All right, Joshua chapter 3,
Joshua 3. I'd like to look at verses 7
to 13. Joshua was graciously chosen
of the Lord to lead Israel into the promised land. Now Moses
had been set apart to lead the children of God out of Egypt
and through the wilderness, and he did so for 40 years, 40 years. But according to the wisdom and
the good pleasure of the Lord, God was going to do something
now for Joshua. that was gravely needed by the
people, by Joshua, but by the people. God was going to do something
for Joshua that the people gravely needed. They needed to have a
settledness of heart, of some confidence in Joshua. Now they were trusting the Lord.
God's people trust the Lord. But God was going to do something
that Joshua needed and the people needed. Joshua was known within
the nation of Israel. They knew who Joshua was. He
was one of the 12 spies that was sent of God to first spy
out. And I got to thinking about that
this morning. And I thought, you know, when
Joshua sent those spies into the land of Jericho, and they
went there, you know, I got to thinking, this is what God instructed
Moses to do before, years before, years before, 40 years before. Because when they came back,
there was only two of them out of the 12 that went that first
time. And only two of them came back
and said, we can take this. God's given this, we can have
it. The other said, no, no, no, no. These people are giants over
here. We can't do this. Uh-uh, we're
not gonna be able to do this. They were over there 40 days,
40 days spying out the land. Two men came back, Joshua and
Caleb. Two men said, we can do this.
God said, we can do it, we can do it. The other said, no. And you know what? They were
there 40 days, and you know what God gave them? For every day
that they were over, he gave them a year in the wilderness.
There's been 40 years in the wilderness, wandering in the
years because of that. Well, Lord now is gonna have
to do something. Moses has died. And God's raised
up Joshua. And Joshua is gonna be the man
that's gonna lead. These people have followed Moses. Forty years they've followed
Moses. They've known Moses. They've trusted Moses. God proved that he was with Moses. And now God's going to do something.
Moses is gone. And the scripture says in Joshua
3 verse 7, 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. The Lord said, I'm gonna begin
to magnify. I'm gonna begin to magnify you
in the sight of the people. And they're gonna know that as
I was with Moses, I'm with you. You know, it's a blessing whenever
God is pleased to raise up a man and put a man in a position of
leadership. And that's a blessing. I'm gonna send you pastors after
my own heart. I'm gonna send you pastors after
my heart. But you know, whenever the Lord
sends a man, which he always does totally by God's grace,
there is such a blessing that's associated with that. that God
would not leave us to ourselves, that God would send us by the
grace of God to men. But do you know with that sending,
with that sending of a man, it's a great blessing, but there's
some struggling that goes on with it. There's some struggling
within and struggling without, especially on the part of the
man being sent. There's a struggle within. I can tell you this, I was thinking
about the struggle that was within Moses whenever the Lord called
Moses, set him apart, spoke to him, told him he was gonna go
into Egypt. You're gonna go and you're gonna
speak to Pharaoh, and you're gonna tell Pharaoh to let my
people go. That's what you're gonna do. You know what Moses said? Exodus 311. Who am I? that I should go unto Pharaoh
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt. Who am I? That man that God has chosen
to magnify possesses an attitude, as Paul the Apostle said, who
is sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient? Who is sufficient
to stand in this pulpit or any other pulpit where God's raised
up the gospel? Who's sufficient for this? It's
a lonely place, isn't it? Lonely. This is a lonely place
right here. The one we need is the presence
of the Lord and the remembrance. I'm not gonna leave you. I'm
not gonna forsake you. Because every man that has been
called of God has this attitude about himself. Exodus 4, 10. Oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent.
Neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant,
but I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue. Who is sufficient
for these things? And coupled with that struggling
within, there's always struggling without. No sooner had the Lord
turned to Exodus 14, no sooner had the Lord removed his people
out of Egypt through the guidance and leadership of Moses. What happened? They came to the
Red Sea. Here they've seen all this. They've
seen all the plagues. They've seen all the things that
God's done. The Lord raised up Moses. It became evident. God was with
him. They got to the Red Sea, Exodus 14, verse 10. When Pharaoh drew nigh, the children
of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched
after him. They were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried
out unto the Lord, and said to Moses, Because there were no
graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Wherefore hast thou dealt with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Not this the word that we did
tell thee in Egypt saying, let us alone that we may serve the
Egyptians for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians
than that we should die in the wilderness. Who sent Moses there? God did. What was the purpose
of God sending him there? You tell Pharaoh, let my people
go. I'm taking them out of bondage. Beautiful picture. Moses did
what he did. admitting to the Lord, I'm not
eloquent. Who am I to do this? Who am I
to stand in the pulpit at Katie Baptist Church? Who am I? Following a man like Scott Richardson? Who am I? Scott forgot more than
I ever know. Who am I? Who am I? Look at verse 16, Exodus 16,
chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16, verse 1 to 3. They took their
journey from Elam, and all the congregation of the children
of Israel came into the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam
and Sinai on the 15th day, the second month after their departing
out of the land of Egypt, and the whole congregation of the
children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,
and the children of Israel said unto them, would to God we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, and we
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full,
For ye have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this
whole assembly with hunger. Whenever God raises up a man,
there's gonna be some struggles within and without. Man, I tell
you what, I believe what old Scott said, Neil, one time. If
a man can do anything else but preach, then do it. If you can't, then do it. Do
anything else. When the Lord's pleased to place
a man in that position, it's evident, it becomes very evident
that God is going to have to, first of all, He wants to save
him, teach him, guide him, keep him, and keep him, and keep him
there. Why? Why? Because I'm telling
you, if God doesn't keep him, I'm telling you, I'm telling
you for a fact, he'll quit. He will quit. I think so. What did Peter do? After the
Lord was crucified, what'd Peter do? What'd he say? I go a fishing. You know what that means. He
wasn't gonna go for the afternoon. I quit. Look at Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached the gospel
of God's free grace. He was hated. Jeremiah 20. Turn with me there. You'll enjoy
this. Jeremiah 20. You know where I'm
going. Jeremiah 20. He was resented. He was thrown
in prison. hated for preaching the gospel. Jeremiah chapter 20, verse seven
to nine. Thou hast deceived me, and I
was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and
hast prevailed. I am in derision daily. Everyone
mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out,
I cried violence and spoil, because the word of the Lord was made
a reproach unto me and a derision daily. Then I said, I will not
make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. But his
word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and
I was weary with forbearing, and I could not. I quit, Jeremiah said. The struggles I have within and
the struggles I have without, mocked and laughed at and picked
on and accused of this, that, and the other, I quit. I quit. I think I'll just go back to
painting. I think I'll just be an artist. But his word was in
me like fire in my bones, and I couldn't quit. The Lord told
Joshua, this day will I 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 the scripture says, verse
eight, and thou shalt command the priest that bear the ark
of the covenant saying, when ye are come to the brink of the
water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. Now, I want you to notice the
way the Lord speaks to the man that he's chosen to magnify. Thou shalt command the priest
that bear the ark of the covenant. Look at that. Thou shalt command
the priest. bear the Ark of the Covenant.
When you come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall
stand still in the garden." These priests bore that Ark, that which
was the evidence of the presence of God on their shoulders, and
there was going to be no question as to what they were going to
do. You will tell. The Lord said, you will. You command the priest. God's
going to bring his people over Jordan. I'm gonna tell you right
now, that Jordan River, so much significance. Our passage from
being dead in trespasses and sin to life in Christ, our passage
out of this world into the world to come, that Jordan River was
a picture of so much, but it had so much significance tied
to it in that it was the very river in which the Lord Jesus
Christ himself was going to be baptized. pictured the faithfulness
of our Lord to deliver His own into the place of glory, into
the place of rest through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The final deliverance of God's people. When you come to the
brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still. Don't
you move. The willing faithfulness of our
Lord Jesus to be the only way, the truth and the life was pictured
in that. In the midst of that, which is
the oppression to God's people, what's keeping us from going
over? Sin. Dead. Impossible. God's going
to deliver us over. And as the people were preparing
to cross over, oh, consider the indescribable mercy of Almighty
God in what getting ready to take place. They were getting
ready to embark on something. Joshua verse nine said unto the
children of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord
your God. Now here's what confidence, what
confidence. This is what Joshua was commanded. He's gonna be magnified by the
Lord in the sight of the people and he spoke to the priest and
this is what God said. And then he tells the people,
It's what God said. Now listen, here's what I'm going
to just repeat the words of the Spirit of God, penned by this
blessed book right here. Joshua said unto the children
of Israel, I say unto the people of God, Come hither and hear
the words of the Lord your God. Faith cometh by hearing. Hear the words of Jehovah. your God, your God. You know, isn't it wonderful
to hear the words of the Lord, our God, and to know that he
is our God by covenant mercy, by grace. We didn't make him
our God. He made himself our God. I am
your God. You didn't choose me, the Lord
told us to decide. You didn't choose me. You didn't choose
me. I chose you. I chose you. You didn't choose
me. Listen, I know, according to
the scriptures, that he rules in heaven and earth. I know that. I know that he has a people of
his choosing. I've read that, David. I've read
that in the book. There is a remnant Right now,
the Apostle Paul wrote, under the Spirit of God's inspiration,
even now, right now, there's a remnant according to the election
of grace. I know that. I know that there's
a people for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has died and has promised
that he's coming back. But to know by faith, and that's
all I got. This is all I got. according
to these scriptures. And this is what I want to know.
When you talk to me, if a man's preaching to me, you come here
and hear the words of the Lord, your God. Don't tell me if you
can't back it up with scripture. I don't want to hear it. Don't
talk to me about some say something. You tell me what the word of
the Lord says. You tell me. And Lord, give me
a heart to know that these words And when you died, you died for
me. When you come back, you come back for me. He's gonna come
back, the clouds are gonna roll back, the trumpet of God's gonna
sound, he's gonna call his people, Lord, call Marvin Stoner. Lord, would you call me? Lord,
would you save me? Now that, that settles my heart. Hear the words of the Lord, your
God. And then the Spirit of God moved
through the mouth of Joshua and the pen of Moses to reveal this
truth. Louis said in verse 10, and Joshua
said, hereby, 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 and the Hivites and the Perizzites
and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. Now, hereby,
You shall know, hereby you shall know that the living God, not
this, again, not this little g God. Tell me about the living
God. Tell me about him. Hereby you
shall know. You wanna know, I wanna know,
how do we know? How do we know that the Lord,
Moses, I mean Joshua told the people, hereby you shall know
that the living God's among you. I wanna know something. How do
we know that the living God is among us? Everybody and their
brothers claiming that he's with them. I can tell you this, there's
not a religion in this world that doesn't believe that the
God that they worship is among them. They believe that, they
believe it. I came up in false religion. I believe that God,
you know, did something for me because I ABC'd. I believe that. How are they going to know? Look
at verse 11. This is how you're going to know. Behold, the ark
of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over. before you into Jordan. Now look
at those two verses together. Joshua said, hereby you shall
know that the living God is among you, and that he will, without
fail, drive out all of those in Canaan. Behold the ark of
the covenant of the Lord, of all the earth passeth over before
you. This is how you're gonna know. He said in verse 11, behold,
lo, see, hear, certainly, surely, that's what that word behold
means, behold. This was the ark according to God's instruction.
Instruction and construction. The ark that held the manna of
God's provision in the wilderness, the rod of Aaron that budded
in the tables of the covenant given unto the people through
Moses. This is how you're going to know. Behold, look, look,
see it. There it is. The absolute certainty
and assuredness of God's presence with his people was that visible
ark. There it is. How are you going
to know? How are you going to know that
which magnifies the person and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ? This is how you're going to know
that God's with you. Here we are sitting here at Katie
Baptist Church, October the 15th, 2023. How do we know that God
is among us? Here it is. Behold, Joshua said,
you come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. How do we know we have God's
word? He that denieth himself, he that
comes after me, he that trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as he's
revealed according to this book. What sayeth the scriptures? What
did they do at Berea? They searched the scriptures
daily to see if these things were so. Let me tell you the
safest thing you can do. You come and listen. Listen to
what's being preached and go home and check it out. I encourage
you to do that. Check it out. Because if I'm
telling you something that's contrary to these scriptures,
I'm the blame. It's me, it's on me. But if I'm
telling you what God says concerning the scriptures, it's on you and
me. Come hither, hear the words of the Lord. Brethren, we have
got the blessed word of God. Somebody says, well, everybody's
got that Bible. I know they do. But I read the prayer of the
Lord. He said, Father, I thank you that you've hidden these
things from the wide and prudent and revealed them unto babes.
I'm thankful that God give me a heart to believe this. but
all the honor, glory, and praise is unto him. Joshua, under the
inspiration of God's spirit, he told him, he said, listen,
you behold that without fail, God's gonna drive out all of
your enemies. And let me ask you this, according
to this book, is God assured us he's gonna drive out all of
our enemies from before us. Death, hell, the grave, this
world, sin, dealt with it. What did he say? In this book,
according to this book, where two or three are gathered together
in my name, I am in the midst of you. In the name, in the midst
of the Lord, God is with them. The scripture says in Psalm 910,
they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. Those
that have a right knowledge of who the Lord is. according to
the scriptures, according to the scriptures. When you come,
have a Bible in your hand and turn to these scriptures. He,
according to the scriptural revelation of his will and purpose and counsel,
sovereign God almighty, to speak to any, to speak to anybody,
to say anything Concerning the Lord, and it's not according
to these scriptures, is to take the name of the Lord in vain.
If you want to know what that means, thou shalt not take the
Lord thy God's name in vain. People say, well, that means
cussing. Well, okay. Say what? But I can tell you this, to stand
up and preach to somebody that this is who Jesus is, and he's
talking about what he's trying to do, that's to take his name
in vain. Don't you do it. Don't do it. Look at verse 12,
13. Now therefore, take you twelve
men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe of man, and
it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the
priest that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth,
shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall
be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they
shall stand upon an heap. not to speak any farther than
the revelation of God's spirit, the Holy Ghost moved Joshua to
take 12 men out of the tribes of Israel. Now just look at this,
and I'm gonna say this right now. I'm gonna pray that, consider
this. Again, I don't wanna speak any
farther than the scriptures reveal. But I'm just gonna look at that
which he said, I want you to take, verse 12, Take you 12 men
out of the tribes of Israel, out of every man, out of every
tribe, a man, and it shall come to pass. Now you take 12 men,
and then he started talking to the priest. And they were to
go out into the waters of Jordan, and what God promised through
the writer was gonna happen to the waters. And so they did. And verse 12 of chapter three,
there's nothing else said about those 12 men. Nothing else said
about them. Nothing else said. He just said,
take 12, and then he tells the priest, this is what I want you
to do. But I want you to recognize something. In Joshua 4, verses
2 and 3, Lord willing, we'll touch on this a little later.
Take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribal man, and
command ye them, saying, take you hence out of the midst of
Jordan, out of the place where the priest's feet stood firm,
12 stones, and you shall carry them over with you and leave
them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night. After
everybody went over, 12 men were told, I want you to go back and
I want you to go to the place. Here's what it says in verse
three, in chapter four. And command them saying, take
you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place. You
see that word place right there? Let me tell you what it means.
It means the fixed spot. the fixed spot. I want you to
go back to the fixed spot where those priests stood firm. Twelve men. Now leave this to
us and to the spirit revelation. It was twelve men that knew where
the fixed spot was. Twelve men, one out of every
tribe. Were these men sent for witnesses? I don't know. Were
these meant to make a confirmation? I would say that those 12 men
knew where the spot was, because that's what Joshua told them.
You go back to the place, and I looked up the word, the fixed
spot. Almighty God has everything exactly
the way he's purposed it. You go back to that spot, but
then coming back to verse 12 and 13, and I'll stop. Now therefore,
take you 12 men, out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe
of man, and it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of
the feet of the priest that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord
of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that
the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that
come down from above, and they shall stand upon an heap." Brethren,
this was a monumental event that took place. Nothing was left
to speculation, nothing was left to chance. This is the command,
this is the word of the Lord. This is what Joshua was told,
you command the people. You command, you tell those priests,
you go in, you stand still. And he told those 12 men, after
they all went over, you go back to the exact spot to the fixed
place exactly where those men. Well, it was around here somewhere.
I don't really remember where. No, sir. You go back exactly. After all the people were clean
passed over, they went back. But here the scripture ends and
it tells those priests that it's gonna come to pass. As soon as
the soles of your feet Bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of
all the earth shall rest in the waters, at the waters of Jordan.
What's going to happen when you stand there, you stop. You get
to that spot, and what's going to happen is, everything, the
water's flowing that way, where you're standing right here, from
that spot, what is it going to do? The waters, in verse 13 of
chapter 3, the water shall be cut off from the waters that
come down. There's going to be a dividing
line And that water's just gonna flow on down, just like it was
going. And everything that was coming up behind you that was
going that way, it's gonna start standing up as a heap. This is what's gonna happen.
The water's gonna be cut off, stand up as a heap. Joshua was
surely moved of God to know by what means the Lord was going
to magnify him in the sight of the people. Does not this give
us great hope? God Almighty who has given such
minute details to the people of Israel, the nation of Israel,
and has he not given us this promise? Look at these beautiful
details of what we do, who he is, what he's done, where he
is now, he's coming back, all these beautiful things that we
consider. I pray that God give us some encouragement to hear
the word of the Lord, bless him for what he's done for us, Lord,
you're speaking to your people. Speak to me for Christ's sake.