SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Something's happening.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: What a wonderful time we've had in worship this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Pastor Dave.
SPEAKER_01: I work with the 60 Plus and also with Communications here at the church.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to continue in the sermon series that Pastor Greg started a couple of weeks ago in the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in Joshua chapter 3 and Joshua chapter 4 today.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have your Bible, don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have all of the verses up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Today's passage, today's sermon is entitled The Miracle and the Memorial.
SPEAKER_01: And when Pastor Greg asked me to come and fill in for him, and I knew it was Memorial Day weekend, I thought, well, let's see.
SPEAKER_01: Memorial Day weekend, and we're going to be in Joshua chapter 3 and chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: That just works out perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: Perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob has already shared with us the importance of Memorial Day, remembering those men and women who have died in harm's way in order to protect us and to protect our freedoms.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that, Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: You know, memorials are something that perhaps we take for granted, but all of us have memorials, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: Camera, I'm going to be going down to the floor here for just a moment, then I'm going to come right back up.
SPEAKER_01: We all have memorials in life.
SPEAKER_01: Got a memorial right here.
SPEAKER_01: Hang on.
SPEAKER_01: Things heavier.
SPEAKER_01: This wasn't as heavy 25 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: This is a rock that, Lord forgive me, I stole from Heber, Arkansas, many years ago on my honeymoon.
SPEAKER_01: And this rock traveled with me back to Memphis after our honeymoon.
SPEAKER_01: It traveled with us when we went into West Tennessee where I was pastoring a church, and I brought it with us when we came here to the Fort Smith area.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just a rock.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing special about it, but it's special to my wife and I because it represents the time right after we got married and trusted the Lord for our marriage to stay strong and to honor Him.
SPEAKER_01: And I've been married now for 26 years, praise God, and still have that rock.
SPEAKER_01: The rock could disappear.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's just a piece of rock.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing special about it.
SPEAKER_01: Other than in our minds, it represents so much.
SPEAKER_01: So much.
SPEAKER_01: And you probably have things like this in your own home, too.
SPEAKER_01: Little things that mean something to you, not because of what it is, but because of what it represents.
SPEAKER_01: In a few weeks, we're going to go to the ballpark.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you will possibly buy a t-shirt or a hat or a coffee mug as a memory, a keepsake of your time there at the ballpark.
SPEAKER_01: If I were to visit you in your homes and go through your clothes, I might find a t-shirt or something representing some place that you traveled, somewhere that you went.
SPEAKER_01: And I held on to that thing probably far longer than a person should.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was a memorial to that accomplishment.
SPEAKER_01: And we all had these things in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: There is something about the way God engineers boys and girls and men and women that we like to associate things with places that we've been, accomplishments that we've achieved, people that we've met, and the list goes on and on.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're talking about the miracle and the memorial.
SPEAKER_01: We're in Joshua chapter 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_01: Let me recap a little bit what has happened before we get to chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Greg talked about Joshua chapter 1, and he revealed that this was a time when Moses, the leader of the Israelites, had passed away.
SPEAKER_01: And his understudy, the warrior named Joshua, was now placed in charge of the entire people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And they had a mission.
SPEAKER_01: Their mission was to go into that land that God had promised and to occupy it and to settle there and to make themselves into a nation different than every other nation on earth, primarily so the world would look at them, and then when Jesus would come, their eyes would already be trained on the promises of God for those people.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we were in Joshua chapter 2 and we had the story of Rahab, and how that story of Rahab was a picture in many ways of God's salvation, an Old Testament picture of New Testament salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Where we are today in Joshua 3 and Joshua 4 also lends itself to a picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And before we go any further, as we're about to head into God's Word, let's stop and pray and prepare ourselves to hear from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Bow with me.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty God, we recognize that the words we are about to see, the words of your Bible, have been inspired by the power of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we know that you have protected your word throughout history, through the generations, from people who would wish to destroy it or eliminate it from daily life.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, for all of us in this room today who are saved, we know your word promises that that same Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, as we go to your Spirit-inspired word with lives that have the Spirit dwelling within us, we understand that what we're about to do is not just sitting and listening to a speaker, but rather, Lord, what we're doing is something that is spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: It is something that is supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we ask you to prepare our minds, prepare our hearts, prepare our very spirits to hear from you, and hearing from you to make whatever changes or adjustments we need to make in life, so that we can become more like your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: May He receive the honor and the glory, and it's in His name that we pray, and God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to begin reading in Joshua chapter 3 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There's not too much difference between this and the other translations out there.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1, Joshua started early the next morning and left the Akasha grove with all the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing.
SPEAKER_01: After three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests, you are to break camp and follow it.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stay here for just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, in verse 1 and 2, we see that Joshua and the Israelites are in a place called the Akasha Grove.
SPEAKER_01: If you look earlier in your Bibles to the story of the Exodus, you would see that this was a place that the Israelites had visited before.
SPEAKER_01: And as a matter of fact, the last time they were there, one of the last times they were there, they committed a grievous sin against God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Israelites are in a place geographically where it's a place of failure.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where they have succumbed to the temptations of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so they are there at this area of the Akasha Grove, and they go as far as the Jordan, the Jordan River, the mighty Jordan River.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to read in a few verses.
SPEAKER_01: At this stage in the calendar year, the Jordan River is overflowing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I wasn't here for the flood a few years ago, but many of you were.
SPEAKER_01: And you know how worrying and frightening a body of water can be when it is going over its banks.
SPEAKER_01: At this point in the calendar year, routinely, the Jordan would begin to overflow.
SPEAKER_01: And so the banks said that the Jordan looks larger than it looks at any other point in the calendar year.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're there, they are there for three days, and for three days, they are thinking to themselves, well, I know that God says we're going to go over there, but the water is higher than it is at any other point of the year.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us to go there, but He's brought us here at the most challenging time to do something like this.
SPEAKER_01: What are we going to do?
SPEAKER_01: And for three days they sit and think.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the number three in the Bible means a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01: If you read your Old Testament and your New Testament, you can see that we have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We have Jesus in the tomb for three days, something happening over there in Jerusalem, as the song says.
SPEAKER_01: You know, three days they sat there and they waited, and they were wondering what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, verse 2 tells us after three days Joshua's officers went through the camp and they made sure that every family heard the announcement.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, everybody, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of God being carried by the priests of Levi, you need to break your camp and follow that.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, get ready to move, people.
SPEAKER_01: Something is happening here at the bank of the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be ready to move.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go on to verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua says in verse 4, keep a distance of about a thousand yards between yourselves and the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven't traveled this way before.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua told the people, Consecrate yourselves, because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stay here for a few moments.
SPEAKER_01: A thousand yards between yourself and the ark.
SPEAKER_01: The ark represented the throne seat of God, that large golden box with the cherubim extending their wings in each direction over the top of the box.
SPEAKER_01: That box represented the holy throne seat of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Joshua tells the people, look for the ark, follow the ark, but recognize that the ark is holy.
SPEAKER_01: Keep distance between yourselves and the ark of about a thousand yards.
SPEAKER_01: There's lots of different translations for that amount of distance, but roughly a thousand yards captures it rather well.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go near it, but see which way to go.
SPEAKER_01: Follow it.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 5, Joshua says, consecrate yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It's not a word we use very much in everyday conversation.
SPEAKER_01: The act of consecration in the Old Testament was a combination of physical cleansing as well as taking time to sit and meditate and pray and confess sin that had been committed by you to Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was a mixture.
SPEAKER_01: You were recognizing that God was holy, you were recognizing that you were not holy, you were recognizing that you needed to take steps to prepare yourself if you were going to be in the presence of God's holy throne, the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual and physical cleanliness.
SPEAKER_01: It was a way of reminding a person that they are not holy and that God is holy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, imagine, if you will, before we go to the next verses, Pastor Greg told us last week that the people of Jericho and the other surrounding areas, that they had people watching what Israel was doing.
SPEAKER_01: They were worried about this massive group of people, probably a million or so people.
SPEAKER_01: They were worried about what that group of people was going to do.
SPEAKER_01: They had the river Jordan separating them, but they were worried what happens?
SPEAKER_01: What if they decide to build boats and come across to the Jordan?
SPEAKER_01: So imagine you're a spy from Jericho or one of the people groups, and you see that suddenly everyone is folding up their tents, getting ready to move, and there's people pouring lots of water and they're washing things and people are praying and people are putting on white linen.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting dressed in clothes they wouldn't normally wear, they're consecrating themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to go and report back to the king of Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: And the king of Jericho says, Well, what's happening with those Israelites?
SPEAKER_01: I'm really worried about them.
SPEAKER_01: Got a million people over there.
SPEAKER_01: If they come over here, we're in big trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Said, Well, uh, sire, they're folding up their tents and they're washing and getting clean.
SPEAKER_01: They're cleaning themselves, sir.
SPEAKER_01: They're what?
SPEAKER_01: They're not sharpening their swords, they're they're not getting their shields, they're not building weapons of warfare?
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, sir, they're they're taking a bath.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting all clean.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's keep on reading.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to verse six.
SPEAKER_01: Then Joshua said to the priests, carry the ark of the covenant, go on ahead of the people.
SPEAKER_01: So they carried the ark of the covenant and went on ahead of them.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7: The Lord spoke to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they will know that I will be with you just as I was with Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Command the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, when you reach the edge of the water, stand in the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: Then Joshua told the Israelites, Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stay here for just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: So Joshua brings the priests and says, You're to carry the Ark of the Covenant, you're to carry it to the Jordan, and when you get to the Jordan, keep on going.
SPEAKER_01: I can't help but wonder if one of the priests said, Excuse me, how is it?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're carrying this holy Ark of the Covenant, the throne seat of God, and you want us to walk into the Jordan?
SPEAKER_01: Don't put too much on that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: That's just my imagination running there.
SPEAKER_01: But that was Joshua's command.
SPEAKER_01: When you reach the edge of the water, stand in the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: Then we see verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: I love verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: For some reason, there's not a lot of writing about verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: But in verse 9, Joshua says to the Israelites, come closer.
SPEAKER_01: Some of your Bibles might have, come hither.
SPEAKER_01: Or, listen, listen with both ears open.
SPEAKER_01: Come here.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the words of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: That's a wonderful thing to imagine that the leader of the Israelites, he was barking out orders left and right.
SPEAKER_01: He had to do this in order to command the people.
SPEAKER_01: But when it came to sharing the word of God, you begin to see a little bit of Joshua's heart, and he says, Listen, come close, listen to the words of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua said, You will know that the living God is among you, and that he will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hephites, Hivites, Perizites, Gergeshites, Amorites, and Jebusites.
SPEAKER_01: As a Baptist preacher, I am obligated to say it's a wonder it doesn't say termites.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we got that out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So God has made this promise to Joshua, and Joshua can't wait to share it with the people.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, come closer, listen, listen to what God has said.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to drive away the nations, those seven nations, that seven nations in their armies.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to drive them away so that you can possess the land.
SPEAKER_01: They are going to dispossess the land.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to possess the land.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: When's this going to happen?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of the whole earth goes ahead of you into the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty rare in the Old Testament, in a setting like this, for you to see words where it says, the Lord of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: What you would normally see is the Lord of Israel, the mighty God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But here what we see is that Joshua is making it clear to the Israelites, these people don't have a choice about whether to stay or whether to go, because the Almighty God is the God of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: We forget that sometimes, I think, in Christian circles.
SPEAKER_01: We serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We are living in victory, hopefully, with the promises that God has given us.
SPEAKER_01: And we think that God's promises only apply to us, they don't apply to unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: Or they don't apply to people who don't worship the one true God who are working, so worshiping some other God.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, if God says something's going to happen, it's going to happen regardless as to whether people believe in Him or not, because He's the Lord of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: If there were people living on Mars, it'd say the Lord of outer space.
SPEAKER_01: All men, all women, all boys, all girls, all animals, all plants, you name it, if God says it, it applies.
SPEAKER_01: That's a whole separate sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just keep going.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua says in verse 12, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.
SPEAKER_01: When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of the whole earth, come to rest in the Jordan's water, its water will be cut off.
SPEAKER_01: The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stop here for just a few minutes.
SPEAKER_01: So Joshua, following God's instructions, God has said, choose one man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Twelve men.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus had the twelve apostles, they were not necessarily from each tribe of Israel, but the people who were following Jesus knew that those twelve men following him represented the twelve tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that Joshua is to pick one man from each tribe.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 13, when the feet of the priests who carry the ark, the Lord of the whole earth, come to rest in the Jordan's water, its water will be cut off.
SPEAKER_01: The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: This is the prediction.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's look at the actual miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the next slide.
SPEAKER_01: The miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua chapter 3, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant ahead of the people.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season.
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge.
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_01: And the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarathan.
SPEAKER_01: The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: Stop here.
SPEAKER_01: So what happened was, as soon as those priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant came and stepped foot into the Jordan, all of the waters of the Jordan receded and stood up in a giant mass at this city, this town called Adam.
SPEAKER_01: Adam was roughly 18 miles north of Jericho, where this crossing is taking place.
SPEAKER_01: All the water stood up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how tall it was.
SPEAKER_01: I am sure that it was huge.
SPEAKER_01: All of that water standing up.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds us of another miracle.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: The priests carrying the Ark of the Lord's covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: Stop there.
SPEAKER_01: One person says, well, God caused an earthquake to happen, and a giant chasm opened in the earth, and all of the water went into the giant chasm.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that doesn't explain what the Bible says about all of the water standing up in a heap.
SPEAKER_01: Others said that, well, even during flood stage, the Jordan can go down a little bit, and people waited until that happened and they crossed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, going down is not the same as walking on dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: And if the ancients had not walked across on dry ground, they would have simply said, we cross the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: They would not have included anything about dry ground unless they crossed on dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: And this reminds us, let's go to the next slide, this reminds us of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: You can't help but think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Crossing the Jordan, there's a lot that is similar to crossing the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: Let's refresh our memories.
SPEAKER_01: Moses is leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: They go out into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: They come to the shore of the Red Sea when Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army out to wipe out the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites are frightened, they're scared, they're fearful.
SPEAKER_01: They turn to Moses and they say, Better that we had died in Egypt than to die out here in the wilderness from the army of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses cries out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: God tells Moses, I'm going to deliver them.
SPEAKER_01: And God causes a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud to block the advance of the Egyptian army.
SPEAKER_01: A wind blows over the surface of the Red Sea for an entire night.
SPEAKER_01: And then Moses lifts up the rod of the Lord, and the Red Sea parts, and the Israelites cross over on dry land.
SPEAKER_01: Similar but different.
SPEAKER_01: One of the main differences is crossing the Red Sea was something that Israel did scared, fearful, that they were going to be killed by the Egyptian army.
SPEAKER_01: In this case, they are crossing the Jordan, not fearful, but rather the people on the other side of the Jordan are the ones that are worried and fearful.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see here in a few moments that as Israel was crossing over into the land, you can read about this in chapter 4, verses 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_01: Also in chapter 5, verse 1, Israel actually sent out an advance army to start the crossing of the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: These were not fearful people scared of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: This was an advancing army seeking victory, crossing over into the Promised Land.
SPEAKER_01: These were victorious conquerors, not frightened people who had been slaves.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone was feeling frightened, it was the people on the other side of the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: They were the ones that were fearful.
SPEAKER_01: Another thing is that that wind that blew all night to make the Red Sea go down, that took all night.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the Ark of the Covenant arrives, the priests put their foot in the Jordan, and all of the water turns up in a heap.
SPEAKER_01: So if anything, it's a wonder that we don't know more about the crossing of the Jordan than we know about the crossing of the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: Because in a lot of ways, this is the more powerful, the more dramatic, the more hand of God is present of the two miracles.
SPEAKER_01: But I can't go back and change human history.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we're probably always going to remember the Red Sea as being more dramatic than the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: But for my money, this is the miracle where we really see the hand of God at work scooping out the water of the Jordan, pushing it 18 miles to the north and making it stand up on end.
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep reading.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the second part.
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's talk about the memorial.
SPEAKER_01: The memorial.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a reason why I brought this rock today.
SPEAKER_01: This is a it's a pretty heavy rock, but it is not as large as the rocks that you're going to be reading about in a few verses.
SPEAKER_01: I think those rocks were probably more akin to small boulders.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go ahead and get into the reading.
SPEAKER_01: We begin in Joshua chapter 4 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua, choose twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Command them, take twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan, where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.
SPEAKER_01: Let's park here for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: So understand, one man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel was given a task.
SPEAKER_01: There in the Jordan, where the priests are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, go there and pick up a large stone from the river.
SPEAKER_01: Now, one thing about river stones, they tend to be more smooth and more rounded than stones that you find elsewhere.
SPEAKER_01: The water crushes over them, the water erodes them, the water gives them that smooth surface.
SPEAKER_01: Each man was to carry a large boulder to the place where they were going to spend the night.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to our second set, which is in Joshua chapter 4, beginning in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to the Israelites, In the future, when your children ask their fathers, what's the meaning of these stones?
SPEAKER_01: You should tell your children, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed over.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24, this is so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord's hand is strong, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pause here.
SPEAKER_01: So each man, probably a strong man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, brought a giant river rock with them to Gilgal, where they made camp that night, and they arranged those twelve stones in such a way that you could see them from a distance.
SPEAKER_01: They placed them there, and they placed them there with a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: They placed them there for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't just placing them there in order to remind them, well, this is the spot where we cross the river.
SPEAKER_01: No, it goes much, much more important, much deeper than that.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we see that what they were doing was they were making a memorial to what God had done.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us have memorials at home that point to something that God has done in our lives?
SPEAKER_01: Not so that we would worship it, not at all, but just something to remind us.
SPEAKER_01: That is there because it reminds me that God has done something in my life.
SPEAKER_01: This rock up here reminds me that God brought a wife into my life.
SPEAKER_01: I got married a little bit later, believe me, it was a miracle that my wife came into my life.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: But that rock reminds me of that.
SPEAKER_01: I have another rock at home that's bigger than this one.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I didn't bring it today.
SPEAKER_01: It's bigger than this one, and it sits, it's a different type of rock, and it reminds me of the process that my wife and I went through when we adopted our little girl.
SPEAKER_01: And it reminds me that God was faithful in that activity.
SPEAKER_01: And I've got some other memorials and things like that, but but it's a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wonderful thing when you go out of your way to create things to remind you of what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when my girl was real, real little, and at one point she noticed that I have this ring on.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Daddy, what's that ring for?
SPEAKER_01: That's a wedding ring.
SPEAKER_01: That's the ring that your mom put on my hand when we got married.
SPEAKER_01: Any of you with kids, you know that happens eventually, some point in your life.
SPEAKER_01: The child asks, What's the ring for?
SPEAKER_01: And what's that for?
SPEAKER_01: Children are always asking questions when they're real little.
SPEAKER_01: Always asking questions.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine when the Israelite children would be out with their parents and they would go along the banks there of the Jordan River and they would see that giant collection of 12 stones.
SPEAKER_01: Daddy, Daddy, mommy, mommy, what's that, what's that big thing of stones there for?
SPEAKER_01: Ah, let me tell you, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_01: Your grandfather told me this story, and now I'm gonna tell you.
SPEAKER_01: That big stack of stones represents the time that God spod the waters of the Jordan River up in a heap so that we could come into this land and we could make our homes here.
SPEAKER_01: And as a matter of fact, that third rock on the left, that third rock on the left is from the tribe of Judah, and that's the people group that we're from.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us have opportunities to talk about what God has done with our children and with our grandchildren, and for some of you, our great-grandchildren?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible doesn't command us to build memorials.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't take what I'm saying and then go home and think that God tells you you must build a memorial.
SPEAKER_01: But anything that we can do in this life that can cause us to create opportunities, to have conversations with the next generation about how God has blessed us and how God blessed our forefathers is an activity that's worth considering.
SPEAKER_01: We're in Memorial Day weekend, where we rightfully remember the men and women who put themselves in harm's way and paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.
SPEAKER_01: That's a spot on the calendar that as Americans we observe every year to memorialize, to not forget, to not let it fade into the area of forgotten memory.
SPEAKER_01: In our lives, God has worked miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are saying, Pastor Dave, God's never worked a miracle in my life.
SPEAKER_01: If you're saved, God worked a miracle in your life.
SPEAKER_01: If you're saved, God took you as not good as you were, as not good as I was.
SPEAKER_01: God took you and saved you and has been changing you and continues to change you to be more like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That is a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: That is not something you can do on your own.
SPEAKER_01: It requires the power of God's Holy Spirit coming into your life and changing you decision by decision, day by day, month by month, year by year.
SPEAKER_01: That's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: If there were some way that you could create something to remind yourself of that miracle that would cause a younger person to say, what's that all about?
SPEAKER_01: you would have an opportunity to share the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God was doing here.
SPEAKER_01: He was making a memorial to cause people to remember.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this story points to our salvation in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move to the next slide.
SPEAKER_01: It points to our salvation in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: First off, we see that Israel had to consecrate themselves.
SPEAKER_01: All of that bathing, all of that praying.
SPEAKER_01: Israel had to remind itself that it was falling short in its relationship with Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: That they had to cleanse themselves spiritually and physically before they could chase the Ark of the Covenant through the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when a person is coming to Jesus, step one is they have to admit that they're a sinner who's separated from God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see in this story that step is represented.
SPEAKER_01: Next, Israel was to see the ark and they were to follow the ark, but they were to follow the ark at the same time recognizing that the ark was holy.
SPEAKER_01: And when we are following Jesus, we are to hear about Jesus, understand who Jesus is, we are to follow Jesus, and yet at the same time we need to remember Jesus is the holy Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he's our friend, but he's also our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he is our friend, he is also our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: We will never be the same as Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And anytime we feel the love of Jesus, it's a mercy and it's a blessing in our lives because he is so much more than we will ever be.
SPEAKER_01: Third, Israel had to hear God and believe God.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua said, Come here, listen to the words of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Israel had to hear that, they had to believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And then they had to trust in that and obey that.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine crossing the dry Jordan riverbed?
SPEAKER_01: You're crossing it and the land is dry, and just a little while ago you had spent three days looking at the overflowing banks of that same river.
SPEAKER_01: They believed God, they trusted God, they obeyed God, and they did indeed cross that Jordan River because of his power.
SPEAKER_01: We also see that Israel did enter that promised land.
SPEAKER_01: They did see the promises of God that you're going to inherit that land.
SPEAKER_01: They did see that promise come true, but they didn't see it come true because of anything they had done.
SPEAKER_01: They saw it come true because of everything that God had done and that God was doing.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus says that he will save you, when he says that he will bring you into eternal life, you don't deserve that.
SPEAKER_01: But God does it in his power.
SPEAKER_01: He saves you.
SPEAKER_01: Your unrighteousness is traded for his full righteousness, and you can enjoy that promise.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go on to the next slide.
SPEAKER_01: At one point, Israel was promised that they would have victory over those evil nations that were all there, all of those ites that I mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: They were promised that they would have victory over those people.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, when we are saved by Jesus Christ, he gives us victory over sin and death.
SPEAKER_01: I want to repeat that.
SPEAKER_01: We say that so much it's easy to take it for granted.
SPEAKER_01: When we're saved by Jesus Christ, he says that we will have victory over sin and death.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think people have a problem believing the second part, victory over death, because they understand that to believe in Jesus Christ is to be made part of the family of God, being brought into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: They know heaven awaits them on the day that they die.
SPEAKER_01: But I see a lot of Christians who stumble and trip themselves up thinking that they can't have victory over recurring sin in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus will give you victory.
SPEAKER_01: He may not give you the victory today.
SPEAKER_01: He may not give you the victory tomorrow, but if you are becoming more and more like Jesus Christ with each passing day, you can't help to come to that place where you will have victory over sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that a time is coming in the future where Jesus is going to come again, it gives us new bodies that are like his, bodies that are untouched by sin, bodies that don't even get tempted by sin.
SPEAKER_01: What a great thing that is, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Not even be tempted in sin.
SPEAKER_01: So the day is coming, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, where you will see victory over all sin.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, we see that after building that memorial of twelve stones, that Israel was commanded to speak of God's delivering power.
SPEAKER_01: They were commanded you share this story with your children, with your grandchildren, with all the peoples of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: When we're saved by Jesus Christ, we are also told to share that information with everybody.
SPEAKER_01: The Great Commission of Matthew 28 says that we are to tell everyone to go and share the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I think I've got one of these here.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: One of these cards that we distribute here at the church, and on the back, I picked this one up a few minutes ago.
SPEAKER_01: On the back, we've got the three spots for your love list where you're supposed to identify three people that you are going to pray about, and if God gives you the opportunity, you're going to share the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder how many of us have filled out a love list sheet.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't filled one out completely, put one name on there.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're faithful to pray for that person, God will give you another two names to put on there.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you.
SPEAKER_01: We are to share the gospel not just with our friends, not just with our families, but we are to be involved in activity that shares the gospel with all the peoples of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the next.
SPEAKER_01: Slide.
SPEAKER_01: Because ultimately, God's command in building that memorial, if you look at verses 22 through 24, when they looked at that memorial, they were to see God's work of deliverance, not just for them in crossing the Jordan, but also in the past in crossing the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: We also should be willing to talk about our deliverance, not just our deliverance, but the deliverance of everyone who's ever lived since the time of the crucifixion, who's trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We are all together the church.
SPEAKER_01: We're all supposed to be supposed to talk about God's power and his reign over all the earth and everyone.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, we're to remember that God is to be obeyed and respected and revered.
SPEAKER_01: So when we have a message like this, what is our what do we walk away with?
SPEAKER_01: What we walk away with is that God is still a God today who works miracles.
SPEAKER_01: He is.
SPEAKER_01: He does still work miracles.
SPEAKER_01: All of you sitting in this auditorium, if you're saved, are evidence of the fact that God still works miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And if I were to get a microphone and hand it around, we could spend all day here, each one of you, talking about the various miracles that God has worked in your lives.
SPEAKER_01: God still works miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Can that get an amen?
SPEAKER_01: God still works miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: All right, God still works miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And so, since he continues to work miracles, we are obligated to share that news with a world that needs to hear it so desperately.
SPEAKER_01: So desperately.
SPEAKER_01: Second part, God's power and reign over all the earth and everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that God reigns over all the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Do you?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that he reigns over all the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that he reigns over all the problems of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe he reigns over all the difficulties of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: We should be saying yes.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we believe that God reigns over all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that he reigns over all the problems of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And we have been given the command to share that with the future generations.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, God is to be obeyed, respected, and revered.
SPEAKER_01: This one seems so simple, and yet it requires so much.
SPEAKER_01: God is to be obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: That right there could be a six-part sermon series, ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_01: God is to be obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: All of us in our lives have areas of God's commands where we struggle to obey.
SPEAKER_01: But as Christians, it should be second nature for us to understand that God is not to be questioned, He's not to be argued with.
SPEAKER_01: No, we are supposed to live our lives with the idea that God is to be obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: God is to be respected.
SPEAKER_01: Made a mistake last night, watched a few minutes of television.
SPEAKER_01: And in that time of watching television, I saw the name of God and the name of Jesus pulled into things, not because I was watching a theological program, but rather people were using those as expressions of swearing.
SPEAKER_01: When we hear people using the name of the Lord in ways that have nothing to do with the Lord, it should cause us to get a hesitation in our spirit, should cause us to mourn a little bit inside.
SPEAKER_01: You know, even small expressions that people use, such as, oh my God.
SPEAKER_01: As a Christian, that we need to work against that if that's in our vocabulary.
SPEAKER_01: The name of God is to be respected, it's to be revered, it's to be honored.
SPEAKER_01: We don't use God and his name as a way of expressing shock or surprise.
SPEAKER_01: No, there's other words that we can use.
SPEAKER_01: Best thing to do is use no words at all if you can.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, corral that instinct to say those things and do the work of respecting and revering the name of God and the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Memorials.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at that rock that I was telling you all about earlier.
SPEAKER_01: Memorials.
SPEAKER_01: The best memorials that we can make in this world are not the ones that remind us of our own joy, not the ones that remind us of our own accomplishments, not the ones that remind us of things that we don't want to forget that have to do with us.
SPEAKER_01: The best memorials are the memorials that we can build that point people to the miracles of God.
SPEAKER_01: Each one of us in this room is a walking, talking, living, and breathing memorial to the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Peter talks about how he is a living rock and how each of us are rocks, and when you group all of those rocks together, it makes the church.
SPEAKER_01: If we are called to be memorials to God, let us be memorials that don't cause people to ask, well, what's wrong with that memorial?
SPEAKER_01: Let's be memorials that are ready, willing, and able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and the news that He is the Lord of all of the earth whenever we are called upon.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in your word.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, Lord, that if we've been challenged, that we would live up to that challenge, that we would call upon you for the strength and the energy and the motivation needed to be the people that you've called us to be.
SPEAKER_01: And in all of that, may you receive the honor and the glory.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's all stand.
SPEAKER_01: It may be that God has been working on your heart, your mind, your spirit, and you realize that a lot of what I've had to say doesn't apply to you because there's something missing.
SPEAKER_01: And that something that's missing may be that you've never realized, or at least you've never admitted, that you're a sinner in need of a savior.
SPEAKER_01: You've never gone to the Lord and say, Lord, I know there's something wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I know that I have never confessed Jesus Christ as Savior, not only of me, but over all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: When you confess Him as Savior and Lord, He takes that sin upon Himself and grafts you into the family of God.
SPEAKER_01: As we begin to sing here in the next few moments, if you're already saved, your job right now is to pray for anybody here who isn't saved.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not saved, your job is to come forward so we can talk to you more about the saving power of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.