The lesson this morning will
be taken from Joshua chapter 3. Joshua chapter 3. There was more lessons in chapter
2, but chapter 3 is just kind of an extension of chapter 2.
There was no chapters in the originals, and so we'll deal
with those things as we go. But the subject of these verses
is the preparation. And we know what's going on.
They're getting ready to go into their inheritance into the promised
land. Part of the covenant that God
made with Abraham. So let's read these verses together.
Joshua chapter 3, beginning with verse 1. And Joshua rose early
in the morning, And they removed from Shirim and came to Jordan,
he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they
passed over. And it came to pass, after three
days, that the officers went through the host, and they commanded
the people, saying, When thou see the ark of the covenant of
the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it. Then
shall you remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall
be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits." Now
you remember a cubit is kind of the distance between your
elbow and your fingertips, about 18 inches. So this is more than
feet that we're talking about. There shall be a space between
you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Come not near
unto it, that ye may know the way by which you must go, for
you have not passed this way heretofore.' And Joshua said
unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do
wonders among you. 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 and
went before the people. Now Joshua instructs his officers
and they in turn tell the people to remove from which they abode
to the place where they shall pass over. We all have a place
in this world. And they were in a place, just
like we were. But something's going on. God's
going to establish His kingdom in this world. They're going
to enter into a covenant land. They're going to enter into the
promised land. Into a place flowing with milk
and honey. They're going to enter into a
land given them by the promise of God. And so they, in order
to do that, have to remove from their place and come to his place. And that's what he's saying.
He instructs his officers and they in turn tell the people
to remove from which they abode to a place where they shall pass
over. And he brings them now to the very banks of the Jordan.
And the Jordan River pictures the death of God's elect and
that which separates them from their promised rest and from
the establishing of the kingdom of God. It marks for Israel a
new beginning. This is made clear by the month
they cross, Nisan. What's that? It means new beginnings. It's the first month, the first
month on the Jewish calendar. Their crossing Jordan was a picture
of their death, burial, and resurrection in Christ. That's the only way
you can cross this spiritual Jordan. through the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. You can't come into the promised
land apart from Christ. And there's so much here you
could write a book on it, and many people have. I've read several. There's just so much here, but
for time's sake, let's limit our lesson this morning to just
a few things. The first thing I want us to
see is the place. Very prominent in the writing
here, the place. They removed from Shittim and
came to Jordan. And the picture is a picture
of God's kingdom being established in the hearts of His people.
It's called a passing from death unto life in the Scripture. It's called a calling out of
darkness into His marvelous light, and in Colossians 1.13, a deliverance
from the power of darkness. and a translation into the kingdom
of his dear son. I don't know why he used that
word translation, but I suspect because it's a spiritual act. It's not just a... Deliverance
is a part of it, but it's not all of it. This translation is
like something you can't understand and suddenly you can. Like somewhere
you've been, Now you're over here, and you don't know how
you got there except to say it was a spiritual act of God. It's called a passing from death
unto life, and it's no small thing. In verse 5 of our text,
in Joshua chapter 3, he tells all Israel, all God's elect,
he said, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do
wonders among you. He's going to do something you've
never seen before. He's going to do something that you couldn't
even conceive of. It's never entered, isn't that
what he said? Eye have not seen or ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things that
God has prepared for them. This is going to be a wonder.
It's going to be a wonder. It's a wonder of God's grace
to pass from death unto life. And God has in His eternal purpose
of grace ordained a place where it shall be. It'll take place
where Joshua, Jesus, commands it to take place. He removed from one place to
lodge in another. Why? In preparation to pass over. There's a preparation involved. A preparation involved. They're
not just in their closet one day and the Lord comes to them
and they see a light or a vision or whatever people talk about
and suddenly they know everything. No, it don't happen that way.
There's a preparation. God does a work in you. He's been doing a work in you.
He's been constraining you from being as evil as you could be.
Number one. Number two, He brought you under
the sound of the gospel. There's a host of men and women
who live a lifetime and never hear the gospel. They wouldn't know Christ if
they met Him in the street. The Jews didn't. He said, I say
unto you that you've seen me, you're talking to me, and you
don't believe. Why? Because this is all you've
ever heard. You've moved from one place to
lodge in another. in preparation of passing over.
And when God establishes His assembly in a place, it's always
in preparation for His elect to pass over. That's why it's
there. And that's why it's not there in a lot of places. Now listen to me. Not very far
from where Israel lodged, from where Joshua lodged, not very
far was a place they called the fords. The fourth, Joshua 2.7
talks about the fourth. This is where the spies passed
through. This is where the multitude crossed. The whole world, the known world
right there, that world that consisted of the Gentiles and
people traveling into that land and out of that land, this is
where the whole world crossed at the fourth. where almost all the travelers
and merchants crossed, right here at this forge. Our Lord
said in Matthew 7, 13, "...broad is the way that leadeth to destruction."
This was a broad way. It was a wide place in the river
and shallow. And there's all kinds of reasons
to cross Jordan. Some of them spiritual and some
of them aren't. How are you going to see the promised land? Well,
you can wade at the forge. I do it every week. I wade through
the commentaries, I wade through this and that, and wade through
my own influences and past. You can wade over, but that's
not to enter into his reach. It's wade over to do what? To
look. You cross over. The Word of God
will take you across at the fords and let you look. He took Moses
up on the mountain and let him look. That's not the same as entering
in. One is to see, one is to enter in. You see the difference? There was a place where you could
wade across and see the other side. You'd go over there and
trade. I did that in religion. But there's no rest in it, there's
no Joshua in it, there's no Israel in it. Israel's encamped up here
next to Jordan Aguilar. What is this place? Well, this
is a place where God works. He said, you sanctify yourselves. You set yourselves apart. You sit here and think about
who you are and what you're doing. Get the cares of this world out
of your head. And God's going to do wonders.
He's going to do wonders. There's no wonder in crossing
that forge. There's no wonder there at all. But we'll be here. One place shallow, this place
deep. This is where God works, where
Christ lodges and where God's Israel passes over Jordan. There
was a Passover in Egypt when God came through. When he saw
the blood, he passed over them. Now God will cause his people
to pass over. But he's not going to pass where
it looks possible or where the world recommends to go. He's
going to have them pass where it's absolutely impossible. Absolutely
going to cry. God has ordained the place. Already ordained the place of
the crossing. Second thing I want you to see
in these verses is the means. Joshua 3.3, they commanded the
people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord
your God and the priest, the Levites bearing it, then shall
you remove from your place and go after it. I get the picture. Here's the
Jordan River. It's at flood stage. It's overflowing
its banks, is what the scripture says. And here's over a million
people, a huge multitude of people, encamped beside this river. Waters are out of its banks,
a huge multitude of men and women, children, all their belongings,
all their possessions. All being told that they're going
to cross this raging torrent. How? When you see the Ark of
the Covenant of the Lord your God. The Ark is Christ. Yeah, but you said the Mercy
Seat. Yeah, the Mercy Seat, the Ark,
the Tabernacle, the Labor, the Altar. These things are all pictures
of Christ. The Ark of the Covenant of your
Lord. This is Christ. In Him, the Law
is honored and exalted. You know what was in that Ark?
The Law. But there's more than that. Aaron's
rod that budded. This rod is what set him apart
from all these other men. We're going to see who's of God
and who's not. Whoever's rod buds. And what
else was in there? The heavenly bread. Manna. Put in a pot, preserved
in the ark. The heavenly bread. This is Christ. The ark and the covenant itself. The very promises of God. All
these things. In the ark. Now he said, here's what you're
going to do. You're not going to look for a log to get on or
a bunch of trees to build a rest. Here's what you're going to do.
You're going to look for the Levites. And they're going to carry on
their shoulders, they're going to carry the Ark of the Covenant. Got rods going through it. And
they're going to put those rods up on their shoulder and they're
going to Raise that ark up here where you can see it, and they're
going to cross it. If you see the ark, you go after
it. You go after it. Pretty simple
instruction, isn't it? Huh? When you see the ark, go
after it. Religion makes things so complicated.
God makes them so easy to understand. The ark is Christ. He's the covenant
head. He's the covenant charity. He's
the blood. He's the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And this ark being borne by the priest is a picture
of the preaching of the gospel. What do preachers do? They elevate
Christ. They lift Him up. When He's lifted
up, all men are going to see Him. All those chosen to God. And this is the second time these
officers came through commanding the congregation of the Lord.
The first time was to establish the facts of the promise. They
would cross Jordan with Joshua, and they would possess their
inheritance through him. The second time the officers
came through was to open their eyes to the means. The first
was a picture of the gospel in the Old Testament, shrouded in
tithes and symbols, but all commanding, all these promises, all these
tithes, all these things, the commanding, the salvation, the
crossing of God's people. Now Joshua comes to the forefront. Old things passed away and behold,
all things become new. Moses is dead. The cloud's gone. The fiery pillar's gone. Moses
is gone. Well, you have left. You have
one thing left. Joshua. Joshua. Who was he? He was Moses' minister. He was the one who taught Moses.
He was Moses' minister. And nothing Moses did would have
had any effect or be of any lasting value apart from Christ, who
is being pictured here in the person of Joshua. The Ark is the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord our God, and it's called an Ark in light of the
Ark of Noah, whose vessel saved God's elect. The Ark of the Covenant
had within it the tables of the law, the heavenly bread, Aaron's
rod that budded. It was the Ark of the Covenant. And in other places it's called
the Ark of the Testament, the Ark of the Testimony. This is
the testimony of God. There's life in Him, in Him. Who was successful in the world?
Those who had the ark. Boy, when they lost the ark,
they lost it all, didn't they? The ark is the gospel of Christ
and is carried by the priest, and all believers are priests
of God. But there was a certain of the priests called Kohathites. They weren't just Levites. They were of the Levitical tribe,
but they were specific. They were set aside for this
specific person to bear that ark. And when God ordained these things,
they were perpetual. And their children who would
perform these things were not even born yet. But God ordained
them. And He ordained the preaching
of the gospel before there was ever a man to preach to, before
there was ever a foe who gave a reason to preach to. My point is that God will choose
the men and call the men and give them what's necessary to
perform their station. But the important thing for us
to see is the means. is not seeing the priest so much
as it is seeing the ark. You remember there was a man,
they were moving the ark of the covenant, and it had rods, and
they went through these loops in the ark, and the priest, they
couldn't touch the ark, they carried it on these poles. And
David sent them down to get the ark, They paid no attention to
what God commanded concerning the Ark, and they put it on a
wagon. They would have hauled it up on a wagon. And the wagon
went in a hole, and the Ark tilted. The man reached up to steady
the Ark, and God killed him. You don't touch the Ark. You
don't help the Ark. That Ark is a picture of Christ. His instruction is clear. When
you see the ark being born of the priest, go after it. And there are so many preachers
and priests in our day, how are we to know who to follow? Who
are you going to follow? Everybody says, I'm a preacher.
Every man came out here when we first moved in. He just pulled
up, got out of his car. We was here working on the church.
It wasn't a Sunday. I don't know, Friday or Saturday
or something, he pulled up. He said, I'm a preacher. And
he said, if you ever need any help, you can call on me and
hand me a card. He just got back in his car and
drove off. And when he did, I just ripped the card up and threw
it down. How do I know who to follow?
Should I just go out and just let anybody come in the door
and come up here and preach to y'all when I'm gone? How do you
know who to follow? You follow who's carrying the
ark. If he ain't bearing the ark, don't follow him. You're
going to drown. You're going to perish. You follow those carrying
the ark. And I love the fact that there
was more than one. There's more than one. All right, here's the third thing
I want us to see. Joshua makes an odd command. It's so odd. Verse 4. Yet there shall be a
space between you and it, about two thousand cubits. Now, we're
talking about over a half a mile. There's going to be a space between
you and it. About a half a mile by measure.
And then he said, come not near unto it that you may know the
way. Isn't that odd? For you've not passed this way
before. This command was given them at
Sinai as a warning. Come not near this mountain.
Don't touch it. You come anywhere near this mountain, you'll be
thrust through with a dog. You don't touch this mountain. You stay way off. You put a big space between you
and this mountain. But it was given as a warning.
Here, it's not given as a warning. He said, come not near unto it,
that you might know the way. It's as instruction. or a condition,
if you will, to know the way. Religionists cannot know the
way because they're too close. There's an ungodly familiarity
in them with God and the things of God. They'll talk to God like you're
cheering on a football team or something, and there's no There's
no sanctification. You come right out of doing whatever
you're doing and just walk in the door and suddenly you're
worshiping God. There's no distance. There's
an ungodly familiarity with God. I tell you, we need to, and I've
talked to myself. We need to think about who it
is that we're talking to. Keep your foot, he said, when
you enter into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools. What's that? A bunch of yakking.
Yakking about this and yakking about that. No wonder they call
throwing up yakking. It's the same thing. Same thing. Our Lord is said to dwell in
a light whereunto no man can approach. Think about it. That's a distant thing. And I know that when I see Christ
by God-given faith, I'm going to see Him high and lifted up.
His train's going to fill the temple. I'll see Him accepted,
glorified, seated at God's right hand, and I'll see Him who is
the way, and I'll see Him by the grace of God as a center
with God-given eyes. I'm going to see Him now at a
distance. at a distance. I'll see him at a great distance,"
Joshua said, about a half a mile, nearly nine football fields away. No cloud, no Moses, no fiery
pillar, just Joshua and his gospel. There'll be no crossing at this
place apart from seeing the ark lifted up. And if God ever allows
you to see His ark, you'll see His covenant. You're going to
see His covenant. And you're going to see His covenant
head. And you're going to see His covenant surety, and you're
going to know that His blood is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And then lastly, Joshua spoke
unto the priests who were that They're the ones bearing the
Ark. And he said, take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass
over before the people. And they took up the Ark of the
Covenant and they went before the people. And I'd say this
to anyone here who is here today and believes themselves to be
separated to the ministry, take up the Ark of the Covenant alone. They didn't have the Ark. and
this and that and something else. They had the Ark. And if you
take up the Ark, you got arm load. That Ark was nothing like. It
was solid gold. And they had to bear that Ark.
And you can't do it alone. Can't do it alone. But you take
up the Ark alone. You don't carry anything else.
Now listen to me. In the past, When Israel was
going through the wilderness in the past, the whole tabernacle
was borne by the Levites along with the ark. And it was moved
from place to place in their midst. It was hidden from the
world. You see this big multitude coming
through the wilderness, you didn't see the ark. You didn't see the
tabernacle. You didn't see the altar. You
didn't see any of that. It was in the midst. Only people
saw it was the elect of God. It was in their midst. And the people surrounded it.
It was hidden from the world. But now Joshua says, take up
the ark alone. And you're not going to stay
in the midst. You're going to go to the front. Going to go
to the front. The ark alone will be sufficient
for what's about to take place. And you can't help but look back
and marvel at my own unbelief and all the things we did not
seeing Christ as sufficient. That was the problem. We didn't
see Christ as sufficient. That's why we went seeking after
tongues and seeking after coming down the aisle or shaking some
preacher's hand or signing some card or trying to, what they
call it, praying through and all this kind of nonsense. The
ark is sufficient. It's sufficient. And the ark alone will be sufficient
for what's about to take place. And oh, when I look back, I see
all these things. But I couldn't see Him. He's
able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.
He's sufficient. I don't need anything else. I
need Christ. I need Christ, and this is what
Joshua was pointing out to them by God's command. These men are
going to go out there and they're going to hold the ark up. So there's four things I'd have
you take home with you today. The place, where's the place? Wherever God, wherever Jesus
Christ ordained his people to assemble, that's the place. In
this case, it was right beside Jordan. Our case is right here
in Louisville, Arkansas. The place, the means, it's all
Christ. All Christ. The distance, you're
going to have to see Him lifted up. You're going to have to see
Him high. You're going to have to see Him for where He is, who He is,
who called Him, who ordained Him. You're going to see Christ,
and you're going to see Christ alone. And that's the ark. That's the
ark. And that's how we're going to
come to it. Now we'll get into more details
as we go through these chapters. But don't just leave here this
morning and leave what you heard when you leave. Take it with
you. Take it with you. Give it a look. We're talking
about your soul. Your everlasting soul. Don't
just come here on Sunday and say, well, I fulfilled my obligation,
now I'm going home. There's a crossing to take place,
isn't there? And I'm not here today just to give you a history
lesson or even to fill in some blanks or answer some questions
of curiosity. I'm here in the hope that God
will speak to you through me and through his gospel and enable
you make you willing, make you excited, make you meet to be
partakers of his inheritance. That's what was taking place
on the banks of Jordan. Saints looking at the ark of
God carried by the priest of God into the promised inheritance
of God. Let me leave you with this verse,
Joshua chapter 3, verse 7. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
we'll get into this, Lord willing, next week. He 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. May the Lord be pleased to do
this very thing in the hearts of all who are gathered here
today for Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you.