We're going to be in the book
of Hebrews, if you'd like to turn there. Hebrews chapter 11, we're just
going to read one verse. That was part of the text that
we have the first hour. But I mentioned that we split up the messages
basically, because the three things that were present there
would have been much longer. And so I don't like rushing it,
I don't like trying to condense it. So I feel like the Lord's
giving me two messages out of the same text. So, kind of this
message, walking by faith, walking by faith. I mentioned to us last
Sunday that there's a common denominator here, common foundation
in Hebrews chapter 11. It's that God has given faith
and makes his people believe. Faith just believes God. comes
from Him, believes Him, looks to Him, and He gets all the glory
for it, all the glory for it. That's the common ground where
it says by faith throughout all this is God given faith. This
is what it did, it looked to Christ. It's the same running
theme in our text. Let's read this, verse 30, Hebrews
11. By faith the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were compassed about seven days. The Lord had
just brought Joshua and the children of Israel across the river Jordan.
Jordan represents death. And the Lord, the angel, and
I love the way that the Lord words this. It says, the angel
of the Lord appeared unto Joshua and said, as captain of the, the captain of the Lord's army,
the army, the host, captain of the Lord's host, I am now come,
I'm here. And who do you think that was? Who's the captain? That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
no doubt. So he's telling Joshua, here's what you're going to do.
And you're going to spy out the city. The city's going to be
yours. You're going to walk around the city once every day for six
days. And on the last day, you're going
to walk around the city seven times. and then you're gonna
shout and the priests will blow the trumpets, they'll blow the
horns, they'll blow the horns, and the walls of the city are
going to fall. The walls of the city are gonna
fall. Now does that make any sense to you? Doesn't make much
sense, does it? To say we're gonna walk around
this building and we're gonna shout and blow a trumpet and
the walls are gonna fall down. But faith doesn't try to calculate.
Faith doesn't try to compute, faith doesn't try to understand,
faith just believes God. The Lord said, if the Lord said
stand on your head, you'd stand on your head, wouldn't you? I
mean, it's just, whatever he says, we do. We do, by faith, we believe
him. Nothing, you heard, Steve just
read it, nothing shall be impossible to God, nothing. Nothing shall
be impossible to God. Even the virgin birth that you
mentioned in that text. I mean, nothing's impossible
with God. Nothing's impossible with God. So he tells them to
go march around the city. Now it took somebody to actually
march around the city. Somebody believed God. They divide
the non-believers from the believers, and the believers walked around
the city. And here they are. Can you imagine the hecklers?
And the scoffers and the mockers, now this is a fortified city.
They didn't have the manpower to take this city. Understand
that. And that's something very important. It's just like the
walls of our sin. We don't have the power to take
and destroy our sin. We don't have the ability. It's
the walls of hell. We couldn't do anything against
hell. We couldn't defend ourself against it. And we see the gate
closes, and there's no way in, and there's no way out to this.
And so what do they do? Well, they walk around the city
like God told them. You imagine people on top of the wall saying,
look at those, what are they doing? What's going on? That'd
probably be the first day. Second day, they're back, huh, they're
doing it again. I think they're crazy. By the third day, you know they'd
have been really making fun of them, calling them names and
all kinds of things. They didn't care. Why? God said walk around
the city. God said walk around the city.
And it doesn't, it's not that it makes sense what he says,
it's that he said it and we believe it. You won't be able to, this
flesh will not be able to comprehend the word of God. It won't. It
will reject it. It can't. And it's what he told
us. He said he chose the foolish things to confound the wise,
didn't he? He chose the foolish things to
confound the wise. Of the glorious miracles that
our Lord performed for Israel, there's none greater. They're
all great, aren't they? So I don't wanna make that sound
like a negative statement. No, this was just a great miracle
that shows salvation by grace. Do you think the children of
Israel were able to say, boy, look what we did, man, we did
a really good job marching? Hey, I heard you over there yelling
really loud. I know you yelled really loud and that's why it
fell. That's why you yelled really good. It wasn't that they marched
and that they yelled, it was the obedience looking to Christ,
that's what it was. The obedience looking to God
and his word, that's what it was, by faith, that's the difference.
It's not what we do, it's who are we looking to? We look to
Christ, we look to Christ. Israel didn't have the ability
in themselves to take the city, it was fortified, it had a high
gate, high walls. We know the spiritual side of
that. I've already mentioned that our sin is the impenetrable
wall. We couldn't get through there.
Couldn't get through our sin. Couldn't fix it. Couldn't even
fight. The Lord had to do it all, didn't
he? The Lord had to do it all. What does the Lord tell us, just
as he told the children of Israel? Did the children of Israel use
their swords to win this battle? Did the children of Israel use
their arrows to win this battle? Did they get catapults out? Did
they start figuring out what all can we do to win? Did they
try to go the Trojan horse method and sneak somebody in there?
No. What did they do? They walked
around the city, because God said walk around the city. They
obeyed God. See, it's not gonna be with our
strength if the walls of our sin are going to fall flat down. I love how it says it over in
Joshua chapter six, I believe it is. I love it's what it says.
It says, and the walls fell down flat. I don't know what that
means to you, but I found that really fascinating, because if
a big wall falls, you'd think there'd be a bunch of rubble,
and it'd be mounded up, and that's not what it says. It doesn't
say it's piled, it says it fell flat. What's that mean? That's what Christ did for his
people on the cross, in putting away their sin, the sin's gone.
That ain't a wall anymore, sin's gone, it's been put away. Put
away, what part did we have to do with that? Nothing. It says
here that they walked, though. That's what we do, we walk looking
to Him. We're not looking to obtain salvation,
we're looking and walking because salvation's been bestowed, faith
has been bestowed. This causes us to walk to Him. That's who they were thinking
of. They were walking on the Word of God, on the Word of God. They were walking at His Word. The Lord says, flee to Christ. Don't
try to fix it. Look to him and live. Look to
him and live. He's put away the sin of his
people. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
God was looking for one thing as they walk, his faith bestowed. You know, it didn't matter whether
somebody was limping. It didn't matter whether somebody
could walk faster than others could walk. It didn't matter
if somebody had a nicer pair of shoes than the other person
had. None of that mattered. None of that matters. He was looking
to the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. He bestows into his people
because everything he requires, he must provide. And he did.
And he did. How silly does it sound if you
If you go and walk around this city, and by the way, the city's
about a mile and a half in diameter, so I kind of did the math and
it'd taken them somewhere, depends on how fast they went, it would've
taken them somewhere around 30 minutes to an hour the first day through
the sixth. That last day walking seven times,
I mean, that was an all day trip. I mean, they just kept doing
it. If it took them an hour, it'd be seven hours. I don't
know how long it took them, I don't know their pace, but you understand, That's
a lot of walking, isn't it? That's a lot of walking. So what
was the point there? Well, six is the number of man. Six is
the number of man. And our efforts don't accomplish
anything, but seven, that's the number of perfection. That's
the number of perfection. He says, you're gonna do this
perfectly unto me, looking to Christ. That's what the picture
is. You're gonna do this, and then you're gonna shout. What
does that shout represent? Victory. Victory, not to get the victory
because they already have the victory. They have the word of
God. They shout for victory. It's a shout of rejoicing. It's
a shout of triumph. Although our brains cannot comprehend
how this could be possible, we believe that it happened because
God said it did. The Jericho walls fell. They
fell. That's why we have to have faith
given by grace. If we don't have faith, we can't
believe it. We can't believe it. Notice how the walls fell, verse
30. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell. And I told you last week, I believe
it was last week or the week before, you can take all those
by faith and put by Christ if you wanted to and substitute
that and it'd be just fine. By Christ, the walls of Jericho
fell. His will, his word, his power. By God, he did it. And
faith is something given to his people. See, it's of him, it
comes from him. And so by faith. By the Lord's
faith, Jericho fell. Jericho walls fell. How is it
possible for a sinner to believe, be made to believe God who is
against our nature, God who we cannot comprehend? How are we
made to believe that faith given, faith bestowed? By the gift of
grace. He says, live. He says, walk. He says, receive thy sight. Receive
thy sight. Be thou made whole. and we flee
to Christ. Usually, he sends trials to cause
us to flee, usually. If we didn't have trials, we
would never have the need of a substitute. We would never
have a need of a surety. We would never have need of a
savior. Only those that are in trouble
need a savior. Only sinners need a savior. And unless he shows
us that we're sinners, we'll never need a savior. That's what
he does for his people. He sends trials, and even though
we don't understand the trials, listen to what Paul said. The
sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared
to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. God's people
are made to believe him over self, over understanding. How
can that be? We're talking about things that
are impossible to understand, impossible to imagine, impossible
to believe. This gospel's impossible to believe.
God has to do it. God has to do it. He's the one
that's gotta make us. This is how we believe. This
is how we look to him. He tells us in Isaiah 42, and
I will bring the blind by the way that they knew not. I will
lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness
light before them. I'll make darkness light before
them. Isn't it true, the scripture
says, God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath
shined forth his light into our heart. It's the gospel, isn't
it? It's the gospel. It illuminates it and it causes
us to have faith to believe it. He says, you're blind, but I'm
gonna lead you in a way that you don't know anything about. I'm gonna
make darkness light unto you. I'm gonna make the crooked thing
straight. These things will I do unto you
and not forsake you, and not forsake you. This is what he
does for his people. This was a trial for the children
of Israel. This was one of those trials that they weren't in any
real danger, necessarily, but they had to obey God. And the
Lord had given them faith to believe Him. The Lord had to
give them faith to believe Him. And they marched around the city.
Even though people were scoffing at them and mocking them and
doing all kinds of things, no doubt, they kept walking. Why? They had the promise of God that
everything was gonna be all right. The promise of God, that he was
gonna fight their battles for them. That he was gonna get the
victory for them. And that's what they were looking
to, his promise. His promise. That's why the true child of
God, no matter the trial or circumstance, we say, it is the Lord, let him
do what he knows is good. It is the Lord. It is the Lord,
let him do what seemeth good unto him. Can you say, When we
think about trials, we think about trouble, tribulation, different
things, can we think about, can we say, it's the Lord's concern,
not mine. It's the Lord's concern, not
mine. Because if it's my concern, I
can't do anything with this. I'm at my rope's end. I got nothing
else to give. I'm at rock bottom. It's the
Lord's concern. And that's when the cry comes out, isn't it?
Lord, save me. They didn't have no hope of causing
Jericho's walls to fall no more than we had hope of having our
sin gone by what we do. But they had something that made
the difference. A promise. A promise. As commander of the armies of
the Lord, I am now come. And I want you to march around
the city. And I want you to shout for victory on the last day.
And the walls will fall. And the walls will fall. Whatever the Lord deems right
is what he'll bring to pass. The only way for the mountain
of sin that we are guilty of to be made right is if he put
it away with a sacrifice himself on Calvary's cross. We know that
to be true, don't we? If that sin's gonna be put away,
he's the one that had to do it. There's nothing we can do. He
had to do it. Now we are walking through the
purposed time allotted. He comes to us where we are and
he says live, and he makes us believe. I love the fact that
even though we are going through these motions even though you
look back at the children of Israel then before they even started
walking around the city it was already finished before they even started
moving. God had already purposed to drop that city it was going
to fall. He gave them faith to believe and it happened exactly
the way He purposed it. And it is the same with you and
I the Scripture says, But at the same time, we look
to him to order and provide. We look to him in obedience,
as the children of Israel did, and hope that we can see his
face. See his face, that's our desire.
The Israelites were walking by faith,
believing God was faithful, that promised. That's what walking
by faith looks like. That's what it does, is it just
looks to Christ. Looks to Christ. Those that are given God-given
faith. Men talk about faith. Some faith
is not God-given. You had faith to sit on that
chair right there whenever you sat down today. You thought,
okay, probably didn't even think about it. You just did it. This
chair's gonna hold me. The more my vehicle breaks down,
the less faith I have in that vehicle. That's how it works,
isn't it? But God-given faith believes
Christ is all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification
and all my redemption. That leaves nothing else, he's
all. He's everything in salvation. And that's what some of these
Israelites had. He, Lord, give them faith to believe that. The
Lord said, walk, and they said, okay, we'll walk. And they did.
How blessed of God are we if at any time in dark matters,
when the matters are dark and the way is discouraging, to be
made to hang every hope upon God, the promiser and the doer. God, the promiser, and the doer.
The Lord makes us do that in the dark times, in the discouraging
times, in the confusing times, in the conflicting times, when
hope doesn't seem to be there. But here's what the Lord gives
His people. Here's what the Lord gives His
people. Even when it's too dark to see the promise, even when
it's too dark to see the promise, to see how the Lord will accomplish
it. So when it's too dark to see the promise or see how the
Lord's gonna accomplish it, we still rest in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need not know how the Lord's
gonna do it. It is him. Let him do that which he seen
with good. That's the rest of the believer. That's what faith
says. It's enough that the Lord hath
said it. He'll perform it. He cannot lie. He promised. I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. And it's not just the physical
that we're concerned with. We're talking about the spiritual.
Whenever you talk to a believer about what they're most afraid
of, it's being left to ourself. Lord, don't leave me to myself
because this wall of sin that's ever before me, that song that
we were singing talked about how it's, I think that was the
one that we weren't able to sing actually, but it talked about
protect me from the world, but protect me from the evil in myself.
And that's the fear, isn't it? Lord, don't leave me to myself.
I need to be saved from my sin. That's why we come to him. That's
why we cry out to him to have mercy on us for what we are,
for what we are. We can't have a clean thought.
We need the wall to fall so that we can have fellowship with him.
The good news is he keeps his people. He keeps his people. You remember Isaiah chapter 40,
verse 31, that's a very common quoted verse that I found something
glorious in studying that. And it's, I can honestly say
that it's probably misused now because of the way that I, what
was shown to me, and I'll explain it to you. But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength. You heard this one?
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. You ever heard
that? That's pretty common in religion especially. You know
what that word renew their strength is? Change. Change their strength. Change
your strength to not your strength, His strength, not looking to
self and have no, no, I'm waiting on the Lord. So now I'm stronger.
No, no, no. Totally missed the point there. That's what's being
said. That's not the point. No, you stop trusting in your
strength completely. Your strength is renewed because
you're now looking to Christ's strength and his strength is
made perfect in your weakness. That's what he says. That's what
he says. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. I'm going to change your strength.
You're going to wait on me, and I'm going to change your strength
to my strength. You're going to have no confidence
anymore in your flesh. That's what he's saying there. Remember, it's not faith once
it's possessed, once we have something. It doesn't make it
faith. It's not faith to trust God when the promise is realized
and understood. Faith just looks to Christ all
the time. We don't understand what we believe.
We don't. We don't understand most of what
we believe. It's true. But we believe all will be well because
of who's seated on the throne, because he promised. We believe
that if the wall's going to fall, he's the one that's going to
have to do it. And he says, well, they were working, they were
walking. No, they're doing the same thing we're doing. We're
walking right now. Is it a work unto salvation? No. We're walking
by faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ, pressing towards the
mark, towards the Lord Jesus Christ, not for our salvation,
but because he has given us his salvation. We're not working
to earn anything. We're walking to him because
we gotta have him. Gotta have him. Gotta have his promises.
Live in a world full of darkness and lies and deceit, despair. We have a resting place. We have
an advocate. We have a Savior. We have one
that we can come to that said, come unto me, all you that are
labored and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly at
heart. You shall find rest to your soul,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Why is his yoke easy
and his burden light? The work's been finished. The work's been
finished. Faith sees the Lord Jesus Christ
as our portion, and he's enough, he's all, more than enough, he's
all we need, isn't he? He's all we need. And the only
way the wall of sin will fall is looking to his grace alone. Lord, I can't do it, you're gonna
have to do it. I'm just a sinner, I'm just a sinner, I need a savior.
What does the scripture say? Where sin doth abound, grace
did much more abound, much more. Now, I briefly want to tell the
story here rather than having us turn to Joshua. I'm just going
to elaborate on it a minute. The way that it was set up was
the ark went forth before the people and the ark is where the
Lord said, I will meet with you here. It's the mercy seat. That's
the ark. Okay. It's the mercy seat. It
represents the Lord Jesus Christ is what it represents. That's
why it was holy. And they couldn't touch it. They
weren't allowed to touch it. You remember Uzzah when he touched
the ark and he died because of disobedience, even though you
had the best intentions. So the mercy seats there, they're
going to take the mercy seat around the city in the front. Now the priest preceded that
priest proceeded that they had their, their trumpets that they
were going to blow. And it has a picture of, it's
a picture of God's preachers going before the Ark, declaring
the truth of the Lord, declaring his gospel. That's what that's
a picture of. The Ark. Having the Ark there signifies
the finished work of our Lord, that that's where God said, this
is the only place I'll meet with you. This is the only place you
can worship. This is the only place we can have fellowship together.
And these preachers are just declaring the finished work of
the Lord. They had the, uh, the trumpets of Jubilee. You remember
what Jubilee was whenever it was, uh, ever so many years,
if you had bought something, you had to give it back to the
person you bought it. They never did that. That never happened. Uh,
by the way, it's supposed to happen, but it didn't. Well,
obviously it wasn't supposed to, but that's what the Lord said in the law. Every
seven years, trumpet Jubilee would sound and it would, you
would give back your land if you bought it from somebody or,
uh, yeah, that didn't happen. So, uh, But it signified peace is what
it signified. Peace. Peace. Having the Ark. Oh, and that was that was the
other part of the Jubilee. Slaves and servants would be set free
during that time. So that was signifying peace,
wasn't it? So having the Ark and the priest's presence present
meant that the Lord's presence would have been there also. And
although none of these men were armed, there was some that were
armed there. But all they needed was the Lord's presence. They
didn't need the swords or the arrows. Not one arrow was fired
according to the scripture, not one. Not one arrow, not one sword
was drawn according to the scripture. There wasn't a single sword drawn.
What's my point? My point is is that the Lord
was the one that was gonna get the victory for them. And the
Lord's the only one that could get the victory for his people
and he did. And he did. The victory cannot come by our
doing. but by His. A victory cannot
come, the victory cannot come by what we work and how we perform,
it come through and by His finished work and His performance on the
cross. Can't come by our sacrifice,
came by His sacrifice alone, His sacrifice alone. Came by
the Lord's choosing, the Lord's saving, the Lord calling, the
Lord keeping. That's how salvation came to
the Lord's people. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy. The Lord chose
to save his people from their sin. You heard Matthew chapter
one, verse 21, call his name Jesus. That's why he was born.
He shall save his people from their sin. That's how he saved
his people. That's how he saved his people. Well, on the last day, they marched
around. I already told you this, but
I like what it says. In Joshua chapter six, the walls fell down
flat. Walls fell down flat. Gone. Gone forever. The same as our sin on the cross.
They might actually say that there's, what I was gonna say
was it's the same as our sin on the cross, but they actually
say you can go visit those ruins still today. It's still one of
the few places that you can go visit. Still gone. And it's a
picture of our sin. It's a picture of the claim that
hell had upon us. It's a picture of death. It's
a picture of the grave. And it's all been silenced because the
Lord Jesus Christ successfully redeemed his people when he was
made an offering for sin unto his father. Scripture said, he who knew no
sin was made sin that you and I might be made the righteousness
of God in him. This is our hope. Why do you
come to church? I hope that I'm walking towards
my Lord." That's what the children of Israel were doing. They were
walking at the Word of God. That's what they were doing.
They were obeying Him. That's what we do. That's why we come. That's
why we come. We come to worship Him. And that's what they were
doing. They were worshiping. They were worshiping Him. Was God
obligated to do something? Only if He promised it. He promises. He can't lie. He has to do it. No, we can't do anything to obligate
God ourself. He's the only one. God's the
only one that can choose to obligate God. You know, nobody doubted when
the walls fell, did they? They were all scoffing and mocking
and everything else. When the walls fell, everybody
believed at that point. But some believed under their
own demise because it wasn't by faith. Without faith, it's
impossible to please God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. So they believed in vain. It was too late then.
One of these days, this body will go back to dust. Your body
will go back to dust and it doesn't And I pray the Lord gives us
the grace to believe by faith now, to see that we can't fix
our sin, to see that Christ was the only one that could put it
away, and he did for his people on the cross. If he shows you
that, that's a gift. That's a gift, and he calls you
to believe it, it's by faith. It's by faith, that's what we need.
We need faith to see him, to believe him, or we never will. So did the Israelites get any
glory for this? Can you imagine somebody walking around saying,
man, did you see how good I was walking out there? That's silly,
ain't it? Do you hear me shouting? Man, I sounded like a rooster.
I was loudest of all of you. That's why the wall fell. I'm
the man. I got this. Not whenever faith's involved.
Not when faith's involved. The Lord hath gotten the victory.
That would have been the cry. That would have been the, That
would have been the rejoicing, not in our flesh, but in what
the Lord has done in saving us. Now they walked like all God's
chosen people walk, by faith, by his faith bestowed. And they
shouted for victory. Not to get the victory, but because
they had already been given the victory in Christ Jesus, in the
Lord. They'd already been given the victory. How many times?
They just passed over the Jordan a couple chapters before this.
The Jordan is split just like the Red Sea did. They passed
over the Jordan, they come to Jericho. The Lord says, walk,
they walk, and they shouted because He gave them the victory. And
it's true, we shout in the inward parts, don't we, for the victory
that the Lord's given us in Christ Jesus. We rejoice. But that sin
has been. It's been laid down flat, it's
been destroyed, it's been taken away by the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith believes that God put away
the sin of his people, nailed them to his cross and made his
people perfect righteousness of Christ himself, God himself.
And if I'm not perfectly righteous, I have no hope of eternal life.
The good news is, the only thing you and I have to do is nothing,
because He did everything. He did everything, and if you
find yourself believing, it's a gift. It's a gift, it's not
in us to believe, but He puts a desire there, an ability there,
and by His faith, by His grace, He makes us believe Him. So if
He looked at us and said, walk around this building, we'll say,
truth, Lord, I will walk around this building. Gives us that desire,
don't He? That's why we shout. He made
us perfectly righteous. What is it that we shout? What
did the Lord shout? The Lord shouted on the cross,
didn't he? When he had cried with a loud voice, he bowed his
head and gave up the ghost. What did he shout? It is finished. And is that not what you shout?
Is that not what you shout in the heart? It is finished. Oh,
rejoice, it's finished. Your sin's been put away. Rejoice.
Hell hath no claim on you anymore. Rejoice, death can't speak against
you, and the grave silent. Christ Jesus accomplished the
fullness of salvation for his people. It is finished. And the wall fell down flat.
Every time we're able to enter into that by faith, that wall
of sin falls down flat again, don't it? It never changes, but
you and I will see it. We'll see the sin that we are,
but whenever we get to hear that it is finished again, that wall
just disappears again, doesn't it? At least for a moment. At
least for a moment. What else do we cry? What else
do we shout? Truth, Lord. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
That's what we shout. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. We take sides with God against
ourself because the wall of sin is gone, gone for every child
of God. How do you live? You live looking
unto Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. This is what it
is to walk by faith. This is what it is to walk by
faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.
That's how we walk by faith, not side. Let's pray. Father,
we desire to see that wall fall. We've seen it by faith, believing
in you. I pray that you bless this, our understanding for your
glory in Christ's name. Amen.