Crossing the Jordan

Crossing the Jordan

DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, AUGUST 12, 1888,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through
the host and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals. For
within three days you shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess
the land, which the Lord your God gives you to possess it." Joshua
1:10,11.

THE story of the passage of the Jordan might instructively be used in
many ways. It was a very wonderful event. It occurred on the tenth day
of the first month–on the same day of the year as the passage of the
Red Sea. Of that glorious miracle it was the fortieth anniversary and
you may very properly join the dividing of the Red Sea to that of the
Jordan, for so the Holy Spirit has done in the one hundred and
fourteenth Psalm–"The sea saw it and fled: Jordan was driven back."

I am going to use the passage of the Jordan as our forefathers used to
employ it, namely, as a type of our passage out of this world into the
place appointed for our rest. Canaan is only measurably a type of that
better land, for the Canaan-ite was still in the land and Israel had to
fight many a battle to obtain possession of the country. In our more
perfect Canaan there are no enemies to encounter, no sins to struggle
with, and no powers of darkness to conquer. Still, I think the type, if
imperfect, has been so long established in the Christian Church and has
yielded so much of edification to godly people, that I may safely use
it.

We cannot afford to give up such a hymn as–

"On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,

And cast a wishful eye

To Canaan's fair and happy land,

Where my possessions lie." Nor can we cease to sing with Watts–

"Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood

Stand dressed in living green;

So to the Jews old Canaan stood

While Jordan rolled between."

The Israelites, before they crossed the Jordan, had notice given them.
The officers went through the host with the message, "Prepare you
victuals. For within three days you shall pass over this Jordan." The
Lord often favors His people with notice that the time of their
departure is at hand. He has fixed the hour of our entrance into rest
and it can neither be postponed by skill of physician nor hastened by
malice of foe. No Satanic force can hurl us to the grave before our
time–

"Plagues and death around us fly, Till He bids we cannot die."

In due time there comes a whisper in the ear of the Believer, "Rise up
and come away." Mr. Bunyan describes the pilgrims as tarrying on the
shore of that river which parted them from the celestial country until
a post came to one and another, announcing that the silver cord must be
loosed and the golden bowl be broken. Father Honest and Mr.
Ready-to-Halt and Christiana and the rest of them received each one a
call from the hill country and passed over the black water to the
golden strand–where the shining ones stood to meet them.

Perhaps some of us may get no such summons. For we may be taken away on
a sudden. Many good people daily pray against sudden death and there
are legitimate reasons for so doing. But to a child of God it is of
small consequence, for death will never find him unprepared if he is
living in communion with God. If we walk in the light, as He is in the
light,

an abundant entrance will be ministered to us into eternal glory even
if we should fall dead in a moment. The change would simply mean going
from the lower room of our Father's house into an upper chamber more
bright and beauti-ful–but still a part of the same house.

A few Sunday evenings ago, when I was unable to preach to you, my
beloved and esteemed friend, Mr. Newman Hall, most generously occupied
this pulpit and his sermon touched upon Heaven and the joyous entrance
of the saints into the immortal state. One of our sisters was greatly
rejoiced by that sermon. She went home and in going into her bedroom
she fell down and entered in a second into rest. Possibly that sermon
was to her a stray note from the harps of angels to call her Home. We,
too, may have such a speedy summons. Or we may have months of waiting.
What matters? Let the angelic convoy appear when our best Beloved shall
see fit–it shall be no question of preference with us whether the
Master shall call us today, tomorrow, or in twenty years.

Let Him call us at cockcrowing, or at midnight, or midday, we will
answer Him, "Here am I. For You did call me." We will enter into the
joy of our Lord and be forever with Him. When God's children have their
candle lighted for them and they know that it is time to go upstairs,
they feel glad to end their pilgrimage and rest in Jesus. We are all of
us much nearer Home than we think. It will be greatly wise to talk with
our last hours and to anticipate that time when the message shall come,
"Within three days you shall pass over this Jordan."

May the Holy Spirit make our meditation profitable in view of our end!
We shall observe the tenor of this notice. And then observe the sequel
of this notice. May we have Divine Grace given us to understand what we
speak and hear and to make use of it for our everlasting benefit.

I. First, OBSERVE THE TENOR OF THIS NOTICE. Notice that there are three
leading words in it–"prepare,"

"pass over," "possess." "Prepare you victuals. For within three days
you shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land."

The first word that came to them was, "Prepare." Be in journeying
order. The soldier carries his rations with him when he has to make a
quick march–"Prepare you victuals." Children of God, be ready to go
from this world. Let not your roots strike deep into this earthly soil
for you must in due time be transplanted. And the more roothold you get
to this world, the worse it will be for you. Hold everything with a
loose hand. The soldier in a foreign land must not settle down and
begin to gather surroundings about him which would naturalize him in
the country. He is an alien, tarrying till his prince shall call him
back to the home country.

You cannot be in exile long. Heaven is prepared to receive you. Be
ready! Your heart is in Heaven–send your best goods there–where they
will be safe from moth and rust. Have about you what little things you
want for spending money but make the best of your way through this
Vanity Fair. Keep in marching order. Be prepared at a moment's notice
to start on your way. But inasmuch as he said, "Prepare you victuals"
did he not mean, "Begin to feed on food of that sort upon which you are
henceforth to live"?

The manna would cease in three days and never fall again. After they
crossed the Jordan, they would feed on the corn of the land. Manna was
the staple of their wilderness food. But they had eaten other things as
well, for they had flocks and herds. They were to prepare, not manna,
for that would not keep above a day but such food as ordinarily they
would subsist upon when they entered upon their estates. O children of
God, get good meals of spiritual meat, the kind of meat which you will
live upon hereafter. Feed much on the love of God and the glorious
Truths which are laid up in Christ Jesus. Care nothing for the husks of
human thought and carnal eloquence but take to the solid meat, which is
to be your dainty nourishment when you dwell in the Presence of God
forever.

I wish that professing Christians were more cautious about what they
feed on. I am afraid that some professors, if they hear a sermon, are
satisfied whatever the sort may be. They do not care what the doctrine
may be if a clever man talks prettily and gratifies their ear. Some
people can eat sawdust and make a meal of shadows. I could almost wish
it were true of them that they could drink any deadly thing and it
should not hurt them. For assuredly they do drink very deadly things
when they go to the tavern of modern thought. But I would say to you
this morning, feed on Christ, feed on spiritual food, feed on the pure
Truth of God's Word and feed your souls on nothing else.

Know the taste of what you eat and let it be as clear and definite as
that of butter and honey so you may readily refuse the evil and choose
the good. Joshua meant–Stand ready, for the time is getting very
short. There is not long to wait. Very soon you will have traversed the
stream and landed on the far shore. Even now you can catch a glimpse of
the

palm trees of Jericho on the other side. But in three days you shall
gather their fruit. Beloved, how would you feel if you knew that,
within three days, you must die? Would you welcome the news?

Are you quite sure that it would please you? Remember the wife and
family and the business and all that! Can you bear the snapping of the
ties which bind you to this life? Have you learned so to live in this
world that you are not of it? Could you cheerfully say, "Forever with
the Lord. Amen, so let it be"? Oh, that God may keep us so watchful
that the shortest summons may be long enough!

The exhortation given in the thirteenth verse is one which may be
useful also to us. "Remember the Word." It is a grand help for going
over the Jordan, if we will remember the Word of the Lord. Our faith
enables us both to live and to die on the promise of God. "Remember the
Word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The
Lord your God has given you rest and has given you this land." If a man
forgets the Word of the Lord and comes to die, he dies in a pitiable
plight. For without the light of the Word, he takes a leap in the dark.
If a man can refresh his memory with the grand Truths of the Covenant,
if he can come to the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God,
then he may die bravely.

Israel might go down the shelving banks of the rushing river because
the Lord had given the nation a promise concerning the other side. I
said to a dying friend, "Have you no fears"? "Fears!" he said, "How can
I have any? You have fed me upon such solid food that I am not afraid
to die. Jesus bore my sins in His own body on the tree and I am
accepted in Him." Neither will you be fearful, Beloved, if you have
provided for your journey such food as the Lord has stored up in His
Word.

But then he said also, third chapter and fifth verse, "Sanctify
yourselves." If we knew we were to die in three days, should we not
wish to put our hearts, our thoughts, our families, into a better
state? I remember a Sister, by no means superstitious, who, when she
came to die, was very earnest that all her linen and everything about
her body, should be white and clean. And I somewhat sympathized in her
feeling because I knew that it was only the outward expression of her
inward desire to be purely arrayed as to her spirit. Since we may die
suddenly, let us purify ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and of
the spirit. Let us pray our Lord to wash us again.

And, as our dear Brother prayed just now, "may the dust of our last
day's march be taken from our feet!" If there has been any neglect of
duty let us be quick to perform that which has been delayed. Beloved,
in the prospect of going Home, sanctify yourselves. May the Holy
Spirit, the Sanctifier, so cleanse us that we may be meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light!

The next word was, "Pass over this Jordan." They were not called to
linger on the brink, nor to sit with their feet in the stream but to
cross over it. Israel had been forty years in the wilderness and surely
that was long enough. Some of you have been fifty, sixty, seventy,
perhaps eighty years in the desert. But when the summons shall come,
you will have no more marching over the burning sand and no more fear
of the fiery serpents and scorpions. "Within three days you shall pass
over this Jordan" will put an end to the wilderness tramping. Life is
long enough if we have had Divine Grace enough. He lives long that
lives well. He who has served his God with all his heart will not wish
to linger a moment after his life-work is done. You are not called to
linger on the bed of sickness for ages but to pass over to your rest.

And notice, the call was not to go down into the Jordan to stop there.
Blessed be God, we are not going down into the grave to be lost there.
But we make use of it as an open door to Paradise. Our spirit shall
mount triumphantly to Christ and even the poor body, after it has lain
a while in the dust, shall rise again in the glorious image of Christ.
The grave is the refining pot which puts away the dross from the gold.
Death, before we knew the Savior, was like a vast cavern into which
there were many footprints but all the tracks led inward–none came
forth from the gloomy abode of the shades.

But now, by the power of our Lord's resurrection, looking into the cave
we perceive that He has pierced the hills of darkness and made a way
for us to the other side. We go into what looks like a dark den but we
come out at the other side into the land that flows with milk and
honey. "You shall pass over this Jordan."

Our text reads like a promise–"Within three days you shall pass over
this Jordan." Some of them might have said, "How?" They saw no apparent
means–no bridge, no pontoons, no ferry. Ah, but says Joshua, "Within
three days you shall pass over this Jordan." And the word was true. Do
you say, "I do not see how I am to be helped to die"? The Lord

will give dying grace in dying moments. He comes in when the need is
pressing. Those who have wrestled earnestly in life shall march off
triumphantly in death. Jehovah Shaddai is God All-sufficient.

He knows how to take you through the river. Let not your heart be
troubled. It is not yours to make a way through the deep waters–that
remains with God alone. It is yours to obey–it is His to provide.
Sometimes you are so foolish as to try your hand at providing and then
you neglect the obeying and as a consequence you fail both in the
providing and the obeying. Mind your own business and the Lord will
perform His Word. Israel marches, Jehovah clears the way–and a
glorious result is brought about.

Somebody might have said, "We cannot pass over Jordan, for the current
is furious and the river is unusually swollen." In the spring, at the
time of barley harvest, Jordan overflows all its banks and becomes a
river which only the very strongest of David's heroes could ford. So
some child of God might say, "But my prospect in dying is darker than
that of any other Believer. I shall suffer more pain, more depression,
more poverty. And thus to me Jordan overflows all its banks." Yes, yes.
But still you shall go over it, for the Lord has said it and none of
His words shall fail. You shall cross the swollen torrent and smile at
your own fears.

While I was thinking this over, I said to myself, "Why did the Lord
bring His people to Jordan at the time when the snow was melting on the
Lebanon and therefore the river was more full and the current more
strong than usual?" There was ample reason. It was then that the early
harvest was ripening throughout the country. Suppose there had been no
corn in the fields ready for reaping, how would the children of Israel
have been fed when they were across the river and the manna had ceased?
Their food stood in the fields ready to be gathered and immediately
they ate of the produce of the land.

God knows the best time for His saints to die. We look at some ugly
circumstance connected with their departure and we forget other and
infinitely more important matters which make it a thing to be rejoiced
in. So you, dear Friend, need not fear to pass over the Jordan though
it has filled all its banks, since there is a reason for it and a
graciously sufficient one. God will give you extraordinary help in
extraordinary trial and glorify Himself in you.

"Oh," but they might have said, "We cannot pass over Jordan because
there is Jericho right in front of us and of course the inhabitants
will call in the Jebusites, who are not far off at Jerusalem and these
will fetch in the Hivites and the Amorites and all the other nations.
And these will hotly dispute the passage of the river and it will be
out of the question to force our way through that torrent and fight up
the other bank against such foes."

Such a fear would be most natural. When Caesar tried to land in England
what did the Britons do? They rushed into the water off Dover to meet
the Romans and they fought with them in the surf of the sea. It was
natural that brave men should fight the invaders in the water and not
suffer them to tread their soil. Do you suppose that the Canaanites
were less brave than the ancient Britons? Had there not been a spell
upon them they would have pressed back Israel in the river itself and
would not have allowed them to enter the land.

Yet Israel passed over Jordan at the appointed time. God had said "You
shall go over," and they did go over. And no Canaanite, Hivite, or
Jebusite, dared to molest them. So the poor child of God sighs, "Alas,
when I come to die, Satan will meet me, temptations and doubts and
fears will rush upon me." We read in the third chapter of Joshua,
sixteenth verse, "And the people passed over right against Jericho."
Fear not, O trembling heart. God can so deal with evil spirits and with
the doubts of your own spirit that they shall be still as a stone till
you have passed over.

No demon shall dare to peep or mutter. No doubt or fear shall venture
near. We read, "All the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all
the people were passed clean over Jordan." Not an arrow or a stone came
from over the walls of Jericho. Glory be to the name of the Lord! He
made the hearts of Israel's enemies to melt so that no more courage
remained in them. Thus far upon the second word, "You shall pass over."

The third word was "possess." They were to pass the river to possess
the land which God had given them. We possess nothing here. Those goods
which we think we possess melt away like an icicle from a hot hand.
Like birds on the plowed field which are gone the moment we clap our
hands, so do riches take to themselves wings and fly away. Such things
are poor stuff to call possessions. But we have on the other side of
Jordan treasures worth owning. By a Covenant of salt, God has given us
in Christ Jesus everlasting rest, triumph, happiness, glory.

There was in Palestine a portion of land for each man of Israel–so is
there in Heaven a heritage appointed for each one of the Lord's people.
There is a crown in Heaven that nobody's head can wear but mine, a harp
that nobody's hand

can play but mine and a mansion that no man may enter but myself alone.
I believe the same of each of you, my Brothers and Sisters, who are in
Christ Jesus. There is a Heaven for all the saints but there is also
special joy and delight for each one of the redeemed–in my Father's
house are many mansions. You have to go over Jordan but you are not
going away from home, you are returning to your Father's house.

You are not going to a land of toil and poverty, sorrow and death. You
are going to be forever with the Lord, where no evil can reach you. If,
then, the message should come to your ear today, "Within three days you
shall pass over this Jordan," say to yourself, "It is well, for I shall
behold the face of Him I love and meet with those who are redeemed by
His

blood."

Thus I have spoken to you upon the tenor of this notice. But I hear the
bell strike the quarter and therefore the voice of time bids me hasten
on to a second most important matter.

II. I want you now to OBSERVE THE SEQUEL OF THIS NOTICE, or what
followed upon the summons. I shall try to show what will follow to you
who are in Christ, when you receive your notice to depart–what will
happen to you?

The first thing that happened to Israel was this–a singular faith was
bestowed. I can hardly believe that the people under Joshua were the
children of those unbelieving Jews whose carcasses fell in the
wilderness. Throughout the early chapters of Joshua, it is recorded
that they believed Joshua, whatever he said to them. He had strange and
strong things to utter but they did not doubt or demur. What pleases me
most is that when he spoke to the Reubenites and told them what they
had to do, they said, "Whosoever he is that does rebel against your
commandment and will not hearken unto your words in all that you
command him, he shall be put to death–only be strong and of a good
courage."

Think of that! They took upon themselves to encourage Joshua, saying,
"only be strong and of a good courage." They admonished the bravest of
captains–even they who were but of the rank and file. Some of God's
very poor and tried people are occasionally so full of faith and
courage that they try to cheer up their minister. The children instruct
the fathers. I like to see them thus returning the compliment for it
shows that they are in a happy condition themselves. If their simple
cheer should seem superfluous to Joshua, yet it showed the honesty of
their hearts and the fullness of their confidence in God.

There was not a doubt or a fear throughout the whole camp. Now,
Beloved, when the children of God come to die, those of them who have
been poor, trembling things before, receive new courage and strength
and even minister comfort to those who are stronger than themselves! It
is brave to see how Mr. Ready-to-Halt puts his crutches away when he is
going over Jordan. Mr. Feeble-Mind bids them bury his feeble mind in a
dung-hill, for it would be of no use to anybody. The Lord will give us
more Divine Grace and we shall wonder at ourselves that we could have
been aforetime so distrustful.

"At eventide it shall be light." It is wonderful to see how God's babes
in Christ shoot up to six feet six in a short time. I do not know what
change death itself makes in the soul. But I believe that a little
before death a wonderful advance is often made by the Believer. The man
of God matures at a marvelous rate–even as these Israelites, who had
been so prone to murmur–were now filled with a unanimity of faith
which is perfectly amazing. May God thus brace up our faith when the
time comes.

Next, a special assurance was given. See the fifth verse of the third
chapter–"Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." When they
should come to the last day of the three, great wonders would be seen.
The Lord is always working marvels. But when we come to cross the
Jordan we shall see His wonders as never before. You have not seen the
Lord yet, Beloved, as you will see Him as the great Wonder-worker. You
have had a faint view of your God, sometimes, and this has made you
feel like David when he danced before the ark. But you shall soon have
another and a clearer view and then you will long to mount like an
angel and veil your face in His nearer presence.

You shall have such wonders revealed to you and in you, both of grace
and glory, that your soul shall be ravished with delight. You shall see
Jesus and His love shall be more fully revealed to you. You shall begin
to hear things which it is not lawful for a man to utter and you shall
feel glory begun below. Your death day shall be your heavenly wedding
day and your last day on earth shall be the best day you have ever
spent on it. When you come close to Heaven in point of time, Heaven
will come close to you in point of joy. With a strong faith and a
delightful assurance for that faith to feed upon, you will be blessed,
indeed.

Next, note that the people had with them a conquering leader. Joshua
was at their head to encourage and direct them. When you and I shall
pass over Jordan we shall have Jesus with us. Joshua is but another
form of that dear name in which we triumph. He says, "Be of good cheer.
Because I live, you shall live also." He it is who cries, "When you
pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow you." If our Joshua should seem to leave us, it
will be on the flowery hill-side, or in the gardens of delight. But He
will not even appear to do so when the dark waters flow at our feet and
we are called upon to pass through the stream.

Blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ, He never forgets His own. He is
always with us but He is most clearly so when our last trouble is upon
us. He is gone away into the hill country to make ready the house where
we shall shortly be at home. But He will surely come again and receive
us unto Himself, that where He is, there we may be, also. Therefore, be
not afraid, for Jesus is with you. Did I hear you say–

"Oh, if my Lord would come and meet, My soul would stretch her wings in
haste, Fly fearless through death's iron gate, Nor fear the terror as
she passed"?

Yes, Jesus will come and meet you and you shall forget that you are
dying for the eternal life shall come streaming into your soul. The
candle of your mortal existence shall expire without much note, for the
glory of the Lord shall have risen upon you. The moans of expiring will
be swallowed up in the harmonies of the celestial choirs.

But what next? The Israelites had a clear guidance afforded them. Read
the fourth verse of the third chapter. The Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord went before them and a distance was set between them and the
priests bearing the ark so that they might show reverence to it and
might clearly see it as their guide. Thus said Joshua to them, "When
you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests,
the Levites, bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go
after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two
thousand 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."

You have been through many experiences but to die will be a new one.
You have traversed certain roads more than once or twice but this road
is new to you and can only be trod once. Once and for all you must
cross this Jordan– therefore the Divine Presence shall go before you
and show you the way. The Lord will surely direct your steps. Do not
begin saying to yourself,. "What shall I do in sickness?" You will be
guided by Him who bore our sorrows and infirmities. "But what shall I
do when the pulse is faint and low and the death-sweat beads the brow?"

Jesus will show you what to do, for He also died. He knows what
faintness, pain, thirst and fever mean, for He has felt the same. In
death, Divine Grace will be magnified to the uttermost. Some children
of God are always delighted at the idea that Christ may come and that
they shall never die. I would be delighted if the Lord would come at
once. But as to dying or not dying I do not care a jot. I think that of
the two, it might be preferable to die, because those who die will have
a kind of fellowship with Christ in His death which will not be
experienced by those who never sleep in the tomb.

They that are alive and remain till His coming will miss the privilege
of actually passing through the tomb as the Savior did, though even
they must be changed. Brothers and Sisters, we traverse a road which
has known the feet of the Crucified. Where should the dying members
rest but with their dying Head? Why should I fear to sleep where Jesus
went to bed? Did He not leave the sheets behind? He laid the napkin by
itself that mourners might wipe their eyes. But He laid the grave
clothes by themselves, that we might find in the grave a bed well
furnished for our slumber. Oh, yes, you shall have Divine direction
when the darkness gathers about you!

With Israel a forerunner led the way. Was not that a glorious spectacle
when the priests took up the golden staves and with them lifted the ark
upon their shoulders and then in stately march carried it down to the
river? No Israelite had to tread a novel path, or to make a road for
himself. Our great High Priest has gone down to the river before us and
has touched its waters with the soles of His feet. "He has tasted death
for every man." He went into the depths of death and slept three days
in the heart of the earth. The Ark of the Covenant leads the way and we
have only to follow.

Nor did the Forerunner quit the scene, for the Divine Presence
remained. The priests went on till they came to the river bed and
descended the hollow, going on to the very center of it. There they
stopped till all the host had passed over. Hour after hour the priests
remained with the holy burden on their shoulders–they stood firm on
dry ground in the midst of Jordan. First came the Reubenites and the
half tribe of Manasseh marching by in military order and then all the

other tribes in succession. But the priests remained like statues,
still bearing the ark, till the last Israelite had gone clean over
Jordan.

There stood the emblem of a Covenant God, with its Mercy Seat, its
sacred Law and the rod of government. The Lord Jesus will go before you
as your great High Priest, your Propitiation and your Covenant. And He
will abide with you in the last solemn article until you are safely on
the shore of the land of promise. The feeblest and least of all the
host shall climb the celestial hills on the other side and sing of
everlasting love.

O Lord, my God, when my last hours shall come, let my eyes behold the
Lord Jesus and the Covenant ordered in all things and sure–

"When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside. Death
of death and Hell's destruction, Land me safe on Canaan's side! Songs
of praises I will ever give to You."

In consequence of the priests going down into the river the stream was
dried up. Wonderful sight it must have been to behold the waters roll
back, and stand in a congealed heap! No less so if, as some think, the
torrent rolled back some thirty miles so that the Israelites could look
right up a long roadway of dry river-bed. At the place where the great
crystalline heap was piled up what an extraordinary wonder met the eye!
Thus there was a broad passageway for the multitudes of Israel to go
marching through and to effect the crossing rapidly.

Suppose, when you come to die, the Jordan should turn out to be no
river at all. What if you should go over dry-shod? Why should it not be
so? It has often been the case with the Lord's chosen. Many make a
joyful exit. A Sister used to be much troubled about dying. She knew
where she was going but she dreaded the passage. She died in her sleep
and in all probability never knew when she passed from the one state to
the other till she found herself among the angels. Death is a pin's
prick to many.

How many sing themselves into glory! And some, who could not sing
themselves, have made others do so while they forded the stream. Surely
we misrepresent Death–he is to the Believer no skeleton form but the
angel of the Lord come to gather the flowers of the Lord's garden.
Death has lost its terrors. "The sting of death is sin," and that is
forgiven. "The strength of sin is the Law," and that is fulfilled. The
black waters have failed, we pass over Jordan dry-shod.

Then notice, the people were very quick in crossing. Death is short
work. According to the tenth verse of the fourth chapter, we read–"And
the people hasted and passed over." They did not hurry because they
were afraid but they hasted because they were many and would desire be
all over before the sun went down. They were eager to take possession
of their country and confident in marching upon Jericho where the first
of their foes were entrenched. They went through the river at a quick
march and came upon the other side at the same rate. Of course it would
take a considerable time with so vast a number to cross, but they were
all moving on in an orderly and rapid manner.

After all, what is the act of death? "What?" cries one, "is there not a
terrible amount of pain connected with death?" I answer–No. It is life
that has the pain. Death is the end of all pain. You blame death for a
disease of which he is the cure. You imagine a thing called death which
does not really exist. In the twinkling of an eye we shall be up and
away!–

"One gentle sigh, the fetter breaks– We scarce can say, 'He's gone,'
Before the ransomed spirit takes Its mansion near the Throne."

Therefore, because you will hasten to pass over, you need not be
alarmed at so short a trial, which will actually turn out to be no
trial at all.

We read in the ninth verse of the fourth chapter, that the Israelites
in traversing the Jordan left a memorial behind. Before they had quite
passed out of the river bed, a number of chosen men took twelve of the
great masses of rock which lay in the bottom of the river and piled
them on end upon each other, to remain as a perpetual memorial that
Israel had been there. You also will bear your testimony in
departing–you will set up your memorial for your children after you
and they shall say, "Our father died in sure and certain hope of being
with Jesus."

Perhaps some unconverted ones will be saved, after you are dead and
gone, by your last testimony. Even if your deathbed should not be so
bright as some, even its clouds may not be without their effect. A holy
man had prayed much for his boys and girls but never saw them converted
and this, with the troubles which grew out of their waywardness, made
his last hours to be sadly clouded. For this cause he was sorely
troubled, for he feared that it would confirm his sons in their
unbelief.

But mark how the Lord worked! They buried their father and when they
were met together, the eldest son turned to his brothers and remarked
upon the sorrows which had weighed down their father at the last.
"Brothers," said he, "if our father, who was so good a man, was so
troubled in death, what will become of us when we die?" This most
reasonable remark was the means of the conversion of the brothers. I
would like to die in the dark if it would bring all my people to the
Savior. Would not you? Apart from this, no doubt we shall set up stones
in the midst of Jordan and witness that the Lord is a faithful God.

One thing more–they also raised a memorial on the other shore. Twelve
men took from the river twelve stones and bore them on their shoulders
before the ark. Can you not see them with their loads and the ark
coming up after them from the riverbed? They piled these twelve stones
upon each other in Canaan. You and I, when we get to Heaven, shall take
our memorials with us and pile them up. We will make known to angels
and principalities and powers the manifold wisdom and goodness of God
to us in life and death.

I hope to begin to preach before long, not to this little congregation
of six thousand but to countless multitudes of the redeemed in Heaven.
Myriads of angels will come together to hear how God made a worm to
thresh the mountains and helped a sinner to declare his love. You will
stand with your groups about you and shining ones will linger to hear
of your salvation, your trials, your joys and your achievements, or
rather of what the Lord has worked for you and by you. And so God will
be glorified and the other side of Jordan will be adorned with
memorials to the measureless Grace of

God.

You will have to turn this subject over in your meditations–I have
only been able to give you the rough outline of a sermon. Read the
whole narrative with care and may God bless it to you!

But, dear Friends, suppose you are not the people of God. You will have
to die all the same. One of these times you also will have to pass over
the torrent. What a different lot will be yours! You will have to leave
your possessions behind. A sage said to a worldling, when he looked
over his beautiful gardens, "These are the things that make it hard to
die." You will have to leave everything which you call your own here.
And you have no possessions over yonder. You have no Joshua to be your
leader, no priest to be your forerunner, no God in covenant to hold the
ground for you–you have, in fact, nothing to overcome the bitterness
of death. The floods will carry you away. The torrents will hurry you
to the dead sea.

Even now, when you are a little ill and in pain, you become dreadfully
frightened. If in the land of peace wherein you trusted they have
wearied you, what will you do in the swellings of Jordan? The dark
stream will not be dry for you. Dare you take the dreadful plunge? Mark
how the black current rushes down to that dreadful sea of death! Are
you resolved to be swept down to that place of desolation?

The Lord have mercy upon you before you are drifted into the abode of
the accursed! "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
For he that believes and is baptized shall be saved." So says the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.