Egypt to Canaan (10): Joshua 1 - 5

Joshua 1, and we're going to begin to read in verse 1. We're going to read a small portion of four of these early chapters of Joshua tonight. The real name of Joshua is Jehoshua, and it's the New Testament name Jesus. It means the Lord is Savior.

Now, after the death of Moses, and we'll try to point out that there's a very particular reason why this book starts that way. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

Let every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. Now, I want to say that that description of the size of the land has never been possessed. Israel has never had the territory that is described here, but they will have it yet in a coming day.

Verse 5 says, There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

Be strong and of a good courage. For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee.

Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper with us, whoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.

Chapter 3, please. Chapter 3 and verse 1. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim and came to Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they passed over.

It came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host, and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go.

For ye have not passed this way heretofore. Verse 15, please. Verse 15 says, And as they that bear the ark were coming to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, for Jordan overfloweth all its banks all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam, that is, beside Zeratan.

And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea failed and were 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 the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Now, chapter 5, please, or chapter 4, we should read a couple of verses in chapter 4 and verse 8. And the children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel.

And they carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up 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. Now chapter 5 and verse 9. Verse 9 of chapter 5, And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.

Now that was at Gilgal. The early part of this chapter describes the circumcision there at Gilgal. And verse 9 says that it's at Gilgal that the reproach of Egypt was rolled away from off you.

Wherefore, the name of that place is called Gilgal, which of course means a rolling away unto this day. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, that even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.

And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. 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? Great mercy for Joshua, he wasn't for his adversaries. And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.

I believe this is a Christophany, an appearing of Christ in the Old Testament. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship. You don't worship an angel, you can only worship the Lord.

Fell on his face and he 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. And Joshua did so.

Now tonight we've come to the borders of the land and we have read from this inheritance book of the Old Testament of Israel going into their inheritance. What I have to say tonight can be put under four very simple titles. The preparation for the inheritance, the passage into the inheritance, the purification that took place in view of the inheritance, and the Passover that was kept.

And a Passover had not been kept by the nation since they had been at Sinai almost 40 years before until this Passover was kept by Joshua in the land. Now it's very difficult to keep in mind all that we have looked at if you have been able to follow the meetings from night to night. But we began with the people who were in bondage, in slavery, in the land of Egypt, under cruel taskmasters groaning and crying to God for deliverance.

We began with the people who were redeemed by blood. They were purchased as the Lord's own possession by the blood of the slain lamb. And of course we've been preaching night after night that the journey that they took through the wilderness was a blood-marked way, for they were a redeemed people.

When God brought them out of the land of Egypt, the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6 says God brought them out that he might bring them in. It was never God's intention to leave them in this wilderness. And I should say very simply tonight that the journeying of these people, when God allowed them to journey, it was all according to the will of God.

They were in God's schools. But when they were wandering during 38 years of rebellion and unbelief, I assure you, it was not what God had intended for them. I'm sure that all the Christians here are aware that there is such a thing as the direct will of God.

And then there is such a thing as God permitting man to walk in his own way. God sets the bounds and the limits. But I assure you that these were 38 lost years.

They were so close to the land of Kadesh Barnea, and they turned back in unbelief. They provoked the Holy One of Israel that day, and they paid severely for it until that whole generation perished in the wilderness. And as 1 Corinthians 10 tells us, their carcasses were strewn along in the desert.

And whereas we do not know the various journeyings that took place, or I should say the wanderings, because there is a distinct difference between journeyings and wanderings. We don't know the particular places they stopped at during those 38 years. But if you had gone along afterward, you could easily have marked the path.

Why? It was marked by graves. They left their graves behind them in the desert as a whole generation died because of their unbelief and disobedience. God brought them back again to Kadesh.

We were speaking the other night of the fact that whenever a person gets away from God, whenever one of God's children gets away, they come back to the place where they got away. God brings them back for recovery to the very place where they got away from God. And then they started journeying again, but they didn't go directly into the land where there were mountains that their enemy could easily ambush them in, but rather they went around by the land of Edom, and they weren't allowed to pass through the land of Edom.

And so they had to take a roundabout journey away down around here until finally they came up on the east side of the Dead Sea. And this is where we find them tonight, on the very borders of the land of Canaan. The book of Genesis is a book of beginning.

Of course, it's man's ruin and sin. And if there's a sinner here tonight who doesn't know Christ, you're still in that state, in the ruin of sin, separated from God if you've never been born again, and you'll be separated from heaven forever by your sins. Genesis, where God begins his dealings with man, is a record of depravity.

It's the record of man's ruin as a sinner. But God never tells man about his ruin as a sinner without the purpose of telling him of the great redemption that was wrought at Calvary. And so while Genesis is the book of ruin, Exodus is the great book of redemption.

Exodus is God's picture book of redemption. I love the book of Exodus, and we've been looking at it a good bit this past two weeks. It's full of the story of the shed blood of Calvary.

And then when you get to the book of Leviticus, you have a redeemed people worshiping. And when you get to the book of Numbers, you have a redeemed people journeying. That is, the book of Numbers is the pilgrimage of the people of God.

And everyone who is saved here tonight is a true pilgrim. We have pilgrim character or else we're not saved. We don't belong to this world.

We're in it, but we're not of it. A pilgrim is one who is away from home. I'm away from home right now, but I couldn't exactly say I'm a pilgrim.

Nor can I even say I'm a stranger here. But so far as my heavenly home is concerned, I'm both a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. And I'm journeying home to heaven.

That's the book of Numbers. Now the book of Deuteronomy is the obedience book of the Old Testament. The great emphasis in the book of Deuteronomy, from which we have not read, and time has not allowed that or else the preacher just took too much time on other subjects.

Maybe that's more of the truth. We didn't even read in the book of Deuteronomy. It's the great obedience book of the Old Testament.

And immediately following the book of Deuteronomy, of course, you have this book of Joshua. And the book of Joshua is the inheritance book of the Old Testament. It tells us of the rich possessions of the children of God.

And of course, here in the book of Joshua, you have three great truths. You have entrance into the land. You have the conquering of the enemies.

And you have the possession of the land for God. Now I hope tonight I can explain to you what this very simply means. But before I do, I can't leave Moses.

We've been journeying with Moses night after night, and it's very difficult for me just to leave Moses and say no more about him. I would like just to point out to you one or two things, first of all, about Moses before we go on to Joshua. Perhaps you'd read with me in Deuteronomy, just one short passage in chapter 7. And perhaps what you have here in chapter 7 of Deuteronomy sums up this book.

And it really sums up the first five books of our Bible. This is the first time that Moses ever speaks to Israel about the love of God to them. You might be surprised at that.

Did you know the first time that love is found in the Old Testament? The first time the word love is used, it's linked with an only son. His name was Isaac. And he was well-beloved of his father.

First time love is ever mentioned in the Bible, it's mentioned in the same chapter where you have a substitute for sin. The first time the word lamb is found in the Old Testament is in the same chapter. The first time the word worship is found in the Old Testament, it's in the same chapter.

Genesis 22, the first mention of love, the first mention of the lamb, the first mention of worship in the Old Testament. How well those things go together. But strange to say, this is the first time that Moses has ever told Israel that God loved them.

We're so used to John 3, 16, that God loved the world. He so loved the world. Perhaps we've missed the point.

But here's the reason for God's dealings with these people. Deuteronomy 7, and verse 7, the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people. For ye were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you.

You notice it doesn't say why he loved them. The reason that it's God who loved them is just enough. I don't know why God loved me.

From the timeless periods, thou has loved us without cause. I don't know why God loved me. I never will know.

I expect I'm going to spend eternity exploring the great mystery of the love of a holy God for guilty sinners. But he loved them. For you are the fewest of all people, but the Lord loved you.

And because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God. I think we've been reminded again and again in these meetings of the faithlessness of Israel.

And if you haven't seen an echo in your own heart to the wanderings and waywardness and unbelief of Israel, then I'm surprised at you. Because I'm certain that every Christian, while at times we're amazed at how these people could so quickly forget the many miracles they had seen God perform, yet just look at ourselves. God comes in and answers prayer.

God saves loved ones perhaps as he has done so many times in answer to our cries. And then here are others that we think, well, can they ever be saved? Will God ever reach them? And all the time God has given us every reason to trust him and no reason to ever doubt him. He is the God, the faithful God.

And so Moses had learned that well. So before I leave Moses, let me tell you three things. They're right at the close of the book of Deuteronomy.

So if you turn your Bible to where we were reading tonight, at the beginning of Joshua, you'll have just the spot where I want you to look. The 34th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. And perhaps first of all, we could read in the 33rd chapter.

In verse 26. There is none, Deuteronomy 34, 33 at least in verse 26. There is none like unto the God of Jasharun, who writeth upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the skies.

The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms and he doth thrust out the enemy from before thee. What wondrous words from the lips of this dear man of God, Moses. Do you know what he tells them before he dies? There's no God like this God.

No God like our God. This God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death.

So he tells them that there's no God like this God. Now look down the chapter with me at verse 29. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord.

There's no God like this God and there's no people like God's people. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee. I assure you there are no people like God's people.

I was reminding you the other night that Moses called them rebels. You be careful what you call them. Moses called them rebels and for his sin he wasn't allowed into the land of Canaan.

He stood on Mount Nebo on the top of the hill and God miraculously filled up the whole land but he was never allowed into it because he lost his temper. He called the people of God rebels. Don't you ever call God's people names.

I tell you it's a real tragedy oftentimes when that happens. We have seen those who call the people of God names very and very very quickly. It's a fearful thing to do it.

There's no God like this God. There's no people like God's people. There's one more little word at the close of Deuteronomy 34 that adds something to this.

Verse 10. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. So there's a lovely little touch at the close of the book of obedience.

There's no God like our God. There's no people like God's people. There was no servant like God's servant Moses.

He was a man of God but Moses is dead. Moses has died on Mount Nebo in the land of Moab. And we were saying the other night that as a leader of the people of God, as a lawgiver, as a ruler, as a prophet, I'm sure Moses will have all of Israel at his funeral.

All two million of them will surely be at his funeral. Not one of them were there. Not one of them.

But God was there and God buried him. The servant of God and there was none like him. And I don't believe there ever has been any like him until the greater than Moses came, the one whom Moses said he was like, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Now that's exactly what the book of Joshua is teaching us. I said to you at the beginning that the name of the man that we're going to look at now means Jesus, Jehovah his Savior. He was just a man but he's a beautiful picture to us of the Lord Jesus.

After the law comes the Savior and in the dispensational dealings of God that's just been the way it has been. After the law comes the Savior. The law condemned me.

The law found me guilty. The law exposed my sin. The law showed me I was under wrath, that I was under the curse of a broken law.

And after the law had finished with me and left me a broken, helpless, hell-bound sinner, the Savior stepped in and he saved me. Blessed be his name. That's what we have here at the beginning of the book of Joshua, after Moses, Joshua.

So this is a wonderful book, isn't it? As we've been looking at the wonders of this book night after night, are you not amazed at the marvels, the wonders of the Word of God, its absolute perfections and how dark poor sinners are as to all the wonders of Holy Scripture. Now I must move on or we won't certainly get to our subject tonight. Joshua, Moses laid his hands on him here at the close of the book of Deuteronomy and the Spirit of God came upon him.

He was divinely fitted. I'll call that Joshua's call and let me tell you something about Joshua's call. Did you know that Joshua was a firstborn son in his father's house? Did you notice every time you read about Joshua, he's called Joshua the son of none.

Why? He was a firstborn. Did you know that he was in Egypt? Did you know he was there the night of the Passover? Did you know if it hadn't been for the sprinkled blood on the door that Joshua would have been dead? Joshua had been one of those firstborn sons who was redeemed by blood in the land of Egypt. I tell you, no wonder he appreciated the Passover.

You know that's one of the very first things he did when he came to be the leader of the people of God. He observed the Passover and I was touched today as I was looking at this to think how much it must have meant to Joshua. It carried him back 40 years to that night in the land of Egypt when God passed through the land and there was judgment in the land.

The firstborn in every house where there was no blood was slain. There was no death in the house of none, the father of Joshua. The firstborn son lived for the blood was on the door.

So you see, Joshua was one of those who was the spared firstborn in the land of Egypt. The lamb had died in his stead. Good to know that Israel was getting a saved man to lead them, wasn't it? He was really saved.

Joshua could tell you when he got saved too and he could tell you when he got saved and he could tell you how. And everyone that's going to heaven can do exactly the same. If that's not simple enough for you, I can't make it any simpler.

That Joshua was a man who was truly saved and he knew when and where and how. And then you'll notice, and this man Joshua, his character is given to it at that time when Israel faced Amalek. At this point in the time when they had war with Amalek and Moses stood on the mount with Aaron and her on either side of him, Joshua was down in the plain with a sword in his hand.

You see Moses with a rod in his hand. Moses knew God as the lawgiver. Joshua knew God as the captain of the host.

And while Moses stands with a rod in his hand, Joshua stands with a sword in his hand. So these men are vastly different. And yet they were both servants of God.

Don't expect all the servants of God to be the same. Whenever God was going to raise up a man to take Moses place, he raised up a different kind of a man. The needs were different.

That's why God has different servants. All God's servants don't have the same work. All do not have the same gift.

And I believe that men should be respected for the work they do for God. All men don't have the same ability on the platform to put words together. Some men stumble over their words.

Other men can let them flow out like a torrent. But you see, the one may be just as truly a servant of God as the other. In fact, may be far more honoring to God and bring far more glory to God.

So God has different servants because he has various kinds of work to do. Joshua was an entirely different man. But that day in the valley, let me tell you what he did.

He discomfited Amalek. Thank God for Joshua. Amalek is the flesh.

Amalek is the old minister. And Joshua was a man who had discomfited the flesh. No wonder that day when spies were being chosen to go into the land of Canaan.

Joshua was chosen from the tribe of Ephraim. For Joshua was a prince of the tribe of Ephraim. And he was one of those 12 spies that came back.

He and Caleb were the good reporter of the land and said, we are well able to take it. Let us go in and the Lord will deliver it into our hand. And you know what the people were going to do? Well, that's the second time Joshua escaped perishing.

They were going to stone him to death. He came here being killed that day because he was ready to stand for what God had said. It gives you a little idea of the character of this dear man, Joshua.

What about his courage? Ah, there's no question about Joshua's courage. And yet God encourages him here. It's good when God encourages your heart.

God encouraged the heart of this dear man. In chapter one of this book, God said to him, be strong and have good courage. Now here's Joshua's companion.

For the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. What a companion he had. I know he had another companion called Caleb.

And Caleb, who means a dog, wholly followed the Lord. And he came out of Egypt too. He was one of those who were spared on the night of judgment in Egypt.

And he came all the way through this wilderness. And only Joshua and Caleb of all the tribes were spared to live through the years of wandering and go into the land of Canaan. I'm going to say something for some of you who perhaps might question me about this after the meeting.

I believe that the tribe of Levi was not included in those who died in the wilderness. In other words, there may have been a number of those of the tribe of Levi, as well as Joshua and Caleb, who came out of Egypt, who were men of war, 20 years old and upward, and yet lived to go into Canaan. I'm not going to take time to try to show you that, but there is scripture that seems to support that.

So Joshua had a companion, a dear man who wholly followed the Lord. His name was Caleb. But he had an even better companion.

The Lord was with him. The Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. Now we've come to the borders of the land.

They're about to go in and possess it. And I better get you in there because we've been in the wilderness long enough and we've only got 20 minutes left of the meeting. And if we don't get into the land tonight, we're not going to get in at all.

But what is Canaan? I'm sure that if you go according to the hymns, we sometimes call it hymnology, and sometimes hymnology and theology are a long way apart. But if you go according to the hymns, of course, Canaan is heaven. And I don't find any fault with some of these hymns.

I wish I could write one as good. I'll never cross Jordan alone. That might be a very nice hymn, and I like to hear it sung and I like to sing it.

But the theology of it isn't very good because Jordan is not death and Canaan is not heaven. Now what if Jordan was death and Canaan heaven? What if that's what they meant? What if that was the spiritual meaning of them? Heaven would be a big disappointment to me because the first thing we'd be doing when we got there would be to engage in deadly combat. And some battles we would win and some we would lose.

I'm glad that's not what heaven's going to be to me. The victory has already been won at the cross. And I tell you, there's no more victories to be won.

The Lord Jesus is the great overcomer, and I share in the spoils of his victory. No, the inheritance is mine because Christ died for me at Calvary. It's an eternal inheritance, but that's not heaven and Canaan are not synonymous.

Heaven and Canaan do not mean the same thing. Now the word that's linked with Canaan is rest. God was going to bring them in to rest.

You say, where does that link? Well, Hebrews chapter 4 has the word rest in it about seven times. In fact, of all the times in the New Testament that the word rest is found, it's found there in Hebrews 4 more than anywhere else in the whole New Testament. So it says there in Hebrews chapter 4, if Joshua had truly given them rest, then another day would not have been spoken of when they would have had rest.

But there remaineth a rest or a Sabbath keeping to the people of God. So you see, even Hebrews 4 tells us that Canaan was not heaven. But if Canaan was not heaven, then certainly what was Canaan? Well, the word that's linked with Canaan, the rest of the people of God, is the thought of pausing.

It means to stop, to cease, to thoroughly quit. So when they got to Canaan, at least this was true, the wilderness was passed for them. They were in the land that God had promised.

Now, if we're going to understand what it means to get into the land of Canaan, first of all, we have to clearly understand what it means to cross the Red Sea, because the two are very closely linked. And to understand what getting into Canaan means, it takes two Old Testament pictures to give us one New Testament truth. It takes the Red Sea and it takes the Jordan River, the great descender.

Now, the Jordan River doesn't speak of death. Ah, you see, you just contradicted yourself. You said it didn't.

It does not speak of the death of the body, but it speaks of the death of the old man. It's baptism. It's Romans 6 and 6. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ.

And let me try to explain that to you as simply as I can. At the Red Sea, they were making their exit out of Egypt. At the Jordan, they were making their entrance into the land of Canaan.

Because you see, the Red Sea was judgment on sin. Pharaoh and his host perished in the Red Sea. But the Jordan was judgment on self.

At the Red Sea, they were separated from a life of bondage in the land of Egypt. But at the Jordan, they were dedicated onto a new life in the land of rest. At the Red Sea, they were delivered from the dominion of Egypt.

But at the Jordan, they were delivered into the new domain of rest with Christ. Now, to put it very simply for you, if I can, it's the truth of the epistle to the Ephesians, where the believer is seated with Christ in heavenly places. It has to do with my position in Christ, my heavenly blessings in Christ.

And I have every treasure. I have every eternal possession. I have all my inheritance in a man, a glorified, blessed man, seated at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Now, you'll get to see very quickly what I'm getting at. You see, to Israel, their place of rest was a geographical location. It was a place on earth.

But my place of rest is a person. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Canaan was their inheritance.

Christ is my inheritance. In him I get all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Of course, their sphere was an earthly sphere.

Ours is a heavenly sphere. Their inheritance had boundaries. And we could have read of how the land was allotted to them according to their drives.

But our inheritance is unlimited. It has no boundaries. Their inheritance was only temporal.

Our inheritance is eternal. It gives you a little idea that we're in the book of John here while we have the Christ truth. And certainly it is just that.

You see, in Ephesians chapter 1, we read that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenlies, in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus. Many a Christian never enters into that. Did you notice how many of these people never get into Canaan? How many of them died in the wilderness, never got into Canaan? Many of God's people never enter into the position of heaven Christ.

They never go in to possess their possessions. Even in Joshua 13, Joshua and Luke 1 of that chapter says there is much land yet to be possessed. And I want to say to you as a child of God, there's much land yet to be possessed.

And I say that to my own heart. There's much in Christ that I've never yet enjoyed. There's much in Christ I've never yet gone in to present.

There are resources there. There's riches there. There's fruit there.

There's joy there that I've never yet gone in for. But don't you say it sounds kind of funny now to say that they were going into the place of rest in Christ and yet they had to put it together. Kind of strange isn't it? Do you fight for a place of rest? Yes you do.

Spiritually you do. You remember the epistles of the Ephesians which is the inheritance book of the New Testament? You remember I just quoted to you from verse 1 in chapter 3 that we have every blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus? Yet what does chapter 6 of Ephesians say? We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. When you come into the heavenlies in Christ, you find that God has many enemies.

You find that there's a great conflict going on. But listen, the victory is assured. For there was one who fought the fight alone at Calvary and won the mighty conflict, and I am on the winning side.

I love to tell people that the victory has already been won. And while the conflict is still going on, I have no doubt about the outcome. So they were going into the place of rest.

Now the passage of the sea is important to it. When they crossed over the Red Sea, they were fulfilling the truth of Romans chapter 6 and verse 6. Do you believe in baptism? Baptism is not just something you went through after you got saved. Baptism is linked to conversion, by the way.

But I believe we should only baptize dead people. I don't believe in baptizing people who aren't dead. I don't believe in that any more than I believe in taking a live body out to the cemetery and burying it.

And I assure you, I don't believe in burying living people. I only believe in burying people who are dead. And the reason we use caution and care as to who is baptized is we want to be sure they're dead.

And when I say that, I'm saying it spiritually. We want to be sure that they died with Christ, that they were really saved. And when you see things in people's lives that are not in keeping with Christian experience, you have every reason to doubt if they are saved.

So Romans chapter 6 tells of a truth that happened when I was saved. My baptism is linked to my conversion. Knowing this, the old man was crucified with Christ.

At the cross it happened. The old man came to a violent and a sudden end. What's the old man? All that I was is a sinner in my sins.

I had a history of a sinner in my sins, and that history closed when I got to the cross. And God's never going to reopen it. I'm glad of that.

He's never going to reopen that history. And I believe that, and I believe it in a practical way, too. I believe that the history of a man in his sins closed itself, and it came to a sudden and a violent end.

The old man was crucified. That's what happened at the Jordan. The wilderness was passed.

They were going into a new land, and as they stepped toward the Jordan River, the ark had gone before them. The ark is Christ, dear believer. He went before me into the floods of death, and as the priests who bore the ark on their shoulders, as their feet dipped into the brink of the river, the river rolled back.

They only went in to their ankles. But I tell you, that was only a picture, and pictures are always short of the reality. And the reality is that when the Lord Jesus went into death's dark, angry flood, it went over his soul.

I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am coming into deep waters where the floods overflow me. Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul.

And the ark going down there into Jordan is like the Lord Jesus going down into the dark floods of death and judgment at the cross. And there he endures a full storm, the full fury of the wrath of God. And he said, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

And we read tonight that God said about Israel, keep your distance. They had to keep that distance between the people and the ark. They weren't to get any closer.

I believe we should sing from our hearts, O make me understand it. Help me to take it in, what it meant for thee, the Son of God, to bear away my sin. But listen, there are mysteries there at the cross, and I'm going to spend eternity exploring them.

And angels look down from heaven in wonder and amazement at what transpired at the cross. This little speck in the universe of God is the theater of the universe. It was here that the Lord of glory went down into death for me and for you, if you know him.

So the ark is a picture of Christ, and where Christ had gone, the Israelites followed. That's baptism. And they went through the river with the walls of water standing on either side of them.

They went through the flood on dry ground. Oh, you see, the Lord Jesus was the only one who knew the reality. All I went through when I was baptized was just the symbol, just the picture of it.

He went through the reality. And I've been saved from the reality because he went through it for me. So these children would say to their parents, What mean ye by these stones? Because here in the land of Canaan, they had taken twelve stones.

Twelve men had taken twelve stones out of the very bed of the Jordan and had put them up there on the land. And they were there for a memorial, the Bible says. And in days to come, the children would say, What mean ye by these stones? But there were twelve stones that were taken likely from the land, although it doesn't distinctly say that.

And they were put into the bed of the Jordan, and they were put in the very spot where the feet of the priests had stood that had borne the ark. And the waters went over those stones and covered them. You know what the stones are? Twelve stones for twelve tribes.

The stone says the old man was buried because he was dead. The new man is alive in newness of life. You see, there are four words.

If you're a young believer here tonight, I'll stop because I think this is very important. There are four words in Romans chapter six that give us the spiritual meaning of the twelve stones. The first word is no.

You must know this. You must know that the old man was crucified with Christ. The fact, God says it, and you must know it.

And when you know it, then you must reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. You have to take sides with God against the old man. The old man was crucified, so reckon him to be dead.

He hasn't got any claim on you. A dead man has no claim on you. No claim, whatever.

And then the next word is yield. Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. And what's the next word? Obey from the heart that mold of teaching into which ye have been delivered.

That's the words of Romans six and seventeen. So there's the four words. Know.

Know that the old man was crucified. Reckon yourselves dead. Yield yourselves unto God.

Obey from the heart his blessed word. And that's the truth of the twelve stones. They were a memorial.

And at Gilgal, and I don't know whether you can even see Gilgal here, a little wee letters up there in the corner somewhere over the river Jordan. But Gilgal was the place where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. What was the reproach of Egypt? We should have a Bible reading here and have a discussion about this, because I'd be very interested to hear what Brethren think about this.

I know there's a lot of different minds about what the reproach of Egypt was. You know what some think it means? They think it was the reproach from Egypt if Israel didn't get into the land. In fact, in Numbers chapter 14, Moses is crying to God and Moses says, if you cast off this people, the Egyptians will hear about it.

And then in Deuteronomy chapter 32, Moses is talking about the same subject and he says the Egyptians will say that God has cast them off. So some think the reproach of Egypt was that if they didn't get into the land, that then the Egyptians would say, well, we knew that's what would happen to them. They trusted in their Lord and he forsook them and they perished in the wilderness.

But look at if that was the reproach of Egypt, then to roll it away, they would just have to get into the land. That's all. They wouldn't have had to go through what they went through at Gilgal, which was the circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh.

No, the rolling away of the reproach of Egypt meant much more than that. In Egypt, they were under bondage and under judgment and under the sentence of death. And when they went through the wilderness, they did not carry out the covenant with Abraham that their sons must be circumcised.

But when they came into the land of Canaan, they did. And they were saying this, when we were in Egypt, we deserve to perish. We deserve to die, but we'll never feel death.

We'll never feel the judgment. And if you don't believe that this is what it means, we don't have time to go into it tonight. But if you would read the words of Colossians chapter three and verses 10 to 12, you'd find that it means death to nature.

It means that, well, for instance, let me give you an example. Ephesians chapter two and verse 11 says about the Gentiles that they were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now look, as uncircumcised, they were people with no God, no hope, and they had no savior.

And so when they, at Gilgal, when they rolled away the reproach of Egypt, they acknowledged, we have a savior. This is our God. We have a blessed hope.

And they were admitting that all that was merely natural should be put in the place of death. They were alive unto God. Canaan is resurrection land.

Canaan is resurrection with Christ. You see, they, they, the manna stopped that night when they kept the Passover. On the 14th day of the first month, that even, they kept the Passover of the Lord.

And that day they ate of the old corn of the land. That wasn't corn like we know corn. It was, it was actually probably barley.

But be that as it may, it was grain. And that night they ate of the old grain of the land of Canaan. And the next day the manna ceased.

Now let me tell you the difference between the manna and the old corn. The manna came down. So the manna is the savior who came down in incarnation in lowly suffering for my sins.

That's the manna. And I feast on him as the manna. The old corn of the land comes up, not down.

So the old corn of the land tells me of the savior who rose from the dead. Do you really enjoy the resurrection of Christ? We were preaching the gospel out in Seattle a few years ago and a brother, brother William Nesbitt and I were there having gospel meetings for some weeks. And there was a man in the meeting and I tell you, he annoyed us terribly.

He came to the door one night and he said, he didn't say to me, he said to brother Nesbitt, you didn't preach the gospel tonight. And he went out. Another night he came to the door and he said, you didn't preach the gospel tonight.

And he went out and he did that. I don't know how many times we were getting quite provoked with him. And finally he stopped at the door one night and he spoke to me and he said, I'm glad you preached the gospel tonight.

I just happened to be fortunate. I happened to mention the resurrection that night. So he said, I preached the gospel.

And you know, I thought, well, the man's going to extremes, but I've thought about it a good bit in the, in the 10 or more years since. I'm not so sure that he was at all. In fact, I, if I wasn't an Irishman, I just say plainly that he was right.

The man was really right. I tell you, we don't only preach a Christ who died. We preach a Christ who lives.

Death could not keep its prey. He tore the bars away. Jesus, my savior up from the grave, he arose.

There was an empty tomb one day and all the enemies of the cross could not produce the body. The tomb was empty. Look at those frightened men there in that upper room, cowering and hiding for fear of the Jews.

What happened to them? In a few days, they're standing out in Jerusalem with great power, gave the apostles witness. What happened? Christ has risen. They've seen them.

They've looked upon. John says, we handled them. They had eaten with them.

They had talked with them. He was alive. Oh, I have a living Christ.

That's what Canaan means. To be raised with Christ, to walk in newness of life. They kept that old feast, the Passover, and they ate new food.

Now there's new food for you, dear Christian. There's new food for you. I'm just going to leave you with one little comment.

I picked this up. I sometimes tell people we should quote our sources and I don't do that very much. Kind of surprising to say I believe in something I don't do, but I do believe in it.

And I picked this up from Dr. Graham Scroggie. I thought it was excellent. When they kept the Passover there, when they got across the Jordan into the land, into the place of rest, on resurrection ground, Dr. Graham Scroggie makes this statement.

He said, spiritual revival always unveils the cross. Why, that's lovely. That's the Passover you see.

They kept the Passover. They got back to Calvary. Spiritual revival always unveils the cross.

How long since you've been to the cross? When was the last time you stood beneath the shades of Calvary? When was the last time you could sing from your heart beneath the cross of Jesus? I feign would take my stand. They got back to the cross. Hey, this was a great day for Israel.

Think of what they had been through because of their own unbelief and rebellion. Think of the faithfulness of God in it all. He had brought them at last into the place he had promised to them.

They were in the land of promise, the land that flowed with milk and honey. God gave them victory in the land. They became great conquerors and they possessed much of that land that God had given to them.

I have a great inheritance. It's in heavenly places. My inheritance isn't here.

My possession should not be here. My inheritance is above. I have a home above, from sin and sorrow free, where mansions of eternal love have been prepared for me.

God help us to live as a heavenly, blood-bought people, for his name's sake. Shall we pray? Our Father, we give thee thanks now for thy precious word. We look to thee that thou would bless it and pray, Lord, that it will warm our hearts and that we might enter into our possessions.

We often confess, Lord, how little we do possess that which thou has given us. When we got Christ, we got every blessing, but we're ashamed that we don't enter into it more. We pray, Lord, that we might go in for this and that Christ may become more precious to us and the word of God an open book to us and that thou would speak to our hearts through it.

Part us for thy blessing. We thank you for all who have come tonight. Remember, we pray the all-day meeting at Manchester this Lord's Day.

Remember the gospel preached here in its stout and in other places. We ask thy blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Just a verse in closing of a familiar hymn, number 364. So we'll just sing verse 364. All the way my Saviour leads me, all the fullness of His love, that they might tell me His promise in my Father's house above.

Jesus, let me all the way. Jesus, let me all the way.