Such a beautiful hymn they were
just playing, makes you want to sing it, doesn't it? If you
will, let's open our Bibles today to Joshua, chapter 5. Joshua, chapter 5. We'll begin
reading in verse 13 and then read into chapter 6, the first
five verses, and verse 20 of chapter 6. So Joshua chapter
5, verse 13. And it came to pass, when Joshua
was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his
hand. And Joshua went unto him and
said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he
said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now
come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship and said unto him, what sayeth my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was straightly shut
up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none
came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
See, I have given unto thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof,
and the mighty men of Valor. And thou shalt come past the
city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once,
thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear
before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns. And the seventh
day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priest shall
blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass that
when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, And when you
hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with
a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat,
and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
Now, if you will, in verse 20 also of chapter 6. So the people shouted when the
priests blew with the trumpets, and it came to pass when the
people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted
with a great shout that the wall fell down flat, so that the people
went up into the city, every man straight before him, and
they took the city. In the New Testament letter of
Hebrews, we have the Lord Jesus Christ entitled the captain of
our salvation. And in this passage that we've
just read here in Joshua, we have one of several pre-incarnate
appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the Old Testament. Now what do I mean by a pre-incarnate
appearance? Well, his incarnation is when
he was made flesh and dwelt among us. Before he was born of the
Virgin Mary, he appeared several times in the Old Testament as
a man. He appeared unto Abraham at least
once as a man. And we usually know when it is
God and not an angel that is appearing as a man because he
accepts worship. That's something that a good
angel, a holy angel, would never do. We have the example, two
examples given to us in the letter of Revelation when John, when
he tried to worship an angel, John said, I fell at his feet
to worship him, and he said unto me, see thou do it not. And when you look at that verse,
there's two verses that read the same, two of those words
are in italics, they've been added. And so what literally
the angel said to John was, see not, see not. The holy angels know that one
of their members, that is Satan, he also was created holy. And that's what he sought. He
sought worship. And that's one thing God will
not share with another. That is his glory, his worship. Now this passage here in Joshua
begins with these words. And it came to pass when Joshua
was by Jericho. It is likely that Joshua, now
the leader of Israel, was surveying the city of Jericho. We might
think of Jericho as something like a gate to all the land of
Canaan. This was the first city that
they came to. Surely, there were at least these
two things in Joshua's mind when he looked at Jericho. First of
all, he saw the importance. He saw the importance of Israel
taking Jericho. Because if they failed at this
first test, then how in the world would they ever take the rest
of the land of Canaan? This was a very important thing
to Joshua. And secondly, no doubt he saw
the impossibility of taking Jericho. This is one of those cities that
almost 40 years before Joshua had visited the land of Canaan
along with 11 other spies. And they came back with this
report, the towns in that land are walled up to heaven. This
was one of those places. The impossibility. The importance,
yes, but the impossibility of taking this city. And you notice
in chapter 6 and verse 1, we read this, as Joshua observed
Jericho, no doubt he saw this also, none went out and none
came in. In other words, they were ready
for a long siege. They had supplies stockpiled
if they were not self-sufficient in the city itself. He saw the
importance and he saw the impossibility. When we think of the salvation
of a sinner, the salvation of a man or woman, boy or girl. We also think of the importance
of salvation. In fact, nothing is more important.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, what shall it profit a man if he gained
the whole world and lose his own soul? There's nothing more
important than your salvation, than my salvation. Nothing, nothing
is more important and also the impossibility. With human means,
the utter impossibility. You know, our Lord's disciples
asked him one day this question, who then can be saved? Who then can be saved? They recognize
the impossibility and we should more so than even those 12 apostles. because we know what the scriptures
tell us about man, lost man. Man is depraved. Man is dead
in trespasses and sins. Man has no interest in the things
of God. Oh, he has a God, all right,
but he has no interest in the true God. And this is what our
Lord said when his disciples asked him, who then can be saved? With man, it's impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Now I want us this morning to
look at four statements or four words that the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke to Joshua. First, the captain, that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, he answered Joshua's question. Notice in
verses 13 and 14, we read that Joshua asked, when he saw this
man, he saw this man with his sword drawn, he asked him, art
thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, nay, but as captain
of the host of the Lord am I now come. The captain answered Joshua's
question. And Joshua saw this man with
his sword drawn. He asked, art thou for us or
for our adversaries? And when you look at the answer,
the answer is nay. I'm not for you and I'm not here
for them. No, I'm not here to be on your
side or to be on their side. I'm here as captain of the host
of the Lord. And I tell you something, folks,
we better be on His side. Sometimes over the years we've
seen those bumper stickers and those sayings that God is my
co-pilot. No, He's not. No, He's not. Are you for us? Are you for our
adversaries? I'm here as captain of the host
of the Lord. Now, when he declared himself
to be captain of the host of the Lord, the host of the Lord,
the armies of the Lord, we understand to be the angels, first of all,
the angels in heaven. And how many thousands, yea,
millions of angels there are, we do not know. But we do know
this, that he is their captain, that he is the head of all principalities
and powers. You remember this is one of the
things that Nebuchadnezzar learned when God taught him something
of his sovereignty. that he worketh his will in the
armies of heaven, as well as among the inhabitants of the
earth. I'm here, the Lord said to Joshua,
nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come, whether
it speaks here of the host referring to the holy angels, or if it
speaks to the people of God in this world. Whatever, or whichever
I should say, the truth is still the same, that He is our Captain,
that He is our Commander. I am come, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Host of the Lord. And Joshua understood immediately
his orders, what saith my Lord unto his servant? Joshua was up to this point,
and humanly speaking, he was at the head of the armies of
Israel. But now he recognizes, no, I'm
under his authority. And immediately he asks for his
instructions. What sayeth my Lord unto his
servant? Sort of reminds me of the experience
the Apostle Paul had when he was Saul of Tarsus on the road
to Damascus. when he saw that great light
and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him. Who art thou? That was
his first question. And when the Lord Jesus revealed
to Paul who he is, then he said, what wilt thou have me to do?
Joshua immediately recognized who this is. This is the captain. This is the commander in chief.
This is the sovereign Lord. And if you look in the margin,
if you have a marginal reading there by the word captain, it
is prince. It is the prince. And the captain of the Lord's
host, he's here as the prince or as the king of kings and the
Lord of lords. This should remind all of us
here this morning, there's no middle ground. There's no middle ground with
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, people like to say,
well, you know, I'm not, I'm not against him, but yet I'm
not for, no, no, that's not what he said. There's no middle ground. Each and every one of us here
today, We are either for Christ or we are against Christ. Now those are His words, not
mine. This is what He said, He that is not with me is against
me. There's no no man's land. You
cannot straddle the fence in this matter of relationship to
Christ. No one can. Our Lord said, it's
impossible that a man serve two masters. He's not anyone's co-pilot. He's everyone's master. Something to learn from this,
I see before I go on to the second word. When the Lord Jesus came
to Joshua as the captain of the Lord's host, he came to Joshua
according to Joshua's need. Joshua was about to engage in
battle, and so the Lord comes to him as a mighty warrior. Whatever a person's need is,
and especially I'm speaking to believers. First of all, Christ
comes to the center as a Savior. That's our need. That's your
greatest, that's my greatest need. I need a Savior. And that's
the way He comes to us if He comes to us. First of all, as
Savior. As Savior and Lord. But after
we have come to Him and come to know Him as our Lord and Savior,
then He appears to us according to what our need is. Joshua,
at this time, he needed a soldier. He needed someone who was mighty
in battle, and that's the way the Lord came to him. Do we need
strength day by day? Of course we do. That's the way
the Lord comes to us, day by day, to give us strength for
the day. Do we need a friend? That's the
way He comes to us. as a friend that sticks closer
than a brother. No matter what our need is, do
we need comfort? Are we going through some trial,
some difficulty, and we just need to be comforted? That's
the way He comes to us, as the God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all our tribulations. So first of all, that's the first
word the Lord spoke to Joshua. Are you for us? Are you against
us? Nay, I'm here as the captain,
as the prince of the host of the Lord. Second, the captain
commanded Joshua to remove his shoe. Verse 15, And the captain
of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off
thy foot. For the place whereon thou standest
is holy. You see, Joshua was already in
a place of worship. When the Lord spoke this second
word to him, he was already prostrate on his face before the Lord.
And the Lord says, take off your shoe, remove your shoe. This
is holy ground. Well, what must have immediately
entered into Joshua's mind when he heard those words was, he
spoke the same words to Moses. Now remember, Joshua had been
Moses' assistant for several years. I mean, he had been his
right-hand man, so to speak. And no doubt over those years,
Moses had related to him several times how it is that he came
to come to Egypt to bring the children of Israel out. That
while he was there tending sheep in a desert, that he saw a bush
that was burning but was not consumed and he turned aside
to see that great miracle. And of course the Lord spoke
to him and the Lord told him, take off your shoes. This is
holy ground. That had to have entered into
Joshua's mind immediately. He told Moses when he sent him
to Egypt, when he called him rather to send him into Egypt,
take off your shoes. And now he's telling me, take
off my shoes. I see this as a great word of
encouragement to Joshua. The same God, the faithfulness
of our God, the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
he begins the work, he doesn't stop until the work is completed. As Paul wrote to the believers
in Philippi, he that hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Look back a few pages to Deuteronomy
with me. Deuteronomy chapter 6. And these are the words of Moses
just before he was gathered unto his people. In Deuteronomy chapter
6, he's meeting with the nation of Israel for the last few days
of his life. And beginning in verse 21, He tells them what they will
tell their children. Then thou shalt say unto thy
son, when your children, Moses says, when your children asked
you about how you came to come out of Egypt. Now this is what
you tell them. We were Pharaoh's bondmen in
Egypt. Now a bondman is a slave. We
had no power. We had no ability to deliver
ourselves. We were Pharaoh's bondmen in
Egypt. What a picture of man lost in
sin, a slave to sin in this world under the authority of Pharaoh,
a type of Satan. And the Lord, the Lord, We didn't
make a decision. We didn't just one day decide
that we're going to leave Egypt. No, the Lord did something. And if the Lord had not done
something, we would still be Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt. We had no power, no strength,
no ability to deliver ourselves. You tell your sons, this is the
truth. This is your history. You were
bondmen. And you know, in this book of
Deuteronomy, there's one place where Moses, or God through Moses,
tells the nation of Israel, you remember the heart of a stranger
because you were a stranger. You were a stranger in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of
Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and
wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his
household before our eyes. And he brought us out from thence
that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware
unto our fathers. Don't you just love that? He
brought us out that He might bring us in. He brought us out. He delivered us from sinking
sand that He might bring us in. Joshua, you take the shoes off
of your feet. I just know in my heart that
Joshua remembered immediately that he had said the same thing
to Moses. And yes, through the power, through
the power of the Lord, Moses had delivered them from Egypt. They came out of Egypt. If you were a betting person,
if they were giving odds in Las Vegas, I guarantee you the odds
would have been against Israel ever coming out of Egypt. It was impossible with man, but
not with God. Remove your shoes. I brought
them out, and Joshua, I'm going to bring them in. It's as impossible
as Jericho looks to be taken. I brought them out of Egypt,
and I'm going to bring them into the land of Canaan. All right,
here's the third word. Let me say this before I go on
to the third word. Let me just remind myself and
you as well. God is faithful. And when we
become discouraged, discouraged in the work, we must encourage
ourselves in the Lord, in His faithfulness. And I also see
here our need to be faithful in small things. That's a little
thing to take your shoes off, isn't it? That's a simple thing
to take your shoe off. But you know, if we're not faithful
in the small things, we will not be faithful in the larger
things. And many people envision in their
mind what they would do. Oh, I would preach to 5,000 like
Spurgeon. Yeah, well, will you preach to
one or two? Will you go to a rest home and preach to a few? Will
you give out tracts? Will we be faithful? Will we
do that least thing? If we will not do the least things,
surely we do not expect the Lord's going to use us in a greater
thing. Here's the third word. This is
in chapter six in verse two, the captain revealed to Joshua
his purpose. Notice what he said. He said
unto Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the
king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. Now you notice
he didn't say, I will. He didn't say that, did he? I
will give into thine hand Jericho. Oh no. He said, I have. given into thy hand, Jericho. Our God, the scripture says,
known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning of the
world. The reason all of his works are
known unto him is because he has purposed and ordained all
things. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. And so the Lord didn't tell Joshua,
I'm going to get, I will, no, I have given into thy hand. And God's purpose and God's decree,
it was already done. God works all things after the
counsel of his will. If you look back again to Genesis,
this time Genesis chapter 15, This is when God gave the land
of Canaan to the nation of Israel. And you know, there was one man.
There was one man. His name was Abram. And he had
no descendant. He had no seed. And God gave
him that whole land. Genesis 15, it says, After these
things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying,
Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.
And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless, and the steward of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, But he that
shall come forth out of thine own bow shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven
and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said
unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto
him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees,
now notice, to give thee this land to inherit it. When Abram
died, he owned a cave where he had buried Sarah. And yet God
had given him that whole land of Canaan. Now look down here
in Genesis 15 to verse 16. God is explaining or telling
to Abram how this is going to come to pass. But in the fourth
generation, Verse 13, he said, know of a surety that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall
serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out
with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good
old age, but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again,
For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. You know, when
people read the Old Testament, sometimes they say, well, I don't
like the God of the Old Testament. He just seems to be a God of
vengeance. He just seems to be a God, a
bloodthirsty God. What they overlook, the long
suffering of God, the patience of God, the goodness of God. Hear these in the land of Canaan. God gave them 400 years, space
to repent. But what did they do? They increased
their iniquity. They increased their wickedness. They were not content with one
God. No, they had hundreds of gods. And the glory The praise that
belongs only to the Lord God of heaven and earth, the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was given to these idols. And so now, after they had not
repented, God is using Israel to come into the land as his
executioners. And judgment comes upon these
nations. People like to think about God
as a God of love, and we do, I do. Oh, I love that, don't
you? We were singing that hymn before
Sunday school, when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the
Prince of Glory died. You just sat there at that cross
and look and think of who's on that cross and why he was there.
The love of God. Let me tell you, the Bible is
very clear that God hates iniquity. God hates the workers of iniquity. And yes, he's patient. Yes, he's
long suffering, but just like in the days of Noah, There came
a day when God shut the door and everyone in that ark was
saved and everyone outside the ark was destroyed. And there's
coming a day. It's coming, a day of judgment. And everyone in Christ is safe. But everyone outside Christ is
set to go to judgment. God gave a people to Christ from
before the foundation of the world, and none were chosen because
of goodness, but all by the grace and mercy and goodness of God. Sue God. Sue God for mercy. He is a God of mercy. He is a
God of grace, but before, if you're here today without Christ,
before that judgment comes and falls upon you, sue him for mercy,
for mercy. Bible says he delights in mercy. And notice the last word, the
fourth word, the captain. The captain gave Joshua his battle
plans. Six days. Six days all the men
of war are to march around Jericho, and in this column in the very
front are men of war, and then come those seven priests blowing
the horns of rams, and then the Ark of the Covenant and then
the remainder of the men of war. You go around the city once the
first day, and repeat that six days, but then on the seventh
day, go around it seven times, and when they blow the horn long
and loud, shop! And the walls are going to fall
not out, not in, they're going to fall flat. Have you ever thought
about that? That's a miracle, isn't it? They're
going to come down flat so that you go, every man, forward. Three things I want to say and
then I'll be through. Number one, it had to be foolish. These battle plans that the captain
gave to Joshua, they had to be foolish to those in Jericho.
I don't know if there were any windows I don't know if there
are any windows on the wall, people up on the wall, but I
know human nature well enough to know people thought that's
the craziest, that's the most asinine thing I've ever seen.
Did they think, did they really believe that by walking around
this city that they're going to conquer us? Did they really
believe? It was foolish. And the second
thing I noticed is, The trumpets that they were to blow were not
the best trumpets that Israel had. Israel had some silver trumpets,
but no, they're to be ram's horns. And third, the ark that was carried
behind the priest with the ram's horns, they The Ark of the Covenant, rather,
is a picture of Christ, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the propitiation. That mercy seat on the Ark was
the propitiatory, and Christ is our propitiation. What was
that? It's a picture of preaching the
gospel. That's what it is. First I said it was foolish,
this is what Paul said, for the preaching of the cross is to
them, now listen, that perish foolishness. If you think preaching is foolishness,
that's a pretty good indication where you stand. You stand on
ground, you're going to perish. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. The second thing, these ram's
horns reminds me that God has put this treasure in an earthen
vessel and the best of men are still men at their best. But
yet God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And third, Christ crucified,
just like that Ark of the Covenant was a picture of Christ. Christ
crucified. To the Jews it's a stumbling
block, to the Greeks it's foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, it is the power of God unto salvation. Now Joshua showed his faith and
obedience in executing the captain's orders, how? He marched around
Jericho. He did exactly what he was commanded
to do. And when he did, the word of
the Lord was fulfilled. The walls, when they shouted,
they came down flat. There was only a few people in
that city who were saved, and they were all in the same house, Rahab's house. Rahab, the harlot. And there was a line of scarlet
in her window, right? She was saved and all those in
the house with her. That line of scarlet no doubt
pictures, to me at least, the blood of Jesus Christ. Under the blood. We're saved
and safe. But apart from Jesus Christ,
we're lost. The battle, as Joshua and the
Israelites learned and we learn ourselves over and over again,
the battle is the Lord's. He uses instruments just like
he used these men to march around the city. But ultimately, the
battle is the Lord's and the power of victory comes from him. I pray God would bless His word
to all of us here today. Now let's turn in our hymn books
to hymn number 126, and we'll sing this hymn before we are
dismissed.