Amen. All right, we're there in Joshua chapter number three tonight. And of course, tonight is a very special service here. It's our last service in this building on this property. And so we're going to take a break from our Hebrew study that we're normally in on Wednesday night. And tonight I'm preaching a special sermon. It's actually a sermon that I've preached several times over the years. I doubt that any of you will remember it, maybe some of you will, but I've preached this sermon under a different title every time, but it's been the same passage of scripture, the same thoughts, the outlines have changed over the years, and even this sermon, I've revamped it and redone it, so don't worry if you have heard it. I'm sure it'll be different. But this is a sermon that I've preached. The first time I preached this sermon, I entitled it Sanctify Yourselves, and I preached it on July 1st, 2012. And I preached it as we were getting ready to move out of the house. My wife and I started Verity Baptist Church in our living room on September 5th of 2010. And we were there till the last service there was actually in the house was July 4th, 2012. Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday. And that was the last service we had in the house. And we had fireworks out. in the front lawn. And of course, I think there was like 30 of us or something, 36 of us I think is what we had that night. But I preached this sermon the Sunday before that. And I preached this sermon in preparation of getting us to move as we were getting ready to move from the living room to our first building, 800 square foot building. Of course, for those of you that don't know or if you haven't heard, Our story, we spent one year in that 800-square-foot building. That 800-square-foot building was not really, honestly, much bigger than the living room slash dining room we were already meeting in. But the big victory there was that we got the church moved out of our house. And I'll tell you, that was a huge sacrifice to have, you know, meat in your house. Obviously, three services a week, setting up chairs and all these things. I was working a full-time job, and a lot of it, I would say the vast majority of it was put on my wife's shoulders, and it was a time. And we were happy to get the church out of our house. It was always interesting when the service starts at 10.30 and somebody decides they want to get to church at 8.30. You know, we like it. We like it when people show up to church early, but not that early and not when it's your house. So anyway, I preached this sermon. And that was my first, that was one of my first indications that people are not normal. and that my job is to make them normal. But I preached a sermon back in July, Sanctify Yourselves. Of course, we moved out of the 800 square. We spent one year in the 800 square foot building. Then we transitioned from the 800 square foot building to a 1,600 square foot building, which was just pretty much, it was just right next door in the same parking lot, same facility. It was pretty much just taking two of the 800 square foot buildings, we put them together, took a wall down, and made it a 1,600 square foot building. We were in that building for seven months, if you can believe it. And we actually grew so fast in those seven months that we had to pay to get out of our lease. and move into a bigger, because we just grew, in those seven months, we grew so much, you could comfortably put probably, I don't remember, my wife would remember better, but you could probably put about 70 people in that building, and then there was, I remember there was a Sunday morning where we broke 100, and tried to put 100 people in 1,600 square feet, and there was literally, and that building had these big windows where you could see into the parking lot, and we literally watched people pull up to the church building, get out, start to come in, realize how full it was, and then go back in their vehicle and drove away. And it was that Sunday that my wife and I decided we need to just get out of this building. So we raised money. I think it was a vision offering. We raised money, paid to get us out of the lease early, and moved to the notorious Northgate building. And we went from 1,600 square feet to 4,600 square feet. And the reason that we jumped that much is because at that point, we'd already moved once a year later. Then we're moving again seven months later. And I remember telling my wife, I don't want to move again. for a long time. So we went from 1,600 square feet to 4,600 square feet. And when we moved into that Northgate building, those 4,600 square feet, they just seemed so massive. We didn't have these chairs back then. We just had the folding chairs. And I thought to myself, we will never fill this building. We'll never fill this building. And of course, we grew there as well. The spring of 2016, believe it or not, the spring of 2016, our church grew. In three months, we grew by 50 members. From January to April of 2016, we grew by 50 members. Then I preached a sermon that went viral, and we lost 50 members. And so it's just kind of the way it goes. And then, of course, December 21st of 2016, I preached this sermon that I'm going to preach tonight. And when we were getting ready to leave the Northgate building and to move into this building. The first time I preached it in July of 2012, it was entitled, Sanctify Yourselves. The second time I preached it in December of 2016, it was entitled, Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders Among You. And tonight I'm going to preach it to you again. I hope that's okay. and I've entitled it On the Brink. I want you to notice that I think this is a fitting chapter because tonight we end a season or a phase of ministry, and we're getting ready to enter into a new phase of ministry. And this is where we find the children of Israel in this story. Notice there in Joshua chapter 3, And look at verse number one. I don't know, I doubt that any of you will remember the sermon, although, you know, some of you, Brother Ray and Miss Denise, they've been with us since the first day. Obviously, my family's been with us since the first day in the house, so this is now the third time they're going to hear this sermon, I hope. Third time in 13 years. I hope they'll forgive me. But we see here the children of Israel, Joshua chapter 3, verse 1. The Bible says, And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they moved from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel and lodged there, I want you to notice the words here, before they passed over. And the idea is that they were getting ready to cross the Jordan River out of the wilderness into the promised land. They're right there at the edge of the water. And it's right before, the Bible tells us there at the end of verse 1, they passed over. And notice this will be a new phase for them. This will be a new territory that they'll be going into. They'll be facing things they've never faced before. Notice their Skip down to verse number four. The Bible says, Notice the last part of verse four. That word heretofore means before this time. And God is telling them, this is going to be new for you. You're going to pass over into the promised land, and ye have not passed this way heretofore. You have not passed this way before. This is a new phase. It's going to take you into new territory. Notice verse number 8 of the same chapter. This is where I get the third title for this sermon. Joshua chapter 3, verse 8. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are, notice the words, come to the brink, come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. Now I'm entitled to a sermon tonight on the brink Here God is specifically literally talking about the fact that the children of Israel were going to cross from the one side of the Jordan River onto the other side of the Jordan River and they were literally on the brink of the water of Jordan. But that is a term that is often used, people will use this term, on the brink, and what they mean by that, usually and often times, is when somebody says you're on the brink of something, it means that you're just about to do something, you're just about to experience something, you're about to go into some sort of new adventure or phase or thing in your life. And oftentimes people say, you're just right on the brink of this new area of your life. And this is where we see the children of Israel. They're on the brink of the promised land and they're getting ready to cross into the promised land. And in the same way, We, again, find ourselves on the brink, getting ready to enter into some new territory, things that we've never experienced before. On Sunday morning, Verity Baptist Church will experience something we've never experienced before. We will, for the first time, hold a church service on property we own, in a building that we aren't renting. And this will be new for us. And I think what I'd like to do tonight is give you some thoughts from this passage regarding what we can do when we find ourselves on the brink. I'd like to give you four thoughts tonight, and if you'd like to take notes, I encourage you to take notes. The first thing I'd like you to notice here in verses 1 through 5 is the exhortation. I want you to notice that there's an exhortation given to the people. There are some instructions. They are encouraged and exhorted to do certain things. Notice there, Joshua chapter 3 and verse 1. The Bible says, And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim and came to Jordan. He and all the children of Israel lodged there before they passed over. Now this is fitting that I would preach this sermon, and again, I preached this sermon years and years and years ago, more than one time. But it's fitting that we would preach it again tonight, because of the fact that we've actually been studying the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and we understand these things. And here Joshua's telling the people, and the officers are going through and communicating to the people, that they commended the people, verse 3, saying, when you see the Ark of the Covenant, and if you remember, the Ark of the Covenant, this box that is made out of shidom wood, and it is has gold overlaid all over and it's decorative. It has all these things in the box. The tables of the Ten Commandments and the manna and Aaron's rod that budded and all these things. This box represents the presence of God. And it represents the fact that God is dwelling with the people and among the people. And it represents the Word of God, of course. And here Joshua says, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests and the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place. And I want you to notice, here's the exhortation. Notice what he says. He says, and go after it. and go after it. He says, when you see the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the presence of God and represents the Word of God, he said, when you see it, I want you to go after it. And the exhortation that Joshua gives the children of Israel here, as they find themselves on the brink and on the ready, on the edge of something new, they're ready to go forward into something new, and the exhortation he gives them is to go after God. To go after it. To go after. The exhortation is this. To follow God and the Word of God. Notice there verse 4. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Come not near unto it. He's talking about the earth. He says, here's why I want you to go after it. Verse 3. Here's why I want you to keep a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Come not near unto it. Why? Here's why. That ye may know the way by which ye must go. And the exhortation that Joshua gives the children of Israel is this, as you find yourself on the brink of some new territory, a new phase in life, he said don't forget to go after God, to follow God, to be closely connected to God and the Word of God. And the exhortation I want to give Verity Baptist Church is that as we transition over to this new building, let us always remember that our goal is God. Our goal is the Word of God. It's to go after God. Why? That ye may know the way by which ye must go. Psalm 119, verse 105. You don't have to turn there. The Bible says this, So it's interesting he says, go after it. He also says, don't get ahead of it. Notice there again in verse 4. Yet there shall be a space between you and it. a space between you and it. And it's interesting to me that he says that. He says, look, when you see the ark that represents God, then I want you to move and I want you to go after. He said, keep enough space so that you can see which way it's going. He says that you may know the way by which you must go. But then he tells them, don't get ahead of it. Don't get ahead of it. And I have learned in ministry and I've seen it in the lives of individuals that we get ourselves into trouble when we get ahead of God. When we try to lead God, you know the great psalm says this, He leadeth me. And we ought to always remember that it's God who's leading us. And what got us here is us going after it. Us going after God. And let's never get ahead of it. You know, there are opportunities. My wife and I were driving. We happened to be driving in South Sacramento earlier this week. And we were talking about, remember when we almost Not almost, but remember when we came to look at a building over here, and there was a building that was for sale, and there was a situation where we could rent it and buy it and whatever, and of course, we chose not to do that, and I believe the Lord led us in that way, but over the years, there have been opportunities for us to maybe try to manipulate things and move things forward, but honestly, we would have just been getting ahead of God at that point. One thing that I've said about the situation we find ourselves in now, one thing I was expressing to my wife even this week is that I feel like all of these things that have happened, the purchase of that property, the remodel of that property, all these things, I feel like it's happening around us or around me and I'm just kind of being carried along with this current and it's just God opening these doors and God opening these opportunities and we're just walking by faith, just going at it, but we're definitely not getting ahead of God. I can honestly stand here tonight and say I believe that God has opened the doors for this next step in our ministry and God led us here and we should always remember that the goal is God. to go after it. Follow Him. Don't get ahead of Him. Don't try to get ... And look, in every area of your life, young people, don't get ahead of God. God has a plan for you. God has a purpose for your life. God has someone He wants you to marry. God has someone that He wants you to have a romantic relationship with, and in the bounds of marriage, a physical relationship with, and He wants to bless you with children. He wants to bless you with all these things. And people often mess things up when they try to get ahead of God. We should always remember the exhortation here. Go after it. Don't get ahead of Him. Go after God. Don't get ahead of Him. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So you see the first exhortation is go after it. And then I want you to notice there's a second exhortation. It's found in verse number 5. It's actually the title of the sermon, the first time I preached it in 2012. And it is this. And Joshua said unto the people, here's the second exhortation, verse number 5. He says, sanctify yourselves. Sanctify yourselves. Before they crossed the Jordan River, Joshua exhorted the children of Israel to sanctify themselves. The word sanctify means to separate, to set apart for the use of God. He says sanctify yourselves. You say why? Here's why. For. You see the word for? The word for means because. He says sanctify yourselves. Here's why. Because. Because of why. Because of what reason? Notice. Because for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Joshua is looking at the people and saying, look, tomorrow, now they're literally going to cross the Jordan River tomorrow. But the term here tomorrow is being used of the future. He's saying, I believe that God is going to do something great for the children of Israel in the future. And he said, if God is going to use us and if God is going to do something for us, then we must do something in preparation and we must sanctify ourselves. We must always remember this, that sanctification is the key to being used of God. If you've ever wondered, how can I be used of God? Why do some people seem to be used of God more mightily than others? Why is it that some churches seem to be more blessed than maybe other churches? And some soul winners seem to be more effective than maybe other soul winners. And some preachers seem to have the touch of God upon their lives, maybe more than other preachers. And the truth is this, that God is no respecter of persons. And it's not that the blessing of God or the power of God or the help of God is given on individuals or churches because God likes them more than others, because God does not respect any person more than anyone else. So then what is the difference? The difference is this. The key to being used of God is to sanctify yourself. Sanctify yourself. This is not the first time the children of Israel had heard this. Go back with me, if you would, to Exodus chapter 19. You're there in the book of Joshua. If you go backwards, you go past the book of Deuteronomy, past the book of Numbers, past the book of Leviticus, into the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19, this is something that Moses had actually told the children of Israel earlier. Exodus chapter 19, precisely 40 years earlier, when the children of Israel found themselves at the brink of another sword. at the beginning of a new phase. This in Exodus 19 is the children of Israel just came out of Egypt. And they were getting ready to enter into a new phase where there were no longer going to be slaves and bondmen and bondwomen in the iron furnace of Egypt, but there were going to be free people in the nation of God and the people of God. In Exodus 19 and verse number 10, in preparation for that new phase, here's what Moses said to the children of Israel. Exodus 19 and verse 10. And the Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people, notice the words, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. Be ready against this third day. For the third day the Lord, notice the words, will come down. and the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. We can read there, of course, and we read of the fact that God came down on Mount Sinai, and there was thunderings, and lightnings, and all these amazing things, and then in verse 14, the Bible says this, and Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. Notice the emphasis is, sanctify yourselves, prepare yourselves, be ready, set yourself apart, be clean, wash your clothes, be ready, why? Look at verse 17, and Moses brought forth the people out of the camp. Notice these words, you gotta underline these words in your Bible, to meet with God. To meet with God. And they stood at the nether part of the mountains. The only way that you and I can be close to God and be used by God is to sanctify ourselves. It's to cleanse ourselves. It's to separate ourselves and be ready because the key to be used of God is to be sanctified. It's interesting to me because here in Exodus 19, I'd like you to look at verse 4. Don't you notice what the Word of God, what God says to Moses in preparation for this meeting? Children of Israel are going to meet God. He says in verse 17 that to meet with God, they're going to meet with God on Mount Sinai. And if you keep reading the passage there, we read of the fact that the children of Israel actually heard the audible voice of God as God gave them the Ten Commandments. And if you remember the response of the children of Israel, they were so afraid and scared at hearing the audible voice of God that they actually said to Moses, from now on you speak to God and you tell us what he said. They're so afraid to meet God and to hear God's voice that Moses had to go up to the mount and meet with God privately and bring the Word of God to the children of Israel. God had told him, sanctify yourself because I want to meet you. God had told Joshua, sanctify the people because I want to use you. Notice there in Exodus 19 and verse 4. Notice what the Bible says. You have seen. This is God speaking to the children of Israel. You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians. Notice these words, please. And how I bear you on eagle's wings. I love the wording there and the terminology. He said, you may not have realized it and you may not have understood it, but everything that you have gone through, God says, has actually been by the providential hand of God. He said, I have borne you or I have bare you on eagles' wings. He's referring to the fact that they were in Egypt. He said, you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians. And isn't it true that even the hard things, look, Egypt was not a vacation for them. Egypt was not a nice memory for them. Egypt was a time of slavery and bondage and murder. It was a time when they were oppressed and when many of them were depressed. And here God says, that was a time when I bare you, look at it, bare you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself. I want you to always remember, and I want always to remember, that the goal is always God. And the things that God does in our lives are meant to bring us unto Himself. You see, even the times of difficulty and the times we spend in Egypt, even in those times, we can say that God has born us on eagles' wings to bring us unto Himself. The goal is always God. The goal is always for us to get close to God, to draw near to God, to meet with God, and to be used of God. So for that reason, Joshua says to the children of Israel, sanctify yourselves. And I'm here to say to you, Verity Baptist Church, if you wouldn't mind, go back to Joshua, but go to chapter 7 if you would. If we're going to be used of God, if we're going to continue to be used of God, we must sanctify ourselves. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 20, you don't have to turn there, I'll just read this for you. The Bible says, but in a great house ... I actually preached recently about this on Saturday morning at one of our soul winning rallies. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Here Paul is giving an illustration. He says in a house, in a physical house, there are different types of vessels. Think of dishes. or pots and pans or cups or plates or bowls, vessels. He says some of gold and silver, some of wood and earth. He says some are for honor and some are for dishonor, just like in our households today. If you were going to have somebody over for dinner and you wanted to, maybe they were an important individual, you wanted to impress them, you would bring out the fine china. But if you were just going to have maybe just kids over or a kids party or something like that, you might just use paper plates and some vessels are for honor and some for dishonor. 2nd Timothy 2.21 says this, "...if a man therefore purge himself." The word purge means to cleanse, to get rid of, to free up of, to purge himself from these. "...he shall be a vessel unto honor." And here's the point I want you to hear. You go to Joshua chapter 7, but here's what I want you to hear from 2nd Timothy 2.21. "...sanctified and meet for the master's use." The key to be used of the Master is to be sanctified. The word meet means suitable. Sanctified and suitable for the Master's use. So if you and I are going to be used of God, if we're going to continue to be used of God, we must not only go after it, because the goal has always been to be brought unto God, but we must sanctify ourselves. And here's, let me just say it plainly. We cannot afford to have sin in the camp. Joshua chapter 7 and verse 1, I want you to notice this story. The children of Israel have now entered into the promised land. They fought their first battle against Jericho and they've been successful. But they fought their second battle against Ai, which was a smaller enemy, which should have been defeated easier, and they lost. 36 men died. And it's revealed to Joshua that the reason for this is because Achan has taken the accursed thing. I won't take the time to go through the whole story, but if you're familiar with it, you know God had told the children of Israel that as they went to these different cities and they conquered these lands, that they would be allowed to take the spoil of the land and it would be their reward. But Jericho, the first city, they were not allowed to take anything. Why? Because God always wants the first fruits. That was a picture of tithing. And they were not to take anything. But Achan had stolen something for himself. As a result, God could no longer bless the children of Israel. Notice Joshua 7, verse 1. Joshua 7, verse 1. The Bible says this. But the children of Israel ... I want you to notice the way that it's worded here in the Bible. The children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. And if you're paying attention, you would ask the question, what do you mean, the children of Israel? Don't you just mean Achan? Look at it. So one man, Achan, took of the accursed thing, and God says, the children of Israel committed a trespass. He took out the accursed thing. Look at the last part of verse 1. And the anger of the Lord was kindled ... Don't miss it. Look at it. Against Achan? No. Against the children of Israel. You say, well, wait a minute. Why not Achan? Well, we actually talked about it on Sunday night, if you remember. No man liveth to himself. No man dieth to himself. Your sin will affect others. Your sin will hurt others. And here, though it was one man who decided to sin against God, to be covetous and to take, and to take of the accursed thing, there was sin in the camp. As a result, God could not bless any of the children of Israel. Look at verse 11, same chapter, Joshua chapter 7, verse 11. This is the Lord speaking. Notice what He says. Israel, Israel hath sinned. And you say, what do you mean Israel? Don't you just mean Achan? And they've also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them for. They. What do you mean they? Don't you mean him? Don't you mean he? Have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also. And notice the plurals. They. Don't you mean Achan? Don't you mean just one man? No, they have put it even among their own staff. And the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Achan took of the accursed thing, and they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed thing from among you. And then this should sound familiar to you. Look at verse 13. Up, sanctify the people. and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel. Thou canst not stand before thy enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. To me, this is a very sobering and this is a very scary passage of scripture. Because it tells me That though the leader could be doing everything right, the pastor could be doing everything right, the pastor's wife could be doing everything right, all the leaders of the congregation could be doing everything right, the staff could be doing everything right, here the Bible tells us that one man, Achan, could bring the curse of God upon an entire congregation because of sin in the camp. God does not hold us responsible for the sins of others. God does hold the leader responsible to remove the sin and to not allow it within the congregation. But this ought to be a sobering thought that we could get to heaven one day and find out and learn that God had so much more for Verity Baptist Church. That God had so much more that this church could do and accomplish. That there was so many more people that could have been saved and lives transformed and changed. But God was not able to bless us because of your secret sin. So I say to you tonight, we must sanctify ourselves and prepare as we follow the Lord into the next phase of ministry. So I said number one, we saw the exhortation. Now I'd like you to notice secondly tonight, the expectation. Notice in verse number five, the Bible says this, and Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves. Notice the expectation. For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. I believe the greatest days of Verity Baptist Church are ahead of us. I believe that tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Maybe not tomorrow, depending on how many of you guys show up, but Sunday, and Wednesday, and the next Sunday. For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And the idea is this. that when we expect great things from God, then we should attempt great things for God. Look at verse 6. And Joshua spake unto the priest, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Notice the words. He says, 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 thou shalt command the priest, and bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. And here they're ready. And what God is saying, Joshua says, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And as a result of them believing that God would do wonders among them, then they go to the brink of the Jordan River and they stand still, getting ready to attempt something great for God. And the idea is this, that when we expect great things from God, we should attempt great things for God. The great missionary of yesteryear, William Carey, said, attempt great things for God, expect great things from God. Our bulletin has the verse, Ephesians 3.20, So we see the exhortation, go after. Sanctify yourself. We see the expectation. Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And when we expect great things from God, then we ought to attempt great things for God. And we ought to attempt to do something great for God. And listen, God is always advancing. God is always going forward. God is always moving forward. And as a result, if God is going forward and we are going after Him, then we should also be moving forward. We should have a great expectation. Great things for God. Expect great things for God. And attempt great things for God. So we see the exhortation. We see the expectation. And like you notice, thirdly, tonight, we see the examination. The examination of the people. Look at verse 9 there. The Bible says this. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither. I love this phrase. This is always a good phrase for a leader to tell his people. And hear the words of the Lord your God. It's a good phrase for a spiritual leader to tell people. Hear the words of the Lord. And Joshua said, look at verse 10. Now here's what's interesting, look at this. He's giving us some encouraging thoughts and encouraging words. He says, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. He said, God is going to do great things. We are expecting great things from God, and we are therefore going to attempt great things for God. And we're going to know, he said, hereby you shall know that the living God is among you. And then, while giving them this encouraging stuff, he says something that is not so encouraging. He says, and he will, without fail, drive out from before you. And then he begins to list all their enemies. The Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hibbites, and the Perzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. And let us always remember this. That when you try to attempt things for God, there will always be those who oppose us. There will always be the enemies that we have to fight. It reminds me of the verse in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul says that there is a great door. a great door of opportunity. He says, there's an open door. And then he says this, and there be many enemies. It's interesting to me because the way that I would have said it, if I would have said it, is that there's a great door of opportunity, but there be many enemies. That's how I would have said it. I think that's how most of us would say it. We would say, well, there's a great door, but here's the problem. There's a great door, but here's the contrast. There are enemies. That's not what Paul said. Paul said, there's a great door. He says, and There be many enemies. So what's the difference between the but and the and? The but is a contrast. Here's the great opportunity, but here's the problem with the opportunity. There's enemies. Paul says no. Whenever there's an opportunity, there's enemies. He says there's a great door and there be many enemies. We should always remember that when we step out by faith, because that's what they're doing, there will always be those who try to oppose us. There will always be the enemies. Can I just be honest with you for a couple of minutes? I'm looking forward to getting moved over there and being done as much as possible with this building stuff. Obviously, I know that the building's not done and there's still lots to do and I understand that. But I'll be honest with you, the last several months at Mariety Baptist Church, if I could say this without giving any sort of details, my wife and I have talked about the fact that there's been so many issues and problems, don't misunderstand me, not within our church. I'm just saying people going through things, and sometimes it's sin and sometimes it's not sin, it's things that are out of their control, but just going through things, and it just seems like one thing after another after another, and especially Historically here at Verity Baptist Church the month of January has always been such a peaceful time because we're reading nine chapters a day together and it's a peaceful time and a happy time and usually during the month of January when I get text messages and phone calls it's always interesting to me because there's people asking questions and just about the Word of God and it's just showing the fact that the people of God are in the Word of God and this January was not that peaceful. And since October, it seems like it's just been one thing after another, after another. One night, my wife and I were talking, and we just kind of came to the realization, there's an intensifying of spiritual warfare here. We're attempting great things for God. There's an open door! And there be many enemies. You cannot attempt to go forward for God. You cannot attempt to do something great for God and not expect God, not expect the devil, excuse me, to resist you, to try to stop you. So just understand that once you cross the Jordan and you enter into the new phase of ministry and with the power of God and the expectation of God that right on the other side will be the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. It's just the way it is. And look, you try to raise your children for God, someone's going to fight you. You try to have a marriage that is honoring to Christ, someone's going to fight you. You try to preach the Word of God, someone's going to fight you. It's just the way it is. As we seek to step out by faith, as we seek to walk through this great open door, let us always remember that there is an open door and there be many adversaries. So we see that they step out by faith. They go to the brink of the water. Look at verse 11. And I want you to notice verse 13. Look at this. If you're in the habit of marking your Bible, I would underline these words. As soon as. And it shall come to pass as soon as. You say, why would you underline that? Why would you mark that? Why would you underscore that? Why would you bring that to our attention? As soon as. And here's why I want you to see it. It says, and it shall come to pass as soon as. Maybe you can mark this and put an arrow next to those three words, as soon as. Put a little arrow and then write this, not before. Not before. Notice the words. When? Not before. As soon as. As soon as the feet rest in the waters. Look at the last part, verse 13. That the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon an heap. Of course, this is similar to the parting of the Red Sea, but it's different than the parting of the Red Sea, because the parting of the Red Sea, the Red Sea was a sea, and therefore it was parted. Walls of water on both sides of the children of Israel as they cross. This, the Jordan River, is a river that flows in one direction, so God stops it from flowing in one direction. He cuts off the waters from down from above, and they shall stand upon in heap, and the children of Israel cross over on dry ground. When does it happen? It happens as soon as they step out by faith. Why is that impactful? Here's why it's impactful because, you know, what you and I want is we want to see all the ducks in a row before we take a step. We want the plan, and we want God to tell us, well, here's how it's going to happen, and here's how it's going to work, and here's how it's all going to play out. But that's not how God works. Because God has called us, remember, we're saved by faith, but God has also called us to walk by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the expectation, the evidence of things not seen. We walk by faith and not by sight. If God told us everything, how it was going to work out and how it was all going to play out, that would require no faith. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. God wants us to step out in faith. He wants us to step out by faith. And often times it is the case that first we step out by faith, and then God makes His way. Not before. You wanna make some big decision for God and make some decision and say, I'm gonna trust God and believe God and the Bible and I'm gonna do this. Oftentimes we preach the word of God and we tell people this is God's will for your life, this is what God desires. God desires, man, that you be the provider in your home and that your wife not go to work. And some individual says, I think I'd like to step out by faith and do that. And they want God to show them, well, how are you gonna provide? And God says, no, no, it doesn't work that way. You step out by faith and then watch me provide. You take the first step and then watch me work. That's faith! First we step out by faith. And then God makes himself known. As soon as, not before. The soles of the feet. Shall rest, that's faith, that's trust, that's putting your weight on something. Shall rest in the waters, at the waters of Jordan. shall be cut off. You've heard me preach on this in the past. I won't have you go to the verses, but there's other passages in the scripture that help us understand this. Remember the four leprous men in 1 Kings chapter 7? The Bible says, and they rose up in the twilight. You don't have to turn there. 2 Kings chapter 7, if you'd like to write it for your notes, I'll just read it for you. You go to Luke, if you wouldn't mind. Luke chapter 17. 2 Kings 7, verse 5, the Bible says this, And they rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. Remember the four leprous men. They said, why sit we here till we die? If we stay here, we'll die. If we go there, we'll die. They said, let's try to do something great for God. We're going to die anyway. And the Bible says that they rose up in the twilight. When they got there, there was no man there. Verse 6, For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of the chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great horse. And they said one to another, Lo, the kings of Israel have hired against us, the king of the Hittites and the king of the Egyptians. to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled. Here's what the Bible says. They arose and fled. 2nd Kings chapter 7 verse 5. They, the four leprous men, rose up in the twilight. 2nd Kings chapter 7 and verse 7. The great host of the enemies arose and fled in the twilight. When did God disperse the enemy? When did God send the noise? to drive out the enemies, to clear out the camp for the four leper's men. When did God do it? When they stepped out by faith. Not before. Not before. That's how it works. First we step out by faith. Then God makes a way. Luke chapter 17 and verse 14. Luke 17, 14. I've got about five minutes. It's the last service, so it might take a little longer. Luke 17, 14, the Bible says this, and when He saw them, He said unto them, remember these were the ten leprous men. Ten were healed, nine go off, one comes back, and Jesus says, where are the nine? That's the story we're looking at. But what I want you to focus on is when these men were healed. He said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest. And it came to pass, Jesus said, go show yourself unto the priest. They were supposed to, they weren't supposed to go to the priest. They weren't supposed to go to anybody. They were leprous men. They were supposed to stay away from people. In fact, when anybody happened to be coming down the road in their direction, they were supposed to yell, unclean, unclean, so that people would avoid them because they had leprosy. But here, God, Jesus says to them, go show yourselves unto the priest. And here's what you and I and someone with an unbelieving attitude would say. Why would I go show myself to the priest? I have leprosy. I have leprosy. The priest doesn't want to see me. The priest isn't going to see me. They won't let me near the priest. Jesus says go show yourself unto the priest. And it came to pass. Are you there? Look at it. Luke 17, 14. And it came to pass. That. Don't miss it. As they went, not before, as they went, they were cleansed. Imagine if they would have never gone. Imagine if they would have said, we'll all go once I'm cleansed. They would have never been cleansed. But when Jesus said, you go, and they said, we'll go by faith, we'll step out by faith, we'll start walking in that direction by faith, believing the words of Christ. The Bible says, as they went, they were cleansed. And look, there's lots of things over in that building that I don't know how it's going to work out. We need an air conditioning system that's going to be anywhere between $100,000 and $300,000, and I don't know how it's going to work out. And I can tell you this, God has not promised us an air conditioner. We're a bunch of spoiled Americans. I believe that the vision offering will be good, and I think we'll do what we can. What I'm telling you is this, that there's lots of things over on that new property, a lot of questions, and people have questions, and the only thing they ask me questions, you know, what about this, and what about that? And I think myself, that's a good question. And I don't have an answer for the question. I just know this, that as we step out by faith, God makes a way. We step out by faith, God parts the waters, and God opens doors, and yes, there are many adversaries. So we see the exhortation. We see the expectation. We see the examination. They were examined. God was examining them to see, will you step out by faith? And the sad part is this, that many Christians come to the brink of their water, the limit of their understanding, where they then must step out by faith, believing in God and believing that God is going to make a way. And that's where many, as far as many Christians go. They never see the wonders of God. They never see the great work of God. because they never step out by faith. So we see the exhortation. What is it? Go after it. Sanctify yourself. We see the expectation. Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us, and because we expect great things from God, we're going to attempt great things for God. We see the examination that we first step out by faith, and then God makes the way. I mean, look, we put an offer on that property without having financing. And somebody said to me, let's put an offer. And I said, we don't have financing. And they said, well, let's just put it anyway. Okay. And we didn't have the financing and I knew we weren't in the place to get financing. God just made a way. I never heard of self-financing 3.6 million dollars. But God made a way. This is the story of the Bible. You just step out by faith. You just say, let's try it. Let's see God do what God will do. So we see the exhortation, we see the expectation, we see the examination, and then lastly tonight I'd like you to notice the exoneration. Look at verse 14. I love these words. This is how stories often begin in the Bible, and I like it. I think it's very poetic. And it came to pass. And it came to pass. See, up to this point, nothing has actually happened yet. This is just God telling Joshua and Joshua telling the elders, the elders telling the people, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us and we need to prepare and sanctify and go after it, don't get ahead of it. We're going to go to the brink and then the priests are going to have to, by faith, put their foot in that water. And when they step out, not before, but as soon as they step into that water, God's going to part the river and we're going to go up to this point. It's all preaching. It's all illustration, no application. But then they did it. They trusted God, and it came to pass. When the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, And as they bear the ark, were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark, those are the words I love, were dipped in the brim of the water. By the way, this wasn't just some little flowing river. Some little calm stream. The Bible says here in parentheses, for Jordan overfloweth all her banks at the time of harvest. This was a rushing, mighty river. If I were the priest, I'd be looking at Joshua, you want me to put my foot in that? You want me to start stepping out in that? Just start walking in that with this thing? Remember, God kills people for touching this thing. They stepped out by faith. They trusted God. And you know what happens when people trust God? The Bible's full of this. The Bible's full of these stories. All these stories. They're all the same. Different stories, different people, different characters, different villains, different heroes. But they all say the same thing. When you trust God, God always comes through. Look at verse 16. That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap. We see that the people are exonerated. Exonerated. I use that word because it means that they've been justified. They've been validated. They've been vindicated. See, up to this point, people have said, these are slaves, and God has done a great work in getting them out of Egypt. And of course, we had the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. But even the enemies could have said, well, that was just Moses. Moses was a great man. But look, it proves that these people are not great, because they've now spent the last 40 years wandering in the wilderness. But now, God does it again, not with Moses, but with Joshua. And they're vindicated. They're validated. They're exonerated. Look at verse 17. And the priest that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord. I love these words. Stood firm on dry ground. Stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. They stood firm on dry ground. They stood firm. When we say somebody is standing firm, they're standing firm on firm ground, we mean that is the opposite of standing on shaky ground. The opposite of standing on shaky ground. When we first came here, talking about this building, in 2016, many of you were not yet with us. For many of you, I asked for a show of hands on Sunday. Many of you, this is the only home of Verity Baptist Church you've ever known. But for those of you that moved into this property with us, seems like a lifetime ago. You may remember that when we came here to 2016, I think we all felt like we were on shaky ground. And honestly, I sometimes wondered if we were even going to make it. It's hard to explain to someone what we were going through. Of course, many of you know that we were on the news. We were being protested. We were being sued. Our insurance had dropped us. Our landlord had chosen to not renew our lease. Our line giving was being shut down every other week. And our enemies swore that they would not rest until our church had been destroyed. The difficult part of that time, though there was all sorts of things going on, was the rental situation. Our church was fine. I mean, as far as financially, we had a good crowd. Back then we were running about 100, 100 to 120. We had a lot of money in the bank. We had a congregation with about 100, 120 people in it. We had lots of money in the bank. Nobody would rent to us. Our landlord said he would not renew our lease. And literally, this is not an exaggeration when I say it, and if you were with us in that time, you know I'm telling you the truth. In the months of July to the end of December, Myself, and my wife, and Brother Stuckey, and some of you men that were with us, we probably, I'm not exaggerating when I say this, I think we literally looked at every possible building in this city. I think I've been in every commercial building in this city. This week, my wife and I were driving in South Sacramento, and as we were driving, I said, do you remember we looked at this building over here? And it was a beautiful building. And it was this kind of rent-to-own situation, and it seemed OK, except We got there, and it was some real charismatic African-type church, which was fine. We were like, OK, well, they're going to leave, and we're going to get this building. And obviously, it was in South Sacramento, and we live in Natomas, and it was going to be this drive. But we were literally like, there's nowhere for us to go. I mean, I was contemplating, like, are we going to have to move the church back into the house? Back when we were meeting in the house, we started with, like, four people. We grew it to about 30 people. Now we're running, like, 120 people. And I was thinking, like, okay, well, if we have, like, seven services on Sunday, and we just rotate people through or something, that's literally, I mean, because I was, because they weren't, I mean, they weren't going to let us meet in the park anywhere. And I remember this place, they were like, oh yeah, we'll take you guys, and you can rent, and you can own it, whatever. And then they had this weird, they're like, the only thing is that the pastor, you know, he lives in the office. And you're going to have to rent him the office to live. And we're just like, yeah, I don't think this is going to work. This is weird. And it was weird. And there was all these locked doors, and people living in places, and whatever. And it's like, yeah, I don't know. It was a bad situation. No one rents us. Even this place denied us. Even this place denied us. And the only reason that this place took us is because eventually we kind of came back around to this location. And I mean, honestly, obviously, we've renegotiated since then and all of that. We actually have a very good deal now. But at the time, we offered to pay them an additional $1,000 a month for this place for the hazard of having us. And it was either that or there was nowhere for us to go. Of course, we took this building on. We went from a 4,600-square-foot building to a 5,600-square-foot building. So it gave us an additional 1,000 square feet. Then we would obviously expand. I don't even remember. We expanded this way and that way and that way. And we expanded over there and over there. And every time we expanded, we kept renegotiating the deal and got it better and better and better. But we were on shaky ground. It was a very stressful time. Scary time. What's interesting, though, is that all those people who said, you're going to fail, you can't do this, we're going to stop you, we will protest for the rest of your life, and we're never going to drop this, and you, we're going to, we won't quit until you've died. I feel like now we're crossing over. And we've been exonerated. We've been vindicated. We've been validated that God was with us. I would say over the last many years, and certainly this last week, I feel like we're standing on firm ground, dry ground, ready to move into the new phase of ministry. And look, our church is not a huge church. It's not a small church. Our last Sunday morning service Here, we'll go in record as having 250 people in church on Sunday morning. That's including the fact that we have several families in the Philippines on a mission strip. The last Sunday night service, I don't remember what the number was, but I think it was somewhere in the 180s, 190s. Tonight, our last service on a Wednesday night in this building, we have 200 people in church. But we're getting ready to move into a 400-seat auditorium. And I can only imagine what will happen when we move over in that building and this church, by God's grace, begins to grow more. One day, by God's grace, we'll run 300 and 400 on a Sunday morning. One day we won't have 120 soul winners, we'll have 220 soul winners. We'll continue to grow and continue to expand and continue to advance forward for the glory of God. And people will find out. What I love about that building is it's really iconic. Every time I bring it up to somebody, they're always like, oh yeah, I know exactly. When I'm like, you know the church building on Norwood right across from Starbucks? They're like, I know exactly what you're talking about. I just can't wait till that sign goes up. Verity Baptist Church. And when people begin to drive down that road or stop at that Starbucks, we know how much sodomites like Starbucks. And as they go down that drive-thru, because when you cross that drive-thru and you're in that Starbucks line, which could oftentimes be a very long time, all you can see is that building. And one day as they look up at that building and see Verity Baptist Church, I hope they remember, wasn't that the church we were going to kill? Wasn't that the church that was going to die? Wasn't that the church that was going to die wandering in that wilderness? Whatever happened to that church? I feel like we've been exonerated. But let us always remember that God doesn't owe us anything. So sanctify yourselves. We can't afford to have sin in the camp. Go after it. The goal is God. The goal has always been God. I have great expectations. I believe that tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us. And because we expect great things from God, we ought to attempt great things for God. But to attempt great things for God, let's remember that there will always be, there's an open door! But there'll be many adversaries. We'll have to step out by faith. Not before, but as soon as. God will make a way. And God will continue to show who are His people. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. And Lord, I do thank you for this very Baptist church. Lord, I pray you'd help us. I believe that the greatest days of this church are ahead of us. I believe that tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us. Lord, I pray you'd help us to sanctify ourselves. Help us to go after the ark and the word of God. Help us, Lord, to love you and to love your word. I pray that you'd bless the next few days as we move, as we prepare to go. I pray that you'd help us, that the right people would show up and help and get things done. Lord, I pray that you'd continue to bless and help our church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If it's okay with you, if it's okay with you, Moses, I'd like to lead the last song in this building, if that's okay with you. Let's take our Bibles and