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Alright, so Joshua chapter number three, there's really not a whole lot going on in this story just in this one chapter, it's actually very simple. The whole chapter pretty much consists of this great miracle of the children of Israel. Remember Moses has just passed on and Joshua has taken the reins, he's taken the leadership. And in chapters one and two he's kind of being established and we're picking up where Moses left off, where he brought the children basically all the way up to being able to go into the land of Canaan, into the promised land as it were. And he wasn't allowed to do that, so he dies before that actually happens, Joshua takes over and now he's got the people with him, he's taken over, he's taken charge, he's taken the lead and they're just about to fight their very first battle. And they're crossing the Jordan River actually to get into the land and he's leading the people and he brings them right up, basically the part where they end up crossing the Jordan River it says it's right next to Jericho. And Jericho is that first city, it's that first place that they're going to fight against and to conquer as they head into the land. And really this whole chapter is literally just about them going down, getting to the river and then getting ready to cross the river. And of course in chapter four there's more details on the actual crossing of the river. But there's a lot of, even though there's not a lot happening per se as far as in the content of this chapter, in this one chapter, there's a lot of truth and a lot of symbolism brought forth in this chapter. We're getting into some of that and just a lot of very good principles that we could learn that are being expressed in this chapter. So let's dig into this and we're going to reread these verses. Look at verse number one, the Bible says, 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. So they get up to the river and they set up camp basically and they decide to just stay there overnight until the next day. It says, And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host. So they're camped out on that side of Jordan getting ready or just waiting to do their crossing. And the officers are sent throughout the whole host, just all the people are congregated there. It says in verse three, And they commanded the people saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place and go after it. And this is great advice. Obviously, he's specifically talking to a group of people who are going to see the ark of the Lord and go on, but I think we can gather more meaning from this. And when you see God moving and God leading, this is what's happening here. The word of God is being transported. So if you're not familiar with this, maybe you don't know, or you haven't read that much of the Bible, the ark of the covenant. The ark, literally, it's just like a box. It's a container. It's what the ark is. And what it holds in the box is multiple things. But the most important thing is that it holds the Ten Commandments, the tables that God wrote with his hand, the Ten Commandments just signifying God's laws, God's holy laws. They were kept within that ark, and it was the Levites' job to bear that ark on two stabs, basically on their shoulders. And they were carrying it, and that represented the Lord. Basically, it was represented the word of God, the truth of God, their God worshiped. It literally was representing the Lord. And that's who they were serving, and that's who they are following. And he's saying, when you see that ark, when you see the priests and Levites bearing it, then you need to remove from your place. You need to get up. It's time to go, and it's time to follow the Lord. It's time to follow God. It's time to go and walk and go to the place that God has sent you. We need to recognize when God is moving, when God may be moving in your heart, or when there's people who are leading, like the Levites, because they had the charge of the word of God. And just as the priests and the Levites had the charge of doing the service and the work of the Lord, today in the New Testament, there are leaders, there are pastors, there are teachers whose job is very similar to that of the Levites, who are responsible for the service of the Lord today, who are responsible for doing the teaching and the training and leading of groups of people. And what we can get from this, when you see God moving, when you see God's spirit working and working and it's starting to move and going in a direction and leading, you need to be able to pick up and follow. When you see a priest, as it were, lifting up or exalting and leading with the covenant, because the ark of the covenant is the ark of promise. It's an ark of God's laws, His commandments. And when you see someone lifting those up, and that is what we're following, because ultimately that is what we're following. It's God's word. Now, we do follow men. There's nothing wrong necessarily with following a man, but as long as they're following the Lord, because ultimately it's God, it's God's word, that is what individually we all should be holding integrity with and following and wanting to serve is God and His word. But when you see someone who is carrying it, who is bringing that truth and is expounding on that and preaching that, then it's fine. Just as the apostle Paul said in the New Testament, he said, you'll follow me as I follow Christ. That he was an example. He was living to be that example so that other people can follow. It's important for people to have examples. And you know, I say all that because the reason why I even bring this up is because I hear very often, oh, I don't follow any man. Right? People get really upset and say, oh, I don't follow a man. Well, it's not always a bad thing. Men, people can give you good examples to follow, good ways of doing things, just because ultimately who you are serving is the Lord. Ultimately, your dedication goes unto God. But when you see someone serving God, they're going to help provide you with the examples and the learning and say, well, I can learn a lot from this person. I can learn a lot from this teacher who already I can recognize is lifting up the word of God. They're bringing the word of God and going forward. And the leaders here are the Levites. They were the ones ordained to take the word of God, to take the ark of that covenant and lead the people and lead them across that river. And so they're lifting it up and they're going forward and they go through hosts and they say, see, when you see these Levites and they're bringing up that word of God, you need to go and follow them. Follow those people and you follow the Lord and you follow the ark, you follow his testimonies. Now, it could be uncomfortable to get up and go, because notice what he said here. He says, then you shall remove from your place and go after it, go after the covenant, go after God's teaching, go seek it out, go follow that, follow God's commands, follow God's word. Sometimes that's going to be very uncomfortable. Just getting up and removing from your place in itself could be uncomfortable. You get a nice place, you get settled. I'll tell you what, we had a very nice place in Prescott Valley. It's a very nice place to live in. Mountains, trees, lakes, pretty mild temperatures year round. It's a nice place to be. I loved it there. It's a great place, a great place to have a home, a great place to have a family. It was safe, it was very conservative. All these things, it was just kind of really nice, small town, relatively friendly people. My wife might disagree with me on that, just because she deals with all the comments of having a big family. But overall, it was a pretty nice place to live. But when God is calling, when I see that there's this need and God has set forward something in my life, then sometimes you just need to get up and go and follow that. And again, this is a little bit more abstract, right? It's a principle. It may be a little bit different in your own particular situation. But I think we could learn from this teaching here and what they're expressing to the people to follow the Levites, to follow the Ark of the Covenant and to get up, to remove from your place and to go forward and apply that to your own life. Because it isn't always going to be easy to get up and go and to serve the Lord and to follow all of God's commandments. But we need to be ready to do that. We're commanded to go. Also, it's very exciting to go, to get up, to get out of your place. Just like the Reubenites, the Benjamites and half the tribe of Manasseh, they had their place that they wanted that was on the other side of Jordan. And Moses commanded them. They said, hey, give us an inheritance here. This land looks great. We're content with this. It's great for our cattle. It's great for everything we want to do. We like this land. Can we just have our portion over here and not over where God intended for us to be? We'd like this. This is great. Can we do this? And he said, yeah, as long as you go over and fight with your brethren. Now, they did go and do that. And we're going to see that in the next chapter. They went with them and they actually performed what they were supposed to do. But it would be, it's a lot harder, I would imagine, for them now that they already have their land. It's already been conquered and they can see what it is that it's going to be very comfortable for them to just stay put, right? And let everyone else go on. But if they would have done that, it definitely would have been sin. But think about this. Not only are they commanded to go, but they would have missed out. How exciting is it for them to go and to see the Jordan River just stopped and standing up on a heap and the ground just becoming dry land? Because it says they went over on dry ground. We'll get into that a little bit later in the chapter. It's dry. I mean, imagine a river, just damming a river. We're just damming it up so that it can't overflow. It's going to be wet. It's going to be muddy and sludgy and just nasty, you know, like trying to just even walk over and be like, I don't even want to walk through that. But when God, when this miracle was performed, it was dried up. I mean, they were able to just walk right over. It says they passed clean over. They weren't getting all up to their ankles and up to their knees in mud. They clean passed over that. And how exciting is that? And remember, most of these people now that are passing over in the Promised Land, this is a new generation because their fathers had sinned when God delivered them out of Egypt. So they weren't all there at the Red Sea crossing. They weren't all there when Moses parted the Red Sea, right, and brought them forth out of Egypt because that generation died in the wilderness. Remember, they wandered in that wilderness for 40 years until those children grew up, that the people had said, oh, you know, they're going to kill us and our children and everything else. We're going to die in this wilderness. God said, no, you don't have the faith. So I'm going to wait until the next generation comes up. So that generation, they've only heard the stories about what happened with Moses in the Red Sea. How exciting to be a part of that. We read these, it excites me just hearing these stories, but man, how exciting would it be to actually be there. But that's what happens when you decide to follow God, when you decide to remove out of your place and get up and get going. There's a lot of exciting things that happen. Talk to anyone that goes out and does so, and there's a lot of exciting things that even happen door to door. Now, you may not physically see a river parting for you or something in the way. That would be awesome. But there's all kinds of exciting things that happen when you decide to get up and start moving and doing something for the Lord. Anyone staying behind would have missed the parting of the Jordan River. That would be a big deal. Let's keep reading here. Verse number four, Joshua chapter three. The Bible says, yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits by measure. Come not near unto it that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way heretofore. So what he's saying is basically, put yourself just a little bit of space so you can kind of see the direction that they're taking with the ark because you need to follow it, but you want to follow it, right? So kind of see which way they're going so you can follow in that same path because you've not been this way before. That's another point. They've never been there before, yet they're still getting up and following by faith. They're trusting in that ark. They're trusting in the Lord. They're trusting in God's Word. That wherever we're going, we've never been there before, but wherever we're going, that's where God wants us to be. That's where God has called us to be. We're going to get up, we're going to move, we're going to follow the Word of God, and we're just going to keep our eyes out and we're going to see which way He has for us to go. And ultimately that's not that much different. That distance is a little bit of distance, but they're keeping their eyesight and they're saying, okay, well now we know where we're going to this point. And we keep watching, okay, now I know where I'm going here. And you know what? That's the way our Christian life is. You're not going to know the whole path laid out in front of you that God has for you to walk. But He gives you just enough to see, I know I should be coming to church next week. I know I should be going out and preaching the Gospel next week. I know I should be doing this. And then as you start making, you know, things come up in your life and you start making decisions based on scriptural principles, He'll lead you. But we need to keep our eyes focused on His Word, on the ark, as it were. Keep our eyes focused on what's good and what's right, and not to be fearful or worried when you get into a place you've never been to before. And again, I don't like using myself as an example very much, but we came to a place that we've never really been to before. And it's great. And I'll tell you what, it's exciting. It's fun. Yeah, there's a little bit of uneasiness maybe. You can ask my wife, I'm sure she's probably a much more difficult time when she has to deal with other things that I have to deal with. But it's fun. It's exciting just deciding, hey, this is where God wants us to be, knowing that and being confident and saying, you know, I didn't know a year ago, I didn't know six months ago the path that I was going to be on at all. But when the opportunity arose, when doors started opening up and other doors were closing and I could see, okay, this is kind of where it looks like God leading me. I'm just going to go. I'm going to pick up. It may be a little uncomfortable, but we're going to go. We're going to do it. And we're here in the Promised Land. Come on, let's hear some more Amen's. We're in the Promised Land. The ground is fertile. There's going to be a lot of souls saved. The harvest is white, right? The fields are white in the harvest. We get some great work done in this area. Let's continue on here. So it says you've never been this way before, so just keep an eye on the covenant and that's going to guide you and direct you where you're going to be. Verse number five, and Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. So as they go through, they give them their instructions, then Joshua tells the people, he says, okay, you need to sanctify yourself. He's saying you need to be set apart. Basically, you need to kind of clean yourself up and give yourself a holy wife because God's going to be here tomorrow. He's going to do some great wonders among you. Now think about that. Turn, if you would, keep your place here in Joshua 3. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. The Lord is going to be in their presence. Think about when you, you know, if you invite guests over to your house, most people would probably want to clean up, right? Make your house look a little bit more presentable and have it real nice for your guests to come in. What are you doing when you're sanctifying your house? You're kind of cleaning things up. You're getting everything nice and in order and ready. Why? Because you're going to have a guest coming. Now imagine if that guest is like Jesus Christ. You'd be way more concerned probably about, oh man, how is it, you know, how does everything look here? Is everything in order? Why? Because it's a very important guest. I mean, that's a great person. You want to show respect. You want to honor the Lord. You want to honor God. So you're going to do your best to make sure everything's sanctified and in order. And that's what he's saying to the children of Israel. He's saying, sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow the Lord is going to do wonders among you. He's going to, he's going to be doing these miracles right here, right in your presence. So you need to make sure you're sanctified. Wouldn't it be great for God to do wonders among us? Well, if we want God to do wonders among us, wouldn't it make sense that we ought to be sanctifying ourselves as well? 2 Timothy chapter 2, look at verse number 19. The Bible says, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Everyone. Do you name the name of Christ? Well, if you're born again believer, you should be naming the name of Christ, right? That's what your faith is. Now we don't believe in a works-based salvation. We don't believe that you need to do any form or sort of good works in order to be saved. It's a free gift. Jesus Christ bought and paid for your salvation when he died on the cross and rose again from the dead. However, we are commanded and instructed that as believers, as children of God, we ought to be following God's commandments. We ought to be getting right with him. We ought to be sanctifying ourselves and depart from iniquity. What's iniquity? Sin. It's breaking God's commandments. That's what iniquity is. We need to depart from that. We need to clean up ourselves and clean up our lives. Why? Because we're naming the name of Christ. And let's keep reading verse number 20. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. And what he's saying here is that, you know, when you have a large house, not everybody is going to be that respectable. There's going to be some vessels unto honor, some vessels that are really good, and some that are just not that good. And I would imagine in a great house if you had a great household, let's say you had many, many, many children. You have a big family in a great house. Well, I'm sure you have lots of people who you'd be proud of. You'd be glad to introduce other people as a member of your family. But there's always going to be some that's just kind of be like, yeah, I'm related to that. You're going to be grudgingly acknowledging that they're your brother or sister or cousin or whatever, right? And that's what the Bible says. They're a great house. We have a large house, a lot of people. And even though that we know that the salvation, the Bible says there's few that be saved ultimately, but in the grand scheme of things and all throughout history and all the people have been saved, there's a lot of people that have been saved. It is a great house. There's a lot of people in general. It's not the majority of people, but it's still a great house. There's still a lot of people that are saved overall. And he's saying, you know what? There's some vessels of gold and of silver that are really good, and then there's others that are not so good, that are to dishonor. Verse number 21, it says, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor. So we purge ourself from the iniquities. We sanctify ourself from the sin that so easily beset us. We get rid of that stuff. We clean up our lives. It says then we'll be a vessel unto honor. We'll be respected unto God. We'll be respectable. And it says sanctified and meet already for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. Sanctify ourselves. We get ready for God to use you. That's one of the reasons why we come to church. We hear the instruction from God's Word. And if the preacher's doing his job, he's going to be instructing out of God's laws, out of every portion of God's Word to help give you the instruction that you need in order to get the iniquity out of your life, in order to be a vessel that is meet for the master's use, to be a servant of God so that God can come among us and do great things. And we can see these miracles because we're getting ourselves ready. We're becoming vessels that are ready to say, God, we're here and we want you to use us. Do some great things. Do some great wonders. Do some miraculous things in our lives. We're here for you, God, and we're ready. We treat your Word seriously. God, come and be with us. And that's what they did in Joshua chapter 3. And he did. He did some really great things. They were sold out. They were ready. And I believe this firmly from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. God is still just as capable of doing any of these miracles today that he's ever been able to do. Let's get ourselves ready. God will choose how he uses us, right? We don't come off with this mindset of trying to use God as like our genie in a bottle to just give us special power, do all this stuff. It's not about us. See, God chooses when and where and how he wants to perform his miracles for his benefit, for his glory, for his honor. But we don't want to limit God either. So it's not like we're going to be telling God what to do and trying to, you know, oh, we're going to, I'm going to get so holy so that I can do all these miracles and that I can, you know. No, no, no, no. You've got it wrong. It's backwards. It's you're cleaning yourself up so that however God chooses to use you as his servant, he can do it. So you're meat, you're ready for the master's use. And maybe he will use you in some miraculous way. And amen. And the more glory that comes to God as a result of that, then praise the Lord. And maybe he won't, but if you're not ready and if you're not meeting ready for the master's use, you'll never know what he's got in store for you. It could be something as awesome as partying a seat. I don't know. He did it before. He could do it again. But you'll never know unless you're ready. Let's go back to Joshua chapter 3. Verse number 6, Joshua 3, 6, the Bible says, 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, 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 see, again, Joshua's a great example of this. Joshua wasn't in it all for himself. He was a great servant to Moses. He was there as a right-hand man for Moses, doing what he needed to do, until it's time for him to step into the position of leadership. But at no time do we see anywhere in the Bible where he's thinking about, oh man, cool, maybe I'm going to be able to do everything that Moses did. He was just doing what it is that God told him to do. He was just filling in, filling the role. He didn't know that there was going to be another body of water for them to cross over. He didn't know what God's plan was, I'm sure. God didn't tell him everything that he was going to do along the way. They were just following where God led them, even through the wilderness. When they had the fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, and when he rested on the tabernacle, they would stay. And when God departed from the tabernacle, they would move. And that's the way they lived their life. They were showing them how to operate and to live by faith, by just looking and saying, well, where's God going? I'm going to be there. Where does God want me to be with him? Okay, I'm going there. So Joshua got used to that. And God tells him, he says, well, now I'm going to begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel. And the only purpose of that, it wasn't just to lift up Joshua, it was so that they would know that Joshua was ordained by God to be the leader. And that everyone could understand, hey, God is with Joshua, so we're going to follow him. As long as God remains with Joshua, let's follow that man. Let's follow that leader. Let's listen to him and get instruction. Because he is with God and God is definitely with him. Verse number eight, and thou shalt command the priests that 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 Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Gergashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. So Joshua is encouraging the people. He's reminding them, you know what, the living God is among you. There are a lot of gods in that day, a lot of false gods. The Bible calls them basically just dumb idols, you know, gods that can't speak, they don't have life, they don't have breath. You don't have to turn there, but in Habakkuk 2, there's some good scriptures here. I'll just read it for you. Verse number 18, the Bible says, What profiteth the graven image that the Maker thereof hath graven it? The molten image and a teacher of lies, that the Maker of his work trusteth therein to make dumb idols. Woe unto him that saith to the wood, awake to the dumb stone, arise and it shall teach. Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. So he's talking about how stupid it is for people to make objects, literal objects, with wood, and they carve it, and engrave it, and put gold and silver over it, and then they talk to it, and worship it like it's some being. There's no breath in there. It's a dumb idol. It's not going to speak to you. It's not going to do anything for you because it's just some dumb object that's not a god. Yet people do that today with objects. People have idolatry today and still have their special good luck charms and their chants and everything else that they think is going to help them, and it's dumb. It's not going to do you any good. But we do have a living God, a God that's actually alive, that has breath, that has life that we can go to, that can do miraculous things, that is all powerful, and his name is the Lord. It says, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Back to Joshua. I know I didn't have you turn in the back egg, but I just wanted to bring it out. And also in that verse number 10 in Joshua 3, not only is he the living God, it says, and he will without fail drive out from before you. If there's one characteristic of God that I really love, there's a lot of characteristics of God I really love, but the fact that it's without fail. When God says anything, we know it's true, we know it's right, and when he makes a promise, he cannot go back on his word. That's why we know that we're saved. That's why I know I have eternal life, because the Bible says in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. It is without fail. It is for sure. It is more sure than anything that you know in this world is that when God says something, it will pass. It has been demonstrated time and time again. We have this book, we have the Holy Bible recording everything for us. When God says something, it will come to pass, and we even have future prophecies that are still going to come to pass. And guess what? It's going to happen the way that the Bible says. Jesus Christ is going to come back. There's going to be an antichrist that comes to power. There's going to be great persecution under the saints. There's going to be a time of wrath. There's going to be a time when Jesus Christ sets up his kingdom. It's all going to happen exactly the way the Bible says, because God's word never fails. Ever. And what a great comfort this is. There's so many comforting passages in the Bible, like that God's not going to allow us to go through things that we can't handle. For example, God will not allow us to suffer more than we're capable of handling. And that any temptation we have, the Bible says that He'll give us a way out, that there's a way to escape. There's always a way for us to get through, no matter how hard things are, no matter how the trials or troubles or persecution, whatever is going on in your life, there's always a way through, and God will never give you more than you can handle. Ever. And if we trust God to be true to His word, that's a great encouragement. That even when things are at their worst, we know that we can get through them. We know that there's always an option. And you know, that's a very important point to remember, because unfortunately there are people that I believe do believe in Christ that end up taking their own life, because they don't feel like they see the way out. Now, we're not Catholic and we don't believe here that if someone takes their own life, they automatically go to hell. If that person put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at any point in their life, they're saved. Jesus Christ paid for all their sins past, present, and future. They go to heaven no matter what. They're saved. It's a free, if they've received that free gift, they are saved. Now, is it a sin to take your own life? Of course it is. Absolutely it is. It's a very big deal. It's a very serious, grievous sin. We need to remember that just because you're saved doesn't mean that you say, well, I'm just going to kill myself. No, I mean, that's stupid. And then don't think that it's just okay to do that either. It's not okay. But if you ever get so depressed and so down to even have that wicked thought come up in your mind, just remember the scripture that says that God will not allow you to go through, to be suffered with the temptations that you can't handle, that are above what you can handle. It's not going to happen. You can get through it. You will get through it. God will see you through it. There's always a way to get through, and things will get better. And as He encourages them here, He's telling them, look, God is with you. He says, without fail, God will drive out all the enemies before you. It will happen. Just believe Him. Just trust in Him. All of these people, the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, Jebusites, I mean, there were giants among those people. There was great adversaries. In many cases, they had military forces, these great chariots of iron. You read that in other places. They have all this stuff, all these reasons to be fearful and afraid. Oh man, how are we ever going to do this? God's leading you. Don't worry. You have God's promise. He'll drive them out from before you. Just trust Him. He didn't lay out every single step you're going to take all the way through to win every single battle, but you follow Him every day through, and He'll see you through to the end. It's great encouragement. And how encouraging is it, not only for Him to say that, but then it's like, then they're seeing this Jordan River just being dried up before them. I don't know about you, that'd be pretty encouraging to me. I'd be pretty excited about that. Go, yeah, God is definitely in this. Let's go. Let's do this. And they started off strong. They have a lot of victory after victory. And actually, well, we'll get into that later with the sin of Achan, which is another reason why it's important to sanctify ourselves. But that's a sermon for another Wednesday. Let's keep going here. Verse number 11. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. Now, therefore, take you 12 men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe of man. And this is going to come more into play in the next chapter in chapter four, because he doesn't really deal anymore with these 12 men in this chapter. Verse number 13. And it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan. The Lord, he's not just the God of the Hebrews. He's not just the God of the children of Israel. He is God of the whole earth. He's Lord of everybody. So some people think, and this is most common, I think, of a thought with Native Americans, for whatever reason in their culture, they think, well, we have our God, you know, you have the God of the white man, and then there's a God of, you know, the brown man, and the guy, you know, no, there's one Lord, there's one God, there's one Lord of the whole earth. It's everybody. And God's made the people of the earth of one blood, all going back to the same ancestors, going back to Adam and Eve, they're all of one blood, there's one God, and it doesn't matter where you're born, where you're from, there's one God and one Lord and one way to be saved. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 13, and it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon and heap. Now, I think I've heard some people say, you know, the waters that come down from above, they're thinking like a waterfall or rain or something. All that saying is that the water source of the river, the waters that come down from above, and it flows into here, it flows into the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea. So that's where the Jordan River goes. And basically what it's saying is that because the water flows in that direction, the water source where it's flowing from, it's going to be stopped up there, and then the rest of the water flows out of the way so it becomes clear for them to walk through. So those are the waters that come down from above, they shall stand upon and heap. So it's basically, it's going to be this wall. Not exactly sure, obviously, from the language, exactly what it looked like, but I just kind of imagine like this invisible barrier or something, just like a wall in the water just stopping. I don't know because the whole thing is just this great miracle. We'll see that here in just a minute. Let's keep reading. Verse number 14, It came to pass when the people were moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people. And as they that bear the ark were common to 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 that parenthetical statement there, just saying, you know, as soon as they get there to the river, they that bear the ark, their feet are already getting wet because the river is overflowing during the time of harvest. There's so much water. It's just like every year, basically, just from all the rains and stuff, that river is overflowing. And when they get there, the Jordan River is already kind of overflowing onto the land. So they're stepping in water. And I think this just underscores the miraculous event. There's no way to reason this away. You have those wicked TV shows that try to explain away the miracles of the Bible. I don't know if they're on History or Discovery Channel, whatever, and they're always trying to tell you why, how there could have been some natural way for all these things. Oh, and this is how these stories came out. It's nonsense. God performed a miracle. Just accept it. I mean, that's what the Bible says, that there's no reason to believe anything else happened any other way. And the fact that he just mentions the things overflowing. It's not like there just so happened to be some logs flowing down the river and they all just, oh, they all got stuck, right? And it just kind of dammed up the river just in time for them to go across. And then it broke. And just when they got through, you know, like, no, that's not the way it happened. God caused the waters to stop and then to come up on a heap. You know, a heap is just like a pile. This is just going up. The water was stopped. The water, and you know, the water was overflowing onto the ground, yet he stopped all the waters from flowing. And it literally was dried up. God's miracles truly are amazing. And think about their own situation when they just get to the Jordan River. I mean, it must have appeared to be an impossible situation. They had kids and everybody with them. We're saying, well, we're doing, we're going where God sent us to go. And then they come to this river. It's like, not what am I supposed to do? I have this big obstacle. But they've already been told, hey, God's gonna perform more wonders among you. Sanctify ourselves. So they get to the river, and there they are. And God stops the waters, and they're ready to pass over. Verse number 16, here we'll finish up. We're almost done. That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaratan. And those that came down toward the Sea of the Plain, even the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off. Then the people passed over right against Jericho. So God brings them right up to the city. That's why it says when the, when the, those that came down toward the Sea of the Plain, it's talking about the waters that came down toward the Sea of the Plain, even the Salt Sea, it says they failed, they were cut off. So those waters just ended up going away. And it says in verse 17, and the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. So right in the middle of the Jordan River, they're able to stand firm, dry ground. They're not sinking. It's not sinking sand. It's not sinking mud. It is dry ground, and they're standing firm. Why? Because they are following the Lord as close as they possibly can. They're exalting God's Word. They're right there. There is no more solid ground. It says, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Flip over if you want to Isaiah 28. It's the last place I'll be turn. We're done in Joshua 3, Isaiah 28. When you're carrying and exalting the Word of God, you always stand on firm ground. When that is your source, when that is your light, when that is your guide, you have firm ground. Just as much as God's Word never fails, that is solid. That is dependable. And that's the picture and the illustration that we're getting here that even in an impossible situation where you see no solution, you see no way out. Hey, when you've got God's Word, they're standing on solid ground. God will overcome and help you overcome any obstacles that you have. Seemingly impossible obstacles like a great river flowing in front of you that's overflowing. What are we going to do now? God dried it up and He showed them just standing solid. We have a solid foundation in Christ. The reason why we're turning to Isaiah 28 is that this is a very, very popular verse that is quoted multiple times in the New Testament about Jesus Christ being our foundation. But I thought it would be good to view it from Isaiah 28 where it's quoted from, especially in context because it's a really cool passage about the foundation. Look at verse number 15 is where we're going to start reading. We're closing on this. Isaiah 28 verse number 15. Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. So he's talking about a very wicked people here. We've made a covenant with death. We're at agreement with hell. I mean, these people are just wicked. They're saying, well, nothing bad is going to come on us because we lie and this is our escape and we've made lies our refuge. We're hiding ourselves under falsehood. You're never going to find us out. Verse number 16. Therefore, so for this reason, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. So he's saying because there's these wicked people, because these people make covenants with death, a hell agreement. He said, I've made a sure foundation. Why? Because these wicked people, they're liars. They're shifty, right? But I've got a source of truth. I'm laying a sure foundation. I've got a tried, a true, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. Verse number 17. Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the water shall overflow the hiding place and your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. And God's saying, don't trust in any of that because he's going to make a sure end and he's going to bring judgment and he's going to bring righteousness. And we have the righteousness in Christ to stand on the solid rock. Amen for God's word. Man, I love the Bible. Who'd have thought, what other book can you get so much just great teaching from out of one simple chapter that seemingly doesn't really have a lot going on? I mean, yeah, there's a miracle, but what a lot of content to one chapter. And I'm sure I missed as, as I read through the years, I'm sure there'll be a lot more that I come up that is, Oh, wow. I didn't see that in there before. God's word is deep and it's eternal. That's power. I just have a word of prayer. Dear heavenly father, Lord, we thank you so much for, for your word, for loving us so much, for being a foundation and a rock for us to stand and to stand on and trouble as times, Lord, let every, every man, let God be true with every man, a liar. And if we're just, and we're just trusting in man, Lord, we don't know what we're going to get. That's that could be shipping sands, but we know that we have a sure foundation with you, with your words, God help us to make good choices based on the principles, based on the teachings found in the Bible. God help us to, to have that faith, to be able to go forward and, and to follow your words wherever they're going to lead us in our life. And that we wouldn't be fearful, but that we can trust just knowing that you're a God that loves us and you're a God that, that is true to his word and that we will not be steered astray in any way, shape or form by following your words. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.