Let me add my welcome to Winston's. I think it's a good thing that
we can meet on the last Sunday in this year and worship the
Lord through the preaching of the gospel and the fellowship
of believers around that message. I don't know whether it's just
that I'm getting older or not, but it seems like this year just
got started here a few days ago, but it's almost over. So maybe
it's not that old age, maybe it's something else. I won't
be speaking from the book of Joshua again this morning, Joshua
chapter 3, and you can see the title is Christ magnified in
the sight of his people. I think that'll be clear to you
as we get on into our lesson a little bit. You recall from our last study
what we learned was that Israel had been made to understand the
way that they would enter into the promised land. That way was
revealed to them. Joshua told his people, when
you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the
priest of the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from
your place and go after it, that you may know the way by which
you must go. The Ark of the Covenant revealed
Israel's way into the Promised Land, and that's typical of Christ
revealing the way into the eternal salvation that he's worked out
for every one of spiritual Israel, his sheep. We're going to begin
today in Joshua chapter 3 and verse 5. We're going to look
at four verses here, starting in verse 5. It says, And Joshua
said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the
Lord will do wonders among you. Now apparently this is the day
before Israel, the day before they would cross into the land
of Canaan. And Joshua tells them to sanctify
yourselves. In other words, prepare yourselves
mentally, Physically, spiritually, prepare yourselves, because tomorrow,
he's telling them, tomorrow the Lord is going to work wonders
among you. Look on at verse 6. And Joshua spake unto the priests,
saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before
the people. And they took up the ark of the
covenant, and went before the people. According to our next
verse, this is the tomorrow of verse 5. That day has come. They're
on that day when they're going to actually enter into the land.
And the Lord is going to do wonders among them. Joshua commands the
priest to take up the ark and pass over, pass over the Jordan,
revealing the way for Israel to enter into the land of promise.
Look on to verse 7. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel,
that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with
thee. Now you see what I've underlined
there. This day will I begin to magnify
thee. This is the Lord talking to Joshua.
He's telling him I'm going to begin to magnify you. This day,
he's talking about, begins a new era for Israel. You remember
they used to follow the cloud when Moses was leading them.
They followed the cloud. It would move. When it moved,
they moved. Now they're going to follow the
ark, the ark of the covenant. This day Israel would be delivered
from their wilderness wanderings. They spent 40 years wandering
around in the wilderness, but this day they're going to be
delivered from that. This day Israel would enter in
to take possession of the land that they had already been given.
And he said, this day will I begin. I'll begin to magnify you. the
Lord tells Joshua. This is but a beginning of God
magnifying Joshua. There'd be many other days, many
other occasions, but it would begin this day. And he says,
this day will I begin to magnify you. Magnify means to cause to
grow, to make great or powerful. You know what it means, especially
those of you who wear these. These are magnifying glasses.
They cause those words and letters on that page to grow, to be magnified
in our sight. And what God is telling Joshua
here, he's speaking of causing the respect and esteem and regard
that Joshua would have among the people of Israel to grow.
That's what he's talking about. This day God will cause Joshua
to be seen in a very different light by those that he's been
chosen to lead. And he says, this day will I
begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel. Beginning
today, all in Israel would know that Joshua was wholly following
the Lord, the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Beginning
today, the regard and respect of all in Israel for Joshua would
be magnified. It would grow. Beginning today,
all in Israel would know that Joshua's authority was coming
from none other than God himself. Beginning today, Joshua will
be seen by national Israel as the one God has authorized to
bring them into possession of that land that he's already given.
Now in this, as we've already studied, Joshua is a type. He's
the type. Christ is the anti-type. Just
as God will begin today to magnify Joshua in the sight of national
Israel, there is a day, a specific day, when God begins to magnify
Christ in the sight of all spiritual Israel. There's a given day when
the Spirit of God begins to cause the reverence and respect for
Christ to grow in the eyes of His people. We don't know Him
by nature the way He causes us to know Him. And God magnifies
Joshua the type and Christ the anti-type in three different
ways that we'll see in the rest of this chapter. First of all,
he magnifies Joshua the type and Christ the anti-type as the
one who has the authority of God. Second, as the one who manifests
the presence of God. And third, as the one certain
to drive out all the enemies of his people. Now today we're
just going to be considering this first point. In fact, you
could subtitle this message, The Authority to Enter In, because
that's what we're going to be talking about. God magnifies
Joshua the type and Christ the anti-type as the one who has
the authority of God. God gave Joshua the authority
to bring his people into possession of that land. And God gave Christ
the authority to bring all of his elect into possession of
the salvation that he worked out for them by his death on
the cross. Look back at Joshua 3 and verse
7. It says, and the Lord said to Joshua this day, will I begin
to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may
know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. There's
a reason for Joshua being magnified. It's not just to build up Joshua
to make him look important. There's a reason. It says that
they may know that Israel, the people he's been chosen to lead,
that they may learn something about Joshua that they don't
know now. They already know that Joshua is an able leader, an
able warrior. They already know that he's a
successful commander of Israel's fighting forces. Joshua already
led them in the defeat of Amalek when they were at their weakest.
And under Joshua's command, they defeated Sion, king of the Amorites,
and Og, King of Bashan. That's the land that they've
just recently conquered, and that's where they're situated
right now, the east bank of the Jordan River. They took that
land away from these two kings, and Joshua led them in that.
But they need to learn something else about Joshua. Israel must
learn that God is with Joshua. They need to learn that God is
with Joshua in the same way that he had been with Moses. Look
back at Joshua 3, 7. He says in the latter part of
that, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee. The question then is, how was
God with Moses? Well, up to this point in Israel's
brief history, Moses was the God-appointed leader of Israel.
Moses had been the man who spoke face-to-face with God as a man
speaks to his friend. It was Moses who received instructions
from God and passed them on to the people. It was the words
of Moses that carried the weight of one speaking for God. Moses was the one in Israel who
had the authority of God. There's no doubt in the minds
of the Israelites that God had magnified Moses. No doubt that
God had caused the esteem of Moses to be great among this
nation. Before Joshua, Moses was a type
of Christ. He was the God-appointed mediator
between God and the Israelites. It was under Moses and by his
hand and authority that Israel was delivered from bondage in
Egypt. By him, ten plagues were brought upon Egypt, and by his
mediation, none of those plagues touched the Israelites. He was
the one mediator between God and men, typifying Christ, that
one mediator between God and men eternally. By Moses, the
Red Sea was parted and the people walked across on dry land. And after this, it was Moses
who went up into Mount Sinai and received the law, the Ten
Commandments. It was Moses who built the Ark of the Covenant
where those Ten Commandments were kept continually before
Israel. And we remember from our last study it was the Ark
of the Covenant that typified Christ, his person and his work
to satisfy the law and justice of God on behalf of his people. It was the Ark of the Covenant,
with the mercy seat over it, that provided the one meeting
place between God, who is ever holy, and man, who is ever sinful. All these things were accomplished
under Moses. There was no doubt among the
Israelites that under Moses, God was with them. They knew
it. They saw many miracles by the hand of Moses. Even those
who didn't respect Moses personally knew that God was with him. There
was no doubt that the instructions and command of Moses carried
the authority of God. But Moses is dead. He's gone
now. And many in Israel probably wondered whether God was still
with them. Is he still with us? Has he forsaken us? How can we
know? God must magnify Joshua in order
that they might know that. God must cause the esteem of
Joshua to be great in Israel. Israel must know that their leader
is being directed by God, that he has the favor of God, that
he has the power of God. Israel must know that God is
with Joshua. And that's what God's telling
Joshua here. This day, this particular day, will I begin to magnify
you in the sight of all Israel. This day, all Israel will know
that as I was with Moses, so I'm going to be with you. Moses
had fulfilled his mission. He had played out his role as
the one whose words and actions carried the authority of God.
This day, Israel would know that it's no longer Moses, but Joshua
that held that authority, that had the authority of God. Look
at Joshua 3 in verse 8 now. God says to Joshua, and thou
shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant,
saying, when you are come to the brink of the water of Jordan,
you shall stand still in Jordan. He tells Joshua, Thou shalt command. We learned from our last lesson
that the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant would reveal
Israel's way into that land. The command to Israel was when
you see that Ark with the priest bearing it, you go after it because
they'll show you the way that you must go. It would be Joshua
commanding those priests. Joshua would be the one in Israel
receiving instructions from God. The priests would bear the ark,
and the ark would reveal the way into this land. But it would
be Joshua directing their movement. Before Israel could take possession
of the land that God had given them, God must magnify Joshua
in their sight. National Israel must know that
as God had been with Moses, so he would be with Joshua. Joshua
must be seen by National Israel as the one having the authority
from God to bring them into possession of the land that they had been
given. Now, I made a major point here. Why is all this necessary?
Why must Israel see that Joshua is the one who has the authority
of God to bring them into this land? Well, think about Israel
before now. Just a few years ago, they'd
been slaves down in Egypt. a nation much more powerful than
they were. And God delivered them out with
a mighty hand. And for 40 years, they had been wandering around
in the wilderness. They didn't have a land. They
didn't have homes. They didn't have wells. God provided
them water from the rock, which was Christ. But that's the way
they were before they came to this point. And not a sword has
been drawn in battle here, nor an arrow fired. No battles have
been fought, no kings conquered. The only right Israel has to
the land that God is about to give them is that he was pleased
to do so. Their possession of this land
is the fulfillment of a promise that God made to Abraham some
400 years, 470 years earlier. Israel, as a nation, has done
nothing to obtain this land. They've done nothing to deserve
this land. It's theirs because the sovereign God of the universe,
and for that reason alone, determined that they have it. That's why
they'll have this land. Now we know Joshua's role here
typifies Christ. And we also know that national
Israel's role in entering in to possess this land that they've
already been given. They also typify spiritual Israel
entering in to possess the salvation that they've already been given.
As Joshua must begin to be magnified in the sight of national Israel,
Christ must begin to be magnified in the sight of spiritual Israel.
Christ must be seen by each of His elect as the one having authority
from God to bring them into possession of the eternal salvation they
were given in Him before the world began. You see, salvation
has already been given to a people of God's choosing. It was given
them in their representative in an everlasting covenant made
before time. Look at 2 Timothy 1.9 and we'll
see an indication of this or a verse that teaches this. Now,
according to this context, Paul is encouraging Timothy to be
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. who has saved us and called us
with an holy calling not according to our works but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. It says grace was given to a
people of God and grace was given to them in Christ before the
world began. You know we often define grace
as the unmerited favor of God and it is unmerited. It's unmerited
by the sinners who receive it. Grace is unmerited by them because
grace was merited for them by the doing and dying of Christ
alone. The grace, the salvation, it's
already theirs. This last age is about those
of God's choosing, learning about that grace. Like Noah finding
grace in the eyes of the Lord. He didn't do anything to obtain
it. He didn't do anything to deserve it. He just found it.
And this last age is about God's chosen people entering in and
possessing the salvation that's already theirs in Christ. Israel
was entering into a land they did nothing to obtain and nothing
to deserve. No battles fought, no swords
drawn, no kings conquered. They were entering in to possess
a land they had received as a gift by the goodness of a sovereign
God. And in like manner, sinners are saved because that same sovereign
God determined that salvation to be so. They don't do anything
to deserve it. They do nothing to obtain that
salvation. They're saved because their God-appointed
surety and substitute came in time and fulfilled all the requirements
of that salvation for a people of God's choosing. Joshua must
be magnified in the sight of national Israel as the one having
authority from God to bring them into possession of that land,
that land of promise. In like manner, Christ must be
magnified in the mind of each spiritual Israelite. Christ must
be seen as the one having authority from God to bring each of his
elect into possession of the salvation that he worked out
for them by his obedience unto death. Now Christ in his earthly
ministry spoke to his disciples about this authority after he
was resurrected from the dead. Look at Matthew chapter 28 starting
in verse 18. It says, And Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, All power, that word is authority, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the world. As I said, that word
power there, it's authority. Christ has been given all authority,
and he's been given authority over the affairs of this world
to keep it running just like God determined it to. But what
I want us to understand here is the authority that he's been
given in salvation. One element of Christ's authority
is to send his disciples forth into the world to preach the
gospel. That's what he's doing here in Matthew 28. Go out. Tell them about me. Tell them
what I've done for a people. Tell them how I've satisfied
the law and justice of God on behalf of those people and worked
out a righteousness by which God is just to justify. Preach
the gospel. Another element of Christ's authority
is to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
Him. Look at John 17 verse 1. It says, These words spake Jesus,
and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power,
that's authority, over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. Christ has the authority
to give eternal life to his sheep. That is to bring each of his
sheep into possession of the eternal life that he has merited
for them. It's the work of the Holy Spirit
to impart life, but it's Christ who sends the Spirit to his sheep
that that life may be given. Look at John 16 and verse 7. Christ said, nevertheless, he's
talking to his disciples here, nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it's expedient, necessary for you that I go away. For if
I go not away, he's talking about going to the cross, if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart,
I will send him unto you. He's the one who sends the Spirit
to impart life. And when the Spirit comes to
a sinner, what does he do? He testifies of Christ, Christ
crucified, and risen again. Look at John 16 and verse 13. It says, how be it when he, the
spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak. And he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify you, for he shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you. Now you see what I've underlined
there. The Spirit's work is to testify of Christ. He tells sinners
of Christ, of His person, of His work in saving His people.
It's the Spirit who magnifies Christ in the sight of His people.
The Spirit, it says, does not speak of Himself. In other words,
He doesn't emphasize His work in sinners. He does a marvelous
work. He gives faith. He gives repentance.
He gives love for the gospel, love for the brethren, love for
Christ. But he doesn't speak of that work. Rather, he emphasizes
Christ's work for sinners. So Christ has been given all
authority in salvation. He sends his preachers to preach
the gospel. He sends the spirit to empower
the gospel and to impart life. In Christ's day, the chief priests
and elders questioned the authority that he said had been given to
him. They wanted to know, how can
you do what you're doing? How can you say what you're saying?
What gives you that authority, that right? Look at Matthew chapter
21 and verse 23. And when Christ was coming to
the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came
unto him as he was teaching and said, by what authority doest
thou these things? And who gave you this authority?
Now, Christ didn't answer these religious leaders. Rather, he
asked them a question. Look at Matthew 23, verse 24
and 25. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell me,
I and likewise will tell you by what authority I do these
things. The baptism of John, John the Baptist. Which was it? Was it from heaven or was it
of men? Now as far as worldly wisdom
goes, these rulers in Israel, they were pretty smart men and
they could see that they had to be careful how they answered
this question. Look at Matthew 25b and 26. So
they reasoned with themselves saying, if we say from heaven,
he'll say to us, why did you not then believe him? If his
baptism was from heaven, why didn't you believe his message?
Why didn't you believe what he said about me? But if we say
that his baptism was of men, we fear the people, for all hold
John as a prophet. These high-ranking religious
leaders here tried to straddle the fence. They didn't want to
answer it because they knew they were trapped either way they
answered it. So they tried to straddle the fence. So Christ
left them still wondering about his authority. Look at Matthew
23 and verse 27. They answered Jesus and said, we can't tell. We can't tell whether John's
baptism was from heaven or whether it was of men. And Jesus said
to them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
He refused to tell these religious leaders where his authority came
from. That's what they asked him. He
refused to tell them. But those chosen by God and redeemed
by Christ are not left wondering about Christ's authority. In
time, In each successive generation, Christ sends the Holy Spirit
to each of His elect, declaring why Christ has been given all
authority. Christ has been given all authority
because he earned it. He earned that authority. Christ
is the Good Shepherd. He gave his life for the sheep.
He put away the sins of the sheep. He established the righteousness
by which the sheep are justified and declared righteous in the
sight of God. Christ earned the authority to
give eternal life to every sinner he died for. He earned the authority
to bring his sheep into the fold. He earned the authority to bring
them into the eternal rest that his obedience unto death has
provided them. Let me give you a little illustration
about this earning here that I'm talking about. Consider with
me for a minute a graduating class. That class has a valedictorian,
one student. from among the entire class who
addresses the students on graduation day. Now, why is this honor,
this privilege, this authority, why is it given to the valedictorian? Well, it's because they earned
it. They maintained the highest academic ranking among that class. They've maintained the highest
grade point average among that class. The valedictorian has
earned the privilege to speak. They worked for it. They earned
it. For this honor to be given to another would be to rob them
of what they alone deserve and what they earn. Now that's what
preachers do who tell sinners that God will save you if you
walk an aisle, pray a prayer, believe that Christ died for
you. Such preachers are attempting to rob Christ of the authority
that he alone deserves, the authority that he alone has earned. As
types, Moses and Joshua were magnified in the sight of all
Israel. As types, they were given authority
by God to carry out the specific assignments they were given.
As the anti-type, Christ earned the authority he was given. In
closing, look back with me here to Joshua 3 in verses 7 and 8. Just as certainly as national
Israel must enter in and possess the land they've been given,
spiritual Israel must enter in and possess the eternal salvation
they've been given. By the authority of God, Joshua
commanded the priest to take up the ark, to stand still in
Jordan in order to reveal the way for national Israel to enter
into possession of the land they've been given. On this particular
day, God began to magnify Joshua in the sight of all Israel. On
this day, he revealed him to be the one in Israel who had
the authority of God to lead Israel into possession of this
promised land. In each successive generation,
it's Christ who sends forth men to preach the gospel. That's
what I'm attempting to do today, and that's what men who are called
by God do. They preach the gospel. It's
Christ who sends the Spirit to impart life and cause each of
the elect to find their hope of salvation in Christ alone.
On that given day in the life of each of his elect, God begins
to magnify Christ in the sight of his people. On that given
day, they each become possessors of the salvation Christ accomplished
for them by his death on the cross. On that given day, Christ
is revealed to each of his sheep as the one who has earned the
authority to bring them into possession of the salvation they
were given in him before the world began. Christ must and
he shall be magnified in the sight of his people. He's earned
and he's been given the authority of God to save his people, save
them to the uttermost, even unto final glory. Christ told his
disciples, all authority has been given unto me in heaven
and in earth. And the command of every scripture
to sinners is look to him. Rest in Him. Find all your hope
of salvation in Him who has been given such authority. And it
would be my prayer that all who are listening, that God would
give you the mind, the heart, to find your hope in this One
who has been given all authority to save His people from their
sins.