Now, once we get to verse one
there in chapter five, the people of Israel have crossed the Jordan. They are in the promised land. And we have noted that the promised
land represents life in Christ. Some say that it represents heaven. Well, heaven is only a part of
life in Christ. They entered the promised land,
which was to be a land of rest, but there were enemies in the
land when they entered. When we are in the presence of
God and our Savior, there will be no enemies. So if we are ever to say that
the land of rest, that is the land of Canaan, if any aspect
of it ever represented heaven, it would be after they had defeated
all their enemies and the land was entirely occupied by the
Jews and they were at rest on every side. Nobody bothered them.
The thing is, in the history of Israel, that never happened.
For various reasons, there were always Gentiles in the land who
tempted them to worship other gods, who tempted them to all
manner of evil. And also, the record is that
they regularly fell to those temptations. Of course, no illustration
of the gospel that's found in the Old Testament, no picture
of Christ found there is perfect. I remember Don Fortner once making
the comment about pictures in the Old Testament, and he illustrated
those illustrations this way. He says, I have a picture in
my wallet of my grandchildren. And he says, now in that picture,
he says, you can see in the background trees, rocks, and a house, and
all this kind of stuff, you know. He said, but that's not what
the picture is. So that's just the background,
that's just the scenery. The picture is the grandchildren. In the same way, when we look
at these illustrations, we are not, or don't need to take note
of every detail in them, as though every detail points to some detail
in Christ and his gospel. So when we look at the promised
land, which was called the land of rest, It was never completely
a land of rest to the people of God, even the ones who through
faith entered it. There was always trouble there.
Nonetheless, it certainly does give a good picture of our life
in Christ in this world, doesn't it? Because we enter rest, and
this is the rest we enter, that we no longer are required to
do any works of righteousness in order to obtain the blessings
of God. That's the rest that we enter.
And that rest can be entered only by faith. And the people proved that when
nearly 40 years before this event, they had come to that same location,
then refused to go in because they did not believe the promise
of God. And that's why the writer of
Hebrews says, be very careful that there is not in you an evil
heart of unbelief in turning from the living God. Notice when
he speaks of the evil heart, he does not so much, does not
list a bunch of the more notable transgressions of which men are
guilty, because lying at the root of all sin And all transgression
is simply unbelief. That's what causes every bit
of it. So, they have crossed over into the
promised land. They did so at the command of
Joshua. They passed through with their
gaze upon the Ark of the Covenant, which was a picture of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. They passed
through the river on dry ground, and now they're on the other
side. Having gotten to the other side and getting ready to begin
the battles which will drive out their enemies from the land,
and thus they would possess it, four things. are done right there
at Gilgal. Four things. Now last week we
took note of this singular fact, which is in verse one, that before
they even started the first battle, the battle had already been won.
Because the kings were terrified of them. and struck with cowardice. They didn't know how to handle
them. They had heard of the things their God had done for them.
That is, the kings of the land had heard what God had done for
the Jews. And so they're terrified of them.
And in that terror, when the battle was actually engaged,
they would end up running. And for you and me, If we've
been saved by the grace of God, we're on the promised land side
of the Jordan. And there's enemies here, but
know this, they have already been defeated. Already. Now, these four things that were
done to, by, and for the people, And this was after they crossed
the Jordan, but before they engaged the first battle. These four
things. And these four things, and I'll
just list them for you. The circumcision of the males,
the celebration of Passover, the celebration of the feast
of unleavened bread, and the cessation of the provision of
manna. All these things happened before
they engaged the first battle. None of them were done in preparation
to enter the land. Now, that's important. These
things, it's not like they were standing on the wilderness side
of the Jordan. And Joshua says, well, the Lord
told me before we can go into the land, we've got to do these
four things. They were done after they were
in the land. There is nothing done in preparation
for the saints of God to enter his rest other than the way into
that rest being made, and then being made known to them. That's
it. That's all it was. They entered
into the land of promise, not because of anything that had
been done to them or by them, but because of what had been
done for them. The Ark of the Covenant, borne
up by the priest. If you want to get a picture
of it, the Ark of the Covenant had these rings on the side of
it, and they would put poles through it. And then the priest
would pick it up by those poles. And that's how they walked through
there. The priest and the Ark itself, all together, represents
Christ, who is our Great High Priest, and is also the God with
whom we have to do. And they went, and the moment
their feet touched the Jordan River, the Jordan River stopped. And judgment came to our Lord
Jesus Christ there on the cross of Calvary, and when it got to
Him, it stopped. It didn't go past Him. And so the Jordan River stopped.
In fact, we read that it stopped about 20 miles upstream. But
once it had stopped, the people went across on dry land. Then
these four things were done. Now verses two through eight
gives us the account of the Lord commanding Joshua to circumcise
the men who had been born in the wilderness. Now there's no
clear reason given for why these men had not already been circumcised
as they were born in the wilderness. Remember that when their parents
had refused to enter the promised land, God says, all right, 20
and up. And that was the age when men
were considered suitable for military service, 20 and up. You will never enter my rest.
You're going to die in the desert. Well, of course, that meant there
were still plenty of them who could have children, and it was
going to take nearly 40 years for all of them to die. So there
were a lot of children born during this time in the wilderness,
but they had not been circumcised. That is, the boys had not been
circumcised, even though the law demanded it. And while the
Bible does not give a reason, there are some who have speculated,
some have speculated that the people felt themselves unworthy
to do this because they were wandering in the wilderness because
of unbelief. But that explanation's rather
unlikely, for the Jewish people were not known for their humility.
Remember when our Lord Jesus Christ came, the biggest problem
that all of their leaders were completely eaten up In particular, the Jewish nation
thought themselves to be better than all the other nations, not
understanding that God's choice of them as the nation through
whom Messiah would come is not because they were better than
others. It was a pure act of His sovereign
grace. That's all it was. Others have
said that because after circumcision some healing time is needed,
And the people were constantly moving from place to place. They
didn't do that because it wouldn't be suitable for anybody to try
to travel, having been recently circumcised. But that doesn't
make sense either. The law said they were to be
circumcised at eight days old. Whether they're moving or not
moving meant nothing to eight-year-old boys. Because no matter what
the Jews were doing, they were being held. So that doesn't explain
why the Jews did not circumcise their sons while in the wilderness.
But there is a reason that we might take note of. To me, it's
plausible. It's very simply this. They were
unbelievers. Remember, it was through unbelief
they did not enter the land. God had sworn in his wrath that
they would never enter his rest. Therefore, they likely considered
themselves as having been cut off from the covenant. And circumcision was a sign of
that covenant and participation in it. That's how they saw it. So they probably said, well,
we're not part of the covenant. Why bother keeping the ritual? This only served to prove the
evil of their unbelieving hearts. Yes, circumcision was a command
in the old covenant, but circumcision preceded the old covenant. It was instituted during the
time of Abraham, and it was given as a seal or sign of the covenant
of promise, not the covenant of the law. They were not believers in promise. Remember, the Lord promised them
that he would defeat their enemies before them. He promised them
that he was going to give them that land, but they didn't enter. They're not believers in promise.
They were believers in works. Therefore, when they heard about
all the enemies in the land, their thought was, I cannot accomplish
what is necessary to drive out the enemies. And so they didn't
go in. Therefore, God sworn His wrath.
They'd never entered His rest. They think, well, I guess we're
not part of the covenant. And they didn't realize that
even those circumcisions commanded in the law It was part and parcel
of the covenant of promise made to Abraham, which looked not
toward a piece of real estate. It involved that, but even Abraham
understood there was something greater in mind than simply owning
real estate in the Middle East. They had sinned willfully after
having received the knowledge of the truth, so they felt cut
off entirely from any connection from God. They were legalists. Now here's the interesting thing
about legalists. Legalists do the works they do
only if there is a reward for doing them. You take away the
reward, they'll quit doing the works. Well, God had said, you're
never entering my rest. That was the reward. So what
do they do? Why bother with any of the rest
of this? If I'm not going to get something out of my obedience,
I'm not going to obey. and they just dumped the entire
covenant. In fact, what's interesting,
evidently, they never observed the Passover or any other feast
and stuff that had been commanded in the law. They wouldn't do
any of it. Why? They were legalists, and legalists
only do when there is a reward to be gained from the obedience. Now, a believer, he is happy to do. By that I mean a believer, he
wants to do the things that God has said we should do. Now he
doesn't always get it done, but he wants to. And he wants to
not because there's a reward for it. Why? He's already got
all the reward. Now you think of it, there's
nothing more for him to gain than what he already has through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a thing. then why is he willing
to do the work? Because it's what he loves. Doing good, doing right, he loves
that. And his flesh, he still loves
all the other stuff too, so he's a mess inside. Nonetheless, believers
seek to do what is right, not in order to gain a blessing by
it, because they've already got all the blessings, They do it
because they have been given a nature that loves those things. You know, you don't have to offer
me a reward for eating a good medium rare steak. If you'll
eat this steak, I'll give you $10. Forget the $10, just give
me the steak. I like the steak. And if you ever find me refusing
such a stake, you can say, something's wrong with Joe today. That's
not like him. Now, legalists will do the things
they hate, the things they don't want to do, and they do it because
they believe there'll be a reward for it. But the same thing the legalist
hates, the believer loves. And he does it not because there's
a reward waiting for doing it. He's already got all the reward.
Some say it's from gratitude, and I can understand that, except
that even gratitude can be kind of a mercenary thing. Okay, he
treated me good, I guess I'm going to have to act like he
wants me to. But believers want to do that. They've been given
a nature. There is no other motivation
outside of the fact that God, having made them new, They do
have desires different from what they had before. Now, they have
all the old ones too. I feel I always got to say that
because I guess I remember being told, you know, that if you get
saved, you know, you won't want to be with your old friends anymore,
you'll want to get new friends, and you won't want to do that,
you'll want to do this. Well, I'm sorry. That's just
not the way it is. Nearly everything you did before
you met Christ, you're going to still want to do it afterwards. But there will be added to that
new spiritual principles which guide you away from selfish fleshly
things toward loving spiritual things. Now since the Scriptures are
silent on what motivated the Jews to fail to follow the law
of circumcision. Any reason we give is going to
be, at the best, speculation. And you can say, well, it's more
or less plausible that that's what, in their own minds, kept
them from doing it. However, we may see a good explanation
for why the Lord caused that to happen. That is, when I say,
what did he cause to happen? That nobody would be circumcised
while in the wilderness. Remember this, whatever men do,
God caused it to happen. And he caused it for a reason. And knowing what is likely the
reason that God kept them from practicing these things, in particular
the circumcision and the two feasts, Feast of the Passover
and Feast of Unleavened Bread, why God kept them from doing
that in the wilderness. There's a good lesson to be learned
from it, and it's this. if the people had crossed into
the land of promise, circumcised, having been faithful in the administration
of that right, they might have been led to believe that it was
their obedience to that command that had gained them entry into
the land. Now you think about it, and wouldn't
it likely have been true Just imagine all those who had just
been youngsters at the time of the rebellion. Now almost 40 years
has gone by, and you have a whole new generation. In fact, there's
a couple of generations in there. And if they had been faithful,
if the Jewish people had been faithful to follow the commands
of the law, all during that time. They would have got to the edge
of Jordan there and said, okay, it's right over there. It's ours,
boys. It's ours, let's go in. We've been faithful. We did what
he said. We got a right to the land. And
you know something? That would have been every bit
as much an act of unbelief as that rebellion that their parents
and grandparents participated in some 40 years earlier. Unbelief
has more than one face. Some unbelief simply ignores
the promises of God. Other unbelief expresses itself
in an attempt to grasp the blessings of God by your own works and
faithfulness. That's horrible unbelief. That's
some of the most difficult unbelief to overcome. When people think
they have a right to the blessings of God based on what they've
done, it's awfully hard to convince them. No, that's not the way
it is. You haven't done anything good anyway. What are you telling
me? The only way in to the blessing,
the rest of God, is through faith that relies not even a little
upon yourself, but entirely upon the work of God accomplished
in Christ Jesus. If God had allowed them to be
faithful in keeping the old covenant demands, they would have been
so proud of themselves during that time that they likely would
have thought that they deserved to go in. The Jews, now listen
to this, I think this is very important. It'll have a great
spiritual application. The Jews entered the land of
promise without a single mark upon them to indicate that they
were indeed the people of God or had any warrant to enter the
land. other than the ark of God's covenant
standing in the midst of the river, making a way for them
to enter. If you had looked at the Jews
gathered there on the east side of the Jordan, preparing to enter,
you looked at them, and then you looked at the people on the
other side of the river, the Canaanites, the Amorites, and
all of that, you would look, And you wouldn't have been able
to tell the difference. There was nothing about those Jews
to indicate that God would bless them. And there's nothing about God's
elect, when you look at them as to what they are in the flesh,
nothing about them indicates that they are God's chosen people.
and that the blessings will be given to them. That is the most difficult spiritual
principle, I believe, for people to grasp. You hear people at funerals,
and I've learned over the years, don't take people's statements
at funerals at face value. People that know better say some
things they shouldn't say. especially with regard to their
mother. If anybody gets to heaven, mom will. I hope you had a good mom. I
hope she was just wonderful to you. If she's in heaven, that
had nothing to do with it. Nothing. There's nothing to be seen in
a natural person that would indicate that they have a right to enter
in to God's rest. And if there's nothing to be
seen, then let's quit looking for it. This is one of the deceptions
of the devil, that there is some sort of preparation needed before
a sinner is able to enter God's rest in Christ. Now it's true
that no one will enter God's rest unless they are born again. And because of that, there are
the agents of the devil who will say, well, You know, you can't
just believe this. You've got to wait until you
experience this or experience that. And these experiences that
they say must happen, and you be sensible that they happened,
may vary from person to person, from preacher to preacher. Some
of them will say it's a certain level of sorrow over sin. You've
got to understand how great your sins and miseries are. I beg
your pardon, not a person on earth knows how great their sins
are. Not a person on earth knows how great the misery is that
awaits them. I shouldn't say not a person
alive. Our Lord knows. Because He felt every bit of
it. He experienced our misery. He bore the weight of our sins.
So He knows. We never know. And if we did,
we couldn't take it. Now, I've said several times,
I really don't know what hell is. Because I believe all the
descriptions given of it, or all the descriptions given in
the scriptures, are primarily symbolic. Just like heaven can't
be described, neither can hell. But I think this must be a part
of it, that you actually do come to know how great your sins and
miseries are. But then it's too late, nothing
you can do about it. Some say you must have some unusual
and even mysterious experience or revelation before you can
believe that you have a right to enter. Therefore, since we see in the
Jews that there was nothing about them that would, that is, when they're
on the east side of the river, before they cross, you can't
see anything about them that would say they have a right to
the land and the ones living there don't. They have a right to cross, nobody
else, you can't see it in them. Therefore, we conclude that the
warrant for any sinner to enter God's rest in Christ consists
of these things, and it's kind of all one thing, but you can
divide it into parts. First of all, it consists in
the fact that a way into God's rest has been made, that Christ
has called, and this is in Matthew 11, 28, Christ has called the
weary and the burden to come to Him. He's called them. and
there must be the ability to see and understand the testimony
of God's grace in Christ, which was symbolized in the Jordan
by that Ark of the Covenant being there. In other words, all that
it takes, the only warrant necessary for a sinner to enter God's rest
is that there be a way made and that they know that way. And you know, that's what we
do as preachers, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who
testify. We're saying, here's the way,
go. Well, I don't know if I've been, you know, I don't know
my sins enough. Well, you see that, Jordan? Water's piled up. There's a testimony of what your
sin will bring you. Is that enough? You see, all
that you have to know about your sin is it's greater than you
can handle. That's as much as your sin as
you need to know. For example, how much do I have
to know of my disease before I'll go to a doctor? I have to
know enough to realize it's bigger than I can handle. Then you go
to the doctor. Okay? You don't have to spend
years, months, or even days in a state of abject misery. All you have to know is, I'm
a sinner and I will be eternally lost apart from Christ. That's it. That's as far as it
has to go. Nothing more is required than
a way being made and then a sinner being made to know what the way
is. They say, well, what about the
new birth? Well, they won't be able to know what the way is
apart from the new birth. But that is the only proof of
a work of grace in the heart of a sinner. I heard a preacher
preach two-thirds of a good message, because his first two points
were, The wages of sin is death. The next one is the gift of God
is eternal life. And then he ruined it all by saying, so the
question is, has God done a work of grace in your heart? And I
was so disappointed because I'd been enjoying the message up
till then. The only way for you to know that God has done a work
of grace in your heart is for you. to believe the promise,
to trust Christ and go to Him. That's the only evidence. Everyone
that has heard and learned of the Father, says the Lord Jesus
Christ, comes to me. That's the evidence of a work
of grace in the heart. So you don't look for a work
of grace in your heart before you come to Christ, because coming
to Christ is the only evidence there is that there's been a
work of grace in the heart. Does that make sense to you?
And I ask you that because I don't know that I always get it out
in a way that makes sense to someone else. I understand it,
I'm not sure I'm saying it right. Nothing more is required. If
you can see the promised land of God's rest in Christ, if you
can see the way into the land, the way made by our priest, bearing
the testimony of his sacrifice in the midst of judgment, and
if you hear the call of the heavenly Joshua, calling you to rest in
the preaching of the gospel, then come and don't wait for
anything. I exhort you to come, and I also
know this. If those things are true of you, if you can see the way, if you
can see Christ as the high priest, as he bears our sacrifice in
the midst of judgment, then I know this, you will come. You will. Because you cannot
see those things and understand them with the heart unless you've
been born again. And if you've been born again,
the life of the Spirit in you will compel you. I hate to say
compel because that sounds like force. But let me just illustrate
it. proves I'm quite the romantic. When I saw my wife for the first
time, nobody had to force me to do anything. The greater part
of the work was in keeping me away. But I couldn't not have her. And the person who has seen Christ
in all his glorious saviorhood, you can't stop him. You can't
stop her from coming to Christ. Well, we'll stop there.