New Beginnings - Crossing Jordan Ii — George Warnock

What we've been dealing with in the morning session, and perhaps Lord willing, in a way, however he might please, carry on through most of next week. So I'll just read a portion from Joshua, chapter 3.

New Beginnings in the Pattern of Darkness and Light

We've been talking about new beginnings. We started with the Passover. It was a new day, a new beginning. This day shall be unto you the beginning of months, emphasizing how God has new beginnings. Over and over there are new beginnings, and that the order is darkness and light, not light and darkness.

Darkness and light. The evening and the morning were the first days. And just that one principle ought to fill God's people with great hope. If it's dark, God commands light out of darkness. That's where the light comes from.

God commandeth the light to shine out of darkness. Israel had been in darkness 400 years. God commanded, and light shone, and God sent a deliverer. And they brought them out. They crossed the Red Sea.

A new day for them. But before they could come into the purpose for which they came out, God must prove them, try them, test them, which he did through the wilderness. The first generation failed God's testings, blamed God for their troubles instead of recognizing the evil of their unbelieving hearts.

Nevertheless, God was faithful to forgive them. He brought them up to Kadesh, told them, Now is the time to go in. They sent out spies, brought back the report of what they found in the land, admitting it was good, but we couldn't take it.

Too difficult for us. And they made an excuse. We couldn't take our children into such a dangerous land. And God took their excuse and made it to be judgment for them. And he says, I'm going to bring your children in.

You're afraid that they can't come in? I'm going to bring them in. And you're going to stay here in the wilderness and die here. And God decreed that each day that they spent spying out the land would represent a year in the wilderness.

So that for 40 years they were in the wilderness until the old generation was consumed. And so darkness settled in upon them, but God shines out of darkness. And when the days of his judgment had been finished, God was bringing the new generation to a new day.

Joshua, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan. So that which was the end of an old day for the generation that failed God was the beginning of a new day for the new generation.

And that which was judgment for the old day on the old generation was preparation for a new generation. And out of the darkness that was coming over the old generation, God was beginning to shine forth in a new day to a new generation.

The sun was setting for the old generation as the dawn was arising for a new generation. So it's wonderful when we recognize that. But the sad part is that that for which we hope and long for and desire, when we come to that point where God says, now is the time, the difficulties seem to be so severe, the trial so severe, that if our hearts are not prepared, when we come to the very day and hour when God wants to bring his people into a new way and the test comes, that's where so many fail, God.

Hoping all along, God, that revival, we're seeking revival, we're praying for revival. God, we must have revival. And the time comes when God says, now this is the time. And we fail. Why not? Because we want revival, don't we?

But we fail to understand that with every new day, we call it revival and all we think of is rain and blessing. But God doesn't just look on it that way. It might be a revival of a new day which brings sunshine and heat.

And that's what bothered me when what they called rain at the beginning in the middle of this century, what was rain, it didn't last so long. It just lasted a short time until, and it is devastating to many people to see how quickly that which we felt was a revival of the end time, the last revival, it petered out.

And then came the heat and the sunshine, the heat and barrenness. We don't understand those things because we don't understand God's desire in sending the rain is to water the plantings of the Lord that they might bring forth fruit.

And somehow we're slow to comprehend that. Why should God want to send the barrenness and the drought and the heat? Because God's after fruit. That's what he's after. And so when he's blessing and there's a revival, we think, oh, wouldn't it be wonderful?

All ready for the Lord to take us. But he wants the fruit. And like we said this morning, the seeds of what God will do and what God has in mind, the seeds of God's intention is right there in that movement of God, that new thing that God is doing.

Right there in that new thing he's doing, he plants the seeds of his intention for the next thing he will do. And in early Pentecost, there were many who had a vision of a great harvest after the image of Jesus.

Sister Amy Semple McPherson, founder of the Four Square Church, had a great vision of the end time that God, and I don't remember it all because sometimes since I read it, and I don't think you'll find it in any of her books today because I'm told that this part isn't there.

She says God's looking for fruit, perfect fruit. He's coming for the perfect fruit. That's what he's after. And he is. He's still after it. That's why he's waiting. The husband's waiting for something.

He's waiting for perfect fruit. The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it till it receive the early and the latter rain. He's still waiting. We know the time is nigh at hand.

He's still waiting. So I know that the perfect fruit is going to be better than any fruit he's found yet, because he's still waiting. So you see, right in the seeds of the Pentecostal revival, God was imparting truth to prepare them for the next move of God.

You say, well, there's no time for any more movements of God. Well, God's the judge, not you and I. And they thought that in early Pentecost, because the burden of the Spirit was the Lord is coming soon.

That was the burden of early Pentecost, and that lingered on 30, 40 years. So people got weary of it and figured the Lord's delaying his coming, not realizing that the Lord comes in many different ways.

He comes in the rain. He comes in his refining fire. And I'm not saying there's two, three, four, five, six different comings of the Lord. There's one coming, but in that one coming, there's the rising of the sun and the dawn of the day.

He comes to us as the dawning of a new day. And I know there are sudden aspects of it, and I know that the Bible speaks of that sudden translation of the saints, and we believe in that. But there's the shining forth of his presence before that.

And so we are very near to the coming of the Lord, and God's going to do a quick work in the earth. He's not going to come just because somebody figures out in the scriptures that he's got to come on a certain day.

You think people would learn. You've all heard of that book. There's another one out. Of course, it's not 1988 this time. It's 1996. Well, it might be right. Surely someone will hit it right. But the point is, you and I don't pay any attention to those calculations.

All we've got to say is, Lord Jesus, you're coming for a people. You're coming for a people who are expecting you. You're coming to receive the precious fruit of the earth. You're coming to receive a glorious bride.

And so we know then, if we're part of that company, we know we will not be caught unaware. You see, he comes as a thief in the night. I know not to those who are watching, for ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.

So to those who are walking with him and walking in the light, they don't have to bother with all these books because they know the times. They know the times that the Lord spoke of. Paul says, you're not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.

The thief in the night is the way he will come to those who are not anticipating him. But to them that look for him, he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation. And we look for that, and we must continue to anticipate his appearing.

But don't look for the second coming. Look for the Lord Jesus. The second coming is sort of a doctrine that's in the Church, and people are looking for the second coming instead of looking for him. Let's look for him.

They had come to this new day because the older generation didn't hear God's voice when God spoke. For them there was no tomorrow. But for the younger generation in their midst, there was a tomorrow. And as we hear God's voice today and obey him today and hear what he says today and seek to walk with him today, then there's a tomorrow for us.

And I like to anticipate God's tomorrows. But the only way we're going to really appreciate and partake of the blessings of God's tomorrows is when we are obedient to hear what he says today. And so the new generation had a tomorrow to look forward to.

The older generation didn't. And so Joshua chapter 3. Joshua rose early in the morning, and they were removed from Shittim and came to Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they passed over.

And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priest of the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it, after the ark, not after the priest.

Like they do so often, they go after the man of God, bring him to ruin, and they themselves are brought to ruin, because God wants his people to go after him. And furthermore, I want to say, God wants a priestly ministry that will be so dedicated, so committed to God, that they'll bring into the midst of God's people such a fear of God that the people will long to go after God rather than after that vessel.

We don't know who is really to blame, but somehow or other, it seems when God brings forth a great and mighty ministry, the people go after him rather than after the God whom he's supposed to be presenting.

I think we have to blame both. The people for their lack of vision and discernment and understanding of what God wants, but the ministry for not emphasizing these truths, that God is a jealous God, and not only emphasizing it, but recognizing that as those who stand before the people with a word from God, they are under obligation to so seek God that they will have words from God's mouth by the Holy Spirit, because only the Holy Spirit can glorify the Lord Jesus.

And if a man is speaking out from his own heart, we're told, Jesus said he's seeking his own glory. He that speaketh out from himself is seeking his own glory. So therefore, what a tremendous responsibility is laid upon God's servants, all of us, that if by the Spirit we are prompted to give forth a word, it must be out from the Holy Spirit.

For he it is who takes the things of Christ and makes them known unto us, he shall glorify me, for he shall not speak out from himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. The ministry of the Holy Spirit, to speak what he hears.

We always recognize that, but somehow a few years ago I came to suddenly realize that he inhabits this temple, and when he speaks, he speaks out of your lips and mine. And I realize we're not allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfill the ministry that God gave him to fulfill, that he would not speak out from himself, and he dwells within, but that which he shall hear, that shall he speak.

So it's his responsibility, but it's your responsibility and mine to be that temple of the Holy Spirit, to be in such union with him, to seek him somehow with the best we know, that God, when we speak, let us speak words out of your heart.

Otherwise the Holy Spirit is not able to fulfill the function that God ordained him to fulfill when he came to abide in this temple. So what does he do? He withdraws. When he is grieved, he withdraws, and the holy presence of God withdraws, and we carry on without him, not knowing the difference.

So many times, where God moved mightily in a person's life, we're in an assembly. You go back there five, ten years later and you don't sense any presence of God, but the people don't seem to know the difference or they don't care, because he's been driven out.

You say, we want the Holy Spirit. I know God's people want the Holy Spirit for that great benefit he brings, for his gifts, for his blessings. But how many really want the Holy Spirit to come in and to be Lord in our gatherings together in his name?

We must come to that. In all of these things that we're saying, we're not ministering any condemnation to those who know that we lack in these areas, but that God might inspire our hearts to recognize that we lack.

Because if we recognize that we fall short, then God is pleased, because he will lead us. The sad thing is that when we don't recognize it and we feel we're doing all right, that's the Laodicean spirit.

Where we say we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and don't know, thou knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked. We don't know it. God has everything we need.

God has tremendous things for the Laodicean church, as much for this church as any other of the churches. But because they don't know it, don't accept the fact that they are in this need, they are not open for it, how can God give it?

I counsel thee. I don't know, I just stopped here because the Laodicean church is getting so crammed full of counselors. It's another ministry now. You've got to hire a counselor, maybe two counselors to deal with the problems.

And they get a lot of their counsel from books of psychologists that don't even know the Lord. Or you say, no, I get it from Christian books. You check in some of those Christian books and you'll find that that author got a lot of it from psychologists that don't even know the Lord.

And so filling the church with counselors when God says, I counsel you, buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you might be rich, like Raymond, that you might clothe yourself. I shall unite your eyes that you might see.

Good counsel! God help us to accept his counsel instead of running to all the other counselors, which in most cases can't help. Not denying that there is a place for counsel in the church, but like my brother back there, Brother Mount, the Lord said he would have a ministry of counseling.

And so he thought, well, I'll get these books and counseling. The Prophet comes along just before he had time to buy the books, and he says, I shall counsel my people, but you won't get it out of books.

Counseling is the counsel of God. He's the counselor, and he's got good counsel. All we have to do is yield his Spirit, and he knows what you need instead of some counselor. Let's see now, what about your father, what about your mother, what about your grandfather?

Did they have these problems that you got? Yeah, that's your problem, you know. Goodness, I know it's your problem, but go read back to Adam. We know what started there. God crucified it at the cross.

God wants us to partake of the benefits of the cross, not only for our justification, but for the deliverance from the old life. And that's what this second crossing was all about. They were delivered by the redemptive Lamb, but now there has to be a deliverance from themselves.

God's Promises Despite Human Failure

And so he said, tomorrow the Lord would, they had a tomorrow, because they were the younger generation that missed out on that other day. But because of God's oath, God said, I'm going to bring the younger generation in.

I swear, he said, I'll bring them in. And he did. God said something else when the old generation failed that I think is very significant. Moses, a true priest of the Lord, interceded for the people. And God said, I'll have to destroy them, Moses.

And Moses, as a true priest, interceded. He said, Lord, how can you do that? Don't you know what will happen when the Egyptians hear that you destroyed your people, that you brought out of Egypt? What kind of a name are you going to get?

And they will say, oh, Israel's God, yeah, he brought them out, but he couldn't look after them in the wilderness, so he destroyed them. And God said to Moses, all right, I will pardon according to thy word.

But because God was more than gracious to that generation whom he was pardoning, more than gracious, there was something in his heart that caused him to say, I'm going to pardon them, but as I live, saith the Lord, the whole earth will be filled with my glory.

Is this to say if you've failed and I'm going to forgive you, I'm a just God? If I'm going to forgive you and keep this nation alive and do great things through them, I swear, he said by myself, I'm going to fill the whole earth with my glory.

Here we are today and all over the world, the nations, the Gentiles. You say, I think I'm an Israelite, the tribe of Abraham. Well, I won't go into that except to say, those that are in Christ are Abraham's seed.

And those who knew that they were of the lineage of Abraham, Jesus says, you're of your father, the devil. So we won't go any further than that. All over the world there are Gentile nations that are receiving and partaking of the gospel of Christ.

You can look back and see the reason for it. The people whom he'd chosen to be his own special people failed God. And God says, my purposes will not fail. I'm going to fill the whole earth with my glory, reminding us that human failure never does abrogate God's promises.

But those to whom the word comes, and if they fail, it doesn't change God's promise. And Israel got into that trap that we're God's people. To us has been given the glory of God and the covenants and the law, the service of God and the promises.

It's been given to us. We can't fail. So God had to send a prophet down to the Baptists to prepare their hearts because they were just sitting there like the churches today. We're God's people. Don't get excited.

He's coming, I know, but we'll go, and we'll go with him. Instead of realizing that it's an awesome thing to stand in the presence of the mighty God who is coming, he's coming to his church. Somehow it's never thought to be an awesome thing.

Yes, we have the best of God's good gifts down here, and then someday he'll come and take us up there where it's even better. Instead of realizing that he comes to purge and cleanse his temple, to purge out all the evil, all the dross, he says to the church of Pergamoth, I'm going to come with the sword of my mouth.

You see, it's not really the coming of the Lord. When he comes into the church with a sword, a sharp sword to deal with the iniquity in the church, you won't say, then, it's not really Jesus. He comes, he comes to his church.

I know he comes in clouds and translates it, but he comes to his church. He comes in refiner's fire. He comes to purge out the doctrines of Balaam. He comes to cleanse unto himself a holy people. How many coming?

One coming, but he comes in all these different aspects. And so they came to a new day and to a new crossing, as it were another baptism, just as they were figuratively baptized in the Red Sea. So now, as it were, another baptism through the Jordan.

Not really another, but another aspect of the real baptism, also there's one baptism. You say, what is it? Baptism in the Holy Spirit? Baptism of water? Baptism in death that Jesus spoke about? I have a baptism to be baptized with?

Three baptisms? One baptism, because each one is just a different aspect of that one baptism. And so people get all mixed up in this matter of water baptism. Some say if you're not baptized in water, you're not really saved.

And others say, well, it doesn't really have any real significance, it's just a figure. But it's one baptism, and I simply illustrate it this way. You go to get married, you stand before the preacher, and he performs the ceremony, will you, will you take this one, and will you take this one, and I do.

And so, well, you're married then, aren't you? Well, yes, you're married. But then he takes you in the room and you sign. You sign for it. You put your signature down. The preacher came to me with that paper, I said, listen, it's fine print there, I want to go home and read that.

He says, you sign right there, and I did. Well, it wasn't that I was married twice that day. And so then we lived together, let's see, happily ever since? Yeah. And that's the real marriage, but there wasn't three marriages.

And so baptism speaks of that union with Jesus. The real baptism is when you begin to walk with Jesus. That's the real baptism. It should happen at the same time, or maybe a few minutes after, whatever.

And so this crossing over, though it was not spoken of as a baptism, when they got on the other side, there was to be a circumcision of the whole nation. Because the former generation had been circumcised, but now they were dead, and the younger generation hadn't.

God says, there's got to be now a new circumcision. And that's really what baptism is, circumcised with the circumcision of Christ. But the circumcision not made with hands, but buried with him in baptism unto death, that we might rise to walk with him in newness of life.

And so baptism, you see, is that cutting off of the old life. Cut off from Egypt, yes, but there's an extension of it. Not another baptism, but bringing about the reality of that which we had in measure, that which we testified to in faith and obedience.

But just as it was with the children of Israel, God had taken them out of Egypt. But in this new circumcision, God would take Egypt out of them, because the shame of Egypt, the reproach of Egypt, all that that pertained to the Egyptian life in which they had lived, clung to them.

Even though they came out of Egypt, somehow it clung to them. You know what I'm talking about. We come to know Christ, and we're hoping from now on it's nothing but total obedience, total walking with the Lord, total purity, total righteousness.

And we always get disappointed. What was wrong? Oh, someone says, you didn't understand what happened when you were baptized. You were buried with Christ. Oh, no, I didn't understand that. So then, well, we'll baptize you again.

And so someone will go through a second baptism and a third baptism, like the man and wife say, we didn't really understand when we got married what this was all about. What do you say, we go and get married again?

Maybe that'll help things along. No, it isn't that. You made the commitment, maybe in your ignorance, but God holds you to it. Maybe in our ignorance, but nevertheless, knowing the call of God, we said, yes, Lord, I'll follow you all the way.

He holds us to it. He holds us to it, not with an iron hand, but because of his love and mercy and grace lifts us up when we fall, causes us to know that he does love us. He understands our weakness. He understands our frailty.

He woos us along to bring us to that day and hour when somehow by the operation of his spirit within us, that which we bore witness to, which God bore witness to, as we were baptized in water, signifying our identification with him, somehow becomes more and more and more real.

We discover that the only way we really come to that overcoming life is by coming to such commitment to him that we truly bear about within us the dying of the Lord Jesus, which we can't do in our own fleshly efforts.

But he tells us that as we obey him, we'll be able to do it. Because in obedience to the Lord, he leads us through our wilderness and through circumstances, through situations, he leads us to take out of our lives all that old life of Egypt.

He leads us to Marah. He leads us to Sinai, where he reveals himself as the God of great holiness, reveals to us the sacrifices, shows us how that in those sacrifices, when we bring that sacrifice unto Christ, he sees his sufferings.

And as we begin to identify with it, then that which took place in Jesus when he was nailed to the cross takes place in us. We don't like it. We blame God, murmur for what he's doing. But didn't you marry him?

Didn't you say you wanted to be joined unto him? Then Paul says, if you're joined unto him, you're buried with him in baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also are to walk in newness of life.

And so I don't feel that that relationship that we've had with him has really come to fullness yet. I know that. But I don't go and get baptized again, thinking that that will help. I want to draw closer to him.

I want to ask him, Lord, continue to remind me of what baptism means. Continue to remind me that it meant the cutting off of the old life. And this took place in a corporate manner up there in Gilgal, after they'd gone over and camped on the other side.

And you know the story, how the priest stayed there in the bottom of the dry bed of the Jordan while the people of God went over. Paul says, I think God has appointed us unto death. That you Corinthians, you've come to reign as kings, but we are appointed unto death.

And our appointment is unto death. You said that when you said, I'll take you in baptism. But you say, I didn't really recognize the implications of it. But God did. And he drew you, and you accepted him, and you said in your baptism that I'm being cut off from the old life.

And as you walk with him, you'll ask the Lord to make that commitment that you made to be actual in your life. And God will be faithful to hear, but he'll lead you in ways that you don't like in order that this work of the cross might become actual within us.

Knowing that if we're faithful in that, then out of that working of the cross in our lives will come forth his life. So it's not that he leaves us there in the bottom of the Jordan. He leaves the old life there.

So twelve stones were erected in the bottom of the Jordan representing the whole nation. They were left there, and then they took twelve other stones and carried them on the other side. And there they erected them in Gilgal, which means rolling away.

Because it was at Gilgal that God says, I'm going to roll away the reproach of Egypt. And I believe in my heart that there's going to be a corporate people. Who is a corporate people? God will bring them into a rolling away of the old life.

Because I don't feel it's all gone, myself, experientially. I know we thank him for all that has gone, but we still feel, do we not, certain areas of the old life. We get under condemnation over it, which God doesn't want us to do.

For there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Paul says it has made us free.

And so I don't try to kid myself like I used to. Well, Paul says I'm free, so I'm free. Paul says I'm free, so I'm free when I know I'm not free. But it is true, from God's standpoint, we are free. But I've come to recognize when I read scriptures and I say I don't measure up to that, I've come to embrace that as a promise, rather than to try and figure it out and say, yeah, I'm free.

It's not just the freedom that some speak of, totally free from the law of sin and death. It can't be that. So we water it down to fit in with our experience. Like in the old holiness movement, where God used to move Michael in cleansing waves of his fire and spirit.

Very real. But in the process of time, that experience became less and less obvious in their lives and the lives of others. So they began to major a lot on sins and mistakes. You sin? Well, no, that was just a mistake, because I was sanctified 20 years ago, so I don't have sin anymore.

I'd sooner say, Lord, I know I've recognized sin there, and you said I'm free from it. All I can say, Lord, I'm falling short of what you provided. I'm falling short of your promise. Lead us, Lord, in a way that I might experience the full measure of what you promised.

Instead of kidding ourselves that we got it, so we've got to explain somehow why we haven't got it, and still insist we got it. I guess I got you confused there a little. God means what he said. The old life was crucified at the cross.

And as God leads us to the place where he enables us to bear that cross as he intended, for there is a cross for us every day, we know that. Jesus bore a cross every day, but because he was faithful every day, the time came when the fulfillment of all the crosses he carried in his life was fulfilled ultimately in the cross in which he died and where we died with him, so that there was an ultimate fulfillment of it in that cross, where Paul says, My sins were crucified, so that there is no longer any condemnation, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the old law.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the old law of sin and death. And when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. When people insist, No, we've got to have the working of the law of sin and death in us as long as we live, just because it's a theological concept and because they insist that nobody can come to that kind of cleanliness and perfection, they are saying to you and I that God intends that the law of sin and death will always have more power in this life than the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Which is the most powerful? Which do you think is the most powerful, the law of sin and death that we got from Adam or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? Which do you think is the most powerful?

So when we look at it that way, if we're saying that the law of sin and death is more powerful, we're saying that the power to sin, the propensity to sin, the ability to sin, the drive towards sin which we got from Adam is greater than the propensity to righteousness, the new life that leads to righteousness, the power of the Spirit that comes from God's Holy Spirit and from Jesus, we're saying that that old law is stronger than this new and higher law.

So to take it a little further, we're saying that Adam's sin, which was partaking of the forbidden fruit, that there is more power in our lives because of Adam's sin than there is power in our lives because of Jesus' work on the cross.

For if by the disobedience of one we were made sinners, so by the obedience of the one we are made righteous. It is simply Adam's disobedience that made him a sinner. Because of that, you and I have inherited all that sin for the last 6 ,000 years, because of Adam's disobedience.

How did I get it? I was just born in Adam, that's all. Though you look at that little babe and see an innocent little child, nevertheless, the seeds of sin are there because he got it from Adam. Are you going to say that that transmission of the sin of Adam to us has greater power and authority and must always have greater power and authority in our lives than the seed of life that came through Jesus because of his obedience?

As Adam's disobedience brought this devastation of sin on the world, so by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous. Read Romans 5 carefully, and it staggers you. As it was in Adam, so in Christ, only entirely the opposite.

As in Adam we die and in Christ we live. As we inherit his sins, we inherit Christ's righteousness. As we are born in Adam, so that sin is transmitted. As we are born in Christ, so that life of Christ is transmitted.

The Jordan Crossing, Gilgal, and the End of Egypt's Reproach

So Gilgal speaks of the cutting off of the old life, delivered out from Egypt by the crossing of the Red Sea, but in the crossing of the Jordan, the cutting off of the old life of Egypt, the reproach of Egypt.