Thank you, brother. It's good
to be here with you and. First, I'd like to express my
thanks to. This congregation for your faithful
support of the. Ministry, the Lord's called us
to in Mexico. First, my father and my mom there
have been there for 47 years and you've been faithfully supporting
them and then you've also supported us and we're so thankful to know
you and being fellowship with you and thank you for your kindness
and your love and your prayers for us. We know that you pray
for us and we pray for you also and we're thankful for this opportunity
we have to come by and see you and express this Thanks to the Lord for this fellowship
that he's brought us into. And so I'm thankful. And the
privilege is mine to have your pastor come and be able to speak
to us in Mexico and in the different villages he mentioned. It's a
real honor and a real privilege for me to have him there. We
have a wonderful time. And he's learning some Spanish.
Don't let him kid you. I said some. But no, we kid around
about that. But anyway, it's cold up here. We're freezing up here, but anyway,
he called me the other day. I'm going to say this because
I just have to. He called me the other day. He
said, good morning, brother. He said, it's 60 degrees here. And I said, I'm going to get
you back, Marvin. It was like 95. I said, I'm going
to call you when it's 60. And I said, you'll be like below
zero. But, well, we keep in touch,
and so I appreciate that. I'm thankful for the work the
Lord is doing there in Mexico. And I want to speak tonight from
a passage in Joshua, Chapter 3. If you'll open your Bibles there.
You know, Apostle Paul, in writing to the Philippians, said, Finally, brethren, chapter three,
rejoice in the Lord always. For me to write the same things
to you indeed is not grievous and for you it is safe. And for
me to preach the same gospel you hear day in and day out is
not grievous to me and it's my joy. It's our joy to preach Christ
every time we have the opportunity to stand up. It's our joy. And
for you, it's a good thing for the heart to be established with
grace, the grace, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
gospel of his sovereign grace. And so we're going to look at
this passage here in Joshua, chapter three, and I believe
we'll see how the Lord saves his people, how the Lord saves
his people, what he uses to save his people and what are their
response when he reveals himself to them. So look here with me
in Joshua chapter three. 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 over. I want to stop right
there. That's my first point. I want
to mention something about this. They were going to cross over
into the promised land, cross over into Canaan. But they came
to the Jordan, the Jordan River, and there they stopped. They
were at Jordan's banks. And there they stopped. They
were unable to cross. They were unable to cross. What
I want us to remember and it's not new to you, but what the
Scriptures teach about man's inability. Man is unable to come
to God. Man is unable, unable to come
and approach Him to God. And they were there by the design
and they were there by the decree of our Lord God, the Lord God
of all earth, it says there in chapter 13. He is Jehovah. The Lord, the owner, the ruler,
he's the creator. And all things that happen, all
things that come to pass in this world, in the lives of his people
are ordered. They're ordered by God. Even
the fall, even the fall of Adam was ordained, was ordained by
God. He's going to show mercy and
he's going to get glory to his name and the saving of his people. But the first thing he's going
to show his people is their inability to come to God by themselves.
Unability there by the purpose of God. And one thing we must
remember always that all things work together for good to them
that love the Lord, to them that are called according to his purpose.
It says here that in verse two that it came to pass. It came to pass by the decree
and by the Will of God that after three days. That the officers
went through the host. After three days, I want us to
consider that they were there three days that that number three
is that the number of the resurrection, the day of the resurrection,
and this was after three days. And what I see in this is that
no matter how much time you give man. Give him all the billions
of years you want to give him. Creation is 6,000 years, but
it wouldn't matter if it was millions and millions of years.
Man is not improving. Man is not improving. Man is
not going to come to the place where he can approach unto God. Man likes to think that he's
improving. Man who is a sinner by nature,
by choice, and by practice is not getting any better. He's
not getting any better. The human race likes to boast
that man is advancing, getting better, more knowledge. But the
scriptures clearly teach us, the Holy Spirit teaches his people,
that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Man is dead
in trespasses and sins. Man cannot come to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that
in John chapter six, you know the text very well. But our Lord
said, no man can come to me except the Father, which sent draw him. There's an inability in man.
He cannot come to God. Man is dead, spiritually dead
in trespasses and sin, and he's unwilling to come to God. Our
Lord said in John chapter five, speaking to some religious men.
Now, if you wanted to talk about The cream of the crop, as far
as man is concerned, here they are, the Pharisees. As far as man is concerned, these
are religious men. In John chapter 5, you know the
text well. Look here with me there in John
chapter 5 and verse 40. I trust the Lord to give me some
liberty to be able to preach Him and exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ. In John chapter 5 and verse 39,
Our Lord said to these religious men, He said, search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. In them you think
you're going to come to God by doing, by observing. These are
the best of men. But man at his best is full of
sin. Man at his best is full of sin
in the flesh. The Apostle Paul said, I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, He didn't say a little bit of
good. He said, no good, no good. And our Lord said this, he said,
you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life and there they which testify of me and you will not come to
me. You know, not only does he cannot
come, he does not have a desire to come. His will, everything
in man is dead, his will. His volition, his understanding
and his affection, all is dead, dead towards God, dead spiritually.
And here's the point I want to make is that they were there
three days and they didn't cross. After three days, they still
didn't cross. Man cannot come to God. Man cannot
come to God. And what is clear to me is that
God And I believe it's clear to every one of us that God will
make it very clear. The Lord God will make it very
clear to his people that there is no salvation apart from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is there salvation in
any other. There's only salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
salvation in him. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. As long as a man believes that
he has some part, some part in his salvation before or during
or after that man is still dead in his trespass and does not
know God. Does not know God. This is not
a collaboration between God and man. Salvation is all of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the author. and finisher
of our faith. He is all. He is everything.
He'll make it very clear. Trusting in Jesus Christ alone.
That is, trusting in His sacrifice to put away my sin. My sin that
separates me from God. Your sin that separates you from
God. Do you believe God will teach you if you're His people?
God will teach His people. that your sin can only be put
away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and none other. No sacrifice on your part, no
desire on your part, only the blood of Jesus Christ. Trust
in His blood only to put away your sins before God and trust
in His righteousness, His obedience, His faithfulness. You know, when
the Scripture says we're saved by faith, It's talking about
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's talking about His. His is
the faith that saves us. No one is saved apart from faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. No one is saved apart from believing.
Believing God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. But our faith
does not save us. It's not our faith that saves
us. It's His faithfulness. I want you to look here in Romans
chapter. Romans chapter one. Well, I'll
make a reference to this again a little later. But in Romans
chapter one, I want to point this out while I'm speaking about
this, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the gospel, verse 16 says,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The gospel is Christ. He is the gospel. I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for Christ is the power of God unto
salvation. It is the power of God unto salvation
unto everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek,
and also to the Greek. For therein," or that is in Christ,
in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. From faith. That could very well be read
this way, by his faith, for you to believe in him. The righteousness
of God is revealed in the scriptures, in the gospel, by his faithfulness,
for you to believe. Let's see if I can make that
clear. Let's look in Galatians chapter
2 and verse 16. In Galatians chapter 2 and verse
16, It says, knowing that a man is
not justified, he's not constituted just before God. And remember
that word justified when it's speaking of before God, it is
not as if you've never sinned. In other words, God is not looking
and pretending you never sinned. That's not what the message of
the gospel is. The message of the gospel is God has put away
the sins of his people and they do not exist. They know more. God cannot see them because they're
not there. And it says here in Galatians, Chapter two and verse
16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, you're justified by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That is the Lord Jesus Christ
as a man. He believed God. God, the Father,
spoke to him. And he believed God. He obeyed
God. He trusted God. He trusted God his Father. Even
when God the Father forsook him. I was looking for
that word in Spanish. Forsook him. Even when he cried,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He trusted God. You're you're in my faith. It's
full of holes. You know, we we believe God by
the grace of God, we believe our faith is not enough to. It's
smaller than a mustard seed. If we had faith the size of a
mustard seed, whether the Lord say you pray this mountain to
move and it move. Just goes to show just how small
our faith is. And yet we say we do believe
God and we say, Lord, help my unbelief. How's that? Faith and
unbelief abiding in the same. How is that? We believe God,
but we have doubts and fears and anxieties. And that's just
unbelief by another name. We're not saved. By our I have
strong faith, that's not it. The Lord Jesus Christ, his faith
saves us. And this gospel is preached so
that you may know by his faithfulness God is just so that you believe
in that and you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
the gospel is. That's what Romans 1 verse 17
is saying. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from the faith of Jesus Christ to faith so that
you'll have faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. Now, let me get back to my text.
A person is unwilling to come and a person is dead and trespassing
the sin, but God's going to make sure for his people that they
understand that they're dead, that their only hope is coming
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, after three days, you see
that in verse chapter two and verse chapter three, try that
again. Chapter three, verse two, it
says it came to pass. I like that. I like that it came
to pass. You know why it came to pass?
God ordained it. God ordained it from all eternity.
God ordained it from all eternity that he's going to save his people. He's going to save his people
by the foolishness of preaching. It pleased God. to save his people
by the foolishness of preaching. God has purposed to save his
people, says there in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, verse 21. He's going to save his people
by the foolishness of preaching. And it came to pass that the
authors went through the host and commanded the people. You
know what I'm going to say now. The authors went through the
host and commanded the people. The gospel is not an invitation. The gospel is not an invitation,
it's not a request, it's not a suggestion. When the gospel
is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God is speaking
to his people and commanding. God has given commandment to
Satan. He commands his people. And I
want to ask this question, where do these officers get that authority? You know, we the church. I speak
to the church here. You go and preach the gospel
to every creature. That's what that's what you're
about. That's what you're about. You're you're about preaching
the gospel, standing for the truth of the gospel, preaching
it here faithfully. Faithfully, Sunday, Wednesday,
Sunday, Wednesday, you send out tapes, you go, the message goes
out on broadcast, you support missionaries to take the gospel. That's what you're about, preaching
the gospel. Well, where do you get your authority? Where do
you get where these men get their authority? They commanded men
and you command man, you say, repent, you say, believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Where's your authority?
Your authority come from the Baptist Lord. Does your authority
come from the seminary or from confessions of faith? No, your
authority. comes from the same authority
that these men take their authority from, from Joshua, from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Lord said, all power, all
authority is given to me in heaven and earth. Therefore, go ye therefore
into all the world and preach the gospel. After three days,
they went forth commanding the people. Commanding the people. And we go forth and we command
the people. We know his people, he's going
to work on them to be willing. But, you know, he's going to
be they're going to be willing in the day of his power. But
they commanded the people and listen to what listen to what
their message was. After three days, the officers
went through the host and they commanded the people saying,
when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, You're God. When
you see the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, you're God. That's the first thing. And this
is what we pray. This is what we pray for. Lord,
open the eyes of the blind. Give ears to the deaf. Raise the dead. Raise those who
are spiritually dead. Those who are blind spiritually,
give them eyesight. that they may see the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is what we pray when we
preach the gospel. Lord, take your word. Lord, make
it effectual. Lord, honor yourself. Lord, fulfill
your purpose to call out your people from every tongue and
kindred and nation. We preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his person and his work. The Apostle Paul said,
God forbid, that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I came to you. I preach Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We preach this message time and
time again. And I know people come and they
listen and they hear. They hear for a little bit and
they say, well, I'm tired of hearing that. And they go away. But you know what? God's people
are not going to get tired. God's people are not going to
get tired of hearing this. This is their bread. This is their life. This is their life. You go and
preach the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believe. We read that. Well, I didn't read that. And
I was going to read that in Romans, chapter one, verse 16. I want
to go back there again. Romans, chapter one, verse 16. Verse 17, For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. God must be revealed as righteous. God must be righteous. God must be just when he saves
people. When he saves his people, he
must do it in a way that honors his law. His law must be honored. His
justice must be satisfied. And in the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, this is revealed. How that by the Lord Jesus Christ
being made sin for us who knew no sin as our substitute, how
that he in his own body bore our sins on the tree, God's justice
fell on him, the substitute. And they exacted all the demand
of God's law. His justice is satisfied. That's the power of God. It's
the way by which God can save sinner and still be a righteous,
holy, just God. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. But notice it says in
that verse, in Joshua chapter three, it says, Go command the
people, saying, When you see. When you see the Ark of the Covenant,
of the Lord your God. The Ark of the Covenant is a
picture here of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the covenant. His blood is the seal of the
covenant. He is the angel of the covenant.
He is the mediator of that covenant. He is the surety of that covenant.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the one who Received
the people from as a gift from the father. The father gave a
people to the son for before the foundation of the world chosen,
chosen in Christ, gave them to him. The Lord Jesus Christ became
their surety, their their representative, their their safety. He received
him from from the father's hand. And when you see him. And I want
to Talk about this when we preach the gospel, we don't have images
and we don't have crosses and we don't have any of this stuff. But when we preach Christ. We lift we lift him up, we lift
him up before the people that they may see Christ. In order,
Jesus Christ, if I be lifted up. and preaching, we lift Christ
up. We lift him up before the eyes
of the people. You must see him. Now, not with
this carnal eye, not with this carnal mind. The natural man
receives not the things that are of the Spirit of God, cannot
receive it. They're foolishness to him. You
know, many people on that day that the Lord Jesus Christ was
crucified, they saw him. They saw Him lifted up and they
cried, crucify Him, crucify Him. We will not have this man reign
over us. They saw Him as He was on the
cross and dying for His people who did not see the ark of the
covenant, who did not see Christ, who later at Pentecost When the
apostle Peter was preaching and preached the gospel, they saw
the Lord Jesus Christ then. They saw him with the ear. When the gospel went forth and
they were commanded, they saw and they said, men and brethren,
what shall we do? We've crucified the Lord of glory. What shall we do? They saw him.
Now, what I'm saying is that when God gives spiritual eyes,
men see what these natural eyes cannot see. But you must see
him. You must see him. If I be lifted
up, the Lord Jesus Christ said in John, chapter 12. You know. In Acts, chapter 22, if you want
to turn there with me next chapter 22. the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus. The Lord appeared to Saul of
Tarsus on their way to Damascus on the Damascus Road. And you
know the story there. He was blinded. He was knocked
off his horse. And before that, he did not see
the glory the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to do away with that
name. And anybody that believed in
that name. And he had authority to do so.
From the religious authority to go in and persecute. And if
necessary, you know, bring him back in chains. They bed stoned,
Stephen. And the Lord appeared to Saul. He said, Saul, Saul. Why do you persecute me? He said,
Lord, who art thou? He said, I'm Jesus whom you persecute.
And he told him to go in. And he went into the city. And
Ananias said, be there. And a word came from the Lord
to Ananias. I want you to look at chapter
22, verse 12. And one Ananias, a devout man
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me,
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked upon
him and he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee that
thou shouldest know his will and see that just one. That see that just one. We see
the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ.
But you must see His glory. You must see the Lord Jesus Christ. You must see Him for you to desire
Him. You must see in Him all your
soul desires. All your soul needs. Or you will
not come. And so this is what we do when
we preach. We preach Jesus Christ. Who He is. What he came to do
where he is right now. He said, the priest said, when
you see the ark. When you see it, two things will
happen. And when when God's people see
the Lord Jesus Christ and his beauty. When God in mercy reveals
himself to his people, two things will happen. Notice it says there
in our text, in Joshua chapter 3, When you see the ark of the
covenant, the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites
bearing it, then shall you remove from your place and go after
it. What is that speaking of? That's
speaking of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's when you'll repent. That's when you'll repent. You'll
repent from your sins. You'll repent from your sin.
You'll repent even from your righteousness. One who is taught of the Holy
Spirit has no confidence in the flesh. That's the real people
of God have no confidence in the flesh. Repentance does not come by contemplate
the miserable state of our sinfulness. One can agree. I'm bad. I'm a bad sinner. I know I'm
a bad sinner. People may come to you and say,
oh, I'm so bad. I'm so bad. I'm just miserable.
I'm so bad. Somebody could just sit there
and look at themselves and say they're so bad, but that will
never, never produce repentance towards God. They're not quite
bad enough. They're not quite bad enough.
no matter who it is, contemplating their miserable state of sinfulness
in their lives. A lot of people agree they're
bad, but that will not bring about repentance towards God.
And repentance does not come by threat of doom, death, hell. You could look at the Jordan
and say you're going to die in the Jordan. You know, you could
talk about hell and fire and brimstone. That isn't going to
produce repentance either. What produces repentance is when
men see the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the goodness of God, Romans
chapter 2 says, it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. The goodness of God is revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of God. How He in grace
and mercy sent His Son. In love gave His Son to die for
sinners on the cross. It is the grace of God that leads
a man to repentance. And when a man comes and repents,
He repents, like I said, from his sins. He repents from his
thoughts. His thoughts are not God's thoughts.
Man's thoughts are not God's thoughts. Over in Isaiah chapter
55, our Lord said this through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 55 verse 7. Said, let the wicked forsake
his way. There's a way that seems right
to man. There's a saying, I don't know if they said it here, but
there's a saying in Spanish that every man's mind is a different
world. And that's true. Every man's mind is a different
world. And every man's mind is a factory of false gods. And
every man's mind is full of wickedness. Let the wicked forsake his way. He has a way. A man has a way.
But it's not God's way. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, and he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Repentance. Repent of our sins,
repent of our sin, and repent even of our righteousness. Our
righteousness or filthy rag. The man is going to come to understand
that I don't have anything. I'm nobody. I don't know anything. I trust in anything. And come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those things, you cannot have
one without the other. For a person that has repentance
towards God, if God has granted repentance to that man, he's
going to repent. And by the way, God doesn't repent
for us. He grants repentance. But we are the ones that repent.
And he gives faith. But we're the ones that believe.
We believe by the faith that he gives us. He gives us. We go after those. Those are
the two things. When we see the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll leave
our thoughts. We'll leave our thoughts, we'll
leave our ways, and we'll come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the command of the Gospel. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
go after Him. Look unto Me, the Gospel says,
and be ye saved, all you ends of the world, ends of the earth.
Our Lord said, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden. We come to Him. Now, look over
here and Isaiah, I mean, excuse me, in Joshua, Chapter three. When you see the ark of the covenant
of your Lord. Of the Lord, your God and the
priest. Then you shall remove from your
place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between
you and it, about 2000 cubits by measure. Come not near it. that ye may know the way by which
ye must go. For ye have not passed this way
heretofore." Don't come near that. Don't come near the ark. The reason the children of Israel
were saved was because God was in Christ reconciling the world
to Himself. He took our death. He died in
the place of His people. But in this work of redemption,
Man does not have any contribution. On the great day of atonement,
there was only one that went into the holy place. That was the high priest. And
on that day, it was the ark of the covenant that went into that
Jordan first. And when it went into the Jordan,
by the way, I'm not going to get there, but if you'll read
this, the only ones that got their feet wet was a priest that
was carrying that ark. Their feet got wet and the waters
separated, and then they stood on dry ground. But the people
came all over on dry ground. The Lord Jesus Christ, He alone,
He alone tread the winepress of God's wrath. He alone went
to the cross. He alone did this work of salvation. He alone established righteousness.
He alone put away the sins of his people. And everyone, everyone
that comes to God and has access before the Father knows exactly
who got them there. Everybody that went over to Jordan,
they walked by and they saw that ark. As they walked by on dry
ground, the only ones that got their feet wet were the priests,
and the only one who the justice of God fell on was the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, justice is satisfied in
us because we're in Christ. Justice is satisfied on His people
because we are in Christ. But the only one that suffered
the wrath of God was the Lord Jesus Christ. And His people
all come in to glory, all have access to God the Father. But
you don't come this way. Nobody get close to this, because
you don't know the way. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I go to prepare the way for you. You know, He told these religious
people, where I go, you cannot come. Where I go, you cannot
come. And that's true. No man for whom
the Lord Jesus Christ did not lay down His life, they cannot
come to God. They don't have a substitute.
They don't have a savior. He laid down his life for his
sheep. He knows who they are. But he
told his apostles, he said, where I go, you cannot come now. I'm
going first. I'm going to prepare the way.
I go to prepare the way. And Thomas said, we don't know,
by the way. The Lord said, I'm the way, the
truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Well, then it says here in Joshua
chapter 3 and verse 5. Joshua said unto the people,
Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for the Lord Jehovah will do
wonders among you. Separate yourselves. Stand back
and watch. The Lord is going to do wonders.
And the Lord has done wonders. We look back. We look at what
He has done. And He has put away our sins.
He has taken God's wrath and done away with it. Done away
with it. Now He has made peace to the blood of His cross and
made us. We are accepted in the blood. We could come boldly before
the throne of grace. We could come into the presence
of God. And we're, in fact, indeed, sitting in the heavenlies with
our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the
Lord does. When he saves his people, he
commands the gospel to go forth. He shows men in the gospel their
need of a Savior. We're going to know that we're
lost and we know that we don't have any hope outside of Christ.
And he commands his people, when you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
when you see him, come, repent. Repent and come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The Lord has done many wonders
among us. Wonders. You who could not see, now you
can see. You who could not walk, now you can walk. You who could
not believe, now you believe. It's a wonder. The marvel of
the grace of God. May the Lord bless His Word.