I was talking to a couple of
the men this morning about a mistake I made. Have you ever sent a
text to someone you did not intend to send it to? I sent a text to someone I did
not intend to receive that text. I sent a text to a friend of
mine. about not having services on Wednesday night and having
services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And I didn't
discover my error until yesterday afternoon. So I wrote to my friend
and said, I apologize for sending you that text. It was not intended
for you. And he wrote back these words.
I took no offense. I wish I could find my faith
again. And I said to myself, self, I'm
going to visit this young man with more open door than I've
ever had before. So it wasn't a mistake. It was
on God's purpose. I would that you would pray for
this young man. He's just a friend. Now, most people in this town
do not know, or a lot of people do not know that I'm a pastor.
Do you ever find the Lord Jesus stepping into a crowd and saying,
I'm the Messiah. I pastor, blah, blah, blah. You know, I don't
find that. He went into a crowd. He acted
like he always acted and just simply was generous and kind
and preached the truth. And some were able to hear it.
I told a barber one time after she found out I was a pastor,
she says, oh no. And she says, why? I says, you're
going to treat me differently now. Oh, I won't. And it wasn't two seconds and
she was telling me all the good things she does in her neighborhood.
Anyway, let's go to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter four,
happy. Father's Day. I was going to
go to the book of Numbers but there were two verses in this
chapter that jumped out at me as I was reading and I just want
to use this. The book of Joshua chapter 4.
Now the book of Joshua chapter 4 is the conclusion of what we're
going through in the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers
is the beginning of a 40 year trail of tears. Forty years, 38 years they spend
wandering around in the wilderness because God sent 10 spies, 12
spies into the land to spy it out and 10 of them came back
with an evil report and two who knew something, knew that God
was able to deliver them under any circumstances. And it seems
that they seem to be the only ones. Moses understood that.
Joshua and Caleb understood that. Maybe a few more, but most of
them did not understand that. And the Lord's commission to
them was, you're going to wander around until this whole generation
has passed away. And the book of Hebrews shares
with us that these all died in unbelief. They did not believe
God. And when you don't believe God,
that turns us into unbelievers. And unbelievers are not on favorable
terms with God. That young man shared with me
in that text, I wish I could have my faith. And there's the
problem right there. Our faith is worthless. Our faith
will not sustain us. Our faith will not carry us through.
Our faith will be burdened down. Our faith, when it's struck by
tests and trials, will crumble. But the faith of Jesus Christ
is eternal and will always carry us through. He has promised to
carry his people through, and that's what he's doing. Well,
here in the book of Joshua chapter 4, the children of Israel, after
all of that stuff had gone on, come up to the Jordan River,
and the Jordan River is at flood stage. The Lord is very clear
to state that. that this is just not a little
trickling brook that they're going to step over, but the Jordan
River is quite a river. In fact, it is at flood stage
when this all happens. The children of Israel get to
go through on dry land, a miracle of God. If you've ever been around
creeks and they're dry, that's a miracle. When they're running
full, you can get into the mud. Well, here in the Book of Joshua
Chapter 4, it begins and says, ''And it came to pass when all
the people were clean passed over.'' You know what that tells
me? Everyone that God has chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world is going to pass through this world and enter
into glory. Everyone. Not one will be lost. Not one will end up and wonder. I heard a song this last week.
You're sure my name's not written down in the book? The brother that shared that
with me, it was a spoof. It was just a spoof. What people
will write and put into a song and people will buy that song
or go listen to that song when the Bible is very clear that
it is the Lord that wrote them down and the people who stand
before God know instantly. Before God, they know instantly
that if their name is in there, they're welcome. And if their
name is not there, it was never there. Well, here they clean
passed over Jordan that the Lord spake unto Joshua saying, take
you 12 men. out of the people, out of every
tribe a man, we have representation. Somebody from every tribe is
going to be asked to come up and there is a task to do. Command ye them saying, take
you hints out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where
the priest's feet stood firm, 12 stones. Now, you look this
word up, it means building stones, 12 building stones, and ye shall
carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place
where ye shall lodge this night. Now, there's going to be a campground.
Can you imagine all of these folks passing over the Jordan
River? They've been camping in their distinctive places as they've
traveled through the wilderness in the Old Testament. There was
those tribes on the east, those tribes on the west, those tribes
on the north, those tribes on the south, and it was a very
orderly place that they met. Now, after passing over, we're
going to have them in a camping spot. This is where those 12
men are to carry these 12 building stones and place them where they're
camping. They want him close. Let's read
on here. And Joshua called the men whom
he had prepared. What does that tell us? Joshua
already knew who he was going to call. Joshua was not well, rubbing his hands together, wonder
what's going to go happen. Joshua called the 12 men whom
he had prepared of the children of Israel out of every tribe
a man. how often the Lord instructs
us through his words about his great purpose and how he performs
his purpose. He is directly involved in every
step of our salvation. That young man that we read about
there this morning, that lost son, the father was in direct
knowledge of everything that was going on about him. The Heavenly
Father is directly observing everything that is going on in
every instance that is in the lives of all his people everywhere
all at the same time and nothing catches him off guard. Some people
would have him turn their back on this side over here and he's
not knowing what's going on over there. This God that we worship
is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent. So here we have
Joshua sharing us a portion in type, shadow, and picture of
our great God. He had already prepared them.
Now Joshua says in verse five, Joshua said unto them, pass over
before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan. Did you notice that? Pass over
before the ark of the Lord your God. Isn't that a wonderful symbolism
that is given to us? Who is the ark of the Lord, our
God? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
ark of the Lord. In him is all of the glory of
the Godhead bodily in front of us as we read about him in the
scripture. He is the one that contained
all of the law and fulfilled it on purpose. He is the one
that is the rod that budded. He is the one that has the manna
that feeds us. So that Ark of the Covenant,
that Ark of the Lord, our God, certainly symbolizes to us the
Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Then he goes on
to tell us here in this, and take ye up every man of you a
stone upon his shoulder. according unto the number of
tribes the children of Israel." So we're going to have 12 stones
lifted out of the Jordan River, 12 building stones that are going
to be lifted out and carried upon the shoulder of these men
as they bring it out and we're going to find them laying them
down where the people are camping. That this may be a sign among
you, that when your children ask their fathers, Happy Father's Day. That when
your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what
mean ye by these stones? Now there's going to be a memorial.
I believe that that is what the Lord was speaking about in his
own ministry when he said, these stones could be raised up as
my children. There still was a memorial in
the days of the Lord Jesus. All right. Then you shall answer
them. This is the answer that you're
to give the children that ask. Now, you know as well as I do. Not all the children ask the
question. Some of them just saw a mound
of stone and some of them saw something more here and they
wanted to know more about it. Quite a number of years ago,
I was asked to drive a young man from the Dalles to Klamath
Falls. And about halfway down there,
this young man asked me a question. Now, I was very thankful for
the question, because I'd been wanting to talk to the young
man about the answer. But the young man asked me this
question. He says, what is the difference between what you used
to believe and what you believe now? And the door was open. And I
talked to this young man for about 30, 45 minutes, probably
sharing the difference. In my old religion, it was up
to me. In my old religion, God was,
he was a caretaker. And I talked about him raising
me and lifting me and taking me out of a pit and revealing
Christ to me. And now he is all my salvation. Well, at the end
of that conversation, that young man said this, what you believe
now and what you used to believe is the difference between daylight
and dark. And I said, that's the best way
of putting it. It is the the difference between
daylight and dark, because we are walking around in our religion
in absolute darkness, and in Christ we are in the light of
the gospel of the Lord Jesus. So, then you shall answer, verse
7, then you shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were
cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it
passed over Jordan. The waters of Jordan were cut
off, and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children
of Israel forever and the children of israel did so as joshua commanded
and took up the 12 stones out of the midst of the jordan as
the lord spake unto joshua according to the number of the tribes of
the children of israel and carried them over with them unto the
place where they lodged and laid them down there and joshua set
up the 12 stones in the midst of jordan in the place where
the feet of the priest Which bear the ark of the covenant
stood and they were are there unto this day For the priests
which bear the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything
was finished, that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people
according to all that Moses commanded. Joshua and the people hasted
and passed over. And it came to pass, when all
the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord
passed over, and the priests, and the presence of the people,
and the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad and half
the tribe of Manasseh passed over arm before the Lord of Israel
as Moses spake unto them. Now we may wonder why are these
two and a half tribes mentioned here? They've already requested
that they get to property on the other side of the Jordan
before you go in. So Moses conceded at the word
of the Lord and said, but there's one thing you're going to do.
You're fighting men are going with us. All right. About 40,000
prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle in
the plains of Jordan. On that day, the Lord magnified
Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared
Moses all the days of his life. And the Lord spake unto Joshua,
saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony
that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua, therefore, commanded
the priest saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to
pass when the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord were come up out of the midst of the Jordan and the soles
of the priest's feet were lifted up upon the dry land that the
waters of Jordan returned unto their place and flowed over all
his banks as they did before. And the people came up out of
Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal
in the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones which they
took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake
unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall
ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these
stones? Then ye shall let your children
know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For
the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before
you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the
Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone
over. That all the people on the earth
might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that ye might
fear the Lord, your God forever. Now twice in that chapter in
verse six, would you turn back with me to verse six? Verse 6
of this chapter we have these words, that this shall be a sign
among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to
come, saying, what mean these stones? And then we have verse
7, and then if you'll travel down with me to verse 21, we
have these words, and he spake unto the children of Israel,
saying, when your children shall ask their fathers in time to
come, saying, what mean these stones? Now the question today
goes out to, What are you talking about when you talk about Christ? What are you talking about? What
do you have? as our children, as those young
folks ask us, what do you have that is so special? What was
it that those ladies asked that woman in the Song of Solomon?
Why do you have such stock in this man? What is there so important
about this one? Why do you have such an affection
towards him? What does this mean? How is it
carried out? That woman said, ''Oh, he's tall,
dark, and handsome, and in every way is he glorious.'' Then went
on to explain it. Well, we find here that as these
children would come to their fathers in time to come, when
the children would come to their fathers in time years later and
see this stack of stones that was left there as a memorial,
and they came up to him and said, ''What does this mean?'' What
does this mean? And someone was given the responsibility
of saying, our God is great and he saves wonderfully and he does
not leave any of his people behind. and he brought them all over
the Jordan River in the worst possible conditions. He made
a way possible for them to go through on dry land. Nobody got
their feet wet. Everybody passed over and nothing
was left behind. So it is with God's people today
when they're asked the question. Now, sometimes we're trained
to impose on people and the Lord never did that. You know what
he said that the woman at the well? Is there water? I need some water. He's thirsty. Well, you don't
have anything to draw with. And then he went on with the
opening. So it is with us. As father figures
or as fathers, what does this mean? Turn with me if you would
to the Psalms. Psalm 89. There is such a message
throughout the scriptures that we're not dealing with a small
God. We have God represented throughout
the scriptures as the one that brought all the children of over
the Jordan River, even at flood stage, that he is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. I can
imagine that there were some of the people that when they
came up to the Jordan River in flood stage, they had some of
the same feelings that their forebears had when they came
up to the Red Sea. Now they did not have an army
after them at that moment, but those at the Red Sea did. They
did not have mountains to keep them encased in, as they did
at the Red Sea, but they didn't have that. But they had a river
at flood stage, and that is our land over there. How are we going
to get across? Well, the Lord provided every
answer. He performed every activity. He left nothing up to them. He
did not depend upon them to provide any flotation devices, any bridges,
any works of their own. He took care of it all. Here
in the book of Psalms 89, and there in verse 7, it says, God
is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints. What
does that mean? God is to be greatly respected.
He's to be honored. He is to be held up and exalted.
God is to greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints
and be had in reverence of all them that are about him. That's
what the fathers are to tell the children. He is great and
almighty that he is not lacking. He's not waiting for us to make
a move towards him. He is not waiting for our faith.
He has it all in his hands and he completely gives all that
he has to all of his people and they will respond to him in a
positive manner. When God calls us out of darkness
to his marvelous light, he reveals unto us that great God of the
scriptures of the Bible, and we have no doubt about him. When
we read the scriptures, we're not in doubt about what he can
do, we're not in doubt about him, we're not in doubt about
his word. We may not understand it, but
we're not in doubt about this God. Revelation has been given
to us. The revelation of Jesus Christ
has been given to us. So there is a mightiness about
God that has been given to every one of his born-again children
that we did not have before. I had a conversation with a man
yesterday. He brought up the devil. I said, I don't know much about
the devil. I don't know much about him right
now, but I know this, that so much is blamed on him that is
really us. And it's so easy to blame somebody
else for the way we are. And the devil gets blamed for
a whole lot. And the problems that we have
in ourselves and in others is not because of the devil, because
he is not omniscient, he's not omnipresent, and he's not omnipotent. Only God has that. The devil
What does he do today? I'm not for sure, but I know
what's wrong with, that's me. I know what's wrong with people,
that's the fall. We learn more about it every
day and we find out it's worse than we thought. The fall, the
fall in ourselves. So I don't have anybody to blame
but myself. And when I see something happen,
I see something that is terrible in the lives of people. It's
not because the devil made them do that. They don't get drunk
because of the devil. They don't go do this because
of the devil. It's their own nature. That's the problem. Faithful
declares of God's Word are not going to lay the responsibility
at someone else's feet. The responsibility lays at our
feet. We're sinners before God, but
God saves sinners. As it reads there in Psalm 89
and verse 7, and to be had in reverence of all them that are
about him. Turn with me, if you would, way
over to the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation. We'll
be back here in just a moment, but turn with me to the book
of Revelation, if you would. Chapter 15. What shall we say
when they ask us, when someone asks us of the hope that lies
within, when someone comes and says. What do you have when someone
says, Why do you go where you go? Why do you go to church where
you go? The scriptures say that we're
always to be ready to give an answer. And we can only answer what we
know. We cannot answer what we don't
know. And it doesn't help to answer what we don't know. All
right, here in the book of Revelation, chapter 15, verse 3. And they sing a song of Moses.
Well, if we went back just a little further, we'd find that here
in the Old Testament, the song of Moses. When the Egyptians
were all defeated there at the Red Sea, they sang the song of
Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying,
great and marvelous are thy works. Now when it comes to salvation,
that's what the believer is going to say about all of it. Great
and marvelous are thy works. Now when that pile of rocks,
100 years later, 500 years later, 1,000 years later, some young
person comes up and asks somebody of responsibility, what does
this mean? We should be able to say, great
and marvelous are the works of the Lord. Because it was he that
caused them to pass over. It was he that caused them to
pass over dry shod. What does that mean? He allows
us to pass over without sin. He allows us to go through this
world without the penalty of sin. He's forgiven us all of
our sin. There's nothing that we drag
along with us. And then he goes on to say, great
and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. That's what
we're to say. He's the Lord God Almighty. There's
nothing that he is incapable of. And because someone has not
moved, doesn't mean that God is not able. It means God has
a purpose. We'd love all of our children
and grandchildren and our parents and our aunts and uncles to know
something about God that has been revealed to us. We'd love
that to happen. But God alone is only able to
reveal unto us the truth of the gospel and we cannot procure
it for anyone and we cannot persuade anybody of anything along that
line. Now, that's one thing that religion
can do. You know, we're going to get to a point over there
in the book of Numbers about those who were strangers that
were there during the Passover. What about them? And the Lord
said, strangers could participate. Well, you look that word up.
They had to be proselytes. And in order to be a proselyte,
they had to have circumcision. They had to be part of. They
couldn't be just out and out strangers. As we read here, great
and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou
King of saints. So that's a description of what
we're to share when someone asks it. He is the Lord God Almighty. He's not the Lord God Almost.
He's not trying to get anything done. I don't know about you,
but it just drives me up a wall when God is trying to do something.
God never tried to do anything. God has always done exactly what
he said he would do. All right, join me, if you would,
in the book of the Psalms again. Psalm 71 Psalm 71 and verse 18
Now, this means more than ever. Now also when I am old and gray-headed,
you know, this morning my grandson met me and he says, Granddad,
I have a vest like you. Granddad, I have black pants
like you. Granddad, I have boots like you. Granddad, Granddad,
Granddad. And I says, do you have white
hair? He says, not yet. It's coming. I am old and gray-headed, O God. Forsake me not, until I have
showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to
every one that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Who has done great things, O
God? Who is like unto thee? What are we to say when someone
asks us? Another time, I was with Nancy's
family in Colorado. And you know, you're just trying
to make, get along, just trying to get along. And we're sitting
at a table. And Aunt Mars, the first time
I ever met Aunt Mars, she had a a pan full of skinned chicken
feet. And I walked by him and I said,
I've never met her, I've just met her. I said, Aunt Marce,
what in the world do you do with these? And she said, eat them,
stupid. At that moment, I knew I could
love her. Well, anyway, Aunt Marce, sitting around her table
with some of her children, a brother, a sister-in-law, Nancy and I. And she says, Norm, what do you
believe different than your father-in-law? And I said, Aunt Marsh, do you
really want to know? She says, we really want to know.
So about 30 minutes later, I said, that's the difference. And one
of the aunts told me, I've been told that if I believe that,
I'm going to hell. All I did was talk about my great
king, who saved me by his grace out of the worst religion possible. Works-oriented religion. Terrible. Killer. We heard about
that husk stuff today. Man, I know enough about Huss.
But when God gave me the gospel, God brought the gospel to me
through a faithful gospel preacher and declared unto me a great
God that saves whom he will, where he will, how he will, and
it made me mad. When God revealed his son in
me, I rejoiced in that God. The great God, the almighty God,
the God that's never bending, never changing, the God that
has always had a purpose and carrying it out and fulfilling
every one of his words all the time. the God that brought Israel
across the Red Sea, the God that brought Israel across the Jordan
River, the God Almighty. Those folks are a typical, they're
a type, they're a picture of the church, and God brings all
of his people through all the trials of this life because he
purposed to do so. One other passage of scripture
I'd like to read is found in Psalm 78. Psalm 78, what does these stones
mean? What do they mean? What is important
to you mean? You built it, what's it mean?
Well, here, you know, I've had people say, what do you mean
by sovereign grace? That's an opening line, isn't
it? It's wonderful. And hundreds of people drive
by and have no idea what it means. Psalm 78, verse 3. Well, let's back up to verse 1. Miskal
of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my
law. Incline your ears to the words
of my mouth. And that word law there means
my words, my word. I will open my mouth, I will
In a parable I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have
heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide
them from their children, showing to the generation to come the
praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that
He hath done. For he established a testimony
in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded
our fathers, that they should make known to their children,
that the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born, who shall arise and declare them to their
children. that they might set their hope
in God and not forget the works of God to keep his commandments. What a wonderful statement is
made here about those children to come when they see that pillar
of stone. What are you going to say? What
are you going to say? How wonderful it is to hear people
have opportunity to talk to their granddaughter and say, this is
the gospel. This is what it is. You know,
they may go away and say, ah, I don't think so. But you never
know. The seed sown will not return
to God void. So what do you say when someone
says, why do you believe that? Why? It's not very popular, and
other churches are growing much bigger, and there's much more
splash, and more advertisements, and more this and more that.
What do you mean? Well, there are a lot more people
in the world than just those Israelites, but nobody else got
to cross the Red Sea, and nobody else got to cross the Jordan
River, and nobody else had a leader like Joshua, Savior. Brother Mike.