Gooding, David: 4 - We Will Serve the Lord

In our two sessions this morning, gentlemen, we must try to cover chapters three and four of the book of Joshua that are the story of Israel's crossing over Jordan into their inheritance. This is a very well-known story, much loved by the people of God in general, because it speaks instinctively to their hearts. Somewhere along the line, the magnificent spectacle of the ark going down into the bed of Jordan and coming up the other side evokes in believers instinctively the idea of our blessed Lord himself going down into the waters of death and coming up the other side, and therefore evokes in our hearts all kinds of connections that that death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord have for us, his people. Both the significance of the historical event itself, that Christ died for us, and then our part therein, that we died with Christ, have been buried with him and raised again. Just how we should apply these things and the details of the story to ourselves are, of course, as you know, a matter of some disagreement. We saw some of the disagreement emerging yesterday in our question time, and that taught us the good principle of being tolerant one with another and not imagining that any one of us knows the whole truth. So as to bring some control into our exposition of this passage, however, let us spend a few moments once more going over the structure of this book, the way its original and inspired author has selected his material, and the way he has put it together. And let us study again how the individual parts relate one to another and what their relative function is. It's a matter of simple observation that when Joshua and the Israelites came into Canaan, they fought many, many, many battles with many kings, princes, and rulers. Some chapters in the book are devoted simply to long lists of cities that Joshua attacked and destroyed, or long lists of the kings that were eliminated. But whereas on times the Holy Spirit is content just to list the number of the cities, on other occasions he has described for us the battles in great detail. And when we look at them, we shall see that the battles are not the same. Every one of the battles that Joshua fought and is described at length is an exhibition of a different kind of military tactic. Presumably, therefore, the historian was interested at the first level in the different military tactics that Joshua used, uh, on different enemies, and he invites us to see how appropriate were the particular tactics used. But also, as we were saying last night, Joshua has the, uh, the, the author has divided the book of Joshua into two main halves. In the first half, the first phase of the campaign, the battle was waged, the war was waged by the united armies of Israel under the captaincy of Joshua. No tribe was allowed to peel off from the main body and go and settle down. This first phase had to be affected by the united complete armies of Israel under the captaincy of Joshua and his immediate generalship. The second half of the book is not so. Joshua does not lead the battles there. Here, the reverse process, the individual tribes are encouraged to peel off and go, each tribe, into the particular part of inheritance that is given to it, and to fight their own battles in the strength of the Lord, to occupy what had in fact been won for them. Again, we noticed last night that in this first half, Joshua and the Israelites are God's executives, executing the wrath of God upon the evil societies of Canaan. Hence the appearance just before the Battle of Jericho and the judgment began. The appearance of that awesome figure with his sword outstretched, neither for nor against the Israelites, this is no time for partiality. This was a second person of the Trinity come to execute the wrath of God, using Joshua and the Israelites as his executors. You may well ask, but how can that be? The lecturer said last night here, somewhere sitting somewhere here on this chair, that fellow said that, um, this part therefore represents what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, the victorious Christ. What he has done to bring his people into their inheritance, while the second half will speak to us about our Christian responsibility as individuals to enter into that part of the inheritance that is given to us to occupy and enjoy. But you may well ask a question, how can that be? If this first part is Joshua executing the wrath of God on the Canaanites, how come that the Israelites were asked to join with him? I shall seek to answer that question in some detail in this afternoon's session. Save only to begin to clear your minds if they have a difficulty here, let me observe how important it was when God rose up to judge Canaan, that he insisted that his people agreed with him in his judgment of the Canaanites' sin. God could have done it otherwise. God could have said to the Israelites, now you stay in this oasis here, it's pretty pleasant, it has palm trees and, and, and water. You stay there and enjoy yourself for the next year or two. I have business myself to do in Canaan. And God could have left them enjoying themselves while he went and destroyed the Canaanites, emptied the land of these ungodly sinners, fumigated and disinfected it, and when it was all wholesome and clean, then went and fetched the Israelites and brought them in. God did no such thing. If ever they were going to enjoy that land of Canaan, they must be taught the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Why were the Canaanites being expelled? Why is it that the land of Canaan was spewing them out? Because of the wretchedness of their sin. If Israel were ever going to be brought into that land and enjoy that land, they too must be taught the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The danger would have been that if Israel had been allowed to stay in their o- oasis while God dealt with the Canaanite sinners, that when at last the Israelites got into the land, they themselves might have started behaving just as the Canaanites did. Indeed, gentlemen, I'm afraid that's what they did in spite of all God's efforts to the contrary. On the very eve of entry into the land, God had to warn them. Look, Israel, he said, I am casting out the Canaanites before you because of their exceeding sinfulness. Don't you go and do what the Canaanites did, else if you do, the land will spew you out as it spewed them out. And in order to teach the Israelites the exceeding sinfulness of sin, God made them attend his judgments. And he insisted that they agreed with him in his judgments, that sin was so exceedingly sinful that it must be judged. And the serious and solemn story of Master Achan here is that he disagreed with God about the seriousness of Jericho's sin, and thought God was extreme in the matter, and took the view that there were some lovely things, even in Canaanite civilization, that could be rescued from the disaster. And because he disagreed with God over the matter of God's judgment, he fell under that same judgment of God. This afternoon, as I say, I shall hope to go into the matter more deeply, but let me just remind you, gentlemen, that if ever you're going to enter the kingdom of God, you will first have to agree with God over his judgment on sin. The old-fashioned name for it is repentance. If ever you are going to be saved like Rahab was saved from the wrath of God, you'll first have to start by agreeing that the wrath of God is just and well deserved. And you will have to agree with God that his wrath upon, not only that his wrath upon Canaanites is deserved, but his sentence of wrath upon you is likewise deserved. And it is a very serious mistake if in nowadays we lead folks into the kingdom of God bypassing repentance. We need to be saved first from the wrath of God, and then from the wreckage of our sin, but first from the wrath of God, says Paul in his great exposition of the gospel in the Epistle to the Romans. Because then this first half of the book is concerned with the judgments of God upon Canaan, it is not surprising knowing God, is it? Not knowing God as you know. It's not surprising that the second great, uh, part of each section, one, two, three— uh is a salvation story. Hm. I hope I convinced you, may not, maybe I didn't, but I hope I convinced you last night that the story of Rahab is what you might call a straight gospel story. If you found yourselves before a congregation expounding and preaching the story, gentlemen, you wouldn't be urging them to go deeper into their spiritual experience, would you? You would say, now this is a story I preach to the unconverted, the glorious message that though the judgments of God are about to descend on our world, there is a coming wrath. Look at the magnificent mercy of God and his great salvation to even such a sorry sinner as poor Rahab of Jericho. A great straightforward gospel message, and of course millions of evangelists have sensed it so in their very bones and have preached it at that level. But then, her Rahab was converted, and she turned to God from idols to serve the true and the living God because she believed in the God of heaven now and in the fact that his judgments were imminent, and she was promised that when the wrath came, she would be saved. In, uh, section two and this second, uh, uh, para- uh, paragraph here, this second story here, the destruction of J- uh, of Jericho. The story takes a number of verses to tell you how, in fact, when Jericho was judged, Rahab was saved. It might be worthwhile, you're just squinting again at, uh, chapter, uh, 6. To observe the proportions of the story. Incidentally, gentlemen, that is a very important thing to do. We are so liable to take a story and fasten on one detail that appeals to us and neglect the rest and get the whole thing out of proportion. It is a great control upon our exposition to notice not only the story, but the proportions that the historian gives to the details of the story. And if the destruction of Jericho is an important thing and is given great space in scripture, chapter six, verses one to twenty seven, observe, if you please, verse seventeen: and the city shall be devoted, even it and all that is therein, to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. Again, verse, um, twenty two: And Joshua said unto the two men that had spied out the land, go into the harlot's house and bring out thence the woman and all that she hath, as you swear to her. And the young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brethren and all that she had, and all her kindred also they brought out, and they set them without the camp of Israel. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein, only the silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all that she had did Joshua save alive, and she dwelt in the midst of Israel unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Three times over, the story reverts to the fact that when the wrath of God fell on Jericho, Rahab was saved. Oh, hallelujah, isn't it wonderful? This is a gospel story, so if you were preaching Ra- a Rahab story, don't forget this bit, will you? And I repeat, it's worth pondering in days to come. Here she was converted through faith in God and put her trust in the oath of God that when the coming wrath came, she would be saved. To complete that story, you have to come to the destruction of Jericho here, that when Joshua and the armies came to execute the wrath of God, Rahab was saved from the coming wrath. Amen. Let's look now, shall we, just to a small detail of the painter's brush that confirms this. I want you to notice the language that is common to this salvation story, uh, number two in section one, this salvation story, number two in section two, and this salvation story in number 2 of, of, of, of section three. We've already seen it in the case of, uh, just let's read but just let's read it again. Look at the language of it. Two thirteen, give me a true token and that you will save alive my father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death. Notice the language. Turn then to six again. Verse seventeen, for instance. Only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all that were with her in the house. Verse twenty five, but Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all that she had did Joshua save alive. And then in the story of the Gibeonites, chapter nine and verse fifteen: and Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the princes of the congregation swear unto them. Three major stories then, devoted to salvation and against the background of God's terrible judgments and the death that followed, the brilliance of God's mercy on the people that he allowed to live and saved them alive. Gentlemen, you ought to feel your big toes tingling as you think of the mercies of God and find in your heart a tremendous desire to go from this place and preach it. But now notice some other things that, uh, are in common between these first three sections of the fir- uh, the three sections of the first half of the book. We think, of course, of the three objectives, and we talked about them yesterday and need not repeat them now. First, bringing Israel into their inheritance so that feet actually stood in the inheritance. And secondly, the establishment of the law of God in Canaan. And thirdly, the objective of putting down all rule and authority, which was achieved by Joshua and the armies of Israel. Now let us notice the three obstacles that stood in the way of, uh, Israel obta- achieving their objective. And in the first section, the obstacle that stood in the way was the River Jordan in flood. The obstacle that stood in the way to establishing the law of God in Canaan were the fortified cities of Jericho and Ai. And the obstacle that stood in the way of putting down all rule and authority were the, in the first place, the southern confederacy of the kings in Canaan, and in the last place, the Northern Confederacy of the Kings. Now, notice the difference between those obstacles. Here we do a little differential diagnosis. Some of us were talking about it last night afterwards, said, here is another occasion, gentlemen, calling for your skills for differential diagnosis. All three were obstacles, but now we need to see the difference, don't we? The obstacles in section two and section three were man-made obstacles. The first one was not a man-made obstacle. The first one was not the opposition of the Canaanites in their sinfulness and rebellion against God, was it? The first obstacle was an obstacle that nature herself put in the way. No enemy came out to attack Israel, not even when they were crossing the Jordan. Jericho was straightly shut up. The obstacle was entirely an obstacle put there by nature. Jordan in flood. In the other two sections, the obstacles were, of course, man-made. But now notice, from a military point of view, the difference between them. In section two, in both cases, it was a question of how you would take a fortified city. Jericho was, uh, protected by huge man-made walls. The Jerichoites made no attempt to come out. Their policy, their tactics was to remain inside their fortifications, which they thought were impregnable. The problem was, how do you get into the city then? With Ai, it was the other way round eventually. It was not a question of getting into the city merely, but how did you first get the enemy out of it? And we shall come this afternoon to consider the tactics that were adopted by Joshua to lure the people out of the city so that the men in ambush might come in behind and find the city empty, deal with it. The two stories are given in detail. They're interesting from a military point of view. They are not just repetition, he bashed this city and he bashed that city. The historian is asking you to notice the diverse military tactics that had to be used on these two occasions. Differential diagnosis, gentlemen, it's a healthy exercise. Uh, and here, well, in these two cases, it's not a question of, uh, so much of tackling cities, though that was involved. Here, the enemy's armies came out of their city and came out into the open in military formation to attack. Again, there was a difference because in the s- case of the Southern Confederacy, the sudden Southern Confederacy came out to attack not the Israelites. They came out to attack Gibeon because Gibeon had surrendered and gone over to the other side. Whereas the Northern Confederacy did, and they were the first to do it apparently. They actually massed their armies and came out against Israel to fight Israel. Jericho had not done that, nor had Ai, but now the Northern Confederacy did. I suppose they saw, uh, humanly speaking, that if they didn't come out now and fight this enemy in pitched battle in the open plain, they might succumb, like all the others had succumbed. The obstacles, then, gentlemen, are different. And we must get hold of that because it will affect how we interpret what they stand for, as well, of course, as determining the tactics for overcoming the obstacles. Now let us notice one other similarity and then differential. You'll see, gentlemen, I think it's worth doing this because even if you don't agree with my subsequent, uh, exposition, that won't much matter, but I am exercising your pu- pure souls and brains by suggesting to you what you need to do if you will convince others of your exposition. While the Israelites were required to fight under Joshua, in each of these three sections, there was a notable miracle of the sort that God intervened directly. You'll see, doubtless, when the Israelites fought, they fought with the strength that God provided them. But on each occasion, I repeat, in each section, there was at least one occasion when God intervened directly to do what the Israelites could never have done with their own strength, however hard they fought. And what to expect? The miracle on each occasion was different, wasn't it? The Israelites had to trudge across the bed of the Jordan on their own two feet. They weren't carried, but they never could have done it had it not been for the miracle that God did in nature. As the Lord of heaven and earth, enthroned on the cherubim of his ark, the transcender cre- transcendent creator, came to Jordan, nature recognized her creator and bowed in acknowledgment to let her creator through. Good old nature. That was a miracle. That got rid of the obstacle. In, uh, the second section, the miracle was God's power in bringing down the walls of Jericho, was it not? The Israelites then had to enter and a- and slaughter it. They never would have got in, hadn't God done a miracle first and brought down the walls of Jericho. Miracle number two then. And when we come here, mm, to the third section, there was a combination of miracles in order to save the Gibeonites. I can't resist it, they'll say, like the two and a half tribes, the Gibeonites have had a very bad press, gentlemen, and suffered many things from many preachers. And there are many who seem to hold that God had no intention of saving the Gibeonites and wanted them destroyed. And then Israel, in its stupidity, went and swore an oath in the name of God that they could be saved, and God sat up on his throne in heaven and said, now look at these stupid, what my stupid people have done now. I didn't want to save them, and now I shall have to. Well, they've gone and sworn an oath, I, in my name, I can't go back on that. Oh, these stupid Israelites saving people when they shouldn't. And obliging me to save people that I didn't intend to save and didn't want to save. I hope that interpretation is not true myself, because I've been saved, and I hope God wanted to save me when he saved me. Don't you? Well, anyway, he did save them, so that's the fact, without argument. Um, uh, when the Southern Confederacy came against them, as we'll see, and Joshua was winning the day, the disrupted armies of the Confederacy began to flee. Joshua felt there wouldn't be time enough to deal with them. As you'll see, the rout had been caused, uh, you'll see, by God himself rained down mighty stones from heaven upon those who attacked the Gibeonites, and more were slaughtered that day by the stones from heaven than were slaughtered by Israel. And then came the superb miracle. Joshua stood, and he said, Sun, stand thou still on Aijalon. Moon, stand thou still. And the sun hasted not to go down, and the moon didn't shift until the enemy were defeated. Another miracle, rather different from the other miracles, yes? So there's a little task set to all would-be expositors of these early chapters of, um, Joshua, you'll see. You'll have to demonstrate, gentlemen, to prove your case. What is the particular nature of the obstacle each time? And what is the particular nature of the miracle each time? And can you show that the miracle was appropriate to the obstacle, so to speak? And then take account of that in your final exposition and application of the passage. That done then, we must come now to the first great obstacle against Israel's getting into their inheritance. It was Jordan River. And not just Jordan River, but Jordan River in flood. The Jordan River in flood. The Jordan Valley was, I suspect, even in those times, covered for some square miles with thick scrub that would anyway have made it difficult for an army to advance in orderly fashion through the tangled mass of the thick, uh, scrub on both sides of the Jordan River. But to have Jordan River in flood, so you couldn't see where the banks of the river were, and under the water swirling masses of thick scrub, would have made any attempt to cross Jordan in flood by a large army an exceedingly perilous occupation. They had no Bailey bridges, nor engineers such as we. The grave danger would have been that if you had driven an army forward, they would have gone stampeding and falling and getting all caught up and not knowing where the bank was, and some of them then falling into the river itself and others piling in on top of them. The danger was that it would have been an absolute disaster. Disaster. In my mind, the difficulty, the obstacle to getting Israel physically into their inheritance was an obstacle put there by nature. It was the potential danger of death. And gentlemen, hmm, for all I know, and here the preacher is getting a mastery of me now, you'll have to forgive me. If you are proposing to me that there is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, I shall say that's lovely. How do you propose to get over the obstacle? Those gentlemen, let's put our, uh, our, our story in our wider canvas. Joshua isn't simply to be preached to some dear saintly Christian women of sixty seven that have always believed the Bible. It is also a gospel message, isn't it, to the sternest old atheist that ever walked on two legs. Ha! You talk to him, you've got an inheritance, you say. He said, where on earth is this? Well, uh, in heaven reserved for us, he says. Come, come, come, come, come. Is there an inheritance at life's end? What do you consider the human situation to be? Our universe is a dying universe, gentlemen, isn't it? It's running down. We can see that sheer logic tells us that the sun can't go on burning forever, putting out masses, millions of tons of energy daily, and we've been doing it for millions of years, some of them tell us. At any rate, it's burning down, and like your fire in your grate, if you have one, if it goes on burning, it will burn out. The scientists of one school tell us that when the inside has burnt out and hollow, then the sun will collapse. In the moment it collapses, it will lead to a colossal explosion. And in that very moment, Earth will evaporate and be gone. The universe is running down. There will come a time when human life on this planet, as we have known it, plus the planet itself, will be no more. So what are you going to make of the phenomenon of human life on this planet? What is it all about, gentlemen? Is there any future for it? Or will it have to, uh, submit to the death of the universe itself? But long before the universe, our particular universe, our planetary system is destroyed. There's us ourselves, isn't there? We're running down as well. Some of us have been running down a long while. The doctors tell us that after you get to sixty, your brain cells begin to flow away at an alarming rate, as mine obviously are doing. We're running down, gentlemen. Oh, you want to feel it in your bones. For however gay and happy the world may be, and it isn't always that, is it? It's full of sorrow and difficulty, and in front of it, even the most atheistical science will tell- scientist will tell you the whole thing is running down towards a universal death. Oh, some scientists issue the hope that one, by the time it happens, uh, humankind will have learned how to colonize other star systems. Marvelous hope, isn't it? Sounds to me very tenuous. And anyway, what use is that to me? Long before the scientists have learned somehow to sail to other planetary systems and star systems, I shall have run down completely. And then what? Ah, if you're going to talk about, uh, an inheritance reserved in heaven for you, there's one big obstacle, gentlemen. It is the death of nature. And what a gospel we have, haven't we? What a... Listen to Peter. He has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The great conquest of death. What a message the apostles had to carry as they burst out of their upper room on the day of Pentecost. For you'll see, Jesus, though absolute God, was also man, wasn't he? His body was human. God doesn't have a body. Our Lord's body was human, like everybody else's body was human. And the glorious message of the gospel is that when the sinless Savior was placed at last in the tomb, the processes of corruption didn't take place. And then the whole process of death was reversed. And nature witnessed a miracle that nature had never witnessed before. She'd been running down all these long centuries since the fall. And here, when the dead body of Christ came out of the grave, the whole thing was reversed. And our Lord rose. The first fruits of that great restoration to come. The scientists tell us that the chemistry of the, of the, of the, of the universe is consistent, don't they? If the human body of Jesus Christ came out of the grave and the chemistry of the universe is consistent, it carries implications for every bit of chemistry the universe through. And our gospel is nothing short of this, that one day creation herself shall be delivered from its bondage to corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And on the certain unshakable evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have a glorious gospel. Death's barrier has been broken. The way is open into an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved into heaven, in heaven for us. Don't you want to go out and preach it, old chap? To those masses out there that are without God and without Christ, and therefore without hope. Sometimes we underestimate the weakness of the opposition, you know. When the spies got into Jericho and got talking to Rahab, they learned that a lot of them had got cold feet. There's a lot of people out there, they don't like your religion, but they've got cold feet. For the universe is running down, and they themselves are running down, and they're without God, and they're without Christ, and they are without hope. Oh, preach it, gentlemen. Death's barrier has been broken, and I shall not need to exhort you to, uh, uh, preach all those lovely passages that talk about it, not just one Peter one, but what about Hebrews two? A great bondage upon humankind, who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. What a clever old enemy Satan has been, hasn't he? First inducing man to sin, and the result of that is he leads some people to f- to fear that they will survive death. Because if they survive death, they sense there's going to be a judgment to come. They've got to face it, so they hope there isn't anything beyond death. And then he comes at other folks and said, I, I, I shouldn't confess Christ if I were you, because if you do, your society will kill you, and you don't want to die, do you? Ha. He gets them tied up in knots over this matter of death. Hebrews two preaches the glorious gospel, that for as much as the children were partakers of humanity, flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might disannul him that has the power of death and deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Glorious message, then, of deliverance from death. And therefore a credible message, because it's based on the resurrection, a credible gospel of an inheritance that is to be. And as for the enemy's hearts melting, as Rahab said, let me just remind you of what our Lord Jesus said, that he, when he went, the Holy Spirit would come. And he would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Pray notice exactly in what respect he convicts the world of these things. I quote from John sixteen. He will convict the world of sin, not because they, uh, are unkind to their maiden aunts or they murder their mother-in-laws or anything like that. He will convict the world of sin because they believe not on me. It's the cardinal sin. He will convict the world of righteousness because I go to the Father. Do you not perceive what the resurrection of Christ has done? It has proved mankind abdurate and sinful in their rejection of the Lord Jesus and their refusal to believe. They said he was not true, he was wrong, he was an imposter, but the resurrection has proved that he was right. The coming of the Holy Spirit, consequent upon the resurrection, convicts the world of righteousness in the sense that Christ is right and they were wrong. Christ has been vindicated and all his claims vindicated by his resurrection. And what else does the resurrection imply? Of judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged. God, you'll just imagine those Canaanites in Jericho all shut up and thinking they were barricaded and putting their noses over the wall and seeing this Israelite army through their binoculars on the other side of the Jordan saying, I'll never come in here, they'll never come in here, I won't even get across the Jordan. And then seeing the miracle, the astounding miracle, the Ark of the Lord going down and coming up, and the Ark of the Lord come up from Jordan and now surrounding their cities. It was plain what it was going to do. Oh, gentlemen, let modern civilization know it. Christ the Lord has been down into death and come up again, and the implications of it for the Jerichos of this world are solemn indeed. God has given notice that he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, of which he's given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead. This then I take to be the setting of the great story of the crossing of the Jordan and the bringing of Israel into their glorious inheritance. But now we must go on to consider the actual story itself and the way it's told in its three parts, and what the particular significance of each part of the story is. But perhaps before we do that, we ought to take our break. There is a certain technical difficulty confronting me now, gentlemen, that we are within ten minutes of the time that this lecture is scheduled to end. But I'm sure, if we behave ourselves, the Colonel-in-Chief will allow us to get outside the timetable a little, so as to complete the second half of our investigation. We are studying the story of Israel's crossing of Jordan. Now I was suggesting at the first level, the barrier, the obstacle of Jordan represents for us, as it did for Israel, a barrier of nature, the barrier of death, and how that in our Lord that barrier has been removed, and the way is open for our entry into our glorious inheritance. That is true, whether you read the inheritance as something into which we shall eventually enter when the Lord comes at the resurrection, or whether you want to read it as our present position, seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. The same thing is true of both. In order to get into the heavenlies now, or into heaven hereafter, the key to it has been the death and the resurrection of our Lord, his ascension at God's right hand, and we in him are raised and seated with him, and we have an inheritance not only to be entered spiritually now in the heavenlies, but an inheritance in heaven where one day we shall enter bodily. Now we come to the actual story, and my first duty is to point out to you what doubtless you have seen before, that the story is told in the Hebrew manner of telling a story, which is not quite the way we always tell stories in the West. We in the West, at least in our technical works, tend to tell a story in logical progression from the beginning to the end. Hebrew writers do not always do that. They will begin at the beginning and go through to the end, and then when you think they've told it all, they'll come back again and start at the beginning or somewhere along the line and go through to the end once more. And when you think at last, well, surely they've ended now. No, they'll start up again, perhaps a little further along the line, but they'll backtrack to that point and go through once more to the end and effectively tell the story three times, though, of course, they're telling it from three different points of view. You will notice that that is how the story is told us here. In chapter three, in the early verses, Joshua rises early, commands the people to be ready to move when they see the ark of the covenant of the Lord their God and the priest bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it, verse 3 of that chapter. You'll see. And so the day proceeds. In verse nine, uh, Joshua calls the children of Israel themselves. You'll see, uh, now they must move, and he informs them of the significance of the spectacle. Verse ten, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanite. Verse eleven, the ark of the covenant of the Lord passeth over you, over before you into Jordan, Joel said. Uh, verse thirteen, it shall come to pass when the soles of the feet that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off, even the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand in one heap. And it shall come to pass when the peop- and it came to pass when the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, the priests that bear the ark of the covenant being before the people, and when they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brink of the water, for Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great way off at Edom, the city that is beside Zarethan. And those that went down toward the sea of the Araba, even the salt sea, were wholly cut off, and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all Israel passed over on dry ground until all the nation were passed clean over Jordan. So here is the story from beginning to end. You've now come to the great climax. They passed through Jordan. Israel is clean passed over. And at that point, you might think you'd heard the story complete, but no, you haven't. Now we go back in the story and hear it once more. It came to pass when all the nations were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command them, saying, take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest's feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night. So Joshua called these twelve men, and Joshua in verse five said, pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan. And now you notice that you are backtracking in the story. The command to these men to take the stones and set them up is first mentioned, but in order to explain it all, you go back in the story to the time before the ark had not yet entered the river, and they had to take these stones and pass over in front of the ark, and then, uh, we'll see, with their stones upon their shoulders, we'll see. And then they took up out of Jordan twelve stones and brought them up to the river bank. And they did it, verse six, that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, what mean you by these stones, then you shall tell them, Josie, these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up the twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, to see, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. Joshua set up the twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan. That's the other twelve. Twelve were taken from the, the, the bottom of the river and stood on the further bank, but other twelve were taken and put down in the river. They were, of course, taken from the east side of Jordan, taken down by the twelve men and put in the bottom of the river. Twelve other stones taken up from the bottom of the river and put on the further side of Jordan. And verse, uh, uh, nine says that, uh, they, uh, set up the twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there unto this day. For the priests which bear the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the Ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests in the presence of the people. Uh, verse fourteen: on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life. So the story has been told now a second time, this time with special emphasis on these two sets of twelve stones. But in order to explain that, it goes back to the point where Israel went down into the river and the ark stood there until all the people were clean passed over, and then it comes to the end once more, and when the people were clean passed over, the priests and the ark came out, and they passed over as well. So at last we're finished. We've had two goes at it, now we're finished, surely. No, we're not. There's the third go. Ha. In verse fifteen, and the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony that they come up out of Jordan. I thought they'd been up quite a while already. I mean, we were told it twice. I mean, yeah, but this is the way the Hebrew tells the story. You'll see. So now we go back to the point where the priests were still in the Jordan, the rest of the people have gone up, and Joshua commanded the priests, saying, come you up out of Jordan. It came to pass, when the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto dry ground, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place and went over all its banks as a full tide. So the way the story is told in three separate movements. Now, you may think that's a very funny way to tell a story, and certainly a lot of liberal critics have got it all muddled up and tied around their neck, and they imagine that this is because the, the writer took the story from three different sources or something and put them together in a rather inefficient manner and got it all muddled up. That isn't so at all. It is, of course, a little bit offensive to the masculine logical mind of the Western world, but it's a method of storytelling that you can still hear any day in a shopping mall between two women. He- he- he- he- here, and sometimes between two men, I might say. Here's Mrs. Smith, and she's just accosted Mrs. Brown in the supermarket, you see. Oh, says Mrs. Smith, I went downtown yesterday, you know, uh, to get a present for my next door neighbor's daughter, do you know, uh, do you see? And, oh, she's a beautiful girl. And I went down to the shop, and I, I, I bought the present and brought it home and gave it to her, and she thought it was wonderful, you know. She's a marvelous girl. She, uh, uh, uh, her husband is a New Zealander, and he married an Inuit, you see. You couldn't get two different extremes better than that. And she's beautiful, and so I went down to the town and I, I, I bought the present and gave it, and she's ever so pleased with it. You say, that's very nice to know. Now I can get off and get the margarine. No, no, she's not finished the story yet. She would be mistaken if you thought that. She's told you from beginning to end that she went down and got it and now brought it home and gave it to the girl, and the girl's very pleased. Well, well, that's only part of the story. Now she starts up again. And you know, when I went downtown yesterday to get this present, I was going into a shop, and when I got there, I couldn't get in because there'd been a smash and grab raid, and there were bodies all over the street, and the glass was there, and I couldn't get in. So I went to another shop, you see, and I had to, and I, I never thought of going in there, but I went in there, and, you know, I got a sh- oh, I got a tremendous bargain. I was so glad I got there, and I bought the present and brought it home, and she's delighted with it. Oh, you say, that's very nice. Well, now we've had it twice, that'll be enough. I'm wanting to get on with the shopping. Oh, but no, she's not finished yet. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Yes, you know, uh, uh, uh, you know, when I went to get that present, like I told you, I couldn't get into the shop I was going to, and I am glad I didn't get into it, you see. I was thinking of buying some earrings, uh, but when I had to go to the other shop, oh, this assistant was charming, and she said, do you really want earrings? And I said, I thought so. And she said, well, what color hair does the girl have? And I said, she's rather dark, I think. She said, why don't you buy this emerald tiara? And I thought that would look beautiful, so I bought the emerald tiara, and I took it home and gave it to the girl. Oh, she is pleased. It's only one story, but her technique was to tell it three different times over, you'll see, with a different emphasis each time, yes? And there's sense to it, of course, isn't there? Don't you smile too much, because the Holy Spirit himself use- uses the technique. And he uses it here. And it may sound very, very primitive to you, it is in fact exceedingly sophisticated. The crossing of Jordan is told three times. And what's the point of telling it three times? Because there's a different emphasis each time. Consider, for instance, what Joshua said, chapter three, verse five, in the first telling of the story. Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Gentlemen, whatever else you get or you don't get from your consideration of this story, the first thing you must perceive as you watch this ark go through Jordan is the sheer wonder of the event. The wonder of it. When it comes to the second telling of the story, which puts its emphasis on the t- stones, the two batches of stones, then look what verse six of chapter four says, that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, what mean you by these stones, then you will say unto them, because the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. So the next thing you should consider about the story of the crossing of Jordan is the sign to the subsequent generations of the historical fact. Lest subsequent generations eventually forget how the nation was brought into Jordan, into their inheritance through Jordan. And then when the story is told the third time, look at verse, um, twenty three: for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were passed over, the parallel between the Red Sea and the Jordan, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that they may fear the Lord your God forever, the public testimony to the nations around, of the significance of Israel's crossing of Jordan. And since the Holy Spirit has chosen to tell the story in three times over with these three different emphases, if in our preaching we are going to keep close to the word of God, we shall have those same emphases too, shouldn't we? Whatever else we say, we shall aim in the first place to hammer home what the Holy Spirit himself is saying. And so, gentlemen, come with me. Join the Israelites as they are being, um, briefed by Joshua. You have not passed this way before, said he. When you hear the command to move, you shall move, but keep, please keep your distance. As the priests take the ark out in front of you, you've not been this way before. Let there be a space between you and it. For if the front ranks had huddled around the ark, the back ranks couldn't have seen what happened. And it was important that all should see what a wonder was this. What was the wonder? Not merely that when the priest's feet touched the water, it parted, but it was the feet of the priest that bear the ark of the Lord of the whole earth. Oh, what a magnificent spectacle it was. For Israel believed that as that ark slowly processed forward to the banks of Jordan and then eventually dipped down and went to its bed, it was not just a symbol. They believed that the Lord of the whole earth sat enthroned on that ark. What was its significance? Well, as we said in the first session, in the first place, the significance was this, that if the barrier were put there by nature, now, as the Lord of heaven and earth came, nature recognized her Lord and parted and bowed in his presence and let him pass through. But that will not exhaust its significance, surely. For questions arise. Pray, what was the Lord of the whole earth doing? Crossing Jordan at all? To get into Canaan. Why, if I might be naive, why couldn't he, if he must come down, why couldn't he have come down direct from his heaven, direct into Canaan? He didn't need to pass through Jordan, did he? As the Lord of the whole earth came to repossess Canaan, he might have come direct. Hear the marvel of his grace, but he wasn't coming simply to repossess what was his. He was coming to bring his people through into Jordan. It meant he must go out in front of them and make the way through the barrier. Even so, why could he not have hovered above the river, and with his command caused the river to part and beckoned the Is- Israelites over? But he chose not to do it. The Lord of the whole earth went down into the riverbed until all his people were passed through. All see the wonder of it. That we might reach an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, to last eternally when our temporary world is done with and exploded into nothingness. The Lord of the whole earth not only came down from his heaven, but consented to go through death and a grave. He needn't have done so needy. From his eternal throne, he could have spoken the word, as one day he will, that will dissolve our universe and its planetary system and start it again. But if he had merely done that, we must have perished. And to break the barrier of death for us, the Blessed Lord became incarnate. Stand back, gentlemen. See and express the wonder of it, if you can. Stand back and see it. You've never seen anything like it elsewhere. That the Lord of the whole earth went down into death. Lord of life, to death made subject. Blessed are thou who the curse once made of the father's heart the object, yet in depths of anguish laid. Thee we gaze on, thee recall, bearing here our sorrows all. See the wonder of it. This day I will begin to magnify you, Joshua, said God in the eyes of all the people. Though, to be sure, it wasn't Joshua who opened the way, but God himself. But when we come from the history, the prototype to the final reality, the figure of our Joshua and the Lord of the whole earth combine. What is it, gentlemen, that draws out and compels your obedience, that you fear the blessed Lord Jesus? This day, says God to Joshua, I will begin to multiply mal- uh, honor you, magnify you before the people of Israel, that they may obey you like they obeyed my servant Moses. And I say, springing from that prototype to the reality, pray, what is it that compels your obedience and determination to follow the Savior at whatever cost, wherever? And with one voice, gentlemen, you would answer me all the same, the wonder of this, that for my sake, to bring me from my dying world through the barrier of death into the glorious inheritance. The Lord himself went before and went down into death's dark waters, deep, bitter, offensive, and for his lost sheep, he went down to the grave. And now he's risen. And on the other side, and we in him, him are raised to endless glory and ne'er shall die. The wonder of it then. But then there was also the sign of it. For it was not enough that on this historic occasion, Israel should be thus brought miraculously through the barrier of death into their promised inheritance. God had in mind the future generations of Israel, for we are now back dealing with literal history, and it was therefore important that the future generations of Israel, as they ate their grapes and munched their figs and lived in their comfortable, uh, air conditioned bungalows with their three acres and a cow, should not forget how their nation originally came into Canaan. Why was that important? Well, we've already said it, let's say it again. The Canaanites ate these same grapes, figs, and lived in their bungalows and houses and enjoyed their three acres and a cow and their chariots of iron and such like things. That didn't save them from being as worldly and as disgustingly sinful as they were. And simply bringing Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey and filling their mouths with grapes to munch and figs to eat and bungalows to enjoy wouldn't necessarily make them holy, gentlemen. In fact, our own experience says that the more affluence people have, the less likely they are to be holy and devoted to the Lord. And how desperately easy it is when we are poor and indigent, we, we seek the Lord, for we have nothing else. And when we are rich and increased with goods, we forget the Lord and become worldly. The terrible sin of Canaan was this, that they took all the fruits of the land that came from God's gracious hand, and they had no time for God. Made them their own idols. And history showed the real danger that if God gave Israel, these set of bankrupt slaves out of his mercy, this glorious inheritance, then eating the grapes and the figs and enjoying the grass and the cows and the honey, they would become just like the Canaanites, worldly, self-centered, self-seeking, with little time for God. What could God do to stop it happening? He asked that stones be set, taken out of the river bed and put upon the further bank, that in future generations, when dad took the family out over the Easter weekend, or was it the Tabernacles or what have you, and they came to the bank of Jordan and the little chap said, Dad, what are these stones? Dad would be able to tell them that years ago, perhaps centuries ago, God, the Lord of heaven and earth, came down enthroned on his ark and went through these waters, and the waters parted that Israel might come through into their inheritance. It would be perilous if they forgot it, those future generations. And you mustn't think me fanciful for going from that to our equivalent. It is now nearly two thousand years since the blessed Lord Jesus died at Calvary. But how it is that our modern generation of young believers should remember how the church was brought into her glorious inheritance. I do not know what things are like in Canada, but in my part of the world, I hear voices, and they say, surely in keeping the Lord's Supper so regularly and so monotonously, we're depressing people. Uh, surely it would be enough just occasionally to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and for the rest, uh, emphasize the wonders and the glories and the joys and the benefits of Christianity. Isn't it rather rather lugubrious constantly every Sunday to be remembering that the Lord died? Well, if you find it lugubrious, gentlemen, don't go to heaven. For there'll scarce be a rendering of the choir that doesn't say, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And all our heavenly joys within our inheritance spring from that wonderful fact. And what shall keep me, even with my spiritual privileges and joys, enjoying spiritual grapes and figs and bungalows? What shall keep me from being self-centered? Why, the constant memorial of how I got into my inheritance. You know, we can be selfish even in our spiritual things. We can so preach Christianity as the cure all ills for people's glooms, but what we are doing is pandering to their selfishness. And so long as God panders to their selfishness, God is okay. Let God start to talk about his judgment and Calvary, and then he's thought to be a monotonous and lugubrious bore, and people don't want to know. Gentlemen, if we ever forget Calvary, we wouldn't be fit subjects for heaven because, according to the rumors going about, and they're authenticated rumors, the glory that's piled up for you there, well, the only kind of nouns you could use to describe it are in terms of weight, the exceeding weight of glory. How will you bear it? You know, in some countries, in my country, when people were poor during the depression, when I was born, few people could afford a car. They couldn't afford the butter on the bread sometimes, and they went to the prayer meeting. We had nothing else to do. Then they grew rich. And some of them got a mini miner. Well, you wouldn't know what that is in Canada with your Cadillacs a fortnight long. Mini miners are small versions of the internal combustion engine machine. And some of them just about got enough money together to get a mini miner. It's no good having a mini miner if you don't use it, is it? Come prayer meeting night, you had to make your choice. And if it was the only night you had to spare, and the choice was, did you go to the prayer meeting or go out for a ride in your mini miner? Some went out in their mini miners. And there's nothing wrong in going out in mini miners, goodness me not. Innocent enough occupation, isn't it? But gentlemen, if good things, lovely gifts of God, draw our hearts away from God now, whatever would happen when we got home to heaven if God gave you a galaxy or two to look after? I think you'd never turn up to a heavenly prayer meeting ever for a thousand years. Before God puts his enormous and eternal wealth of our, of the inheritance into our hands, somehow he's got to break us of this innate tendency that even the good things take our hearts away from the Lord, and how shall he do it? How could he ever do it, except to ask us constantly to think back to how and at what price we came into our glorious inheritance? Put the stones on the further bank to remind all succeeding generations how Israel came into their inheritance. Ah, but from that further bank, take stones while the ark is still down there in the river and put those stones in the bottom of the river, which they did. And when the ark eventually came up, and the waters came back and overflowed the stones. And you can imagine a dad ten years down the line, can't you, and he's taking his young chaps down to the border of Jordan to show them this great thing. Here are the stones, my boy, uh, that they put, you know, they came out of the river bed and they put them here on the bank, you'll see, yes. And the boy who says that, so dad. And then dad would say, boy, can you see down there in the water, there's some stones down there? And the boy would look, no, dad, I can't see the stone. Well, look again, can, well, they look as if they're moving. That's the water making them look as if they move. Oh yes, yes, there's twelve stones. Can you count them? There are twelve stones right down there. And what are they there for, Dad? Well, my boy, they're there to remind us that we were once down there. That when the ark was there and the Lord was there with the great walls of water beside, we were there too. And they're there to remind us. There are two things to be remembered, gentlemen, aren't there? About how we got into our inheritance. And one is this, that the blessed Lord for our sakes went down into death, and he died for us, and now he's risen. And the other thing to remember is that when he died, we died with him and were buried with him, and we rose with him and are now seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Gentlemen, when we think of it, to expound it as it should be expounded would take me the rest of the week, I should think, and I cannot do it, but you are more experts than I in that. But we need to observe where this is being taught us. This is gospel, gentlemen. It is the fact that you were crucified with Christ and buried with Christ. It is the fact that you were raised with Christ and seated with Christ. Then we need to remember it, don't we? Because those glorious historical facts have endless practical implications. And what those implications are could be one of a useful set of discussions in our question times, couldn't it? And I mustn't stay here to expound them. Finally, the third section. And, uh, it says, the Lord spake unto Joshua, verse fifteen, saying, command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, come you up out of Jordan. I like it very much, don't you? I can see him standing there and calling to these priests, come up, gentlemen, come up. Yes. And in the little time that is available to me, I, I, I flit like a butterfly from that to the words of Paul in Colossians three. You've been, you were dead with Christ, buried with him. And if, uh, you have died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to ordinances? You're die- dead with Christ. If you then be risen with Christ, come up, gentlemen, and set your mind on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. This is basic gospel. You'll say, gentlemen, suppose one of these days you're taken to a prison, and there sits a man in condemned row, you'll see. He's been on drugs, and in a brawl he murdered somebody, and now he's condemned to die, and you come along and will say, I'm so sorry for you, you know, young man. The trouble with you is, you'll see, these drugs that you took, uh, landed you in the soup. I tell you what, you should take up vegetarianism, a- a- and that will help you a lot. Fool. Man is going to be executed next week. What good will vegetarianism do him? The man is is sentenced to death. And how false is religion when it comes to men and women in their sins under the sentence of the judgment of God, and it says take up religion, or take up fast days, or take up observing holy days, or take up asceticism. That's useless. What little improvement any of them could make will never deliver them from the sentence of death that God has passed upon them. There's only one way out of the impasse, that is, if you're prepared to receive Christ and die with Christ. The soul that trusts in the blessed Savior, then God is prepared to count the Savior's death as that person's death. We accept the penalty, and in the person of our substitute, we undergo the penalty, and we died with Christ. That releases us. But what next? Well, a little vegetarianism might, might, might do some good, I suppose, but really that is beside the point. If you're dead to the world, why, as though living in the world, do you go in for those mere rules and regulations? The secret of victorious Christian living is come up! And if you be raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God. For your life, you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ shall appear, then you shall also appear with him in glory. Our only life we have worth having is the life we have in Christ. We don't have a, a, our own private supply of eternal life, you know, that we can keep in a box and put in the bank. The only life you have, gentlemen, sitting there on that seat, the only spiritual life you have that's worth having is in Christ. And if you are alive, you are alive because you are in him and joined with him. And if that be so, come up and set your whole thoughts of your being on Christ at the right hand of God, for he is your life, and in fellowship with him, the blessed risen Lord will work out his life in you. Now that's a very ragged exposition of these chapters, and I'm conscious that you would be far more expert in these things than I. But what I'm exhorting you to do, gentlemen, is the next time you come to preach it, do try to give heed to the fact that it is told in three movements. Work out what is the central emphasis of each movement, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit who inspired this writing of the story, so that your sermon makes the same emphases as he was intending to make. And now let us take our pause.