You are invited to stand on the word God has given you and recognize that you have already spiritually crossed over into life through Jesus. Invite your friends and family to experience this same freedom and grow deeper in the body of Christ together.
Well, praise the lord. Good to see everyone here at Real Church. God bless you. Hallelujah. I I'm pastor David.
I'm your pastor, David John's father. And yeah. Alright. Let's see out here a little bit. Little further.
Thank you. I'm a get right up on the crowd here. No. I don't wanna I don't wanna see it. I think I'll be standing up for this 1.
"Praise the Lord". Yeah. So yeah, DJ called me and he had to be up in in Uley at the Journey Church. They're having a, like, a 15 year anniversary. That was his former church.
So he has a a role to play in the service there. I had 1 of our guys speaking on this Sunday at our home church in Louisiana, the river of life, and so it just so happened I was free to come down here preach 1 of my favorite messages. David John tells me he's in the series with you, go deep grace. "Go deep grace" is praise God. It's it's it's really, guys, it's my heart.
It's my life's mission. You know, it's our assignment from the king to take these messages of the truth of new covenant *grace* and he's assigned us to teach it to pastors and leaders in various nations. So we travel a lot. We teach this series of messages over 2 days to, you know, 3, 4, and sometimes 500 pastors and leaders, and it changes their ministry forever. It just opens their eyes to the truth of the new covenant, you know, to come out of law and come out of religion and into the truth of his grace.
So many precious pastors, they they understand the the word. They they have the the the the understanding there, but some are steeped into denominationalism and steeped into religion and praise God, the truth sets us free. And it's such a blessing what he's done for us. This is Palm Sunday. It's the time we celebrate also Jesus' triumphal entry riding in on a donkey into Jerusalem knowing he's going to the cross.
And the people were divided, so many came out to greet him and they're waving palm branches and ushering in the 1 that's been healing all of their sick and they're hearing about it. But he knows he's also going. The Pharisees and the Roman leaders are all out to get him. But praise God, he comes in anyway. Amen?
Because as what she said, he he values you. Praise God. What a good looking place. The house is full today. And I'm glad to be here.
I grew up in Orlando, and I pastor the church in Winsboro, Louisiana, where we raised 4 kids. And now, we come to find out all our all 4 of our children love children. So, man, they're popping them out everywhere. You know? So this past in this past 1 year, we've we're we're having 4 new grandbabies, you know, 4.
Yeah. And, you know, David, John, and Courtney, the river was the first, and then my other son had a child, and then my youngest daughter had 1, and then my daughter in in Uley, Florida is about to have her fourth in June, so we're gonna have 11, You know, right? I look too young to have 11 grandchildren, don't I? Anyway. Anyway.
But it's it's a it's a blessing. And you know, as we were singing about his glory, I was just I like to I like to worship with you. So sometimes if I'm turning around and looking at you, I'm just worshiping with you. Think it's a corporate affair, you know. And when we're singing about his glory, I see the glory right here.
You know, ultimately, he's coming to back back to be glorified in his saints. The glory that he created, praise God, he'll be be glorified in us. He's planted that seed of glory in each 1 of your lives. And as we walk with him and talk with him, the glory that you were created for in your home, in your marriage, in with your children, in your life, in your work, that glory comes out in everything you do. And he is glorified when we're walking in our potential.
Amen? He is glorified. He created everything with that glory in it. Well, praise God. I wanna I wanna open up and Crossing the Jordan is the title of the message.
Crossing the Jordan. And I'm gonna pick up on a just a review verse from David John's message yesterday last week on the big picture, God's grand plan. So if you would, open your bibles to *Romans-5* and verse 19. *Romans-5:19*. And we're gonna jump into this.
Praise the Lord. This is kind of a review taking last week's message into this week. And this is so powerful right here. As a matter of fact, I believe miss Heidi's got us some volunteers. We're gonna do a demonstration in just a minute.
And if those 6 Praise God. If you can get those 6 to come on up, we'll get the demonstration ready. Romans-5:19 says, for just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners. So also, through the obedience of the 1 man, the many will be made righteous. So praise God.
So David John spoke on this last week, and this week we're gonna start with a demonstration, and it makes it so clear. Through the disobedience of 1 man, I know he emphasized because I listened to his message, you're not a sinner. If you look at this verse and think of it logically, you're not a sinner because you sin. He said, you're a sinner because of 1 man's sin, and God created everything with its seed inside itself to reproduce its own kind. So when Adam and Eve fell, their nature was corrupted, and their seed was corrupted, and their seed reproduced their own kind, other sinners in the world.
So, 1 man's disobedience, you know, created that or that fall and it was passed down to generations. So, let's just take 1 of you. Come on, first 1 out. Who's the bold 1 right here, miss Heidi? This is this is Adam.
Use your imagination. This is Adam. And Adam fell and his nature fell and his seed was corrupted and his seed was passed on to the next generation. Okay? Praise the Lord.
And we know stand in front of her. We're gonna make a little line here. There we go. So we know that Cain killed Abel. So I'm saying the nature of sin that was in mankind came out and manifested in outward sin.
You see? So the sin nature that was in man manifests in our outward actions. So the problem isn't really our outward actions. It's not the sin. The problem is deeper.
It's the sin nature. Amen? So, no matter how you punish or judge, or you can take, you know, we work with a rehab. We've got 60 men that live with us for 7 months. Some have come through all kind of things.
We see the glory of God, touch them and change their lives. But man, they've been through when when they were in prison, the sentence of prison for their crime didn't change their heart. K? You know, we we need we need good laws, and we need jails, and we need prisons so that, you know, somebody drunk isn't still driving the road. But, when they go to prison, and they're locked up, and the sentence carried out, the judgment for their crime doesn't change them.
*God*'s judgment wasn't designed to to change our hearts. That's not that's not the answer. So we see that the sin nature kept on producing sin and it got to all the way to Noah's day and the whole world was corrupted. And it was so bad, as you got the message last week, that he sent the flood, but when Noah's family came out and they offered the sacrifices, he said, I will never again judge the world even though the inclination of their heart is still on evil. So, we got to the point last week, the flood didn't work.
The judgment didn't fix the real problem because they kept on having more. And, you know, and more and more. So, we see from Adam. Now, this picture. Every nation after Adam, China, India, Africa, North America, South America, all the people in the whole world, everyone who has come from Adam, is all of us, every nation has a nature of sin, and that's why there's corruption in the world, there's corruption in governments, there's, you know, Russia's invading Ukraine, there's all kind of evil happening, Hitler killed 6,000,000 Jews, there's all kind of struggle because God gave dominion of the earth to mankind, and then fallen man still had dominion with Satan deceiving him.
So, man still had dominion over the world, and that's why you see the world so corrupt. So, we can't blame God. And, God, if you're so good, why is there so corruption? God gave dominion to rule the earth to man. Satan deceived man and took it, and that's why we see all the problems.
So, God spent 4000 years of old testament history. His big plan to bring about Moses and the law, to bring about Israel, and to begin to show the people his nature and his character that he loves mankind even though they're sinners, and he has an ultimate plan to fix the problem, but the law was not it. The purpose of the law was only to show us where the real problem was. Rules and regulations, trying mankind, trying to live up to a code will never fix the nature of man. It may suppress the the the the sin, and we don't wanna get caught, and we don't wanna do it, and we wanna try to live better, and that's why all these religions are formed.
There's so many religions in the world of man trying to do right to get better to reach God. Why? To suppress their sin nature, to try to quit bad habits, to try to do good, and earn their way back to God. And, that's religion. And, me and God hate religion.
Religion's man's way to try to get to God, but God's way is to reach down and reach man right where he is. So, in the fullness of time, when he had his design and purpose ready, when he gave the law to teach mankind that God is holy, and man all have sinned and fallen short, and the nature is in us. When we started crying out, instead of God, fix my problem, God, fix me. I need you to change me from the inside. Amen.
In the fullness of time, he sent the word, and the word was planted in the womb of a virgin named Mary. And Mary gave birth to man, praise the Lord, because he was 1 of us born from a But, he wasn't from Adam's seed. He was from God's seed. God's pure holy word who created it all. The word created everything.
He took his word and planted the word in the womb of a virgin, and Jesus was born, son of man, 1 of us. It had to be 1 of us, Cause God gave dominion to man, and to win the world back, he had to have a man to do it. Legally to invade earth with his kingdom because he gave dominion to man, and man had fallen. He needed a man to win it back. So, Jesus became 1 of us, a man.
But, he wasn't a man with a sin nature from Adam. He was a man with the nature of his father, *God*. And Jesus came and he who knew no sin took the sin of all the world and the judgment of the law fell on this 1 instead of this 1. He came to his own and his own believed him not. But, to those who believe him, to those who believe in his name, he gives you the right to become children, not born of a sinful nature, not born of Adam.
But when you believe in him, you become children born of a new species, a new race, a children from above and not from below. So as we're born again, praise God. Don't you know who we are? You who have received Christ, you have been born. Behold, all things have passed away.
All things have become new. And you are a **new creation** in Christ Jesus. You have been born from above and not from below. People, I'm telling you, we're like a new species of people. We're from above.
I'm walking in this earth, but I'm not from the earth. I'm an alien and a stranger here. I belong to a whole different realm. I belong to the kingdom of God, and I'm in the world as an "ambassador of his kingdom" to represent his kingdom on earth, what God gave to Adam to have dominion. Adam lost to Satan.
Satan. Jesus wanted back and he brought the kingdom of God back to the earth. And now, the kingdom is here. And how do we because the kingdom is within you. And now, everywhere you walk, sir, everywhere you go, there's nothing left in your spirit from the fallen nature of Adam.
There is no sin in you. Your spirit has now been connected to the Holy Spirit, and your spirit is holy like the Holy Spirit because that's who is in you and the spirit is holy. Do you know the Holy Spirit couldn't live in you if you were a sinner? And, if we confess as religion does that we're sinners, we're denying what the blood of Christ has accomplished. That's heavy.
If we continue to believe what the religious has told us, that we're sinners, that we're always gonna carry around this sin nature, that will barely make it, and will 1 day get to heaven and have a corner somewhere. If we're just gonna struggle with it. Oh, you know, that's what Jesus didn't come to get you to heaven. He came to get the kingdom of God to you, and for you to advance it around the globe. We are a new creation in Christ.
And, praise God, we wanna take this series of messages to pastors and leaders. It's already going. It's not my word. It's his word. It's what Paul taught.
There's nothing new under the sun. It's the word of the living God. And, this is who we are. Now, yes. Yes.
Do we have this treasure of what I'm talking about, the holiness of God inside an "earthen vessel"? Yes. Does this earthen vessel still struggle? Is your soul, your mind, will, and your emotions, everything lined up with the spirit of God in you? No, not yet.
Be not conformed to this world or this pattern of your the strongholds of how you used to live anymore. But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind to the truth of what's in your spirit. Do you see it? So the holiness of God is in you. You see, the purpose of the cross Now, we're about to celebrate.
Hey, next week is Easter Sunday. Yeah. Praise God. While I'm sitting here praising and she's singing about the glory, I'm saying, my my our church back home, in our little country area, is about to celebrate and worship, and they're standing there worshiping while while we were, and there's churches all around doing the same thing. David John is visiting a church in Eulie, they're celebrating.
So when I'm worshiping, I see the body of Christ altogether. I'm worshiping with not just this church, I'm worshiping with the whole church around the world. India, Africa. I've been there. I've seen it.
I'm telling you the glory of God is breaking through around the world, and you're a part of something much bigger than yourself. Don't be depressed by the news. Don't be depressed by the world is gonna continue to fall away, and the church is gonna continue to grow stronger in him. How? Through the word.
When we talk When I talk about the word, the word is Christ. The word I'm telling you right now is Jesus. I'm giving you just a deeper revelation, a picture of of him. He is here in his word and he's showing you himself right now. The word is Christ.
And, as we understand the word, we're getting to know him better. Do you see what I'm saying? Think of yourself as dead to sin, but alive to *God* through Jesus Christ our Lord. And as we renew our mind to the truth of what's in us, what's in us will start coming out in how we live. Let's give them a hand.
*God* bless you. Thank you. She wanna make sure she's in this line. Heidi is in this line. I am sure of it.
Praise the Lord. Amen. So that was a little review from last week's message. Okay? But you know, I think the line thing explains the gospel real clearly.
So you can take that to others. Because we don't wanna come just get the message to you. We wanna get this message through you. That you can share these things with your coworkers sitting around and have to Hey, guess what we learned in church this week? Come here, let me show you something.
Let's get in a line. Just don't go first. Yeah. Just just don't go. So you can share it with others so people can see the clear gospel.
Now, from Romans real quick, let's go to 1 Corinthians-15. He says it again. You know, he had to write these letters and tell it to the church in Corinth, and the church in Rome, and the church at Ephesus. So sometimes he repeats himself in just a different way, and we read all the letters and we get the fullness of it. You see?
So *1 Corinthians-15*, he says the same thing this way. Verse 21, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Praise the Lord. Verse 21 and 22. So in Adam all die, in Christ all we will be made alive.
And then, verse 45, 1 Corinthians-15:45 says this, praise the Lord. The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam Everybody say, the last Adam. The last Adam. See, the bible calls Jesus the second or the last Adam.
The first Adam lost it in the garden. The second Adam, Jesus, won it back in the wilderness when Satan The same Satan that tempted Adam in the garden was the same Satan that tempted the second Adam in the wilderness, and the second Adam won. Yep. He won right there. Yep.
In the wilderness, and he carried out his victory all the way. Praise the Lord. Amen? Hallelujah. So, the last Adam, the first Adam was a living being, the last Adam, a life giving spirit.
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. And after that the spiritual. Now listen to this, the first man was the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. Now here's where it ties together. Are you ready?
Verse 48, as was the earthly man, so are those who were of the earth. So many people around the world are still of Adam, they're still of the earth, they're walking dead, they're not really alive yet. You're not alive till you come to the life of God. You're walking around like 1 of those zombie movies, you know. They're not really alive yet.
When they hear the word of God and believe it, God makes them alive. But they're walking dead right now. So praise God, it's our role to go shine the light so they can come alive. Amen? So, they're walking dead.
As as was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth. And, as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are from heaven. You are as the man from heaven. You are like Christ in this earth. You are as *righteous* as Jesus.
Because if you're not, you're counting your own righteousness. I'm as righteous as *Jesus* because I'm believing in his righteousness as mine, not my own. If I ask you how righteous you are, and you start thinking about the good things you've done and the bad things you quit, then you're self righteous. But if I ask you how righteous you are and you can say I'm a 100% righteous because all my faith is in what Jesus did and not what I did, then you got it. You understand?
The righteousness we have is a gift you can never deserve. And because it's so good and it's in me, if we as pastors and leaders teach the people who they are in Christ, what's in them will begin to come out more and more as they walk it out. But it's already in you. The reason he went to the cross riding in at the triumphal entry, going to the cross. The reason he went to the cross see, the cross wasn't the end game.
The cross was the price. 50 days later, Pentecost was the prize. He cleansed you so he could live in you. And if he lives in you, you can be assured that you have been cleansed. Amen.
You see? Because he couldn't live in you if you weren't cleansed. But pastor, I still struggle with this and this and this. That's your soulless realm. That's your mind.
That's your body. We live in a fallen world still. There are struggles. But the righteousness and holiness of God and his glory is in you now. And, it comes out more and more as we walk in it.
K? But, I just have found as a pastor, we get people there a whole lot quicker by teaching them who they are in Christ, instead of teaching them all about their sin. You see the difference? Everybody got that? If you're with me, just wave at me out there.
Yeah. Okay. I see you. Praise the Lord. It's a little dark, but I can see you.
Amen. *Glory to God*. Now, let's get into this message we call "crossing the Jordan". Praise the Lord. *Joshua-3*.
And I'm just gonna get excited. This is so this word's so cool to me. God God is cool. Praise the Lord. I'm glad I get to hang out with him.
Joshua-3. Early in the morning, all the Israelites set out from Siddim. God sounds like a bad place. And they went to the Jordan where they camped before crossing over. Okay.
Let me give you, as the pastors do, we'll give you a little back story because, you know, we read all of this and learned about it, and I've been there to this spot. Okay? As a matter of fact, praise God, the message I'm about to tell you, I got to teach. We were on a pastor's tour in Israel, and we we we went to all these spots I'm about I'm about to talk about. And the very spot where the Israelites, after 40 years in the desert, crossed into the promised land, we were there at the Jordan River, and I got to share this message with the pastors.
Amen. It was so cool. I get to share it with you. So, here's the story. You all know, okay, I'm reading your bible, that praise God, they were bound in Egypt, slaves 400 years.
*God* set them free. He always uses a person to do it. That's how God has legal access to the earth. He doesn't do anything unless it's through somebody. Yeah.
Because he gave man dominion, so he has to go through a man to do it. K? That's just I say has to, you know, don't He he's God, he's sovereign God, but this is by choice of his design. K? He chose to go through mankind to get to earth.
K? So he had to reestablish the right to come into earth through Jesus Christ giving him access back to get things done on earth. Okay? So praise the Lord. So God, through Moses, he brought the people out of Egypt.
It's a picture of you coming out of your old work life, crossed the Red Sea in baptism, and on the way to the promised land. Well, they stopped few weeks later at Mount Sinai to pick up the law of the covenant. The covenant God made with Abraham. Now, many years later, they're getting the law of the covenant. K?
How does this covenant look? How does it look as defined as a people group? What's our relationship with God and relationship with Ezra? Well, you know, love God first and then thou shalt not kill or commit adultery or honor honor your father, mother, and all these love. So this is how God's holy people that's chosen out of the world are gonna live, so he can begin the story of showing the whole world his glory, but he starts out small with 1 group.
You see? He's got a grand plan to save the world and all the Gentiles too, but he chooses out 1 first in that nation, in that people group. Hallelujah. The Israelites to begin to reveal him himself through his law, through his word. But praise God, the whole purpose of the law.
Everywhere we saw, they struggled with keeping it. Why? Because the problem was where? On the inside. Yeah.
The problem wasn't their outward sin, the problem was the sin nature. So no matter how hard they tried, they struggled. And same thing with religious people today. That's why we gotta take this word and get it to them. Amen?
Religious people struggle with never feeling good enough, or never right with God, you know? So anyway, so he carries them out, he gives them the law, and they are supposed to go straightway into the promised land. But, they didn't believe. You know the story? Only the 2 spies, Joshua and Caleb believed and said, we can go on God's word.
And, they said, we can't go. So, whose report did they believe? They believed the wrong report, and God said, I will not violate your will. If you don't believe you have this treasure of his goodness of God and you can begin to live it, and you think you have to keep going back to your cycle of sin, going back to another rehab, going back over and over to this, that, the other, and you'll never make it, you're just gonna gradually get, barely get by. If that's the way your faith is, that's what you believe, you'll still have what you what you believe.
*God* didn't violate their will and make them go to the promised land. They said, we don't wanna go. We don't believe we can do it. I said, okay. Y'all wander in the wilderness for 40 years, and I'll bring the next generation in.
He won't violate your will. He'll give you his word. He'll set up a church like this to teach his word, but he won't make you come regularly and faithfully on Sunday to hear it. He'll give you the choice of what's most important to you. You see?
So, they wandered, and that whole generation died. The only ones left, Joshua and Caleb, and the whole next generation. And, it's finally time to cross the Jordan and go into the promised land, the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob forever. It's time to go in. So, they're camped on the other side, and they're camped and Moses commissions Joshua and said, Joshua, I can't go in.
*God told me to speak to the rock the second time. The first time I hit it and the water came out and and gave water to all the people. You know, the next time he told me to speak to the rock, I got mad at the people and I hit the rock again. So God said, can't go in. He wanted to set up a lesson there and teach us how to speak the word* with the power of the words in your mouth.
You represent the kingdom of God and the power of the kingdom is in your mouth, but you can't operate it until you speak it. Gotta conf believe in our heart and confess with your mouth for salvation and for everything else. You believe it in your heart, then you speak it with your mouth, and then you start walking in it. Amen? So here they are about the cross.
Moses commissions Joshua. His eye was not dim, his strength not abated. He climbed the mountain, and he gave up the ghost. Praise the Lord. And then Joshua was there, and they're about to cross the Jordan.
So let me just set this up. They're standing. Here's the edge of the Jordan. There's the Jordan River. It's about right.
I was there, I don't know, 10 years ago, maybe longer. And, the Jordan was just a little muddy river flowing down. See, Israel's a narrow nation set up between the Jordan River. On the other side of the Jordan River is the the nation we call Jordan. And then, on this side is the Mediterranean Sea.
If you cross it, you go into Europe. Okay? Well, to the north is Lebanon and Syria, and the Golan Heights Mountains, and there's mountains that are dripping down and forming streams, and going into the beautiful Sea of Galilee. Now, what I'm about to say is, *God* even uses the the geography of the land to teach His word. So, Galilee is beautiful, the sea is full of fish, It's a picture all the disciples, they were chosen around that area, the Sea Of Galilee.
There were a lot of them were fishermen. There's big fish in there, little fish. It's beautiful. I've been across the Sea Of Galilee. You know, we got in 1 of those boats going across, and about halfway across, I remember Peter walking on the water, and I thought to myself, hey, Clay, I think I'm gonna try this.
And, I got to the edge of the boat, and it's a beautiful lake, we're going across, and we I step started to step out, got about right here, I said, well, I don't really see Jesus calling me. So I got back in. But it was a thought. Anyway, but no, you and I have stepped out in many other ways, haven't we? You stepped out in this church.
You stepped out as a church to, you know, do a work in Pakistan. And God's with you and he's blessing and it's amazing thing. You stepped out to reach the nations. Hallelujah. And you know, as 1 church reaches a nation here, another 1 reaches here, the glory is being spread around the world.
You're a part of spreading the glory, man. It's amazing thing to be connected to a local group that's involved in something bigger than yourself. Amen? You're doing that, church. Praise the Lord.
So there they are. And now, the the Jordan, I noticed I could probably get in. I'm a good swimmer. You know, I could do backstroke across that thing. Walk across, it was only this deep.
But the bible says this, go with me to verse 14 chapter 3. So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priest carrying the Ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Verse 15. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during the harvest. What does that mean?
Well, from all of the mountains of Israel, when it rains and there's a monsoon rain season, and it all comes flooding into the Jordan, the Jordan becomes about 3 times as wide, and about 3 times as deep, and about 3 times as fast. And it's rushing, and at that time, when I I couldn't I couldn't get in because you'd be swept down to the Dead Sea in a heartbeat. You see? So now, there's 2,000,000 people, all the Israelites with Joshua leading them, about to try to cross the Jordan, but they can't. They've got children, they've got carts, they've got goats and sheep, and, you know, they've got lambs and cows and all their animals.
It's 2,000,000 people. *God* took care of them in the wilderness for 40 years. Think about the logistics of trying to feed 2,000,000 people in a desert for a week. You'd have to have train loads of bottled water and bread and stuff, yet God fed manna, *Christ Jesus, the word*, down from heaven every day. And that rock Moses hit, gushed clean crystal water out that gave them to drink.
And do you know in the New Testament, the Bible says, the rock that followed them was Jesus? Jesus was in the desert with them for 40 years and his side opened up and living water came out and they drank. Do you see? So now they're about to cross and it's too crazy, and they're looking at Joshua, and they're talking, hey, I wonder if this guy is gonna do like Moses did. Our fathers told us Moses stretched the staff out and the Red Sea split.
Come on, Joshua. What you gonna do, man? Are you the new leader? Get the staff. Do something.
And God said to Joshua, no. We're gonna do a new thing. I want you to take the ark of the covenant, and I want to have the priests who are set apart to carry the *glory* "step into the river". I said, okay. Now, I'm gonna pause right here and give you a quick study of the ark.
In the wilderness, *God* told Moses to have his skilled craftsman. Oh, Jerry, I'm so glad we're blessed in the body of Christ to have different gifts and skills, craftsman that can do different things. Somebody can know sound, somebody knows music, somebody knows this, that, and it all comes together for his glory. Amen. Amen?
We all have different gifts. We put them together for the glory of God. Praise the Lord. So God said, have your skilled craftsman form, make a box of Pure acacia wood. Acacia wood was considered a pure wood without blemish.
And he said, build this box and make it about, you know, it was about 3 feet wide, about 1 foot and a half about 3 feet long, foot and a half this way, and, you know, so deep. He said, make it out of this pure wood. And I wanna tell you, the ark there is Christ as well. The pure wood is a symbol of his humanity. The wood is man.
But he said, I want you to cover this box with pure gold all the way around it. And the gold is a symbol of deity. So *Christ is pure man without sin*, and the gold is God, a picture of his deity. And he said, want you to put 3 things inside the box. 1, put the book of the law, the tablets of stone in the book of the law, not just the 10 commandments, but all 613 laws, and put it inside the box.
And then if you look it up in the notes that's on your phone that you can go back and study yourself, you can see the bible says in Exodus, put it inside the box as a "witness against you". It didn't say put it in the box as a symbolic measure or something that's for you. He said, put it in the box as a witness against you. I'm putting my law as a witness against you because you stood on the mountain and said, yes, we obey, but you haven't obeyed. And the bible says, if you break the law, the curse of the law will come for you.
You'll have to die. So he said, put it in the box as a witness against them. So number 2. Take a jar of manna that I rained down bread from heaven for 40 years, and sometimes the people grumbled and complained about my provision. So, seal a jar, like some ladies do these days, and seal some tomatoes or whatever, you know, and seal it and put it in the jar to preserve it as a testimony against them when they always bickered and complained about what I was providing for them.
Number 3. Take Aaron's rod that budded. When they complained and said, why does Aaron and Moses from that tribe get to be our leaders? We think we wanna have 1 of our guys to be our leaders. So God said, Moses tell them to pick 1 guy out, and each 1 bring their staff and lay it before my glory.
Lay it before the ark of the covenant, and the lay it before, you know, the tabernacle. And the next morning, they went out, and you all know the story, Aaron's rod, that dead stick had come to life, became green, shot out some leaves, and some buds, and some fruits, some almonds, and all the other sticks were dead. And, God said, this is my appointed leadership. God's given the church apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, leaders. We need to recognize that.
To be in authority, we have to be under authority. If you're not under authority, you're not in authority. You just think you are. Hallelujah. Anyway, so he said, take that staff and stick it in the box as a testimony.
So there was 3 things in the box. And these 3 things represent every type of human sin possible. The book of the law represents it was man's rebellion against God's law and his word. The jar of manna, man's rebellion against his provision. I have provided for you this, this and this, and you keep chasing after that, that and that.
I've got a plan for your life, and you're chasing the wrong thing. Number 3, that rod that butted man's rebellion against God's appointed leadership. So this is every type of man's sin that went inside the ark of the covenant. But then he said this, Moses, have your leaders fashion a pure slab of gold, and out of that gold, let them fashion cherubim, 2 angels facing each other on top. Make it all solid, 1 piece, it's nothing but gold, straight from God.
And I want you to cover the box with this, and I want you to give a name to the cover. Don't call it the judgment cover, call it the Mercy seat. Call it the *atonement* cover. In other words, all of man's sin went into the box and I'm not covering it with judgment from the law. I'm gonna cover it with mercy and atonement.
I'm gonna atone for their sin myself. Hallelujah? And all of the sin of mankind went into the box. And every year, praise God, at Yom Kippur for the sin of the Israelites, the high priest would go in and apply the He would go into the holy of holies where the ark of the covenant was, and he would apply the blood on the mercy seat for the sins of Israel. The bible says, he who knew no sin, Jesus Christ hung on the cross and he became your sin.
All of the sin of the world went into the box of his body. Praise the lord. And he covered it with his blood. And the bible said, he applied the blood on the ark of the covenant on the mercy seat. Not in a temple made with human hands, but the 1 in heaven.
Cause everything Moses built on earth was a copy, a replica of what was the real thing in heaven. So, Jesus took the blood as the sacrificial lamb and applied it for the sins of the world on top of all of the sin of mankind. Don't you know, he is the box, he is the ark, he took the sin and and came and it came into him. And, God, just like that water of life fed them and watered them for 40 years, they pierced his side and water and blood came out. Hallelujah.
Moses struck the rock, and the Roman soldiers struck the rock, and the life given water came out, and you've had a drink, and you came alive, and that river is flowing right now at real church. So here they are about to cross. Let's finish this story. The water is too deep, it's too fast, And, they gotta get across. So, they're wondering what Joshua is gonna do.
And, he said, tell the priest to take the ark and step into the river. Well, man, that ark was designed to be carried by the anointed holy ones, which are used to be the priests, but now is you. You carry the anointing. You carry Christ. You carry the anointing in you.
So, they were consecrated. There was 4 There was 2 long poles and 4 priests. They grabbed the pole, would pick it up on their shoulders, and they stepped into the Jordan. Now, couldn't step far. They'd be swept down to the Dead Sea.
Okay? So, they stepped into the Jordan just about a foot, and nothing happens. Joshua said, step in. And God said, I'm gonna stop the water and y'all are gonna go across. And they step in and they don't see it.
And the people are looking, I don't think this Joshua guy is like Moses. I don't see anything happening to you. And they're standing there and some of the priests are the priests are standing there going, hey, quit pushing, man. I can't go any further. They're right there at the edge, man.
You know? Now, let me give you a picture of the geography. Let's just say, praise God, the back wall there is the Sea Of Galilee. And, down the center of this church is the Jordan River. And, this back wall is the Dead Sea.
It's a picture. K? From the life of God, the Sea Of Galilee, all mankind is flowing down down down with the sin *nature* to the Dead Sea where there's no life. We went to the Dead Sea on that tour, and the tour leader said, hey, pastor, y'all go in the water, y'all can float, because the water is like 9 times saltier than the ocean. It's full of minerals.
As a matter of fact, we were standing on the shore of the Dead Sea when we're standing there, and if you go there and stand there, you'll be standing on the lowest point on earth. Not the lowest point in the ocean, that would be Mariana's Trench and trenches in the ocean, but on the on the ground, like I live in Louisiana. New Orleans is at sea level. That's why when hurricanes come, and man, it goes under. Praise the Lord.
Well, the Dead Sea is way below sea level. You can go up to the mountains in Jerusalem and up to the mountains in Galilee and be, you know, sometimes you you go take your family on vacation to the Rockies or to the, you know, to the mountains in North Carolina, it's at 3,000 feet. The Rockies sometimes have 11,000 feet, and even 16,000 feet. Well, if you're there at the Dead Sea, you're below sea level, so far below that the Dead Sea goes into the earth and digs up so much minerals and salt that man, it's easy to give swimming lessons. Everybody floats.
You know? But, there's no life in it. There's not a big fish. There's not a little fish. There's not a seaweed.
There's not an amoeba or a plankton. Nothing. It is dead. Hence, the name, you know? So, is it a picture of?
From the life of Galilee, flowing down the Jordan River, everyone of mankind with the sin nature is on its way to death and hell forever. But god sends him, Christ, the word, the ark of the covenant, to step into the water and when he steps into the water, the Bible says, the water stopped flowing. But, it didn't stop flowing right there where they could see it. We're going to look at it. It stopped flowing a great distance away.
I calculated it about 19 kilometers to the north, and it stopped flowing there. Well, guys, if you've ever been white water rafting or something, when they open the dam and close the dam, it takes a while to get 19 miles down the river. Right? Okay? So, when it stopped flowing there, it took several hours before it started going down.
So, they're standing there, and everybody's wondering, I don't see a miracle. But, the miracle had already happened. Folks, if you have a word from God, for your family, for your business, for your church, for for yourself, and you're you're hanging on the word and you don't see the answer yet, I'm here to tell you, praise the Lord, the answer's already on the way. You could be standing in the middle of your miracle. Yeah.
Stand on the word God's given you. Hallelujah. So, they're standing there. And, the water gradually begins to go down. But, here's the main point.
Here's the miracle of the message right now. I'm about to close. *Joshua-3* verse 15, and we'll go from there. Everybody ready? I want you to see.
If you have a bible, open it. If you have your phone, look at it or on the screen. You gotta see this. Now, the Jordan is at flood stage all during the harvest. Yet, as soon as the priests who carry the ark reached the Jordan, and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.
It piled up in a heap a great distance away, you see? A great distance away to the north. At a town called At a specific town with a specific name for a specific reason for this message, the water stopped at a town called what? Isn't that amazing? Do you get it?
It goes like this. From Adam. *God named the town Adam where the water stopped. He chose not to stop it where they're getting in, but to stop it at Adam to demonstrate the lesson of the geography right now of the gospel*. From Adam, all the water of the Jordan River is flowing to the Dead Sea.
Adam's up there by the life of God. God gave mankind life and dominion over the world. But from Adam, his nature was corrupt, and everyone after him with his seed was flowing down down the word Jordan in Hebrew, Yarden, they don't pronounce their j's, it means descend. What was it descending to? Down down down down to life without God, and death and hell in the Dead Sea.
But, when the ark came in, the water stopped flowing from Adam, and then 2,000,000 Israelites crossed over into the promised land. I wanna tell you something church. When the priest stepped in with the ark of the covenant, *Jesus*, he is the ark. He took the sin. He stepped in.
It was as though at that time, they were prophesying the cross of Calvary would fall like a bridge from mankind sin in the law in the wilderness. From mounts from mounts Sinai in the wilderness to mounts Zion in the new covenant. Amen? From the sin *nature* to the God nature. So crossing the Jordan is a geographical picture of the gospel from the life of God.
In Adam, all will die, but in Christ, all will "cross over into life". Hallelujah. Do you see it? Praise the Lord. They crossed the Jordan from death to life, and praise God, if you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior, I wanna tell you, you're not waiting to cross over, you're not trying to cross over, you're not trying to quit enough sin and do enough good, Well, you'll finally get to cross over.
I'm telling you, if you've received Christ, you have spiritually already crossed over, and the life of God is in you now. Amen. And, the righteousness of God is in you now. And, by continuing to hear the word of who we are in Christ, the spirit of God and the glory that's in you as a seed will come out in how you live, in how you treat your wife, and how you raise your kids, and how you operate your business. It'll turn you into speaking kind words to each other.
It'll give you joy and self control. The fruit of the spirit of the life of God that's in you will come out. Hallelujah. And he has given us the commission to advance this glory in this *kingdom* to all the world. But, we're not going to take it 1 government at a time.
We're going to take it "1 person at a time". The governments will submit to him when the king comes back. But don't think we're going to start changing every government, including this 1, into righteous and holy. I'm prophesying to you now, that's not gonna happen. The world's gonna continue to go further away.
Get your kids, your friends, your family in the body of Christ. It's learning the word, because we're gonna grow deeper and more spiritual into him, and the glory is gonna come through us, and we're gonna reach people. But the world's gonna go further the other way. Amen? Next week, we're celebrating the resurrection, the greatest event in the history of the world.
Invite a friend, family, 2, 3, and others. Don't you know that everyone who believes ought to be in a church somewhere celebrating the resurrection? Amen? So praise the Lord. Father, I thank you, Lord.
Lord, that you've given us this gospel, this good news of the kingdom of God that has come back to the earth through Jesus. So clearly, you even put it in the geography of the land. Lord, we have seen it. It'll never go away from our heart. Lord, we're a part of it.
Father, I pray you strengthen this church, the the real church right here in Pinellas County. Lord, the life of God that's in them to flow to others, their family, friends, and neighbors. And Lord, we recognize we're a part of something much bigger than ourself. Your kingdom is spreading around the world. In Jesus name.
Amen. Y'all have a blessed day. God bless
you. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect.
And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up. Search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you and the best is yet to come.