Joshua chapter 3. Forty years and one month had
passed since Israel had been delivered from Egypt by the mighty
hand of God and what a mighty deliverance it was. God had sent
upon Egypt one horrible plague after another, but it was the
death of the firstborn of those without the blood applied that
broke the hardened heart of Pharaoh and caused him to let God's people
go. And it's the same in our day.
We sing the hymn, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can
wash away our sins, but the blood of Jesus Christ. And nothing
else, Almighty, can deliver chosen sinners from their bondage of
sin. What a picture Egypt is of our
bondage and sin in this world in which we live. Egypt represents
the world. We're in bondage to sin. And
unless God deliver us with a mighty hand, we'll remain that way. But now the day has come for
Joshua to be magnified as we saw last time. And now the time
had come when the realization of the promise would be fulfilled. The day had come after 40 years
of wandering in the wilderness. Now the day has come to enter
into what God had promised. And the Lord said to Joshua in
verse seven, this day will I begin to magnify thee. God's chosen
people had been kept to this very hour. Many of their family
members perished in the wilderness in their unbelief, the scripture
says. But those whom the Lord loves unto the end, he keeps
unto the end. And Israel is now about to cross
over Jordan's river into the land of promise. And this was
a land that was inhabited by nations that hated Israel and
their God. And I'm sure the words of the
spies still echoed in their minds, the 10 spies that is, not Joshua
and Caleb, but I'm sure that still resonated in their mind
a bit. These cities are highly walled
and invincible, and there's giants in this land, but nothing's too
hard for God. There awaits for them on the
other side a vast number of people who are doomed to fall by the
hand of the God that they hate. And this is much more than just
a story, dear friends. This is a warning. It's a warning
to all who reject the only just God and Savior with whom sinners
have to do. I'm reminded of those words in
Hebrews that says of how much sore punishment. Suppose ye shall
he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of
God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he
was sanctified an unholy thing. and hath done despite into the
spirit of grace. Vengeance belongs unto the Lord,
and it's he who will recompense. Oh yes, it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. And to those who
reject his son, there's nothing but a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour all of his
people's adversaries. Now, will Israel themselves defeat
their enemies? No, the Lord God omnipotent will. He had told them, I'm giving
you this land and I'll drive out all your enemies. And that's
exactly what he was gonna do, as we'll see in future studies. What will Israel themselves do?
Well, we saw it last time. They will stand still in Jordan
and see the salvation of the Lord. What does the Lord through
Joshua command them to do? Look at verse nine. And Joshua
said unto the children of Israel, come hither and hear the words
of the Lord your God. Now, how will Israel be delivered
from their enemies? They'll come and they'll hear
the words of the Lord, their God. That's how every sinner
is saved, hearing the word of God. How do we come? Not by moving,
but by standing still. Where do we stand? In Jordan.
Representing our death in Christ, we come by standing still in
the message of Christ and Him crucified. We love to hear that
story of how Christ died for those that God gave him before
the foundation of the world. That's our only hope. He died. He who kept the law perfectly,
he who satisfied God's justice died in the room instead of those
who couldn't. The Psalmist David sung, come
and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath
done for my soul. Psalm 66, 16. And that's what
preaching is. It's telling sinners what God
has done for us in Christ, showing them from this book what God
does for sinners. It's a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came in the world
to save sinners. Thou shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. Isaiah the prophet
said, incline your ear and come unto me here, and your soul shall
live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Now, if you
don't come, you won't hear. And if you don't hear, you won't
come. Christ said, come unto me and
I'll give you rest. And that's where true comfort,
rest, and assurance is found in coming to Christ. You look up that word assurance
in a dictionary, especially a thesaurus dictionary, and it's defined
as self-assurance, self-confidence, belief in oneself, faith in oneself,
and self-reliance. And that's the definition for
assurance that the world gives. And the world surely believes
those things. But for the child of God, it's
just the opposite. Our assurance, our confidence,
our belief, our faith, and our reliance is in and on the Lord
Jesus Christ and nowhere else. Just the opposite of what this
world says it is. Now, what is the message that
God delivers through Joshua? Look at verse 10. And Joshua
said, hereby you shall know. You see, salvation is knowing
some things. And it's being those things that
we know are revealed to us by God. And Joshua said, hereby
you shall know that the living God is among you. Now this is
something that God makes all his people to know. Salvation
is knowing. What will Israel know? They'll
know through the preaching of Joshua. What is Joshua's message? To know that the living God is
among you. He's with you. The living God
is with you. And that's what gives the believer
comfort and rest and assurance. Knowing that the living God is
with us. Israel's God is a living God.
He's not a dead idol like the gods of the enemies against Israel. A dead God or a dead idol cannot
save, but a living God can. Now I want you to hold your place
here and look over at Psalm 115 with me. You know this passage
of Psalm 115. Scripture very well, but I want
us to look at it in light of these things. Psalm 115, we'll
come back to Joshua 3. Here the heathen idols are contrasted
with the living God. Big difference, big, big difference. And I believe it's very appropriate
that the psalmist here begins this psalm the way that he did.
In verse one, immediately, he says, not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy
truth's sake. Immediately, we see that dead
sinners cannot save themselves. All glory goes to God, and this
is why, because of his mercy. and because of his truth sake. He gives the mercy that the enlightened
sinner seeks for, and he's faithful to his promises of truth that
he gives. That would be the only assurance
that Israel would find on this day in our story, that the living
God was with them, and that he would do all that he said he
would do. Now we can do nothing to save
ourselves, and since we can do nothing to save ourselves, there's
no glory for us to receive. So immediately we see not unto
us is any glory given. Why? Because we can't do anything
to save ourselves. It's unto God's name that glory
is given. Glory is given to God for his
mercy and his truth, say, and salvation is of the Lord and
only of the Lord. Now verse two, wherefore should
the heathen say, where is now their God? Now these ungodly
nations who worshiped idols and claimed their idols to be true
gods seem to think that because the people of God are afflicted
and appear to be forsaken that they must worship a false God.
And that's what they're saying here. I don't know what's going
on with Israel or with the people of God when this psalm was written,
but something is. And they assume that the God
of Israel, the God of David, the living God, is somehow destitute
of power or faithfulness, or that He does not exist at all,
and therefore cannot be relied upon. But they assume wrong. They ask, where is your God?
Where is your God? He does not come forth to your
defense. Where is He? He cannot be trusted. And he
not only can, friends, be trusted, but he must be. Such language
is used by the enemies of God, enemies of God's people, when
they assume that we're in distress and forsaken, but it's not so. Christ will never leave or forsake
his gospel or his people. Matter of fact, in Psalm 42,
verse 10, David wrote, as with a sword in my bones, my enemies
reproach me. How do they reproach you, David?
They say daily unto me, where is thy God? Where's your God,
David? But our Lord is with us always,
even unto the end of the world. And that's his promise. And it's
the truth. And that's the very thing the
chief priests, scribes, and elders said as they mocked our Lord
on Calvary's cross. He saved others. Himself, he
cannot save. If he be the King of Israel,
King of the Jews, let him now come down from the cross, and
we'll believe him. He trusted in God. Let him, God,
deliver him now, if he will have him. What blasphemous word. For He did say, I am the Son
of God. Where is His God now? But here in Psalm 115 verse three,
the psalmist is quick to answer the question. And every child
of God is. Where is our God? He's in the
heavens. He's done and He still does whatsoever
He hath pleased, because He's the living God. He's a sovereign
God. He rules and He reigns and He
governs all things after the counsel of His own will. That's
what the true living God does, whatsoever He's pleased to do.
Well, what about the idols of the heathen? Verse four, their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have
mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but
they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat, and they that make them are likened to them, and so is
everyone that trusteth in them." Now, I know today men and women
say ignorant things like, God has no mouth but your mouth,
and God has no hands but your hands, and no feet but your feet,
but they're talking about a little G-God. And he's nothing more
than an idol. He's nothing more than what the
psalmist describes for us here. And they that worship them are
just like them. They're dead. They're dead. Now back in our text in Joshua
chapter three, verse 10, We read, and Joshua said, hereby
you shall know that the living God is among you. Our God's a
living God. I wanna reiterate that as much
as I can. He's not a dead idol. He's a living God. And he is
among you. that he will not fail to drive
out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Habites
and the Perizzites and the Gergesites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. And when we come and hear the
truth of the Bible, friends, by the grace of God, we begin
to know some things. God begins to enlighten the child
of God. God begins to teach us some things. And first we know that the living
God is among us. He said, I'll be their God, and
they shall be my people. Fear not, for I am with thee.
Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. And
secondly, the child of God will know that God will not fail you. Oh Lord, help me to believe that
more and more. He will not fail us. He's promised. He's promised. Now all seven of these ungodly
nations are mentioned here in this verse. And this is to assure
God's chosen people that they shall have deliverance from all
their enemies. Every single one of them. He
said, I'll drive this one out and that one out. He names them
all. And I think about the Lord doing that for us and our enemies. Sin is driven out. Oh, you think
about that for a minute. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world, the sin of his people in the world.
That's what John said when the Lord came to be baptized. Behold the Lamb of God. This
is the man, this is the one. He's the God man. He's the one
that's gonna put away your sin. Sin is driven out. The works
of the law are driven out. The Lord said, think not that
I have come to destroy the law. I am come not to destroy, but
to fulfill. When Christ fulfilled the works
of the law for us, it was driven out from before us. No longer
does it hang over the believer's head in order to keep. Why? Because
Christ has fulfilled it. Christ has kept it for us. What
about condemnation? Condemnation has been driven
out. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. It's been driven out. Death and
the grave have been driven out. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is Christ
that does the delivering from our enemies. He's the one that
drives them out. The world's been driven out.
Our Lord prayed, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out
of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil in the
world. Driven out, dead to this world,
the believer is. And we've been delivered from
ourselves. I think sometimes, personally,
that's our greatest enemy, ourselves. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul
said. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And then he answered his own
question, and he said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. It always comes back to that.
It always comes back to him. It's God that causes us to hear.
It's God that causes us to know. And it's God that causes us to
come. Assurance, my, we can have full
confidence and assurance in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what Joshua's telling Israel here in our text. And I believe
assurance is a subject worth addressing. I want some assurance,
don't you? I wanna have confidence in that
I'm saved and that I know God. And the Word of God declares
that God's people have it. Let me read just a couple, three
verses to you. Isaiah 32, 17. And the work of
righteousness shall be peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. Forever. You know, every now
and ever so often, we get that quietness and that assurance.
And then what do we do? We just, we throw it away. forget
that God's provided it for us. It's forever. Colossians 2.2,
I read this passage in the beginning, that their hearts might be comforted
being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of
the Father and of Christ and whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Assurance. Hebrews 10, 22. Let us draw near with the true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Our assurance
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other place. No other
place can this assurance be found. Assurance is born of faith in
Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
the Word of God. And Joshua says, come and hear
the Word of the living God. The living God is among you.
The living God has promised to do good things for you. And we
know that all things work together for the good of them that love
the Lord, who are to be called according to His purpose. He
who works all things after the counsel of His own will purpose
to work all things for good, for His people. And we have great
assurance of that. Why? Because God promised. He's faithful. They promised. Who are we gonna hear the gospel
from? We're gonna hear it from Joshua. We're gonna hear it from
our Lord Jesus Christ. We say this all the time, never
grow tired of hearing it, never grow tired of saying it. Faith's
the gift of God. Any gift that God gives is freely
given. It's not contingent on the recipient. It's not accomplished by the
recipient. It's a gift freely given. If it was dependent upon us,
it would cease to be free, and it would cease to be a gift.
A gift cannot be earned. You cannot purchase it. You don't
pay for a gift. You don't deserve a gift. If
you deserved a gift, you'd have something to do with it. Grace
is a gift of God, and so is faith. We're saved by grace through
faith, but that's not a work that we ourselves have done or
that we can boast in. And according to what Joshua
says in verse 10, assurance is knowing. It's knowing that the
living God is among us. It's knowing that the living
God cannot fail. And it's knowing that God will
defeat all your enemies, all the ones I just mentioned. Sin,
what a great enemy. Gonna drive it out. We're gonna
be conformed to His perfect image. Now here's the gospel, and this
is how salvation is obtained, verse 11. Behold, the ark of
the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. passeth over before
you into Jordan. Now you chew on those words for
a little, and may God be pleased to show us what they mean. How do we know that the living
God is among us? How do we know that the living
God will deliver us? Behold the Ark of the Covenant. Behold the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our message. It's been
the message of the gospel for ages and ages, since the beginning
of time. The Ark of the Covenant is none
other than Jesus Christ Himself. And when you behold Christ, you
can have assurance. But if you get your eyes on yourself,
you won't. But if you can, by His grace,
keep your eyes on Him, you'll have great assurance. Now, how
does the Ark of the Covenant picture Christ? Well, first,
by what was in it. First, there was that gold pot
of manna. Christ is the manna from above.
Christ is the bread of life. That's talking about Him. The
second thing that was in the Ark of the Covenant was Aaron's
rod that budded. You know, a staff, you know,
a rod, Aaron's rod. It was a cut off branch. It was just a dead branch, but
it budded. It budded. Only God can give
a dead branch life, and Christ is the vine, and we're the dead
branches. And without Christ, we're dead
and we can do nothing, but when we're grafted into the vine, we have newness of life, and
this dead branch buds. Also in the Ark of the Covenant
was the broken tables of the law. They've been kept by Christ. Christ has fulfilled them. In
Christ, the law has been kept. In Christ, God's justice has
been satisfied. This is about Christ. He's the
Ark of the Covenant. And even the lid on the top of
the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat. Christ is our mercy
seat. He's the mercy seat upon which
the sacrifices were made. Christ is the sacrifice. Christ
is the high priest that made the sacrifice. Truly, Jesus Christ
is all in all. Behold the ark. Behold the ark. You must look
outside of yourself and look to Christ alone. He's our assurance. Our assurance isn't baseless.
Our assurance is that Christ has passed over before us, isn't
it? God has accepted His finished
work. And He's passed over before us.
And God accepts us in Him. What do you have to do? Stand
still and behold the Ark of the Covenant. Behold the Lord Jesus
Christ. Stand still, don't do anything,
don't work, but believe. on Christ and His finished work. The salvation that gives the
believer confidence and assurance is a salvation that's already
been accomplished. It's finished. And my assurance
is that Christ has died and finished my salvation. Nothing left for
me to do. We have been accepted one way,
and that's in the Beloved. That's in the Ark of the Covenant.
And if we behold Him, everything's gonna be fine. Beholding Him,
I enter into Jordan, and I stand still, knowing that I enter into
the death that He died, and that I was buried with the death that
He experienced, and I have the resurrected life that He lives, by my union with Him. Those things
are mine. I rest because He rests. He's
seated at the right hand of God. He's seated. He's not up there
wringing His hands, walking to and fro, trying to get you to
do something to be saved. It's finished. He's seated. His
work is done. Salvation's accomplished in Him
for me and for you. I know the living God is with
me because as I look to Christ, the ark of the covenant of all
the earth, I see that He's done for me what I could not do for
myself. Aren't you glad you see that?
The law requires perfection. I can't provide it. The law requires
perfect righteousness. I can't provide it. The law requires
holiness. I can't provide it. But he provided
it for me. And it's mine. It's mine. Oh
my, it's mine. The basis of this knowledge is
beholding Christ. Beholding the ark was the only
source of motivation that the nation of Israel needed to enter
the land of promise. It was the only motivation they
needed to cross over Jordan. You know, we live in a day where
many are motivated by the concept of rewards. Do this and you'll
get that. Others are motivated by the false
notions that they'll become what they aren't by diligently working
to obtain a righteousness that they can themselves not achieve. That's up. Some are motivated
by the fear of being guilty and condemned, so they endeavor harder
to produce a righteousness done by their own hand and work. But the child of God is motivated
by one thing and one thing only, and that's beholding the Ark
of the Covenant. That's beholding the Lamb of
God. Behold the Lamb of God. That
was John's message, and that's our message. God's people are
motivated by beholding Jesus Christ. Now the children of God
are going to walk through the waters of Jordan on dry land
while the waters stood up in a heap. Look at verse 13. And
it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the
priests 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 a heap. 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 bear the Ark were coming to Jordan and the feet
of the priests that bear the Ark were dipped in the brim of
the water. For Jordan overflow with all its banks all the time
of harvest. That the waters which came down
from above, that's speaking of the mountains, stood and rose
up upon a heap very far from the city of Adam, and that is
beside Zeritan, 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 Jericho. And the priest that bared the
ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm, stood firm on dry
ground, in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed
over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean
over Jordan." That just jumped out to me, clean. When they passed
over, they were clean. When you and I pass over, we're
going to be clean, that's for sure. Now, just a couple observations
in closing. At the time of harvest, the River
Jordan was never broader and deeper. And the current of the
river was never any stronger than it was this time of year.
It says there at the end of verse 15, I emphasize it a little bit,
for Jordan overflowed all its banks at the time of harvest.
Harvest time was the time of the year when the melting of
the snow in Lebanon's mountains ran downhill as water does. and
caused the banks of Jordan to overflow with great force as
the current pushed that water downstream. Have you ever been
in the mountains? I've been in the Smoky Mountains
before after a big rain. And you know those streams, small
rivers, whatever you want to call them, that come down out
of the mountains. Why, they come down with such
force. Because that rain in the mountains
is flowing down. The current is strong. And it's
the same way when the snow begins to melt in the mountains. After a big snow and they begin
to melt, the streams do the same thing. Well, the question here
is, is why would the Lord have Israel to cross over Jordan at
this treacherous time? Well, the answer is simple. So
that they'd trust him. So they'd trust him and look
to Christ. And it's the same, dear brothers
and sisters, God's gonna prove to us that we can and we must
trust Him when troubles and trials and tribulations are at their
strongest and at their broadest and at their deepest. When God
melts this fleshly, cold, snowy heart of mine and begins to dissolve
All these natural things of the world in a believer's heart.
That's often when our deepest and broadest trials come. Let
the banks of Jordan be filled to the brink. Let them be filled
until they run over, because God Almighty can stop them and
drive them up. Look to the Ark of the Covenant.
Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We sung the song in the beginning.
I picked those songs out and those hymns out on purpose. From
every stormy wind that blows, from every swelling tide of loneliness,
there is a calm, a sure retreat. It's found between them, found
beneath, excuse me, the mercy seat. That's Christ. He's our
mercy seat. All that Israel needed for success
and entrance into the land of promise was provided for them.
That's our message again and again. All that God requires
of us is his people. He provides for us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The force and the current of
the raging river Jordan that flowed down from the melting
snow of Lebanon's mountains, picturing our trials sent from
above. stopped immediately, and began
to run back the other way. It takes a miracle of God to
do so. Now look at the end of verse
13. And the waters of Jordan shall
be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they
shall stand upon a heap, an invisible dam, so to speak, provided a
mound of dry ground for them to stand on. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other grounds wet, sinking sand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow,
for I will be with thee, thy trouble to bless, and sanctify
to thee thy deepest distress. Solomon said, the king's heart,
is in the hand of the Lord. And as the rivers of water, He,
God, turneth it. The water and the heart, He turns
them both. Withersoever He will. All things
are in His hand. All things. He's the Lord of
heaven and earth. And that's what gives us peace,
rest, and assurance. May God be pleased to make it
so, for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake.