Crossing Jordan (Part C)

What happens between the big events in life? Preparation. I have dreams.

Not too often anymore, but I still get them every now and then. I come up here and I didn't study, and I just don't have anything. So I start doing hand puppets. Did you see this one? Look at that, an eagle. But when I wake up, it's like a cold sweat. Well, should God mean less to somebody in my position?

Should it just be a casual thing? This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick in Joshua chapter 3 with his continuing study called Crossing Jordan. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and respect. A similar mission identical with the exception of the physical slaughter that accompanied Joshua, the sword of the spirit, not the sword of the blacksmith. So again, these lessons, they abound. These books should be very much alive to a New Testament reader. We don't come to the Old Testament and say, it's just literature. It's just a historical account of what they went through.

It is living and powerful. It is the Bible that Jesus used and is the Bible that we use and we have even more because of Jesus. Verse 6, then Joshua spoke to the priest saying, take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

This take up, that's one of the words that jump out, at least at me, maybe you're reading it and something else. Maybe, maybe you just got through in your devotions and you read that you belong to a royal priesthood and you come to this verse and you say, Joshua spoke to the priest and you say, Jesus spoke to the priest because the name Joshua, of course, means Jesus and that would be fair. But for the moment, how would I paint a picture of this take up the ark in New Testament language? Take up your armor and take up your cross. That's the New Testament teaching on taking things up that are really big. Mark chapter 16, Jesus speaking, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. We spend our whole Christian life trying to get to that, trying to deny ourselves.

Hateful refrigerators. How do you deny yourself? There's a big thing of ice cream in there this big. It's simple. You eat it, then you don't have to worry about it anymore. That's my strategy. So once you get fat, you'll be happy.

I forgot. Some people find nothing funny about that. Well, here's another take up.

Just move along where it's safe. Ephesians chapter 6, therefore, Paul said, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand, stand. He emphasizes that in that section of scripture. So there you are outside of church and life hits you with whatever it hits us with. Again, it could be no critical major thing going on, just the routine of life, a time to sow, a time to reap. Again, that's what it's meant by. When Solomon wrote that, he wasn't trying to write some beautiful little language to post on the wall on a coffee mug. He was saying there are routines in life that make it stupid. That's what he means. It's vanity.

It's all just vanity. He burst out with this and he has to conclude it all except in the light of God. And you say, Solomon, then why did you mess up so much? I had so much. You try being. You try having what I have.

See how you do. We're just flesh. Well, we take up the whole armor because that's what it's going to take. We deny ourselves.

The effort of doing that is very helpful. Some have overdone it, trying to deny themselves to the point of ruin. We look for that graceful balance. He says, so they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

The importance of being led, again, is stressed here. And God has designed this system. He appointed the priests. So someone from the tribe of Asher or Gad or Neftali, they could not say, why can't I get to carry the ark today? Because you're not called. You're not assigned this.

You have other things that you do. This is for them. And of course, many defy this in the church and they take it upon themselves to go against the system and clear teachings of the word. Verse 7, then Yahweh said to Joshua, this day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. All of this is initiated by God.

Through a people ready to trust and abide, that's important. The other generation couldn't do this. God had to wait. He had to wait the 38 years after the sentence. You're not going in 40 in the wilderness, of course, rounding it up, but doing the math.

Anyway, don't want to go there. This period of time out of Egypt to the promised land 40 years. But God now had a people he could work with. Well, I want to be one of those people. So it could be very nice for us to preach Christ. It'd be nice for me to come up into the pulpit and make all the points I wanted to make, but I still got to go outside these walls and live it. So it's not just a gig. You know, you just go play your instrument and the people clap and then everybody goes home.

When the music leaders come up and we worship the Lord, it's not a gig. It's not just something we do. It is very meaningful. And this is one of the great differences of living in the wilderness and now entering into the promised land, now it's meaningful.

Before it was survival. Now this is meaningful. This is my land.

The sole of my foot takes this. This is my cornfield or bean field or whatever because God has given it to me. And I have given, along with this gift, I have these responsibilities that I have to pursue. And so it says here, this day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel. He's talking directly to Joshua and he's saying to him, you're the leader. And Christian leadership is not supposed to be a platform for self-promotion. It is a place of appointment to do God's will. Joshua, again, born a slave in Egypt and now here he is, king in Israel. I know I'll use the term loosely, but he is the leader and he is a God appointed leader. And he did not exalt himself. He never said to Moses, at least we have no record of it because it didn't exist. Moses, you know, when you're dead, can I have your, can I take this position from you? I mean, nobody else is following you around doing what I do. Matthew 23, and whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Anybody here kind of snarky and arrogant and short with other people who you think you're smarter and better than?

Because you just somehow have it. I mean, after all, Saturn lined up with Mars in the day you were born, so you're now this smart little cookie. God says, that's dumb. Luke chapter 1, Mary speaking, he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. Where's Pharaoh? Here's Joshua the slave. God certainly has exalted.

It is hard to not see ourselves as being number one when in some area where we think we should be the best. The best dad, the best mom, the best husband, well, that one I've got, so you got the guys. You want to take notes later, I'll meet you all. Anyway, continuing, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Evidently, this was a concern Joshua had. Looked out, see two million people, two and a half million people. I've never seen two and a half million people at one time. You can't even see that many from space. I mean, it's just too far out.

A really good pair of binoculars. I mean, he had to look out and say, how do I get, I was a slave and here I am now. And this is something he must have wrestled with. That's just why God said don't be afraid, Joshua. It must have been something Joshua was struggling with as a person.

No matter how high up you go, you're still a human being. You still struggle with things. Some pastors have miserable congregations. I'm not one of them. Some pastors have congregations that they have to fight tooth and nail to get anything done with. The Jews have had that in their history. Ezra, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were told specifically by God, well not Ezra, but in the book of Ezra, Zerubbabel, I will make your forehead stronger than their forehead. They're going to want to butt heads with you, you're going to win. I'm so nice. Isn't there another church acting pastor?

I'm not trying to win headbutting contests. Well sometimes you won't have a choice and that is not only in ministry, it is life. God will make us strong. The divine objective here is to magnify Joshua in the sight of the people, that as he had been with Moses, he would be with Joshua. Verse 8, you shall command the priest to bear the ark of the covenant saying when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. The Jordan is no puddle.

It's a brown water lake, it's not that great, but it's still a river and it will kill you very quickly like any other river will. And this incidentally is April, May, when the waters are melting up north on Mount Hermon, snow capped Mount Hermon, and coming right down the Jordan towards the Dead Sea. And it's overflowing its banks, God's timing.

He did this, his arrangement, and they were going to have to be centered on him if they were going to get across it. There were no boats, there were no bridges, there was no other way around, here they were. And as the priests were to stand in the water, an emblem of standing and obedience to what God had told them to do and the will of God and truth withholding the article of, that article of the ark. And as, of course, we can see in this, that fuller experience in Christ exists for us. We can be saved on the east side of Jordan or we can enter into that promised territory in the richer experience. Verse 9, so Joshua said to the children of Israel, come here and hear the words of Yahweh your God. And of course, Jesus is still making this command, Jesus being our Joshua, Yeshua, and Joshua is seen as a prophet, speaking prophetically. Verse 10, and Joshua said, by this you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perzerites, the Gergashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. I always feel like we're leaving five others out.

I don't. Well, always it's a contest for the mind. It is always, the mind is a battlefield, Satan versus the spirit, of course. All of these people had dead gods. They were man-made demonic concoctions that men had fallen for versus the living God, and that emphasis is intentional. These people in the land, they were unfit to remain there and they would not go unjudged by God himself, the Jews being the instrument. And of course, we live in a world where people are all around us who don't want to face facts about Christ.

They're so against him that they don't even want him to be right, even if you could prove him right. And that's not really too much our concern. Our concern is to be led by the spirit and to be ready to preach Christ to whom the Holy Spirit is already working on, verse 11. I don't want you to raise hands, but how many of you pray that God would use you more evangelically, to use you more to preach to someone ready to receive Christ? It is what we're here for, verse 11. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into Jordan. So every one of this two and a half million souls will have a clear and personal view of the ark, even if it is covered. They know that beneath that covering, there is the ark. And I mean, even if it weren't covered, they wouldn't get but so much of a look, the detail, they'd be too far away.

I mean, it's just kind of a wasted thing. They would get to see, hey, this is gold. But none of us can get through to Jesus Christ unless we have a personal and clear view of him, verse 12. Now, therefore, take for yourselves 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. Now, they want, again, full coverage that God is interested in all of them, verse 13, and each one indicative. Verse 13, and it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.

Well, of course, he's done this before. And the people know, some of them lived through that. Some of these, in this crowd of these people, they were there when God parted the sea.

They were young, of course, but some of them have seen it and many others did not. God doesn't do needless miracles. And when he can use natural means, he tends to use natural means to accomplish his goals. But there are, of course, times where he wants to make another point, and it is always on our behalf.

And here, he is going to, of course, part the sea. You should see, I don't want to talk about all the naysayers, you know. Well, there was an earthquake and it just, some mudslide came down.

Just, so what? Who timed it? I mean, anybody can swing at a fastball.

Not anybody has the timing to hit it out of the park. Well, God, all of his miracles are connected to timing. And we've covered this before. So, anyway, this, God is going to roll back the waters. What transpires between big events is what makes us fit for those events. What happens in preparation for battle or whatever being used by God?

What happens between not speaking to somebody about Christ and speaking to somebody about Christ? During that time, what's going on? Is that going to disqualify us or is it going to energize us? For me, my life is, the rhythm of my life is dictated by Sunday and Wednesday. That dictates my life. What happens between those two days means everything to me. What about you? What happens between the big events in life? Preparation. I have dreams.

I sometimes, not too often anymore, but I still get them every now and then. I come up here and I didn't study and I just don't have anything. So I start doing hand puppets and, just, did you see this one?

Look at that, an eagle! But when I wake up, it's like a cold sweat. Well, should God mean less to somebody in my position?

Should it just be a casual thing? Oh, look, I got 20 minutes left. I better get ready. I'm not boasting. It's hard. It's not easy. And my wife sometimes has to pay for these things.

She doesn't know it all the time. Anyhow, my point, and I hope we see it, is what happens between the big events? This church has had some big events.

What happens in between them? Patience and faith, trusting God, doing the routine that is demanded by us if we're going to be effective for the Lord. It is good that we worry. If we lived in an environment where the animals set the pace, you have to get up in the morning and do whatever you do to animals, I don't know, the biggest beast I've ever had has been a German shepherd. But if you had cows and chickens, I would sell them, but some of you would have them, and you know you'd worry about the animals dying and you'd have to take care of them. Oh, brother. Look, I get my cammies on in my orange hat and I go to Food Lion and I get myself some meat. Okay.

Truth, the other day I was thinking, you know what, I wonder if I should learn hunting. Nah. That really happened.

Alright, anyway, verse 13, and it shall come to pass. Wait, wait, let's go back to that. I could take you to the city and put you in a bad neighborhood and you wouldn't know how to survive. So just don't go mocking the city folks like they're dum-dums.

It's just what jungle are you used to? You haven't lived until you've been up on 125th Street. That's Harlem, New York, incidentally. And it shall come to pass. As soon as the soles of the feet of the priest who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off the waters that come down from upstream and they shall stand in the heap. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priest bearing the ark of the covenant before the people. We pause there to say it happened.

It took place. Incidentally, we're not told how long the poles or how thick the poles, the girth of the pole was in the Bible. That means we don't know how many men were used. Was it four, six, or eight?

It's just left. They knew, of course, those carrying it. But if you're doing a Bible study, I want to know how many priests are holding this thing and the water's moving and how long for two million people? Did they have shifts?

Joshua leaves all that out. I wouldn't be at all surprised and find nothing wrong if the priest had shifts. Okay, help Rollo over there. He's tired.

Look, his knees are shaking. That would be the sensible thing. Again, two million and a half, and the kids, and the animals coming, and carts. You know people drop things and hold up the whole crowd as this stuff is going on. So somebody's stopping to ask questions. For the Jordan overflows, it says. It's banks during the whole time of harvest. That's April, May, the harvest season he's talking about when the water's coming down, the runoff from the mountains. G. Campbell Morgan says in one of his sermons, I think it was from Joshua, one of the sermons, anyway, I do not think you can frighten me with a running river when I have seen the sea divided. In other words, he's saying, you go up to the river and you see it overflowing its banks and you see it roll back. I got this.

I'm not worried about this at all at this point. And that is so true to try to see ourselves there. This generation that grew up at the feet of those who told stories about this happening before, now they are living it. And they're going to be faithful to it. They heard about God's outstretched arm to them as a people and what their fathers did and did not do. And they're determined to get it right.

Verse 16, that the waters, oh, pause here. We never read about this generation bad mouthing their parents. We never read them saying, those losers, they had their chance. It's our turn now. We know better than they know. We never hear that. Honor your mother and father.

They took that very seriously. You know, that would include mother-in-laws and father-in-laws. I'm just saying. We can't cherry pick that verse and say, well, you're not my mother. I don't talk to you any way I want.

What's the alternative? Think these things through. What is God's intention here? Love is God's intention to get people to work together. Verse 16, that the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaratan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of Arabah, the salt sea, failed and were cut off. And the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Well, they weren't directly opposite of Jericho, but other side of Jericho.

That's the meaning. And the Hebrew is going in that direction. We don't know where this place, Adam, is located. It's close to Zaratan.

I have an idea where that is. And it's not necessary they knew where they were, this swath of land that they were crossing. And what pace did it take?

Whatever it took. They moved at the pace of the slowest one. Verse 17, then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over Jordan. The emphasis, or at least in reading it, the feel of it, when I read it, which stands out to me is the priests standing firm.

They had to wait until they got into the waters before the waters were rolled back. And sometimes that is our life. Before God does the thing, we've got to step out into whatever he has assigned us before anything happens. And there are many times that there are those that won't step out. How many times does someone take an application to serve and never fill it out? Not rebuking anybody, but there's a good, it's a teachable moment.

You've got to step out. No guts, no glory in the faith. Well, all Israel crossed over on dry ground, a miracle in a miracle that happens often when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the furnace.

They also did not smell like smoke, so it was a double benefit to the whole thing. I would have, you know, knowing the humor of the Jews, one of them might have said, I wish I had known I would have taken some goat meat, shish kebab, until all the people crossed over completely over Jordan. I don't think there's anything to add to that. The Jews were given this land, they're still there, again, because of God. And the lessons about all of these, this entering into the land, you can do this subject with all sorts of types. You don't get in without Christ to name Joshua, and how Joshua has led us in, and they would all be valid. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua, right here on Cross Reference Radio.