That laid me up for a while.” The agent said, “Weren’t those accidents?” “No,” replied the cowboy, “They did it on purpose.”
I believe God’s people should have the same attitude about things in their lives. We have too many Christians today, walking around talking like something happened by accident.
The fact is, God is the one who does the work in our life. It has nothing to do with accidents, good luck or bad luck.
Ephesians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
It is God who does the work in our life, and each day we should thank Him for what He has done, and not pass it off as an accident, or as good or bad luck!
Joshua had just taken over as the leader of Israel after Moses died. He was a man of faith.
What are some of the things we can learn from this part of the Book of Joshua? The Word of God teaches us some very valuable lessons in Joshua.
For example, the crossing is a beautiful analogy of the believer's death with Christ, and the resurrection life in Him.
Romans 6:2-5, we read, “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”
The moment we put our faith in Jesus as our personal Savior, we have everything we need in Christ. The Holy Spirit invites us to come and take possession of it.
Joshua instructed Israel to MOVE OUT when the PRIEST began to carry the ARK OF THE COVENANT, which was symbolic of God’s presence. Let’s look at-
I. THEIR MOVING
The crossing of the Jordan beautifully pictures our passing from one level of Christian living to another. As we walk by faith, He fulfills in us what He asks us to do. It doesn't happen automatically.
God was saying to Israel, "The land is already your land, now walk in it.”
• Take it
• Claim it
• Possess it
And God says in Joshua 3:13-14, “And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests 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 from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap. And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people.”
Illus: We can read through church history, and see great men and women of God doing great things for the Lord. But the difference between them and many Christians, is that they knew how BY FAITH TO CLAIM THE BLESSINGS OF GOD.
Notice the kind of instructions the Lord gave. He told them, “WHEN I MOVE, YOU MOVE, and if I MOVE and YOU MOVE, I will give you every place the soles of your feet land.”
When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, they were cut off from their old life. At the Jordan River they were cut off from all the old pagan Egyptian life styles, and the wilderness wandering.
Israel as a nation had:
• A new identity
• A new law
• A new life in the land
There was no need to go back across the river. The old life style was buried under the waters of the Jordan. That old life was dead. They came up out of the Jordan to start a new life in a new land.
That describes our death, burial and resurrection with Christ, because we have been so identified with Christ.
We have been baptized into Christ. We have been placed into Christ and identified with Him. We have gone through what Christ went through in His death, burial and resurrection. We are so identified with Christ that He not only died for our sins, but we died with Him.
The Apostle Paul described our new identification with Christ as being "crucified with Him," we are:
• Buried with Him
• Risen with Him
Look at Romans 6:11, we read, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
When we:
• “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin
• But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
THIS WILL REVOLUTIONIZE OUR LIFE!!!
That is the heart of living the Christian life. We are now identified with Christ in His death.
• When He died, I died
• When He was resurrected in newness of life, so was I
When I choose to act upon that truth, I experience Him in a new quality of life. It is the resurrection life. In other words, just as Israel crossed over, and now they were cut off from the other side, so are we in Christ.
This is why 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
The people of Israel had committed themselves to crossing the Jordan. When the floodwaters closed back up and returned to normal, the people were cut off from the old life. Their old life in the wilderness was cut off. That was the end to it. They were now new people. It was a victory of faith.
Likewise, we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
II. THEIR MONUMENTS
Can you imagine how excited they must have been once they crossed over?
• They had been waiting forty years for this to happen and now it finally happened
• God had caused them to walk across Jordan on dry ground
This was one exciting time! Their faith had to be at an all time high.
Illus: They must have felt like the little boy whose pastor reached into a basket full of apples and said to him, “Son, tell me something that God can do, and I will give you an apple!” The little boy thought for a few seconds and said, “Pastor, tell me something God can not do, and I will give you the whole basket of apples!”
These folks had to be charged up spiritually! They built two kinds of monuments to remind them of what God had done for them.
Two memorials were set up in Joshua chapter four. God told Joshua to select twelve men, one from each tribe, to pick up a stone from the Jordan and carry it to the other side of the river. There they built a monument of remembrance to God's faithfulness at Gilgal.
Look at Joshua 4:1-7, we read, “And it came to pass, when all the people 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 ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.”
Illus: Sometimes in our schools, our teachers will ask the students to bring something to class, and they call this, “Show and Tell Time!” These two monuments were to be “Show and Tell Time” for what God had done.
Joshua had a second set of stones set up where the priest's feet were standing firm in the river carrying the Ark.
Why did they do that? Look at Joshua 4:21-24, we read, “And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.”
What a testimony! All two million of them could say, “I saw God do it!” For centuries to come, every time they passed Gilgal, they would retell the story of God doing just what He said He would do. Now three thousand years later, here we are telling it again!
But something we need to understand is that God wants us to talk to our children about the things of God. In some homes, parents talk to their children about everything that you can imagine, but never about God. And they wonder why their children grow up thinking that God is not important.
WE NEED TO BUILD SOME MONUMENTS IN OUR HOMES TODAY! Let’s look at-
A. CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS
What kind of monuments are you building?
(1) SOME ARE BUILDING MONUMENTS TO HUMANS
Illus: A young girl was telling about a boy that she liked. You could tell by the expression in her face, and in her voice, she thought a lot of this young fellow.
It is sad that we mortals can get so excited about another mortal, but we can not get excited about God our Creator!
(2) SOME ARE BUILDING MONUMENTS TO WORLDLINESS
Illus: A young fellow just bought his first car. He was so proud of that car. Almost every day he washed it and waxed it.
That’s all right, but what is sad about that is that folks can get so excited about things man has made, but they can not seem to get excited about the very God who made everything!
(3) SOME ARE BUILDING MONUMENTS TO SPORTS
They can go to a ball game, and when a fellow hits a ball, tosses a ball, or kicks a ball, you would think they have lost their minds. They do not care who is watching, they get EMOTIONAL!
That’s all right, but it is sad that they can come to church and hear the preaching of God’s Word, and guess who is no longer emotional?
(4) SOME ARE BUILDING MONUMENTS TO ENTERTAINMENT
They can watch a movie, and boohoo all the way through the movie. What is sad about this, is that they can sing about a Saviour who shed his blood for them, and never shed a tear.
We have too many today who are building monuments, BUT NOT TO GOD!
B. CHURCH MONUMENTS
We have two powerful monuments of God's provision for every believer. They are the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
They are testimonies of what God has done for you and me.
• Our baptism by immersion pictures what God did for you in Christ. It does not save you. It does not add one iota to your salvation. It is a memorial to God for what He has already done in you.
• The Lord's table is a memorial of Christ's death on your behalf, dying as your substitute, bearing the wrath of God in your place.
These two monuments help us to stay focused on the presence of Lord.
"NEGLECT WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE,
AND YOU MISS WHAT THE LORD IS DOING.
GIVE ATTENTION TO WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE,
AND YOU BECOME WHAT THE LORD IS DOING."
Conclusion:
Their crossing of the river Jordan never would have taken place had they not done what God told them to do.
Look at Joshua 3:5, we read, “And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
Again, I want to remind you that the word “Sanctify” here means to set apart.
Illus: For Father’s day, Dr. Odell Belger does something very special for all the dads. It is expensive, but he takes them to a fine restaurant and buys them a large steak to honor them. But before he does this, he has to select a restaurant, and once he does, he has to reserve a large room in that restaurant. When this is done, only those dads are allowed to enter that room, it is set aside just for them.
The same thing applies to Christians. We have to “Sanctify” ourselves, and say to the lost world, THIS BODY BELONGS TO THE LORD, AND HIM ONLY!
As you get into chapter 6, notice, that Joshua restores the Abrahamic Covenant of Circumcision to Israel. They were to “Sanctify themselves!”
Then something very unusual happened in Joshua 5:13-15, we read, “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground, And Joshua did so.”
God wanted them to recognize, “For the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
WHY DID GOD DO THIS? Possibly, having such a miraculous thing take place, God had to humble Joshua a little bit. Joshua was feeling like a big wheel, and he saw a man who had pulled a sword and he wanted to know whose side he was on.
This “One”, is most likely the pre-incarnate Christ. Verse 15 says that he was, “The captain of the Lord’s host.”
But remember, God said to Joshua, “As I was with Moses so I will be with you.”
• He appeared to Moses in a burning bush and required he take his shoes off
• He appears to Joshua after the crossing of Jordan, and requires him to take his shoes off because he also stood on holy ground
God is keeping His promise to Joshua.
But we need to look at one more thing before we close. Notice, the Lord told Joshua to take off his shoes because the ground he was standing on was holy. In other words, because it is holy, you do not treat that piece of soil like you treat others.
This is important today, because a lot of folks no longer treat the House of God as a holy place.
• We have people who actually encourage people to dress down. In other words, wear the same thing you would wear to Walmart. But I believe the church is a holy ground, and we should not dress the way we would to go to Walmart.
• We have churches today that actually allow people to bring food and drink into the sanctuary during worship services. In other words, in their estimation, eating in the sanctuary is no different than eating at Burger King or McDonald’s. BUT IT IS! the church should be treated as a holy place, and it is not the same as Burger King and McDonald’s.
God told him this was holy ground, treat it as such. So should we!
I. THEIR MOVING
II. THEIR MONUMENTS
