brought to my remembrance all the blessings I'd had at home,
and with the sweet savour of Christ, and just brought them
all and said, here, here are all these blessings, they're
in the house of God. And it was a sacred time, a blessed
time. They belonged there. The Lord
had given me them, and he gave me them as it were again in the
house of God. And I hope it is with you friends
here, that though the Lord may bless you at home, and I hope
you expect that and look for that, you look for it especially
in the house of God. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together, as the manner of some is, so much the more
as ye see the days approaching. When we think of Thomas, and
we mentioned him, and how that when the Lord rose from the dead
that first day of the week, he was not with the disciples, and
he had to wait a whole other week before he saw the Lord. Maybe not as forsake that assembling
together, but be the expectation as unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. In heaven it shall be. Here the
gathering is. There's all Israel, and the ark
is set before them. I, if I be lifted up above the
earth, will draw all men after me. And the Lord's promise, it
hath pleased God through the preaching of the word to save
them that believe. There is the scriptural warrant
and expectation that the Lord will bless the means that he
has appointed and use that, and so that we hear his voice in
this setting. Joshua is saying here, to the
children of Israel, come hither. We cannot obey that in a literal
way to go to Jordan or any other specific place, but in a gospel
place, where is it? Not this church or that church
and saying, well, we are the true church, and you're not.
But wherever the people of God meet together, wherever they
are gathered together, and we mentioned the churches in Asia,
seven distinct churches in one area, really, of Asia, Distinct
churches, not all amalgamated into one. Distinct ones, types
of Christ, independently governed, Christ as the head. And each
one dealt with individually, the Lord knowing the works of
each one and having a word to speak to each one and speaking
to them through the angel of the churches or through the minister. And you notice here, We have
with Joshua, we might take him back now as a man before the
Lord, because we have in verse seven, the Lord said unto Joshua,
and he has the word to Joshua. Then the Joshua says to the people
of God, the children of God, come hither and hear the words
of the Lord. And all the Lord's servants,
they receive the words of the Lord and preach the word. They
are but earthen vessels, but the excellency of the power is
not of us, but of God. And we bring forth the word of
the Lord, and he that receiveth us, they receive the Lord. When
we obey the Lord's command, preach the word, preach the word. We lift up a Christ, precious
Christ, we preach the word of God. So may we have a high view
of the house of God, the gathering together of the people of God,
the church of God. Not venerating a building as
such, but it is such a sad thing. I find it so sad, really, in
this town, even. They're seeking to obtain a new
vicar. There's a prescription on the
internet as to what they're looking for in this town. And there's
no qualifications of a man of God, a preacher, at all. All
they want is someone that shall draw in the people, that shall
utilize the church building for concerts and for use so that
they can get money to build up the church building. And the
idea that it is a consecrated building for worship only, for
God, for many, many years, it has not been used to that. And
it is just so sad, it's so solemn. And we are then to think that
we have places that are consecrated for worship of God. That is what
they're used for solely. That is what we gather together
to worship God, is a place where we look for the Lord's presence.
And I know it is the people that are the church of God and wherever
they meet. in the days of persecution, in
caves and in dens of the earth, or even in homes or wherever
it was. But wherever the people are,
wherever the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gathered
together. Where the people of God is, there
shall the Lord be. Where the Lord is, there shall
the people of God be. And that shall be at the end
of the world when the Lord comes again. So the house of God, appointed
place, come hither and here. But then there are those appointed
places in personal experience. Sometimes the Lord bids his dear
people to places of affliction, places of trial, places even,
you might say, put in a literal way with Elijah, he was to go
out to Horeb. into a cave and there the Lord
would speak to him, give him fresh direction, fresh commission,
give him Elisha to be with him to the end of his journey. And that was a special place
where the Lord spoke to him. One of our hymns says, Dost thou
mind this spot and place where Jesus did thee meet? If we were to say to the eunuch,
where's your special place? He'd say, well, out in the desert. That is where the Lord met with
me and Philip came and he preached Christ to me there. And there
are those places that we're brought to. Sometimes it might be a hospital
bed. Sometimes it might be at a funeral
and there's the open grave of someone we knew. And the Lord
speaks that many of the Lord's people can date the time He first
spoke to them, awakened them to their need of seeing that
open grave. And there those appointed places
on the way to Emmaus was another place. Those two walking along
that way, Jesus drew near and went with them. And remember,
they heard the voice of the Lord before they knew the Lord. Their
heart burned within them, it is true, but their eyes were
holden, they did not know him. But that place was made a special
place. But then when the Lord appeared
to them, showed himself to them, they went back to the disciples
and often feel it's a beautiful description of the testimony
of one before the church in church membership. They told what was
done in the way. and how Jesus was made known
unto them. Those two things, a real experience
of what has been done in your life in the way and how the Lord
was made known to you. If you can speak those two things,
the Lord bear witness to the reality of them. Tell it to the
Church of God. They didn't wait, did they? They hasted, hasted back and
told it to the brethren. They were already saying when
they came, the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared. Well, may the Lord give us those
appointed places, those places where the Lord, as it were, says,
come hither, come hither and here. The prophets in the Old
Testament, many times they They had to go to the potter's house
and they saw the potter working in the clay and then the Lord
had a message for them there. They had to go down to Jordan
and hide the linen girdle and the leather girdle and then find
it again after many days and there was a message that was
to be heard in those places. So may we first look for it in
the house of God but then be mindful of watching the Lord's
providence, watching what the Lord brings us into and where
he opens our ears to hear his word as an appointed place personally
for us, come hither, come hither and hear the words, not just
of anyone, not just the words of God, but the words of the
Lord, Jehovah, your God. I want to look then lastly at
the words of the Lord, the words that are to be heard. So firstly we come to verse 10. Let us read it again. And Joshua
said, Hereby ye 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, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites,
and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Hereby ye shall know, before
they had even started to fight, before they even started to drive
them out, right here at Jordan, they were going to be given a
token. a token of deliverance. It's
going to take them seven years before Canaan was majorly conquested,
but even more to be done after that. But what was to be done
here, the mercy that was to be shown here was a token of what
the Lord would do. And the idea is that the performance
of one mercy is a token of all of the mercies of God. That is
what he is saying here. Israel, you look at what is going
to happen here at Jordan, and I'm going to give you an assurance
of what I'm going to do right through Canaan. And there's a
very strong message that we draw for ourselves from that. But
just remember that point. Is it where you've got laid out
before them? all those adversaries, all that
land to be conquered, all that time, and here is one mercy,
one deliverance, one thing that they were going to see happen
and done, and that was a token. Now a token is not the actual
thing, but it is an evidence of it. Remember, Rahab, she said
to the spies, give me a true token, a true token. and there was the scarlet line
in the window was the true token, the promise that her and her
house would not be destroyed, that they would be saved to life,
and Rahab is in the line to Christ. Then we have in verse 11, Israel's God, Behold, the ark
of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before
you into Jordan. Now, it's not that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the saviour of all the earth. In one sense, he is.
He is the saviour of all men, especially of them that believe. He is good to all. His tender
mercies are over all his works. In Him we live and move and have
our being applies to every one of Adam's race. He gives us our
breath, He maintains our breath. But there is a pointing here
that the God of the people of God is the God of all the earth. This is a fashionable thing.
today to say, well, you have your God, I have my God, and
you get to heaven the way you're going to go, and you've got your
idea of paradise, and we can have ours. But the message here
is that the God that is spoken of here is not just the God of
Israel, is not just the God in that place, but the God of all
the earth. There is but one God. One true
God, triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. There's one creator
of heaven and earth. There's one throne before whom
we must stand. There is only one way of salvation. Our Lord says that there is none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. If you believe
not that I am He, you shall perish in your sins. Every nation, kindred
and tongue, all the earth shall know that this God, the God that
is set before us here, is the Lord of all the earth. He is in control. He is on the
throne. He is the King of kings and Lord
of lords, and none can say unto him, what doest thou? Then we have the message. of
verse 11 regarding the Ark of the Covenant. Remember we said
that that was a beautiful time of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
was to pass over before you into Jordan. Christ must pass into
death as the Ark did into Jordan. That is the message. that is
pointing here in gospel days. Now let's think of this in a
gospel sense. Here is a picture of death with
Jordan. Here's a picture of the children
of Israel, God's people, looking at the ark, looking at the Lord
Jesus Christ typified in that ark going into death. Here is
our Lord going to Calvary. Here is our Lord crucified. There's no wonder that Paul says,
I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That the Lord says, I, if I be
lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. It's no wonder that the cross
and an interest in Christ's death and sufferings is the token of
heaven. A token of obtaining that promised
rest and that inheritance because the Lord as the forerunner has
gone before us and the grave is empty. The children of Israel,
we said at the beginning, had to see this. They had to see
the effect of the ark being born. The waters they parted, they
divided. There's a way through death. through Christ alone. And we
have our Lord saying to his people that shall also go through death. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. that
where I am there ye may be also. And the Lord then is pictured
in coming to his people as they are going through death, through
Jordan, and he is going through them. I will receive you unto
myself. He's going through with them.
And every one of these children of Israel, God's people, though
it started they saw the Lord afar off, there came a time that
they walked right past that ark in the midst of Jordan. They
saw it at close hand. They went through, Jordan. They
went through death. They went into the promised land.
And each one would say that the ark is the way. Christ is the
way. He hath made a way. He hath taken
away the sting of death. He hath abolished death. He who
has fulfilled the law. He who is the bread of life.
He who has the authority of God as our high priest. He is the
one that brings us. into the promised land. And this
is the token. This is why the Church of God,
in the two ordinances the Lord has given believers baptism,
buried with him by baptism into death, risen again in newness
of life, setting forth Christ's death and Christ's resurrection,
and the believers identifying with him, and the Lord's Supper,
ye do show forth the Lord's death till he comes. This is in the
gospel way pointing to what we have in the text here. It is
focusing our whole hope, all what we expect as blessing is
to flow from Calvary. We say that this here is a token,
hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you. This
is a token. where Christ is precious, where
there is the precious blood of Christ, where there is a people
that are looking to Christ and his sacrifice, not to works of
the law, not to deeds of righteousness which we have done, but to Christ
and what he has done. And to those that are looking
there, there is the true token that they shall obtain that promised
rest. Paul says in Romans 10, He longed
for the salvation of his countrymen, but he saw them seeking it, though
they were zealously seeking it, they were seeking it after the
works of the law and not after faith, not seeking it in Christ. And may each of us, dear friends,
be seeking that salvation in Christ alone, that our hopes
be placed on him and that our desire is, Lord, Reveal thyself
to me. Remember the Lord rose from the
dead. He didn't appear to everybody. He appeared to his disciples.
He appeared to those of his people. And there is the true token,
where the Lord is seen, where he's seen through the preaching,
where he's seen in these times. Well, I remember the first time,
or not the first time the Lord blessed me, but one special time
in reading through the account of Jacob wrestling with the angel,
there wrestled a man with him to the breaking of the day. And
the Lord stopped me in that, highlighted that word, man. There
is Christ. I didn't expect to see him there.
I'd newly come to faith or seeking the Lord. And there he was. The Lord says, thou hast wrestled
with God and with man and has prevailed. Thy name shall be
Israel. is a pre-incarnation appearance
of the Lord. There is the blessing. The only
way that a poor soul can be blessed are those times when the heart
leaps, when you see the Lord in the scriptures that you perhaps
read many, many times. But then you see Him and it's
precious. It is seen as the Spirit blesses
that word, opens it up. I believe that under Philip's
preaching, The eunuch saw that so clearly in Isaiah, saw the
Lord, saw his suffering, saw his death, and it was through
that and the profession of what he saw that he was baptized. And here then is the Church of
God, the children of God, focused upon this one event, what Christ
has accomplished at Calvary. this true token of being a child
of God, to have this opened and revealed to you, and to have
all your hope. Yes, you say, but I've many adversaries,
and I've much walk to go yet, and many things that I fear the
children of Israel would have felt like that, and 38 years
before the 10 spies had brought back an evil report because of
all of that, that was to be accomplished and delivered from their enemies,
but here the Lord gives them a true token, a token of their
deliverance completely from their enemies and completely brought
into that promised land. And so may this word, this message,
be a message to us. And above all, may each of us
here the words of the Lord your God. Remember, the Lord has chosen
to use words. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
my words shall not pass away. He used his words to speak the
world into existence and he uses words to bless his people and
to speak salvation to their souls. In Samuel chapter three, I think
it is, We read that the Lord appeared again unto Samuel in
Shiloh by the word of the Lord. So may the Lord appear to us
by the word of the Lord. Joshua said unto the children
of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. Amen.