on the chapter number three. And we want to just consider verse number three, but we will be looking at the first seven verses that we read earlier together. We'll read again that verse number three of Joshua chapter three, and it says, and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it. Let's bow together in prayer. And we'll ask the Lord now to bless the preaching of his word. Our Father and our God in heaven, we thank thee already for what has been of thyself. We pray now that as we come to thy truth, that thy spirit would come into the midst of us. And as he would come into the midst of us, I pray that he would give us understanding. I pray that he would bring these truths powerfully to our hearts. Father, that we might know Thee, and that we might know Thy song, and that we might know the way that we ought to go. So bless us now. Undertake for us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. When we come to Joshua chapter 3 in this book, we see right away that there seems to be a confident mood in the camp of Israel. Now, we don't see that as we read these verses that we have just read. But if we look at chapter number 2 and the verses 23 to 24, it says, the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land, for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us." And so we see right away these men come with great confidence. They're essentially saying to Joshua, the Lord will definitely give this land into our hands. And we know very well that Israel at this time were about to invade the land of Canaan. They were about to go there and take it as their territory as the Lord had gifted it unto them. And so these men are coming and they're saying, it's an absolute certainty the Lord is going to give us this land and put it into our very hands. And of course, the reason they believe this is because of the Lord's providential dealings with them in Joshua chapter 2. And in verse 24 of chapter 2, it says, all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. And why do these men say this? Well, they say it because of what Rahab said in Joshua 2 verse 9. Because it says there, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. And so the inhabitants of the land knew this great fact that the children of Israel were about to invade. They were about to cross the border and enter in and to take the land from their possession. And it seems to be that this fills them with fear. It fills them with dread. They do not want to see the sight of this invading army coming into their country because they know very well that this is an army that will conquer. Now, this is surprising. And why is it surprising? Well, you think of what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 9, and the verses 1 to 2. These are the words of Moses. He says, Here, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anacons, whom thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say, who can stand before the children of Anak?" And so there is this very clear thought right away. Moses is saying, and of course we know this is a different occasion, but the principle still stands. Moses is essentially saying that this land is greater than Israel. They were more mighty. It seems to be that Israel would be the so-called underdogs. Humanly speaking, they would have done nothing when they invaded this land because this nation had more than enough power to wipe them off the face of the earth. And yet Deuteronomy 9 verse 3 says this, understand therefore this day. that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee. As a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face. Sure shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee. What is the great reality? The great reality is this, that Israel as a nation without God, they were nothing. They would achieve nothing, and yet Israel as a nation with God were absolutely unstoppable. And so there is great confidence. These spies knew that the Lord was beginning to fulfill His word, that He was going before them, that He was striking fear into the hearts of the people. And therefore, they knew going forward that the Lord was going to be with them. You know, something we want in our lives, especially our Christian lives, is to know that the Lord is with us. When we know that the Lord is with us, then it gives us a certain confidence about the future. Because we can say to ourselves, well, no matter what happens tomorrow, no matter what happens in the future, no matter what is coming my way with regard to the world, with regard to my personal situation, I know that the Lord is with me. I know that the Lord will be there. I know that He will give me the grace that I need to overcome any situation, and therefore the presence of the Lord is what will make the difference. And so the children of Israel, they're coming here to the border of Canaan, and yet it seems to be there is this great obstacle before them. There is the Jordan. And so they camp before it here, and they see the obstacle, and they see what's in front of them. And it is now dawning upon them, we're about to enter into war. We're about to enter into enemy territory. Maybe some of the people thought, how's this going to go? Am I going to lose my life? How are we going to get over this obstacle that is set before us? And maybe the confidence of the spies was not the confidence of the people in so many ways, because they maybe looked before them and thought, this is a terrifying enterprise we are about to enter on. And I say to you, brother or sister, you must not have that in your heart. No matter what is before you, no matter what the future may hold, no matter what you think is coming your way, you must say in your heart, I am going to march on with confidence. I am going to walk with God. I am going to be okay. And so as we come to Joshua chapter 3, verses 1 to 7. We see these verses, they give the people a wonderful confidence. The people are preparing for the Lord to work. And so as we look at these verses this morning, I want to consider this theme, preparing to march on with confidence. Preparing to march on with confidence. First thing I want you to see here is that there must be perception. There must be perception. To perceive something is to become aware of it. The Lord wants the children of Israel to be aware of something that is absolutely key as they go forward and as they go on with Him. And when we come to verse 1, we read these words, And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they were moved from Shittim and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And so, as I've said already, they're at the border of this land. They're about to enter into war. They're about to enter into the enterprise that the Lord wants them to enter into. And this may seem so simple to us. And yet, as I've said already, we see this great obstacle that is in their way. They stand before the great Jordan, and verse 15, we read words here in Joshua chapter 3 that heighten the sense of drama, because it says, "'And as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.'" And so we see that the Lord is giving us this detail here about how significant it was to cross over the Jordan at this time. In fact, let me go further to say to you this morning that to pass over the Jordan was not a difficult task, it was a near impossible task. You see, the Jordan at this time would have been about half a mile wide. It would have been very deep. It would have been very rapid. And so if you simply entered into it, you probably would have been swept away. And so the children of Israel come to the Jordan at this time. And they're no doubt looking and they're thinking to themselves, there are millions of us. And how are we as a nation going to cross over this Jordan? What are we going to do? What is the Lord going to do next? How are we going to go forward? And what do we understand by this? We understand that the Lord so often works in a mysterious way to show his own glory. You see, there were times and seasons where it was very easy to come across the Jordan, where the people could have just simply stepped in, but they just so happened. They so happened to come at a time when it was impossible. They so happened to come at a time that couldn't have been any worse, and yet the Lord now was going to reveal His glory, and the Lord was going to work in their lives, and the Lord was going to do marvelous things in the midst of them. And you see, when we look at the impossible, that's when God can come, and that's when He can reveal His glory, and that's when He can reveal to us that in the midst of so many situations, He can intervene for His people, He can intervene for you, and He can deliver. Maybe this morning you come to the house of God and you say to me, I'm in a seemingly impossible situation. I'm in a situation where I'm very honest, I don't know what to do. And I'm in a situation that's causing me doubt and fear. I'm in a situation where I don't know how I'm going to go forward. I don't know how to find a resolution. I just simply do not know what's gonna happen in all of this and in the midst of it. And isn't the Lord able to come into that situation? Isn't he able to make a way? Isn't he able to reveal his will unto you and therefore reveal his glory? He's brought you to a time such as this, a time where he is working out his mysterious purpose in your life. And he's saying to you, I can come into this situation and I can work and I can move for my glory. But what instructions does he give his people? Well, verses 2 to 4 shows us what the Lord wants them to do. It says, And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 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." And do you see what the Lord does here? He wants the children of Israel to be aware of something. They were not to dwell upon the Jordan. They were not to think about what is seemingly impossible. They were to focus their attention on the ark. Now, we don't know very well what the ark was. It was that piece of furniture that was in the most holy place of the tabernacle. It is a wonderful picture of the presence of God. And we know very well that there was the mercy seat, the lid of this ark, and how this wonderfully points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as the Israelites are standing there, the Lord says to them, I want you to focus upon the ark. And when the ark begins to move forward, I want you to move forward as it moves forward. And how wonderful this is, because no doubt these people knew the significance of the ark. They knew that it pointed to the Messiah. And therefore, we say this morning that the ark is a wonderful representation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God comes to the meeting this morning and he says to you in the midst of your situation where there seems to be darkness, where there seems to be in your mind this thought that I do not know the way forward, the Lord says to you, don't focus on that situation as of yet because I have not revealed my will. Do not dwell on the impossible, but rather focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ and follow after him. That's a wonderful principle that we can take in the midst of so many situations of life. Now, I'm not saying that we ought to be a passive people and just sort of let things roll out, but what I'm saying is the Lord comes to you and He says, when you focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ, when you get your eyes upon Him, when you follow Him as you should do, as He has revealed in the Word of God, As you obey His commands and walk in His footsteps, as you do all of these things, the Lord says, follow after Christ, and I will reveal my will, and I will intervene and do wonderful things among you. See, verse 4, He gives that principle, that ye may know the way by which ye must go. Therefore, I ask you this morning, in the midst of what you're going through, Will you get your eyes focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you focus upon His love for you? Will you focus upon His word to you? Will you get your eyes upon Him? And when you do that in the midst of your difficulty, in the midst of your life, in the midst of those impossible situations, when your eyes are focused upon Christ, there is this wonderful joy and there's this wonderful peace that comes into your heart. So often in life we wonder how we got through so many difficult times and situations, don't we? We wonder, how did I overcome that? We look and we realize it was because we followed the Lord. And when we followed the Lord, he guided us through and he gave us the grace that we needed. He put his hand upon us. So I say to you, follow after the Savior. If you can't do nothing at this time, you can do that. We sang it in that opening hymn, following Jesus every day by day. Nothing can harm me when Jesus leads the way. Darkness or sunshine, whate'er befall, Jesus the shepherd is my all in all. And I say, when you follow him, he will never lead you on a path that will take you astray. He will never lead you in a way that will be harmful. He will lead you in the ways of righteousness and of goodness, and He will lead you in a way that He will deliver you from whatever you're going through, and He will make you, or give you grace to be able to bear whatever you have to bear. So I say, brothers and sisters this morning, the Lord wants you to be aware of Christ. and of Christ alone. And they want you to be determined in your heart to follow after him. The children of Israel, of course, did that. They followed the ark, they went right through the Jordan, they went right through the obstacle, and they kept their eyes upon the Lord. Next thing I want you to see in this text, there must be consecration. There must be consecration. We must always recognize something, and we must always be aware of this great fact. The Lord will never bless an unholy people. The children of Israel were going to be made very aware of this fact, that if they were to see the deliverance of the Lord, if they were to see the Lord doing wondrous things in the midst of them, well, then they had to be a consecrated people. They had to be a holy people. Now verse 5 says of Joshua chapter 3, And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And you see, this is such a conditional thing. He's saying the Lord is going to do marvelous things in your eyes. And we know very well that that would be the dividing of the Jordan. But the Bible is clear here. Joshua says, you must be prepared for the Lord to bless you. You must be prepared for the Lord to work. Sanctify yourselves in the face of what I'm saying to you. And so we ought to be a people that are constantly aware of this. Every day of our lives, especially today, the Lord's Day, there ought to be this thought of sanctifying ourselves. There ought to be this thought of consecrating ourselves to the Lord daily, because we are so prone to get away from the things of God. We are so prone to forget ourselves and to go the ways of unrighteousness. And so the Lord says there must be this daily consecration. There must be this daily sanctification. And so the people here are told to sanctify themselves. What is the idea of this word, sanctify? Well, it means to separate oneself and to cleanse oneself from defilement. You see that earlier on in the book of Exodus chapter 19 and the verse number 10. It says, and the Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And so Moses talks about this sanctification that needs to happen amongst the people. And notice how he connects it with the washing of their clothes. This essentially was purification. And this is the idea that is being brought forth here. And we know very well all of the ceremonies in the Old Testament that included this washing, this purification. And so one thing the people would never have wanted to do is to be defiled. They wanted to remain clean. And you think then of a leper who was in the midst of the congregation of Israel, that person could no longer be a part of that band until he was purified. And if you went near the leper, if you touched them or you were in their presence for a certain amount of time, well, then you were unclean. And there would have had to be this ceremony to make you clean again. There was the involvement of water and all of these things for purification. This is a wonderful picture of what the Lord requires of His people. He wants them to be pure. He wants them to be separate from sin. He wants them to be holy. And so when we come to 1 Thessalonians 4 and 7 in the New Testament, It says, for God has not called us on to uncleanness, but on to holiness. And there is the idea again that the Lord has called us not to be a people that are defiled, but a people that are holy and pure. And so we can never have any confidence in our Christian experience. We will never have those times where we're marching on with God and we're knowing his blessing if we're going to be a people that are defiled and willingly, unknowingly walk in darkness. And so the principle comes to you this morning, you must take time to be holy and consecrate yourself unto the Lord. and ask Him to purify you in the blood of Christ. This must be your daily ritual, and that's probably not a good word, but your daily routine. You must come with a heart that desires to be separate from sin. You must be a people that are separated unto the Lord and undefiled before Him. Maybe there's a brother or sister this morning and you're coming into the house of God. and you're bringing the muck of your sin with you. You're bringing the muck of the world with you. You're bringing all of your uncleanness, you're bringing all of your sins, you're bringing all of these things into the house of God this morning because you've not confessed and you've not consecrated yourself unto the Lord and these things aren't dealt with. And I say, how can you think that you're ever going to be blessed by coming to God's house in such a way? You will never profit from the praise and the worship. You will never profit from the word of God because there is defilement in your life. And therefore, there can be no stepping forward, there can be no marching on with confidence, because rather than the blessing of God upon you, the hand of God will be upon you to chastise you. So I say to you, do not come this morning with such in your heart. Get it dealt with, and daily get before the Lord, and let's have our defilement cleansed. It's so easy to be defiled in this world, isn't it? with its music, its television, its principles, its attitudes, all of these things. And it's so easy then for us to bring the defilement of the world into our minds by all of these things. And next thing you know, that defilement, it comes to the mind and it starts to influence the heart. And therefore, I say to you, be careful in the world. Be careful what you watch. Be careful what you listen to, because these things, as I've said, they come to the mind. They begin to influence the heart. And next thing you know, we're caught up in defilement and gross sin and unworldliness. The Lord will never bless our lives if we live like that. I wonder if anyone here this morning has ever heard of an animal called an ermine. Now, this little animal is described by the ancient Greeks as an Armenian rat. In reality, it's just not a rat. It's a weasel. Now, in wintertime, these wee weasels, their coats went from a brown color to one that is purely white. And so the hunters would have came and tried to get their coats because they were highly sought after. And this little small animal then would have went away from the hunter and tried to flee. One of the things that the hunters began to do was to get the layers of the small animals and to put mud right at the door. And so as the earman, if I think I'm saying that right, the earman was running away from the hunter, it would have went back to its layer, it would have saw the mud, and the first thing it did was it turned around and allowed the hunter to kill it in that instant. You see, the earman would rather die than muddy its coat, and would rather die than defile itself, and therefore there was a phrase that was born out of this story, death before defilement. Surely that's a wonderful phrase for the people of God, death before defilement. What I mean by that is there ought to be this constant death to sin in our lives. We ought to have this great desire of all that sin would die more and more on our experience, and therefore we would not defile ourselves. And we'd have this greatest desire in our hearts that we would rather do anything than sin against the Lord. So let's be a sanctified people. Let us be a people that are prepared for the blessing of God. Let us be a people that say to ourselves, we are not defiled and therefore we march on with the Lord in these days. One more thing I want you to see in this text, there must be exaltation. There must be exaltation. There would, of course, be the exaltation of the power of the Lord and what He could do here for His people or what He can do for His people as He divides the Jordan. But verse number 7, we begin to see that the Lord is exalting His own servant. It says in verse 7, And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee." And so this episode when the Lord would work a miracle in the midst of the Jordan, it was not only for the Lord's glory, but it was for the exaltation of Joshua. We know very well that Moses was exalted amongst the people. The people loved Moses and the people looked to him. And so the Lord is beginning to show Joshua that he was going to exalt him to a similar standard to Moses in the sight of the people. And we see that very well happen in Joshua chapter 4 and the verse 14. It says, on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life. And so it was a wonderful thing for the people because one thing they had in their hearts now was confidence in the great leadership that was set before them. They were confident in the Lord, of course, but they were confident as well as they saw their leader, as they saw Joshua. As they knew he was God's representative, they began to see that this, no doubt, is God's appointed man. And you see, ineffective leadership, can cause a lack of confidence in any people. You consider some stories that you'll read about the American Civil War. There's a story of a general in that war called John Pope. It seemed to be he was leading his army in a circle. He was leading them round and round, and the troops were beginning to get tired, and they were beginning to wonder, what is the point of all this? Why are we marching about all this time? What are we doing? What is the aim? And what is the goal? Next thing you know, they were hungry, they were exhausted, they were baffled, they were confused, and they were amazed that this man was leading them in such a way. And then when it came to them coming to a time of conflict against Stonewall Jackson's army, we see the attitude of the troops. They go into this battle, and what do they expect? They expect the worst. They expect that, well, we have no good leadership, and so we're probably going to lose. And so this would have been a disaster for Israel. If they were not confident in their leader, then they would have had no confidence whatsoever to go into the land of Canaan. But now they knew God has given us a mighty man. God has given us a man to lead us. God has exalted him. God is with him. And therefore we march on and we're happy and we're confident that we shall overcome every obstacle with Joshua at the helm. Brethren and sisters, this does not remind us of a greater Joshua. You think of Philippians chapter 2 and the verses 8 to 9. It says, Here is the great truth of these verses. The Lord Jesus Christ has went to the cross in obedience to his Father. He was obedient unto the very point of death, and he allowed himself to be given over to death the time he died on that metal tree. And as a reward for his perfect obedience, as a reward for his perfect work of salvation, the Bible says, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. And he's given him a name that is above all names. What has God done to Jesus Christ? He has exalted him to be head and king of the church. And when you come to the Bible, there is absolutely no doubt you, as Christians, when you read of Christ, what does God do for you? He exalts him before you. He exalts Him, and He comes to you and He says, Christ is your Savior, but Christ is your exalted Head, and Christ is your exalted King. He is our leader. He is in control of our destiny. He is in control of every single path that we take. And so He is able to move in our lives. He is able to deliver us, as I said earlier. He is able to work in the midst of us. But more than that, brethren and sisters, every single footstep that we take, He directs it and He leads us in the way that we have to go. So wherever you're at in life this morning, you trust in God because Christ has brought you there. He's brought you to this place according to His will. There is no mistakes here. There is no confusion. Christ has directed you to where you are right now. But he's promised you that as he works in your life, he'll work every single situation out in your life toward good and towards the going, the furtherance of the gospel and of his work in your own experience. We march on in a world that is full of sin, destruction, confusion, war. We say confidently, We have a great leader, and he is leading us on a great path, and he is leading us in a great way, and he will lead us until we step into glory itself. Does that not give you confidence this morning? Christ is king, Christ is head, Christ is in control of my life right now. He is leading me in the way that I ought to go. As Joshua would lead the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, so Christ will lead us into the greater Canaan, and He will direct every single footstep. So, brother and sister, submit yourself unto the risen Lord, submit yourself unto your King, trust in His ways, and let Him lead you into blessing and into glory. And let us, as the people of God, march on in these days. March on in the victory side. March on with confidence. March on knowing that the Lord is with us, and he will do mighty things, even in the midst of us in the days to come. Pray he'll bless his word to all of our hearts this morning. For Jesus' sake, amen. Amen. Let us bow together in prayer, and we will ask the Lord now to bless us as we part one from another. Our Father and our God in heaven, we do thank Thee that the Lord Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. We thank Thee that He is the great exalted One in the midst of the church. And I pray, O Father, in the days to come, may we continually look to Him. May we look to Him for grace. May we look to Him for His power to deliver us. May we look to Him to continually work on our lives for His own honour and for His own glory. I pray that thou would part us now with thy fear, put thy hand upon us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.