Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Joshua chapter 24. I want to close our study on the book of Joshua with a few gospel reflections. So if you'd like to follow along with me, let's read the remaining verses here in chapter 24. Joshua 24, beginning with verse 28.

Now, you remember, Joshua was dying. These are his last words. This is his last message to the children of Israel. So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. And it came to pass after these things Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, being 110 years old, he died.

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Tzira, which is Mount Ephraim on the north side of the hill of Gaash. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that he'd done for Israel. And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried there in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamel, of the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver, and it become the inheritance of the children of Joseph. And Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died and buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas, his son, which was given him at Mount Ephraim. Now, I want to begin our reflections with a look back at Jordan. You remember our first studies in the book of Joshua, where we talked about Jordan, the Jordan River.

They came to the border of Jordan. To reach their inheritance, they had to go to the other side. Their inheritance was on the other side of Jordan. And Jordan seems to me to represent the limits of our natural sight. We can't see past Jordan. Those spies that went, though they went across, their visions of faith was limited at Jordan. They just could not see past the river. They stood on its banks and couldn't see the other side. Stood there on the banks of paradise, more or less, and could not see their inheritance.

Natural inclination is bound in the wilderness of sin. That's what that wilderness is called. I think in one place it's spelled zen, but I think the pronunciation is sin. It's the wilderness of sin. And even if it's not, that's what it is. It's the wilderness of sin. That's where we're born. That's where we live out our days, in the wilderness.

It cannot perceive a way through that swollen scourge. When you think about what stands between us and God, between us and any kind of inheritance that we might receive of God, it's a swollen scourge. It's just an impassable thing. With men, it's impossible.

That's what the Lord says. But faith sees past the natural into the spiritual. We look with heavenly expectation at things that are not seen. That's what Paul said. These afflictions that we suffer in this life, he calls them light afflictions, looking at things that are not seen. That's what you have. You have to see what you can't see. For the things which are seen, he said, are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal.

And I was looking at this and thinking about it, and the thought that came to me was, he told those priests, he said, now tomorrow morning, you sanctify yourself, because God's going to show you wonders tomorrow. Told the whole of Israel that. And he told those priests, tomorrow morning, you're going to put those staves through those holes in the ark, and you're going to get a hold of it, and you're going to walk across Jordan, where Jordan's overflowing its banks. It's a flood state.

And nobody was going to do anything until the way was made clear. He told them to stay back a half a mile, over a half a mile. And the reason was, he said, you haven't been this way before. You've never crossed this scourge. This way, all over the center, how unclear it is to him. He can't see past the river, let alone step in it.

And this ark represents the gospel. The gospel's inside. The covenant of grace inside. The broken law. God's confirmation of the high priest. All those things are inside this ark. The manna, the bread, the heavenly bread. Everything's inside the ark. This is the gospel. And those priests carry the gospel up.

And he said, as soon as their feet entered the river, the river began to stack up, quit flowing. But all the faith that put that foot in the water. I grew up. around the Ohio River, which is almost as big as the Mississippi. It's a huge river. And I've seen that thing at flood stage where two more inches of water, it would have been into the city where we lived. And I stood right on the bank of that thing. And that water, you talk about intimidating. You look at that thing, and there's whole trees going down that river.

There's barns. animals and everything in the world going down that river at flood stage, and the thought of putting your foot in there to cross that river, what an impossibility. You have to see what's on the other side to do this. You have to see the supernatural. It's not what you're looking at with those eyes. But it's what you see in the spiritual realm.

That's what faith sees. And that's why faith can put its foot in the water. But all the faith of those priests bearing that ark, put their feet in that swollen tide. But all the glory of the reward of that faith, if you will, the outcome of that faith, those priests saw first, the river began to, in my mind, I see it just curling over backwards and just stacking up.

It just would not run past where their feet were. And then here's another thing. In spying out Canaan, they discovered something they never expected. Now, you remember what this is all about. This is about God setting up his kingdom in the hearts of chosen sinners. And they spy out the land. They spy out their self. God gives you a look at yourself. And here they are. And they're looking in this place. And there's nothing there but idolatry and rebellion. fear, the fear of the Lord. Their hearts melted within them.

So what did they find? A willing soul, a willing spirit. Is that what you found? A willing spirit. How empty and void of Help did my own soul seem to be, but to my surprise, in that captive soul, I found a willing spirit. Rahab the harlot. Will God save a sinner? Yes, he will. Yes, he will.

Of all the people in Canaan, think about it, governors and kings Brilliant men. There was one city there that held a library. And you think about the wise men and all these things in that land. Giants. Great men. Valor. Who did God save? A harlot. A harlot.

Prostitution pictures a sin of one leaving an undeniable knowledge of God and prostituting itself into antichrist religion. That's what Rahab represents. False religion in Revelation 17 goes by the name Babylon the Great. Men trying to build a tower into heaven. Going to take heaven by their own wisdom, knowledge, and strength.

And the other name that's given to it is the Mother of Harlots. mother of harlots, and all the abominations of the earth. But God's going to save the chief of sinners. And many a harlot he called to himself, didn't he? Some of the most faithful of his followers were harlots. And truly, Rahab tells our story. And while all the other occupants fell by the sword, Rahab, with the covenant thread hanging out her window, was God's object of grace.

And I don't know what Israel thought, but I suspect they thought after crossing Jordan and seeing the wonders of God in that crossing, merely marching around Jericho and watching God just crumble the walls to the ground, I can't help but think they thought, boy, this is going to be a quick campaign here. Ain't nothing to this. We're going to take this land, and they ain't going to be able to do anything about it. It's just going to be a scrimmage, more or less. But oh, how wrong they were.

And surely, I've tried to show you this. I hope you've seen it in our lesson, Salvation of the Lord. What he does, he does so perfectly and so effectually that after you see it, you have no doubt about what he can do. All the doubt's here. And I think about how many generations passed from Abraham until Israel received their promised inheritance. Matthew says from Abraham to David the king is 14 generations. David the king is just a little ways off from where we're at here in the book of Joshua. We have the years of the judges, which is 450 years, and then came David. So we're not very far off. So how many generations was that? How many lifetimes? How many families of believers lived before they actually received this inheritance? A long time passed, didn't it?

From Egypt to Canaan. Yet God foretold it and God brought it to pass. Were it not for God's presence, in this thing, they'd still be in Egypt. They'd still be down there gathering their own straw and making bricks. But God purposed something else. Or maybe they'd have been crushed at the sea under Pharaoh's chariot wheels. were falling like those unbelievers did and their carcasses fell in the wilderness.

Where would we be without the promises and presence of God? Where would we be? Look back over your life. Where would you be? I've got friends that have been dead for a long time, died in their 20s, some of them died in their 30s, 40s, 50s. Hardly go through 10 years without losing several people that I've known, some very close friends.

And then we looked at this. We looked at the covenant of God, that blessed, everlasting covenant of grace out of which everything finds its end, out of that covenant. David said it was all his salvation and all his desire, that covenant. That covenant of God, it was made for him and made with him and revealed to him and he loved it and loved everything about it. You know, if you read through this book, you're going to find these things. Covenant mercies. Talks about covenant mercies. Covenant grace. Covenant love.

Covenant promises. a covenant surety, a covenant God. And what is our hope but a covenant union with the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't that what we hope in? There's no hope for the sinner, but that's where it begins, isn't it? In that everlasting covenant of grace. And every step of the way, every obstacle overcome, every people that we passed and God preserved us through all this is covenant mercy and grace. Every step Israel took, and he reminds them of it. He even goes back on the other side of the flood. He goes back to their fathers. Your seed was preserved in your fathers in the ark, and preserved in the patriarchs, and preserved in their children.

And when Christ died, the covenant was sealed with his blood shed on the cross, the blood of the everlasting covenant. And when God sent his spirit, he sprinkles the blood of Christ on the conscience. Oh, what a picture of God's wondrous grace. The Holy Ghost paints these pictures all through the Old Testament. We just don't have eyes to see. But what a thrill it is when he opens your eyes and heart to see him. And now, having fully set forth the Lord in figure, Joshua dies. And his death makes a new era for Israel.

Joshua stood just like Moses did, a man called of God and set in authority over all these people, millions of people. Just almost unbelievable how many people was out there in one man. You remember Cora Dathan and Abiram, they withstood Moses. They said he had too much on him. There's too many people for you to try to rule over and guide and help. And we're going to point. Our idea is we're going to have several people do this.

You know what Moses told him? He said, everybody's on the Lord's side, line up right here behind me. Everybody's with them, line up behind them. And God opened the earth up and took them to hell with their shoes on. It's just hard to fathom this man Joshua. And God told him, he said, I'm going to exalt you in the eyes of the people. because he had a purpose in Joshua. He's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is exactly the same, Jesus, Joshua, same name. Hosea, same name. And then Joshua dies. And there comes a season after his death when the judges are going to rule.

One type goes down, and up comes another. And that's the way it runs all through the Old Testament. One type's not enough, is it, to teach us what we need to know about Christ? One type's not sufficient. It takes them all. But he's going to have these judges, 14 in all, beginning with Othinel and ending with Eli.

The judges ruled according to Acts 1320, 450 years. Now, let me tell you something here. Some of you read these commentators, same as I do. You read these commentators, and there was almost 200 years difference between what they said that the span of the judges was in difference. All of them had a different number. But I looked over here in Acts chapter 13, verse 20, and I believe old Roth's right.

He said this Bible sheds a lot of light on them commentaries. It just plainly tells you 450 years. Why would I start speculating and guessing about how many years that is when he tells you it's more than 50 years. Intellectuals, boy, I tell you what. No wonder the Lord said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

You've hid these things from the wise and prudent. You hid them. They'll never know them. They can't just read the word and accept what God says. I don't see any reason to second guess the scriptures, do you? And these judges, to me, seem to be pictures of gospel pastors.

Christ died, and he sent his people into the world, having accomplished the victory He sent them into the world, into their inheritance, but they're still living in a world where the old occupants are still alive. They're still alive. They have what they have by the word of God and the word and power and reputation of Joshua, but look at it any way you will, it's theirs by promise. and these things by the act of faith and a willing heart to take it from those who claim to own it. The kingdom of God, he said, suffers violence, and the violent take it before us. And the promised inheritance is for Israel, but it's occupied by idolaters, ungodly kings that rule the land, those who who believe, those who believe God, they're going to go in and take it.

They're going to take it. When God begins to work in your heart, that's what'll happen. You'll take it away. Take it away. He'll do the work, but you'll be there. You know, he did the work in such a way that there was nobody who received their inheritance from God in Canaan thought they won the victory.

They swung the sword, they entered into the You know, they went through all the motions, but God did it in such a way that he gets all the glory. And that's the way it is with faith. That's the way it is with repentance. You believe and you repent, but when the work's done, who gets the glory? God does. God does. Now let me give you just one or two more things, and I'll wrap this up. We're just looking back over what we've already studied.

When Joshua died, so did the high priest. Did you notice that Eleazar, he was the high priest. He was the heir and son of the high priest. Joshua died, and so did the priest. When Jesus Christ died, the priesthood died. The priesthood died. Why? Because he has an everlasting priesthood. The priesthood was fulfilled in him who has an unending priesthood. He continueth ever, Paul said, therefore he's able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him. And then notice this.

There's always a customary 30-day morning when Like when Moses died and when this one died or that one died, there's a long period of mourning that goes by. Nobody mourned the death of Joshua. Did you notice that? It doesn't say one word about anybody mourning his death. Or the death of the priest. How come? Because they figure the Lord Jesus Christ We don't mourn his death. We celebrate it, don't we? We celebrate it.

He gives us an ordinance, the bread and the wine. And he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. This is my blood, which was shed for you. This is the blood of the New Testament. And as you do this, You drink my blood and eat my flesh. As often as you do this, you do show the Lord's death till he come. This do, he said, in remembrance of me. We celebrate his death. I'm glad he died, aren't you? We don't sorrow over his death. We rejoice in it.

I rejoice that that old priest who was gone. I saw a dead animal beside the road coming over here, and I told her, I said, you know, that looks like a little lamb. I don't know if it was or not, but that's what it looked like to me. And I tell you, I wouldn't want to come in here even one time a year. bring a lamb and slit its throat, and you had to divide it up and put it on an altar, watch it burn, gather its blood, take it in. I'm glad that priesthood's gone.

I'm glad we have a priest seated at the right hand of God. That priest went into a tent. Our Lord, tent and all, went into glory. He raised that tent. He raised that body. He stood up by his own strength, it says over in the book of Isaiah, by his own strength. Everybody else had left. But he said, I was alone. I trod the winepress of God's wrath alone. There was none with me, none to help. By my own strength, he said, I raised up. He just sat up, didn't he?

And then watch this. He said, all Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. Our righteousness before God is 100% owing to the righteous obedience of Christ. I served the Lord perfectly all the days of Jesus Christ. That's what that's talking about. That's what that's talking about. We served the Lord every day of his life in covenant union with him and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, which had known all the works of the Lord that he'd done for Israel.

I'm going to tell you something. God's people are of one heart. Word singular. Yvonne showed this to me several times, and it's true. There's one heart. We all have one heart. And we have hearts as individuals, but it's the same heart. It's the same heart. And they know all that the Lord has done for Israel.

And then think about this, even the bones, even the bones of the dead saints are honored in God's kingdom. All that way in the wilderness for 40 years, they carried the bones of Jacob, carried him up. Joseph, I'm sorry, carried his bones. Joseph wasn't cremated in Egypt.

And I'm going to tell you something about cremation. I know it's cheap. It's a cheap way out. That's why people are doing it. They've got all kinds of spiritual junk that I've heard trying to justify what they're doing. But the reason they're doing it is cheap. It's expensive to be buried, isn't it? It's ridiculous how expensive it is. But cremation is a denial of the resurrection.

And these old men knew that. They were very careful in their purchase of a place to lay, and their families were very faithful to put them in that place. Joseph gave command before he left Egypt that his bones was to come up and go to a certain place. And that's what they did. They carried his bones into God's kingdom and laid them there.

Well, do we believe God's going to raise us from the dead? You know what our Lord said over in John chapter 5? There's coming a day in which all that are in the graves going to hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. They're going to come out of those graves, all of them. Those that have done good, those who are righteous in Christ, and those who aren't, they're all going to come out of the graves, all of them. There's going to be a resurrection. Just the truth about heaven is something else. Our souls are going to be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord, isn't it?

Then why do we do this? And then we go out to a lake somewhere and sprinkle the ashes because that was where she always wanted to be. That's where she really had a good time, was out there on the lake. And then we go home and think about her spirit cruising over that lake and all that. Believers don't think that way. We're predestinated of God to be like Christ and to be where he is. Isn't that what our high priest prayed? It's what it says over in John 17, that they might be with me where I am. Isn't that what he prayed?

And I tell you, when you think like that, you don't think about throwing somebody on a bunch of hot coals and burning them up. You can doll it up any way you want to. It's a denial to me of the resurrection. And one day sooner than we think, all those in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth according to their righteous standing before God. Some unto glory, and the others unto everlasting damnation. That's what the scripture says.