Good morning. It's indeed a pleasure to be
with you here this morning and get to see you once again. It's
been a while since I was here and I've been looking forward
to getting here to be able to express our appreciation for
this congregation. your love and support for us
over these many years. I get to see the old faces. We
are all getting older. I guess I am getting older than
many, but it is a delight to be here. I appreciate this time
to be with you. I have enjoyed spending some
time with some and wish I could spend time with everybody. I
am looking forward to this evening. I enjoyed so much being in the
class this morning. I thought as Brother Todd was
speaking, I thought, well, he's saying a lot of the things I'm
going to say. But, you know, the Apostle Paul said, Finally,
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the things to
you are not grievous. The same things are not grievous.
And for you it is safe. This is how we are grounded and
settled. in the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And we never grow too big or
unneedy of this very same gospel message. And what a blessing
it is when the Lord in his mercy Because it is the
mercy of the Lord when he does correct us. Every son he receives,
he chastises. And if a person be without chastisement,
they are not sons. So, what a blessing. This morning I want you to open
your Bibles with me to the book of Joshua, chapter 3. The title of this message this
morning is the command of the gospel. And it's a very simple,
very simple outline, very simple message, but the gospel is simple.
The gospel is plain, but how wonderful it is to see it over
and over again and all the scriptures over and over again, all the
scriptures speak of Christ. They are there to reveal Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ gives
us eyes to see, ears to hear, gives us a new heart, what a
wonderful thing it is. And I want to speak this morning
from Joshua chapter 3, and then again tonight from Joshua chapter
3. The title of the message this evening, the Lord willing, will
be Christ Alone. But I want us to look at these
first three verses here in Joshua chapter 3. And Joshua rose early
in the morning, and they removed from Shittim, 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 you see the ark of the covenant of
the Lord your and the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove
from your place and go after it." You know, God has purposed to save his
children. Everything God does, he does
on purpose. Aren't you thankful? All things
work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them that
are called according to his purpose. He doesn't save anybody by accident. All things are ordained and decreed
of God before the foundation of the world. All things are
ordered and sure, David said. This is my hope, this covenant. But here they were, the children
of Israel. God had given this land to the children of Israel,
the promised land, Canaan. Here they were at the brink of
Jordan. and they were unable to cross,
unable to cross. They were there by the purpose
of God, by the decree of the Lord God, the God of all earth,
as it says in verse 13. And God has chosen a people.
The apostle Paul said, we thank God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has chosen you unto salvation, elected
a people unto salvation. But election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. And
God had purpose to give his people this promised land, just as he
has purpose to give us the kingdom. It says there in Hebrews chapter
12, having received the kingdom. Let us have grace, let us be
thankful. We've received the kingdom. But here they were at
the brink of Jordan and unable to cross. And here's my first
point. Here's my first point. God will
make it clear to his people of their total inability. God will
make it clear to his people of their total dependence upon him. Total inability. God will make
it clear that there is no salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is there salvation in
any other. There's only one by where we
may come before God the Father. Trusting in him alone, trusting
in his righteousness. He is our righteousness, trusting
in his sacrifice on the cross. shedding His blood, taking our
sins. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, trusting Him alone. And there is no salvation, no
coming to God the Father, no entrance, no acceptance before
God except by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. But here they
were at the brink of Jordan, and they could not cross. This
is the teaching of the Scriptures. Man is unable to come to God. No man could come to God. No man could come to the Father.
No man could come to him, except—I'm going to have to read it. It's
in John chapter 6. I'll quote it for you in Spanish,
but there's no sense in doing that. John chapter 6, verse 44. You know the text well? Our Lord said, No man can come
unto me. No man can come. That's not speaking
about permission. That's speaking about ability. No man has the ability. Man are
dead spiritually, unable to come to God. No man can come to me
except the Father which sent me draw him, and I will raise
him up At the last day, man is dead spiritually. This is what
this is what happened in the garden. Ruined by the fall, man
was died spiritually and he lost all knowledge of God, lost the
way of God, lost the truth of God. Has and worse than that,
he has no desire to come to God. He's happy where he's at and
God is going to show this to a man. We saw this earlier this
morning in the class. Unless a man knows that he's
sick and in need, he will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if a man has some ability,
that's where his trust will be. The apostle Paul said, we are
the circumcision who worship God in spirit. We rejoice in
Christ Jesus. That means we glory in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We boast of him and his work. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. That's not three things. That's
all the same. That's all the same. You don't
have one without the other. We are the circuit. We are the
children of God. Those who are saved by the grace
of God who worship God in spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. It says here that after three
days. After three days, three days, that day three is very
significant in the Word of God. It's the day of resurrection.
But no matter, no matter of time could transfer. Could go by. That would enable man to somehow
another. Reach God. All eternity could
go by. And man cannot produce righteousness
whereby he may stand before God. All eternity could go by, and
man could not put away one sin. But God's people, you know, the
human race likes to boast of advancements. Advancements, you
know, they say, well, man is getting better. More knowledge.
Oh, and how much technology is gone. More knowledge. We are
getting better. But the scriptures are plain.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have
sinned. And man at his best, man at his
very best, is altogether nothing. That is what that word, violently,
means. Nothing. The best man is nothing. God is going to show his people
that all their salvation And I know that I am speaking here
to brothers and sisters in Christ, and we rejoice in this truth.
All our salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. All our salvation
is Him, by His doing. It is by the grace of God in
Christ Jesus, and it is for His glory. Look here in Ephesians,
chapter 2, and read with me. And I know you have read these
scriptures. a barn go up a couple of days
ago, and I was reminded of this. Those of you that build with
lumber, if you put a board and you want it to stay in that place,
you put a nail in it. And depending on how much force
you're going to put on that, if you want it to really stay
there, you put two nails in it. And then you might come back
and you might put a third nail in it. Well, this is what we
do when we look at the Scriptures. or getting grounded and settled.
And every time we read it, it's just fresh. It's new. It's getting
grounded and settled in the truth. In Ephesians chapter 2, it says
there in verse 1, and you, Hathi, and you, I want to stop there,
you who were dead in trespasses and sin. Hathi quick, and I'm
jumping over that on purpose right now. You who were dead
in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walk
according to the course of this world, or according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit then now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversations
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace, ye are
saved." Our salvation is all in Christ. It is what he did
and when he did it. If you look at that verse carefully,
you don't see your faith in there at all. You are saved by the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in him, but we are
saved by his faith, by his obedience, by his righteousness, by his
knowledge. In Galatians 2, verse 16, it
says, Knowing that a man is not saved, is not justified before
God by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus. By the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. We believe in him. Nobody
is saved apart from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
you're safe. Your faith is a, what's the word,
a sieve? Where you make spaghetti and
you put it in there and let the dog drains out. What's that called?
A coladera. Well, now you learn the Spanish
word. But our faith is full of holes. We believe God, but at the same
time we have fears and doubts, anxiety, and all those are just
other names for unbelief. And we must cry, Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. So our faith, our faith is, I
think, Someone said if we put it in a thimble, it would rattle
like a peanut in a box cart. Our faith is weak, but it is
his faith, the faithful, the doing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We trust in him, it says there in Galatians 2.16, we believe
in him. We believe in Jesus Christ that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh
be justified. But my point here is this, in
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 7, we were dead in sins. He quickened us together with
Christ. When Christ went to the cross,
when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, that's when we
died. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin for us and he died in the place, the room instead of
his people. When he was cursed, was made
sin and he died, that's when we died. That's when God's justice
was satisfied in us. The law that says the soul that
sinneth it shall surely die, that's when we die. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
went to the grave, that's our grave. And when the Lord Jesus
Christ rose on the third day, that's our resurrection. And
as he is sitting on the throne, that's where we are, his people,
sitting in the heavenly places in Christ. And God is going to
show this, that all our salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're quickened together with him, but now how is God How has
God purposed to show this? What God has done. This is what
God has done. He did it in eternity past when
he purposed. He is the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. And if he was slain, he was slain
for a purpose. He was slain for the sins of
his people before the foundation of the world. This is this is
too big for us. We weren't even around, but all
this was done in God's purpose in mind before the foundation
of the world, and yet it takes place in time. How is God going
to show his people what he has done? Look back with me in my
text. How has God purposed to show
his people this truth concerning His salvation, his purpose of
salvation to his people. Now, here they were, the children
of Israel. They were at the banks of Jordan,
unable to pass three days. And it says that after three
days, notice here how beautiful are the feet. The officers went
through the host and they commanded the people. The officers went
through the host and commanded the people, saying, This is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ must be preached. God has done the work, but he
has purposed to save his people by the foolishness of preaching. In the wisdom of God, man knew
not God by wisdom. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching. to save them that believe, it
says there in 1 Corinthians chapter 21. By the preaching of the gospel,
men have got to see, I'm jumping ahead here, but men have got
to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They've got to
hear him, hear who he is, hear what he's done, if they're going
to believe in him. If they do not hear And if they
do not hear about him, then they cannot know him. In Romans chapter
10, verse 13, it says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And you know religion has got
that verse all backwards. They present that verse as if
you are going to twist God's arm. As if a man is going to twist
God's arm. Now, see, therefore, you said, haven't you proclaimed
the name of the Lord? Didn't you repeat this prayer
after me? Didn't you raise your hand? Didn't you come down? Didn't
you do this? It says here, all that call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Are you going to say God's a
liar? What blasphemy. This is not what this is teaching.
All those that call on the name of the Lord are those who God
has first taught them. God has first taught them their
necessity, and God has taught them, God has given them faith
already. It is out of a heart of belief
that a man calls. God has already taught them their
necessity. God has already taught them the
Lord Jesus Christ, the remedy. And those are those who call
on the name of the Lord, Lord save me. And they will be saved
in that final day in eternity because they were saved in eternity
before the foundation of the world. And they were saved when
the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world and died for them.
And they're being saved even today. That's what that scripture
is teaching. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
of whom they not believe? And how shall they believe on
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As
it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things."
When someone tells you the truth, I think of that all the time.
The Lord has made my feet beautiful to some people. Holy feet. But yet, you love
the person that tells you the gospel. And people love you when you
tell them the gospel. And the Lord blesses. And they
love you for it. They love you. And your feet
become beautiful. He told me the truth. But they
must be sent. And these officers were sent.
They were commanded to go. Where did they get their authority
from? They just woke up that third day and think, I think
we're just going to go through the camp and we're going to command
the people. No, they got their commandment.
They got their authority. from the same one we get our
authority from, Joshua, our Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua told the
officers, you go through the camp and tell the people. And
we get our authority to go forth and preach the gospel to every
creature. The Lord Jesus Christ said, all
authority is given to me in heaven and earth. Go preach the gospel
to every creature. It is by his authority, and our
authority does not come from a religious board. Our authority
does not come from men. Our authority comes from, thus
saith the Lord. And if we don't speak, thus saith
the Lord, we don't have authority. But the officers went through
the camp. What time do you all let out? I haven't gotten a message yet. Well, here's my point. This is
it. What was their message? They went through the camp and
they commanded the people. What was their message? What
was the message? Here's their message. It says
here in our text, when you see the arc of the covenant of the
Lord, your God. This speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This represents the Lord Jesus
Christ, his deity, his humanity, his work. He is God. That's what that art represented,
both his humanity and his deity. He is that place where God would
meet with sinners on the mercy seat. He was that would offer
that sacrifice for sin to put away the sins of his people.
That's where God's law was in that ark. That's where God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, his law was in his heart. And he kept and
fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law. This is what the
command is when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your
God. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what we pray,
Lord, bless your Word. Lord, let people see you. What a blessing it is. What a
blessing it is. I heard the prayer. Lord, we
would see Jesus. We need to hear Your Word. We need to hear Him. The Lord
will bless that. The Lord will bless that. If
you come to see the Lord Jesus Christ, He'll show Himself. He's a merciful God. We must see Him. And this is
what we pray. Lord, reveal Yourself. Take Your
Word. Let people see You. Let people
see Your beauty. Men are blind. Men are deaf. Men are dead. They have no ability. But the gospel has to go forth
in power and the power of the Holy Spirit. Our message is a
person. Our message is the Lord Jesus
Christ. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Apostle Paul said, I determined when I came to you, he said over
in Corinthians, he said, I didn't come to you in excellency of
speech. I didn't come to you with philosophy
and quoting people. He could have. He said at the
feet of Gamaliel, he could have done that. But he said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus, who he is, the eternal
Son of God, that holy thing that shall be born, you call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. the eternal Son of God manifest
in the flesh. When you see Jesus, you must
see him for who he is. Not a poor Jesus. Not a beggar
Jesus. That's who religion presents
him as. We do not preach this poor Jesus. And I speak in that term because
that's all I can say about him. But when we speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're speaking of God Almighty. They speak of Him in those terms,
disrespectful. That's what He is. He's just
a peanut God. He has no power. He has no authority. He can't do anything unless you
give Him permission to do so. Waiting on man's will. You must see the Lord Jesus Christ. You must see him lifted up. And this is why we preach Christ. We preach Christ. We preach by
the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ with his authority. We preach Christ, who is the
word, the gospel of our salvation, the truth. A man must hear. the truth, the word of truth,
the gospel of his salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. When you
see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord Jehovah, your God, we
must see him. Now, not with this carnal eye.
And this is why we don't have, is that niche? Is that the word in English?
Niche? That's these little holes where
they put statues in. They do this. Roman Catholicism,
Mexico and houses. They try to be religious and
they make these little, they put their idols there. They have
a crucifix and all these kind of things. You know, there were
men who saw the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the cross who did
not see him. They saw him hanging on the cross
and cried, crucify him, crucify him, we have no king but Caesar. Who later, those same men, on
the day of Pentecost, saw the Lord Jesus Christ through the
preaching of the gospel. He wasn't there anymore before
them, but they saw him. When the apostle Peter preached
on Pentecost, they said, oh, men and brethren, what must we
do? We've crucified the Lord of glory. Well, that's the kind
of eyesight. It's the eyesight that God gives. That eyesight where a man can
see the Lord Jesus Christ and say, thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. You're everything that my soul
desires. You're everything that my soul
needs. Without you, I perish. Save me. You are the one who can go before
God. You're the one that could bring
me to God. We must see him in his humanity.
We must see him in his deity. We must see him as the fulfillment
of all the Scriptures. The fulfillment of all the Scriptures
in the Old Testament. Now, I know there's a lot of
places where We just don't see him. But you know what? We will
see him. We know in part, we prophesy
in part, one day we're going to see him face-to-face. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what
we shall be. But when he shall appear, and
when he appears in the Scriptures, oh, that's wonderful. When you
see him, when you see him as the Savior of sinners, You see
yourself as a sinner. The two things that happen when
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached. First, the
command is, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. You preach Jesus
Christ and then crucify. But in our text it says, And
they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God and the priest Levites bearing it, then
you shall remove, then you shall remove from your place and go
after it. And this is why we preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men must repent and men must
believe. But the only thing that will
produce both repentance and faith, repentance towards God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, is the gospel message, the Lord
Jesus Christ. When you see the Ark of the Covenant,
when you see the Lord Jesus Christ, that's when you see yourself
as a sinner. This is one of the points that
was brought out earlier. I hope I could bring it out as well.
But a man cannot come to repentance by looking inside. And a person
can say, oh, I'm a miserable person, but that will never produce
repentance towards God. Repentance towards God comes
from seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing him. When a man you'll
remove from your place, that is your thoughts. My thoughts
will be changed. My ways will be changed. When
I see the Lord Jesus Christ, that's when my thoughts are changed.
That's when my ways. Repentance does not come by contemplating
the miserable state of our sinfulness. That only causes more depression.
You look inside, that's a sure recipe for depression. And by the way, it doesn't produce
repentance towards God. It just makes you miserable.
Repentance towards God comes from looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Repentance does not come by threat of doom and hell, contemplating
the Jordan. Repentance comes by hearing the
gospel. Don't you know that it's the
goodness of God that leads you to repentance? Romans 2, verse
4. A man is going to repent of his
sin, a man is going to repent of his sins, and a man is going
to repent of his supposed righteousness. We are always in need. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ
just as we came the very first time, as helpless, needing sinners. This is how the Apostle Paul
summed up his ministry. I preach to you repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 20, when
he was speaking to the elders there. This is the command of
the gospel. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
repent. That's the only thing that will
cause repentance. Repentance. To see the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the second part of that command
is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to him. Follow him.
Follow him. I'm going to hurry here. But
the Lord Jesus Christ says, Come unto me, all you that labor and
are heavy labor, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we come to him, we learn of him. And we are rebuked. We're corrected. We're corrected.
Has anybody arrived? The Apostle Paul said, I don't
pretend to have arrived. I don't pretend that I've arrived.
And by the way, when the apostle Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am, who do you think he was? Who do you think he was seeing?
Do you think he was looking at himself? The apostle Paul looked at himself
at one time and said, as concerning the law, I was blameless. So
nobody could say to me, oh, you're working, you're doing wrong here.
That's not. And a person could look to others,
and all that's going to say is, a man's prayer is going to be
something like this, I thank you, God, that I'm not like other
men. But a person can't look at the Lord Jesus Christ and
say anything but, oh, wretched man that I am. A man comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ and follows after the Lord Jesus Christ just as He
begun. guilty, helpless sinner. That
is where our fellowship is at. Our fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ is as sinners in need of a Savior. And if we ever
get out of the place where we are not sinners, we do not need
a Savior. And he will spew us out. As ye have received Christ Jesus,
the Lord so walk ye in him, Colossians 2 says. And Hebrews 12 says,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking to him, the author and
finisher of our faith. Well, that's the command of the
gospel when you hear, when you see. And that's not just an isolated
time in the past. That's not talking about... There
are people here who have never come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you come to the Lord,
you'll come to the Lord Jesus Christ when he gives you eyes
to see, when he shows you your desperate condition in need of
him. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ
and his beauty, you'll come to him. Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. You'll come. But you that have
come. But you continue to come. You
continue to come when you see Him. When you see the Lord, it's
a to whom coming. To whom coming. I need Him today. I need Him today. I repent today. May the Lord bless
His Word.