All right, brethren. Joshua 5. Joshua 5. I preached two messages from
this passage back in 2013. And I wish I could preach this
message like I preached that message. But go listen to those
when you can in addition to this one. Let's look now at Joshua
5.13. And it came to pass when Joshua
was by Jericho, they lift up his eyes and look, behold, there
stood a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand.
And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us
or for our adversaries? Now Joshua and the children of
Israel are now in Canaan, they camped out at Gilgal. And Joshua
has walked out beyond Gilgal, and in the distance there, some
say about a mile, was this city Jericho, walled up to heaven
all around, gates shut up, and none could get in, none could
get out. And he's standing there looking at this city Jericho,
and he looks over, and there's a man standing there, got his
sword drawn. And Joshua asked him, he says,
are you for us or are you for the enemy? Now, this one that
stood there is one of the many pre-incarnate appearances of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the many appearances before
Christ came and took flesh and dwelt among us. This was Christ,
that's who this was. Christ is eternal God. One way
we know this was Christ is because Joshua 6.2, as he's speaking
with Joshua, it says, And the Lord said to Joshua. That's who
this is speaking to Joshua. And Christ is eternal God. He's without father, without
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor
end of life. He's God. And He's always been
the one mediator between God and men. So he's here appearing
to a sinner, Joshua, who he'd given faith to believe him. Now,
we find Christ appear many times in scripture prior to him taking
flesh as a man. It was our Lord Jesus that appeared
to Adam and Eve in the garden. It was the Lord who appeared
to Abraham in Genesis 18. It was Christ that appeared to
Jacob and made him prevail by making it so Jacob couldn't wrestle
anymore. All he could do was beg for mercy.
That was Christ that did that. That's in Genesis 32. Christ appeared to Manoah's wife
in Judges 13. And you know that appearance
where Moses saw the bush that burned and was not consumed.
That was Christ there. He appeared in different ways,
sometimes as a man. And he's here appearing as a
man, but at this point Joshua does not know who he is. And
so Joshua asks this question, art thou for us or for our adversaries? That seems like a logical question
to ask. You're in a, you just come into
a new land where there's a lot of enemies, you see a man with
his sword drawn, it seems logical to ask him, are you for us or
are you for our adversary? That was the wrong question.
That was the wrong question. I titled this message, The Revelation
to a Wrong Question. The first question that should
be asked is not whose side is Christ on. The first question
is, are you on Christ's side? Are you on His side? Do you know
who He is? Verse 14, Christ said, no, no. He didn't answer Joshua. Joshua
said, are you for us our adversary? He said, no. He said, but as captain of the
host of the Lord am I now come. You see, instead of answering
that question, Christ revealed himself anew to Joshua as the
captain of the host of the Lord. In other words, he pulled rank
on Joshua. Joshua is right now head of Israel,
leading Israel. And this one says, I'm your head,
Joshua. I'm the head, I'm the captain
of the Lord of hosts. All creation is God's host. Wind,
waves, water, wind, water, the sun, the moon, the stars, created
beings, men, enemies and otherwise, created angels, everything is
the Lord's host. He's using it all at His disposal. But most importantly, God's elect
are His hosts. That's His hosts. God's hosts
are those Christ's been surety for from before the foundation
of the world. The Lord's hosts are those that
He came and redeemed by His blood. Those that the Spirit quickens
and gives faith to behold Christ through the revelation of Christ.
Christ is captain with all power over His people. Listen to this
from Isaiah 55, verse 4. God said, Behold, I have given him
for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the
people. I want you to see this one. You
see the margin there for Captain? It says Prince. We'll go over
to Isaiah 9.6 and you recall this passage. The word Prince
is the word that's used for Captain in Isaiah 9. Now listen to this. And here's what he's saying to
Joshua. Isaiah 9, 6, unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, the Captain of Peace. And that's what the
Lord revealed to Joshua anew, that I'm the Prince, I'm the
Captain, of peace. The government's on my shoulder.
I'm the mighty God. I'm the everlasting Father. The
good news, brethren, is the government's not on your shoulder and my shoulder.
The good news for Joshua was the government wasn't on Joshua's
shoulder. The government's on Christ's shoulder. He accomplished
the redemption of his people. You know why? The government's
on his shoulder. God put the government of His
Church and His Kingdom on the shoulder of Christ our Captain
to accomplish our redemption, to bring us through this world,
call out each one and bring us safely to God the Father, perfect,
holy, unremovable, unreprovable in His righteousness and His
holiness. That government is on Christ's
shoulder. He rules in the heart of his
people through the preaching of the gospel by speaking affectionately
into our hearts and revealing himself to us as the captain
of our salvation, the captain of the Lord of hosts. Joshua
sees him there and he sees him with a sword in his hand. Now
Christ Jesus is the power of God. He's God, He's the power
of God, He's the power of the gospel we preach. That sword
represents the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. It's Christ
who preaches the word and makes it effectual in the hearts of
His people through the messenger He sends. Oh, you just say that,
you keep saying that, you keep telling us that. Well, one of
these days we're going to get it. Why is it important? Brethren, speak the good news
to one another. Speak of what Christ has done
to one another. Because through that message,
Christ works in the heart. He works in the heart. Don't
condemn. Don't try to make somebody do
something. Don't use the law. Preach Christ who is the fulfillment
of the law. Preach Christ who is the captain
of the Lord of hosts. Declare what he has accomplished.
That's the message he blesses to the hearts of his people.
That's how he called you. That's how he corrects you. That's
how he grows you. That's how he's gonna save you
from the first hour to the last through that message. Because
it gives him all the glory. And through that message he works
to bring glory to himself in his people. That's the message. The government's on his shoulder.
The government's on his shoulder. The good news is the captain
of our salvation has accomplished our warfare. That's the good
news. Look at Hebrews 2 and verse 10. Hebrews 2, 10. Here's the good news of him being
the captain. Right here. Hebrews 2, verse
10. It became him. Hebrews 2.10,
"...it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings." To make Him the
perfect Savior, the perfect captain, to consecrate Him as the God-man
mediator, as the victorious Redeemer, it pleased God to do this through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. He came and took
flesh to be one with us to make us one with him. For which cause? He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. He would be ashamed to call you
his brother if he hadn't made you holy by his work and made
you righteous by his work. He's not ashamed to call you
brother because he made you holy by what he did. saying, this
is what Christ promised God the Father, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. You see, Christ's government
that's on his shoulder is not only to redeem us, it's to preach
the gospel to us and call us out. If we really, if he'll give
us the faith to know this, brethren, Christ is not bound by time. He's not bound by space. Christ
is right here today preaching the gospel to his people just
like he was when he walked this earth. He's doing it from His
throne in glory through the messenger He sends. He's right here preaching
the gospel. He's in Kentucky preaching the
gospel. He's in North Carolina preaching the gospel. Wherever
He sent His messenger preaching the gospel, Christ is there preaching
the gospel in the heart of His people. He's God, and that's
how big He is. He's everywhere, and He's preaching
the message to His people. If we really got that, if we
really understood that, we'd be like what Paul said in Philippians
2. He said, do all, work out all your daily dealings with
fear and trembling, because it's God working in you both to will
and do of His good pleasure. Do everything without murmuring
and disputing. Christ is right there in your midst, and He's
speaking, He's working in His people. And this is the message
he tells us to preach. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquities
pardoned. She's receiver of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Whenever John the Baptist was
given this revelation of Christ, he sees Christ and he hears his
name as faithful and true. And it said, and in righteousness
he doth judge and make war. In righteousness. He's sending
Joshua forth. The reason he's appearing and
revealing himself anew to Joshua, he's about to send Joshua forth
to war. And that's what he's doing with
you and me. He's sending us forth to war. But He's the one that
does judge and make war. He's doing it. John saw Him clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood. His salvation's already accomplished.
He already bore the cross. His name is the Word of God.
We're not just preaching the written Word. He is the written
Word. He's the Word of God. He's the
living Word of God. who the whole written word speaks
of. And the armies, there's the Lord's host. Now listen, the
armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and
rule them with a rod of iron. Why does he have that glory?
Because he tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God. That's why that glory is his.
He's going forth telling people what he did. And he teaches his
messenger, you know, you go forth and tell them what I did, how
I accomplished their warfare. And on his vesture and on his
thigh was the name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. That's
what he's declaring to Joshua. I'm the captain of the Lord of
hosts, Joshua. He's the power of God. It's out
of his mouth the gospel goes forth. It's out of his mouth
that the gospel is made effectual in us. And all his people, through
him giving you faith, he robes you in the clean white linen
of his righteousness and he gives you a heart and makes you willing
to follow the captain of our salvation. The captain of our
warfare. That's who we're following. And
we're preaching what he commands us to preach. The question is
not, is the Lord on our side or on our adversary's side. The
question is, do you know who he is? Are you on his side? Are you trusting him? Do you
trust him? Now, how is it going to be manifest
that Christ is our captain? How is it going to be manifest
that we are one of the hosts of the Lord? How is it going
to be manifest? As soon as the Lord revealed
Himself to Joshua, look at verse 14. And Joshua fell on his face
to the earth, and did worship, and said to him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said to Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the
place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. That
right there, that's the effectual power of Christ our captain. revealing himself in the heart
of his child. That's his power right there.
When he revealed himself to Joshua, Joshua hid his face and he worshipped
the Lord. And he owned the Lord to be his
Lord and he owned himself to be the Lord's servant. And he
said, what will my Lord have his servant to do? And this is
another way we know he's not a created angel. This is another
way we know this is the Lord, because whenever John the Baptist,
an angel was sent to him, a man, and he preached the gospel to
John the Baptist. And when he did, John the Baptist
hit his face before him, and the angel said, I'm one of your
fellow servants. He said, I'm one of your brethren,
the prophets. Don't bow to me. Trust God, bow
to God, worship God. But that's not what this man
said to Joshua. What did this man say when he
asked, when Joshua said, what would you have me to do? The
Lord of hosts said, loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the
place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. That's what
Christ commanded Moses when he approached that burning bush.
He said, take your shoes off your feet for this place is holy.
You know what that's declaring? Wherever Christ is, the place
is holy. Wherever Christ is, the place
is holy. When Christ enters His, you've
got a dead sinner, unregenerate, and the gospel comes, and Christ
enters in spirit, and speaks, and reveals Himself, that man's
holy. Right then. Why? Not anything
he did. Christ Jesus makes it holy, makes
him holy. The holiness of our new man is
Christ. He's the holiness without which
no man should see the Lord. When the Hebrew writer says,
follow holiness, he's telling us you follow Christ. And that's
what the armies, the Lord of hosts, the hosts of the Lord
will do. They're going to follow Christ. That's what John saw
them doing. He saw the armies following Christ
because he's the captain. Wherever Christ is, it's holy.
Now, we see in Joshua what the revelation of Christ does in
his child, what not only the first revelation he gives you
of Christ, but what each renewed revelation of Christ does in
the heart of a believer. Joshua was already holy because
he's already born of God, he's already given faith in the Lord.
Christ already abode in him in spirit. Each of you in whom Christ
has been formed, you're holy because you have Christ dwelling
in you. He's already revealed Himself to you. That's what made
you bow to Him in faith and cast all the care of your salvation
into His hand. That's what broke your heart.
That's what made you see you need. That's what made you see,
I've got to be saved by Him because He revealed Himself to you. But
brethren, Christ renews in us a revelation of Him. He keeps
renewing by the Spirit a revelation of Him. And when this revelation
was given to Joshua, Joshua hid his face. Joshua hid his face. A new Joshua owned him to be
his Lord. All over again, Joshua said,
I am your servant, Lord. Joshua said, what will you have
me to do, Lord? And when the Lord said, take
your shoe off your foot, Joshua did it. by this revelation of
the Lord of Hosts. With each new revelation, the
commandment comes and sin revives and our sinful man dies when
Christ reveals Himself. When He reveals Himself, every
new revelation He gives you. Don't you know what I'm saying?
You're holy, you believe God, you follow in the Lord, you came
here, but there are some sweet times when He reveals Himself
to you and you hit your face and you know him, it's so strong
sometimes you wonder if you knew him before. But that's what he
does. Now, you think about why did
he need to do this? Why did the Lord need to do this
for Joshua? Joshua's standing there, they've just come into
Canaan, they've got all these enemies before them, and the
first enemy they're going to face is in Jericho, this city
of Jericho. And Joshua's standing there looking
at Jericho, walled up to the sky. Gates shut, no way to get
in there. Do you think that there was any
fear, fleshly, sinful fear and unbelief that entered into Joshua's
heart? He's leading now. He's leading
the children of Israel now. Moses is dead. The Lord has promised
him, I'm going to be with you just like I was with Moses. And
he did some great things after that when the Lord made that
revelation to him. The Lord strengthened him to
bring them across the Jordan, and now here they are in Gilgal.
And here he is, he's about to go forth to Jericho to fight
Jericho. You reckon there's any fleshly
fear, doubt, unbelief in Joshua? That's got to be mortified. How's
it going to be mortified? Christ revealed himself. Christ
revealed Himself. That's the only way, brethren,
that our flesh is mortified. You don't mortify your flesh,
and I don't mortify my flesh. When the Scripture calls on us
to mortify our flesh, it's only through the revelation of Christ
and the Spirit of God making you behold Christ. Well, why
would then Paul tell us to mortify our flesh? Because it's through
declaring it to you And as you preach Christ, like what I'm
trying to do right now, that Christ reveals himself to you
and mortifies your flesh. Paul called it being renewed
in the spirit of your mind. Can you do that to yourself?
Can you renew yourself in the spirit of your mind? He does
that. How does he do it? He reveals
himself anew in your heart. That's how you put off the old
man and put on the new. Now, thirdly, why did the Lord
appear and do this? Why did he give him this renewed
revelation at this time? Well, the Lord is sending Joshua
to conquer Jericho. And the way the Lord's going
to tell him to do this pictures preaching the gospel of Christ.
What he's doing here with Joshua, sending him forth in the way
he's going to tell them they're going to conquer Jericho, this
is what the Lord has taught you and me. The way we're going to
be conquerors in this world and conquer the elect who are enemies
in their mind by wicked works. The only way that's going to
happen is through the preaching of Christ in Him crucified, because
that's the message Christ sends us to preach, that's the message
he'll bless. And that's the message his messenger's
gonna preach. Because the Lord's gonna do in
his messenger what he did in Joshua right here. He came and
revealed himself, and then listen to what he told him. Joshua 6,
1. Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children
of Israel. None went out, none came in, and the Lord said to
Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king
thereof, and the mighty men of valor. And you shall come past
the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once.
Thus shalt thou do six days." For six days you're going to
march one time around Jericho. And here's what they're going
to be doing as they marched around it. Seven priests shall bear
before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns and on the seventh
day you'll compass the city seven times and the priests will blow
the trumpets. Seven is the number of perfection.
So you got seven priests, they're going to bear before the Ark,
they're carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and they're going to
bear seven trumpets of ram horns, they're blowing these horns,
and on the seventh day they're going to encompass the city seven
times, and the priests will blow with the trumpets. That's a picture
of preaching Christ and Him crucified. Verse 5, And it will come to
pass that when they make a long glass for 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. Now that trumpet blowing picture
is preaching of the gospel. Them shouting with a great shout,
that picture is us calling out to the Lord. to bless the Word
and make it effectual. Remember what the Lord told Ezekiel
in the Valley of Dry Bones? You preach the Word, then you
ask Me to send the Spirit and bless the Word. And that's what
they're doing here. And then the wall of the city
shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up, every
man straight before Him. Now you think about this, brethren. There ain't no way you would
have believed that by walking around a city and blowing a horn
that the walls are going to fall down flat. There ain't no way
you'd have done that unless the Lord revealed himself to you
and told you this is what's going to happen. Why wouldn't you have
done it otherwise? Because it would be utter foolishness
to you. You know what this gospel is to natural man? Utter foolishness. Why is it not foolishness to
you? Because the Lord's worked this in you. He's revealed Christ
in you. He's shown you He's the power
of God. It's not foolishness to you. You've seen Christ. You
know what He does through this gospel. Those Christ's calls
are just like Jericho. Jericho had these walls that
surrounded the city, and the gates were locked tight because
of the children of Israel. You see that? It said the gates
were locked because of the children of Israel. They heard what the
Lord did for the children of Israel, and they locked the gates
up. They boarded everything up. They
had these big walls. They wouldn't let anybody go
out, and there wasn't anybody coming in. That typifies the
gates of hell. nature, we have a heart that
is walled up, round about, nobody can get in and you can't get
out. And the devil shuts that gate up tight. And if he's got
you in false religion, he shuts that up tight, because he don't
want anybody getting you, nobody getting to you. But you remember
what the Lord said? He said, He asked Peter, Who
am I, Peter? And he said, You're the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And he said, My Father in heaven
revealed that to you. And he said, And on this rock,
I'm going to build my church. He wasn't saying, You're the
rock, Peter. He said, On this gospel message right here, that
I am the Christ, the Son of God. I'm building my church. And the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Because Christ is
the power. So Christ made Joshua experience
this power afresh. He made him experience this power
anew before he sent him forth against Jericho so that Joshua
knows Christ alone is the power. He knows it freshly that Christ
is the power. Christ declared the good news
that the Lord had already given him all the enemies of Jericho. Look there at verse 2. The Lord
said to Joshua, See, I have, past tense, I have given into
thy hand Jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of
valor. Brethren, Scripture says Christ must reign till he has
put all enemies under his feet. Here's the good news for you
and me that he's sending forth the priest to word. He's already
conquered all his enemies. They're already yours. He's already
conquered. The non-elect are going to all
be controlled by Christ, so they're not going to hurt His church.
They'll be used to just do what can be a blessing, and He'll
use them to show you Christ is ruling and protecting you, so
you see Christ. And then in their last day, they're
all gonna bow to Christ and confess him to be Lord of Lords. And
those elect that are lost, they're enemies in their mind by wicked
works. They're gonna be made to be his footstool too. They're
gonna bow and kiss his feet, just like Joshua just bowed down
to him. But they're gonna do it by grace, by the revelation
through this preaching of this gospel. So the enemies are already
given into your hand. That means we're going to be
victorious. We're going to be victorious.
It's a done thing. Christ is declaring it's already done.
But the one means that he's going to use, the one means he's going
to use is the preaching of Christ and him crucified. They went
around that city holding up Christ the ark, blowing the trumpet.
That's what we're doing right here today. Christ is the ark. That ark had the unbroken law
of God in it, and Christ is the one in whom the law of God has
never been broken. He's the only one who fulfilled
the law in righteousness, and he made every one of his people
righteous by his obedience. He put away our sin by laying
down his life on the cross for us. That's why on the top of
that ark was the mercy seat. The blood was on that mercy seat
covering the law. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
propitiation. He is the mercy seat where God
promised, I will meet with you from above the mercy seat. He's
the one in whom God will meet with us. That's our message.
This is what we're declaring. And Christ declared in verse
5, when you've done this, and you've gone around it, and that
last day you compass it seven times, and all of that, He said,
verse 5, the wall of the city shall fall down flat. But you see, Joshua and the seven
priests did nothing to make that wall fall down. Nothing. Can you imagine? There wasn't
anything they could do to make the wall fall down. No telling
how long it took to build that wall. They couldn't make those
walls fall down. Well, you can't make the walls
around an unregenerate sinner's heart fall down. We can't penetrate. We don't even know where his
elect are. We can't even get to them. We
don't even know what gates the devil's got them hid behind.
But we preach this gospel. And Christ said, and through
this gospel, the walls are going to fall flat. He said in 2 Corinthians
10.4, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We're not going
around and trying to buttonhole sinners and try to teach them
a catechism and make them recite it, make them memorize it, and
then make them convince them they need to walk an aisle or
convince them they need to say this and that and the other thing.
And now you saved and try to go around and discipline them
and correct them and keep an eye on them to keep them here
and make sure they do everything we tell them. Our weapons are
carnal. We don't have to do that. Our weapons are mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. He pulls the walls down flat.
He pulls the walls down flat. This is the word of the Lord,
and it is a rabble-born saying, not by might nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So before God sends
Joshua to preach, Christ gave Joshua this renewed revelation
so he could experience it afresh. He saw the captain of His salvation. Why did He do that? God only
uses broken vessels. We saw this the other day, about
a month ago, with Gideon. They had those earthen vessels
and they had light in those earthen vessels. But how did the light
shine forth? They broke the vessels. And see
what God's going to do before He uses you or me is He's going
to put the light in you, Christ the light, make you see the power
that is Christ alone. So that we see ourselves as just
earthen vessels broken, no power in us whatsoever. And now He'll
use you to go forth and speak the gospel and the light of Christ
will shine forth. The faith of those He calls will
stand in the power of God, not in your wisdom and not in your
might. That's what Paul said. Look over
there at 2 Corinthians 4. Look at this now.
This is exactly why Paul said he preached Christ and Him crucified.
Look here, 2 Corinthians 4, 5. He said, We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. Why do you do that, Paul? What
made you do that? Because God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He shined the light. Christ is that light. But by
Christ saving us by His power, by the revelation of Him, by
the light of Christ, we know now we have this treasure in
earth and vessels, that the excellency, the power may be of God and not
of us. We're just broken vessels. That's the only one. You see,
before he sent Joshua forth, Joshua got to be made a broken
vessel so that all he does is march around that city blowing
that horn, pointing to that ark they're holding up. And you and
me are going to have to be made broken vessels by the revelation
of Christ in our heart. That's what makes us hit our
face and say, Lord, I'm sorry I tried to put my hand to it.
What would you have me do? You take off your shoes. Don't
you tread on this. This is my work, and I'm going
to bless it, and I'm going to make the walls fall flat, and
I'm going to save my people through my gospel. And that's when you'll
go forth and preach the gospel. You want to know why Christ's
preacher sometimes goes through trials and has to fall flat on
his face? That's why. That's exactly why. You want to know why he's opposed
and Christ shows him it's Christ upholding him? That's why. Giving
him a fresh revelation at the powers of God, not of us, so
that he goes forth and preaches the gospel. It's my prayer that
God's doing this for you right now, shining the light in your
heart once again, just like He did Joshua. Because I know this,
if He does this, and tomorrow He opens up the door and gives
you an opportunity to speak the gospel to somebody, you'll do
it. You'll do it. Because He has
so persuaded you in your heart by blessing you by this Word
that He's the power to do it. When you have an opportunity
to speak the Gospel, rather than being in our flesh in unbelief
and saying, I just won't hear it, I'm not going to say anything.
Because you've freshly experienced His power in making you see Him
through the Gospel, you'll say, let me tell you about Him. And
then you'll ask Him, Lord, would you bless that Word? And you'll
wait on Him to bless it. Because He uses a broken vessel.
So Joshua did what the Lord commanded, and the walls of Jericho fell
flat, and every enemy was conquered. The non-elect were conquered,
but there was somebody in there that was some of God's elect.
There was a harlot in there named Rahab. According to the flesh,
she was the great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a harlot. And he saved her and brought
all her kindred and all her house out. Why did he do it? Because
she hid the messengers that Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. You
know what that means? Because she believed Christ. That's what
that means. She believed Christ. That's why
she risked her life and hid those spies. Because she had seen the
revelation of Christ in her heart and she believed Christ and she
hid those spies. Brother Kevin pointed this out
to me. And I never thought about this, but this is good. Rahab was a harlot, and her house
is where she did her business, is where she ran her business.
And she was told to go forth and preach Christ to people,
tell people about Christ, and to tell them the only way they
could be saved was to come into her house. You imagine how foolish
that was when people heard this harlot saying, the only way you're
going to be saved is come in this whorehouse right here and
stay put right here. You know how utterly foolish
that was to people? Just as foolish as it is for
you to tell them Christ is salvation and the only way they're going
to be saved is to believe on Christ and stay in his house. It's just that foolish. Well,
we need some proof, she'd say. Come right over here. See that
scarlet line right there in the window? That's proof that everybody
that stays in this house can be saved. That's foolishness.
She's trusting a scarlet line in a window. That's foolishness.
What proof do we give them? We're trusting the blood of Christ.
That's the thread running through the whole Word of God. The blood
of Christ. The men say that's utter foolishness. That's as foolish as saying you
ought to go in a whorehouse and be saved. Turn to 1 Corinthians
1. Why do you believe this? Why
do you believe this? I'll end with this. 1 Corinthians
1. Paul said, Christ sent me not
to baptize. If you think we're sent to make
converts, if you start looking at the numbers and you start
basing our success on how many people we got, Noah was an utter
failure. They were but eight people in
the army. It's not about that. Christ didn't send us forth to
make converts. He sent us forth to preach Christ.
He said, he didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Just like
Rahab's message was. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. Because you've experienced what
Joshua experienced. For it's written, God said, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise. You're not going to do
that. You're not going to make the walls fall flat. I will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the
disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? He's the only one that can. For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe." That means from the
moment he calls you to the moment he calls you into glory, he's
going to save you through the preaching of the gospel. For
the Jews require sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. This whole
world is looking to man and what man does. Whether they're Jews
in self-righteous religion, they're looking to men and to men's works,
or whether they're the world, and basing everything on the
world's wisdom, they also are looking to man and man's works.
Everybody in this world is looking to man and man's works. But we
preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
You see your calling, brethren. Look, you read, you know this
verse. I won't read it all, but what's he saying there? He's
saying God uses broken things, broken vessels. That's what he's
using, despised things. like you and me. Why does he
do it? Look down there at verse 29,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. Joshua and them
seven priests didn't have a thing to glory in, did they? They didn't
do a thing to make the walls fall down. But of God are you
in Christ Jesus, who God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. That's what God's
people are going to do by the revelation of Christ. Amen.